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World Cup 2010


BadaBing

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Netherlands, first team to qualify for this years WC and first team to progress to the next round.

 

Funnily enough with unspectacular play, in contrast to previous tournaments the last 20 years or so where they played fantastic but never got further than the quarter or semi finals.

 

Maybe this time around the team can actually do it!

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Troy you misunderstood - my entire post was in reference to the poor quality of England's campaign.

 

the_numbers

 

Yes, I understood that you were bashing England. But you said, "I can't think of a more dull and lifeless display I've seen this World Cup."

 

I was just commenting that not more than a couple hours before, the U.S. played Slovenia and their first half of football looked as if they didn't even want to be there, imo.

 

Anyway, good luck to both teams on Wednesday.

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Possible exception Argentina but no team looks like world beaters. Beating a pesky South Korea team by that scoreline tells me a lot but that same Argie team barely got past Nigeria 1-0.

 

My pick is Netherlands. Spain can be outworked. Brazil don't have a dominating center forward that we are used to from them. In fact, the team looks weak for a number one ranked team and comparing to Brazil teams of yesteryears.

 

Italy are Jekyl and Hyde.

 

England, which used to be my solid second fave team after the U.S. seem like its stuck on one type of football no matter who is managing them. England has had a Brit, Swede and Italian the past several years. Managers with vastly different styles and philosophies but frankly, I've never seen a change in how they play? Is it a tail wagging the dog?

 

One can say Italy and Brazil have played the same under different managers but they have all been native managers as far as I know so that would explain similar styles for them with different managers.

 

Maybe its me but has this world up been underwhelming? I was so excited before the competition but I am bored sh*tless most games even ones including traditional powerhouses. Maybe things will pick up in the knockout stages where arguably the quality on both sides are better.

 

Also, the USA has some ugly uniforms. Sorry, but we look like friggin' gymnasts out there. Slightly gay to give a damn about kits but I hate the diagonal stripe thing across the front.

 

We should have not been down 2 goals to Slovenia but the way we came back was typical of the spirit of US sporting mindset.

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Bishop pens prayers for England in World Cup

 

The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, has asked for divine intervention after the England team's "remarkably aimless" game with Algeria.

 

In his blog Bishop Baines said he was "moved" to pen two prayers after the nil-nil draw, which he said was a "seemingly dispassionate performance".

 

His first "simple and honest" prayer says "Oh God..."

 

In the second he appeals: "Please help England rediscover their, legs, eyes and their hunger."

 

The complete second prayer says: "God, who played the cosmos into being, please help England rediscover their legs, their eyes and their hunger: that they might run more clearly, pass more nearly and enjoy the game more dearly. Amen."

 

The bishop, who works in the Diocese of Southwark, said that ahead of the games the team is over-rated and over-hyped and when they fail to deliver there is "a collective intemperate bloodletting against team and manager".

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I agree. All could think of when Portugal kept scoring was what was going to happen to those guys when they got home.

I think even the Portugal players were taking it easy at the end and could have scored several more if they had played hard.

TH

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According to the BBC the Portugal match was the first time a North Korean game played on foreign soil has been broadcast live in North Korea. It will also probably be the last time.

 

North Korean football fans - at least, those with both a TV set and a reliable electricity supply - were allowed to see their team's first World Cup game against Brazil.

 

But the broadcast gave new meaning to the term "action replay", making it onto the airwaves of the country's single, government-run channel more than 12 hours after the final whistle.

 

That, though, is far from unusual.

 

In fact, the latest match against Portugal is reported to be the first time a North Korean game played on foreign soil has been broadcast live back home.

 

It was a risky decision for two reasons.

 

Firstly, it was an open invitation for anyone who wanted to protest against North Korea's human rights record to have their messages beamed directly into Pyongyang living rooms.

 

And secondly, there was always the chance that the country's sporting heroes would get roundly and humiliatingly thrashed.

 

"I think because they played so well against Brazil in the last game, no one in North Korea would have imagined that they'd lose so big this time," Kim Young-il tells me while watching the game in his Seoul apartment.

 

Mr Kim, 32, is a North Korean defector, who fled to the South in 1996 and he has mixed emotions about the 7-0 drubbing.

 

"On the one hand I feel proud when the team does well," he says.

 

"But on the other, I don't want them to do too well. Unlike in other countries it wouldn't be the star players who reap the rewards of the success, but [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il himself."

 

It's hard to know how much credence to give to the claims from the North Korean Football Association that the country's leader has been giving the team personal guidance and help with tactics.

 

But true or not, North Korea wouldn't be alone, of course, in wanting to exploit sporting success for political ends.

 

So what about a defeat?

 

Mr Kim shakes his head when he thinks of the fate that might await his former countrymen.

 

"The result will be blamed on their weak minds," he tells me.

 

"I'm sure the players will have to go though extreme re-education and self-criticism."

 

In the end, North Korea can be pleased about one thing.

 

There were no protests, not a single anti-North Korean placard in sight.

 

It's interesting to ponder why this might be.

 

Imagine the scenes that would have greeted the Burmese team had it qualified for this competition, or remember the scenes that greeted the Olympic torch as it made its way around the world en route to Beijing.

 

North Korea is a country with a human rights record that would give both Burma and China a run for their money.

 

It allows no opposition, no free media and no religious freedom, and it keeps thousands of political opponents, and their families, in large forced labour camps.

 

Apart from Amnesty International, which used North Korea's opening game to highlight its concerns, there has been barely a peep about it.

 

Perhaps those who claim that sporting events of this kind can break down barriers and cultural divides have a point.

 

At the very least, for the duration of 90 minutes, information-starved North Koreans got a rare reality check about the limits of their nation's powers on the international stage.

 

There is certainly no sign of any opposition to North Korea's participation here in the South.

 

At bars in central Seoul you can find groups of South Koreans cheering the North as loudly as their own team.

 

"Our enemy is the leader of North Korea, not the people," one fan, Baek Kwang-gu, tells me.

 

"I always support our brothers when they're playing other countries."

 

But the opportunity for praise and protest alike are coming to an end.

 

North Korea's defeat at the hands of Portugal now means certain elimination.

 

Perhaps it will also spell the end for its brief experiment in live football broadcasting and its people will slip back once more behind a sporting iron curtain.

 

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