Just a few more days to wait, and I'm slowly warming up to it. Any predictions? Holland will probably stumble over some third-grade country in the semis like always, but beyond that I have no idea. Perhaps Spain or Brazil? I don't think there are any clear favourites this time.

Oh, and I want one of these:

My predictions...

ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI! ITALIA! ITALIA ! FORZA ITALIA! AZZURRI!

Football's coming home to England!

...well we have a chance anyway. If we meet Brazil anywhere we're screwed though. I just can't wait for our first match on Saturday, we have flags up everywhere now, they're playing footy anthems at work and the 52" tvs are up at my local pub plus there is a barbeque on every england match and I have Saturday off! Gonna be a good day

That reminds me, I need to find a massive Italy flag again

I personally think the chances of England are pretty slim with their shoddy defense (David James? Really?!), but that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy supporting them of course.

Italy...well they're Italy, so I'm not counting them out but their team seems to be seriously lacking in creative power - no Totti, no Cassano. If Pirlo is out for some reason they may become very predictable and aenemic in that department.

Both teams are lucky to be in weak groups in the first round so that they may gain some momentum and grow in the tournament.

And anything I say about the Dutch will be clouded judgement anyway. I fucking hate Van Persie's lowlife face and I think Dirk Kuijt lacks that little extra to be really effective at the international level, but Robben is a God - if he's fit. Great collection of players in general, but a pretty weak defense that I'm sure will be dismantled relatively easily by teams like Spain or Argentina.

My outsiders for the tournament: Uruguay will do really well, Ivory Coast will survive the qualifying phase and France will go out in the qualifiers. Watch how none of that comes true.

(And no, Belgium didn't make it...again. Btw Arathorn, that clip is hilarious but pretty wrong Wouldn't want to wear that in the Bijlmer!)

I'm no fan of Van Persie either but I have to acknowledge his skill. And yes, our defence is worthless, especially left-back. But our midfield and attack are world-class. And now that Robben probably won't perform in the group stage, maybe this time we won't peak too early.

It could be worse. You could be Germany.

My god I hate that team. Especially that fuckwit Philip Lahm.

I don't know what Italy's chances are. I sure think they're better than Englands. But you know what's sweet? We won it last time, so no biggie if we don't get far Ahhh the glory.

Haha, Lahm is probably the only player on the German team I can appreciate as a player. But yeah, overall, stupid Germans. Hate them alsmost as much as I hate the French team.

Seriously? Wtf? What do you appreciate about him?

That's he's a very athletic player, and often makes great offensive plays as a defender. Is your hate based on any appraisal of his game or just subjective? Not that I will blame you one way or another for it.

Oh yeah, the US are at the world cup too

(actually, they've got a pretty good team and I think they will do really well. It's just that no one will care in the US)

I think the US team is average at best.

I think we go against England on the 12th (Saturday). I guess we'll see how worthless the US team is.

BTW, just because a lot of American don't care about soccer/football doesn't mean the entire country doesn't care. With 300 million of us, I'm pretty sure we probably have a larger number of people that care about football then, say, Paraguay.

Technically, the US suck pretty badly. But remember a huge lump of World Cup success is down to team spirit and luck.

I hate Lahm because I think he's a bread and butter full back. Like Gary Neville. He only ever uses his good foot and never goes beyond the 1980's mentality of mark, tackle, shortpass or loft. He plays a very basic game, which many people translate as consistent, but it's not. It's truly simple. He has no technique and isn't dynamic at all. Boring to watch. He never takes on a player nor moves with the ball.

Plus he's got a face that I would just like to smack the shit out of.