Thanks, that IS pretty damn awesome!

I haven't had time to watch a lot of football yet, but so far I wasn't impressed by the quality of it. Let's just hope France doesn't survive the group stage.

Apparently my company's UK and US offices have a bet on the game. If the US wins, out UK office has to fly the American flag in its lobby for a week or a month or something. The reverse is true if the UK wins. Something tells me that's not an especially fair bet.

Lol, that English goalie is such an amateur. Well, I guess both offices have to fly the opposite flag next month.

Shite is what i'd call him. I oddly knew it was going to happen 0.1 seconds before it did. It's hilarious how England have such terrible shortage of goalkeepers since Seaman. Italy on the other hand... no such problems.

Anyway, i've digested the Argentina vs Nigeria match and frankly i'm not at all concerned about Argentina. Sure, they're dangerous going forward, but defensively they're gash. I think a team like Italy could deal with them quite competently. Just overload the defense and lock up shop. Play for the counter, score the 1 jammy goal and then catenaccio.

Haha, man that English keeper...I knew they had sucky keepers, but this was just unforgivable. It's not the ball made a strange bounce or anything, he just misjudged it completely. England can count themselves lucky that they're in one of the weakest groups of the tournament. They'll probably still make it to the 1/8th finals.

As for Argentina...yeah not the most convincing display. It's too bad that such a potentially wonderful team is stuck with such an incompetent coach. I mean, leaving Riquelme off the team for Veron? That's just insane. Milito should be in the starting 11 too, not Higuain (fucked up a lot of goal opportunities today). Still, I wouldn't underestimate them, even if only just because of Messi...one moment of sheer brilliance from him and catenaccio won't even save an opponent then. Italy doesn't have a player like that, or at least, left them at home.

Inter had little trouble with Messi this year. And he has yet to shine in the national team.

True that. Still, this Italy isn't Inter (lower quality strikers for example, and let's hope for them Cannavaro doesn't get a spot in the first 11) and Lippi isn't Mourinho.

Well, Inter isn't very Italian at all to begin with. But yeah, evidence that you can silence him.

Germany very impressive last night - calm and efficient with authority. I know many people here hate them immensely (not exactly a big fan either myself), but their football was pretty much the best we've seen so far at the World Cup. Might chance this afternoon when Holland crushes Denmark though (even though I hope they will fail - sorry Arathorn ).

Well, I have no problem with the German team. If they play well, they deserve the win. Though to be honest Australia was clearly broken after the 2-0, so that's a big factor in the end score. I'm sure the score could have been even greater if the Germans would have tried harder.
And we'll win against the Danish of course, though they are no side to be underestimated (they finished on top in a tough group I believe).

Not had a chance to watch any other matches yet but my god we were shocking. Our keeper is horrible but we've got nothing better in reserve. Hell even a 5 year old knows to try and grab the ball, not just bloody push it away. He was lucky with the save he did make as well, that could so easily have been deflected back in. I was quite impressed that afterwards we kept up our defense (more than usual at least) and still created a ton of chances but our shots were shocking. Either miles wide or straight into the goalies hands.

They need some serious talking to and training before we can hope to win this.

I'm afraid England are beyond repair in my books. They don't have a hope in winning this WC in my eyes. No goalkeeper and they only really have half a team:

Cole, Gerrard, Terry, Lampard, Rooney.

The rest are truly unproven internationally, and even the good half are generally inadequate on the world stage.

Omg you managed to fuck up the entire forum layout with that nickname

Lolz