Discuss the World Cup 2010: England vs. USA

[zomgwtf]

Hope it's cool I join in now

Algeria - Slovenia (0-0)
Serbia - Ghana (1-2)
Germany - Australia (2-1)

Oh boy, the Serbia - Ghana game is going to be interesting for me. All my friends are Serbian and my girlfriend is Ghanaian. So we're going to head to a bar in the morning to watch it. Go blackstarss

 

[Gokul43201]

I will be away from the internet Sunday so will likely put in my votes for Monday sometime soon.

Rule Clarification:

Do not edit predictions posts to correct grammar, typos, etc. if you are doing so after the submission deadline. Any submitted post with an edit showing a time stamp later than the deadline results in a rejection of that post.

Corollary: You may edit your submission to change your entry, so long as it is done before the deadline. No limit on the number of qualifying revisions allowed.

Note: While I started this and produced the general format and rules, I do not promise to be around to monitor things continuously. I will periodically post a table showing our scores, but it's your job to double-check my tallying. Also each person is responsible for getting their votes in for the next set of matches - I will not be around to start things off for all days.

 

[Gokul43201]

About joining late: You may join at any point during the tournament. The later you join, the harder it is to be competitive, so there's a benefit to joining early. The only thing that matters in the end is the total number of points you accumulate.

 

[Gokul43201]

For reference, some rankings (as of May 2010):

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VoKg6ZIgx...zSRiM4/s1600/2010+FIFA+World+Cup+Rankings.jpg

For the FIFA Rankings, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings

 

[estro]

June 13:

Algeria - Slovenia (1-1)
Serbia - Ghana (0-1)
Germany - Australia (2-0)

 

[lisab]

One reason this game hasn't caught on so much in the US: not enough bathroom breaks.

 

[cristo]

Well, that was disappointing (as usual for an England fan), though our performance was much better than it has been in the recent friendlies and the only goal was due to an awful goalkeeping error.

As for my predictions for tomorrow:

Algeria - Slovenia (2-2)
Serbia - Ghana (2-0)
Germany - Australia (2-0)

 

[Gokul43201]

June 12 Update

Results:
S Korea - Greece (2-0)
Argentina - Nigeria (1-0)
USA - England (1-1)Scoring Table

Member      June 12 Score      Cumulative Score
-----------------------------------------------
Gokul             4                   4
D H               2                   2
cristo            1                   1
estro             1                   1
Dadface           1                   1
Monique           1                   1
Bob               1                   1
cronxeh           0                   0
Zomgwtf           -                   -

Please make sure I got all your scores right.

EDIT: Less than an hour to get in your predictions for the next set of matches.

 

[Gokul43201]

Well, that was disappointing (as usual for an England fan), though our performance was much better than it has been in the recent friendlies and the only goal was due to an awful goalkeeping error.

England was clearly the better team, and really ought to have scored more. There was that 10-minute or so period early in the second half when Haskey, Crouch and Rooney had a series of opportunities but didn't convert any. That was England's best chance to edge ahead. No complaints from me though; I guessed a 1-1 draw (but I thought the US team would be stronger on defense than they actually were).

 

[rootX]

June 13:

Algeria - Slovenia (1-0)
Serbia - Ghana (0-1)
Germany - Australia (3-0)

 

[Cyrus]

Take that SUCK IT England, you plonkers! WOOOO AMURIKAA F' YEAHH!

(Look at me, I watched 10 mins of sports one of the rate times ever in my life. Now I feel like a real man posting this )

Side Note:
As I was watching, the clock was counting up. What the hell ? I got confused, and they didnt say if it was half time, or if that guy made a touch down. Screw this sport.

 

[Gokul43201]

Take that SUCK IT England, you plonkers! WOOOO AMURIKAA F' YEAHH!

(Look at me, I watched 10 mins of sports one of the rate times ever in my life. Now I feel like a real man posting this )

Side Note:
As I was watching, the clock was counting up. What the hell ? I got confused, and they didnt say if it was half time, or if that guy made a touch down. Screw this sport.

Cyrus, see what happens when you get drunk and accidentally wander into the wrong thread?

There are plenty of love-struck geeks craving your expertise in the relationship forum.

 

[cronxeh]

There are plenty of love-struck geeks craving your expertise in the relationship forum.

 

[estro]

cyrus, see what happens when you get drunk and accidentally wander into the wrong thread?

There are plenty of love-struck geeks craving your expertise in the relationship forum.

 

[kakarotyjn]

I join in,haha.I'm not familiar with teams today,just a guess.

Algeria - Slovenia (2-2)
Serbia - Ghana (1:2)
Germany - Australia (2:0)

 

[Cyrus]

no seriously...why was that clock counting up? I wanted to know when it would end, and then I got the feeling it never would...

 

[zomgwtf]

no seriously...why was that clock counting up? I wanted to know when it would end, and then I got the feeling it never would...

Lol it confused me when I first started watching soccer. (the last world cup) I guess that's just the way they do it, no real 'reason' to the madness. People say it's because of the injury/stop time added but that makes no sense to me, they could easily have done it the same way with the clock counting down. (once it hits 0 they have teh same injury time clock come up counting up to whatever or down to whatever extra time there is).

Hopefully they realize that with the marvelous technology we have now days you can PAUSE the time! Yes I know novel concept 'pausing time' (can he really do it?).

 

[Borek]

no seriously...why was that clock counting up? I wanted to know when it would end, and then I got the feeling it never would...

1. It was this way since the very beginning.

2. You are supposed to know half a game lasts 45 minutes (and can be prolonged).

 

[Dadface]

Algeria Slovenia-1,1
Serbia Ghana-2,0
Germany Australia-2,0

 

[Kurdt]

Lol it confused me when I first started watching soccer. (the last world cup) I guess that's just the way they do it, no real 'reason' to the madness. People say it's because of the injury/stop time added but that makes no sense to me, they could easily have done it the same way with the clock counting down. (once it hits 0 they have teh same injury time clock come up counting up to whatever or down to whatever extra time there is).

Hopefully they realize that with the marvelous technology we have now days you can PAUSE the time! Yes I know novel concept 'pausing time' (can he really do it?).

Football is a flowing game and it is often unclear when pauses should occur. The clock counts how long the game has been in play which is a remnant of the age of the sport when they would just be timed with a clock or a watch.

On the subject of the England v USA game. Why do England keep making it so hard for themselves? I was very surprised he went with a 442 instead of playing Gerrard or Cole behind Rooney. I was especially surprised when he brought Crouch on for Heskey. Hardly a tactical change. They're going to have to get a lot better if they want to go anywhere. Watching the Algeria v Slovenia match at the moment they will have a couple of good practise matches to get it right which I'm thankful for.

 

[Gokul43201]

no seriously...why was that clock counting up? I wanted to know when it would end, and then I got the feeling it never would...

When the length of the period is known (and most people watching a soccer game know that each half lasts 45 min + injury time) the choice of counting up vs counting down is usually nothing more than a matter of convention. However, the addition of injury time is one good reason to count up. Would you rather see the clock count up from 45 to 49 or down from 0 ot -4?

In principle no one watching a soccer game (not even the ref) knows when it will end until the injury time (typically 2 to 5 mins) has been set. The official FIFA scoreboard displays the team names, scores, game time as well as the injury time to be added. So, for instance, if you see: < KOR (2) ~ 85.00 ~ GRE (0) ~ 4 >[/color] that means you are 85 minutes into the game, with 5 minutes of regulation play left and 4 minutes of injury time to be added on (total 9 minutes more till the end).

PS: Cyrus - was kidding with my previous post.

 

[D H]

Watching the Algeria v Slovenia match at the moment they will have a couple of good practise matches to get it right which I'm thankful for.

Those won't be ordinary practice matches. Neither England nor the US wants to be the second team to advance from group C as that team will almost certainly get to play Germany in the round of 16. That tie between the US and England pretty much guarantees that Group C has some brutal games in the offing.

 

[D H]

Algeria - Slovenia (0-0)

That was looking like a good prediction for the first 70 minutes of the match. That red card in the 72th minute makes this prediction suspect. We'll see if Slovenia can take advantage of the situation.

Update: Yes, they can.

 

[zomgwtf]

wow still scoreless for ghana/serbia game.

 

[Gokul43201]

That red card in the 72th minute...

I saw that coming (a day ago).

 

[zomgwtf]

Red card serbia! WOW! He was holding him but a second yellow card? Idk... he shouldn't have been playing so rough already having 1 yellow though.

 

[zomgwtf]

Red card serbia! WOW! He was holding him but a second yellow card? Idk... he shouldn't have been playing so rough already having 1 yellow though.

Ghana wins after a penalty shot awarded for a hand ball. 1-0 final score. Good **** blackstars!

 

[cristo]

Ghana wins after a penalty shot awarded for a hand ball. 1-0 final score. Good **** blackstars!

Well, of all my bad result predictions, I really didn't think I'd be wrong on that one. Ghana should have had no chance!

 

[zomgwtf]

Well, of all my bad result predictions, I really didn't think I'd be wrong on that one. Ghana should have had no chance!

I don't know, Ghana has been a pretty decent team on the world stage for a long time. Not so much this year but a lot of their games they were playing second string players all the time. However I didn't think they played soo great, just better than Serbia.

 

[fluidistic]

The funny thing until now is that many goal keepers criticized the ball of this world cup. According to them, it takes strange paths in the air, and it is made against goal keepers and we should see more goals. Until now, 7 matches were played and 9 goals were scored. Only 9, less than any world cup with the same number of matches played...