Official World Cup thread (Day 3)
Today's matchup:
Algeria vs. Slovenia 7:30 AM
Serbia vs. Ghana 10:00 AM
Germany vs. Australia 2:30 PM
I'm hoping for at least a draw from Algeria/Slovenia game so USA have a good chance of advancing to the knockout round. Even better, Algeria upsetting Slovenia. As long as USA take care of business against Slovenia and Algeria, there is no reason for me to think that they won' t advance to the knockout round.
Gotta say, I'm pretty excited by todays lineup. The first game due to the implications in our group. Serbia and Ghana are both pretty solid and I have a friend whose father is from Ghana. And the Germany match simply because they are my #2 team. Can't wait
Gehen Sie Deutschland! Sie sind mein zweiter Liebling auch! Hat Deutsch in Mittelstufe der ganze Weg durch Sekundarschule genommen, die so ist sehr vertraut mit der Sprache.
Slovenia's jerseys are ugly. Charlie Brown meets the Green Bay Packers. I thought their national colors were red,white n blue?
...pulls out the 1-0 win. Was rooting for a draw in this one to keep the Group even after the first two games. Too bad the Algerian striker decided foolishly to stick out his arm on the long service into the box and pick up his second yellow card.
This game was played at a level nowhere near yesterday's match. Neither of the teams look like they will be able to compete with the likes of the UK or USA. Even in victory, Slovenia looked really flat, and their one goal came on another goalie mistake. I like our chances of advancing having seen this match.
But even a draw is probably good enough; we should beat Algeria and 5 points is close to a guarantee (only way it could fail is if Slovenia draws England as well and Algeria loses to everyone; then it's GD/GF and I like our chances of beating Slovenia there).
A draw against Slovenia and a win against Algeria will almost definitely get the U.S. through. The only way this would not be enough is if the U.S. only beats Algeria 1-0, and then Slovenia ties England with a score of 2-2 or more. If Slovenia draws England 1-1, the U.S. and Slovenia (and possibly England, depending on their win over Algeria) would have to draw lots to see who advances.
if USA can win both games and not leaving any chances of not advancing past group play. I think that USA can beat both of them.
But the situation isn't that desperate. A win over Slovenia and draw against Algeria guarantees it no matter what else happens. A draw against Slovenia and win by two goals against Algeria also does (5 points at worst goes to tiebreakers at 5-5-5-0, and we'd have GD on Slovenia if we win by 2).
Don't those f-ing horns bother the people blowing them too? Good God they are awful.
I love the defense that the horns are "a traditional aspect of South African culture." They've been around for all of a dozen years.
Algeria looked really bad today. Things are looking good for the us.
The Ghaha vs, Serbia game is one of the better matchups in the first round. After the WC some of the young players on Ghana will signed by major clubs. I wish Essien wasnt hurt.
they may have gotten a few quality chances by now
Someone's going to score pretty soon; lots of chances and end-to-end runs.
Man, as much as Serbia dominated the end of the game, that one COMPLETELY IDIOTIC play screwed themselves over. Handball in the box (or at least I think that's what it was as I watched in Arabic - too lazy to change). Penalty kick gives Ghana the win 1-0
No ESPN3 down in the Longhorn State?
Yep, it was a handball and a pretty bad one. The officials have been spot-on thus far in the tournament.
I was watching ESPN3. They didn't label language, so I just clicked the first one to get it going. Turned out to be Arabic. Was across the room while it loaded and was like "fuck it dude." Left it on Arabic.
Gotchya. I haven't had to watch any of the games on my CPU yet, but that'll change starting tomorrow. Good to have a bit of a heads up on something like that.
Yeah, once you have ESPN3 open, it specifies languages. For some reason, there were two options on the website to open it up and neither were labeled well. I'm ready for the weekdays as all three games are streamed on weekdays it seems. On weekends, certain games that are shown on ABC aren't streamed (like US vs England).
that was a good showing by ghana but they got a LOT of help for that win. serbia definitely has to be kicking themselves right now
With the upcoming games against Germany and Austrilia, they are likely to be done for the group play.
I think Serbia can beat Australia. Serbia vs. Germany should be a very fun game to watch.
is Germany will take the group with 3 wins. Serbia is already behind with a loss(same with Aussie). Ghana is in a nice position and if they can get a draw with Aussie, they should advance with 4 points.
Germans lucky the Aussies didn't score there!
I love that in the thread yesterday we talked about how the Germans are known not to dive. And who gets the first yellow for a dive.....
that I was surprised a card was issued for diving?
But good on the ref for that.
Yeah -- I love cards for diving though. It ruins the game. Some of the best goals are scored when the attacker uses his strength to stay up and put the defenders to school.
Joga bonito.
2-0 Germany
How are the knockout stage matches determined and what are some interesting potential Round of 16 matches??
Top two teams advance to knockout rounds. The pools/brackets are set, they just have to see which teams earn which seeds.
And not to be a tool...but you have the USMNT logo as your avatar...but you don't know how the World Cup works?
England - USA yesterday was the first soccer game ive watched start to finish. But to say the least, I was captivated and now officially hooked. lol
1A plays 2B, 2A plays 1B, etc.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/kostage.html
If USA should finish 2nd, and Germany wins their group, they'd play in the Round of 16.
Germany is swallowing Australia whole. Germany and Argentina have been the most impressive teams so far in terms of ball control, with Germany looking a bit better at creating scoring chances (and capitalizing on them). France disappointed (offense couldn't play), USA/England were decent but will probably get destroyed when (if) they get to the knockout rounds.
RIP USA
Hey, with the 1-1 draw against England, the US has a door open to take first in the group. They need to win and win big, but it's not out of the question.
Four points from the next two almost certainly will be enough to advance, and Slovenia and Algeria are teams we should expect to beat.
Or did you mean we're going to get slaughtered by Germany in the round of 16? Because if it's that, then yeah. But we already knew that.
I think he was referring to the liklihood that England takes #1 and we take #2, meaning that we will probably face Germany in the first knockout stage.
And with how Germany is looking right now, that would be quite the task.
If we end up facing Germany, we're boned. I'd love to steal first in the group (which probably means Ghana in the knockout instead), but that's not especially likely unless England's keepers give up a few more Yakety Sax goals.
and England both beat Slovenia and Algeria, it'd be interesting to see on who gets the group and thus avoiding Germany at the 1st round of knockout stage. The key for USA is to win both games(duh) and to win as big as possible.
Germany won their opening game 8-0 in 2002 and went on to lose to Brazil in the finals. The US was a little more than non called handball away from beating Germany in the round of 8 (Germany went on to beat Korea 1-0 in the semis and the US tied Korea in the group stages so there was a real chance that the US could have played Brazil in the finals). The USMNT is a team that starts off slow and picks up pace as tournaments go on. The next round isn't for another 2 weeks so I wouldn't write us off just yet. Besides, like others have said, we have a decent chance of finishing at the top of our group.
After watching the group C games, I agree that the US has a good chance to take the top spot. England has talent but we seemed a lot more unified most of the time.