FIFA!! World Cup! Yahoo!

[Serenity]

I dislike when teams seem to sit on a lead. Didn't see the first half of the England-Paraguay game but in the 2nd half Paraguay started strong and then lost steam (maybe the heat) and couldn't get by the English defense.

Hopefully Sweden has a strong team and give the English a run for their money. I've never seen Trinidad play so it will be interesting; do they play "british" style or more of the latin american style?

[Catmando]

Harsh red card on the Trinidad & Tobago player.

Great performance by the T&T back up goaltender!

Next up: Argentina vs. Ivory Coast!!!

[Serenity]

I agree with you. I think T'nT did an excellent job with Sweden considering they were one man down and did not have their star goalkeeper. Hislop did an excellent job as did the defense of the Soca Warriors.

[Serenity]

That was a nice game between Argentina and the Ivory Coast. Argentina was superior but had to play for it.

[Catmando]

Yes, Argentina proved to be too much for Ivory Coast. But give IC credit for fighting hard and making it close. They are a fast and talented team.

[Serenity]

USA! USA!

The US team, currently ranked 5th worldwide according to FIFA, plays the 2nd ranked team in the world - the Czech Republic (just behind #1 Brazil). This will be a good game if they play well; they did not look good in their last friendly warm-up match.

[Catmando]

I'm afraid the FIFA current rankings aren't truly reflective. I'm not too sure I agree with Mexico and USA being both ranked top 5 in the world. Compared to Italy, which is ranked 13th!

I'm not exactly sure how they come up with the rankings.

Regardless, it doesn't matter. Rankings really don't mean a thing. As the saying goes: "That's why you play the game".

I think the USA/Czech Republic/Italy/Ghana is the true "Group of Death", more so than the Netherlands/Serbia & Montenegro/Argentina/Ivory Coast.

[Nicole Marie]

Hello Catmando-

The ranking system has been flawed for some time. The US for example, plays some of the poorest teams in the world in the Amercias division. So they win all the time against those teams, they make the points and that puts them in a higher position. Many have called for a handicap to be put in to allow for the ability of teams. So if you play a crappy team and win, you do not get the higher points but a point that is equal to the level of team you played. Similar to divisions. If you play a team in a lower division you get points based on a low or higher division. This would represent teams better.

The game today between the US and Czech will be fun to watch. You can watch play-by-plays at http://www.fifaworldcup.yahoo.com

[Catmando]

Nicole, I agree with that.

Wow! I wish I could have seen that game on TV (Australia vs. Japan).

The Aussies scored 3 times in the final 10 minutes to come back and beat Japan!

[Nicole Marie]

What a game! Czech won over the US 3 to 0. The US defenders were MIA. It was a pretty easy win for Czech. The US needs to defend better going into the game against Italy. Speaking of Italy... They are next vs Ghana!

[Serenity]

USA got jinxed by Bush calling them. Boy, did they stink. Maybe they'll snap out of it and give Italy a good game. I think they'll get eliminated before the next round of elimination.

The Socceroos is a funny name for the Australian team. It sound like some sort of soup, like Spaghettios.....oh wait, that's it, Paul Newman has a spaghetti sauce called Soccarooni.

[Catmando]

Wow, the Spaniards are completing crushing Ukraine!

[Nicole Marie]

Espana wins 4 to 0!! What a blood bath...

Tunisia and Saudi Arabia should be fun to watch. A low scoring game but one with two teams that have a lot to loose so they will be fighting hard.

Then on to Germany and Poland... After Poland's poor showing and Germany's home team advatange... this will be an easy one for Germany.

[Serenity]

Germany looked strong in its first game, in retrospect. I also liked Argentina, Netherlands and the Czechs. I'll check out the Italians on Saturday when they play the US, they're typically a contender Cup after Cup.

Brazil looked flat yesterday. England and Portugal seemed content to just stay ahead and win without having to exert themselves. I always watch Mexico with my fingers crossed and we'll see how far Ecuador gets, I don't think they were challenged by Poland.

I heard about Spain and I can't wait to get home and watch the replay, along with the German's 2nd game.

[Serenity]

Spain looked good; I like how they played better than how Portugal played in their first game. Maybe this will be their first World Cup. The red card and Spain's 3rd goal were unfair.

Plus I think everybody likes Carmen by Bizet. The bullfighting music is enough to cheer for Spain.......Any Portuguese classical music composers?

[Catmando]

I definitely think this could be Spain's turn to shine in the World Cup, much like France in '98.

Spain has just never lived up to their potential, but maybe they will finally this time around. Although it is only 1 game!

Czech Rep. looks pretty good too.

It may not be quite the shoo in for the Brazilians as we all seem to think!

I don't know of any Portuguese composers?

[Nicole Marie]

There are many Portuguese composers. Jose Manuel Joly Braga Santos is a fav of mine. He just passed away in 1988. The Marco Polo label recorded most of his music. Carlos Seixas lived in teh 1700's. He wrote beautiful music.

Here are a few good links:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/ilamsuk/ILAMS-artigo.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:P ... _composers

In other news... Saudi Arabia and Tunisia played an excellent game yesterday. I heard several team memebers (on both) teams will receive houses and cars for playing well. Must be nice...

Looking forward to England and TnT today. But the big games will be this weekend!!

[Catmando]

I'm rooting for TnT today, I hope they play dynamite!

[Serenity]

WOW. Ghana beat the Czechs! YAY....If the USA beats Italy, all 4 teams will be tied in points with one game left to go. Come one US, show us you can play better than the last game.

U S A!
U S A!
U S A!

Half an hour 'til game time, gotta do some chores as quickly as possible.

[Serenity]

OH! They're playing much better; a little sloppy on the passing but they look more like a team and they've gotten a couple of lucky breaks. Both teams are one man down with red cards. We need this 2 wins to advance to the next round and this could be one win.