Today the last teams qualified theirselfs for the tournament. Algeria Argentina Australia Brazil Cameroon Chile Danmark England France Germany Ghana Greece Honduras Italy Ivory Cost Japan Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Korea Paraquay Portugal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Switzerland Uruguay USA On 12/4/09 will be the drawing of the groups
I hope El Tri gets at least to quarter finals...I mean, we're so overdue. My favorite is Spain, followed by Brazil. Ghana will be the surprise, IMO. I have 6 months to figure out how I'll follow the World Cup from work. I don't have enough vacation days for the whole tournament :icon_sad:
Yeah, the only country in the whole world that doesn't give two craps about the World Cup :icon_confused: Back in '02 you guys made the quarterfinals...and I don't think anybody noticed. I really want Mexico to make the Elite 8 for the first time outside of Azteca. We've been so close the past 4 World Cups. We're due...we're so due!!!
The only real interest I have in soccer is that my son plays. I just read the list and saw that USA was in there. Is it hard to qualify as a country?
CONCACAF (The region that the US is in) gets 3 spots in the World Cup finals and there is a playoff between the 4th place team from our region and the 5th place team from South America for one more spot (which Honduras lost). I'm pretty sure the US has qualified for every one since 1990. They rarely survive the group stages of the tournament though. In the last one, they had a group of death (including eventual champion Italy). The US tied Italy and was the only team the Italians faced that they didn't beat in that WC.
USA btw: Russia .. oh man ... :icon_confused::icon_confused::icon_confused: so embarasing against slowenia :icon_redface:
Glad USA made it. Italy is my second fav. I've gotten really into past world cups and have looked forward to this one and I don't watch soccer at all otherwise. I've tried to get into it but everyday soccer can't doesn't hold my interest even though I have a 16 yo step son from el salvador who breathes soccer and watches it whenever a match is on. I don't know why the rest of the world treats it like a religion and looks down on the US like something is wrong with us cause we have other sports we like more. :icon_confused: This kid comes over last year and doesn't know the rules in baseball, basketball, hockey or American football or any other sport besides soccer. How about a little exposure to other sports, world. Between flopping, clocks counting up, and not knowing when the game actually ends (90, quoted added stoppage time, then when the ref actually ends the game) aka anti-climatic endings soccer just goes against all my natural sports instincts.
yeah thats right i was born in russia and i like baseball ,football & basketball:icon_smile: but hockey and soccer are my sports ..no it´s love :icon_cheesygrin: here in germany , almost everybody loves soccer but not hockey :icon_sad:
Really? I was under the impression that Hokcey had a good following over there and the DEL got pretty high attendances? I despise this country when it gets within a month of the tournament, the media goes into a patriotic, false hope frenzy and sadly the sheep in this country buy it, regardless of the teams chances (Which are even less likely than usual).
You can't compare the numbers to soccer, but I think the most teams can sell out their stadiums. Hockey or basketball have way more success than football at Germany. Both running a pro league... Here are stats for hockey attendence http://del.stats.pointstreak.com/attendance.html Summe = Sum Spiele = Games Durchschnitt = Average
@ andy attendance is good @ DEL but the sport sucks here ^^ hockey don´t get the attention in the media .. i´m glad , that i have espn america and can watch 5-6 nhl live games a week
Trust me , the skill level of the DEL is miles ahead of the EIHL over here. Some teams can't string two passes together, it's embarrassing. The one British player (Tony Hand) that did get drafted to the NHL was able to average 180 points in 36 games during the peak of his career, and at the grand age of 41 still put up 87 points in 61 games. There's a small hardcore following of Hockey over here, but like every sport not named Soccer in this nation, it simply gets buried by the medias.
As for the guy who asked if it was wasy for the USA to qualify the answer is yes its a piece of piss Looks like Englands last chance for a little while - im sure getting the 2018 WC will help when we win it though - i think Capello gives us a good chance of getting to the final 4 though. but icant see past Spain
Here are the groups for the tournament Group A South Africa Mexico Uruguay France Group B Argentina Nigeria South Korea Greece Group C England USA Algeria Slowenia Group D Germany Australia Serbia Ghana Group E Netherlands Danmark Japan Cameroon Group F Italy Paraguay New Zealand Slowakia Group G Brazil North Korea Ivory Coast Portugal Group H Spain Switzerland Honduras Chile
The english should win the group but they are notorious underachievers on the world stage and have been for a long time. Just based on Talent alone they are one of the top 3-4 teams in the tourney.
Loved our draw. We get to open the World Cup!! We get to play the first game of the freaking World Cup!! I just love it!! If we somehow can manage France's handballs, we're so in. Let's just avoid Argentina in the second round. Ohh, ant the U.S. is so going down with that group :icon_twisted:
