Pre-FIFA World Cup Thread!!! - Page 5 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

azzarish · 05-17-2006, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

I agree with the idea of playing Gerrard further up. He can be deadly accurate and he can really put something behind his shots. However, I also agree that Eriksson wont do it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...nd/4990422.stm

Eriksson said this morning that he has considered playing Gerrard as a second striker. The guy has scored 23 goals this season which is a lot of goals for a midfielder. The great thing about Gerrard is that he has scoring instinct, and personally I think if Rooney doesn't recover in time which I doubt he will, Gerrard should play just behind Owen. It will also open up another berth in midfield. Gerrard scored more goals than any England striker this season (correct me if I'm wrong, Rooney only got 19), so I think it's well worth the risk.

azzarish · 05-17-2006, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadora

The point I was trying to make is that Canada and the USA are the only two countries in the world that use the term SOCCER to describe the sport played by 11 players on each team trying to kick the ball into each other's net, otherwise known as FOOTBALL by every other country in the world, with of course linguistic variations.

The NFL (No Fun League) completey destroys any notion we had of calling it football.

troutman · 05-17-2006, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jagger

Did anyone see Gerrard's performance for Liverpool in the FA Cup Final last weekend? It was quite simply incredible. His 90th minute equaliser was one of the most outstanding goals that I've ever seen. A screamer from 35 yards or more. All told Gerrard scored twice, set up the other and scored in the penalty shootout.

Great talent, but an immature prima donna too. He flipped off the West Ham fans after his first goal, then pushed his team-mates away that were trying to congratulate him after the second goal, so he could literally pat himself on the back. If this was hockey, he would have got pummeled for hot-dogging like that.

troutman · 05-17-2006, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J pold

wow I didn't now Mexico was that high

Mexico may be that high, because they play at high altitude for home games. Azteca stadium is at about 7400 feet (2300 m), a big home advantage for the Mexicans. Bolivia (La Paz 3650m) and Ecuador (Quito, 2850m) are even higher and sneak into the World Cup every so often because of this. You get winded in these cities just walking up a flight of stairs if you are not used to it.

Canada should have all the home qualification games in Inuvik at -30 C. That would get us back to the World Cup.

StoneCole · 05-17-2006, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

Mexico may be that high, because they play at high altitude for home games. Azteca stadium is at about 7400 feet (2300 m), a big home advantage for the Mexicans. Bolivia (La Paz 3650m) and Ecuador (Quito, 2850m) are even higher and sneak into the World Cup every so often because of this. You get winded in these cities just walking up a flight of stairs if you are not used to it.

Canada should have all the home qualification games in Inuvik at -30 C. That would get us back to the World Cup.

Or in Calgary at altitude (although this wouldn't help much against the indicate Bolivia, Ecuador, or Mexico.

azzarish · 05-17-2006, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

Great talent, but an immature prima donna too. He flipped off the West Ham fans after his first goal, then pushed his team-mates away that were trying to congratulate him after the second goal, so he could literally pat himself on the back. If this was hockey, he would have got pummeled for hot-dogging like that.

I've been watching Gerrard for years. He is not immature (he used to be, but not now), and he is definitely no prima donna. I think he just got caught up in the emotion of a Cup final.

Thunderball · 05-17-2006, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StoneCole

Or in Calgary at altitude (although this wouldn't help much against the indicate Bolivia, Ecuador, or Mexico.

Now that McMahon has FieldTurf, you just might see a lot more international friendlies and qualifiers in Calgary... I'm sure they've taken note of the "Azteca effect" and want to find any edge to get our pretenders into the World Cup.

Footscray · 05-17-2006, 01:55 PM

I follow Canada's world cup team pretty closely and our players overseas, I know they are brutal and I watch the big internationals but I can never really cheer for another country with any heart even if they do suck. I figure I've got a good 15 world cups left at least and I know we will make at least one. I'll be at all of Canada's games when we do.

VANFLAMESFAN · 05-17-2006, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Footscray

I follow Canada's world cup team pretty closely and our players overseas, I know they are brutal and I watch the big internationals but I can never really cheer for another country with any heart even if they do suck. I figure I've got a good 15 world cups left at least and I know we will make at least one. I'll be at all of Canada's games when we do.

love the dedication and optimism!!!

StoneCole · 05-17-2006, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Now that McMahon has FieldTurf, you just might see a lot more international friendlies and qualifiers in Calgary... I'm sure they've taken note of the "Azteca effect" and want to find any edge to get our pretenders into the World Cup.

Oh man...I hope to see some matches in Calgary, especially qualifiers. Was gonna' go up to Edmonton two Septembers ago for the game against I believe Nicaragua, but then my cousin had to go and book his wedding that day. To see qualifiers in Calgary...that would be awesome.

sadora · 05-18-2006, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by azzarish

...Surprise team: AUSTRALIA (After South Korea in the last World Cup I think it's their turn to spring a few surprises in Germany.)
Dark horse: SPAIN (After a number of big tournament flops maybe the waiting is over for Spain. This could be the tournament where it all comes together for them. Bucketloads of talent but can they play as a team is the big question?)
Dissapointment: ITALY (There could be a number of teams who disappoint, Germany included, but I think Italy are going through a rebuilding phase right now, and as always there will be too much pressure on them.)
Runner Up: ENGLAND (To many they seem light on the exterior in terms of talent, but they are solid all around. Rooney, if he fails to recover from his broken foot will me missed immensley, but I think they will compensate for it. They still have Gerrard, Owen and co.)
Winner: BRAZIL (How can you bet against these guys? With players like Ronaldinho and Kaka who can turn games within seconds they are frontrunners again. Only grey area is defence, but we will see if it matters.)

Surprise Team: I would have to agree with Australia being a surpirse team. They have enough talent to do something in the WC and they certainly have the motivation to do well against the defending champs.
Ghana and Togo could also surprise many this year, specially after taking the place of two past surprise teams...Nigeria and Cameroon.

Dark Horses: Portugal. I Feel that this squad should have won the Euro Cup. They have a lot of talent all over the pitch, wiz kid C.Ronaldo has the ability to decide games with his genius play, and they have defenitely improved quite a bit with Scolari at the helm. Their loss to Greece was a huge dissapointment and I think they will be out to prove themselves.
Czech Republic, very strong team.

Dissapointment: England. France. Spain. Italy. Teams this good should do better at the WC but always for some reason fall short after the group stage. England could have a better tournament if W.Rooney is fit to play, I don't think that M. Owen has enough talent to lead England's attack. I would like to see England do well but I honestly can't see that happening.

Runner Up: Argentina or Germany. Argentina has one of the strongest sides they've had in years and were very dominant in the South American qualifiers. Germany not only has a strong team they also have home advantage...their players are going to be pumped and not wanting to dissapoint from game 1.

Winner: Brasil. Out of the last three World Cups, Brasil has been to the finals of each of those tournaments winning the cup two times, '94 and '02 and IMO this is their strongest side yet. Ronaldihno is arguably the best player at the moment and he's at the top of his game right now.

Brasi could also turn out to be the biggest dissapointment this tournament because it would be a shame not to see them make the finals here considering the amount of talent they have. I think their biggest challenge is going to be themselves. They know they have the talent, they just can't get over-confident.

josef · 05-18-2006, 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadora

Runner Up: Germany. Germany not only has a strong team they also have home advantage...their players are going to be pumped and not wanting to dissapoint from game 1.

gotta disagree - the germanteam flatout sucks - the only position where the germans are top is in goal, the rest is

and i don´t think the home-advantage will be great, because the realfans can´t afford the tickets and the support of the vip´s will be very small

sadora · 05-18-2006, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by josef

gotta disagree - the germanteam flatout sucks - the only position where the germans are top is in goal, the rest is

and i don´t think the home-advantage will be great, because the realfans can´t afford the tickets and the support of the vip´s will be very small

Fair enough, but you can't under-estimate a team like Germany. They have the same thing going for and against them, the fact that they got a by into the WC for being the host team. On the one hand you could argue that they didn't get the necessary international competition training to put out a good performance. On the other you could argue that since other teams haven't seen them play in anything other than a friendly they will have the advantage of being more tactically prepared.
IMO Germany always represents a threat and I don't think that it's going to be different this WC.

azzarish · 05-18-2006, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by josef

gotta disagree - the germanteam flatout sucks - the only position where the germans are top is in goal, the rest is

and i don´t think the home-advantage will be great, because the realfans can´t afford the tickets and the support of the vip´s will be very small

I agree with that. I think Germany will be lucky to get past the 2nd round. They were extremely lucky with the draw in the last World Cup and it overshadowed their weakness as a team. I don't think playing at home will help them at all, if anything it will add more pressure. Rarely does the home team win the World Cup.

CrzyCanuck · 05-19-2006, 08:23 AM

Just as in other world cups, the home team gets all the calls. German will make it to the second stage.

sadora · 05-19-2006, 08:10 PM

Here is a link to sportsnet's WC TV schedule, note the times are eastern

http://soccer.sportsnet.tsn.ca/TV/

This is also their main WC page. There are a few interesting articles on there, one in particular is about FIFA being asked to ban Iran from WC play.

http://soccer.sportsnet.tsn.ca/

Footscray · 05-20-2006, 02:52 AM

Oh man a little OT but Canada beat Brazil in under 21 action tonight in a great game which was on sportsnet, Edgar (newscastle ENG) and Johnson (heerenveen NED) scored for Canada and Peters from Ipswich had a pretty good game as well - what a result. It's a 3 game series with the next on PPV sunday and the final on sportsnet next thursday for the football fans out there. Great game - allez les rouges!!!!

sadora · 05-20-2006, 03:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Footscray

Oh man a little OT but Canada beat Brazil in under 21 action tonight in a great game which was on sportsnet, Edgar (newscastle ENG) and Johnson (heerenveen NED) scored for Canada and Peters from Ipswich had a pretty good game as well - what a result. It's a 3 game series with the next on PPV sunday and the final on sportsnet next thursday for the football fans out there. Great game - allez les rouges!!!!

Was that game in Edmonton?

Nice result for Team Canada. Thanks for the update.

KootenayFlamesFan · 05-20-2006, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadora

Was that game in Edmonton?

Yes...........nice result for Canada.........never scored a goal before in U-20 action before against Brazil, and not only scored tonight, but scored 2 tonight to win the game.

Good stuff.

Just a friendly......but still still great stuff.

VANFLAMESFAN · 05-20-2006, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Yes...........nice result for Canada.........never scored a goal before in U-20 action before against Brazil, and not only scored tonight, but scored 2 tonight to win the game.

Good stuff.

Just a friendly......but still still great stuff.

Yeah, Im gonna go see them play next Thursday at Swanguard. Should be fun. Not really into the Canadian national soccer team, but any chance to boo Brazil is okay with me.