Official World Cup Thread

[Boohugh]

That ball really moves through the air

I can see keepers having nightmares over the thought of people like Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, etc whacking that at them

[Avicenna]

Wooh, 4-2. Exactly double my prediction

[Rodion Romanovich]

Wooh, 4-2. Exactly double my prediction

My prediction was 3-1. For a moment it looked like it could come true... Anyway 4 goals was more than I expected from the German offensive. Looks like the team is even more offensively oriented than I thought - I overestimated defense and underestimated offense. Then again, the second Costa Rica goal was actually an offside and the fourth German goal was a bit of luck - a brilliant shot, but still any team is supposed to stop shots from such distances either at the defenders or at the goalkeeper. The player change the last minute was also interesting - that guy runs fast! With him and Ballack in the field in more important games they can get even better than they were today, and Klose was as usual playing very good.

Now time for Ecuador vs Poland!

[cegorach]

That was just pathetic ! Poland can pack and get back so can 300 000 Polish football fans. Fortunatelly soccer teams gave us so much disappointement in the past that it won't be a tragedy rather a source of numerous jokes.

[LeftEyeNine]

Poland 0 - 2 Ecuador

Yes then, Ecuadoran underdogs made it. Absolute power of control on the ball, confident short passes, fatal dribblings and last ditch tackles brought the glorious start.

Men of the match : Giovanny Espinoza & Ulises De La Cruz

Though their captain Ivan Hurtado is a solid defender, Espinoza surely stands out for this match. In front of the unconvincing keeper, Christian Mora, this strong centre-back was agile and brave enough to save his storming team from any shocks. Worth watching out in the upcoming matches if he can keep up with his rocky defence.

De La Cruz is the only (IIRC) Ecuadoran that currently plays in Europe, and that proves out why he is. Ecuador's right wing was a constant threat to Polish defence, most of the attacks coming through that flank, and De La Cruz was like a lightning in shoes. It was around 80 minutes when he dribbled all along half of the whole pitch dodging the exhausted Polish. Definite one to keep a close eye on if you are the coach of the opponent.

Carlos Tenorio is another one to remark as well. He was only recently out of an injury but seemed fit enough to disturb and create a goal. I expect him to be better by the following matches.

Poland is more pathetic than Germany when compared in terms of defence. I couldn't see them doing their job at all. Thanks to Artur Boruc who is good enough to compensate Dudek's absence, Ecuador made only 2 goals. Poland's revival in the last minutes was due to the concentration loss of Ecuador who did not expect their rivals to be so soft. Pawel Brozek, a young gun I've known for the last 2 years, showed his class by taking a good control and bending a shot that ricochetted off the post. Poland can not defend, at least Brozek should be given time so that they can create more goals, he needs self confidence.

There is also a negative sidenote about Ecuador among all other pluses. Though I couldn't determine if it was a tactical move to save energy or not but Poland did not come across with much resistance until they were around Ecuador's penalty box. This may be due to their anchorman's low performance, maybe a tactical move but it will give chances to score to more talented feet -Germany has a couple of them.

[Bohdan, Lord of Courland]

This match was a complete disaster. 2-0! The attacks of the Polish team were badly co-ordinated and played out even worse. But it could have easily been 2-1 if it had not been for that blind referee
And yes, we Poles are used to having bad football teams and even worse football coaches since the 1970s

[Shaka_Khan]

I got my predictions right! Wow!

[Gealai]

Germany absolutly dominated the poor and weak guys from Costa Rica, something like 35 shots agains 4, yet it was able to get two goals. Great offensive, great movement, fast play.The
Two chances two goals for Rica. Friedrich slept two times, causing the offsidetrap to fail, although the second goal was irregular IMHO. If Germany wants to go on it must protect it's defense better and exercise it's line movements.

Poland played stunnigly bad. Ecuador seemed like a world class team.

[[DnC]]

I got my predictions right! Wow!

Haha cheater. You posted that 15 minutes before this post

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Just about to sit down and watch england stuff paraguay. 3-0 i reckon, a header from terry, then a lamps then owen to finish it.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Haha funny own goal 4 minutes into England-Paraguay... Poor Paraguay Looking at this match I wonder if perhaps Sweden rather than Paraguay will take the second place in the group. England will take the first - they've shown a very good defensive work so far. I wonder what changes will be made after the half time. My 3-2 predictions doesn't seem likely at this point...

[Equilibrium]

Watching England - Paraguay, the brits don't really convince me and paraguay's getting better atm; the 1 - 0 was really bad luck for them...I guess a draw will be the result in the end.

[Goalie]

Hehe, England got owned for 83 min. I found it hillarious that England's goalie got megged even though it didn't count.

[[DnC]]

Germany played decently with some good moments of nice teamplay. The highlights of the game for me were definitely Lahm's and Frings' goals. Absolute beauties. Their defense however didn't do so well. And it showed when Wanchope scored twice. Although the second was offside.

Costa Rica played horridly for the most part. Very bad defending. - Cover your man, don't look at the ball ffs!! - Also poor offense. Biggest problem was that they didn't use their chance to counter-attack. Far too many times they stopped at midfield and gave the germans time to recover. Also they waited far too long playing the ball and tried to play with the ball too much instead of passing the ball to another player. Rarely would their tricks work.

In the end it was a nice first match to watch due to the large amount of goals, of which two were simply amazing shots.