Group C - England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia

[social]

Bear in mind that for a home qualifier South American players based in Europe have to fly halfway back across the world, acclimatise to a completely different time zone and climate and play 90 minutes of football with unfamiliar team-mates in an unfamiliar system in the space of 2-3 days. Hardly ideal conditions to be replicating any form you've shown for your club.

If factors like that didn't matter then you wouldn't get training camps at altitude in Austria and pre-tournament friendlies for the players to find some form and cohesion - everyone would just rock up in South Africa the day before their first game.

Plus the genius in charge selected more than 100 players during qualifying which made the chances of the argies producing a cohesive team performance somewhere approaching zero

 

[slippyslip]

Way to ignore the fact that Messi was 18 and not a regular starter last time there was a World Cup. Had a pretty good Copa America last time iirc, until Argentina had their customary choke to Brazil.

Ronaldo has participated in runs to the Euro 2004 final and semis of the 2006 World Cup. Not a bad pedigree for a guy who's only 25.

Right, because Argentina qualified so easily for this world cup. I mean, its not like Argentina had to wait until the last match to qualify and Godlike Messi blitzed everything in his path and lead Argentina to qualification at the first opportunity. Just like Godlike Messi lead Barcelona to another Champions League title.

Oh, wait ...

Sorry for "stinking" up this place .. but lets face it, this is the dullest world cup group

 

[Pothas]

Been playing with the crazy world cup predictor, makes lots of nice colours. BBC World Cup - Team Tracker

Not sure who is favourite to go through with England (assuming they don't **** up)

USA must fancy their chances but think Slovenia might nick it.

 

[Jarquis]

USA clear favourites according to the bookies IIRC.

 

[Nate]

USA have looked horrible though. Apart from their Prem stars, there's not much there for mine. Tonight will give a clearer indication for sure.

 

[sledger]

Would say it is a shoo in for USA tbh.

 

[Nate]

Definately firmed after tonight.

 

[Furball]

 

[Raghav]

Why I’ll be cheering on England this year

 

[Furball]

Got my USA away shirt today, will be wearing it on Saturday.

 

[PhoenixFire]

****

 

[Jarquis]

Scot in "Bitter against English" shocker.

 

[GIMH]

Got my USA away shirt today, will be wearing it on Saturday.

 

[sledger]

I actually laughed out loud at that.

 

[Furball]

It's a cracking top and I have a man-crush on Mo Edu, so that's my excuse.

Supporting the USA and Algeria this tournament, which on the face of it looks pathetic, but because our last manager was a useless alky bastard, my support goes to the teams that have Rangers players in them - who both happened to be in England's group.

Same thing happened in 2006, was rooting for T&T because of Marvin Andrews and Russell Latapy.

 

[GIMH]

That's almost like the 427,453 Man U fans with aunties who visited Manchester for half an hour in their teens

 

[Steulen]

Oy Ginge, if you're a Rangers fan, shouldn't you be supporting England?

No offence intended, I'm just still coming to terms with living within a quarter mile of Ibrox Park and need to separate my facts of life from my wind-ups.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Oy Ginge, if you're a Rangers fan, shouldn't you be supporting England?

No offence intended, I'm just still coming to terms with living within a quarter mile of Ibrox Park and need to separate my facts of life from my wind-ups.

Wow, what on earth did you do to deserve living there?

Nah actually went to stay there a few months back, was about 100m away from Ibrox and the place was surprisingly nice, much better than I thought it was going to be. In fact, the whole of Glasgow was much nicer than I thought it would be.

 

[Uppercut]

Scot in "Bitter against English" shocker.

Haha don't flatter yourself. They're not bitter, they just don't like you.

 

[Uppercut]

It's a cracking top and I have a man-crush on Mo Edu, so that's my excuse.

Supporting the USA and Algeria this tournament, which on the face of it looks pathetic, but because our last manager was a useless alky bastard, my support goes to the teams that have Rangers players in them - who both happened to be in England's group.

Same thing happened in 2006, was rooting for T&T because of Marvin Andrews and Russell Latapy.

How come you support England in cricket btw?