How good was it for you?

[Spark]

Worth getting up at absurd hours for two weeks in total and ten days worth of all nighters for.

 

[Pothas]

Nah it's a lousy comparison because the group stages are normally awful, take the last one, it was attritional stuff. I practically gave up on the Tournament.

Oh yeah, I just meant this tournament.

 

[sledger]

The group games were good in 2006 and 2002 as well, tbf.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Random people shouting 'du bist Weltmeister'

+1

 

[grecian]

The group games were good in 2006 and 2002 as well, tbf.

Were they? as good as this year, again i remember boredom.

 

[sledger]

Were they? as good as this year, again i remember boredom.

You were busy watching Fawlty Towers, iirc.

 

[grecian]

I was. I repeat watching it whenever I can, it assuages me from rubbish.

Actually I've looked at 2002 group stages and you may well be right, apart from England's group it seemed pretty exciting.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Were they? as good as this year, again i remember boredom.

2006 was alright - Germany's opener and Australia's group good memories. 2002 was dull, but sledger likes anything vaguely associated with Japan.

 

[Bahnz]

Probably not as good as '98 for me, but certainly better than every World Cup since. The 7-1 game was just surreal to watch, will probably go down as one of the defining sporting moments of my lifetime.

 

[sledger]

2006 was alright - Germany's opener and Australia's group good memories. 2002 was dull, but sledger likes anything vaguely associated with Japan.

Not true. I watched this film yesterday:

Zombie Ass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It wasn't very good.

 

[Uppercut]

I always enjoy the group stages more to be honest. Probably simply because in the first few weeks there are 3 games on a day, and if you're lucky you're able to watch all of them. It's like the beginning of the summer holidays, or Christmas day or something. The fun is underway, but the best is yet to come etc... I think more often than not the best games in these tournaments come in the group stages as well. Kind of a reverse from the Champions League actually.

Yeah, I agree with this.

I think if I'm honest it trailed off quite badly once the knockout stages begun. But the group stages were just incredible, would find it hard to believe there's ever been a better two weeks of football.

 

[Furball]

Yeah, I agree with this.

I think if I'm honest it trailed off quite badly once the knockout stages begun. But the group stages were just incredible, would find it hard to believe there's ever been a better two weeks of football.

Euro 2000

 

[silentstriker]

Have watched 2002 (a little), 2006, 2010 and this one. This one best by far for me.

 

[Nate]

Have loved this World Cup. Easily the best since '02.

...bring on the Prem and A-League now!

 

[wpdavid]

Euro 2000

Now that was a great tournament, including the final stages, IIRC. Up there with WC1970 and WC1982 as my all time favourites.

If I had to rank this WC, its probably the best since 1986. The final was as OK as we get nowadays, (probably the best since 1986 actually) and the knock-outs were pretty ordinary with the one obvious exception. The group stage was so excellent that you can almost forget what followed and, as someone said, that does make up a fair old chunk of the tournament.

 

[Tangles]

Best tournament in a while for me. Group stage was really good and the knockouts had Columbia and the Brazil smashing. It helped that for this WC the time zone really worked for the US. Plus no idiot family members planned the usual vacation crap that has interfered with previous WCs.

 

[Pothas]

Now that was a great tournament, including the final stages, IIRC. Up there with WC1970 and WC1982 as my all time favourites.

If I had to rank this WC, its probably the best since 1986. The final was as OK as we get nowadays, (probably the best since 1986 actually) and the knock-outs were pretty ordinary with the one obvious exception. The group stage was so excellent that you can almost forget what followed and, as someone said, that does make up a fair old chunk of the tournament.

All the games in the Euros can be amazing and it would still not be equal to an average World Cup, it is just not the same.

 

[Salamuddin]

This was a good tournament overall but the knockout stages were fairly boring tbh.

I still rate France 98 as the best world cup tournament overall and not just because France triumphed.There were a number of pretty good sides in that tournament - Holland were outstanding. Brazil had a team with all time greats. Chile and Croatia were good, Italy were decent as was Argentina. Hell even England were fairly reasonable.

I got the feeling early on that this was always between Germany or Italy. I just couldn't see anyone else going all the way - Italy disappointed massively for sure. They really should have done a lot better especially after their strong win over England. I always though Brazil would crumble under the sheer pressure especially considering it wasn't a vintage Brazilian side.
Spain were over the hill, Portugal were massively overrated, this was probably a tournament too soon for France and Belgium, England did their usual, Holland were probably caught between generations and I felt Argentina probably lacked a true playmaker in the mould of a Riquelme in midfield. And to top it off Postecoglou hasn't yet had time to properly work his magic to make the Socceroos the world beaters that we all know they will become.

Really, this tournament was there for the taking by Germany.

 

[GIMH]

Hard to say we did our usual given it hadn't happened since 1958. But the rest of your post I pretty much agree with

 

[sledger]

Nobody really overrated Portugal either. They've been arse for ages.