World Cup!

And Spain is eliminated!

Netherlands is moving on which most expected. But Spain isn’t the other team in the group to advance like many expected. Seriously, not many would have picked Netherlands and Chile to be the teams to get through this group. And Spain’s facing a pretty decent shot to end group play against Australia without a point with the way they’re playing. Australia’s showed a lot more fight against both Chile and Netherlands than Spain did. Australia actually played well enough to give themselves a shot in both games, unlike Spain.

Oh geez, Costa Rica advances!

And Italy and Uruguay play each other, winner advances. Uruguay and Costa Rica could be the two teams that come out of this group and who would’ve put money on that before the games started?

It’s actually a beautiful country. I’ve been twice, but it’s been about 10+ years since I was last there.

I highly recommend it as a place to visit sometime if anyone ever considers going to the Caribbean or Central America. Visited some natural hot springs by the volcano Arenal and got to see some mild eruptions at night. Costa Rica gets a lot of rain, so we just happened to see the bright orangish red of the fresh lava flowing down while lightning strikes silhouetted the volcano. It remains one of the coolest sights I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. Other than that, we went on a rainforest tour and saw some waterfall that I forget the name of and stayed at beaches on both the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.

One of the times I visited coincided with the '02 World Cup and needless to say I didn’t get much sleep the night they won a game due to the time difference. I made some friends there as I was there for about a month each time and have kept in reasonable touch with some of them. So needless to say I’m rooting for them to do well and I can only imagine the euphoria that’s flooded the country for advancing.

@wittmann:

I still appreciate the help John Brown.
Thank you Axisandalliesplayer too. Very good post.

Thanks.  :-D

I can only hope it is Italy doing its usual play poorly, then win the World Cup(or at
Least make the semis). I cannot explain our poor play or lack of ideas. I was sitting in stunned anger as I watched our pathetic attempts to equalise.

They have a long way to go and they will have a dogfight on their hands trying to advance past Uruguay. Maybe the Costa Rica game will serve as their wakeup call? It’s a long shot, but I’d be praying to win by 2 and hope England beats Costa Rica by 2 so they can win the group. I’d much rather face Whoever advances as #2 in group C than Colombia. Or maybe since you’re praying for miracles, hope that Colombia somehow doesn’t win their group so Italy doesn’t have to face them if Italy doesn’t win their group. Colombia’s a young team and they also don’t have any WC experience, so they could make mistakes. But they’re talented and have looked impressive. Definitely a side to avoid if possible. For me, I’m partial towards Costa Rica, so I’m hoping they’re the ones that avoid Colombia coming out of group play.  :-D

France did a good job of embarrassing poor old Neutral Switzerland. Was at work, so do not know how well they actually played.
Do they look like possible Cup winners?

They were very dangerous on the attack. It was 5-0 before the Swiss even got on the board. They scored in a variety of ways as well; set pieces, counter attacks, etc. About the only way they didn’t score was from distance. So yes, they look dangerous enough to make a deep run and then it just becomes a question of who catches the breaks when they need them. Still not the favorites IMHO, as I think Germany and Netherlands are ahead of them. But they definitely deserve consideration. I’m only giving Netherlands and Germany the edge as on paper they’ve beaten tougher competition and looked just as impressive if not more impressive than France.

@wittmann:

Thanks again for your time in posting a reply.
More Especially, for starting and keeping this thread going.
I work  evenings (albeit only 4), so I am watching as much as I can, but find staying up for the whole of the last game (11pm over here) quite hard. My daughter is 4 and is waking between 515 and 615 every day.

Thanks, glad to talk WC stuff. It helps that I’m currently unemployed, so I’ve been able to catch most/all the games I’ve wanted. However, that changes Monday as I start working 40 hour weeks and so I’ll start missing most of the games. Excited about working, not so much about missing the games.  :-D

@John:

@aequitas:

Actually there is a 24th man on the field! Mr climate.
Welcoming all our South American teams and fighting against all European Teams.
:lol:

What little I’ve gotten to watch, is the climate affecting teams that are not used to it?

Just curious!

On the map, most of the stadium locations are located near the ocean. I don’t know what their actual distance is, but being close® to the ocean helps. The sea breeze will help keep things a little fresher and not as humid as it might have been otherwise. Not saying there’s no humidity and heat is still an issue. And what looks close on a map of all of Brazil’s probably far enough away to render any of the ocean’s benefit on the local environment pretty moot. Manaus though . . . that’s in the middle of the rainforest and speaking from personal experience, the heat and humidity of a rainforest really saps your energy. You start to turn into Slothman, worst superhero ever!  :lol:

Some analysts are saying part of the reason we’re seeing so many goals scored (twice the rate from last WC and on pace for most since 1956 or some such) is because players are getting tired and are prone to make mistakes. And it only takes one defender making a mistake to unravel an otherwise strong defense. It does seem like a lot of the goals are scored later in matches, but it’s hard for me to say how much of that’s tied to the heat and humidity. Could explain why some teams expected to be strong look a little listless out there, maybe they haven’t adjusted all the way or their training didn’t prepare them for the local conditions.