World Cup 2006

What is the probability England winning the world cup???

As far as I am concerned we are going to win it.....

I say that about every major competition England are in, I am forever the optomist.

Paul

P.S What do you call a Scotsman in the world cup final?

Referee!

They are definitely a long shot because of the injury to Rooney.

who cares?

I care!

Hi guys and thanks for prompting me to update my flag!
I’d love them to win but injury concerns and no Rooney aren’t helping the cause.

But fingers crossed, eh?

Sure, we had a religion thread going and you had to bring up the only topic more divisive !

Fortunately Americans won't weigh in because we stop playing "soccer" when we are old enough to drink.

That's not true, I drink and still play soccer. Sometimes together.

Ken Roach said:

Fortunately Americans won't weigh in because we stop playing "soccer" when we are old enough to drink.

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Well you should do, as the USA football (not soccer!) team are competeing in the world cup as well, in case you are interested, they are in group E againgst Italy, Czech Republic and Ghana.

Also Ken, when you lot are old enough to drink you start chucking an egg shaped ball around, and to make it worse you wear padding in case you get hurt! Unlike the egg chasers in this country

Paul

PLucas said:

Also Ken, when you lot are old enough to drink you start chucking an egg shaped ball around, and to make it worse you wear padding in case you get hurt! Unlike the egg chasers in this country

Paul

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That reminds me of when I played as a kid and some Egg PLayers were calling us sissies. They were invited to try it and after they limped off the field, we got a lot of respect from the football team.

It amazes me that a nation who apparently doesn’t care about soccer are ahead of the likes of England, Germany, Argentina, France and Italy in the official FIFA rankings.

How can that be?

Http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-May-2006,00.html

Can anyone from the US tell me how much “Soccer” is played in schools, colleges and the likes because this shows that someone must care!

Andy

Don't forget that those rankings are down to who you play, if you are forever playing the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Germany etc then it is hard to get up the rankings as you are bound to lose one or two games, but if England were to play the likes of Scotland on a weekly basis we would soon climb up to number 1 ranking.

Paul

P.S Are you a Forest fan?

Mansfield Town for me, that lowly League 2 side.
But I do like to see Forest doing well.

Soccer is huge here. The talent pool amongst youth players is enormous.
Unfortunately there is not enough money injected into the system so all of the talented kids are encouraged to switch to other sports where they can make a more lucrative career.
For example, a few years ago, the salary budget for the LA Galaxy was $2.1M spread over 22 players. The minimum wage in the NBA is $1M!!
If soccer was the main sport here, the US would own the World Cup.

Cheers,
Ex-Pat.

gphillips said:

If soccer was the main sport here, the US would own the World Cup.

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Ha ha ha!

It good to see you haven't lost your sense of humour!

Paul

P.S Andy, Forest is one of my favourite grounds to visit, mainly because Nottingham is a great place to go drinking! I love the 'Trip to Jerusalem' pub!

Andy S said:

Can anyone from the US tell me how much “Soccer” is played in schools, colleges and the likes because this shows that someone must care!

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Here's my opinion of soccer in the USA:

1) First of all, I respect the sport, when played as fiercely as it is played in the competitive world arena. I have seen several games at the high school level and was thoroughly impressed with the game and the skills required.

2) I hate the game when it is viewed by US "soccer mom's" as a great sport for children for these reasons:

a) Little "Johnny" doesn't have to face "striking out" or getting hurt as in baseball or American football.
b) Filling a field with children running around just to expend energy and on some levels, not keeping score is ridiculous.

Sooner or later, children must realize that life is competitive and sometimes you face dangerous situations. Get used to it in sports.

3) Americans love NUMBERS. Although non-Americans may love to see a 1-0 soccer game, we Americans hate it. We love to see athletes set scoring records. We keep track of everything. Even numbers that were not important in sports years ago are kept track of.

For example, it is in recent years that "sacks" are recorded in American football. This "low scoring" point may be why hockey is not quite as popular as it should be. (And I LOVE hockey.) Here again, I went to only one NHL game in my life a few years back and saw Pittsburgh tie Boston 0-0 after overtime. Although well-played, I would have loved to see a couple of goals scored.

And my opinion of why Americans aren't too bad in the world rankings is that we Americans are fortunate. We have a lot of leisure time. Therefore, our children do likewise. They can try everything, all sports imaginable. Since we have 275 million people, with everybody doing all kinds of things, out of dumb luck, some of us will be good at something. Heck, I just bowled a 300 game a few months ago. And I've only been bowling 34 years.