Official 2010 Anyone give a shit about the World Cup thread

[Xanatos]

I think it's funny how in the US Lionel Messi is being called the best soccer player in the world now, when he was a few years ago. Some people are just now realizing it.

Anyway, I hope France loses against Uruguay today too. **** France. Also good luck USA vs. England on Saturday. Definitely gonna need it!

Few years ago there were at least three players better than Messi, though it's true that he's currently the best, he won award for it the last year, and I'm sure he'll repeat the same thing this year.

As for France, I ****ing hate those bastards, just the team not the entire nation. The way they passed Ireland in qualification is a ****ing disgrace, so I hope they'll be out of this competition really soon, I even put some money on Uruguay today.

I think this world Cup will be full of surprises, there were a lot of injuries during the friendly matches, some of the key players are out, not to mention the weird choices some of the coaches made while assembling their team, primarily Dunga and Maradona, I'm not thrilled with the way Brazil plays, there's no more beauty in their style which was their signature, they're starting to resemble Italy. Speaking of Italy, I highly doubt they'll defend the tittle, though Lippi's an old fox so everything's possible. Argentina has the best team right after the Spain, though they have a weird and inexperienced coach which makes me doubt in their success.

Spain is my favorite for wining this thing, they look amazing, have great team both the first eleven and those on the bench. How strong they are best shows the fact that their bench makes better team than let's say Portugal or even France. England is a great team as always, but a cursed one at least when it comes to the big competitions. Capello's still one of the best coaches out there if not the best so I think they'll make a difference this time, they humiliated us in this qualification and anything beside the tittle will be huge disappointment for me. As for the rest, Ivory Coast has the ability to surprise us all, maybe even Portugal, Holland's always been an unlucky team so it would be great if that would change for once.

I myself don't support anyone in particular, my nation failed to qualify on this competition so it won't be same without them, though I would love if an outsider would manage to accomplish something like Greece did on European Cup 2004. But if I'll have to support someone it would definitely be Denmark.

[che]

Argentina has the best team right after the Spain, though they have a weird and inexperienced coach which makes me doubt in their success.

These players don't need that much coaching though, do they? They're world class. Maybe I'm taking it too lightly, but I don't think Maradona has a huge affect on the team.

Spain is my favorite for wining this thing, they look amazing, have great team both the first eleven and those on the bench. How strong they are best shows the fact that their bench makes better team than let's say Portugal or even France.

Spain is pretty stacked this year. I wish Argentina had the midfielders Spain has. Though I think Messi/Tevez/Milito are pretty nasty strikers, they need someone to feed them the ball. Well, Messi doesn't *need* them, but it'd be nice.

Few years ago there were at least three players better than Messi, though it's true that he's currently the best, he won award for it the last year, and I'm sure he'll repeat the same thing this year.

Mmm...maybe 3 players who were arguably better, but I still think Messi was the best. He has a natural knack for doing the most important thing in soccer. Scoring.

[Xithor]

These players don't need that much coaching though, do they? They're world class. Maybe I'm taking it too lightly, but I don't think Maradona has a huge affect on the team.

You'd be surprised how much a coach has an impact on the outcome of the game, a good coach you want to play for and an uptight one will make it difficult for the players to play relaxed. I know from experience having the good coach to play for in high school and moving to college and having the coach up our asses whenever you even think wrong really made me not play as well as I could bc I was too worried about if I was doing it right. Even sometimes when I did something good like throw a runner out to end a inning I'd still get lectured about something when returning to the dugout...which in all honesty just pissed me off more.

But back to the topic, I've recently started to watch futbol/soccer after being in college and enjoying going to the games of my school. So I might occasionally flip on a game to see how things are going but def won't be attached to my TV, got other things that take up most of my day like the MCAT. Go USA though! If Cuba had a team I'd be rooting for them but we are much better at baseball then anything else lol

[che]

You'd be surprised how much a coach has an impact on the outcome of the game, a good coach you want to play for and an uptight one will make it difficult for the players to play relaxed. I know from experience having the good coach to play for in high school and moving to college and having the coach up our asses whenever you even think wrong really made me not play as well as I could bc I was too worried about if I was doing it right. Even sometimes when I did something good like throw a runner out to end a inning I'd still get lectured about something when returning to the dugout...which in all honesty just pissed me off more.

I realize at the high school/college level what an impact a coach has. I've experienced it first-hand. What I meant though, is all these players play for club teams and are coming together on a national team. They're the best of the best. All the coach needs to do is tell them a few plays, etc. They pretty much don't need to be coached.

That's why I think everyone is overreacting about Maradona being the coach.

[Zargabaath]

I realize at the high school/college level what an impact a coach has. I've experienced it first-hand. What I meant though, is all these players play for club teams and are coming together on a national team. They're the best of the best. All the coach needs to do is tell them a few plays, etc. They pretty much don't need to be coached.

That's why I think everyone is overreacting about Maradona being the coach.

Even though they are the best of the best they still don't have the experience of playing as a team. Now some members are teammates but they don't have as solid of a chemistry. A good team member will know what his/her team mate is thinking and will try to make a play; I don't think the World Cup teams have that much chemistry though they do play a lot of friendly's to get on a team level. This is where the coach comes in to help his players become a team instead of individual parts.