Posted on 06/15/2006 5:42:49 AM PDT by soccer_maniac
Starting off the day will be Real Salt Lake's Douglas Sequeira and his Costa Rican teammates, who play Ecuador at 8:55 a.m. ET in Hamburg (ESPN2). The ticos showed pluck in their Group A opener against Germany on Friday, making a game of it by scoring twice against the hosts before falling 4-2. The Central Americans will need to have more players get involved in the attack against Ecuador, as Paulo Wanchope provided their only offense. The Ecuadorians got a huge weight off their shoulders by downing Poland 2-0 in their group play opener Friday. Previously, the side had been maligned for its inability to win away from the high altitude of their home ground in Quito, but that changed as Carlos Tenorio and Agustin Delgado each scored to upset the favored Poles. An Ecuador victory will guarantee they and Germany advance from Group A to the round-of-16.
Trinidad & Tobago looking to play giant-killer against England in the day's marquee matchup. The sides meet at 11:55 a.m. ET in Nuremberg in a match that will air live on ESPN2. The "Soca Warriors" made their World Cup debut Saturday, pulling off a surprising scoreless draw against Sweden in Group B play despite playing a man down for most of the second half.
The last match of the day comes at 2:55 p.m. ET in Berlin (ESPN) as Paraguay and Sweden meet. The Paraguayans were lackluster in their match against England and must get more out of their attack to have a shot to advance to the knockout phase. The Swedes had equal difficulty finding the net against Trinidad & Tobago; strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrik Larsson will hope to be on target this time around.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlsnet.com ...
Well, looking back at the results from 2002, our region should have had a playoff game. Last time we only had 3 teams in and they did quite well.
Fair point.
However, I still think South America gets ripped off, although Uruguay had their chance and couldn't beat the Socceroos.
Another yellow card for Sweden.
That was meant to be ironic, tongue firmly in cheek.
Just a bit of friendly rivalry.
I know the German team has its flaws and is more of an underdog than a frontrunner. However, for a team that has been touted the greatest thing since sliced bread by the British yellow press, Eriksson's men performed underwhelmingly.
Right now I'm more impressed by teams like that from the Czech Republic or Spain than by the Brits.
My beef is why did Mexico get such an easy group and we got the most difficult.
Because Mexico was seeded and we weren't.
The reason we weren't seeded is due to our dreadful 1998 performance.
Holland also wasn't seeded and they ended up in a tough group also.
Seeding is BS, what they need to do is strictly look at how you did in qualifying, if the US wins the CONCACAF qualifying, we should get a better seed than Mexico, period.
Besides it would add some drama during qualifying, in that you have to play to win every game to better your position in the WC.
From the BBC:
"Zlatan Ibrahimovic fails to re-appear for Sweden. He was rubbing his groin when he came off at half time and their talisman departs for former Aston Villa striker Marcus Allback. "
Talk about a wanker ...
Don't tell me; tell Sepp Blatter.
I think we had a better case than Mexico, both in qualifying and based on 2002. However, Holland is a better team than either CONCACAF Team.
We were so horrible in 1998 that I can't complain too much about not being seeded. Are we really one of the top eight teams in the world?
I think you do have to weigh the regions accordingly so that you consider a European team higher than a CONCACAF team. That's fine. But if the US wins the CONCACAF qualifying, they should be the highest seeded CONCACAF team.
Mexico is so overrated, I hope Portugal destroys them tomorrow.
Oops they play Angola, nevermind. Well I hope Angola destroys them too. :)
If this current game ends 0-0 then T&T can go through by beating Paraguay and England at least tying the Swedes.
Not saying that will happen, but for T&T to have a legit chance after two games have been played is a surprise. Then again, who expected Sweden would have so much trouble scoring?
At least Paraguay has scored a goal in the tournamant, granted it was for England, but at least they did score.
boooooooooooooooooo
Dang, another late goal.
yup.
unfortunately :-)
And that's that!
T&T still have some hope, but they're going to need help.
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