Posted on 06/13/2006 6:05:50 AM PDT by soccer_maniac
World Cup favorite Brazil will kick off its World Cup campaign on Tuesday as the opening round of the tournament continues in Germany. The defending champions will face Croatia at 3 p.m. ET (ESPN2) in Berlin in the second Group F match, following Australia's come-from-behind victory over Japan Monday.
The match will feature the highly-anticipated debut of FC Barcelona great Ronaldinho as he looks to lead the South Americans to a record sixth championship. But the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year is hardly the only weapon in coach Carlos Alberto Parreira's arsenal. Also at his disposal are Ronaldo, Kaka, Robinho and Roberto Carlos -- just to name a few -- who could leave the Croatian defense in for a busy day.
In the day's first match, first-time qualifiers Togo will be looking to upset 2002 semifinalists South Korea (9 a.m. ET, ESPN2). Though the Asian side does not have home field advantage as they did four years ago, the side is very experienced and boasts much talent, including 10 players returning for their second consecutive finals. The Koreans will be looking to Ahn Jung-Hwan for offense.
Togo enters the match as one of the surprise teams in the field, having secured qualification for the first time in the tiny nation's history. With many players coming from the French, Swiss and English leagues, they are a side capable of raising a few eyebrows.
Also making their 2006 World Cup debuts on Tuesday will be France and Switzerland, the neighboring nations squaring off at 12 noon ET on ESPN2. 'Les Blues' are chock full of world-class talent, including Arsenal's Thierry Henry and former FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane, who led the French to their only World Cup title on home soil eight years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlsnet.com ...
'It's about as fun as watching a highway!'
They should add some narrow toll booths to spice it up a bit. . . . .
It's still a sore subject with me...let's not go there. 8^)
In the spirit of full disclosure re: physical size, being 6'-0" and 160 lbs at age 15 helped me tremendously in progressing as far as I did. Not growing at all from that size by age 18 pretty much showed me the door.
Cisse has been sooo unlucky with injuries.
As to the debate on size...
The US team did look a bit "smallish" against the Czechs last night.
Off course, you don't need a team of 11 giants, but at least a few players with some size on them probably would be helpful.
Cheers.
I think I have decided to root for the Swiss.
They did a commendable job of stirring up the Turks in the playoff game so that when Norway plays them in the upcomning qualification game for the European Championship, the Turkish home game will be played at a neutral arena with no crowds.
However, no doubt that tonights prime event is the Croatia-Brazil bout.
Cheers.
Oops... bad SUI turnover. How could FRA not score on that?
My oh my, why did he not just put it in???
Oh, and was that a penalty?
France often plays this apparently desinterested way. They usually can shift to another gear when necessary, and will probably do so with about ten minutes into the second half.
but I'd rather watch competitive dry cleaing.... and you can work on your spelling too!
France looks pretty tough
And another World Cup half ends with France not scoring.
They haven't scored since 1998.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has NEVER shutout an opponent in the World Cup -- not in 22 matches.
Nice Swiss chicks BTW.
ABC's broadcast of three matches Friday through Sunday delivered an average rating of 2.8, with about 2.8 percent of U.S. homes in the top 56 markets watching. That compared with an average rating of 1.7 for two matches broadcast during the 2002 opening weekend.
Univision said its first eight games were watched by an average of 2.6 million viewers, 1.7 million more than the average of the 2002 tournament's opening weekend audience.
The 2006 matches broadcast by ABC were England vs. Paraguay, Mexico vs. Iran and Trinidad & Tobago vs. Sweden. In 2002, the network broadcast two matches on opening weekend -- Ireland vs. Cameroon and Sweden vs. England.
Univision, which plans live broadcasts of 56 of the tournament's 64 games, said the Mexico-Iran match-up scored 5.4 million viewers, making it the most watched sporting event in Spanish-language TV history.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060613/tv_nm/media_disney_espn_dc_2
I remember watching Brazil defeat Italy in 1994 in a shootout where Roberto Baggio sent his shot right over the goal, and Brazil scored the final goal for the win.
I was on Colorado Blvd during the match - The Toes Bowl was full that day.
I think they'll be hard to break down but not so hot on the counter attack. Can't actually see the game at the moment to see if I'm right!
His hair arrived three hours earlier.
...and I'd like to thank all of you for voting me the thread butt-boy. [tough crowd....for a bunch of soccer fans][/sarcasm]
Your're right. Most US sports (not only US soccer) use the same rubric -- weak teams are rewarded with top draft picks and easier schedules, with revenue sharing, and you have salary caps.
Can you imagine if the KC Royals or Tampa Bay Devil Rays were to be relegated to Triple-A instead of stinking up the Major League baseball year after year, or if the Atlanta Hawks or NY Knicks were to be relegated to the CBA (or division 2) basketball due to their poor records? Instead of the "let's lose so we get a higher draft pick" shenanigans, bad teams would be pulling out all stops to win games at the end of the season to escape the "relegation zone".
It's amusing that some would call soccer "communistic" or "communist plot", when it is the American sports that follow the communistic path, and as you state, it's non-US soccer following the capitalistic path.
And BTW, I like baseball, basketball, and (American) football, as well as soccer, so I'm not looking at this with any hatred toward the other sports -- just an observation.
That's what I'm talking about.
When it comes to soccer and soccer chicks, Brazil rules!
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