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.
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Croatia deserves a goal. Brazil needs to pick up its game.
I see from the internet commentary that Ronaldo is off the pitch. Is he fit, or fat?
I see from the internet commentary that Ronaldo is off the pitch. Is he fit, or fat?
Yeah, there have been too many flops from France, Italy, England, and especially Spain and Argentina to compare to the US.
I think Angola is going to take Mexico in their next match.
Ronaldo had a pretty slow first half. He's done as a world class player. He still may have moments of brilliance, but those are very few and far between. At the moment, he's "Ronaldo" in name only - no longer as the player he was.
Well, some guy on a Norwegian internet forum asked why Brazil starting line up included only 9 outfield players and one cow :-)
A bit nasty, but Ronaldo certainly doesn't seem to be in top shape. Displaying a bit of a "double-chin", if you use that expression in the US.
I would like to see Fred get a run-in. He has played well for Lyon this year.
I hope. My only goal for the US in the WC is for them not to do worse than Mexico.
The most shocking flop was in 1982 when the second round grouped the top 12 teams into four groups and Italy drew Argentina and Brazil. Italy had drawn its first three games, scoring two goals in all, and then beat BOTH Brazil and Argentina and advance to eventually win. How the South Americans collapsed to Italy I still can't understand.
They were made offers they could not refuse :-)
I thought England not even qualifying for 1994 was pretty bad.
I thought England not even qualifying for 1994 was pretty bad.
If Croatia were a little quicker playing the final ball, they would have had a couple goals on the counter. A couple extra touches have given the Brazilian defense time to cover.
I still have the tape of the friendly from 1993 when England lost 2-0 to the USA on goals from Tom Dooley and Alexi Lalas.
Anyone who wants to see a worse performance on a football pitch than what our boys did yesterday just needs to see that old disaster for England. Ian Wright couldn't beat Tony Meola!
The best moment in that game was when the score was still 0-0 and the color commentator talked about how the English press was hammering the England team and Graham Taylor. The play-by-play guy asked jokingly "Really, how much worse could those headlines get?" Hilarious, given the meltdown after that game!
Actually, England not qualifying for 1994 saved a lot of lives. Some of the English Hooligans were saying (before they crashed out of qualifying) that they hoped England would play in Detroit so they could go into the city and look for local Blacks to beat up.
That would not have been a good idea.
Good performance by the Irish, though suspect you may be the only person who followed the match. No doubt, England were going through the motions.
That said. England's ODI performances are far from impressive even when KP is wielding the bat.
But at test level -- which is what really counts after all -- England remain number 2 in the world and they hold the Ashes.
Of course after last summer's heroics, they have been a little off the boil, though they came away with a credible drawn series in the cauldron of India (better than even the great Australians did a few years back).
They're missing Vaughan's captaincy and Simon Jone's bowling and holding the Ashes in the Winter will be tough.
But a great team still. So moral victory to the Irish, but at the end of the day who really cares?
I wanna see an Iranian babe!
How the hell can France have Thierry Henry and a gaggle of other good scorers and not get a goal in four WC games?
Speaking of hooliganism, I think the English have really tried to deal with that issue head on. My understanding is that it made soccer games really hard for women and children to attend with the threat of violence or confrontation. Nowadays, I see tons of women and kids at games on FSW. Good idea, as it makes sense to expand ones fan base.
I think this current field of 32 teams is rather too small. Why don't they expand it to 60 teams so we can see teams like Israel, Russia, China, India, and Iraq play!
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