Ajaxtalk

I wouldn't be so worried about Japan, good team but they can't score for shit. Most likely a goaless draw or 1-1 draw with em, maybe a 1-0 win though.

Croatia is the toughy, Balkan teams are usually aggressive yet creative, so Aussie might narrowly lose to em or draw em.

Brazil I'm predicting a draw. Latin American countries usually get this "let's show what we got" feeling to underdogs, esp Brazil n Argentina. So good luck to Australia.

For Holland's group it's obviously tough.

Serba&Mont.- Good defence and threatening attack (Kezman and Zigic) Dutch teams are notorious to be clumsy towards the end, and like I said earlier, Balkan teams are fighting till the end. I'm predicting a narrow win for Holland, or a draw.

IvoryCoast-I'm confident we can beat em. Although they are very strong, their team is inexperienced and not many players on high level.

Argentina- Depending on the scores we get against the other two, but I'm looking at a 2-2 draw or something. Both teams are good, and quite equal.

ZoefdeHaas schreef:

IvoryCoast-I'm confident we can beat em. Although they are very strong, their team is inexperienced and not many players on high level.

I agree with you. Especially defence of Ivory Coast doesn't look very good. They have Kolo Toure and Eboue, but no-one else... Midfielders? If Holland could stop Didier Zokora, they'll beat them. One thing I know for sure- it will be hard to stop their strikers. Drogba, Kalou, Aruna and Kone are all very good forwards. But - as I wrote - they won't do a lot without passes from midfield.

DanK schreef: First up, ignore the rankings. Its impossible for Australia to get higher than where they are given that they rarely played anyone half decent (thank god that’s changing now that they go via Asia!). Also no offence to my US friends, but the US 5th? I think this shows how non-realistic this is.

As previously stated, I'm pulling for the US above all others, but you're absolutely right. That ranking is crap. I think the US would be more like 12-18 or so.

The US is in, possibly, the toughest group. They could play the best soccer of their lives (I reckon they will) and still finish with 1 point.

Having said that, I think they have a chance at getting through. They would need a victory (Ghana) and a tie against either Italy and the Czechs, and some help in the other matches, but it is entirely possible.

They have a solid backline, with players like Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege), Eddie Pope (Real Salt Lake) and Eddie Lewis (Leeds). They have a good midfield, with Manchester City's Claudio Reyna, Ajax-USA's John O'Brien, DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan.

The one relative weakness is forward. Brian McBride (Fulham's POTY) is a great player and a class act, but he is not in the league of the great strikers. They do have some good young attacking talents, though, such as Clint Dempsey, Bobby Convey (recently promoted with Reading) and the very exciting Eddie Johnson.

Their other strengths are their coach, Bruce Arena, and their ability to come together as a team. Individually, they can't match Italy and the Czech rep talent-wise. But if they play together as a team, they will give both of those sides all they can handle.

The unfortunate thing is that they could still get one point (or fewer), even if they play well. :nooo:

aveslacker schreef:
The one relative weakness is forward. Brian McBride (Fulham's POTY) is a great player and a class act, but he is not in the league of the great strikers. They do have some good young attacking talents, though, such as Clint Dempsey, Bobby Convey (recently promoted with Reading) and the very exciting Eddie Johnson.

Taylor Twellman was in very good form lately. Didn't Arena call him up?

AsgAarD_xxx schreef:

aveslacker schreef:
The one relative weakness is forward. Brian McBride (Fulham's POTY) is a great player and a class act, but he is not in the league of the great strikers. They do have some good young attacking talents, though, such as Clint Dempsey, Bobby Convey (recently promoted with Reading) and the very exciting Eddie Johnson.

Taylor Twellman was in very good form lately. Does Arena didn't call him up?

No, Arena decided that he wanted another target forward and took "the Flyin' Hawaiian", Brian Ching, instead.

aveslacker schreef:

AsgAarD_xxx schreef:

aveslacker schreef:
The one relative weakness is forward. Brian McBride (Fulham's POTY) is a great player and a class act, but he is not in the league of the great strikers. They do have some good young attacking talents, though, such as Clint Dempsey, Bobby Convey (recently promoted with Reading) and the very exciting Eddie Johnson.

Taylor Twellman was in very good form lately. Does Arena didn't call him up?

No, Arena decided that he wanted another target forward and took "the Flyin' Hawaiian", Brian Ching, instead.

Did Van Basten phone Arena or was it the other way around ???? Hmmmm :sly:

For those interested...

The Dutch squad arrived to Lausanne, Switzerland this evening for a six-day training camp. The only two players that are not there yet are Van Bronckhorst and Van Persie (who were in Paris for the CL final on Wednesday). Marco van Basten gave them a few extra days off.

The only injured player at the moment is Kew Jaliens, who sustained a pretty deep cut (flesh wound) a couple of weeks ago. The wound's healing quite well, but he will train individually in Switzerland.

K.

Iv realised something...who are the Dutch standby plaers?

We have a friendly against Greece in Melbourne on Thursday night local. 98,000 tix sold for the game at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). I seriously think there will be as much (if not more) support for Greece as Australia.

Melbourne is currently the 2nd largest city of Greeks outside of Athens! Should be a great atmosphere. Greece had their training run today and attracted around 3000 supporters.

Not too concerned of the result, especially given we have a number of injuries (Kewell, Cahill, Aloisi), but hope we play well and don't pick up any further injuries...then more interesting (well for me anyway) is our next warm up game, our friendly against the cloggies.

I have been waiting for this game since I can remember. It will be 50.1% support for Australia and 49.9% for Nederland. Hopefully no injuries for both teams and a 4-4 draw :D

USA!! WOOHOO!!!!!!




Erm, wow...what a way to get ready for the Cup...lose to Morrocco on our home soil.


JOB played the first half and looked solid though...so yeah, there's that.

Roche schreef:USA!! WOOHOO!!!!!!




Erm, wow...what a way to get ready for the Cup...lose to Morrocco on our home soil.


JOB played the first half and looked solid though...so yeah, there's that.

ey amerikan, play baseball, dont mess with football

acab schreef:

Roche schreef:USA!! WOOHOO!!!!!!




Erm, wow...what a way to get ready for the Cup...lose to Morrocco on our home soil.


JOB played the first half and looked solid though...so yeah, there's that.

ey amerikan, play baseball, dont mess with football

:eusa_naughty:

if you can't behave and treath people with respect, please go away.

Henk de Gier schreef:

acab schreef:

Roche schreef:USA!! WOOHOO!!!!!!




Erm, wow...what a way to get ready for the Cup...lose to Morrocco on our home soil.


JOB played the first half and looked solid though...so yeah, there's that.

ey amerikan, play baseball, dont mess with football

:eusa_naughty:

if you can't behave and treath people with respect, please go away.

Thank you, Henk.

Roche schreef:USA!! WOOHOO!!!!!!




Erm, wow...what a way to get ready for the Cup...lose to Morrocco on our home soil.


JOB played the first half and looked solid though...so yeah, there's that.

By the way USA will play Venezuela next in their preparatiions for the World Cup, the game will be played on the 29th i believe.

Edit: the game will be played on the 26 th in Cleveland that's this friday :headbang:

Should be a good one ;)

Venezuelan Ajacied schreef:

Roche schreef:USA!! WOOHOO!!!!!!




Erm, wow...what a way to get ready for the Cup...lose to Morrocco on our home soil.


JOB played the first half and looked solid though...so yeah, there's that.

By the way USA will play Venezuela next in their preparatiions for the World Cup, the game will be played on the 29th i believe.

Edit: the game will be played on the 26 th in Cleveland that's this friday :headbang:

Should be a good one ;)

I'm looking forward to it.

Henk de Gier schreef:

acab schreef:

Roche schreef:USA!! WOOHOO!!!!!!




Erm, wow...what a way to get ready for the Cup...lose to Morrocco on our home soil.


JOB played the first half and looked solid though...so yeah, there's that.

ey amerikan, play baseball, dont mess with football

:eusa_naughty:

if you can't behave and treath people with respect, please go away.

i'm sorry, but amerikans dont understand really football.good lord, they call it soccer :aai:

and all Bulgarians are criminals :nooo:

Henk de Gier schreef:and all Bulgarians are criminals :nooo:

eeee...ok i check your point.

:xyxthumbs:

acab schreef: i'm sorry, but amerikans dont understand really football.good lord, they call it soccer :aai:

Too many movies with Frodo, I think ;) .

Back to the topic. There is a change in polish team on a World Cup. Gorawski didn't pass medical tests (they have found some heart problems... I don't know how to explain that in english, but it's almost the same that Nwankwo Kanu had). Gorawski (right midfielder) will be replaced by Lech Poznań's defender - Bartosz Bosacki.

DanK schreef:We have a friendly against Greece in Melbourne on Thursday night local. 98,000 tix sold for the game at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). I seriously think there will be as much (if not more) support for Greece as Australia.

Melbourne is currently the 2nd largest city of Greeks outside of Athens! Should be a great atmosphere. Greece had their training run today and attracted around 3000 supporters.

Not too concerned of the result, especially given we have a number of injuries (Kewell, Cahill, Aloisi), but hope we play well and don't pick up any further injuries...then more interesting (well for me anyway) is our next warm up game, our friendly against the cloggies.

I have been waiting for this game since I can remember. It will be 50.1% support for Australia and 49.9% for Nederland. Hopefully no injuries for both teams and a 4-4 draw :D

I'm watching this game tape delayed here. Near the end of the first half, Australia looks pretty good, although your goalie should make you nervous.

I've seen Greece play a lot, and to be fair, they aren't having a great game. But I'm quite impressed with the way Australia are playing.

I'm to see what the second half will bring.

FT Aus 1 - GRC 0.

Good reason to be optimistic going into the WC, although I wouldn't read too much into it.

That goalie needs to work on playing crosses, though.

AsgAarD_xxx schreef:

acab schreef: i'm sorry, but amerikans dont understand really football.good lord, they call it soccer :aai:

Too many movies with Frodo, I think ;) .

Back to the topic. There is a change in polish team on a World Cup. Gorawski didn't pass medical tests (they have found some heart problems... I don't know how to explain that in english, but it's almost the same that Nwankwo Kanu had). Gorawski (right midfielder) will be replaced by Lech Poznań's defender - Bartosz Bosacki.

ha frodo is a pich (tramslation: dude in bulgarian). do u wached green street hooligans with the same frodo?

aveslacker schreef:FT Aus 1 - GRC 0.

Good reason to be optimistic going into the WC, although I wouldn't read too much into it.

That goalie needs to work on playing crosses, though.

It was a very solid game, esp in the first half. Guus had put the squad through a lot of tough training and I think it showed in parts of the second.

The team is playing some seriously solid football since Guusie took over, they are much more confident holding the ball and don’t tend to freak out as much in defense as they used to.

The Greek team were definitely below par which was a shame for all the Greek supporters that showed up, although they did seem to be in slightly better shape during some periods of the second. Not sure how much the pitch played a part. It was pretty bad, but it is generally an Aussie Rules field so that’s to be expected I guess.

Strong display from all the team, esp Culina yet again. He has really blossomed under Hiddink.

In regards to the keeper Kalac. He is actually the reserve at AC Milan and was previously at Roda JC. He is normally really strong, but is second in the Australian team behind Schwartzer and after this performance; I think he may stay second come June.

Overall though a strong display. I am happy. Next up Nederland. I think this will be a much, much stronger test.

acab schreef:

AsgAarD_xxx schreef:

acab schreef: i'm sorry, but amerikans dont understand really football.good lord, they call it soccer :aai:

Too many movies with Frodo, I think ;) .

ha frodo is a pich (tramslation: dude in bulgarian). do u wached green street hooligans with the same frodo?

That's what I was thinking of :D .