quote:

Originally posted by FCB_Fanatic On a sidenote: their last mach against Brazil ended in a 3-1 win for argentina (in Argentina) and if I'm not mistaken that was the last match brazil lost

Actually, no. Their last match was June 29th last year at the confederations cup final in Germany. Brazil won 4-1. Brazil completly run circles around them. But yah, I agree with you, Argentina is one of the few teams who may have a chance against Brazil.

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[alk]

let's go england

vamos argentina

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"A style that's impossible to define. Prog? Hardly. Tech house? Not boring enough. It's like trippy twisted acid house but deep and funky. See, I told you - impossible."

quote:

Originally posted by fastmp3 let's go england vamos argentina

isn't that a bit like supporting barcelona and real madrid at the same time

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sempre contra a corrente do jogo

not really it's true they hate each other

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"A style that's impossible to define. Prog? Hardly. Tech house? Not boring enough. It's like trippy twisted acid house but deep and funky. See, I told you - impossible."

quote:

Originally posted by fastmp3 not really it's true they hate each other

maradona prolly has something to do with that

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quote:

Originally posted by eieregooie Well, if were gonna look at history... How often does the hosting team win?

only found this "brilliant" comment now.. you can't be serious.

little quick research from a magazine i have right here. it's a list of the performance by the hosts from each world cup:

1930 - CHAMPIONS
1934 - CHAMPIONS
1938 - Quarter-finals
1950 - Finalists (2nd place)
1954 - Quarter-finals
1958 - Finalists
1962 - 3rd place
1966 - CHAMPIONS
1970 - Quarter-finals
1974 - CHAMPIONS
1978 - CHAMPIONS
1982 - 2nd group stage
1986 - Quarter-finals
1990 - 3rd place
1994 - Last 16
1998 - CHAMPIONS
2002 - 4th place / Last 16

I can only reach the conclusion that being the hosts is a huge motherfucking advantage. Some of these teams were crap, yet none were ever knocked out in the first round.

6 champions out of 17 might not seem much, but i'm pretty sure almost all of them would never win those cups if it wasn't for home advantage.

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sempre contra a corrente do jogo

I dunno man, last 16 (50% of all teams in) or quarter finals (25% of all teams in) doesn't seem very impressive to me... So there's 6 out of 17, of which one in recent history...

That's nowhere near a good reason to say Germany is gonna make it this year. I'll admit, teams might be more motivated when playing at home, but if you don't have it in you you're just not gonna make it.

quote:

Originally posted by eieregooie I dunno man, last 16 (50% of all teams in) or quarter finals (25% of all teams in) doesn't seem very impressive to me... So there's 6 out of 17, of which one in recent history...

6 world titles is more titles than the nation with more of them (Brazil, 5). Now if you consider some of these events were located at nations that never acheived anything (i'm naming Switzerland, Chile, Mexico (who hosted it twice), United States and Korea/Japan), and remove those years from the list, you get this:

1930 - CHAMPIONS
1934 - CHAMPIONS
1938 - Quarter-finals
1950 - Finalists (2nd place)
1958 - Finalists
1966 - CHAMPIONS
1974 - CHAMPIONS
1978 - CHAMPIONS
1982 - 2nd group stage
1990 - 3rd place
1998 - CHAMPIONS

That's 6 titles in 11, plus 2 final presences, and a 3rd place. If that's not impressive I don't know what it is.

quote:

That's nowhere near a good reason to say Germany is gonna make it this year.

Home advantage is a good reason, but not the only one. Add it to these factors:

1. Germany aren't the best team in the world right now but can be considered above average given all the 32 participants.
2. They tend to perform very well at tournaments of this kind, even when they're considered crap (2002 as example).
3. They did exactly the same thing in 1974.
4. Their group stage opponents are piss poor.

Starting to look good, doesn't it?

quote:

I'll admit, teams might be more motivated when playing at home, but if you don't have it in you you're just not gonna make it.

It's motivation + having a huge stadium full of people pushing for you and against the opponents + the usual benefits from refereeing (that were really obvious in 2002).


Look, although I'm sympathising with Germany a little bit for this cup (i like several of their new players), I've always used to hate them! I think you can trust me for making a neutral avaliation. Plus I always liked Holland as my 2nd fav nation behind Portugal.

That being said, if Germany gets knocked out on the group stage, I'd be surprised but not shocked. I'm not completely sure of what are they capable of.

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sempre contra a corrente do jogo

lol, well this isnt some rival issue or anything... id pick argentina, italy, portugal or france over germany (and england for that matter) I'm just surprised by the outcome of this poll (except for the obvious Brazil)

but hey, we'll see

There are far more people from England than Portugal on those forums, the same goes with a couple of other teams.

guess who was the first hosting country that got knocked out in the groupstage ? ...

damn that was a EC, but you can still guess

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