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Italy, Ghana, United States of America, Czech Republic
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| Eddie N MIAMI |
I thought we should make a thread for each group, so I told some of the other usual sports forum guys to pick their fave group and they agreed.Heres mine for obvious reasons, being an American-Colombian I'm def. rooting for USA to make it out of this tough group.
I'll also be rooting for Italy in the cup, they have one of if not the strongest team.
Czech Republic comes with some high expecatations after their Euro Cup performance, but some people question that they have gotten older and the players are not performing as good anymore.
Ghana has alot of talent so you cant really count them out to make a suprise maybe.
so yeah...Group E.....LETS GET IT ON!
ITALY
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Angelo Peruzzi (Lazio), Marco Amelia (Livorno)
Defenders: Massimo Oddo (Lazio), Cristian Zaccardo (Palermo), Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan), Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus), Fabio Grosso (Palermo)
Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan), Simone Perrotta (Roma), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Simone Barone (Palermo), Francesco Totti (Roma)
Forwards: Luca Toni (Fiorentina), Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan), Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese)
Ghana
Goalkeepers: Sammy Adjei (Mohadon Sports Ashdod/ISR)), Richard Kingston (BB Ankaraspor/TUR), George Owu (AshantiGold)
Defenders: Addoquaye Pappoe (Ashdod Tel-Aviv/ISR), John Painstil (Hapoel Tel Aviv/ISR), John Mensah (Rennes/FRA), Issa Ahmed (Randers/DEN), Sammy Osei Kuffuor (AS Roma/ITA), Hans Adu Sarpei (Vfl Wolfsburg/GER), Dan Quaye (Hearts of Oak), Habib Mohammed (King Faisal), Shilla Illiasu (Asante Kotoko)
Midfielders: Stephen Appiah (Fenerbahce/TUR), Michael Essien (Chelsea/ENG), Sulley Ali Muntari (Udinese/ITA), Haminu Dramani (Red Star Belgrade/SEM), Eric Addo (PSV Eindhoven/NED) Derek Boateng (AIK Solna/SWE), Otto Addo (FSV Mainz 05/GER)
Forwards: Asamoah Gyan (Modena/ITA), Matthew Amoah (Borussia Dortmund/GER), Razak Pimpong (FC Copenhagen/DEN), Alex Tachie-Mensah (St. Gallen/SUI)
USA
Goalkeepers: Kasey Keller (Monchengladbach/GER), Tim Howard (Manchester United/ENG), Marcus Hahnemann (Reading/ENG)
Defenders: Steve Cherundolo (Hanover/GER), Eddie Lewis (Leeds/ENG), Eddie Pope (Real Salt Lake), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege/BEL), Cory Gibbs (Den Haag/NED), Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham/ENG), Chris Albright (Los Angeles Galaxy), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City)
Midfielders: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven/NED), Clint Dempsey (New England), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado), Claudio Reyna (Manchester City/ENG), Bobby Convey (Reading/ENG), John O'Brien (Chivas USA), Ben Olsen (DC United)
Forwards: Brian McBride (Fulham/ENG), Josh Wolff (Kansas City), Eddie Johnson (Kansas City), Brian Ching (Houston)
Czech. Republic
Goalkeepers: Petr Cech (Chelsea/ENG), Jaromir Blazek (Sparta Prague), Antonin Kinsky (Ramenskoye/RUS)
Defenders: Zdenek Grygera (Ajax/NED), Marek Jankulovski (AC Milan/ITA), Martin Jiranek (Spartak Moscow/RUS), Pavel Mares (St. Petersburg/RUS), Radoslav Kovac (Spartak Moscow/RUS), David Rozehnal (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA), Tomas Ujfalusi (Fiorentina/ITA)
Midfielders: Tomas Galasek (Ajax Amsterdam/NED), David Jarolim (Hamburg/GER), Pavel Nedved (Juventus/ITA), Karel Poborsky (Ceske Budejovice), Jan Polak (Nuremberg/GER), Jaroslav Plasil (Monaco/FRA), Tomas Rosicky (Dortmund/GER), Vladimir Smicer (Bordeaux/FRA)
Forwards: Milan Baros (Aston Villa/ENG), Marek Heinz (Galatasaray/TUR), Jan Koller (Dortmund/GER), Vratislav Lokvenc (Salzbourg/AUT), Jiri Stajner (Hanover/GER)
Fixtures
June 12 - Hanover
Italy vs Ghana
June 12 - Gelsenkirchen
USA vs Czech. Rep.
June 17 - Kaiserslautern
Italy vs USA
June 17 - Cologne
Czech. Rep. vs Ghana
June 22 - Hamburg
Czech. Rep. vs Italy
June 22 - Nuremberg
Ghana vs USA |
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| InterMilan31 |
| we all know who is winning the group (ITALIA!) and finishing last (AMERICA!) :haha: :stongue: |
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| pipe0007 |
| quote: | Originally posted by InterMilan31
we all know who is winning the group (ITALIA!) |
Czech. Republic
:stongue: :stongue: :stongue: |
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| paranoik0 |
You all got it wrong, this is the end result of the group:
1. Ghana
2. Italy
3. USA
4. Czech Rep (unfortunately, i like them!)
Mark my words.
Or maybe i should have been declared clinically insane already. |
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| zoric |
Ghana could do well if they've got both Appiah and Essien fit. They're essential for that team and I know Ratomir could do well with this team.
They were unlucky in the ACN when they got Essien injured and then later on Appiah.
Italy should go through if they're planning on going through to the final.
Czech's could also do well, they had a tough time qualifying to the World Cup, But they made it and they're ready now.
USA, I hope they lose to everyone. |
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| luisjb82 |
Italy to win the group... one of the most solid squads if not the most solid squad in the WC, very well balanced and has it all to win it.
I pick Ghana as my dark horses and shocks everyone by taking 2nd place in this group. |
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| LuNaSeA |
| quote: | Originally posted by paranoik0
You all got it wrong, this is the end result of the group:
1. Ghana
2. Italy
3. USA
4. Czech Rep (unfortunately, i like them!)
Mark my words.
Or maybe i should have been declared clinically insane already. |
what makes you so confident? what's ur research? provide evidence, i command you! |
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| InterMilan31 |
| quote: | Originally posted by LuNaSeA
what makes you so confident? what's ur research? provide evidence, i command you! |
:wtf:sis you lost? |
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| paranoik0 |
| quote: | Originally posted by LuNaSeA
what makes you so confident? what's ur research? provide evidence, i command you! |
Czechs haven't been any good in world cups since the 1940s and did fairly crap at qualifying this time
USA aren't good enough for going through
Italy always underperforms on the group stage and always need luck to qualify
Ghana could be underestimated, have the potential to surprise
simple scientific research :p |
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| InterMilan31 |
| quote: | Originally posted by paranoik0
Czechs haven't been any good in world cups since the 1940s and did fairly crap at qualifying this time
USA aren't good enough for going through
Italy always underperforms on the group stage and always need luck to qualify
Ghana could be underestimated, have the potential to surprise
simple scientific research :p |
This is by far the hardest group to predict
Italy does underperform and the scandal can be bad or good for the national team (good in my oppinon as most media focus is on that and not the national team which makes them underperform which is only recently)
Czechs I just dont like thier squad except for GK and some of the midfield
USA are unpredictable on paper they look e but they did in 2002 too
Ghana is the wild card their mid-field gets going than watch out
my perdiction:
Italy
Czech
Ghana
USA |
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| zoric |
Ghana is playing their first World Cup in 44 years. This could be something that could help them a lot because there shouldn't be any pressure on them in this group.
Their bad performance in the African Cup of Nations was mainly because Essien got "injured" just before the cup. When Ghana was knocked out, Essien "came back" and played with Chelsea again. This is something that Chelski probably did on purpose, so the player wouldn't leave them in the middle of the Premiership.
Anyways, I saw all of Ghana's games and you could really see who the leader was when they were playing without Essien, Stephen Appiah is essential to their team.
If they get this working, him and Essien.
They've got AS Roma-defender Samuel Kuffour as their keyplayer in the defence. He's the one who steers their defensive part, and if he can play well, then the rest can, I am pretty sure.
Ghana's got a rather succesfull coach in serbian Ratomir Dujkovic who's been around in Venezuela, Rwanda, Myanmar (Former Burma) and he's also played for former Yugoslavia, as goalkeeper. He knows his , and I'm sure he can get this team going. |
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| chesco |
I think this is a hard group to call, Italy are notorious slow starters in international tournaments, but after the disgrace of euro 2004, surely they wouldn't be so stupid to underestimate teams in this competition. Would they? They have, on paper, the best squad by far in this group, it all depends how paper translates to the park.
ghana for me are the best african team in the world cup, they have players with big game experience who can help the less experienced.
Czech's are not playing as well as they were a few years ago, but are still italy's main threat.
USA I think will finish last, they have had a shambolic run up to the world cup so far, this may work in their favour with teams underestimating them, but I doubt it. |
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