... and its a GOAAAAALLLLLLLLLL !!!
With less than 10 days left for the World Cup 2006 to start on the 9th of June, and with 32 teams comprising of 736 players all ready to launch themselves into the biggest tournament of their careers, it is definately going to be one hell of a blockbuster month of football all around.
After a huge struggle of three weeks to actually finish up writing all this, I have atlast succeeded in publishing this blog entry. I hope to be more regular atleast with the World Cup kicking off from the next week.
Group A : Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador.
Germany has Ballack [ the latest new entrant to the champion Englsih team .. Chelsea ] , Kahn [ though he is ageing now ... there is Lehmann waiting to replace him .. and you believe it or not .. Lehmann is 39 :)
Group B : England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden .
England is being counted as a strong contender to reach the finals. There seems to be a lot of hope on Lampard who missed out the World Cup last time, and is in great form with Chelsea right now. Beckham, though of late has been, very strangely in less limelight is the England captain with a lot of hopes shouldering on him. Hopefully, for him and for the fans, Rooney should get well soon and we should be able to see some really fast thrilling goals being scored by him. Ofcourse, they always have the, recently gone off-color Michael Owen, who could also fire this time, along with Gerrard, the Liverpool captain which won the FA cup this year, along with defence players like the coolest Ferdinand and Cole among others.
Group C : Argentina, Holland, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro
Called the group of death .. basically because there are 2 good teams in Argentina and Holland and 2 completely unknown teams who might cause some shocks. Argentina is one team that is being seen as a probable team to reach the semis with all the fresh players they have .. though they might lack some experience to play in big matches. They have players like Crespo, Messie and their striker Aimar. They also have a very good defense. Holland, for some reason have lost the touch that they had in the earlier decades and might want to regain that stature with the World cup now coming to europe. Neistelroy, the ManU forward [ or should i say former ManU forward ? ], makes his first world cup appearance and must be hungry for some success. He also has the Arsenal [ ? ] forward Persie to help him in the front. Sounds to be a real group of death with these teams really fighting it out for their place in the knock out stage.
Group D : Portugal, Mexico, Iran, Angola
A pretty easy group compared to the others. Portugal being the Euro 2002 champs, have the ageing Figo who would have to bare the burden of his team this year. Deco, is another player who is in good form and should prove handy. I am not very sure about the players in the other teams, but i guess Portugal and Mexico are definately the favourites in this group.
Group E : Italy, Czech Republic, USA, Ghana
This is another of those tight groups, which i personally feel is the group of death, since apart from Ghana [ who might be the underdogs this year ], all the other 3 teams are very good.Italy have Inzaghi and Totti along with some more fresh blood that should be a very good team to reach the knockout stage from this group. The Czechs have Nedved, Heinz and Drogba who have been performing good in the european league matches. These definately sound to be the second favourites to reach the next round, unless the lesser known Ghana, and the strong contenders USA show some startling brilliance that might make the games in this group even more interesting.
Group F : Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan
Its a bit tough to choose the second team that would reach the next round. Brazil, the favourites this time around, who i hope will not be complacent and produce some real good matches. More than half of the Brazilian squad is full of well known strikers, and thats where lies their weakness. With forwards as formiddable as Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldino [ more of a mid fielder ], Roberto Carlos [ this man has no fixed place in the team :) .. just keeps running all over the park ] and Cafu, it would be left to their goalkeeper and the defense to avoid giving away goals, so that goals scored by the forwards can be of advantage !!! Ronaldhino is one player whom i want to be getting the golden boot this year. Australia, as always like to consider themselves underdogs, and Scolari [ the former Brazilian coach ] being their current coach now, has given them that extra bit of confidence which they need to take advantage of and cross over the less experienced Japan and Crotia. I feel, the battle would mostly be between Croatia and Australia to fight it out to bag the second place from this group.
Group G : France, Switzerland, South Korea, Togo
France have a lot of promise, but i sometimes feel that they somehow do not gel well as a team. I hope some early good matches should fix this problem for them. I strongly believe that with players like Henry, Zidane [ slated to retire after this world cup ], and one of the best goalkeepers in the form of Barthez, with a good defense lineup of Patric Vierra and Cisse, France should be into the semis. I hope, Henry finds a good companion with him who can help him in the forward. While playing for Arsenal against Barcelona, in the finals of the UEFA Cup this year, Henry was found stranded many a times either in want of a partner or some pass not reaching him at the right time. Togo and South Korea and relatively new to the World Cup and i hope South Korea be the team that represents Asia in the knock out rounds. They have some good players and I have been hearing much good reports about them. Switzerland is another team that can cause some upsets here, and should have the upper hand for the second place in this team.
Group H : Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia
A bit tough to choose the teams that might land up in the knock out stage from this group. Spain is undoubtedly the most probable of the teams from this group. The one big name in this team is ofcourse the Real Madrid goal keeper Casillas. He is undoubtedly the best goalkeeper of this decade. He has made some really stunning saves for Real Madrid. I am not so sure about the other players, but this man is definately someone to watch out for. I am equally ignorant about the other three teams in this group. And I can only hope for Saudi Arabia to reach the knock out round and some credibility to the Asian presence there, though I guess Ukraine is a more strong contender.
For some live updates on the matches happening this year, here is a RSS [ XML ] link that you can use in your RSS reader and keep yourself updated.
FIFA 2006 Calendar
I have also found some nice calendars on the web which i have added to my Google Calendar to help me follow the matches :) As usual, an Excel sheet to keep track of the matches and scores is something already ready and eager to be filled with data in it now :)
Its time to say .... GGOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL !!!
After a huge struggle of three weeks to actually finish up writing all this, I have atlast succeeded in publishing this blog entry. I hope to be more regular atleast with the World Cup kicking off from the next week.
Group A : Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador.
Germany has Ballack [ the latest new entrant to the champion Englsih team .. Chelsea ] , Kahn [ though he is ageing now ... there is Lehmann waiting to replace him .. and you believe it or not .. Lehmann is 39 :)
Group B : England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden .
England is being counted as a strong contender to reach the finals. There seems to be a lot of hope on Lampard who missed out the World Cup last time, and is in great form with Chelsea right now. Beckham, though of late has been, very strangely in less limelight is the England captain with a lot of hopes shouldering on him. Hopefully, for him and for the fans, Rooney should get well soon and we should be able to see some really fast thrilling goals being scored by him. Ofcourse, they always have the, recently gone off-color Michael Owen, who could also fire this time, along with Gerrard, the Liverpool captain which won the FA cup this year, along with defence players like the coolest Ferdinand and Cole among others.
Group C : Argentina, Holland, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro
Called the group of death .. basically because there are 2 good teams in Argentina and Holland and 2 completely unknown teams who might cause some shocks. Argentina is one team that is being seen as a probable team to reach the semis with all the fresh players they have .. though they might lack some experience to play in big matches. They have players like Crespo, Messie and their striker Aimar. They also have a very good defense. Holland, for some reason have lost the touch that they had in the earlier decades and might want to regain that stature with the World cup now coming to europe. Neistelroy, the ManU forward [ or should i say former ManU forward ? ], makes his first world cup appearance and must be hungry for some success. He also has the Arsenal [ ? ] forward Persie to help him in the front. Sounds to be a real group of death with these teams really fighting it out for their place in the knock out stage.
Group D : Portugal, Mexico, Iran, Angola
A pretty easy group compared to the others. Portugal being the Euro 2002 champs, have the ageing Figo who would have to bare the burden of his team this year. Deco, is another player who is in good form and should prove handy. I am not very sure about the players in the other teams, but i guess Portugal and Mexico are definately the favourites in this group.
Group E : Italy, Czech Republic, USA, Ghana
This is another of those tight groups, which i personally feel is the group of death, since apart from Ghana [ who might be the underdogs this year ], all the other 3 teams are very good.Italy have Inzaghi and Totti along with some more fresh blood that should be a very good team to reach the knockout stage from this group. The Czechs have Nedved, Heinz and Drogba who have been performing good in the european league matches. These definately sound to be the second favourites to reach the next round, unless the lesser known Ghana, and the strong contenders USA show some startling brilliance that might make the games in this group even more interesting.
Group F : Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan
Its a bit tough to choose the second team that would reach the next round. Brazil, the favourites this time around, who i hope will not be complacent and produce some real good matches. More than half of the Brazilian squad is full of well known strikers, and thats where lies their weakness. With forwards as formiddable as Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldino [ more of a mid fielder ], Roberto Carlos [ this man has no fixed place in the team :) .. just keeps running all over the park ] and Cafu, it would be left to their goalkeeper and the defense to avoid giving away goals, so that goals scored by the forwards can be of advantage !!! Ronaldhino is one player whom i want to be getting the golden boot this year. Australia, as always like to consider themselves underdogs, and Scolari [ the former Brazilian coach ] being their current coach now, has given them that extra bit of confidence which they need to take advantage of and cross over the less experienced Japan and Crotia. I feel, the battle would mostly be between Croatia and Australia to fight it out to bag the second place from this group.
Group G : France, Switzerland, South Korea, Togo
France have a lot of promise, but i sometimes feel that they somehow do not gel well as a team. I hope some early good matches should fix this problem for them. I strongly believe that with players like Henry, Zidane [ slated to retire after this world cup ], and one of the best goalkeepers in the form of Barthez, with a good defense lineup of Patric Vierra and Cisse, France should be into the semis. I hope, Henry finds a good companion with him who can help him in the forward. While playing for Arsenal against Barcelona, in the finals of the UEFA Cup this year, Henry was found stranded many a times either in want of a partner or some pass not reaching him at the right time. Togo and South Korea and relatively new to the World Cup and i hope South Korea be the team that represents Asia in the knock out rounds. They have some good players and I have been hearing much good reports about them. Switzerland is another team that can cause some upsets here, and should have the upper hand for the second place in this team.
Group H : Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia
A bit tough to choose the teams that might land up in the knock out stage from this group. Spain is undoubtedly the most probable of the teams from this group. The one big name in this team is ofcourse the Real Madrid goal keeper Casillas. He is undoubtedly the best goalkeeper of this decade. He has made some really stunning saves for Real Madrid. I am not so sure about the other players, but this man is definately someone to watch out for. I am equally ignorant about the other three teams in this group. And I can only hope for Saudi Arabia to reach the knock out round and some credibility to the Asian presence there, though I guess Ukraine is a more strong contender.
For some live updates on the matches happening this year, here is a RSS [ XML ] link that you can use in your RSS reader and keep yourself updated.
FIFA 2006 Calendar
I have also found some nice calendars on the web which i have added to my Google Calendar to help me follow the matches :) As usual, an Excel sheet to keep track of the matches and scores is something already ready and eager to be filled with data in it now :)
Its time to say .... GGOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL !!!
very well written informative blog.
ReplyDeleteThis has certainly created more interest in me to keep track of the results :)
Yeah..i agree..very well written and i agree with most points...except one :P... i think drogba plays for ivory coast :)
ReplyDelete