I'm just going by what I've seen from Beckham, and so far I haven't seen anything to justify the money he makes. Is he a fantastic player? Yes -- all players at that level are. Is he elite? If you look at the lower crust, yes.

Poor Zev... He had to sit through his squad's draw to T&T. And with the Group Sweden is in that Draw is going to come up big because that was a game Sweden NEEDED to win in order to advance, they've only gone and made things harder for themselves.

The reason T&T are celebrating is because they know that they are now in good position to duel for second place. Sweden couldn't put them together while they were playing a man down and without their starting keeper. It's an inspirational win no matter how you look at it.

Even if it was only a draw

 

Ok, I'll be the first one to put up tips for today:

15:00 Serbia & Montenegro ? - ? Holland

I'd say draw. Yes, I'll be cheering for Serbia and all, but I don't think we have much chance of surviving this killer group.

18:00 Mexico ? - ? Iran

Mexico wins easily. They have a great team. Iran? I'm not sure they even have a national league.

21:00 Angola ? - ? Portugal

Portugal wins. Don't know anything about Angola, but Portugal seems strong enough to step over any anonymus.

 

That should be...interesting to say the lest. Angola used to be a colony of Portugal apparently and there's A LOT of bitterness there. Apparently the last time they played each other the match had to be abandoned or something like that.

 

For those of you having problems watching matches because their not being shown I believe the BBC are streaming matches live on their website. www.bbc.co.uk I'm not sure if you have to be from the UK or not, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a way around that

 

Well, Serbia sucked ass as expected, but I'm surprised how bad Holland played too. Roben was the one who pulled the through, without him, they'd be just as bad as we were.

 

I'm getting all of the matches on ESPN and ESPN2...I don't know what kinda service you have, but they are supposed to be broadcasting nationally.

I can't watch half of the matches, though...stupid baseball. :~~(

 

Serbia are fighting back. It may be 1 - 0 but it was a brilliant decision putting Korroman on, he's doing a lot of damage. I was expecting a lot more from Stankovic though, he plays (or played - haven't checked recently) for Inter.

Robben is fucking ripping apart the Serbia defence. He's playing a midfield role and saving Van Nistelrooy's embarrassment. Giving his recent form, I wouldn't have played Nistelrooy in the first place but meh. Van Persie and Heitinga have impressed me a lot too.

BTW, is the split up of Serbia and Montenegro going to influence the national team? No offence, but if so, I don't see Serbia or Montenegro qualifying for World Cup 2010 or even Euro 2008.

 

Well, Holland was a bit better, and that's exactly how much more goals they've managed to score than S&M. Still, both teams sucked. Koroman was good for a while, and Zigic was good substitute too (he's like 202cm tall), but the coach screwed up with that substitute, where he needlessly replaced Kezman, instead of fortifying the midfielders.

In Holland, Roben was fantastic, the rest were hardly notecable under his shadow (although not particulary bad either). In Sado&Mazo team, almost everyone more or less sucked, with only a few flashes of Djordjevic and Koroman. As for Stankovic, he never quite managed to repeat his performances from Calcio in the national team, so him dragging his ass around wasn't that much of a surprise for me.

All in all, stupid game for everyone but hardcore Dutch fans.

I think there are only 2 or 3 Montenegrians in this team, so you should see Serbia replace Sado&Mazo in the forseeable future (unless we finally manage to blow ourselves up ).

 

There's only one Montenegro player, I think, so I think they'll do fine and they played a good last ten minutes but Netherlands has a superb goalie; this group is tough as fuck too - so Netherlands was lucky to escape with the win, especially with those few big errors at the end there.

 

Robbens looked brilliantly, shame he doesn't do it every week for Chelski. I thought Serbia looked dangerous on the counter attack, but it was a very shaky dutch defence. I doubt they'll make the second round, they don't score many.

 

I only watched the second half and it didn't seem as if SM had the ability to score a goal. The flanks never reached anyone and passing the ball five meter in front of the goal ... NL had far more of the game, even though they didn't push towards a second goal as much as they could have.

 

Agree, they completely lost stamina in the last 20 minutes, the coach should make them run their arses off and try to improve condition for the next game(and as a punishment too).

Although it doesn't matter anyway, no one from this group stands a chance against Argentina. Holland will probably qualify for the second round with an easy win against the third-worlders, while SM and Ivory will claw eachother eyes out for the last shreds of dignity in the last round. Life sucks.

 

I've had this floating around on the computer for awhile. Thought I might as well post it here.

Fifa World Cup 2006 Schedule
​

Group A
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Germany
Poland

Group A Schedule
1700 BST 09/06/06 - Germany - Costa Rica
2000 BST 09/06/06 - Poland - Ecuador
2000 BST 14/06/06 - Germany - Poland
1400 BST 15/06/06 - Ecuador - Costa Rica
1500 BST 20/06/06 - Ecuador - Germany
1500 BST 20/06/06 - Costa Rica - Poland

Group B
England
Paraguay
Sweden
Trinidad and Tobago

Group B Schedule
1400 BST 10/06/06 - England - Paraguay
1700 BST 10/06/06 - Trinindad & Tobago - Sweden
1700 BST 15/06/06 - England - Trinidad & Tobago
2000 BST 15/06/06 - Sweden - Paraguay
2000 BST 20/06/06 - Paraguay - Trinidad & Tobago
2000 BST 20/06/06 - Sweden - England

Group C
Argentina
Holland
Ivory Coast
Serb & Mont

Group C Schedule
2000 BST 10/06/06 - Argentina - Ivory Coast
1400 BST 11/06/06 - Serb & Mont - Holland
1400 BST 16/06/06 - Argentina - Serb & Mont
1700 BST 16/06/06 - Holland - Ivory Coast
2000 BST 21/06/06 - Holland - Argentina
2000 BST 21/06/06 - Ivory Coast - Serb & Mont


Group D
Angola
Iran
Mexico
Portugal

Group D Schedule
1700 BST 11/06/06 - Mexico - Iran
2000 BST 11/06/06 - Angola - Portugal
2000 BST 16/06/06 - Mexico - Angola
1400 BST 17/06/06 - Portugal - Iran
1500 BST 21/06/06 - Portugal - Mexico
1500 BST 21/06/06 - Iran - Angola

Group E
Czech Republic
Ghana
Italy
USA

Group E Schedule
1700 BST 12/06/06 - USA - Czech Republic
2000 BST 12/06/06 - Italy - Ghana
2000 BST 17/06/06 - Italy - USA
1700 BST 17/06/06 - Czech Republic - Ghana
1500 BST 22/06/06 - Czech Republic - Italy
1500 BST 22/06/06 - Ghana - USA

Group F
Australia
Brazil
Croatia
Japan

Group F Schedule
1400 BST 12/06/06 - Australia - Japan
2000 BST 13/06/06 - Brazil - Croatia
1400 BST 18/06/06 - Japan - Croatia
1700 BST 18/06/06 - Brazil - Australia
2000 BST 22/06/06 - Japan - Brazil
2000 BST 22/06/06 - Croatia - Australia

Group G
France
South Korea
Switzerland
Togo

Group G Schedule
1400 BST 13/06/06 - South Korea - Togo
1700 BST 13/06/06 - France - Switzerland
2000 BST 18/06/06 - France - South Korea
1400 BST 19/06/06 - Togo - Switzerland
2000 BST 23/06/06 - Switzerland - South Korea
2000 BST 23/06/06 - Togo - France

Group H
Saudi Arabia
Spain
Tunisia
Ukraine

Group H Schedule
1400 BST 14/06/06 - Spain - Ukraine
1700 BST 14/06/06 - Tunisia - Saudi Arabia
1700 BST 19/06/06 - Saudi Arabia - Ukraine
2000 BST 19/06/06 - Spain - Tunisia
1500 BST 23/06/06 - Ukraine - Tunisia
1500 BST 23/06/06 - Saudi Arabia - Spain

Second Round
Match 1, 1600 BST 24/06/06 - Winner A - Runner-Up B
Match 2, 2000 BST 24/06/06 - Winner C - Runner-Up D
Match 3, 1600 BST 25/06/06 - Winner B - Runner-Up A
Match 4, 2000 BST 25/06/06 - Winner D - Runner-Up C
Match 5, 1600 BST 26/06/06 - Winner E - Runner-Up F
Match 6, 2000 BST 26/06/06 - Winner G - Runner-Up H
Match 7, 1600 BST 27/06/06 - Winner F - Runner-Up E
Match 8, 2000 BST 27/06/06 - Winner H - Runner-Up G

Quarter-Finals
Match A, 1600 BST 30/06/06 - Match 1 Winner - Match 2 Winner
Match B, 2000 BST 30/06/06 - Match 5 Winner - Match 6 Winner
Match C, 1600 BST 01/07/06 - Match 3 Winner - Match 4 Winner
Match D, 2000 BST 01/07/06 - Match 7 Winner - Match 8 Winner

Semi-Finals
Match I, 2000 BST 04/07/06 - Match A Winner - Match B Winner
Match II, 2000 BST 05/07/06 - Match C Winner - Match D Winner

Third Place
2000 BST 08/07/06 - Loser I - Loser II

Final
1900 BST 09/07/06 - Winner I - Winner II

 

Cool, I have the Metro pull-out guide up on the wall of course

 

It seems Iran can hold itself against Mexico. I think Iran is better in front of the goal and will probably be the ones to score the next goal. Though a draw is quite possible as well.

For this evening, I'd say Portugal wins, not easily, but surely.

 

If anyone is having trouble converting the BST times in my last post to your local time then I've listed the time zones below. BST/GMT = UTC

Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time UTC-10
Alaska Standard Time UTC-9
Pacific Standard Time (USA) UTC-8
Mountain Standard Time (USA) UTC-7
Central Standard Time (USA) UTC-6
Eastern Standard Time (USA) UTC-5
Atlantic Standard Time (USA) UTC-4
Newfoundland Standard Time UTC-3:30
Brasilia Time (Brazil) UTC-3Greenwich Mean Time/Western European Time UTC
Central European Time UTC+1
Eastern European Time, South African Standard Time UTC+2
Moscow Time UTC+3
Pakistan Standard Time UTC+5
Indian Standard Time UTC+5:30
Indonesian Western Standard Time UTC+7
Singapore Standard Time, Hong Kong Time, Australian Western Standard Time, Chinese Standard Time, Malaysian Standard Time, Philippine Standard Time UTC+8
Japan Standard Time, Korea Standard Time UTC+9
Australian Central Standard Time UTC+9:30
Australian Eastern Standard Time UTC+10
New Zealand Standard Time UTC+12


The Angola - Portugal match tonight should be interesting. I think the last match they played had to be abandoned. These are two countries that don't get on well at all. Angola used to be a colony of Portugal and I'm guessing they don't like it.

 

Well, Iran lost 3-1. It was all about Zinha and Bravo, mainly Bravo. Damn, in the last 20 minutes too. I'm suprised Daei didn't have a good game though, he's usually doing pretty good.

 

Iran did pretty well the first half, but then, the second half they went all lethargic.

It's probably because Iran hasn't really changed their team in 8-10 years.

Most everyone is in their thirties, with a couple late twenties and one 18 year old.

The players are getting old.

 

At least Daei is pretty old. Noticeable, too, as he couldn't really help his team.
€: Mexico got way better into the second half and the win was deserved.

Portugal 1-0 Angola is deserved and could be higher, but Angola did have some nice chances and have found into the game after twenty minutes.

 

Yeah, Angola surprised me in more ways than one. Not only had I expected a red card by now but after that first goal, I was definitely bracing myself for an 8 goal thriller ala Germany last time. Meh, life has its dissapointments.