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Germany vs Argentina
-This should be an awesome match, I am definitely going to make sure to watch it. Argentina's 2nd goal in their game vs Mexico is the goal of the tournament so far. I think it's a real tossup who'll win this one. I am actually going to root for Argentina this one, as if Germany loses, it increases the change that they'll fire Klinsmann, which means the US could hire him. heh.

Italy vs Ukraine
-Ukraine is going to get wafflestomped.

England vs Portugal
-I think England wins this one, but I would not be in the least surprised if Portugal wins, because England's offence has been AWOL for basicaly the entire tournament.

Brazil vs France
-France is going to get wafflestomped.


-Arlos

I honestly don’t see much in the way of doubt on this round. Germany, Italy, England and Brazil should win. They are just so much better then their opponents this round. England Portugal will probably be the closest game, but thats just because england has been getting by that way in every game. I just hope when they play Brazil, they play like they are capable of and really give them a game.

arlos wrote:Germany vs Argentina
-This should be an awesome match, I am definitely going to make sure to watch it. Argentina's 2nd goal in their game vs Mexico is the goal of the tournament so far. I think it's a real tossup who'll win this one. I am actually going to root for Argentina this one, as if Germany loses, it increases the change that they'll fire Klinsmann, which means the US could hire him. heh.

Italy vs Ukraine
-Ukraine is going to get wafflestomped.

England vs Portugal
-I think England wins this one, but I would not be in the least surprised if Portugal wins, because England's offence has been AWOL for basicaly the entire tournament.

Brazil vs France
-France is going to get wafflestomped.


-Arlos

I think it's going to come down to Germany vs. Brazil for the final world cup tournament game. Klinsmann just might get hired by the U.S. anyway. Heck, he married an American girl and they live in the Los Angeles area anyway. :P

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Germany did make it to the final match, but likewise it wouldn't surprise me if Germany lost to Argentina in their next match. Dunno if anyone else has seen their matches, but Argentina has looked REALLY good so far, easily one of the top teams of the tournament. Germany's looked good too, of course, which is why I think the result of the match is such a toss-up.

-Arlos

my picks: Argentina, England, Italy, and Brazil.

Portugal is going to have a tough time with England because of the red cards they got last game. Italy vs. Ukraine is the weakest game of this round.

Germany vs Argentina
- I see Germany winning this game. Argentina is good, that extra time goal during the match with MExico was superb! but Germans are like robots.. They are crazy this year!

Italy vs Ukraine
-No comment.

England vs Portugal
-Despite how much love i have for Portugal to win this one, due to C. Ronaldo's injury and the 2 red cards, England might win this one. Sigh I'm still praying to god for POrtugal to win ..

Brazil vs France
-France is going home!

When it comes to England Portugal, It really does suck for England. They would more then likely win against a 100% Portugal team, but now when they win there are going to be all those "They only won because of the injury and red cards". Anyway, for Portugal, sure the injury sucks, however at least 1 of those red cards was well deserved, and he didn't get it for drop kicking a player as he should have but got it a few minutes later. The other red card was only a red card because he already had a yellow card. You have to know its coming when your team fouls the other team and you pick up the ball and refuse to give it back. That is a cardable offence and is called more often them people think, doing it when you already have a yellow is just stupid. If anyone should be pissed on that, it should be his team with him. If he had no cards, that was the right thing to do, take the yellow and delay the game to setup, but don’t take a red for it.

The Chinese really love the World Cup. From Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Beijing soccer fan refused to let the small matter of his house burning down disturb his enjoyment of Tuesday's World Cup match between France and Spain.

A fire broke out in a hutong in the center of the Chinese capital at 3am local time Wednesday -- kickoff time in Hanover -- and gutted the traditional courtyard dwelling, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported.

"When the neighbors shouted 'fire!', I took my little baby and ran out in my nightclothes," the man's wife told the paper.

"My husband paid no attention to the danger, just grabbed the television and put it under his arm.

"After getting out of the house, he then set about finding an electric socket to plug in and continue watching his game."

The anti-social timing of the matches broadcast from Germany, which is six hours behind China, has forced some Chinese fans to go to great lengths to follow the action.

One man quit his job in Beijing to return to his hometown Chongqing so he could watch the whole tournament uninterrupted.

State news agency Xinhua reported that the 23-year-old's boss at the IT company had offered him a pay rise, but he turned it down flat, saying the World Cup was more important than his job.

The Guangzhou Daily reported that local police were forced to release a thief arrested for stealing a mobile phone when the victim refused to press charges because he did not want to miss the start of a match.

Although there are also many female World Cup fans in China, one man in the southeastern city had to sign a contract with his wife agreeing to do all the housework during the month of the finals so he could watch the matches at night.

Another from Putian, Fujian province, took a less diplomatic approach, Xinhua reported.

When his cheers during the Argentina-Ivory Coast match woke his wife and she switched off the television, he locked her in their bedroom and settled back down to watch the game ignoring her loud protests.

Thats awsome stuff.

Soccer fans are hardcore, yo.

ermm i personally know a few ppl resign from work because of world cup.. to them, they earn more this month on gambling than thier 1 year earnings working. Also cuz they have a profession and need not worry being jobless..

Damn I hate to see games end in PK's but that was a great game. Wish they could just keep going in OT until a winner some times, no one really dominated the game. Gald to see Germany win though.

What happened to my perdiction post!?@ #
Oh well, here is my World Cup premonition:
Germay, Italy, England, France advance
Italy over Germany 1-0
France over Brazil 2-1
Italy over France 3-2

I don't think a team can flop their way to the championship.

Let see, I will go

GER (already through)
ITA over UKR - 3 - 0
BRA over FRA - 3 - 1
ENG over POR - 2 - 0

GER over ITA - 2 - 1
ENG over BRA - 1 - 0 (ENG is going to get hot and luck, I can feel it)

Losers Game
BRA over ITA - 2 - 0

Championship
ENG over GER - 1 - 0

Winner England. (I can dream cant I).

ITA owns UKR 3 -0. That wasn't even a decent game.

Arlos wrote:Italy vs Ukraine
-Ukraine is going to get wafflestomped.

Yep, I called it. heh

-Arlos

The semifinals are shaping up to be absolutely SPECTACULAR!

gidan wrote:Let see, I will go

GER (already through)
ITA over UKR - 3 - 0
BRA over FRA - 3 - 1
ENG over POR - 2 - 0

GER over ITA - 2 - 1
ENG over BRA - 1 - 0 (ENG is going to get hot and luck, I can feel it)

Losers Game
BRA over ITA - 2 - 0

Championship
ENG over GER - 1 - 0

Winner England. (I can dream cant I).

Germany vs. England will be an incredible game. I hope Germany wins though. :P

Portugal beat England in penalty kicks.

Well there goes my team. Still think England should have been awarded a penatly shot about 5 mins into the 2nd half of OT. Also have to question the red card to Rooney, should have been a card for sure, but straight to red was a bit rough especially since a penalty should have been called on portugal before the kick even happened. Oh well, maybe in 4 years England will get another shot.

Being as Portugal couldn't take out an England team who was playing a man down, as well as having to 2 best scoring players on the bench for over a full hour of play, they are going to have major problems with Brazil. I will say that their keeper kicked ass on those penalty shots.

Refs in soccer suck ass and they probably do it on purpose to rile up the crowd. No way you could miss some of the things they don't call

I actually thought that the red card on Rooney was the right call. I mean, he deliberately stomped on the guy's groin while he was down. With cleats, no less. Cup or not, that'd fucking hurt, and is completely uncalled for.

England never did play all that well this tournament, anyway. Not compared to Germany, Argentina, Brazil, etc. A couple of their wins were complete squeakers, and they never did have a truly convincing game against anyone. They've got to get a new coach for next cup for sure.

-Arlos

If the world cup officals had been calling intentional hits red card offenses all tournament, I would have been for the red hard. They just need to be more consistanct. Look at portugals last game, hell that offical was calling everything, and a portugal striker dropkicked a netherland defender and didn't even get a call on it. Play stopped or not, if that isn't worthy of a call (3 officals out there can call it, they even have nice headsets to talk to each other on) then what Rooney did was not a red card offense.

Either way, Eng wasn't playing well enough to take down Brazil or Germanny. With Beckham plagued by illness and injury, he just wouldn't have been able to have his full impact on the team that he needed to for them to win. Would have loved to see them get to the semis though.

France is looking really good, they really may pull off this upset.