# 2010 FIFA World Cup Thread



## tigerbob

Today it all starts to get a bit serious and the countdown (currently 188 days) truly begins.  For fans of The Beautiful Game, life basically stops for a little under a month once every 4 years.  It is the most watched sporting even in the world (well ahead of the Olympics).  In 2006, 300 million people watched the World Cup Draw, with the cumulative total for the tournament itself at well over 25 billion people, and with over 700 million watching the final itself.

Coverage of the draw for the 2010 World Cup Group Stage is on ESPN2 starting at noon today.  Of the 200+ countries that started playing in the Qualification Rounds well over a year ago, the 32 Qualifying Teams (with regions and current world ranking) are as follows.  Asterisks denote the number of World Cups each country has won.

*From Europe*
Spain (1)
Netherlands (3)
Italy**** (4)
Portugal (5)
Germany*** (6)
France* (7)
England* (9) 
Greece (12)
Switzerland (18)
Serbia (20)
Denmark (26)
Slovenia (33)
Slovakia (34)

*From Northern and Central America*
USA (14)
Mexico (15)
Honduras (38)

*From South America*
Brazil***** (2)
Argentina** (8)
Chile (17)
Uruguay** (19)
Paraguay (30)

*From Africa*
Cameroon (11)
Ivory Coast (16)
Nigeria (22)
Algeria (28)
Ghana (37)
South Africa (86)

*From Asia and Oceania*
Australia (21)
Japan (43)
South Korea (52)
New Zealand (77)
North Korea (84)

I'll update with details of the draw as they become available.  This world cup will be particularly interesting for 3 main reasons from my POV:

1.  This will be the 19th World Cup, but it's the first time the tournament has been played in Africa, and only the 3rd time it has been played outside Europe or Central/South America, the other 2 being the 1994 (USA) and 2002 (Japan and South Korea) tournaments.

2.  When playing outside their home continent, only one team has won the world cup - Brazil.  In fact, Brazil has done it 3 times (Sweden in 1958, USA in 1994 and Japan / South Korea in 2002).

3.  When any nation wins the tournament 3 times, they get to keep the trophy.  This happened when Brazil won the original trophy (the Jules Rimet Trophy) outright in 1970.  After that, a new trophy (pictured below) was introduced.  Since the first tournament that the new trophy was used (1974), 4 teams have won the World Cup twice each:  Brazil (1994, 2002), Germany (1974, 1990), Italy (1982, 2006) and Argentina (1978, 1986 cheating bastards).  If any of those 4 teams wins in 2010, they keep the trophy.

FIFA.com - Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
FIFA World Cup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Toro

They should have stuck France in with all the also-rans.


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## tigerbob

Toro said:


> They should have stuck France in with all the also-rans.



The Hand of God II

Steve McManaman's one of the studio guests on ESPN2.  Nice to hear a scouse accent.


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## tigerbob

USA just got drawn in England's group!


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## manu1959

tigerbob said:


> USA just got drawn in England's group!



that could work for the usa...

love the wolrd cup...i will be taking the entire month off..........


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## tigerbob

*Group A
*South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

*Group B
*Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
Greece

*Group C
*England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

*Group D
*Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

*Group E
*Netherlands
Denmark 
Japan
Cameroon

*Group F*
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

*Group G*
Brazil
North Korea
Ivory Coast
Portugal

*Group H*
Spain
Switzerland 
Honduras
Chile


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## tigerbob

England and USA will be expected to get through the group.  

First place in Group C then plays runner up in Group D, and vice versa.  Germany will likely win Group D.  The runner up will come from Australia, Serbia and Ghana.  Given the choice, I'd prefer to avoid Germany, so the USA / England game is critical.

All in all this is a really good draw for both the U.S. and England.


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## manu1959

tigerbob said:


> England and USA will be expected to get through the group.
> 
> First place in Group C then plays runner up in Group D, and vice versa.  Germany will likely win Group D.  The runner up will come from Australia, Serbia and Ghana.  Given the choice, I'd prefer to avoid Germany, so the USA / England game is critical.
> 
> All in all this is a really good draw for both the U.S. and England.



i see slovenia going through with england.....

group of death is G

argentina italy germany spain and holland have a cake walk...


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## xotoxi

Imagine how embarrassing it would have been for New Zealand not to have advanced out of the Oceania Round with their competition being Fiji, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, and American Samoa.


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## manu1959

xotoxi said:


> Imagine how embarrassing it would have been for New Zealand not to have advanced out of the Oceania Round with their competition being Fiji, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, and American Samoa.



they used to have australia in that group ....and nz would have to have a play off with a south american country....


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## tigerbob

xotoxi said:


> Imagine how embarrassing it would have been for New Zealand not to have advanced out of the Oceania Round with their competition being Fiji, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, and American Samoa.



Those Cook Island boys are pretty useful.


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## L.K.Eder

manu1959 said:


> tigerbob said:
> 
> 
> 
> England and USA will be expected to get through the group.
> 
> First place in Group C then plays runner up in Group D, and vice versa.  Germany will likely win Group D.  The runner up will come from Australia, Serbia and Ghana.  Given the choice, I'd prefer to avoid Germany, so the USA / England game is critical.
> 
> All in all this is a really good draw for both the U.S. and England.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> i see slovenia going through with england.....
> 
> group of death is G
> 
> argentina italy germany spain and holland have a cake walk...
Click to expand...


group G is cool. i will root for kim jong il's men. and of course drogba and co!

don't underestimate algeria! germany did that once and had to fight real ugly to stay in the world cup.


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## tigerbob

L.K.Eder said:


> manu1959 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> tigerbob said:
> 
> 
> 
> England and USA will be expected to get through the group.
> 
> First place in Group C then plays runner up in Group D, and vice versa.  Germany will likely win Group D.  The runner up will come from Australia, Serbia and Ghana.  Given the choice, I'd prefer to avoid Germany, so the USA / England game is critical.
> 
> All in all this is a really good draw for both the U.S. and England.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> i see slovenia going through with england.....
> 
> group of death is G
> 
> argentina italy germany spain and holland have a cake walk...
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> group G is cool. i will root for kim jong il's men. and of course drogba and co!
> 
> don't underestimate algeria! germany did that once and had to fight real ugly to stay in the world cup.
Click to expand...


Drogba???


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## L.K.Eder

tigerbob said:


> L.K.Eder said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> manu1959 said:
> 
> 
> 
> i see slovenia going through with england.....
> 
> group of death is G
> 
> argentina italy germany spain and holland have a cake walk...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> group G is cool. i will root for kim jong il's men. and of course drogba and co!
> 
> don't underestimate algeria! germany did that once and had to fight real ugly to stay in the world cup.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Drogba???
Click to expand...


lemme guess, chelski fan?


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## tigerbob

Actually that pic could really be me.  Same body type, I often wear black tee shirts and I think I own those boxers (well, not that actual pair).  Those are even my reading glasses.  Spooky.  I don't remember that bathroom, but I've had 'lost weekends'.


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## tigerbob

L.K.Eder said:


> tigerbob said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> L.K.Eder said:
> 
> 
> 
> group G is cool. i will root for kim jong il's men. and of course drogba and co!
> 
> don't underestimate algeria! germany did that once and had to fight real ugly to stay in the world cup.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Drogba???
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> lemme guess, chelski fan?
Click to expand...




Nope.






Aaaaahgh!  The picture changed!


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## L.K.Eder

tigerbob said:


> Actually that pic could really be me.  Same body type, I often wear black tee shirts and I think I own those boxers (well, not that actual pair).  Those are even my reading glasses.  Spooky.  I don't remember that bathroom, but I've had 'lost weekends'.



i hope you cannot find any similarities with this football fan (warning: schalke and gross)


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## tigerbob

L.K.Eder said:


> tigerbob said:
> 
> 
> 
> Actually that pic could really be me.  Same body type, I often wear black tee shirts and I think I own those boxers (well, not that actual pair).  Those are even my reading glasses.  Spooky.  I don't remember that bathroom, but I've had 'lost weekends'.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> i hope you cannot find any similarities with this football fan (warning: schalke and gross)
Click to expand...


Nope, but then sometimes not being a Liverpool fan must be tough.


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## tigerbob

Found another version..


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## L.K.Eder

tigerbob said:


> L.K.Eder said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> tigerbob said:
> 
> 
> 
> Actually that pic could really be me.  Same body type, I often wear black tee shirts and I think I own those boxers (well, not that actual pair).  Those are even my reading glasses.  Spooky.  I don't remember that bathroom, but I've had 'lost weekends'.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> i hope you cannot find any similarities with this football fan (warning: schalke and gross)
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Nope, but then sometimes not being a Liverpool fan must be tough.
Click to expand...


how are you taking the early exit from the CL?

i am not really following closely this season, and was surprised to see any english team fail, especially liverpool who annoy me the least.


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## tigerbob

L.K.Eder said:


> tigerbob said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> L.K.Eder said:
> 
> 
> 
> i hope you cannot find any similarities with this football fan (warning: schalke and gross)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nope, but then sometimes not being a Liverpool fan must be tough.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> how are you taking the early exit from the CL?
> 
> i am not really following closely this season, and was surprised to see any english team fail, especially liverpool who annoy me the least.
Click to expand...


All I can say is it's been a rough few weeks.


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## Toro

Advancing



tigerbob said:


> *Group A
> *South Africa
> Mexico
> Uruguay
> France
> 
> *Group B
> *Argentina
> Nigeria
> South Korea
> Greece
> 
> *Group C
> *England
> USA
> Algeria
> Slovenia
> 
> *Group D
> *Germany
> Australia
> Serbia
> Ghana
> 
> *Group E
> *Netherlands
> Denmark
> Japan
> Cameroon
> 
> *Group F*
> Italy
> Paraguay
> New Zealand
> Slovakia
> 
> *Group G*
> Brazil
> North Korea
> Ivory Coast
> Portugal
> 
> *Group H*
> Spain
> Switzerland
> Honduras
> Chile



Of course, there will be some major upsets and also-rans advancing, so this will be dead wrong.


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## tigerbob

Toro said:


> Advancing
> 
> 
> 
> tigerbob said:
> 
> 
> 
> *Group A
> *South Africa
> Mexico
> Uruguay
> France
> 
> *Group B
> *Argentina
> Nigeria
> South Korea
> Greece
> 
> *Group C
> *England
> USA
> Algeria
> Slovenia
> 
> *Group D
> *Germany
> Australia
> Serbia
> Ghana
> 
> *Group E
> *Netherlands
> Denmark
> Japan
> Cameroon
> 
> *Group F*
> Italy
> Paraguay
> New Zealand
> Slovakia
> 
> *Group G*
> Brazil
> North Korea
> Ivory Coast
> Portugal
> 
> *Group H*
> Spain
> Switzerland
> Honduras
> Chile
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Of course, there will be some major upsets and also-rans advancing, so this will be dead wrong.
Click to expand...


Agree with all but 2.  In Group B I think Nigeria are respected too highly - they're not that good.  And in Group A, I suspect we may continue to see France struggle.  (Wouldn't that be poetic?)  I think Uruguay look pretty good.


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