This is what I think will happen in SA2010
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From: Clément on 5 Mar 2010 06:04 On Mar 5, 2:11 am, Alkamista wrote: > > It's a cup, not a league. And it's not even two-legged in the > knockouts. Any one of 6-7 teams can win it. We've heard the same > invincible argument many times in the past, and not least in '06. The > only other times post-WWII that the 100% clear pre-tourney favorite > won it was in '70 and 74' (to be clear, I dont mean a bookie favorite, > I mean an overwhelming favorite). Was Brazil seen as such an overwhelming favorite in '70? At least domestically, there were a lot of doubts hanging over the team (which is ridiculous in hindsight, but true). Abraço, Luiz Mello
From: Jordi on 5 Mar 2010 06:11 On 5 mar, 06:11, Alkamista <alkami...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > It's a cup, not a league. And it's not even two-legged in the > knockouts. Any one of 6-7 teams can win it. So right. There are at least half a dozen teams that can pull a Greece '04.
From: MH on 5 Mar 2010 11:26 Alkamista wrote: > On Mar 4, 8:51 pm, Enzo <s_debgu...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > >>On Mar 4, 8:40 pm, Alkamista <alkami...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >> >>>It seems like RSS has weauxfed the living daylights out of Brazil and >>>Spain over the last few months, just like we had done with Argentina >>>and France in 2002 and Brazil and their Fab 5 in 2006. So I am almost >>>convinced that neither of these teams will reach the final, much less >>>win the cup. >>>Also, the "this may finally be Africa's cup" has gone overboard. >>>Therefore it is almost guaranteed that all their teams will implode, >>>with Eto'o and Drogba throwing some hissy fits against their coaches >>>and SA going out in the group phase with their coach and some >>>Scandanavian referee having to be placed under military protection. >>>Next England, who had already been weauxfed out a year ago by their >>>tabloids, as well as Jellore and Higgs. >>>Holland will never win the WC in their entire existence so that leaves >>>the usual boring suspects, i.e. Italy, Germany, France, and >>>Argentina. >>>To get to the semi's, Lippi will probably resort to catenaccio against >>>Brazil and Spain and eliminate both on penalties after 0-0 draws >>>(followed by Benny denouncing all allegations of catenaccio by saying >>>that we are biased and out of touch). Germany will probably get a key >>>goal every game from Klose and see out the rest of the game like >>>robots and advance. Freakshows Maradona and Domenech will probably >>>pull some unbelievable luck out of their behinds and advance to the >>>SFs (god save us from Bob then). >>>After that, it's a random crapshoot. I predict that either Italy or >>>Argentina will win the cup. >> >>Nothing of this sort will happen. The top teams are now even >>more isolated at the top than in recent world cups. Brasil has >>not lost a game in ages, Spain is close by. Since Spain will >>not win two major tournaments in succession, and since the >>only other outfit that can challenge Brasil ( England ) will probably >>fail a pk contest somewhere down the line, I think the conclusion >>is foregone. > > > It's a cup, not a league. And it's not even two-legged in the > knockouts. Any one of 6-7 teams can win it. We've heard the same > invincible argument many times in the past, and not least in '06. The > only other times post-WWII that the 100% clear pre-tourney favorite > won it was in '70 England were also quite heavily favoured IIRC (I was only 12 at the time), due to being reigning champs and actually having a better team than in 1966. But I think, yes, Brazil were probably pre-tournament favourites overall (though certainly not 100 %). I could be wrong. Italy were also highly regarded (defending Euro champs, both Milan and Inter had won recent European Cups) and 74' (to be clear, I dont mean a bookie favorite, > I mean an overwhelming favorite). W. Germany as reigning (and devastating) European champs and hosts were certainly favourites, I would say. However, a lot of people still expected great things from Brazil. I would be interested to hear what other's recollections of what their sense of who the favourites were in various years would be. It is so easy to be influenced after the fact by results. 1978 - I remember the Dutch and Germans being among the favourites pretournament (both in the final 4 of Euro 76; leagues and players doing well. Other than them Argentina and Brazil. I couldn't really rank them based on sentiment at the time. 1982 - Brazil probably hot favourites. Germany probably second favourites (won Euro 80 and had qualified handily, a strong squad). Argentina in the mix (champions plus Maradona added to team). France and Poland certainly not highly touted. 1986 - Brazil, France. Maybe Denmark in there as well ? 1990 - Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands - I am not sure if there was a clear pretournament favourite. 1994 - ??/ I remember hype surrounding Colombia, and of course Brazil. There were high expectations of Italy, Germany and NL too. 1998 - Brazil by a mile. They were champions, absolutely devastating at Copa America 1997, and had Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Denilson etc. etc. 2002 - Argentina and France probably in reverse order. 2006 - Brazil ? I would think so.
From: Benny on 5 Mar 2010 12:52 > Subject : This is what I think will happen in SA2010 > From : MH <nospam(a)ucalgary.ca> > 1990 - Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands - I am not sure if there > was a clear pretournament favourite. Italy and the Dutch. Italy bottled it. The Italy squad was off the charts. The Dutch imploded. -- http://soccer-europe.com Rss feed : http://soccer-europe.com/RSS/News.xml
From: JK on 5 Mar 2010 13:26
Benny wrote: > > Subject : This is what I think will happen in SA2010 > > From : MH <nospam(a)ucalgary.ca> > > > 1990 - Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands - I am not sure if there > > was a clear pretournament favourite. > > Italy and the Dutch. Italy bottled it. The Italy squad was off the > charts. The Dutch imploded. Italy did have a great team, but the fact that they they ended up being so reliant on Schillaci suggests that they never were really firing on all cylinders. But on defense they were tight, tight, tight. Baresi and Maldini at their peak. The Dutch played horribly all tournament until reduced to 10 men against Germany. Then they played great and still lost. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong opponent. I still feel that if they had been able to avoid Germany in the 2nd round (by winning a pretty winnable group in the first stage) they MIGHT have gone on to win the whole thing. Then again Beenhakker was their coach. |