Group F

[001]

Argentina, England, Sweden, Nigeria


oh it looks good, who do you guys think will go through.
Anyone think England can make it. I certainly do, and if they can avoid any other power house's they could probably go all the way.

Its also a very good thing for the other candidates like Italy, France, Brazil, Spain as two of these four strong sides will be chucked out.

I am delirious with excitement :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Garrincha]

IMO it will end:

1 Argentina
2 Nigeria
3 England
4 Sweden

Argentina will beat or draw their old customers, England. Nigeria probably gets a good result against them too. I believe England will go home early this time. Just my opinion of course.

[B@tigol]

another 'hand of God maybe'???:D
my opinion:
argentina
sweden
england
nigeria

[Pedro]

I am ALREADY tired of all this "group of death" talk.

Allow me to inject a much needed dose of reality. Unless the English team starts to play a very different, and MUCH better game, they are going to lose and lose big. They'll be lucky to get past the first stage. For god's sake, Argentina is more worried about Nigeria than they are about the English. I know English pluck and courage counts for a lot, but Argentina's pride is on the line as well, and they have a lot more firepower, (Batistuta, Crespo, Veron).

Don't get me wrong, I like England. I would absolutely love to see them eject Argentina, (especially so Portugal wouldn't have to face them ;) ), I'd rather see the English do better than say......the French or the Germans. But unless they improve over the way they're playing TODAY, all this talk of winning is just foolish. To read any of the English papers you'd think England's on the very verge of winning.

Sorry, to burst your bubble you blokes.

[ItalianBoy]

.......The Germans? If there is really somoene that wont pass the first stage or not likely is ZEE Germans! ENG to me plays pretty well until now. Lets see. To me ARG and ENG will pass. And yes Pedro I too am tired of listening to this DEATH group. Sure its the hardest but its not like they got ITA and FRA in it!

[Pedro]

I agree they probably won't pass, I mentioned them only as a group that I would not prefer over England. Anyway, what does Group of Death mean??? They're eliminating two teams just like everyone else. Didn't they mean, Group of the Super Rivals, or Falklands War cont'd., or something like that? I blame the media.

[Mato]

I guess wil have to teach our sons again.....jejeje. I know it's not like they teamed up FRA, ARG, and ITA together, but i bet nobody would be willing to trade either........:D.

By the way Garrincha, you should be really happy ;)

[001]

England are improving and when they play Argentina the whole method of how they go into that match will be totally different. Old Enemies, Like the Germans, look what happened to them.
Obviously i am not going to be a foll and say the England will beat Argentina 5-1 but dont underestimate England.

[Pedro]

I don't underestimate England. And a surprise is always possible.

But please, "England is improving" Where and Why? Because they beat the Germans? Ummm...allow me to point out that they were in even worse shape and are a shadow of their former selves. This preoccupation England has with beating Germany exists ONLY in England. Everywhere else it is a tired joke. England played Sweeden and tied. Man U. which has quite a few players who are on the national team has been doing terribly. Those facts are much more relevant than any hackneyed rivalry.

[B@tigol]

who ever say that this is the group of death, there's not a single word in this thread that ever meantion it, n' some of u said that u r sick of it, blah, blah r u guys confused????:rolleyes:

[Pedro]

You have NOT heard it referred to as the Group of Death? Holy mackerel, where've you been? Every newspaper, television show, web site - that's all they talk about. Lucky you.

[zeezee]

well my thought of the group will be with
1.Argentina
2.England
3.Sweden
4.Nigeria
i think that of course Argentina is the best team in this group but i like england and i would love if they win but i think that they will end up in second in the group and im not really sure about Sweden and Nigeria but that is how i think it will end up. but i cant wait to see Argentina vs. England now that is a game and i would not miss. its ganna be action-packed. (or it should be) i quess we'll just have to wait till May, its so far way.

[Garrincha]

Originally posted by Mato
By the way Garrincha, you should be really happy ;)

Well, of course, we got a favourable draw. The biggest difficulty IMO is that we'll face the hardest of our opponents, Turkey, on the first game - but it's good if you consider that we may have a convincing debut against a respectable team. I don't particularly like it when the opposing team is treated as a pushover, because in today's physical soccer a well-prepared and focused group of untalented thugs and jocks can defeat a group of stars who are on a bad day. As I said before, I prefer big opponents over weaklings.

I don't know if the rest of the people forgot the recent defeats to the likes of Honduras, but I haven't. The lack of focus when facing "smaller" teams is one of Brazil's biggest problems: Very talented players such as Denilson and Rivaldo appreciate doing skill demonstrations so much, they sometimes forget the game must be won first. Scolari has mentioned this in recent interviews: The need to make the players understand that if you want to perform great shows, make sure you've scored four goals over the opposition, and pay attention at what you're doing.

Most club teams usually get away with fielding one or even two "performer" types, playmakers fond of dribbling for the sake of exhibition and doing fancy stuff. Brazil sometimes fields half a dozen such self-sufficient "artistas" and that has frequently damaged our competitiveness. Many people in Brazil still believe that a team can be competitive and victorious even fielding six or seven "artists". But it's interesting to note that, if you analyze Brazil's four World-Cup-winning campaigns, in all of them we had a consistent defensive system. We've often taken superb generations of players to WCs, and lost due to our own lack of stability.

So yeah, I'm happy, but I'm concerned with an excessive optimism affecting the squad - even though I believe Scolari, who's a great motivator, is the perfect man for that job right now. If Brazil wants to win this particular World Cup, concentration will have to be an ingredient in our stability.

[Sebastian]

ARGENTINA will have some SWEET problems.....:silly:.....im living for the match ARGENTINA vs BRAZIL match........the biggest soccer event of all..
i hope that BRAZIL will lurn from his mistakes and win the PENTA his RECORD fifth title.........

[B@tigol]

Originally posted by Pedro
You have NOT heard it referred to as the Group of Death? Holy mackerel, where've you been? Every newspaper, television show, web site - that's all they talk about. Lucky you.

yeah, i heard it, but u said u r sick of it, we r not referring this group as the group of death, if u r so sick of this talk, maybe u should consider not to say anything, we dun wan any sick member here as we r always caring:silly:

[Pedro]

Batigol,
Ha ha, thanks for your concern.

Garrincha,

Excellent post man. I agreed with you right up to the part where you said Scolari is the man for the job.

I read a magazine article where he says he has no problem instructing his players to foul every opponent in the mid-field if that is what it takes to keep them from threatening. That is as clear an endorsement for thuggery as your likely to see from the coach of a major team. Can the attitude win some games? Yes. Is it good for the game? I say no.

I REALLY want to see Portugal do well, but not if they sacrifice the quality of play - which afterall is the reason to watch.

[Gunter]

1 ARG
2 SWE
3 NIG
4 ENG

I don't know why it is group of death.

Apart from Argentina

Nigeria are average at best since 1994 (Cameroon are the best team in Africa - Olympic and African Champs).
Sweden are nothing special. Qualified from really easy group. Very boring team.
Don't get me started on England. I've had too many arguments so far on them since I joined this forum.

[Roberto Abrego]

My Predictions:


Argentina
Sweden
England
Nigeria



Argentina:Simply the best of the group

Sweden:They come from a hard qualification group,they win at Ali Sami Yen against Turkey,very interesting team,They r olimpic champions


England:Well they have good players,they havent beat sweden since 1968 their first and only victory against them


Nigeria:they r not as bright as they were their Road to World Cup campain was not so bright they loose some matches like against to Sierra Leona 1-0 and against Liberia 2-1 they will be a disappointment

[Mate]

In 2000 everyone expected England and Germany to progress from their group A. At the end it was Portugal and Roamnia. I feel same kind of surprise will happen this time. Since Nigeria is not anymore what they used to be, my prediction is:

1. Argentina
2. Sweden
3. Nigeria
4. England