Who's going to win the world cup ?
If you ask most people, the answer would be "Brazil". Of course, as long as Ronaldinho plays, they have every reason to believe that. Add to that, you have the ever present Ronaldo and the dangerous looking Adriano, they are always in the hunt for goals and more goals. Seriously, I dont think any team has a chance of stopping Brazil if they do not have any injuries. The only team that may have an outside chance of doing that are the hosts, Germany. Inspite of some indifferent form in the pre-world cup friendlies, I think Juergen Klinsmann has got his team combination right. It was a bold decision to replace Oliver Kahn with Jens Lehman in the goal, but was the correct decision too. They have a good mix of youth and experience. Players like Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinstieger have tremendous potential to come good.
All the hype and hoopla surrounding England is just because most of us follow the Premiership. It's not the toughest league in the world. The La Liga comes first, and then the Serie A. Just look at the major players in the Premiership, most of them are all non-English. England's best player currently is Frank Lampard, and with Wayne Rooney looking doubtful, only some magic from him and effective teamwork can take them to the knock-out stage.
Spain and Italy have been under-achieving in the recent few world cups, and this trend seems set to continue. As they say, Spanish clubs have enjoyed untold amounts of success, not so their national team. That is because, the Catalans don't like to call themselves Spanish. They have a separate flag, and a nationalist movement is going on. No wonder the Real Madrid-Barcelona game is given much more importance than an international.
There have been no real talent finds in Italy over the years. We seem to hear the same names doing the rounds. Just today I saw Luca Toni's name in their squad. Italy continue to rely on their back four to do the job for them, and they've got probably the best goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon with them. Italy's best chance to score goals is on the counter.
I would be keeping a close eye on two teams, who can be dangerous on their day, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Netherlands have got talented players like Robben, and the experienced ones like the great Ruud Van Nistelrooy. It will be interesting to see how Ruud performs, since he's been relegated to the bench by Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. The Czechs can be too hot to handle on their day. Much of their success will depend on Milan Baros' goalscoring and also Tomas Rosicky's willingness to be playmaker.
France, this time around will be depending a lot on one man, Thierry Henry. It is his chance to make the world cup his own. Their coach, Domenech made a big mistake by leaving out Robert Pires. You don't just ignore players of such high class as Pires.
The dark horses for this tournament will be Ukraine. They're in red-hot form right now, blowing away opposition by sheer number of goals. They were the first to qualify for the world cup. They qualified from the toughest possible group, having Greece (Euro 2004 champion), Turkey (Third in WC 2002), and Denmark. They can make a giant-killing run at WC 2006, like Turkey did in South Korea/Japan four years ago.
I will also be keeping a close eye on teams like Australia, Japan and South Korea. They have the ability to make some noise in this tournament. All in all, it should be a wonderful spectacle of the beautiful game !
All the hype and hoopla surrounding England is just because most of us follow the Premiership. It's not the toughest league in the world. The La Liga comes first, and then the Serie A. Just look at the major players in the Premiership, most of them are all non-English. England's best player currently is Frank Lampard, and with Wayne Rooney looking doubtful, only some magic from him and effective teamwork can take them to the knock-out stage.
Spain and Italy have been under-achieving in the recent few world cups, and this trend seems set to continue. As they say, Spanish clubs have enjoyed untold amounts of success, not so their national team. That is because, the Catalans don't like to call themselves Spanish. They have a separate flag, and a nationalist movement is going on. No wonder the Real Madrid-Barcelona game is given much more importance than an international.
There have been no real talent finds in Italy over the years. We seem to hear the same names doing the rounds. Just today I saw Luca Toni's name in their squad. Italy continue to rely on their back four to do the job for them, and they've got probably the best goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon with them. Italy's best chance to score goals is on the counter.
I would be keeping a close eye on two teams, who can be dangerous on their day, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Netherlands have got talented players like Robben, and the experienced ones like the great Ruud Van Nistelrooy. It will be interesting to see how Ruud performs, since he's been relegated to the bench by Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. The Czechs can be too hot to handle on their day. Much of their success will depend on Milan Baros' goalscoring and also Tomas Rosicky's willingness to be playmaker.
France, this time around will be depending a lot on one man, Thierry Henry. It is his chance to make the world cup his own. Their coach, Domenech made a big mistake by leaving out Robert Pires. You don't just ignore players of such high class as Pires.
The dark horses for this tournament will be Ukraine. They're in red-hot form right now, blowing away opposition by sheer number of goals. They were the first to qualify for the world cup. They qualified from the toughest possible group, having Greece (Euro 2004 champion), Turkey (Third in WC 2002), and Denmark. They can make a giant-killing run at WC 2006, like Turkey did in South Korea/Japan four years ago.
I will also be keeping a close eye on teams like Australia, Japan and South Korea. They have the ability to make some noise in this tournament. All in all, it should be a wonderful spectacle of the beautiful game !
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