World Cup...Germany 2006

[bigt2k4]

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can you develop?
they've been to the final of the euro they're full of newcoming good players why wouldn't they considered one of the top nations ? if you're talkin about brazil i understand that but if you're talkin about UK , spain ,germany i think you're wrong

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Greece won Euro, would you consider them a top nation? I put Portugal on or near the top of the 2nd tier of teams behind teams like Holland, UK, Germany, Czechs, Italy, etc.

[Fallen Hero]

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can you develop?
they've been to the final of the euro they're full of newcoming good players why wouldn't they considered one of the top nations ? if you're talkin about brazil i understand that but if you're talkin about UK , spain ,germany i think you're wrong

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Greece won Euro, would you consider them a top nation? I put Portugal on or near the top of the 2nd tier of teams behind teams like Holland, UK, Germany, Czechs, Italy, etc.

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Portugal has improved since 2004 (a ton), so you're argument is completely void. Also, they're the best offense in all of the qualifying teams, sure they had a pretty easy group but so did plenty of other teams.

[andre006]

maybe behind italy but are equal to Czech & holland and above UK & Germany .I'm talkin about the players the coach and they're result in the couple years, they've work for nearly four years with scolari and have improved their system a lot since he took over.
Greece made a good euro and plaid ultra tight,as for the gam that was produced by portuguese during the euro, you can't say if you've followed it, that it was a fluke
they've had great success for years on international level with their under18 and juniors squad and it's starting to pay off like it paid off for the french in 1998 and the czech recently.
i think you underrated them

[KingNeo]

I did not read every response in this thread but let me say this:

The US team is an excellent team and very dangerous. We are capable of beating any team in the world.

I have the US and the Czech to advance from our group.

I will not be suprised to see our team go very deep this WC.

Also, it is guaranteed that we will win the WC in 2010. We have the best young talent in the world, in fact it isnt even close.

[Fallen Hero]

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I did not read every response in this thread but let me say this:

The US team is an excellent team and very dangerous. We are capable of beating any team in the world.

I have the US and the Czech to advance from our group.

I will not be suprised to see our team go very deep this WC.

Also, it is guaranteed that we will win the WC in 2010. We have the best young talent in the world, in fact it isnt even close.

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this is why I hope the US doesn't get even semi-decent at soker.
Your team sucks, great improvement in so little time, nice job, congrats, but they still suck.

[Fallen Hero]

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maybe behind italy but are equal to Czech & holland and above UK & Germany .I'm talkin about the players the coach and they're result in the couple years, they've work for nearly four years with scolari and have improved their system a lot since he took over.
Greece made a good euro and plaid ultra tight,as for the gam that was produced by portuguese during the euro, you can't say if you've followed it, that it was a fluke
they've had great success for years on international level with their under18 and juniors squad and it's starting to pay off like it paid off for the french in 1998 and the czech recently.
i think you underrated them

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I agree with this. Portugal has always been one of the best in the world in youth squads (they still are), it's paying off now.

[lozen]

Go Holland tough pool though. Watch out for the Chzecks, Czhecks,Czechs dammit you know who I mean [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[andre006]

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Also, it is guaranteed that we will win the WC in 2010. We have the best young talent in the world, in fact it isnt even close.

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between a young talent and a world cup there is "A gap"

[mosta]

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I agree with most of that except for two things:

a) England has one of the best midfields in the world, Lampard and Gerrard are unbelievable

b) Italy is fantastic, imho the most balanced team in the world.

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What's ever become of Michael Owen on the national front? Is there no hope of reviving the glory of his 1998 performace? (And where is he otherwise these days--benched by R. Madrid??)

[Iplayboard]

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you're right france don't belong in a list alongside korea and the usa.
they've proven it was no fluke by winning the euro(the toughest soccer competition) in holland 2 years after that


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Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with your Euro-centric views here. There is NO way in hell you can claim that Euro is tougher than the World Cup.

I understand the argument, in the World Cup you have teams like Trinidad and Tobago and Angola that would probably lose to the 40th best team in Europe.

But what does beating Angola in one game get you? Three points with no guarentee that you will make the second round.

More important than missing out on the easy teams in Euro, you also miss out on Brasil, the most dominant team in the history of international football, as well as Argentina, one of the most dominant teams in the history of international football. Last time I checked South America has won more combined World Cups than Europe.

Plus, there are no really good teams that are at Euro that aren't at the World Cup. Fourteen European teams make the World Cup, only two less than the number at Euro.

Besides if last World Cup is any indication (I'll concede that it was flukey that so many top European teams lost early) other continents are catching up. Korea defeated Portugal, Italy, and Spain. The United States also beat Portugal and Senegal bounced Sweden. To say these teams aren't capable of beating good European sides is simply untrue.

That being said, Euro does run a close second to the World Cup and I love watching it. To compare any other continental championship to Euro would be a joke.