Since the FIFA Football World Cup is possibly the biggest sport event in the world, I think a topic is in order.
It starts today, with Germany playing Costa Rica at 18:00 CET. (12 PM EST)

Some of the latest updates:


Djibril Cisse injured. Misses the world cup.



That has to be painful. And I don't mean just physically. He broke his leg in a very distubing way. I'd rather not watch those replay scenes any more. But just one day before the WC starts, he breaks his leg along with his career, and in a friendly match.


Swedish keeper Isaksson out of first game.



Again, another unlycky injury right before the WC starts.

First-choice goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson will miss Sweden's opening FIFA World Cup™ match against Trinidad and Tobago after suffering concussion in a training accident.

A shot from midfielder Kim Kallstrom hit Isaksson in the face during training on Wednesday. The impact knocked him over and he was concussed when he banged his head on the ground.

The Rennes keeper will be out of action for between three and five days, the spokesman said, meaning he would miss Saturday's Group B match with debutants Trinidad and Tobago.


Rooney recovering.



England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson told reporters on Thursday afternoon that Wayne Rooney is "injury-free" and now just needs to get match-fit before he can make his FIFA World Cup debut.
Eriksson stated that the final decision on when the 20-year-old can play at Germany 2006 will be "Rooney's and mine," although Manchester United said in a statement last night that according to the expert independent medical view, he would not be fit until the round of 16.

I am actually excited about this, I think I might watch a couple games. I mean this is true competition, and is on the same scale of the olympics for me. I probably will try and watch a couple of games.

go USA!!

Germany won their first match, totally deserved it. Although it wasn't a very good match, it was entertaining.
But if Germany keeps playing like this, I doubt they'll do much harm, but you never know whith those Germans, always dangerous especially in the last 15 minutes of the game.

Of course I am gonna support the Netherlands, we have some very good players and our qualification was superb. No losses, 2 draws and 3 goals against. We lost only one match with our current coatch and that wasn't a full powered dutch team.

We have a pretty good chance, I don't know how far we'll come, but we have our hopes.

The first match ended with 4 - 2. Germany were good at getting the ball on goal and deserved to win. Costa Rica were pretty weak on the opponents half of the grass.

And that last goal Germany had, god damn. Very hot.
Not a great game overall, but the offensive parts of the match were very enjoyable though.

I'm looking forward to Swedens match tomorrow. I haven't been interested in their team since 1994 though. They have the three "super swedes", or most importantly Larsson. And we all know he is God.
Sweden qualified with a 3 goal per match avarage, and are in a group against a team they haven't lost against since 1962, so they are not to be taken lightly.
I think they'll make it out of group play, but I doubt they'll go further than 8th finals or quarters. Not that they can't go further, I just see the usual super teams in the semi finals.

It would be fun to see some surprises though, like South Korea last time. I so wanted them to beat Brazil and win the whole thing. They played the best out of all teams, imo.

I missed the Germany game =(. But as for England, of course I hope that we will do well but personally I doubt it. Every year everyone gets 00ber excited about our team thinking we'll win, and yet our team never seems to change all that much. We lose, you would think our coach would take the hint and make more changes, really make our players work hard for their positions instead of them assuming they'll be granted a place just because they played the previous year. Our first game is tomorrow, I am quite eager to see our quality of play this year, what players we're using etc.

As for changes in England, your coach made some drastic changes for their latest friendly match, and was heavily questioned by the media for his odd lineup and positioning of the team. Yet they ended up winning 5-0 or something like that. So the crowd ended up cheering for him at the end of the game.

But I'm pretty sure England and Sweden will be the ones qualifying from their group. They're favorites above the other two, and things usually don't go south for England until after the group plays.

It will be interesting to see if Englan can break their "curse" against Sweden. They haven't won against them since 1962. And not just in tournaments, but any matches they've played.

I will watch the matches when my state is going to play.
I hope that they'll do good,because they havent been on a football world cup for many years.
And,maybe I'll watch some matches when Brasil is going to play.Brasilians know to be interesting

Hmm, your country has to play on sunday, against the Netherlands =).
I hope it'll be a good match, well on our side of course =P, we'll see what happens, but one thing is sure, we must win this.

I hate our poule, it is known as the poule of death, having Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro and the Netherlands as candidates and all 4 of them have some really good players.

Oh i didn't watch the friendly. I am glad he made some changes to our line-up though, even if it is unsuccessful, just at least try it imo =). But well, the score says it all thought doesn't it. 5-0 wow! At least that is a positive start for us, even if it was just a friendly.

Oh btw how awful for Cisse! Breaking his leg that is so terrible, and right before the World Cup =(

Though Netherlands usually have great luck against Serbia in championships. I think Argentina will go through (duh), and then it's between Serbia and Netherlands.
I used to have Serbia as one of my favorite teams before when they had Mihajlovic (does he still play? The amazing free-kick guy), but I don't know anything about their team now. I saw parts of their latest friendly match though, and I remembered why I used to like them so much. They still play very entertaining and technical football, so I'll be watching that game for sure.

I actually give Ivory Coast more chance then Serbia. Have you seen their players, they have a great team, Drogba, Kalou and Kalou, Koné, the Chelsea goalkeeper.

I haven't actually, so I wouldn't know about their chances. I'll have to watch them cloely next time.
I only know that Serbia still have Stankovic and Milosevic. They played impressively in the friendly match. And I don't remember them ever being knocked out in group play, so we'll see.

Lol, but I remember when the groups were arranged. Sweden were happy with the group they ended up in.
England were like, "Doh!!" They hate playing Sweden. Their fans are usually ruthless, and have Sweden as favorites over their own team.
So if they can manage to finally win against them, they'd be overcoming a great psychological disadvantage.

The Germany match was interesting with the goals, mostly the first and last German goals....excellent but their defence was bad.

I can't wait for the England match tomorrow, Paraguay won't be too easy however anything could happen. I'm also in the Tobago and Sweden match. lol Athrun i am also mostly interested in the England and Sweden match to see who the winners finaly be. I could see there's a score to settle to see who the winners are from the last world cup but we will see.

Also the second match today has begun so i might look at that.

I don't paticulaly like football... I've only ever watched one whole match in my life (This years FA Cup final)... It's ok if you watch it with a bunch of people, but I would get so darn bored if I was on my own.

I prefer American Football. I couldn't say say it's a better sport or not but it just seems to get me more excited and keep my attention.

I'm supposed to go and watch it tomorrow... but... I'm not sure yet... I'm in a really bad mood.

I'm pretty excited over this, I missed the first half of the game, but I saw the second and the last goal of the germans was very good.

Well, I'm routing for Portugal =p, it has a very decent team, one that can mach with any of those teams. Cristiano Ronaldo, Figo, Pauleta, Deco, all great players, but I think that Scolari could have done a better line up then the one he chose.

Anyway, I'll be checking the games out, but only the portugal ones will air over here, so i'll catch the highlights of the rest of the games ^^

Good luck to the other teams

Yeah I'm going tomorrow with some people. They're showing the game on a big screen in some bar, or tent or something. Not sure, but I know the atmosphere is a lot better in those places with more people around, since I went to see one like that before.
So I'm looking forward to it.

I'm always iffy about this - I'm not a very big fan of futbol, probably because I was never taken to many matches in person and it's kinda dull watching it on TV. Plus, my parents don't care for it either.

But I do watch on occassion - I usually root for Mexico or Brazil. I think I'll be rooting for Brazil this time - I just always found them more fun to watch.

I think I might try a little harder to catch some games between school and taking care of my sister's kids. xP Maybe I can brainwash them into liking it too?

"It's either this or cleaning the house, you little brats!" *cracks out whip*

I think they'll quickly learn to enjoy the sport, Cyo. =p

I used to cheer for Brasil before too,but since my country is playing now,I'll cheer for them.
I can't wait the match between Nederlands and Serbia. I wonder who is ging to win.And after the match,it is going to be fun discussing the game here on dreamers.

Well i can say yesterdays matchs was a good opener,

Germany 4 - 2 Costa Rica
Poland 0 - 2 Ecuador

Surprising i think but anyway and of course i am looking forward to todays matchs,

England vs Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden
Argentina vs Côte d'Ivoire.

Going to be an interesting day. (GO ENGLAND!)

Here in Belgium they broadcast every game on Belgian TV so we can see al the matches wasn't it that we have to study

But My top 3 personally is:

1. Brasil
2. Netherlands
3. Portugal

the Netherlands have a well balanced very good team with some superb goal getters so hopefully they win since Belgium isn't qualified.

WoOt! England won their first game, 1-0.

Paraguay scored an own goal in the first 3 minutes of the game, and their keeper was substituted due to injury in the first 6 minutes =o! Well, although we won which is of course a good thing, I am disappointed that the only goal scored wasn't ours. The first half from what I watched, we were really quite good. Constantly attacking and putting pressure on Paraguay. The second half was no where near as good, it was disappointing imo. They were pushed back by the other team, and defended most of the second half. But they didn't concede any goals and managed to retain their lead, which was good.

A fairly decent start to the competition for us =)

It was an own goal? Well thats really dissapointing... I hope England get a victory I can be proud of soon.

There is too much polotics and money in football, it is really crazy and I don't like that aspect much. It's not even the amount of Money in football that bothers me it's just how money-orientated it is.

I agree with Bubby on the England game. They played alright the first half, and then things slowed down. I was surprised that Englands offensive play was so weak though. Only one goal, and it was own goal. And they didn't have many goal chances after that. Mostly Gerrard shooting the ball out on the stands. But at the same time, Paraguay showed that they are a terrible team. They'll be among the last in this tournament.

Sweden just played and couldn't more than tie against Tobago. From a game point of view, it looked like Tobago had a guardian angel on their side to keep the zero for so long, even with only 10 players on the field. Their golie just wouldn't let a ball pass him. Ball possesion, shots on goal, corners were all very heavily on Swedens side. And probably the most noticable were the goal chances. It could have easily ended 5-0 or 6-0 but it didn't.
The Tobago fans were extatic, and the Swedish fans were disappointed.

But I'm giving props to Tobago for trying to play offensively (in theory) by changing in offensive players rather than defensive. Yet they were completely outplayed and rarely ever got up to do something offensive, so they played defensively all the time. But it wasn't by choice, they were forced back the whole time.

Not good for Sweden. Great result for Tobago.

I still can't believe none of those 10+ goal chances went in...
I'd like to say I'm disappointed in Sweden, but I can't complain at how many chances they created. Like Freddie said, some times they go in, some times they don't. However, they didn't make use of the opposite sides of the field as much as they should. And failing to win against Tobago is a failure on Sweden's part.
In spite of no goal, the most offensively playing team so far is Sweden. But they have to get some of them to count.

Seen the match Argentina vs. Ivory Coast, which was a very important match for the Netherlands.
My god, these teams are strong, I am impressed by Ivory Coast's team, they have some pretty good players and of course Drogba, Koné and the brothers Kalou.

The score was 2-1 in Argentina's advantage, I say that both of these teams will be tough for the Netherlands. Argentina and Ivory Coast played offensive the first half, but the second half Argentina was only defending and interrupting, nothing more. They still had some great chances and it should've been 3-1, but a goal got canceled.

So the Netherlands really have to win tomorrow, cause this is certainly the poul of death.
I am happy about the match Sweden vs. Trinidad & Tobago, mainly because the coach of T&T is a dutch coach and he did awesome getting that far with a country like that. So seeing him getting 1 point from Sweden impresses me. =)

Highlight of the England - Paraguay match.
Seriously, the brits as well as the swedes need to shape up. But, as Hiku said, the swedes did have more activity and play at their hands, even against England.

lol love that clip, looks like crouch getting knock-out by the ball. hehe

Yeah i was dissapointed by the England match overall but glad to take the win. I think the best game was the Sweden and Tobago match because each side was giving everything even the Swedish who were getting annoyed after not being able to score was not giving up. Those Tobagan Soccor warriors definatly got lucky or perhaps showed that they are capable to hold their own against any team. There was a few times when Sweden could of lost it but sadly not. Dang! lol

Well, I just watched the match Serbia & Montenegro vs. the Netherlands, as was expected this was a really tough match.
First of all, the weather was really hot (30C+) and also both teams are really strong.
The great defense of Serbia & Montenegro was giving the Netherlands little space and we didn't had a lot of chances.
The first half was in hands of the Netherlands, we scored the 0-1 (Robben 18') that was the only goal that happened.

The second half was totally in hands of Serbia & Montenegro, they played very offensive and very good and the dutch defense had a lot of trouble dealing with that. Luckily for us they didn't scored, but it was a very tough match and kudos to Serbia & Montenegro for fighting that hard.

Well, we won our first match, I am happy about the result, though I believe that they should work on their defense a little bit more, cause they took quite some risk.

I agree with Pes. The first half was in the hands of Netherlands, and an early goal usually provides the team with a sense of security. The second half definitely belonged to Serbia. They fought very hard until the very end, and it definitely showed. Holland's defense was in trouble, and a reduction goal looked like it was coming for a long time, but the game ended with 0-1.
I can't say one was better than the other. Both very strong teams. I can see why this is the group of death this year.

Oh,man! Serbia lost That Robben guy was strong.Oh,well
the match was pretty exciting,and if this was a "fall and roll on a grass" world cup,Serbia would be the winner .
It all seemed well in the first couple of minutes,but when Robben gave that goal,everything went downwards.
The main mistake of the Serbian doodes,was that they were defending for too long,and barely attacking in the first half time.They did better in the second half,but they really started attacking near the end of the game,but then it was too late.
I noticed that,when we were attacking,and the ball was near the goal,there were always two dutch players defending the ball,and only one serbian player kicking it.And always somebody fell down,or some dutch guy kicked avay the ball.
We had many chances for a goal,but the dutch goal defender was excellent at defending.
I once laughed very loud,when they showed the slow motion,when the guy threw himself at the ball,and he barely defended it.He made such interesting face expressions,that I was rollin from laughter.
I'm very frustrated that my country lost,but I hope they'll do better in the future.
But this wont be good,because we are going to play against Argentina,and we will be toasted
But we will see the outcome of all this.Congrats to Netherlands,they had good players and even better strategy.I bet they bodyes hurt,because the Serbians made them fell 100 times,especially the goal defender,and Robben

I bet that Pes is jumping from joy now

Well, not really jumping around, cause it was just the first match, but if we win the next one, we're going through the next round, so things look good. But we have Ivory Coast as our opponent, which is interesting, cause it is their first World Cup, but they have very strong players.

Robben definatly played a good match and it seems he is back again, he was missing his skills a bit before, but today everything seemed fine, he is going back to his old form.

I heard on our local TV station in the news,that these barely known countryes in football,like Trinidad and Tobago,Equador and Ivory coast,that they play a modern football,and are maybe better opponents than the countryes we know well about.This man who commented in the news said,that he saw Argentina playing a match some other day,and that they are not so strong as they seem.(I hope so )
But,anyway,we will see what will happen.Who knows what can these states like Ivory coast and similar countryes produce.

Hm,at the moment Portugal and Angola are playing.Portugal has 1 score for now.

Now it's probably Fanta,who is sitting in front of the TV

I have seen the match (I was sitting in front of the tv aswell), but dear god this match was kinda boring.
Portugal started explosive and after 11 seconds they could've scored, but missed. They scored an early goal, which was again the only goal in the game. Angola grew in the game and started playing better and better.

Portugal started screwing things up, still playing better then Angola, but playing really bad. This isn't the team that stood in the finals of the European Championship in 2004. They can do better, but they didn't and it ended up in a light 1-0 victory.

I hope they'll show some better football in the next two matches, cause this was kinda sad, not really playing football at all, more likely a chore to watch the game then enjoying.

Lol, you guessed it =p

But it was very dissapointing imo...

They only did some successful ofensive tactics, three or four. Yes, the first move was awsome, how Pauleta did that, and almost scored. A few minutes later, he does the same thing, but with help from Figo and scores.

This is where it looses it's charm.... Angola went on the offensive side and completelly erased Portugal the rest of the 1st half. In the second. Portugal was a little more offnsive but Angola was constantly attacking that they pull Portugal back and back.

Of course, there were some shots from either side that impressed me and both goalkeepers did a very nice job.

Do i see a trend here? Every team that wins, just, after the goal, starts to play really bad, or just can't handle the pressure, happend to England, Germeny, Netherlands, etc.

Yeah I was about to say that. It's been like this in many matches. And even if this tactic has worked so far, it hasn't been very entertaining to watch.

well, there were some diffirences.
England and Portugal were just lacking, they have the players to do better, yet they didn't.
Germany is a team of unexperienced players, also not the best players either, especially the defense lacks.
The Netherlands played at 30C with no wind whatsoever and both Serbia and Holland were broken near the end of the game.

Robben played for the whole team in that match. Seriously, he was making all the shots, running around the most, and I'd always hear his name being mentioned.

So was Figo, seriouslly, almost all offensive tacticsc started on him, he was the cornerstone for the attack of Portugal.

Yet Portugal wasn't playing at all. Figo played, Pauleta did, but quite some didn't.
I haven't seen the match Australia vs. Japan, cause I was working at the time. I will watch the replay tonight. I heard that Australia won by 3-1, which is good news for the coach (again a dutchy), I hope things will go aswell for him as this match.
He brought South Korea to the semi finals last WC, which was quite a surprise and I hope he can do something amazing with Australia aswell.

nooo, he's not coaching them this time? NUTS... I was interested in seeing how Korea would go compared to last World Cup. ^^

Sout Korea is coached by the 4th dutch coach, I wonder how he will do with South Korea. Yes there are 4 dutch coaches at this WC.

Anyway, just watched USA vs. Czech Republic. It was a very good match. USA is ranked way too high for their own sake, but that is because they keep playing those weak teams and gather points. This time they had to face the number 2 of the world and you could easily tell the diffirence.

CR outclassed USA, they fought and fought but weren't very threatening at all. Czech Republic is one of my favourites of all time, great players and a very strong team.
Players such as Rosìcky (one of my all time favourite players), Koller, Nedved, Galasek, Grygera and the goalie Cech (known as one of the best of the world), they are known for being really strong.

They have one of the best defenses and they are really good at positioning, good at countering. They deserved this win and showed again how powerful they are. USA wasn't much of a challenge, but if they'll do the same against Ghana and Italy, time will tell.

Rosìcky scored two amazing goals, just why I like him, I really wanna see more of him and I hope he'll do just as good or even better next game.

Rosicky was indeed playing great. I'll look forward to more matches from Czech Republic.
The Japan - Australia match was great too. Japan took the lead and held their 1-0 lead until only 6 minutes remained.
But then Australia exploaded and did 3 more goals! The game ended 1-3.
Awesome games.

Gah USA sucks.

My mum's work friends are voting Germany, she's voting USA, and i'm saying '##### that' and rooting for England.

Missed the first england game, glad I did too, cause I would have been pissed, England can do better.

Just watched Italy and Ghana, was an ok match, Italy won 2:0.

Italy vs Ghana was surely interesting. What the feck was with the referee btw? He had to give some cards to some Ghana players at least, but they never got them.
Not the best match I have seen and the referee was lacking at some points aswell.
Italy showed its strength though, Ghana was fighting hard, but the Italian defense stood their ground and didn't gave them much chance.

The score ended in a 2-0 victory and it was deserved, Italy was just better and Ghana couldn't do much.

I was wondering, did Benhacker coach Ajax? Because he seems to know Zlatan really well. Ben means bone in swedish btw, so his name sounds kickass.
Bonehacker. =p

I saw after the match that he got upset when he saw Zlatan traded his shirt with another player. He stopped him and said "But I was supposed to get your shirt!?" So Zlatan got it back for him, and they laughed and he gave Zlatan a kiss on the forhead. Afterwards he said "I may be 63 years old, but I feel like a kid again"

He really has that something, a charismatic and youthful attitude to him.
There was a poll in Sweden as for who people want to see as new coach for Sweden, and Benhacker got the most votes. People feel we could use someone like him. Especially someone who knows Zlatan well.
He definitely did an impressive job at playing a tied game with Sweden. Instead of switching in defenders (as most coaches would have done) he switched in offensive players, so that they at least some times would chase Sweden up unto their own side, instead of letting them have even more goal chances.

Yeah, I'm -very- pleased at our result against Japan, there was a lot of media attention here over it because Japans coach accused us of "Dirty playing".

Though, I did think we'd lose that match. But we didn't =).

I think we play Brazil next? Not to worried, we've beaten them before so meh.

Plus if we do win, I'll be bragging to someone >=]

His name is Beenhakker, not Ben, you were close though. Been means Leg in dutch and hakker is well, hacker. So Leghacker xD.
Anyway, he worked at Ajax the time Zlatan played there, he also coached Ajax and Feyenoord aswell, the team Larsson started his international career.

He is very charismatic and he has the gift that he can have people fight for him, as Trinidad does. They are so happy with him they will try everything to get the best results, as Hiddink had with Korea last WC.



Australia had a tough time though, but scored 3 explosive goals in the last 5 minutes, which was pretty cool to see. The match against Brasil, well heh.. xD There is a chance, but it is little, I'll be very impressed if Australia wins though, but chances are odd. Brasil has to play next against Croatia, so they'll be in action at last.

Urgh. Stupid school. =( I wanted to see the US play and Australia - so far I've only gotten to see Iran v. Mexico. (A nice victory by Mexico! It got a little slow about sixty minutes in, admitedly...but I was very impressed with Bravo and Zinha~ <3 That lovely header!)

Well, I suppose I wasn't too interested in seeing the US play, so much as the Australia v. Japan match because I heard Japan was wicked awesome and I was looking forward to Australia getting their bums kicked. (You're not going to brag, Brian, because Brasil is going to win.) I'll certainly catch catch the Croatia match! I'm sooo looking forward to seeing them play. I hope I'll be able to catch it tomorrow - I'd really hate to record it...recording it takes the enjoyment out of it for me. =\

Oh, Hiku, your idea worked. ;p Oddly enough, the idea of watching the world cup appeals more to kids than cleaning. xD Go figure.

Oh yeah, Ben means both bone and leg in swedish, so it's either bonehacker or leghacker for us. =p


Mwuahahaha! I know, I'm a genius. =p

I just saw France vs Switzerland.
France were playing really poorly. Only one player under 26 in the starting 11, and five guys over 32, I think. They're a bunch of dinosaurs. They need some fresh blood. Zidane worked the hardest, but towards the end he got annoyed with his team and they started arguing.
He's not as young and quick as he used to be though, so he can't do as much as he could before.
Switzerland had the best chances at goal, but both teams played like crazy in the last 10 minutes, and overtime.

And again, no goal for France in the WC.
Last time they made a goal in the WC was 8 years ago!!
That's way too long for a team like France.

I have just seen the match between Brasil and Croatia.Brasil won by 1:0,and our "brothers " Croatians lost.
I have only seen the second half time.My ,this game was exciting! I was impressed by the speed of playing of both teams.They were running for the ball like wild animals,and the falls were also very interesting.Though,some of them probably hurted.I was surprised to see,both Brasil and Croatia working amongst their team members,like a real team.This wasnt the case like with the Netherlands for an example,where there is one man playing only,giving goals and always running for the ball.
These guys worked like a real team which impressed me.

The defences and attacking skills vere excellent in both teams. But I think that Croatians overall lacked strategy.They should work about that in the future. No more comment about that.
I think I heared something,that Ronaldo wont be playing any more,or something.I'm not sure because I was installing GTA San Andreas,and I havent payed attention for a second.

As expected,Brasil won. I look forward to watch the game between Serbia and Argentina on Saturday,because on Friday I'll be in school.