E ngland
A lgeria
S lovenia
Y anks
Jump on it.
GROUP C
ENGLAND
The Three Lions are the best team in this group. Hands down. The opening was the
headline in England shortly after the group was released. Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry... the list goes on. High quality players all playing at the highest level. This team hasn't won the cup since '66 and are highly favored due to the coaching of Fabio Capello. Blitzing through qualification, this team is one of the better teams to find in this tournament. The question is, can they score on penalties? They just lose. Flat out suck when it comes to penalties and their main taker, Lampard
, has had his last two saved. God save the queen.
Player to watch: The 2nd Striker - Doesn't matter who it is, Crouch, Defoe, or a cardboard cutout of Sir Bobby Moore, this forward need
s to give Rooney his space to work. His flourishing came about, because Ronaldo no longer took away from him. Take the defenses attention, and let Roo do his thing. Hell, Berbatov being the Continental for a season still made defenses pay attention to him.
Group Prediction: 1st. If you think the US will come close to this team, it's cat scan time. Hold the ball, work free kicks, and finish. This time should be different.
ALGERIA
Do you know who Algeria is? I do.
There a tough mutha truckin', hard workin'... alright I'm done bullshitting you. F' this team. If fo
rm is any indicator, this team should be done after game 1. Ireland walked over them. Serbia walked over them. The team they beat, Egypt, to get to the cup, walked over them. There's no offense and their defense sucks. GG. 31st ranking is a gift. Get them all out of here. Egypt should be here.
Player to watch: If their playing watch, that's it- I don't know these clowns. I really don't like them either. They play dirty and aren't afraid to have people sent off. Pissin' me off and what not. Get me a chicken sandwich and some waffle fries.
Group Prediction: Tied for get the hell out. AUUUUU REVVVOIIIIIIRRRRRRRR ALGERIAAAA
SLOVENIA
The interesting team of the group, Slovenia, is tall and big and lanky. Not your prototypical, they made a late run through the group stage after not beating the Czech.
Then, thrown into a playoff against Russia, Slovenia defeated them in Russia. Andrei Arshavin mean. That's a tough task, ask anyone. Hell, the US wouldn't go there and win the cold war. They play D and have a good shot of placing second in the group.
Player to watch: I'll take the Who is that goalie for $200 Alex? Samir Handanovic - Younger cousin of the backup, goalies will take you to the promised land. He plays in Italy and will be the savoir for this team to move to the knockout round.
Group Prediction: 3rd. Damnit. I don't like it. Not one bit. The US scares me because they don't show up a lot. But shit, talent is better there than it is here.
UNITED STATES
Here's the deal. Everyone is excited cuz this team should do something. Anything. The D is fine. Gooch is calm but there are still questions about his knee and Howard has Tourettes. Fuck. But he's still good. My questions arise when you get to the strikers. We flat out suck at developing forwards. Eric Wynalda is a jackass and shouldn't be on TV anymore. Brian McBride can't score with his feet. Look back at the US soccer and see the most notable players are not up front. I mean John Harkes was our captain and he nailed Wynalda's wife. Good chemistry.
Anyways, yes this is a second paragraph, because I care about this country. The best moves Bob made was dropping Eddie Johnson and moving away from MLS players towards Europe. Guy has the touch of a rapist and was nothing. Analysts talked about his speed. OK, I'll let you figure out where that comment was directed at. I digress. Where are the goals going to come from? No goals against the Czech, Italy own goal and Dempsey were the basis for scoring in '06. And I will say it again. You want success? Get Dempsey going. Landon will be Landon, but Clint is where it's at.
Player to watch: Coach's Son Michael Bradley - If the US has any hope, they need possession of the midfield. It's constant kick round the backline, play a long ball up and lose it. Midfield needs to step up and Bradley needs to help Donovan out. If they keep possession close, they can win. They actually can. But as soon as the long ball starts getting played, Altidore is fucked. Buddle is fucked. Bob Bradley is fucked. Sam's Army is fucked. It could be a long tournament with success or it could be a swift kick in the ass until 2014.
Group Prediction: 2nd. Getting thru the group stage shouldn't be the goal. Germany in the second round is where anything will happen. Talent needs to meet expectations. How is it going to be handled? We'll see on June 12th.
Set Pieces:
- Ball don't lie. Hahnemann just wishes it would stop moving so he could eat it.
- Benitez out at Liverpool. Bout time.
- Sol Campbell is old.
- Friendlies: Spain 1-0 S.Korea; Italy 1-2 Mexico, Germany 3-1 Bosnia
Most likely, the US will play it back to play it forward
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