2010 World Cup Running Thread.

I'll be pulling for the USA and pick up my Mo Edu kit as soon as I find out what number the Terp will be wearing.

I'm not exactly picking a second team since it's USA all the way!

 

I've always liked the Dutch as my "second team". They looked so good early in Euro 2008 and then went in the toilet.

As far as the Mexican team goes, 0-3 with a -20 goal difference is about the best which I can wish for them.

 

That may actually happen to North Korea. El Salvador might just lose its place in the history books.

 

I'm halfway convinced Kim Jong Il will start a minor skirmish on NK's matchdays just to draw attention away from the team.

 

I hope that scenario happens to the North Koreans and not the Kiwis.

I don't think my All Blacks shirt, Cape Kidnappers hat and genuine fondness for the Kiwis I met on my '08 work trip there has enough karma to matter here.

 

New Zealand has the advantage of being in a group that has to be considered not nearly as strong as North Korea's. I know Paraguay did well in qualifying, and I know Slovakia won their group, but it's not as though Italy are going to be trembling at the sight of any of them. New Zealand might struggle to get a point, but I doubt they'll give up 20 goals, either, especially seeing as Italy will be perfectly content to win by 2 or 3 -- or even 1, if it suits them.

 

So, soccer mavens. In my admittedly limited recollection, Italy always seems to do a bit better in the World Cup than is anticipated. Why is it being written off so cavalierly this time around? I haven't read a thing that gives them a shot at the title.

 

Actually, Lil' Kim plans to play for NK. He will score 47 goals in the group stage before gloriously leading his nation to a World Cup victory by personally converting all five penalty kicks and stopping three in a shootout against the combined sides of Spain, Brazil and the entire U.S. armed forces in the final.

 

I spent the last 30 minutes trying to make a post where the first letter of each line spells out a message, but I can't get the formatting down, so let's just leave it at "fuck Mexico"

 

They probably aren't getting as much credit as they deserve.

Chiefly, the issues are (a) they are old, and (b) they look like they'll probably struggle to score, because they just don't have much up front. They're solid, but hard to get excited about.

 

They were pretty awful in Euro 2008 -- routed by Holland, shouldn't have gotten out of the group stage and eliminated in the quarters -- and they haven't really improved since then.

It's a fine line between "experienced" and "washed up," and they're probably on the wrong side of that line. (And if you're thinking, but hey, Inter won the Champions League, well yeah, they did. And the only Italian to appear for them in the final came on with two minutes left.)

They'll also likely run across Spain in the quarters -- as they did in Euro 2008, when Spain won on penalties.

But like Germany, they are one of those handful of sides that you write off at your peril.

 

Off topic a little, but does anyone else think Bob Bradley looks like Mark Knopfler (circa 1995-ish)