🚀 go-pugleaf

"Low Profile" <bl...@blah.com> wrote in message 
news:449022c1$0$5416$e4fe514c@dreader16.news.xs4all.nl...
>
> Brazil is #1 because they win most matches.... but that doesn't mean the 
> table isn't rigged... USA mostly played 'easy opponents' ...
> Holland's B-team beat the mexican team with relative ease... and Costa 
> Rica is not exactly considered a strong team.

They're still better than say... Belgium. The fact that they have entered 
the
final tournament says that they are strong enough to get there. And anything
can happen in the final tournament. Who would have thought that Turkey
would get to the semi-finals 4 years ago. Or South-Korea.

> On that same list:  Egypt is above Germany (vice world champions) and 
> above Greece (european champions)... just to show how imba that list is. 
> :P

Germany may have been world champions, their current team isn't strong
at all, and you probably know that. Uruguay has been world champion as
well, and they are practically non-existent now. Greece was a fluke, which
is proven by the fact that they are not even in this tournament.

>> Luca Toni is just one player. He cannot win matches by himself. Del Piero
>> seems to be quite pissed off so I'm not expecting much out of him either,
>> other than yellow or red cards.
>
> Have you seen the match Italy vs Ghana? Italians are lethal, play as a 
> real team, and they've set up their strikers many times... their only 
> weakness is they tend to slow down/stop attacking once they have a 1 goal 
> lead. And they beat the crap out of the dutch in a friendly  (dutch are 
> ranked #3 as you probably know)

I have seen Italy vs Ghana and I have already commented on that. I was
not impressed at all by Italy's play and Ghana even had more possession of
the ball in the second half. Also, they got cheated out of a penalty.
It was Ghana's first time in the world championships, and if Italy is that
good, they would have won by a larger margin and with more dominance.

Oh, and friendly games do not count. :D