loweyecue wrote:

PresIke wrote:italy is in a strange place. they may be relying on too many older players, i think, and kept off some guys from the roster that could have been helpful.

they don't have a great striker to score goals, yet they do have some sick defenders and, of course, buffon.

paraguay did well in qualifying. it could be a good match, but i do expect italy to win the match.

it will be interesting to see how brasil does given their group. yes, they have one of the best teams, but they also have a pretty challenging road to get out with portugal and ivory coast.

for those less aware, ronaldinho is also not on brasil...and probably didn't deserve to make it either...he seems to have cashed in his work rate and ambition after his move from barcelona to milan...

i'm most curious to see how drogba does for côte d'voire.

Ivory Coast is somewhat overrated. They don't seem to have the people to get the ball to Drogba - at least hat was the case in the last world cup. Drogba himself is phenomenal and in top form but he is more of a scorer than a creator.

i hear you. i am curious to watch gervinho's performance...i could see him causing problems for teams and perhaps being a creator...he's young though...i don't think ivory coast is that great, but they have some very good players.

dodger78 wrote:I really got to say I am very disappointed to this point with the general quality of the matches!!! This might be the worst World Cup (qualitywise) that Ive seen for years to this point...

The first round has never been very high quality. This time though the "powerhouse" teams haven't delivered except Germany. Argentina showed some promise, England, France were letdowns. Italy always starts slow. The Dutch got a win, but were not very impressive that late substitute was pretty good though. Overall it may be indicative of the balance of power shifting and a general decline in quality across the board.

was predicting a 1-0 loss for them too...

maybe it's due to feeling things out and playing things safe in the first match, but we'll see.

brasil and spain still to play though...

Need to be convincing in group play or people will start jumping off the bandwagon in droves

Childs2Dudley wrote:Props to North Korea for going all out. Clearly lack the talent but made up for it in heart. They gave the best team in the world a run for their money.

It's not just about talent though. What you witnessed was a bunch of third tier scrubs come to within one lucky shot of breaking even with the best in the world. There is much to be said for DISCIPLINE. Italy, Argentina, England etc should pay attention here. The entire French team should be exiled to North Korea for a year.