[Maztorre]

Yes I mean that is why everyone roots for them, the thing is that those factors are no longer making up for Ireland's football relative to Northern Ireland's consistent giant-killing antics.

[scratchmonkey]

They don't have those snappy all-green uniforms though.

Plus I like that they have a player named Ireland. That's class.

(Also a certain misguided liking of John O'Donkey and Shay "I'm Doomed to Play on Crap Teams" Given.)

[Maztorre]

that's shay given :(

[Wilkes]

it's ok maz :(

[scratchmonkey]

Right you are! He was on my EPL fantasy team last year too so I've got no excuse for forgetting that.

Gold Cup semis tomorrow.

[winkerwatson]

Guys Scotland have some good players ok :(

Well Craig Gordon is a great keeper. Shaun Maloney is a good attacking player with set piece panache. Scott Brown could do big things. Fletcher and McFadden have always been better at an international level than they have been at club level. boyd knows where the goal is. Hutton is a good attacking fullback if suspect defensively. Ferguson is a good all round midfielder. That's about it though :(
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

The US group for the Copa:

Argentina
USA
Colombia
Paraguay

It's the middle-difficulty group and I would say that the US has a decent chance of advancing, only they've announced the squad and it has doesn't have most of the Euro-based players and no Donovan on top of that. So, we'll have to see how a mostly MLS-based squad will do. Here's that squad:

gk: keller, guzan
d: bornstein, boswell, califf, conrad, demerit, drew moore, heath pearce, marvell wynne
m: kyle beckerman, rico clark, feilhaber, eddie gaven, sacha kljestan, justin mapp, lee nguyen, ben olsen
f: charlie davies, gomez, johnson, twellman

I would expect the starters to be:

keller
wynne, conrad, demerit, bornstein
gaven, olsen, feilhaber, mapp
johnson, twellman

I have no idea who will play in midfield though, especially since everybody who has been playing winger in the Gold Cup isn't on this roster. Considering how bad we've looked in the Gold Cup, I'm expecting a first-round exit.

[scratchmonkey]

[Toto]

Scratchmonkey it was all in jest.
Scratchmonkey the US are plucky. But the thing is, not that many people give a toss about football there, comparatively speaking, so I will hope that Argentina and Colombia qualify.

[winkerwatson]

Brown is quite creative but he has yet to have much of an impact on the team. He's only 21 after all. And the centre is a hard place to get into for Scotland, Ferguson, the captain, plays there as does Fletcher who is one of our best players, then you have Hartley, one of those types who're a bit past it and have been in the team for years.
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

Guardado is pure class. Best player on the pitch by a wide margin.

[scratchmonkey]

He still was, the US looked a lot better in the second half though. I like Feilhaber a lot and I hope he can get in somebody's first team next year.

Ching and Beasely need to run 10 laps after those misses although Beasely's was far worse. Would have been nice to play those last 10 minutes or so with confidence instead of being in complete disarray.

[winkerwatson]

So we're all watching this then right guys?

Also we should all as a forum support Man City next season. Corrupt, Depsoed Thai politicians, big money moves, and reviled Swedish managers still lost in lust to the Italian way is what football needs.
_________________
tim?

[Wilkes]

[winkerwatson]

wilkes he works well with sven, he managed the English national side and the press all hate him for his various tabloid scandals and for his tendancy to play old skool italian tactics of getting an early goal and shutting down play for 80 minutes :)
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

I know he's regarded as a pariah, I could see Sven pulling Lazio Part 2 with Man City, creating a team that goes to at least to the UEFA Cup and acts as a 5th team outside of the championship pack, sort of like Tottenham.

Then again, with Henry leaving, it remains to be seen how Arsenal will do in the next couple seasons.

[winkerwatson]

Guys if the Thai's assets got seized would all of Sven's signings get seized too?
_________________
tim?

[winkerwatson]

Guys the opening games tonight look a bit weak:


Venezuela v Bolivia

Uruguay v Peru

Tell me otherwise also I will support Peru and Bolivia because I have fake Football Manager players from these countries
_________________
tim?

[lolipalooza]

I'm sorry but both will probably lose winker :(

Also, why the fuck is Dunga going to use Vagner Love instead of Anderson

Come on Dunga

[winkerwatson]

Vagner Love i the bomb in Russia dogg
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

winker I agree with your rooting choices mainly because I like the Andean teams and who doesn't love Nobby Solano. Plus I gotta root against Uruguay because they are the Italy of South America.

[winkerwatson]

Why are FIFA trying to fcuk with the Andies?

CONSPIRACY
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

I'm not really sure, considering that none of the Andean teams are what you would describe as powerhouses.

Platini seems like he's doing a good job as the new UEFA chief though.

[winkerwatson]

Guys the Peruvian i brought up through my youth system was a powerhouse he had 20 for finishing, heading, first touch and team work. was fast enough to get in the side and what not :(

I also signed Hurtado (Ecuadorian?) at some point :)
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

There are a number of Ecuadorians named Hurtado, yeah, so probably an Ecuadorian.

They are my South American team because I was there for a month guys. Also they're bringing back the Soul Glo.

[winkerwatson]

Centreback Ivan Hurtado
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

winker the quality of this match is actually pretty good, not sure why Peru's second got called back though.

[winkerwatson]

work sopcast :(
_________________
tim?

[winkerwatson]

what is the score and time and what not in this game manslaughter i am confused :(
_________________
tim?

[scratchmonkey]

Sopcast is effing up winker. I am watching the TVUplayer feed. I probably should have mentioned that beforehand.

Score is 1-0 Peru, 56th minute, each goalie has pulled off some pretty good saves.

[lolipalooza]

[Toto]

I've seen Vagner Love play he is good.
I like Uruguay because Recoba :(
What is this TVUplayer guys? Is it the links Scratchmonkey mentioned earlier? Because I don't want to miss Brazil vs. Mexico.

[scratchmonkey]

I don't think Recoba was playing for Uruguay, he's a bit past it and really, until they rediscover attacking as a viable strategy, I have no love for them. It was dandy to see the Condors play so well.

TVUplayer: http://tvunetworks.com/

There's a standalone player or you can use it as a plugin on live-footy.

[Toto]

He's injured that's why Scratch :(
Wait. So is live footy a player, or a website or what? I'm confused by this using TVUplayer as plugin.
I'm sorry to be thick about this.

[scratchmonkey]

Recoba's always hurt!

Alright. Quick tutorial for watching soccer on the intertron:

SopCast and TVUplayer, as well as a number of other programs, can be used as either a standalone application, such as Microsoft Word, or as a plugin inside a web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer because Chinese folks don't have any truck with Firefox). Since the latter's a bit easier, let's stick with that.

Live Footy is a site that collects links to streams of football (and sometimes other sports) over the web. How it works is that you go to the URL linked at the beginning of this paragraph and you scroll down to list of streams under the header of the day you're looking for -- for instance, right now they've got streams for Tuesday and Wednesday up.

Under the header, they'll have a time and an event -- 1200-1900 GMT Wimbledon, for example. Under the event, they'll have links to streams, Stream 1, Stream 2, Stream 3 and so on. Sometimes they'll be followed by an [EN] indicating that the stream is in English (this has proven to be fairly unreliable on the whole).

Click on one of these, like 'Stream 1' and you'll be taken to a page where the browser will attempt to load a plugin. If you don't have it installed, it won't work. If you do, it will, or at least most of the time, on some computers. Each Stream link will take you to a different plugin page. For example, for today's Peru v. Uruguay game, Stream 1 was SopCast and Stream 3 was TVUplayer. If you don't have the player for the stream that you first select, check the others. Some plugins, like SopCast, will load and then have a list of channel links below the plugin that you have to click to load the correct stream. Live Footy will have a bolded directive at the top of this page to tell you which channel to select. Again, since this is all dodgy Chinese bootleg TV, it may or may not be correct.

If you do want to use the stand-alone programs, good luck. There's no real way to figure what channel is what or what might actually be showing at any given time. Since each channel takes up to an ungodly time to load, channel-switching is not really an option unless you don't mind wasting half-an-hour or so to watch a bunch of weird Asian news shows.

[nothingxs]

so how's mexico doing
_________________
select button
i've gotta let go. i've gotta get straight. why'd you have to make it so hard? let me get away.
3DSFC 1736-1476-0518

[scratchmonkey]

Haven't played yet. They play Brazil tonight.

[winkerwatson]

Given the unfamiliar nature of the Brazilian side I'd say Mexico have a good chance of a result if they can stay well organised.
_________________
tim?

[Toto]

Dunga is smart in doing this. This is the only time you can give fringe players a run out with risking the wrath of high expecations the country and the world hold for the team.
Also smart in letting Anderson stew for a while playing U-21 and U-19. They'll rip the U-19 World Cup with him on the team.

[scratchmonkey]

The last time Brazil did this they won the Copa and Adriano became a star, so yeah, it's a pretty good strategy. I'm hoping that 1 or 2 Americans make the most of their appearances for an under-strength squad as well -- if he plays, watch out for Wynne. He's 21 and I think the Euro clubs are very interested to see if he can develop the skills to match up to his impressive physical ability.

[winkerwatson]

This tournament I will mainly be watching Guardado. I'm sure there'll be a few other players that grab attention, there always are.
_________________
tim?