jorge c.: hugo sanchez??? that hugo sanchez???again, the first world champion was uruguay, winning 4 to 2 against argentina… in this side of world it’s called “un clásico” (a classic) uruguay/argentina have a long, long history of matches, some beautiful, some horrendous, but all of them, epics. i think none of you understand what it represents for us (argetinians and uruguayans)

I think some of us–those who have followed the game for a long time–do understand even though the match is nowhere near as important to us. That’s because the national teams we support have their own rivalries. I’ve been an England fan since just after the end of World War II. Our biggest rivalry used to be with Scotland It was the oldest rivalry in international football since the two teams first met in 1872 in the world’s first international match. We played Scotland every year, but that tradition ended in 1990. Now I suppose our biggest rival is Germany, although the blood pressure also goes up very high when we meet Argentina in competitive play.

Fedya: Cristiano RonaldoMore amazing is that Bosnia qualified for the play-offs yesterday.

I’m not surprised when the successor states to Yugoslavia do well in football. Yugoslavia nearly always fielded a superb national team, at one time hailed as the Brazil of Europe because of their beautiful football. It appears that one of the successor states will qualify outright, two will secure playoff positions, and one will miss the playoffs by the narrowest of margins. The two other successor states to Yugoslavia have turned in creditable performances.

Serbia have qualified outright by securing first place in Group 7 over France. Slovenia are almost certain to finish second in Group 3 because they are two points ahead of the Czech Republic and need only defeat pointless San Marino away in the remaining match to secure a playoff position. Bosnia have won a playoff position by securing second position in Group 5 behind only Spain and ahead of Turkey and Belgium. Croatia, a single point behind second-place Ukraine in Group 6 thanks to Ukraine’s 1-0 victory over 10-man England on Saturday, will probably fail to gain a playoff position by a hair, since Ukraine will meet pointless Andorra in the final match.

The other two successor states to Yugoslavia in the competition, Montenegro and FYR Macedonia, are well out of the running for the playoffs, but they are not group doormats.

Bosnia has a population of a bit more than four million, but given that it is in a region which has a superb footballing tradition, that is sufficient to field a first-rate team. It is true the Bosnian national side fared poorly at first, but that is not surprising given the domestic turmoil it has endured over the past two decades, and comparative stability has enabled assembly of a squad reflecting the true quality of the football of which Bosnia is capable.

By comparison, look at the United Kingdom, which FIFA allows to field four national sides since it is the birthplace of the modern game. England are in, but the other three, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are out. The successor states to Yugoslavia have done much better than the national sides from the U.K. The performances of these successor states reveals the astonishing depth of quality in the former Yugoslaviae .

College football(FBS) is not a real sport. When the champion is determined by a bunch of journalists rather than playing it out on the field, it’s a “game,” not a sport. Sports produce real champions.

Boise State – the TRUE 2006 National Champions!

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Yes, Fedya, you’re right (as was my first post).

its only soccer. let’s talk about something important,like college football.

Visitor Again:
I think this excerpt from my earlier post is slightly inaccurate.I keep forgetting that in determining who finishes second in all groups except the single group that has only five teams, FIFA discards the results against the sixth, last place team.

I thought that was only for determining which of the nine second-place teams was worst and will therefore miss out on the playoff. I’m pretty certain Norway will be the worst of the second-place teams.

– have you heard of spain, holland , england and several other european nations. europe is where football is at, currently south american football is a lower standard. brazil will crumble against the spain or holland.

I think this excerpt from my earlier post is slightly inaccurate. I keep forgetting that in determining who finishes second in all groups except the single group that has only five teams, FIFA discards the results against the sixth, last place team. By my calculations, that means that Ukraine already have secured second spot in their group and thus a playoff spot and that Croatia is now out of the World Cup. Even the news reports from the wire services are getting this wrong. I don’t think I’m wrong on this, but please correct me if I am.

Mark Field:
Turning to the post, it’d be a shame to watch a WC without Messi (or, for that matter, Cristiano Ronaldo; Portugal is in slightly better shape but still at risk).

Cristiano Ronaldo

More amazing is that Bosnia qualified for the play-offs yesterday.

Also, since Costa Rica is now in third, and playing a US team that has already made it, I’d wager it’ll be Honduras in that playoff against Argentina.

He has selected more than 60 players in his short time in charge, and some of the selections and omissions have been mystifying. Lately, much to the dismay of many Argentina fans, he has brought in several older players, including Palermo, who is in his mid-30s.

I saw Palermo play for Argentina against Mexico at the Los Angeles Coliseum in the late 1990s, when he was still Argentina’s golden boy before his failure to put in three penalty kicks in a single match, against Colombia. Palermo did, however, score two goals in a recent friendly match defeat of Ghana, an occasion the Argentine match commentator, with the typical grace of those associated with Argentine football, marked by declaring “you @#$%^ nigger,” as heard at the 2:15 mark of this YouTube video. Some people hear the middle word as “fucking,” but I thought it was “bastard.” The third word, however, is unmistakable.

I will be fervently hoping Argentina go out this Wednesday, largely because of Maradona’s Hand of God goal against England and all that I’ve seen on and off the pitch when Argentina play. Yet I think Chile will field its strongest team against Ecuador although already qualified, just as maestro Fabio Capello fielded his first team against Ukraine yesterday although England already had qualified. England endured their first qualifying loss, 1-0. That almost ensured Ukraine will qualify at the expense of Croatia, who put England out of the European Championship final tournament in 2008. What goes around comes around.

So I think an Ecuador victory over Chile and a Uruguay victory over Argentina are too much to hope for. Not that that means I won’t be hoping for it. It is more likely, however, that Argentina will either qualify outright Wednesday or at least secure fifth place and a playoff with the fourth place CONCACAF team, Costa Rica or Honduras, at which point I would cheer for the CONCACAF team to put Argentina out.

As an England fan, I have hoped for a Germany victory in a match only twice in more than 60 years of following football–when they played Argentina in the finals of World Cups 1986 and 1990.

Turning to the post, it’d be a shame to watch a WC without Messi (or, for that matter, Cristiano Ronaldo; Portugal is in slightly better shape but still at risk). I truly cannot understand the decision to hire Maradona nor why the Argentine Federation has stuck by him.

If they were 8-0 in qualifying, they would’ve punched their ticket to South Africa long ago.

( sorry, couldn’t resist :-) )