Argentina, with its German/Spanish/native racial blend, has quite a bit of female talent in the stands, and Mexico can give anyone a run for their money. Brazil is of course the reigning champion, but don’t count those other nations out.
(d) because Brazil were playing. Everybody loves Brazil, right?
ISTR that in the past they have advertised one game and switched to the other at the last minute, so I assume that BBC and ITV between them have rights to all games and could have shown Australia-Croatia on BBC1.
I hate myself for saying this, but I actually would like to see the Germans win 
I just can’t stand the way England games are obsessed over and built up by the meeja - it inevitably makes them an anticlimax ('cos nothing will ever match up to '66 :rolleyes:) .
And while I’m here, a hearty fuck-off to the BBC for showing the Brasil game last night, instead of the Croatia - Australia match :mad:
I can’t believe they thought watching Brasil take apart Japan would be more interesting that an “all-or-nothing” battle between two of world football’s biggest rivals.
Same on the French and German TV stations - they must have known the Ausssies and Croats would play their hearts out.
On a positive note… at least there’s no way Graham “3 yellows” Poll will be reffing the final now 
No idea what the actual agreement was, but I suspect it involved specific games being on analogue terrestrial services.
Brazil.
Because when they play well, it’s beautiful.
For the people interested in the “visual aesthetics” of the players:
For brazil, although Ronaldo and Ronaldinho aren’t much to look at, Robinho, Ze Roberto and Kaka are quite pretty.
Other pretty players IMO: Thierry Henry (France), Lucas Neill (Australia), Javier Saviola (Argentina), Francesco Totti (Italy), Jesus Arellano (Mexico), Jose Antonio Reyes (Spain), Karl Svensson (Sweden) and Freddie Ljungberg (Sweden).
For my money, Japan was the best looking over all team.
If you go this page and select your team from the pull down menu on the left, you can go to “squad” to look at all their photos.
The Croatia/Australia match was on BBC3, which we’re all supposed to have now, because of Freeview.
I’d love to see Australia win. But lets face it- they beat Japan. They got hosed by Brazil. They drew with Croatia. One win out of three?
My roughie- Spain.
And I don’t think England have any chance. Too inflexible, too boring, too everything.
It was a difficult game to referee, but even so Poll had a shocker:
Offsides are the job of the linesmen, but when Simic received two yellow cards, he should have been sent off. Apparently Poll didn’t record the first yellow. :smack:
Simic performed a rugby tackle (on Kewell, I think) in the penalty area. Missed by Poll.
Simic handled in the penalty area. Missed by Poll.
Speaking of referee fiascos, how about the new “free gravity goal”, where if you’re playing against the USA and you go up for a header, and you can prove gravity still works by falling to the ground of your own volition after losing the header, you get a penalty kick? So far the most exciting part of watching the US team’s matches is the fun new rules that get invented. By 2014 Americans will be getting yellow cards for each shot they take on goal.
That said, they had to take care of business and they failed, and I doubt they would’ve won even without the free gravity goal. But it was a pretty amazing spectacle anyway. Bruce Arena’s time has long come and gone, signaled not only by his utter inability to motivate and lead his team but also by the way he has thrown professionalism out the window in the last year of his contract. Calling out your employees publicly, one by one, in a press conference? Sounds like something a callous asshole would do upon resigning his post. I’m pretty sure I’m right about the callous asshole part; I hope I’m right about the leaving-his-job part too.
Well two Aussies thought they were playing rugby for a moment, and first started to ruck and then attempted to drive the Croatian goalkeeper and ball over the line.
That should have been 2 red cards right there.
There were also some incidents of dissent on both sides that went unpunished.
I’m not sure why he didn’t see the Croatian player’s name and number on his yellow card when he booked him the second time, however, the second booking did come at a time when tempers were flaring and it looked like a punch up was imminent.
But when it comes to complaining about missed penalties, bookings and sendings off, the Australian team really shouldn’t complain. Cahill should have been sent off in the match against Japan, but wasn’t and went on to score two goals.
Ooooh, I like any guy of any color who has a lean hard body. There, that narrows it down. 
There is a picture out there somewhere on the web that showed a perky blondish fan from …uh…I have no idea, but she was topless and painted a red strip/cross thingie across her girls. It was an awesome picture. And I’m straight.
What is your position on a guy who has a … body? (insert hopeful smilie)
Remember I mentioned the Swedish player Freddie Ljundgberg?
Will he do?
The ladies of Germany chose the World Cup Sex Gods recently and *Der Spiegel * has a photo gallery for you. I am personally fond of Ronaldo (evidence that some guy took the photos: no rear view, mmm, mmm) and Shevchenko.
And in the interest of equal time, fellas, you do have to scroll past some Swedish lovelies to get to it. We aim to please.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,421777,00.html
Re: Ronaldo- he’s at least 10kgs overweight. Do you guys think it’s just poor physical condition due to injury and lack of training, or is it (as I suspect) a raging cocaine habit?
A number of people on the BBC’s site are complaining about their Brazil fixation (and ITV’s, to be fair):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldcup/2006/06/if_its_sunday_then_it_must_be_1.html
I think it is injury and lack of training. I’ve never heard rumours of a cocaine habit. Wouldn’t cocaine kill you appetite like speed does?
Maradona developed a prodigious pot-belly (coke-belly?) during his years of drug abuse.
I would recommend all 32 teams, then. Brazil’s Ronaldo has lost his form in the “lean hard body” game, though.
You might be talking about a fan of Trinidad & Tobago. Their flag is red and black with a ‘strip/cross thingie’ going diagonally across like a sash; I saw a Trinidad & Tobago v. Paraguay game a couple days ago where they showed a topless T&T fan painted with the pattern of the flag. Perky, quite. Blonde, not so much. Still might be the same person.
I wasn’t overly excited by the shot, frankly. I tried to be, but the whole flag thing doesn’t really do it for me.
Raging cocaine habits make you lose weight, not gain it. One of cocaine’s biggest side effects is appetite suppression. I’m not sure why you think he’s on coke, but the way he’s gained weight he doesn’t do it at all or at least not even close to regularly.
Raging marijuana habits make you gain weight, though.
In other news: I woke up early to see that? Spain cared not one bit–and considering they were mostly fielding players who don’t get playing time, you’d think they’d step it up to get more minutes! Ukraine was also incredibly complacent even though they needed a win or tie to advance–sure they were in #2 to start the day, but only by two points. Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, despite being handed the ultimate underdog situation–shoo-ins that don’t run and don’t care about the match–were so incredibly inept that they could never establish an offensive rhythm. Then referee Amarilla made it even worse by turning his cheek to an obvious Ukraine handball on a Tunisia free kick, which should’ve set up a Tunisia penalty kick; and then awarding Ukraine a penalty kick on a non-foul. In a 1-0 game, taking a PK away from one team and giving it to the other amounts to running the game. That’s not what a referee is supposed to do. Not that it mattered, since Tunisia was so unable to do anything whatsoever on the attack.
What a lame couple of games. And the tighter group’s games, I can’t see because I have an appointment with my doctor. Grr. Should’ve slept in.
Fucking morons. Put it on a channel that many people aren’t able to watch, or simply that they never watch, and then claim you’ve proved something.