Ranking teams is fun, but very tough. Do your own rankings in the comments, and try to justify them. Here we go.
1. Laos - Based on the final last year. ROI won, but there is no doubt the outcome would have been different if ROI had been missing Tristan, as well as Brett. Tristan was outstanding in the final. Him leaving ROI is a huge loss. If you can't rank ROI first, the only option left is Laos.
2. ROI - It would be dumb to drop ROI any further than second. They have been in the final for the last 3 years, and always do extremely well. The loss of Tristan, Brett and Benno hurts, but Ireland can replace those guys and will.
3. Ukraine - Ukraine was great team last year, and this year they have only improved. Very solid all-around team with depth that has to be considered a favorite to win.
4. Scotland - Despite what looks to be the loss of their all-star keeper, Scotland will still be a very good team. Very good defensively and with the addition of a couple players up front, there's no doubt that they're a top 5 team.
5. France - A no-brainer to round out the top 5. A team of all-stars that has become an immediate threat to win. Though they look to be lacking any depth, their starters put them at this rank. No team from last year proved they should own this spot, with the exception of Chile(more on that).
6. Jamaica - Jamaica will be looking to get back to the playoffs this year after barely missing out last year. They are ready to rumble. Don't count out a team led by Holness. This was the toughest spot to choose. Chile and ES could both be considered, but since their teams aren't set, we go with the team that has been practicing a lot and playing together for a long time.
7. Chile - Chile lost in a shootout to Scotland in last year's quarter-final. They were a great team. This year they look to have lost many players to El Salvador, but they have also gained a bunch of new players that will still keep them quite strong.
8. El Salvador - Back from the dead, there is certainly a lot of hype around El Salvador, as they were one the best teams before they folded last year. El Salvador certainly has lots of potential. They get 8th spot because they don't have the star power of France. They can be considered interchangeable with Chile.
9. Northern Ireland - Northern Ireland proved a lot last year, playing against Scotland, Ukraine and Jamaica. Incredibly, they held their own and almost made it out of the pool. They are now a legitimately good team, and we'll see if they can take it further.
10. Germany - Germany has consistently hovered around this spot. They are always good enough to make any pool interesting, but can seem to make the jump to an elite team.
11. Saudi Arabia - They've been playing together all indoor season in Div.1, and playing pretty well. They'll definitely make an impact in this tourney, but will not necessarily make the playoffs. They'll need luck at the draw.
12. Portugal - Another good team along the lines of Germany and Saudi Arabia. These teams CAN beat an elite team, but it isn't easy.
13. Norway - Norway is dealing with losses this year, but they'll still be a good team. They won't have the playmaking they've had in the past, but they will still be defensively solid and will keep games close. It's a shame they've fallen to this ranking.
14. England - England was pretty good last year, but they've lost all their playmakers this year. If they regain they guys they didn't have last year, they'll be much better than 14th.
15. Serbia - Serbia surprised everyone last year when they almost upset Germany to take second spot in their group. They are a team that the best teams have to really worry about.
16. Colombia
17. Greece
18. Italy
19. Austria
20. Canada
21. Nigeria
22. Poland
-The draw is scheduled for March 7th. That is coming up FAST.
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76 comments:
Well I think some of your rankings are a little crazy, first Germany has almost completely split up, they are in shambles, they lost their goalie to Canada, and maybe another one of the better players. Also, unless I am mistaken I do not believe England is even in the tournament this year unless they had a late entry. Your Norway prediction might be a little crazy too, Northern Ireland is way off, although they did well last year, I don't think they will have the same luck. I would also bet that both Jamaica and Canada are pretty pissed off about last year and they both will be in contention this year. I was watching their tryouts and with the addition of Jordon Peto and a few others they could be a team that will shock a lot of people.
they will be alright, they got a better keeper in simon kluge but its going to be hard to replace zerr upfront he is easily there biggest loss.
germany hasn't split up, but they have lost peto, bolen, brady, and zerr. They've picked up decent replacements though.
peto is playing for canada? did not know that. they'll be alright i guess.
There's 22 teams in the tournament this year. Pretty sure England has to be one of them, even though they lost their 5 best players or so.
Norway is also losing their 3 best players and their goalie. We'll see how they respond
Northern Ireland is pretty solid. That's a high ranking though. They beat Laos in exhibition game but laos was missing a couple guys. still.
between these rankings and the changing of the blog you have to wonder about the clock cleaners sanity. but i'd like to comment on the player movement. where is the pride in playing for your country? it seems particularly bad this year. laos seems to have started the fashion having all their best players be from another countries. myrah, campbell, northey etc. now you have germans leaving the german team, norwegians completly bailing, the greeks, especially disappointing is the english. seems as though people have become far to tied up in the idea of winning and have forgotten what it is to play for your country. share your thoughts
I think your comment about people leave their teams is really well said. I am very much a person that believes your should be playing for the team you choose if you make it for many years. Their are things such as being cut, coaching issues, player issues, and certain things that might make you want to change teams, I find this to be a fine reason. However, each player should have to go before a board to have their reason heard, or have a letter stating that they are being released from a team. However, if a player should choose to leave because they just want to win, then the team they are going to should have to pay a transfer fee of at least $100 to help alleviate some of the loss. I have many more ways to help slow down the transfers, and have spoken with Kevin on this issue as well. He does not like the transfers but it doesn't seem like the tournament organizers want to make a really strong stand on this for whatever reason. Lets hope they try and make a stand on the heritage rule like they said they would. My guess, things are not going to change when the people beside Kevin stay the same.
I agree completely with those thoughts on player movement. I personally don't understand why anyone would want to play on a team that isn't their nationality. It's so sad. If you come from England(or wherever), why wouldn't you want to represent and honour them? If I was Polish or Greek or whatever, I would play my heart out for my country. It may not be a FIFA world wide tournament, but its as close as we're ever gonna get.
This is exactly why people hate Laos, France, and now possibly Chile(who have just recruited the entire Magicos team).
There should definitely be rules restricting people to what teams they play on.
i dont understand why every year people complain about the rules. kevin makes fair enough rules so any team can put a certain amount of heritage players as well as star players. Its not the faults of teams like france laos and ROI that they can recruit the better players. usually it will be a player or coach from a weaker team complaining because they cannot get the better players. instead of making excuses make a better effort to bring skill to your team.
Special One signing off
My thoughts: That's a product of poor rules regarding heritage players. You're right, teams should be trying to recruit the best players they can under the current rule system. But that's not the point. The point is that there's lack of pride in playing for your country, and the teams like Laos, France and ROI are made up of players with no pride in their actual nationality. All they care about is winning. That's why they are disliked.
But on the other hand, you could say the same thing about Austria or Italy, but those teams aren't as good or as talked about as much as Laos or France or ROI. So you are right there.
A good example is if the actual World Cup was just a big free-for-all and all the best players went to play on a couple teams...people would get upset at those teams. It's not that team's fault for being able to recruit the best players. You can't get mad at teams because they have the best players, because they are completely within their right to do so.
Do I agree with the best players all going to the best team they can? Hell no.
Do I like stacked teams? You better believe I don't.
Is there anything I(or anyone else here) can do about it? No sir.
We should just take the tournament for what it is right now and enjoy it. The tournament will change eventually and will become better, but those things happen in time. You don't need to be an ass and go booing these teams, just go out and have a good time watching some great soccer.
first of all i do not think its fair to say that france and roi are in the same group as laos. france was started because brett wanted to play for his country and all of roi's starters besides their keeper are irish as opposed to laos who has only 2 starters that are of heritage. but that is besides the point. what should be done to fix it. i believe i ahve come up with the perfect solution. to be revealed later.....
gotta agree with clock cleaner on all those points he made...
i think you still have to lump france in there because of who else is on the team. Sure they got brett and tristan...but the rest of the team is made up of deserters.
I'd rank the teams that have the least heritage in this order:
1.Laos
2.France
3.ROI
WHATS THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION?
I surely do not mind teams stacking, I think I was one of the few that did not really mind ROI except for the fact that I do not believe they are from the Republic of Ireland rather than Northern. I am more concerned with now France being made of players that played for other teams, because they way I see it is that they just told us they were Norwegian, Irish, German, and now they are French? We are Canadian, so that means we have tons of heritage in our blood lines however I think if you choose to be German one year you must stay German until you are released or have issues as stated in my last comment. I think having no star player rule is great, this tournament is supposed to be full of strong teams and teams like France and ROI will be beaten because more and more players are starting to want to play from different divisions. We believe these are the best players only because they are the most popular with people in Regina. Just like Beckham and the english soccer league. Truth is this tournament is getting bigger and teams will be recruiting better then average players all around because there will be more players to choose from. In short, all I want is for players to be accountable for their heritage once they choose it, and not be able to jump from team to team just because they need maintain their popularity class.
The only reason teams like ROI and laos have players of that caliber that do not count as heritage players is because they have a certain amount of heritage players. laos for example: they have 7 or 8 players who are not laotion, but have you counted the players that are? you dont notice but they carry about ten guys on the bench that play minimal but are laotion. Another is ROI: a bit less unfair since they throw collin's brother and his friends on the roster and they just get drunk in the stands. but the reality is the rules aren't gonna change for a few more years so get used to it. lets just all drop the complaining and start the interesting topics.
Who are the players to watch for from each team? clock cleaner what do you think?
Special One signing off
this is a very touchy subject, many ppl have great ideas what should be done about player movements but if you are to look at this subject i am afraid u have to look at the fifa rule guidelines which kevin is trying to apply here(or 90% of it tryin to follow). If you look at such national teams in the 90's and this decade such as France, Netherlands, Portugal, England, Spain, and even Germany are now looking abroad to other former colonies to recruit into their teams (ex. hargraves, davids, and etc.). Is this the right method? Yes I am afraid it is, if teams really want to get results, they will do what is neccesary, can i blame them? heck no, but i believe once that player has declared a team to play on thats the team they have to stay on, unless there are some circumstances applied to situations. if this was to happend there should be a WCP council to make a final decision and stick by it, thoughts?
I totally agree, like I said it should be harder to transfer from one team to another, not impossible. I think transfer fees is the best option to help slow movement every year. Once you choose your heritage which should be on paper from all the previous years then that is what you are. You could start next year, have players sign saying they are French, German, etc... If they decide to leave then transfer fees are made to the team they are transfering from unless the board thinks otherwise. Hell Kevin could take $20 bucks from each treansfer and make money.
I like the idea of talking about who the players are to watch out for but it is the same every year. The most popular players, the ones that everybody knows. I think maybe we should start getting a pool going on who will be the underdogs this year that will upset a couple teams and make it into the next round, and which big teams will bow out of the round robin.
Real Deal I understand your point. popular players are the ones to watch for. but thats not necessarily the case all the time. remember last years final mvp? i dont think anyone thought it would be scotty myra but he stepped up. anybody can produce at anytime. maybe i should have made the suggestion who will step out of the shadows this year? time and time again you see the popular players have miserable tournaments (i wont name names but players from ROI laos england and even norway know who they are). this year we will witness more players breaking out i guarentee it.
Special One signing off
Right. I like where this conversation is going. Let's start talking about the teams now.
So who is someone who's a solid, strong player that nobody really talks about, but plays for a top team? Because those are the people you're going to see make a big impact.
As for underdogs, and top teams bowing out early, of Clock Cleaner's top 8, I think you're looking at Scotland and Chile. Scotland's strength is holding off teams from scoring, but if they get a couple fluke goals scored on them, they aren't likely to make a big comeback. Chile won't have the same power they did last year, with lots leaving for El Salvador.
The top 4 teams are each in their own pool, so you know France will probably be coming out of one of the pools, and that same pool gets stuck with 2 or 3 other good teams, then you're possibly looking at a team like ROI, Laos or Ukraine going out early too. It all depends on the draw. Actually, it would not be a huge surprise to see ROI go out early. If Laos or Ukraine leave early, that is a failure.
I think Scotland will has the better chance of bowing out a little early. They lost their goalie from last year who is an amazing keeper. It will hurt them really badly because this tournament is built around teams that play strong together and have a strong goalie. Look what happened to Canada last year. Besides the fact that they played poorly except for one game, the goals that went in were quite weak. Their starter keeper left after the first match and they were left with a young goalie who was inexperienced. I would like to see a really big name go out early, like ROI, France, Laos, just because it will make the tournament realistic. I mean that every team can be beaten and will be by any other team on any given day. I think Botswana might be the upsetter of the tourney. I don't think they will make it out of their group but they might tie some team which in turn knock them out. There are two groups of five and two groups of six this year so there should be at least two to three good teams in each group. Should be interesting.
alligator are you insane? you are picking roi to go out in the first round? that means they'd have to lose 2 games out of 4 and they have only lost 1 ever. BOLD! i do not see any big teams going out early but i would say my first to drop would be france. they have a couple terrible players and a few of the most overrated. and who is the big sleeper you ask? well this may not seem like a sleeper but i would pick ukraine. nobody seems to be expecting them the win but i could easily see them knocking off one of the big 2 in a semi or quarter. also i'd like to talk additions what teams have added who and such?
I am not insane, and hey, anything is possible. It's not that unrealistic...say they get grouped with France and El Salvador or something, they could lose to both those teams. It's a reach, for sure, but not impossible. They don't have a good goalie anymore, and that's huge.
France will be good, and they keep adding good players. They will definitely be a terror.
But honestly, unless they meet in the semis or quarters, it's gonna be laos and ukraine in the final.
Also, what do you guys think of these rankings? I think they're pretty accurate...it's tough to tell though.
Looks like the Canada forum is finally up
http://www.canada-soccer.ca/Forum/
the real deal should change his name to real retard
Well this conversation went downhill fast. Good arguement by the way, well thought out.
Real Deal man dont let that retard of Better than you get you buddy!! His name should be the Retarded one lol
or you should be the retarded one, your name isn't even a word
HOLY SHIT...real "retard"??? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That is absolute gold...GOLD.
I have actually never heard anything as clever as that. Seriously, I'm in shock. Like did you guys see how he switched "deal" with "retard"?? He totally made Real Deal look stupid.
Then he totally called MAT14S out on his name! I mean...everyone was thinking it, I didn't think someone would actually SAY it!
WATCH OUT FOR THE THIRD DEGREE BURNZ
...
I guess it was only a matter of time until the idiots figured out how to sign up.
France seems to be making a statement by recruiting some high level players, but will they be able to live up to their hype? i think we can all remember the last couple years and how england suffered such dissapointment with a roster that appeared to be unreal on paper, but average when the team stepped onto the field.
... thought i'd stir the pot before i actually got into any serious debate, you guys are distracted so easily
Yo "Better" than you .. thats my name .. My name is Matias ... and my name is like this MAT14S bcuz 14 is favourite number dumbass!!
Thats cute you made yourself a nickname with your shortened name and your favorite number congrats!
Anyway yes France will be a good team but what kind of chemistry will they have? I know they have Bachelu, Manz, Wernikowski, Shane, Scholan but honestly will they get them through to the next round? I can see France being a real let down. Ranking them 5th is ridiculous with the fact they are a new team who no one has seem played. Hey "better than you" good point with the england comparison. Yes on paper France looks awesome, but until I see them actually play a WCP game i would rank them in the bottom half.
Special One signing off
the special one, i dunno what your resources your getting but Wernikowski and Shane are not on team France. I would put them in between 4-6 in rankings
shane is on france
They are definitely in the 4-6 ranking.
Special One you don't even know who's on the team. There's bachelu, manz, marchinko, peever, kashmir, coons, the younger meloche, maybe scholan, don't know about wernikowski(can't see him leaving Ireland), and yianni harbis(Mr.Greece) and kevin murphy(Mr.England) have supposedly left their countries and joined France.
So you're left with those players, and some other decent players as well, and you're looking at one of the best starting lineups in the tournament.
Shane is not on France.
Alright Al Ligator thank you for your research. I dont mind being wrong since Im not living in regina fulltime but I say what I hear. Yes France has skilled players, but name one of those players that can play defence. 4-6 rankings is a bit ambitious for a team packed with forwards and attacking midfielders. Tristian was a good goalie on ROI because he had great defenders keeping shots from a distance. If they don't have any defenders don't expect France to have to best starting lineups. Best starting lineups will be found on teams like ROI Laos and Ukraine because of the depth and skill they possess.
Again sorry for any wrong doing.
Special One signing off
i think france will be an interesting team to see. it seems as though they have almost no defenders and lots of attacker but still not many goal scorers? (brett, scholan?, danny) i think they may find goals hard to come by. also they have a mixture of top notch players and guys who stink could be frustrating. ukraine big move is bringing benno in but in the process they failed to retain paul and danny. i'll call that one even. if roman makes it back, watch out. i'm not sure who decided that laos deserved to be ranked first. so they brought in northey. i think they will need more than that to topple roi who has beaten them every single year. maybe the ranking is more based on who roi have lost rather than who laos got. not sure. but i am sure collins has replacements lined up we just don't know who?
My rankings
1.roi
2.ukraine
3.laos
4.france
i am not going to comment on el
ukraine easily replaced paul scholan and danny marchinko by getting josh patterson, andrew zerr and leon derks, they will be just fine.
And sven waelchli and steve delong. not to mention they still have riley meloche and dillon ferridge. Roman isn't coming back. Ukraine is going to be a force.
ROI dropped in ranking because they lost Tristan and Brett. How can they not drop after losing those two?
I say the top 4 rankings would be
1.Laos
2.Ukraine
3.ROI
4.France
Laos in 1st because they beat ukraine in the semis last year, though i think by the end of the tourney, ukraine will have beaten laos.
I think Ukraine is definatly the dark horse heading into the tournamnet. Zerr and Patterson will definatly add a youthful scoring threat that is much stronger than the tandem of Scholan and Marchenko. With the addition of Benno at the back they should be easily a top four team. Don't count out ROI. I have heard of a few players that they have recruited to fill the voids left by Bachelu and Tristan. Ranking wise:
1.ROI
2.Laos
3.Ukraine
4.
Its hard to tell who can take over a top four spot other than hese three teams. Teams like France and ES will have to prove they can actually play together and win before they can be ranked that high. Scotland will be a letdown this year and Im not sure if teams like Germany and Portugal can power through the playoffs. Hope to see everyone at the draw!
Until then..
Special One signing off
Watch out, We did all we can and now we are out for the hunt. One thing I can tell you is that our team has 15 Arabs out of 18. Non of our players are known to any-body and they are all new which I hope adds to the spirit of the tournament this year. see you all in the draw. ;)
P.S: Keep your eyes for 2 surprise players that for sure will bring level of WCP to another level.
yea probably fighting, seeing is thats all you guys do in the premier league, losers.
I'm excited for Saudi Arabia. They have good fans, and despite their bad tempers, they'll be good for the tournament. They should compete too.
I look forward to watching them anyway.
Yes Saudi Arabia should be a good team. From what I've seen they work well as a team and can play the role of a team such as Portugal or Germany. Not The most skilled team, but could suprise anyone at any time. This year should be the most exciting year. So many top teams its hard to say what teams will make it out of what pool. Guess we have to wait until the draw to start predicting.
Special One signing off
Yes Saudi Arabia should be a good team. From what I've seen they work well as a team and can play the role of a team such as Portugal or Germany. Not The most skilled team, but could suprise anyone at any time. This year should be the most exciting year. So many top teams its hard to say what teams will make it out of what pool. Guess we have to wait until the draw to start predicting.
Special One signing off
i believe the big question on saudi arabia will they be able to get together and really put their stamp on the wcp cup. i personally think they will and that is why they'll become wcp cup's DIRTIEST TEAM EVER. i have seen this team slide tackle studs up small children who are passing around in the eventplex lobby. there is little doubt that they reach above and beyond all expectations.
I agree with noitall, if anything that team should be banned from the tournament, all they do is bring trouble to the facility, look at last week and i heard stories of them threating other players off the field.
they are a joke, and there fans are even worse.
wow saudi arabia guy makes one innocent comment and you guys just start bashing the team.
thats super fantastic that you guys have passion. too bad your team sucks and you have no chance at winning the tournament. What is your excuse going to be when you don't make it out of your group? you were missing some of your passion players?
Wow I couldn't resist posting after this one. Noor this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. I like how I knee someone or Germany gets a red card and they are dirty. On the other hand your entire team gets in a fight. Passion. Seems like a bit of a double standard. I have no illusions of the fact that kneeing people is outside the game I don't try to condone it as "passion". Noor maybe you should take a hard look in the mirror before you accuse the whole soccer community of being ignorant and dumb. Just because I can do something with with passion doesn't mean its the right thing to do
your right, you will see us on the feild. And you can bring all the passion you want, but it cant change the fact that you guys wont be able to beat a good team. Your illusion of passion for the game is really just another excuse for Saudi's bush league soccer style. Nice try.
I did not call the soccer community dumb. And yes i do mean my players have a lot more passion than a lot of people. I am not going to answer you mike cuz I still say, no one is innocent. Action cause a reaction. also, we will do our best, and if teams play better than us then they deserve to win and we deserve to lose. but to talk shit about us like all the other teams are innocent lambs and we are the devils of regina soccer, that is like I said DUMB.
Noor
Im agreeing with Mike on this one. If the Saudi Arabian team plays dirty it can not be marked as "passion". Just using Mike as an example: if he even comes close to a player smaller the crowd boos and calls him dirty, but if an unrecognized player, maybe a Saudi, commits a hard foul fans contradict themselves and call it passion. I heard about some instances of fighting and dirty tackles coming from the Premier Saudi team and all I have to say is that If your willing to dish it, don't expect teams to sit back and watch you spread your "passion". This isn't a direct threat to the Saudi team but to every team. At the end of the day the words "dirty" and "passion" are no where near the same.
Special One signing off
Holy crap, I didn't realize how much of a bad reputation we have until I got on this thread. For mike, I always said to him that he is a great player both skill and passion, but the guy can also be dirty and I also told him this. The guys aren't that bad, the reffs are horrible. Maybe one or two refs are good and one of them is Carl, and the rest are nothing. They dont know how to control the game and the result is a rough game. My guys will not wait for the reff to protect them so they will protect themselves when shit happens to them. But anyways, you guys say and think what you want. At least we got some talk about my team finally. LOL. and may the best team win.
Noor
Also, it makes it that much sweeter when we beet you. ALL OF YOU.
you guys lost to magicos, aka el salvador and chile, good luck
We have still not met our petential. but we will for WCP. I promise you that.
You guys aren't going to magically get any better, you're not good. I bet you win one game and its against someone shitty. Your team gets too pissed off and than they are even worse, teams with skill will dominate you. Physically and with there skill.
Good luck.
Don't worry noor...I still believe Saudi Arabia will do good. People underestimate how much playing together as a team all year helps when world cup rolls around. good luck to saudi arabia.
I don't need to go around trashing other teams like everyone else...you can only just hope no one brings up your team in a topic or every asshole on here will start trashing it, no matter what team.
Laos? Waaaa too many non heritage players.
Austria? Boooo they suck who cares
ROI? Waaaa Mike is dirty
Chile? Waaaaa their fans are idiots
Point is, you can find something wrong with every team. Get over it. BE NICE.
nothing was wrong with botswana, they were probably the best team to watch ever, im sad there gone.
everyone misses botswana
There is a poster at the facility that is advertising coaching positions for....
get ready for this...
Botswana!
Looks like despite all contradiction, Botswana apparently has a team.
I think Saudi Arabia is going to do better than what most people are expecting. The team plays well together and they move the ball nicely. They have a bad temper, but we can use that against them. Tempers never scare me, their tackles might be foolish but then tackle them back. If the game turns into something bad then the ref should be blamed. Look at Germany that one year, they were doing stupid tackles every game. Everybody said the same thing about Canada as well. They are not bad. I just hope that Noor can tell his boys to tackle hard, but not studs up from behind, because I know I won't lose sleep putting foolish Arabs in the hospital.
Germany never does stupid tackles, we just play hard to the whistle.
How is chile gonna be this year? Haven't they lost all there good players to el salvador?
hopefully chile lost a few drums and a good chunk of their ruckus causing fans. can't stand them!
chile did lose some players, but I think they're picking up a bunch of the magicos men's team players.
I dont think the Magicos players will make up for the talent that Chile lost. I mean the magicos are 4-8 in Premier mens and have only been winning since Adam got back. Adam is a good player to bad Chile couldn't get him.
mmm yeah... the thing about that is I'm pretty sure they did get him
mmm yeah... The thing about that is he is not playing for chile... but for el Salvador
mmm yeah...the thing about that is you're a giant douche.
it's ok man.. People are wrong all the time..
It doesn't matter who Chile has, they are going to have to make sure they do not start falling apart like they do so easily once things do not start out the way they want them to. Chile has good players on their squad they just get down way to fast. They need to keep their head up because this game can shift very fast. I am excited to see what teams are going to bring, I wonder how much teams like Jamaica and Canada want it, they have done well in the past but shit the bed last year, they are both teams that can always upset other teams, you cannot deny it. Besides last year their track record speaks for itself. Same with Germany, Greece, Portugal.
lets have your picks for the best ten players of this up coming wcp cup
mine are
mike collins ireland
brett france
kevin holness jamaica
karl dahle germany
Yianni harbis france
boun loas
mark ireland
steve from yorton ukraine
kelly nap scottland
stephan husdal norway
Well as a player for the Republic Of Ireland I would have to say first and foremost...I am Irish. Now that we have established that I would like to say of all the tournaments/Provincials/Nationals, etc. that I have been fortunate enough to be a part of, this is my favourite tournament. I hope the dilemma about player heritage sorts itself out sooner than later but personally I am playing with PRIDE for my country. Also, I think the level of this tournament with regards to skill is getting better every year. It would be a shame for any country to create an incident. I was personally elbowed intentionally in the face last year and I could have easily taken matters into my own hands and showed the crowd that "I am a MAN". Seriously though, that is bullshit. If you are a better player you expect some "knocks" from lesser players but when you let "passion" be your excuse then you have already failed. Immaturity can't be excused for even being ethnically stereotyped as a passionate people. Many backgrounds fancy themselves as having a personal pride and defending their honour and that of their country. With that said, any country that becomes a part of an incident that stains the reputation of this tournament should be permanently banned. My point is that there are powerhouses in this tournament that are going to walk all over teams that have cohesiveness in spades but lack some technical skills and structure. Those teams in my opinion should respect themselves enough to learn what this tournament comprises of for skill and act with a pride in what they represent in a sport not what they have to prove in order to maintain their "machismo". I look forward to a great competition and an amazing atomosphere (including the Chilean's drums). It is the fans that make me want to come back each year. I hope that I can not only live up to my reputation but exceed expectations of the soccer community. I suspect R.O.I. will have some highlight reel moments despite how we will finally fare and I hope to be a part of them too! My opinion is that we will retain our status as Champions of WCP 2009 but we will have to work hard to do so. I believe we have what it takes to win. So...here's hats off to what should be the best bang for your buck for two weeks in Regina. Thanks again to Kevin for starting this excellent forum for the beautiful game.
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