Monday, March 9, 2009

Preview A Pool: Group C

Group C

Scotland
Norway
Poland
Italy
Germany
Portugal

Scotland will be hard-pressed to defend their bronze medal performance of last year, with a fairly hard group again this year. Norway, Germany and Portugal will all be hungry to exact revenge after all failed to make it past the first round last year. Italy and Poland should be no pushovers though, because none of the teams in this pool are good enough to win even if they play bad. This pool will be tight.

Prediction: Scotland, Norway, and Germany have all lost players of significance, so it's quite unclear who the top team is in this group. That being said, I think Scotland will still come first, with Germany in second. Scotland proved they could win without their keeper in the bronze medal game last year and they have great team discipline. Norway, Germany and Portugal won't be nearly as organized as Scotland, and will be fighting it out for second. Germany should be the stronger of these teams and make it through. Expect Italy or Poland to make the pool very interesting and beat a couple of the better teams.

Game to watch: Scotland vs. Germany. Arguably the two best teams in the group, and will likely determine who will get first.

52 comments:

better than you said...

Pretty good outline of the group, except Germany did make it past the first round last year.

Clock Cleaner said...

When I said first round, I meant first playoff round. Germany lost to Laos. Norway also lost to Ukraine in the quarters too... fyi.

Al Ligator said...

I'll go with Portugal and Scotland here. Scotland can survive losing JD, but they won't make it past the quarters. Neither will any other team in this pool.

DaShoeLace said...

Scotland and Germany will both make it through with four wins.

Da_Bomb said...

This pool will be weird.. i think there will be a couple ties that will make it tight, but i think Scotland and Germany get by, not sure who gets first and who gets second.

scott.myrah said...

I agree. I can see this pool being lead by either Germany Scotland Portugal and even Norway. Maybe this pool will be the pool C of last year and come down to goals for and against.

Special One signing off

Clock Cleaner said...

This pool will be very close. I honestly think it's going to be a complete toss-up between Scotland, Norway, Germany and Portugal. They're all so mediocre. It will be interesting to see if one or two of them can really step up.

You just know that Italy or Poland will destroy one of those team's chances in this pool too.

D-struction said...

I'd say Germany first Scotland second since as far as I know Scotland has only lost players of significance and has not gained any... could be wrong tho. Although they may not be the biggest names in the tournament and both have lost a couple players, count on them to make it out of the first round and at the very least disrupt the favourites.

ole gunnar said...

this group is hard to call. Scotland has only had one good year in the tournament. Germany has never really played well. Norway lost so many guys. Its tough to tell which teams will show up. Hopefully there are upsets (if you could call them that in this group)
go italy!

Romeo 55 said...

scotland will lose all there games in every disvision

like the youth there hole team is is that chase kid the will lose to like both of the couch sons suck balls there r more terrible then my son n he doesnt even play

n all the scotland team talk to much shit i hope some team kick all of there ass all the way bacl to scotland

better than you said...

thanks for making whatever point you are trying to get across extremely difficult to read. I don't even think you had a complete sentence that i could understand, but you should definitly keep writing things on here because they are very comical.

FrenchKiss said...

Please remember when you are leaving a message on this site, that everyone reading it may not be from botswana, and may require english to understand whatever it was you were trying to say. if this comes as a problem, i recommend grade ten english class.

Romeo 55 said...

please remember that scotland suckd balls like you do.
And es will win the whole goddam tourament.
what fucking team do you play for bitch.

Da_Bomb said...

You need to chill son. Plus, you probably suck anyways. So shutup.

Al Ligator said...

hahaha whoaaaa there bots. Psycho. No need for profanity.

scott.myrah said...

Rumor has it Germany has added three UofS players to their roster.

1. Duncan McDougall
2. Adam Lang
2. Simon Kluge

Definatly will help having a better goalie this year, however Simon just came off surgery on his wrist and my not be 100% come mid-April. Duncan will add much skill to a weaker mid-field and from what I've heard Adam is a very physical defender with alot of pace. Personally im backing Germany to snag first place in this group, but will have some tough games getting there.

Special One

Da_Bomb said...

o'snap

and just so you know, its laing* not lang and he is a tough player.

better than you said...

Remember, Rumors are only Rumors..

german4life said...

from what i can tell germany isnt an issue. They are a totally new team this year not to mention they wont have karl who has been the heart and sole of that team and the only reason they have beat any teams in the past.

I ask you this germany who will score your goals and win your games now

i say norway and portugal go through

better than you said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
better than you said...

who is going to get it done for norway this year? from what i've heard they have lost almost every key aspect from their team last year.
Unless they did some serious recruiting, i don't think norway will be much of a threat.

ole gunnar said...

did i hear correctly that norway tied ukraine? with 10 guys? maybe re-evaluate where they stand. They may have lost some players but they are still only two years past their championship.
Anyone seem to remember evan campbell leaving norway? Yea they won the tourney the next year...

XA91 said...

Easy Special One... sounds like your going to be Laing's groupie and you don't even know the guy... your quite into the loop aren't you?

Laing, Duncan and Simon will all make a difference for Germany.
Laing is a big lad who is very strong... as for a highly touted pace... I am not too sure about that.
Duncan has great foot skills and is a strong player for his size...
As for Simon... before his surgery he was in great form... so he is a question mark I'd say.

better than you said...

Who did Norway get to make up for losing Coons, Jarvis, patterson and rolfe ? Those players were a huge part of Norway's past success.

Romeo 55 said...

the two teams that are going throw are norway and germany those two team are very strong and will go throw two the 2nd round.


does scotland have a strong team sombody told me that they suck.

better than you said...

appears bots has come back with a different alias... just can't get away from not liking scotland can you.
and it's through, not throw. Throwing is what you do when you play baseball.

Romeo 55 said...

wow you guys are cool makeing fun of the black guy.

and so what if bots think scotland sucks everyone does any way.

maybe if scotland didnt talk so much shit. maybe people would like them and think there a good team.bam bam bam bam can you dig that suckerrrrrrrrr?

Good Times said...

anyone seen the scotland nigeria game today? i think scotland was.... boom there goes the dynamite

better than you said...

Yeah i heard scotland lost 2-1... that doesnt speak well for them, considering how people have predicted nigeria to be in the bottom third of teams this year.

german4life said...

Ok lets be honest here germany is going to win this group easily. Germany is twice as good as they were last year. Every player on the team is a capable of scoring goals and tackling hard and we have an amazing goalie in the net. I feel sorry for any team that has to come up agianst us

german4life said...

germany vs scotland - germany marks tavis = game over germany wins
germany vs poland - could be a game, I don't no who poland has

germany vs italy - germany has more skill and muscle game over germany wins

germany vs portugal - this will be a better game portugal plays decent soccer but wont be able to hold germanys scoring abilities

finally
germany vs norway norway has some good players who are organized and smart but very defensive. Im looking forword to this game it will be a fun one exciting soccer and alot of ball movement

better than you said...

so now that tavis is no longer good, who is going to score goals for scotland?

Anonymous said...

how can you show skill when you dont get the ball?

better than you said...

well, that didn't answer my question, but thanks anyways.

Schweinsteiger said...

Germany is going to walk on this group.

ole gunnar said...

i dont think that will happen. germany has the same core of players that have done shit all in the past world cups. I dont see the trend changing so I expect scotland norway and portugal to put 6 apiece behind simon in the german net.

And simon is real good so that should tell you how bad their defense is

german4life said...

germany is a completely new team this year it is even being ran by someone new we have alot of players that have moved on and been replaced with very good players We will give any team in this tournment a run for there money

better than you said...

haha, 6 a peice? ireland was the only team last year to put in more than 3 on us, and our team is stronger this year... i don't see your logic behind that. same core of players? not really, losing zerr, bolen, brady, peto... is that not the majority of the core players? and bad defence? give me a break. look at norways team in general. they lost nearly every player of importance that they had.
they have klempner in net... can't see that being a strong addition. you no longer have jarvis at the back.... thats not going to help you any. Braden and goose at the back..weak.... so lets say they score 6 against the germans... won't help much if they are giving up goals into double digits.

XA91 said...

This may be the first and only time that I agree with Ole Gunnar as he is a complete DOUSCHE BAG... and I can't stand the guy what so ever.... Ole your a dud!

With there being soo many players on the field, and the ref's lack of calling fouls... the quality of the defenders isn't as important as the defenders willingess to kick the shit out of the attackers.
I remember playing against Norway last year, and nothing against their defenders... but they aren't anything spectacular. Yet they were strong, and fierce that it was almost impossible to turn the defender without being taken down or ran over.... which in this tournament is a strong point as the ref don't call as much fouls.
So with that being said, Norway's defence will not be bad by any means as they are suited for the enviroment that this tournament presents.

But a 6 piece on Simon, let's be real Ole.... they have Adam Laing back there, that a 5 piece is abit more realistic!

ole gunnar said...

oh julio. I can still hear your cries ringing out. The only thing muffling them is your fat ass.
The team is built on strong defending. thats what won us a championship so we'll stick to our guns. We will score more goals than last year guranteed, even with the loss of some of our more gifted players. We have replaced them and will still find ways to score.
As I recall it was you who once gloriously put it "it doesn't matter if we win 1-0, 2-1, 5-2, 7-6, or 13-3" haha

I am looking forward to the germany game. should be a good one to open the group.

XA91 said...

Alright Ole... my ass is getting rock solid, I just can't help if I got the J.Lo genes.... as I do recall last fall you almost were in the same weight class.

Oh you did not just bring out that legendary quote... its been what 2/3 years since I used that marvellous quote during a key match up! Thats one for the ages tho

Well Ole... it was not pleasent getting shit kicked, but yes we lost and I do admit defeat... I am just saying, Germany does have Adam Laing aka Crusher, and the reffing at the tournament may suit his bulldozing ways! lol

Anonymous said...

What was the score in the friendly game between poland and serbia? How did poland look?

Schweinsteiger said...

didn't see the game, but i have seen poland play and they don't look to be in contention to make it out of this group. don't write them off though, they could be a spoiler team in this group if someone takes them lightly.

german4life said...

germany is the best ! thats all there is to talk about in this group

they are far better then any other team in this tournment

ole gunnar said...

sorry we didnt put 6 up julio...

Johnny Walker said...

I think you germans got another thing coming if you think your going to walk over this pool. I c a third place finish in the pool for germany, and its going to be a fight between us(Norway) and Scottland for first. but whoever wins this pool is going to have a rough first round of playoffs vs (most likely) Jamaica or Ireland.

But props do have to go out to ES, the score in there didnt really tell how that game really went, but a couple key mess ups on D and it cost them 3 goals

Johnny Walker said...

p.s. I thought in our game against Germany where playing against the ref as much as we where playing against the other team.

Anyone agree, or do i need to lay off the AngelMethCrack

XA91 said...

I dont think the 5-3 score line was a fair showing of the Austria match for ES..... but we did seem to shut down once we were up a few, and that was a mistake... atleast it happened early.. and hopefully we do learn.

Ole... I am a bit upset about you guys not getting the 6 piece... as if you let that 40yr old guy number 17 take more free kicks he would have had atleast 4 goals himself! Apology is accepted.
Hard luck on the lose today, I thought it should have been a draw atleast.

Johnny Walker said...

Anyone else notice the complete lack of cards in this tourny.

I got taken out dirty in the game against Scottland. But I obviously dont know what it looked like from the ref's point of view, But during the ROI Greece game, Jimmy was on a rampage, although it did cost his team a goal when he tried to play the body and ended up falling himself

Illegal Alien said...

I agree, how that Greek defender didn't get a red card blows my mind. Nobody feels sorry for ROI but they were playing a good game and that guy went absolutely nuts, especially when he attempted a flying tackle on Collins who was smarter and quicker and ducked underneath it. An absolute joke. Collins did nothing wrong and even if he did, doing crap like that does not belong in the game. Plus he was yelling at the ref and booted the ball away at the end of the game. He could and should have received cards for all those things.

Johnny Walker said...

Other than breaking the trophy, he did nothing wrong! lol

but yeah ive noticed real lack of decipline so far, lots of players kicking away balls, for free kicks and kick-ins, not listening to the refs at all when being told to give space, etc etc, never mind some of the rougher play

Cheezy said...

I have to agree the refereeing in this tournament has been atrocious. It just seems that the refs are letting everything go, and then after a while they get board and call the next thing that happens. I'm confused as shit about most of what is getting called and I am definitely dumbfounded by what hasn't been called. It's one thing to let players play it's another to let players play dirty.