Re: Rating the favorites


Lucky Devin wrote:
> Really? Even with home-field, I don't see them making it to the finals,
> but you never know with the Germans.

Many said the same about France circa 1998. Germany have many decent
players, established or new (Ballack, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Podolski).
If they peak just in time, with helps from homer refs, who knows? Korea
were worse and they made it to the semi.

>
> > 3. England, Spain
> > 5. The Netherlands, France
>
> The Dutch, even with the group they are in? Over Portugal who has a
> much easier group, or do you not rate them highly?

The reason I left out Portugal is because they haven't done anything in
the WCs since 66 (!!!). Yes, so have Spain but I rate Spain's squad a
little higher. Figo and Pauletta are all old. Andrade, Cavalho,
Ferrara, and Deco are good, but who else can Portugal count on?
Quaresma? Simao? Postiga? MOUTINHO!!!1111!!!!!? I rate Portugal a
quarter-finalist, anything beyond that will be a surprise. Spain on the
other hand have quality everywhere (possibly 3rd or 4th most talented
team). If they can sort out their attack, they'll be awesome.

The Netherlands got hosed. Doesn't mean that if they got out of that
group, they won't be able to go the distance. Extra difficulty is the
reason they were moved from 2nd to 5th. Ditto Argentina, Italy, and
Czech.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: on RAF Bomber Command
    ... Can todays Dresden tell Britain they would never have used ... Does anyone believe that the Germans would not have firebombed Britain ... The memorial should go ahead for that reason - for the people who were ... celebrating their country's 'victory', ...
    (uk.politics.misc)
  • Re: Over-Compartmentalization of Imperial German HSF
    ... borders, but there seems no obvious reason why, once deployed,  they ... squashed between French and Russian armies. ... area of transit cost the Germans the ability to hit hard on the right ... that deployment east ie. not against France would have been ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: QUARTER 3: Argentina - Germany [R]
    ... Dreadful finishing. ... germans know their trade too well. ... semis, ... But let's first wait for Spain to do ...
    (rec.sport.soccer)
  • Re: Holocaust-Why
    ... Which objective reason do you have for antisemitism? ... Martin Luther wrote On the Jews and Their Lies ... at all limited to the Germans, ... Jews tried to monopolize "fair play" inventing communism ...
    (soc.culture.german)
  • Re: WW1 wounded shipped back to UK?
    ... No part of the Netherlands was occupied by the Germans - the country ... Dutch border *were* occupied, so it seems impossible that he could ... Battalion, then you'll find a hotlink to the ones kept for that Battalion. ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)