Quake3World

great game :icon14:

3 - 2 :icon14:

both teams played on top form. excellent game

Have it !

aye mun, only caught the 2nd half but thought the argies had it, great stuff

still doubt its a world cup winning team but it def aint the same team that played ireland

When England play like that, they are world class and make no mistake.

ENGERLAND! WOO!

Pauly wrote:When England play like that, they are world class and make no mistake.

aye but playing like that for a string of games isnt englands strongest point

no doubt about being a world class team, but winning the cup is another story

I must also congratulate England on this victory!

unfortunaly i didnt watch the game. it was only on pay-per-view and i refuse to support setanta sports.

they did show france vs. germany here in the states though. what a terrible, terrible game. it was dull and boring.

germany is pretty terrible. after barely scraping by a weak China, i thought they would really go all out against France.

i can't remember the last time a host country's team was so unprepared. can you?

i mean, i think they'll do fine, but they have little chance to win it imo. winning the whole thing should be expected from a country with such a powerful soccer tradition.

completely missed that game, what was the score ? remember france, as french as they may be, are not half bad at footy

0-0

neither team created very good chances at all and the game in general was really boring.

the french aren't bad but you have to admit they've been lacking a certain flair recently and throughout qualifying.

aye, same can be said for both teams but, havnt really been keeping an eye on them

noticed this though

1 Brazil
2 Netherlands
3 Argentina
4 Czech Republic
5 Mexico
6 France
7 USA <--
8 Spain
9 Portugal
10 Sweden
11 England
12 Turkey
13 Italy
14 Denmark
15 Germany
16 Japan
17 Poland
18 Iran
19 Costa Rica
20 Greece

yep, iran and costa rica in the top 20. that makes perfect sense, FIFA

iran is pretty good.

when was that list put out?

17 August 2005.

http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/ ... eid=108551

seremtan wrote:yep, iran and costa rica in the top 20. that makes perfect sense, FIFA

it does.

USA at #7 ? Heh we hardly play soccer here.

Chupacabra wrote:iran is pretty good.

roughly speaking, the measure of an nation's team is in how many players they have in the premier divisions of the top european leagues (i.e. england, spain, italy - or to a lesser extent france, germany, netherlands and portugal). i can't name a single iranian player, frankly

seremtan wrote:

Chupacabra wrote:iran is pretty good.

roughly speaking, the measure of an nation's team is in how many players they have in the premier divisions of the top european leagues (i.e. england, spain, italy - or to a lesser extent france, germany, netherlands and portugal). i can't name a single iranian player, frankly

A few of their players play in europe (mostly in the German league). Either way, I disagree with your statement. I mean sure, it can be used as some guide, but its not everything. I understand you're not saying this but I think its important to point out.

Consider that a couple of teams in the WC last time did quite well and their players didnt pack Europe's toughest leagues. if you want to call out and say that Korea for example got damn lucky, you can say that but look at the U.S. team or Mexico.

Those teams aren't filled with european club players and are quite good. McBride, Keller, Friedel (on smaller european teams), Borgetti and Marquez have now moved into Europe but the teams were pretty damn good before that (mostly in reference to mexico). In fact Mexico is one of the most consistently solid teams out there IMO. Anyway, i digress.

Here in the states on Fox Soccer Channel they've shown some Asian soccer (with Iran) and had a special on the team. They're pretty impressive IMO. You have to also remember that Iran is a relatively closed society. If youre considering and looking at Iran's history of players in Europe, its quite understandable that its pretty slim (considering the suckiness of Asian teams in the past and Iran's politics).

Also consider that a few of their players won a number of Asian individual player awards and the team is referred to as star studded as far as Asian teams go. They're a good Asian team and you have to admit the gap between Europe/SA and the rest of the world is getting smaller. Theres still a gap in my opinion, but theres not much of one at all between the top asian or concacaf or african teams and the weaker teams that are in europe and SA. When you consider that, its not unimaginable that a top Asian team would crack the top 20 list.

Remember when considering FIFA world rankings, its not about the long run or the short run. Iran doesnt have a rich soccer history and they aren't just placed on the list because they were randomly fluke good. So they're a solid team and lately have been doing well. Keep in mind that we're just talking about top 20 here, not top 5 or even top 10 or even top 15!

Anyway, I dont think its unreasonable to see them in the top 20 and from what I know and seen they're a pretty decent team. I'm not saying they'll make a breakthrough in the WC but they have a good shot at causing trouble and can become a Cinderella team.

Either way we'll see eh?

82 Wales