i'll stick mr.hama with this one. no offense to greek soccer but despite their spectacular tactics and whatnot, packing their goal pissed me off. i also wanted to see the czech in the finals.
Looks like Iraq's chances have taken a bit of a hit: http://football.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,14546,-4278612,00.html Bernd Stange resigns as Iraqi manager, citing safety concerns. Stange said he was heeding advice from the German Foreign Office as well as his own security detail.
they too play like greece. the major difference was they don't have as much skill as the greek. they have a few players who can run fast on a counter attack but they don't have much variation in their offense. i don't know how they played against singapore and india so can't tell much though. mighty japan at full power will squash them at least 5-0. fluke won't happen again in asia cup and mascut
the greece debates must be all over the world among soccer fans. i wonder if this happened if denmark or czech won it.
Back to the original subject... Comparing the abilities and tactics of the Greeks with those of the Asian teams in the upcoming tournament, I would say that Jordan is a viable candidate to be the blackhorse of the competition. Their last game with Iran in the world cup qualifiers was in almost all its entirety a preview of the Euro final between Portugal and Greece. The Jordanian team has made tremendous advances in the last 2 years and though you may find the FIFA ranking system completely idiotic (The USA is ranked higher than the Czeck Republic and Belgium is still in the top 20!) you have to admit that for a team to advance nearly 50 spots, something radical must have changed. I think that if the Jordanian players handle well the whole atmosphere of the competition and the intimidation of playing a much bigger name such as South Korea in their first game, they will be the surprise of this championship.
I'm not trying to be negative and honestly, winning the tournament would make my day. But what have we done lately to make your "b**ch slapping" prophesy come true? We haven't won this tournament since the f***king dark ages and yes, we did very well in the World Cup. But since then, the national team's performance to match that remarkable run is long overdue. Frankly, your overtures in this particular forum (I'm not sure if you've just lost it completely now or are just f***king around) can make me understand why the rest of Asia thinks Korea is arrogant. I've always placed my support behind the national team. If my math is right, based on the fact that you've just entered college, you might have been a wee bit young when Korea played Argentina on that night in 1986... I was supporting the team even then so please, don't tell me to cut slack. I'm only realistic and speaking with an objective mind when it comes to our national team. And frankly, I wouldn't mind our Olympic team doing well in the Olympics either. The way I see it, the one true prize is the World Cup. Using either of these tournaments as a way to test out new players or new tactics and then have them at our disposal for the World Cup would please me more than having a championship medal from the Asian Cup and then come up empty handed at the World Cup. That's where everyone's perspective differs. I congratulate Greece on their victory in Euro'2004. It's unprecedented (although Denmark's 92 victory would be on par, albeit that tournament was still the 8 team tournament as opposed to the expanded 16 team tournament). But if Greece win this tournament and fail to qualify for Germany 2006, it's pointless in my opinion. Brasil experimented with new tactics in Copa America 2000 to realize that their tactics were ********** and revised them for the World Cup. Colombia went on to win Copa America 2000 only to miss the big dance.