Despite favorites, I was looking through the groups, and trying to figure out which teams I'll be rooting for: I won't bore anyone with my reasons why. Costa Rica Ecuador Germany Poland England Paraguay Sweden Trinidad & Tobago Argentina Ivory Coast Netherlands Serbia & Montenegro Angola Iran Mexico Portugal Australia Brazil Croatia Japan France South Korea Switzerland Togo Saudi Arabia Spain Tunisia Ukraine
Costa Rica Ecuador Got TST tickets for them, so I have to root for them. Germany Won't be any fun if the home team is losing Poland England Paraguay Sweden Trinidad & Tobago Cinderella always looks good at the dance. Argentina Ivory Coast Netherlands Fun fans and exciting team to watch Serbia & Montenegro Angola Iran Mexico Can't go wrong cheering against a team Portugal Australia Glass slipper, see above. Brazil Croatia Japan Ditto France South Korea Working with Koreans so partially work driven. Switzerland Togo Saudi Arabia Spain Tunisia Ukraine Don't care at all
I'll give it a go..... Costa Rica Ecuador Germany Poland England Paraguay Sweden Trinidad & Tobago Argentina Ivory Coast Netherlands Serbia & Montenegro Angola Iran Mexico Portugal Australia Brazil Croatia Japan France South Korea Switzerland Togo Saudi Arabia Spain Tunisia Ukraine
Costa Rica /Germany England /Trinidad Holland /Ivory Coast ( i love to see the argies lose ) Portugal /Angola USA /USA Japan /Croatia France /Korea Spain / Saudi Arabia ( it would be great to see them advance ahhaha )
Costa Rica Ecuador Germany Poland England Paraguay Sweden Trinidad & Tobago Argentina Ivory Coast Netherlands Serbia & Montenegro Angola Iran Mexico Portugal Australia Brazil Croatia Japan France South Korea Switzerland Togo Saudi Arabia Spain Tunisia Ukraine
Interesting q. Going in, I'm thinking it may include: Costa Rica Sweden Ivory Coast Netherlands Croatia Togo But I use "support" in a very loose sense, and the fact is that predicting who I will be pulling for other than the U.S. is a very flexible thing in my experience. A couple of flops or dirty tackles, or a pack-it-in-play-for-a-tie mentality, and I'll move on to someone else, while a wide open attack with crisp passing and some individual flair, and I'm ready to become a fan. Also, something as random as meeting a nice person from a given country could pull me toward a given team, so you really never know....
As much as I dislike Mexico when we're playing them or in a round robin competition with them the beauty of international soccer is that you can hate anyone in your region while your playing them but you should support their efforts abroad. FIFA didn't award CONCACAF 3 and 1/2 spots at the WC because Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica or Honduras deserve to be there. The extra playoff spot was awarded because of the success of the U.S. AND Mexico not to mention a decent showing from Costa Rica in a very touch group (comparitively). I'll root for Mexico to get out of their group at any World Cup. Sorry if any disagree.
This is erroneous. Mexico doing well at the WC may help CONCACAF keep it's extra 1/2 spot, but it will also help Mexico keep its seed at the next WC. We have a lot more to gain from Mexico tanking and losing its seed than we do to lose from Mexico tanking and CONCACAF losing the extra 1/2 spot. I hope the Mexies lose every game 5-0. As for the other groups, all I really care about is the US but I suppose I'll be pulling for: A: Germany, Costa Rica B: England, Trinidad C: Holland, Ivory Coast D: Angola, Portugal F: Australia, Japan G: South Korea, Switzerland H: Ukraine, Spain
Mexico didn't keep us from a seed at the '06 WC. a 32nd place performance at the '98 cup had much more to do with it. We determine our own destiny in that sense and it's conceivable that with a good cup from both sides in this cup... both will get seeds in 2010 at the expense of a European "power"
A: Poland B: England/T&T C: Netherlands D: Portugal E: (USA, of course) F: Australia G: France/Togo H: Spain i should really root for the crappies teams in each group other than E to win though... just to make things easier for the 'nats.
Mexico got the 6th and final seed at the last WC (host and defending champ get them automatically, although it's safe to say both Brazil and Germany would've gotten them anyway). We were 7th in line. If we'd done well enough in past WCs to earn a seed at this one, it would've been at the expense of Mexico. Thus, it's not in our interest for Mexico to do well in the World Cup. If any of you are honestly scared that the last half spot is going to be the difference between the US qualifying and not qualifying anyway then you're pretty much **************.
Its not just about the U.S. having a bit of breathing room between qualifying and not qualifying. You want the confederation to do well when they make an appearance because the confederation is already looked down upon. We're already treated like we're one of the biggest BS teams in the world that qualifies against crap teams cup after cup. The US needs the confederation to do well as a whole for a number of reasons including ... future player contracts in big european contries or for further developement of the MLS... Mexico winning their group doesn't hurt us in the least. Mexico Loosing their group might give us a little bit of an edge trying to get the last seed at the 2010 WC but in the long run Mexico and T&T and Costa Rica and Honduras doing well helps out the players, coaches, fan base, and overall developement of U.S. soccer more than you might be thinking. I'de also like to point out that in 2002 we were just 3 point and 3 goals ahead of Honduras. One of two games going differently and it would make a difference. http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/p/pwc/q/rslt.html?tr=WC2002PRLCTCNCCF&stg=WC2002PRLCTCNCCFFNLR
Costa Rica Ecuador Germany Poland England Paraguay Sweden Trinidad & Tobago Argentina Ivory Coast Netherlands Serbia & Montenegro Angola Iran Mexico Portugal Australia Brazil Croatia Japan France South Korea Switzerland Togo Saudi Arabia Spain Tunisia Ukraine
Besides the US and Brazil and, I think probably, the UK, I don't know who's playing in this World Cup. But any team that the US can beat (or the two teams within each respective group the US has the best chance of beating) in the knockout rounds, I would want to put money on and hope for in order to ensure an easy path to the final.
wow thank you to people here who said that they would support Germany, my country too. Great. I saw there are many people supporting Germany. thank you. I support USA besides Germany of course.
Oh, I forgot, I should put money on Germany too. Every host nation makes the round of sixteen. And I should've figured the host nation would be playing in the World Cup to do that too...
yes it would be good bet on Germany. You can make a lot of money. I think we win the world cup. Remember my words. We play home, we are motivated and we are underrated by many teams. We have chance. bltleo
bltleo, I think there tends to be support of Germany amongst US fans. I realize that various people have their own preferences, but as a sum total of SamsArmy, the only team that we really dislike are to the immediate south of us, and we're negative on Costa Rica. Other than that, I don't think that there are teams that we collectively 'hate'. We dislike that we lost to Deutschland last time, but it's nothing against the squad; just the result. Plus, we know that German clubs have been good on the whole to US players, and I would think that far more Americans have contact and/or positive experiences with Germans than we do with Dutch, or Swedes, for example. Also, Klinsmann is highly thought of amonst the rw&b masses
I´m so happy to hear so much positive about Germany from Americans. I know you like Klinsmann. Maybe he will be coach of USMNT later. You never know. Many US players like Cherundulo, Keller play in Bundesliga. Donovan played with my team Leverkusen. So I know that many Americans follow Bundesliga. I use to post at Germany forum and I can tell you we have many fans from USA. They are fans of Bayern Munich or Leverkusen or other teams or simply German NT. We appreciate this. And me bltleo like USMNT. I know that you never forget the last game USA-GERMANY in world cup 2002. But oyu have chance to win in friendly next month and who knows if you advance to semi-finale we might meet there. I hope it will happen. Good luck for USMNT. It is my second favorite team. your bltleo from GERMANY