[Rain]

This forum only allows 20 names.
So I've had to combine some choices.

Name yours?

[Aberlour10]

Oranje boven!

(if they will be able to stop fight themselves)

Robert

[Gerben42]

Aargh now it has come into the forum also. I hope the Netherlands also, but since they are in the same option as Italy I will cheer for them also, especially since they are part of my "getting away from it all" program

[sceptic]

Dear abuse at Bridgebase

I wish to complain about Rain Lan's listing, WHY is Engerlanddd not at the TOP and on its own as a choice as it is clear cut we will win

Rgds
a very miffed

Sceptic

[Sigi_BC84]

England will win... the match for third place.

Actually I'd prefer England losing the final because David messes up during the penalty shooting :-).

--Sigi

[Rain]

I don't know much about football, but I'd really like for an African country to win this time. Its time!

[mike777]

In the Usa most of the pre World Cup Tv news is focusing on racism, violence and Nazi flags in the stands. They seem to talk more about the fear of violence towards the average unprotected fan/tourist than anything about the teams and play.

How much of this is overblown?

Can anyone beat Brasil?

[jdonn]

Ronaldinho could beat most of these teams by himself. The dude is a wizard.

[Gerben42]

Quote

How much of this is overblown?

All of it. There are some right extremist groups in the East of the country and they might organize a demonstration march or so but this should be of no concern of the fan / tourist who is visiting the world cup.

As always the media tend to blow up such things enormously.

[mycroft]

I was looking something else up on the FIFA site, when I got the shock of my life.

WHEN DID THE USA GET TO FIFTH IN THE WORLD RANKINGS? and HOW?

Have they managed to pull 30 000 for a (non World-Cup) game in the US, ever?

Anyway, good luck to all - even the USA! However, I have to cheer for Croatia, or my boss will kill me.
Michael (Canada, 85th).

[Elianna]

mike777, on Jun 7 2006, 01:45 PM, said:

In the Usa most of the pre World Cup Tv news is focusing on racism, violence and Nazi flags in the stands. They seem to talk more about the fear of violence towards the average unprotected fan/tourist than anything about the teams and play.

How much of this is overblown?

Can anyone beat Brasil?

We must get our news from different sources. I have not heard about any of this, and I don't think that it's fair to say "in the USA...". More likely, it's "in [insert your part of the USA]" Or maybe even your news source.

Looking at my local paper, The Los Angeles Times, I see several articles about the World Cup today. (I read the online version, so this may be different than the printed version, but when I go over to my mother's house and read the paper, it doesn't seem different). These articles seem to be about:

• Soccer "widows" http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-cupwin...1,7352770.story
  
• youth in the World Cup http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-teens7...1,4122984.story
  
• Olympic Stadium moving beyond Nazi past http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et...,1,263579.story (actually a positive article, btw)
  
• US beats Angola in WP practice http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ussocc...1,4021870.story --from yesterday
  
• Lacrosse coach at WC http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-arena6...1,6229312.story -from yesterday
  
• Article about Japanese team http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-cupwin...1,6894016.story -from yesterday

Only one of these articles talks about a connection with Nazis, but the view is that the Stadium has surpassed that.

[mike777]

That is why I said tv specifically.
ESPN for example.

[hrothgar]

I have reserved seats in one of the local Brazilian bars in Cambridge....

AS soon as I return to civilization, I'm trucking down to central square, grabbing a caprihanena, and settling in for some quality footwork

[whereagles]

I wanted to vote for Papua New-guinea, but, since they're not playing, I'll have to settle for Togo/Ghana

[Sigi_BC84]

mike777, on Jun 7 2006, 11:45 PM, said:

In the Usa most of the pre World Cup Tv news is focusing on racism, violence and Nazi flags in the stands. They seem to talk more about the fear of violence towards the average unprotected fan/tourist than anything about the teams and play.

How much of this is overblown?

Can anyone beat Brasil?

Especially for Eastern Germany the threat is quite real. Unfortunately a few very nasty incidents have happened lately and the entire issue is quite heavily discussed in German media as well.

Politicians are admitting that it is a real problem. Official warnings are given out to African soccer federations so that they instruct their fans not to visit certain areas.

Of course a lot is being done for security, but I'm sure that there will be incidents and I only hope it won't be major rioting.

So, well, how overblown it really is remains to be seen, let's hope for the best.

I think Brasil is beatable but I'm quite sure that they make it at least to the semi-finals.

--Sigi

[Sigi_BC84]

Gerben42, on Jun 8 2006, 12:18 AM, said:

Quote

How much of this is overblown?

All of it. There are some right extremist groups in the East of the country and they might organize a demonstration march or so but this should be of no concern of the fan / tourist who is visiting the world cup.

As always the media tend to blow up such things enormously.

Don't hold your breath, Gerben. The fact that you and me are living in peaceful areas of the country where you can count the number of neo-nazis on one hand doesn't mean much either.

Some of the hooligan groups are quite organized and they are literally looking for trouble. The UK would not have to bar a large number of these people from travelling during the WC if all of this was overblown.

Germany is right in the heart of Europe, so a lot of troublemakers will have the opportunity to come here, and obviously Germany has a lot of appeal for various reasons to many of these groups.

I really don't want to sound overly pessimistic here, and as I said I myself have no first hand reasons to be concerned at all, but to brush it off as being hopelessly overblown by the media misses the point in my eyes.

--Sigi

[mike777]

Is this Neo Nazi stuff just a very few bored young drunk kids with time on their hands and overblown or is there real anger. If real anger, who is angry and anger at what?

The other issue I hear about is how thousands of very young foreign girls are kidnapped or sold by parents into slavery and transported to Germany as young brides or sex workers for immigrant workers? The German police for the most part turn a blind eye except in a very few media cases?

Again I only hear short stories and these may be incomplete or just wrong? I know USA based stories can be overblown so I do not pretend to know the complete facts in Germany.

[Codo]

There will be some bad boys, who will try to use the World Cup as a showroom for their frustration and violance. So I fear, that there will be some minor problems regarding safety. But this is no skinhead-stuff. These guys are found anywhere, left or right.

Just last week, one of most popular magazines wrote about all the people who had been murdered from NeoNazis during the last 17 years. 80 people.Okay, surely 80 too many, no question. But I would believe, that these numbers are lower then the numbers for racial murders in US, England or France f.e. (Have no numbers for this, just a believe). I think, that other countries have a bigger problem with violence then we have.

There are no "no-gos" area here. Surely, as older I get, as less I would like to be alone on the street after midnight. But I really doubt, that this will be different in Manchester, Paris or Washington. And don´t talk about New dehli...

Violance is there, but I strongly believe, that there is much more violence from not integrated foreigners esp. young turks or young russian, then from the skinheads.
But it is an absolute nono to talk about this problem, because we are at no means allowed to show rassistic views.

MY bottom line: I really hate these dumb neonazis, who are too silly to talk to. But they have much more news then they deserve.

Simple example: Some 8 weeks ago, a coloured german was nearly killed in Berlin. Big news page 1 in all journals and papers.
Some 4 weeks ago a friend of mine was seriously wounded from three 14 year old turks. No message.

About the stolen girls: Some 20 years ago, prositution in Hamburg was still ruled from guys from Germany. They solved their problems mainly with their hands, sometimes with a knife, nearly never with a gun. They lost their "job", they were not able to defend their territory to more violant guys from russia.
So nowadays, this "Business" is mainly in the hand of people from russia or the ukraine. They got thousands of girls across the border to "work" for them. Must be horrible.
I don´t know, if the police is blind, I hope and believe, that they do what they can, that it is just quite hard to get the bosses, because they mostly seems to live in other countries.

Disclaimer: If any russian or turkish people feels injured by my remarks: By no way I would ever believe, that all or even a majority of them are responsible for violance and other bad things. Most poeple I know simply want to live in peace and earn some money.

[keylime]

I for some silly reason, like Italy.

[Walddk]

What a miserable performance, England. The chances of becoming world champions are about the same as me being elected president of Paraguay.

Even if I could get odds 100:1 I wouldn't waste a single £ on the English darlings. They even needed the opponents to score for them. Pass me the bucket please.

We lost an opportunity to send out a message that we really mean business and that we could win the competition.

It was a very negative performance in the second half. We handed over the impetus to Paraguay. Why don't we just play our pressing Premiership game?
BBC pundit Ian Wright

Well put!

Roland