I'm in

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I never saw Beastmaster, I just wanted to be cool

Brazil Goalie: Cesar
Italy Midfielder: Pirlo
England Defenseman (and Captain): Ferdinand
Ivory Coast Forward (and Captain): Drogba
US Forward: Altidore
Alright... Question then.
Is this the sort of false reporting we should expect from cat and mouse soccer culture leading up to the Cup, or are most of these legit? Seems to fall right in line with the flopping for fouls stuff many of us hate about soccer to begin with.

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Elegant Violence

Rio is definately out, came out of hospital on crutches, Gerrard will captain England... when it comes to Drogba being injured I never believe a word

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I never saw Beastmaster, I just wanted to be cool

Drogba apparently will be receiving minor surgery, but he is expected to play (As of Spanish soccer newspapers this morning)

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The Plane's going to Chicago. The Pilot's going to New York. The Passengers are going to Pieces!

I still find Group A the most difficult to figure.

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Elegant Violence

It's certainly a tough one. My picks? Mexico and Uruguay

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The Plane's going to Chicago. The Pilot's going to New York. The Passengers are going to Pieces!

Group C for me is the tough one.. but none of them are exactly easy to pick

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I never saw Beastmaster, I just wanted to be cool

...but when he shines, he really shows you all he can.

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La la la la la.

Hasn't shone for 18months, good riddance.

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I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt.

I have been tempted... Just hard to count France out. I know they are old, but they're still talented.
I don't see them losing to Mexico immediately after first losing to Uruguay. And if it comes down to goal differential, they have South Africa in the last game of the round, and could (theoretically) just pour it on, while El Tri and Uruguay battle to nuts.

Conundrum.

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Elegant Violence

I'm not altogether sure, but I think JJ just got rejected.

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Elegant Violence

France lost to China today, and looked horrible...

No conundrum

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The Plane's going to Chicago. The Pilot's going to New York. The Passengers are going to Pieces!

Maybe the one good thing Emile Heskey will do in South Africa. I don't understand Capello's (or Martin O'Neill's) enduring fascination with him.

Two things int'l soccer needs to get rid of ASAP:

1) "Friendlies"
2) "Caps"

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La la la la la.

Caps are good, but I'd say get rid of caps in friendlies. International teams always need to play to stay sharp, but how someone playing 2 minutes against Qatar can get a cap is just too bizarre

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I never saw Beastmaster, I just wanted to be cool

Now imagine being the guy who has worked all his life for futbol, only to be a bubble pick for the national roster... You get in for two minutes against Qatar, but never again play for the team.

Would you want to say, well at least I got a cap, or would you rather have your everyday office mates in your next career doubt you ever played at all?

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Elegant Violence

Tape the match, keep the newpaper cuttings - proof.

Friendlies are important to help get international tactics right, the problem is in the word 'friendly', which they rarely are. Why not just call them non-tournament internationals or something? However I don't think friendly results should count towards FIFA rankings.

What's the problem with caps?

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I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt.

Caps used to be worth soemthing, now you get them for nothing games you play in for 5 minutes where 10 subs are used

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I never saw Beastmaster, I just wanted to be cool

Maximum subs allowed is now 6 (partially due to Sven Goran Eriksson doing just that all the time)

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I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt.

You don't quite understand. I'm talking about getting rid of those two words.

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La la la la la.

not on a par with the already famous Nike World Cup ad, but the Adidas one is pretty funny:

Star Wars 2010

done! kudos Toasty!
I'll look into my predictions tomorrow...

damn now I'm all hooked on these Nike commercials..

If you have a few mins to spare, this one is a really nice compilation (the first few mins is just an old commercial, then there's some stuff I've never seen before).

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=RxOeyJ8EWZY

But back on topic...

My world cup league with my friends just finished our draft. We made most of our picks over email but one of the guys in the league hosts a morning show on a local sports radio station, so many of the picks were made on-air. That was kind of fun.

I was picking 5th out of 8 teams and ended up with England, Ivory Coast, South Africa and South Korea.

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The means it's all ok.

I like the picks. They are risky, but huge potential for payoff

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The Plane's going to Chicago. The Pilot's going to New York. The Passengers are going to Pieces!