England World Cup BS....

This England thing, what is it? A type of Fruit?

yes, but we don't shag sheep!

Are you refering to the Celts or the Catalan?


Snuggle buddy?

Oh wait, that was you!, im so very sorry. Not.

So, did 'sheepland' even make it to the cup?

Look, if you hadn't dressed up as a pantomime horse it would never have happened. Get over it.

So did 'Wales' even make it?

oh wait, i see Wales comprehensively out qualified Azerbaijan!!!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Not funny, clever, cosmopolitan, modern,tolerant, intelligent.

Perhaps because if an English Minister, or politician, thought that it was acceptable/funny/prudent to say that they would support anyone that was playing Scotland they would be seen as a small-minded arrogant twat.

Seg, i didn't mean you by my last words, Sorry, But all this Celtic vs English stuff does my head in.
Edited for spelling.

Thanks Seg. If we judge Britain on it's media then, yup, we're fucked. Quite a few Celts work for the English press though, and I too , wish that the BBC wasn't seen as the the EBC. Peace and love. ( PS- victory parade???? Oh my sides. I shall raise a glass to you when we pluckily get slaughtered by ungrateful foreigners- roughly at the quarter-finals I'd say)

get real, England are going to win, because I've read it in all the papers

i'm confused.. how does someone know if they are Celt, a Gael, Welsh, Cornish or a Breton?

Can they be all or more than one at the same time? What if they stand in the ocean?

segovius, your attitude towards the english would be much better if you would just give them a good thrashing and run them out of your country. we did it and now we are the best of chums.

Firstly I agree with everything you say about England being sick and Britain being very lame. I just got off a plane from Norway this evening, and my stay there reinforced my desire to abandon ship with urgency, no joke and no exaggeration. God. Heathrow. Even Heathrow.

But... ah, football. I want England to win, because I live here, and it'll cheer everyone up.

Also. If you think the BBC's coverage of Britain's sole entrant in the World Cup is partisan, arrogant and over the top then you should check out Brazilian media at World Cup time. "We will win again, because we are the best, and our skills are the best and no-one else is as good as us and if someone else wins it will be a crime against nature. We are Brazil; we are the best nation in the world." Ai ai ai, I'm sure Argentina's the same.

Secondly, out of England, Wales and Scotland, England are the best football team with the best chance of winning with the best team they've had in some forty years. So they're on TV more.

Also if Scotland or Ireland or Wales were in and England weren't, the English would support them. This would probably be because England having won all their wars with these countries aren't still nursing centuries-old grievances, but still.

Seriously. . . I could theoretically be celtic since the ethnicity itself orginated in the Anatolian highlands, and also was well represented in Scythia. By the time they got to the isles ... bastard children!

"How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg -- a cosy, loving pair.

"We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, and Queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine, and then drawing them back; so entirely sociable and free and easy were we; when, at last, by reason of our confabulations, what little nappishness remained in us altogether departed, and we felt like getting up again, though day-break was yet some way down the future.

"Yes, we became very wakeful; so much so that our recumbent position began to grow wearisome, and by little and little we found ourselves sitting up; the clothes well tucked around us, leaning against the head-board with our four knees drawn up close together, and our two noses bending over them, as if our knee-pans were warming-pans. We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly out of doors; indeed out of bed-clothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the room. The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm. For this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air. Then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.

"We had been sitting in this crouching manner for some time, when all at once I thought I would open my eyes; for when between sheets, whether by day or by night, and whether asleep or awake, I have a way of always keeping my eyes shut, in order the more to concentrate the snugness of being in bed. Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part. Upon opening my eyes then, and coming out of my own pleasant and self-created darkness into the imposed and coarse outer gloom of the unilluminated twelve-o'clock-at-night, I experienced a disagreeable revulsion. Nor did I at all object to the hint from Queequeg that perhaps it were best to strike a light, seeing that we were so wide awake; and besides he felt a strong desire to have a few quiet puffs from his Tomahawk. Be it said, that though I had felt such a strong repugnance to his smoking in the bed the night before, yet see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when love once comes to bend them. For now I liked nothing better than to have Queequeg smoking by me, even in bed, because he seemed to be full of such serene household joy then. I no more felt unduly concerned for the landlord's policy of insurance. I was only alive to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real friend. With our shaggy jackets drawn about our shoulders, we now passed the Tomahawk from one to the other, till slowly there grew over us a blue hanging tester of smoke, illuminated by the flame of the new-lit lamp."

Most of us just get drunk and ramble on to nothingness.

You overachieving dork.

I read the Brasilian papers almost on a daily basis...Jornal do Brasil, Folha de Sao Paulo, Oglobo, and I have yet to see those types of comments from the media. If anything I read Parreira's comments the other day and parting from the premise that on paper no one should be able to beat them in a tournament( general consensus everywhere) he sounded very cautious....as in we haven't done anuthing yet and the games have yet to be played on the field.
Brasil are admired and loved worldwide. I read they were training in Switzerland and sold an obscene amount of tickets to their....practice.

I think you might be thinking of the argentinians. Now those guys are classless and uber arrogant. Even racist when it comes to anything about Brasil by the way. Must be that inferiority complex.

I will be cheering for England, Brasil, USA and Holland. If Brasil,Holland, England or the US don't win it, I hope it is someone who has never won it. Trinidad and Tobago? Ivory Coast? Australia?

Except in Brasil's case it may actually be true. They're the only country I can think of that could field their entire second team and still be a contender to make the final. That said, they won't win it this year. European teams will play with something to prove after their universally poor showing in Japan/Korea last time round, and the refs will call a style of play more suited to their tactics, ie, physical, and with an actual understanding of tackles and off-sides.

I pick Italy to win this year's tournament, England, France, Germany, to make good showings, and none of either USA, Japan, Korea to advance to the second round. At least one African country will surprise, as well may one Latin American nation (besides Argentina or Brazil). The soccer nations of the old world order are going to play with extreme prejudice after the humiliation of 2002...

Italy is a good bet, but in my opinion we'll have a better idea after they play the sans-Shevchenko Ukraine side in the friendly a few days from now. Everyone seems to be very confident that Italy is going to win, but I think their team is too old to be consistent down the stretch. I actually think that England might just surprise everyone and win, one ugly game after another.

Also, the US will beat Czech in the opening match and make it to the second round. Then they will lose to Brazil. \

Yeah, against a local Swiss football club that just was promoted into the Super League (premier Swiss football league).

The game was not tooooo bad, it was like the ancient Mac-PC Photoshop shootouts by Uncle Steve...

The US has played Brasil tough the last few years...same with Mexico....and the US will definitely make it to the second round. Hope it isn't against Brasil. \

Chelski just bought Shevchenko. I hope they spend a billion pounds on players and never win a CL. I can't wait for MAUREENho to get fired.

The way the groups are structured, the second place team in the Italy-Czech-USA-Ghana group plays the first place team in the Brazil-Croatia-Australia-Japan group. It would be an absolute coup if USA won their group, and it would be an even bigger coup if Brazil didn't win their group.

I have a soft spot for Shevchenko (and Ukraine) for a variety of reasons that aren't worth discussing. (No, I'm not queer). I'm actually glad that he moved to Chelski, since in the USA the coverage of EPL games is much better than the coverage of, well, any other league aside from MLS. We get very little as far as Serie A, and even less of the other European leagues -- mostly it's in the form of Champions League which is widely covered, but suffers from the fact that some Irish idiot commentates all of them.

In other words, Americans, avoid ESPN2 for the world cup unless you want to hear Tony Smyth.

I've always liked Shevchenko, but unfortunately he's with the "enemy" now. Besides, Shevas is not Chelski...and I still hope they spend a billion pounds and never win another trophy.

If you're a big football/soccer fan, then you might want to check out the spanish packages that Directv, Sky and Dish have...you'll have enough options to make your head explode. Espn Deportes, Gol Tv, Fox Español.....

Ahh yes...Tommy Smyth is well....to put it mildly....horrrrrible. I was at a pub the other day and almost everyone shook their heads at least once watching/listening to Smyth. Cool pub...lots of fellow LFC supporters.

I hear Bill O'reilly and Smyth will be teaming up to commentate some of the games.

Now that would be suicide inducing.

I see what you mean, but I need Sheva to score more goals than Henry next season (preferably a lot more) in order to, erm, win some bets. I hear they call it "punting" in England.

As for the television, I might look into it. Thanks for the heads up. I have to admit that I am a bit surprised by your mentioning it, because I thought you lived in Liverpool (still?). I hear, though, that on that side of the pond there's a button on the remote that brings up "fanzone." I saw the fanzone replay of the Chelski Man Utd match at the end of the season. Priceless.

Ok. Let's just have Sheva win the golden boot but nothing else?
Nah, never lived in Liverpool. I'm in the good ol' US of A. That fanzone thing sounds cool. Haven't tried it yet. Maybe in a few months when I do my "pilgrimage" to Anfield.

Australia v USA final. The arrogant old world would go into meltdown. I would love to see how the BBC ran that story.

Aww. You're not very good at football in Australia, are you?