[Red Fox Ace]

Apart from supporting your national home team (i.e., Sampan supporting England, etc.,) who would you be cheering for this summer?





I will be rooting for all African and Asian nations - Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea, etc.


I will be rooting against France, Brazil, Italy, Germany and other traditional powerhouses.

[IchiNiSan]

i would want to see Korea DPR against Korea Republic and/or USA in the final, wouldn't that be cool?

[Xiongmao]

What I want to know is, with a population of 1.3 billion, why cant China come up with 11 talented-enough players to make it into the top 32 football teams in the world for the World Cup Finals?

[Red Fox Ace]

Xiongmao, on May 28 2010, 05:53 AM, said:

What I want to know is, with a population of 1.3 billion, why cant China come up with 11 talented-enough players to make it into the top 32 football teams in the world for the World Cup Finals?

I've often wondered that, but as India and her 1 billion people prove, a large talent pool doesn't necessarily translate into an excellent product on the field.




China is definitely in need of getting its act together; that's for sure.

[Xiongmao]

Here is a pertinent article I found today regarding the state of play of football inside China :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0060204616.html

[Red Fox Ace]

Xiongmao, on Jun 3 2010, 06:08 AM, said:

Here is a pertinent article I found today regarding the state of play of football inside China :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0060204616.html

That is rather eyebrow-raising indeed. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but South Korea, North Korea, and Japan all have teams in the World Cup this year, and China doesn't.

[IchiNiSan]

Xiongmao, on Jun 3 2010, 06:08 PM, said:

Here is a pertinent article I found today regarding the state of play of football inside China :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0060204616.html

Quote

"Football in China can only succeed if it's a grass-roots activity organized by the people. And for that to happen, you'll have to change the political system -- and that's not going to happen either."

Wow, nowadays they can even promote "change of political system" (regime-change) by tackling the failure in a particular sport? They are getting more creative by the day. Just amazing

Corruption is the biggest issue, which caused the national Footbal association lacking any vision, lacking trust from everyone, lacking will-power to raise up talents. Thought last time there was a huge clean sweeping in this association, hmmmmm.....

[Red Fox Ace]

South Korea won. Now let's wait on Japan and North Korea.

[IchiNiSan]

and the Aussies are being wrapped up by the Germans right now....almost 4am over here, wanna zzzz......

[IchiNiSan]

so the Dutchies won because of some super luck with a moron not knowing how to use his head, and the States equalized because of the biggest blunder of a greenie goalkeeper, and the japs just won their first Worldcup match on foreign soil, guess this worldcup could fun!

[Sampanviking]

After watching their brilliant performance against Brazil, I will be supporting North Korea

Brazil 2 North Korea 1

NK played very attractive football and kept Brazil at bay for over an hour.

North Korea made a lot of friends tonight and the fact that all the commentators were cheering when they scored their goal, tells; I believe, its own story.

Brazil were lucky not to come away with just one point and North Korea have nothing to be ashamed of.

[Red Fox Ace]

South Korea, unsurprisingly, got stomped by Argentina. 4-1. Alas.

[Bill]

A lot of people were impressed with NK's performance. Good for them.

[IchiNiSan]

yongke, on Jun 18 2010, 11:40 AM, said:

A lot of people were impressed with NK's performance. Good for them.

I'm considering not to watch the last 8 minutes anymore against Portugal.... pity they played well in the first half.

EDIT: Unbelievable, 2 more goals after clicking post.....

Awesome game though.

[Sampanviking]

A very sad end to a very promising start for North Korea. I hope they can restore their pride against the Ivory Coast in their last game.

England play on Wednesday and they have no option but to go out and play for a win. They don't need to worry about playing safe, as anything less than a win will guarantee their exit before the knock out stages.

[IchiNiSan]

Sampanviking, on Jun 21 2010, 09:36 PM, said:

A very sad end to a very promising start for North Korea. I hope they can restore their pride against the Ivory Coast in their last game.

England play on Wednesday and they have no option but to go out and play for a win. They don't need to worry about playing safe, as anything less than a win will guarantee their exit before the knock out stages.

Hah, at least we get to watch the Dutchies in the next round for sure how they can win ugly games again

[Red Fox Ace]

South Korea advances to the knockout round, and will play Uruguay.

[Sampanviking]

Joined also by Japan who beat Denmark very convincingly 3 -1.
No doubt about it that Japan were by far the better side, but I did feel a pang for my Nordic brothers.

It really has been a bad World Cup for the Europeans, both Norway and Sweden can usually be counted on as fixtures, while the early defeats of France and World Champions Italy make this a very strange competition indeed!

[Red Fox Ace]

England came within a hair of missing out.

[Sampanviking]

To be fair, the England played very well against Slovenia and actually looked like a quality side. They should have scored more gaols though and this inability is a bit worrying as other top teams seem able to convert opportunities.