The participants from all round the globe will be finalized today. Here is my list of favorites:
- Italy
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Brazil
- Portugal
Re: (Soccer) World Cup 2006
^ No Argentina?
Re: (Soccer) World Cup 2006
Argentina and England can clear their group stages, I guess and even that is conditional.
Re: (Soccer) World Cup 2006
Which muslims country has a shot at the cup...or even teh semis?
Iran and Turkey, in my opinion.
hmmm are there any other muslim countries besides iran, saudi, and turkey in the cup?
World Cup 2006 Qualified Teams
Africa
Angola
Ivory Coast
Togo
Ghana
Tunisia
Asia
Japan
Iran
South Korea
Saudi Arabia
Europe
Germany
Ukraine
Netherlands
Polands
England
Croatia
Italy
Portugal
Sweden
Serbia and Montenegro
France
Switzerland
Spain
Czech Republic
North America
United States of America
Mexico
Costa Rica
Trinidad and Tobago
Oceanian
Australia
South America
Argentina
Brazil
Ecuador
Paraguay
Re: FIFA World Cup 2006 Qualified Teams (merged)
Biggest surprises came from African section where regular participants like Cameroon and Nigeria failed to qualify. Last worldcup surprise package Senegal also missed out but Ivory coast and Ghana were super througout their qualifying stages.
Australia qualified after a gap of 32 years defeating Uruguay in play-offs. Match went to penalties.
European champs Greece failed to qualify. It didnt come as a surprise to many. Their tactics were boring but effective in Euro 2004 but in qualifiers they were just boring and not effective. Russia and Denmark are familiar participants missing this time around.
Brazil will be the team to beat. Brazal can field two equally good teams if they wish to because of the kinf of braziliant talent spread around the globe. Argentina, Italy, England and Portugal all will go to the worldcup thinking they can win.
Re: FIFA World Cup 2006 Qualified Teams (merged)
Ghana, Ivory Coast, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, and the Ukraine are very good teams and deserving to be in the tournament. The only teams that I really would like to have made it are Cameroon (Eto'o) and Senegal, no other team that missed the competition I'm upset about.
I guess I'll be cheering for USA all long but my prediction has to be of Germany over Brazil in WC final.
Re: (Soccer) World Cup 2006
**Dutch under-estimated 
**
FIFA has divided countries into different seeds and WC groups will be finalized on Friday after a draw. Surprisingly the Dutch favorites all over the globe are not counted as favorites. The seedings system looked at teams’ record in the 2002 and 1998 finals and their world ranking over the last three years.
Seed 1: Germany, Brazil, England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina and Italy
Seed 2: Australia, (5 African nations) Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Angola, Togo, (2 lowest ranked south American teams) Ecuador and Paraguay
Seed 3: (8 unseeded European Teams) Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine
Seed 4: (4 Asian teams) Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, (3 remaining CONCAF teams)Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States
A special pot will contain only Serbia & Montenegro, the lowest ranked European team, who will be placed in a group including either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico.
The draw will work in the following way:
- The eight seeded teams will be drawn into eight different groups. Germany have already been allocated Group A and Brazil Group F. (both groups will play in best stadiums)
- Eight unseeded European sides will be drawn into the eight different groups.
- The lowest-ranked European side Serbia and Montenegro will be allocated to one of the groups containing either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico to ensure there is no more than two European sides in any group.
- A pot of the five African countries, Australia and the two remaining South American sides drawn into eight different groups.
- A pot containing the four Asian countries, the USA, Costa Rica and Trinidad drawn into seven different groups.
The full draw for the finals takes place in Leipzig on Friday. The finals start on June 9 and end on July 9, 2006.
Re: (Soccer) World Cup 2006
^^ Link: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=351289&cc=5739
Re: FIFA World Cup 2006 Qualified Teams (merged)
^ Dutch is not underestimated at all. If you look at the seeding criteria, Netherlands did not deserve to be seeded. They take into account, performance in last two worldcups (Netherlands could not make one of them), qualifying rounds and world ranking in last two years. Not a perfect co-effcient for seeding but based on it, Netherlands did not get seeded.
Re: (Soccer) World Cup 2006
Yes I know the criteria and have seen detailed ratings as well. Criteria is like always developed by humans, and Dutch who maintain a btter ranking for past years against all favorites except Brazil and France are left out just cause they failed to qualify for the last WC (02)