World Cup 2014, Brazil.

Germany's is pretty tough too. It will be interesting to see how African and Central American teams cope with the heat - will it be beneficial?

 

Anyone done a full tournament prediction: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...ctor-Game.html

 

Indeed. Why even bother?

I agree. But our previous world cup experience taught me that the fact we're 'better' means very little. In 2002 world cup we won against Italy, and than had defeats against Mexico and Ecuador. In 2006 we lost 1:0 to Brasil, and drawn with Japan and Australia, and Australia want ahead because they defeated Japan, i believe.

 

I had Brazil beating Argentina in the final. Germany beating Italy in the 3rd place play off and England losing to Brazil in the quarter final.

 

Yeah I think we've got a better chance than most think. True, we are not that great anymore, but you're right, Italy play in difficult conditions in all their games (maybe even worse for the others as they are both scheduled for 1pm local time), and Uruguay – Suarez and Cavani aside – are an ageing side without the quality they had last time.

Of course, it seems just as likely that we will beat Uruguay and be knocked out by Costa Rica

 

IF we get out of the group stage we meet a team from an easier group in the next stage. If we won that, I would regard that as a decent result in this WC.

 

Brazil beat Argies final, Spain beat Krauts 3rd place.

Italy out to Brazil in quarters.

 

So everyone remembers the Twitter account that posted, the day before the draw, how it was fixed? And offered proof by posting Argentina's group, and stating Italy would be moved pot (which were both proven correct)? (https://twitter.com/FraudeMundial14 if you don't remember).

Well, a Colombian video seems to be offering more fuel to the conspiracy fire - here's a translated version of it:

[video=youtube;OtAtdauCjtI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtAtdauCjtI[/video]

 

The occasional delay from Valcke is simply because he is also talking at the same time (and building suspense) and it would be odd if he interrupted his speech for the sake of quickly announcing the name.

The idea that this video "proves" anything is absurd.

 

Whenever I hear the word conspiracy I want to reach for my gun. The desk he is behind has a slope so it is easy for his hands to disappear from view. He is reading from autocues which affects the pace of his actions. He would need to be a magician to be able to carry on speaking whilst doing sleight of hand...his face never seems concerned (which I'm sure it would be if he was trying to do a fiddle). And he managed to do all this and never drop an errant piece of paper in the view of the celebrities lined up on both sides of him. The man is a genius and should seek a new career in show biz. I bet he faked the plane crash into the twin towers as well.

 

I wouldn't rule it out, simply because this is FIFA we're talking about and they are corrupt and they do take bribes. This kind of thing would probably be typical of them.

 

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Exactly. Usually I'd ignore it but it'd be so typical of FIFA, and more people are now raising their voices about a possible fix. I doubt this'll be the last we hear of it.

 

You've all lost me...what's the motive to fix it, I don't see who had anything to gain. Brazil got a pretty tough draw at home. The "best" draw probably went to France, but FIFA obviously forgot to fix the qualifiers where they got Ukraine and nearly lost. Anyway there's a zillion journalists there who are not all pro-FIFA, they would spot fishy stuff a mile off.

 

So you think it's plausible that the likes of Zidane, Cafu, Cannavaro, Hurst et al (who would have been able to see what Valcke was doing) would be happily complicit in this farce?

 

I'm not sure they could have seen from there.

 

I dunno, given that I'm not exactly a propagator of any theory (I'm just not immediately shooting it down on the word "conspiracy"), but there are a few ones I can think of - maybe part of a betting scandal (and let's not pretend that doesn't happen in football) where you get two teams who agree to do particular spot fixes with each other and want to match them up? Or maybe FIFA are taking bribes (again, let's not pretend that doesn't happen) to get teams a particular draw they want? Or even from the most innocent point of view, it could help interest and viewing figures - there are three very strong divisions this time around, rather than the usual "group of death", and the knockout stages look to have some tasty fixtures - like potentially a Brazil v Spain or Argentina final (the two most marketable games possible). But then, there may be more reasons that I can't think of on the spot.

Probably not, but then I don't think they could really see from the angle they're at.

 

Well Cafu is standing directly behind and to the left of him. I think at least he would have had a pretty good look. Not to mention pulling that off in front of the world would require a lot of rehearsal and other people to be involved. Too many people for it to be kept quiet, I'd suggest.