World Cup 2014!

[PinkPanzer]

I will be supporting Greece (as I am Greek) and yes they do not play an attractive style of football but to their credit, they are a very disciplined team with a great defence who doesn't panic and often competes through their physicality and generally frustrating their opponents.

I am excited to see who the dark horse will be this year, every tournament seems to have a surprise semi finalist (Bulgaria 94, Croatia 98, Korea Republic 02, Uruguay 10.. My money is on Belgium this time around)

[Sload Soap]

I'm interested then what the expectations of the Greek fans is for their national team. For England it's "don't embarrass us" and to maybe make the second round. Are you confident of getting to the next phase?

[Blu]

First off, I'm incredibly excited for this tournament to begin. There's a lot of unknown variables and that's half of the beauty of the competition.

Best team to win it? Germany, Spain, or Brazil are who I hedge my bets.
USMNT? I think the knockout stages.
Netherlands and France has some propensity to underperform due to team dynamics and blame it on the ball.
Best Kits: Colombia and Belgium's Home Kits; USA and Germany's Away Kits.

There's so many stacked teams!
Belgium has so much talent and depth, yet their youthful inexperience might prevent them from getting further.
Wilifried Bony and Yaya Toure for Cote D'Ivoire will be a great attacking pair.
France has a stacked roster but I'm not convinced the chemistry will be there, especially after 2010.
Germany has some great talent and I love the team, but I think Ozil is a backbone and he's not 100% yet.

I think the USMNT has a few chances to advance. We can hope to draw or beat Ghana. We can always hope that Germany is through to the next round by the time we face Germany, and are resting and play their subs. Still, Germany's B team is nothing to scoff at. I'm a little worried that the teams we're playing in our send off are not great levels of competition, and yet we're still conceding goals to teams like Turkey. We'll see though!

I think there's some real quality football to be played!

[PinkPanzer]

I'm interested then what the expectations of the Greek fans is for their national team. For England it's "don't embarrass us" and to maybe make the second round. Are you confident of getting to the next phase?

Our expectations are entirely dependent on our group. In euro 2012 we had a considerably easy group, so progress into the next round was our goal then and is usually the goal for the NT. This time around we are in a very balanced group, I believe the expectation is just to put up a fight and not embaress ourselves

[Pulsar_t]

[Blu]

I hope hope hope that Qatar has its bid rescinded and we vote it to another country, without corruption and shady dealings.

Easier said than done, I know.

[fastbilly1]

As much as I want the USA to win, I will be happy for them to get out of the pools. Brasil has my money.

[ninjainspandex]

Twenty grown men pace a field forth and back chasing after a rubber ball for 90 minutes, trying to kick it into a large net or preventing the opposing team from doing so. There are two net keepers who just stand there most of the match trying to look busy. Last but not least you get a referee with a high rate of error of judgment trying his best to piss off one team's fans more than the other's. Oh and the fans are such fine specimens of homo sapien.

I just read that in your avatars voice

[PinkPanzer]

I am a huge soccer fan and I so dissapointed that Qatar won the right to host, they do not in any way deserve to host such a lovely tourny

[Pulsar_t]

Twenty grown men pace a field forth and back chasing after a rubber ball for 90 minutes, trying to kick it into a large net or preventing the opposing team from doing so. There are two net keepers who just stand there most of the match trying to look busy. Last but not least you get a referee with a high rate of error of judgment trying his best to piss off one team's fans more than the other's. Oh and the fans are such fine specimens of homo sapien.

I just read that in your avatars voice

Life is a distillery of cynicism. Btw earlier today on telly they showed this official ball of theirs going through some sort of aerodynamic tests. That immediately raised my ire. What are they going to do, fly it and drone the shit out of somebody?