The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[udosuk]

You should've guessed it... It's starting in a few hours... Post all your thoughts here... Support your favourite team... Blast your hated team...

I'll start by talking about my home team... Australia... Rather than talking about their chances to advance against the likes of Brazil, Croatia, Japan, I'm more interested in how many stars they can take out... Look at what they did to the Dutch...

C'mon guys & gals, join in for a few words!

[tarek]

I'm actually in Germany at the moment, supporting England.....

I bought tickets for the 1st 4 England matches ages ago, so excited really,

1st match is in Frankfurt tomorrow.......

The atmosphere is si fantastic......

I'm currently near Dusseldorf staying with friends & although it is not a host city the World cup atmosphere is already there.....

Pubs & restaurents along the Rhine river are full of supporters, I spotted English, Polish, Swedish Ecuadorian amogst others.All in groups chanting & dancing in the streets.

Our team has never been stronger & with Rooney's metatarsal bones healing quickly, it seems that the nation has regained the hope of holding the world cup.....

I'll describe the pressure on the boys as follows: An ad in a magazine having Wilkinson with the Rugby World Cup; Flintoff With The Ashes trophy looking at Michael Owen & saying: No Pressure Michael

tarek

[udosuk]

I bought tickets for the 1st 4 England matches ages ago, so excited really,

So touch wood speaking, what would happen to the 4th ticket if there were to be no 4th "England match"?

And great for you tarek to reply even in Germany...
Enjoy the matches and atmostphere and most importantly, stay calm and safe!

[Hud]

I'm sorry that I don't know much about soccer, but I'm intrigued by the reported fact that Ecuador plays most of its games at 9,000 feet altitude. I know it still requires lots of talent to win these games, but I wonder if playing at high altitude helps endurance wise?

Our paper also reported that the Game that Germany won was exciting what with the number of goals scored. Six total goals was a record I hear for an opening game of the World Cup.

[udosuk]

No reply from tarek... I'm starting to worry about his safety... There were reports that some England fans got arrested in Germany... Hopefully tarek's not one of them...

As for Hud's question, I think it only matters if the actual tournament is play in high attitude... Such as the 1986 Mexican one... E.g. do you think the Colorado Rockies as a team of endurance?

Australia vs Japan is in a couple hours... I'm trying to psyche myself up...

[lunababy_moonchild]

If I paid attention to the news reports (unlikely..........) I think that the next England game is held in Frankfurt, which means that the English support will be travelling from Baden Baden. So it may simply be that Tarek may not have access to an online source - especially when travelling.

As far as arrests go, again, if I paid attention to the news reports, there were 30 arrests, all for minor infractions and nobody was held in custody. Apparently the police were happy overall with the behaviour of the fans and reported no trouble at all (30 arrests for minor infractions being usual for this type of event).

Luna

[udosuk]

Thanks Luna for the news reports... Although I wasn't too serious about tarek getting arrested... I'm sure a sudoku player is sensible enough for those behaviours...

Cec, I'm sure you've enjoyed the match to the last minute... or in that case, the last 9 minutes...

I don't care what the reality turns out, at least at the moment we're looking better than the Poms... And we're enjoying every single bit of this...

[Hud]

Well, it looks like another overhyped US team bit the dust. I didn't see it since I was taking my first golf lesson but Jim Rome (on radio) said that after the Czecks got their first goal, the US hit the pipe with a shot that would have tied it up, and the Czecks immediately scored their second goal. Jim Rome likened the score to being down 10 touchdowns in football.

Oh well, we still have the "Miracle on Ice" from 20 something years ago. That was a long last minute of a game.

[tarek]

Tarek is still around,

The England game was fantastic, the English fans live up to their reputaion, we were chanting at frankfurt stadium for the duration of the game.........

The problems really came from a minority that do not represent the whole patrotic fans..........

I am trullly enjoying this, I've watched non england games on giant screens in the host cities in special areas for the world cup fans...... I can describe the atmosphere as beer+football+multi cultural madness, have been now to Frankfurt, Cologne & dusseldorf next stop Nuremberg on the 15th.

I enjoyed the Aus/Jap match as well as the USA/Czech game.

Will keep you posted..........

tarek

[Crazy Girl]

Well, it looks like another overhyped US team bit the dust.

Hud,
there are groups of four where each team plays each other, then the two teams at the top of each group progress to the next round and it becomes a knockout competition until the winner is crowned. So USA still has two more matches to prove themselves worthy.

If they are not in the top two teams of their group then they've 'bit the dust'

tarek,
what's it like getting tickets to the matches, reports say too many fans, not enough tickets.

[udosuk]

tarek already got the tickets to the "first 4 matches", and at the moment it's not unlikely the 4th one will be a huge cracker, namely "Germany vs England"...

Guess which is the favourite group B team to a Sydneysider (like me)... You're right if you guessed T&T (Trinidad & Tobago)... Where our beloved Sydney FC hero, Dwight Yorke is playing... In fact it'd be a dream to some Aussies if it turned out Sweden & T&T advance there...

The US is still alive but it'd need to beat Italy to survive... Which is a possible round of 16 opponent for us (if we could ever survive the mighty Croatians)...

[udosuk]

Wow, those Ecuadorians are very impressive... It seems they've outplayed the Germans (both of their matches they won by 1 more goal than the Germans)... Now, suppose England win their group and Germany & Ecuador draw their final match, we'll have tarek's 4th match as England vs Germany... Of course we'll still need to see how the England-T&T match goes...

[Edited after the England-T&T match]
Well done England... Not impressive but good job... Now who would you rather face, Ecuador or Germany?

[tarek]

Wow,

I must say, that the England team kept us on our toes for most of the game yesterday,

The atmosphere is fantastic The fans are celebrating........

Next stop is Cologne where we will meet the Swedes who clinched a vital win in the last minutes...

The 4th game will be against either Germany or Ecuador & it is going to be in Either Munich or Stuttgart, so the fans eithr way are in for a treat........

The ticket situation is ludicrous.....I was on the train to Franfurt for the first game & the train was filled with red & white t-shirts , I sat with 2 unlucky ticketless fans from leicester who offered +400 Euros for each of my tickets, I knew that they would pay for that sum of money because I myself refused to sell......They were trying to get to the main fan site in frankfurt where the giant screens are located......The capacity was 35,000 according to them & it was already closed 3 hours prior to the game....

You wouldn't notice but almost every city/club in England had a flag hanging somewhere in the stadium (I myself was sitting under WINCHESTER)

My favourite chant must be "Football's coming home"

Today Group C will have 2 EXTREMLY tough games

Australia were great in the first game Cahill (Who we know very well in England as he plays in Everton) played very well, Kewell (Liverpool) hopefully would match that performance.

2 many stories to tell, I managed to use my laptop..... so avoiding the German keybords and Y is now where it should be......

tarek

[Crazy Girl]

Guess which is the favourite group B team to a Sydneysider (like me)... You're right if you guessed T&T (Trinidad & Tobago)... Where our beloved Sydney FC hero, Dwight Yorke is playing... In fact it'd be a dream to some Aussies if it turned out Sweden & T&T advance there...

guess your wishes didn't come true... must be running out of luck. Apparently 5 T&T players got booked as well so not a good day for them.

Anyway at the Stella Artois Championship at Queens Henman is through to the semi's (would you believe ) after defeating his 'nemisis' Dmitry Tursunov and facing someone called Hewitt tomorrow.... since Henman has won quite convincingly sofar he is bound to put his adoring british fans through the wringer once more, (to get in some practise in before Wimbledon) but we all live in hope...



Tarek,
news has it that for the next football world cup in 2010 FIFA will organise and distribute the tickets with more going to the fans, as FIFA doesn't like the way the German Organising Committee has distributed tickets...

[udosuk]

I was nasty in hoping England lose... And nastiness generally doesn't induce good karma, as Hud would know... Until tomorrow's Brazil-Australia match I'm not wishing anyone else to lose, and hope the karma will turn good... For tennis Lleyton got in because Nadal (who won the 1st set) got hurt... So Henman is in for a good chance...

Just in - Australia is giving England a pretty good beating in Rugby Union... This England team is not what you call a competent force right now but still it gives us some satisfaction after our 2003 world cup loss and the woes during the past year...