<p>They should beat Ecuador to get to the quarterfinals, but with Michael Owen out, they'll have to find somebody who can help Rooney up top. Even Rooney is coming off a serious injury. They have a great midfield but I think they just don't have enough speed and excitement up front to make it to the semifinals.</p>
<p>After seeing the complete bracket, Italy has a pretty easy road to the semifinals. They have Australia, and then either Switzerland or Ukraine. I don't like Italy but they defend well and Buffon is awesome in goal.</p>
<p>I agree with the consensus here: the three top contenders are Brazil, Argentina, and Germany. We know how good Brazil is; Argentina has tremendous depth; Germany has homefield advantage and Klose is on fire.</p>
<p>As for who I want to win - probably Argentina. Although I like rooting for the underdog, so I'm going to go with Switzerland because they play great team defense.</p>
<p>Portugal is a good dark-horse contender. Nobody is talking about them but they're very consistent.</p>
<p>Everyone keeps saying that Germany and Argentina are favorites to win everything and "will go deep" in the tournament, but since they play in the quarterfinals...only one of them has a chance to win it all, so saying that both will go deep is kinda dumb...</p>
<p>I hope germany wins against argentina...Klose was desperately looking for a goal in the last half, and Ballack was frustrated by the end (8 shots and no goal must be frustrating!) :D</p>
<p>I want either England or Germany to win, now that Switzerland lost. I really wanted Switzerland to win, though, since their defense was doing so well...it was so sad they were knocked off...and it was tied 0-0 until the very end :(</p>
<p>England hasn't been playing especially well. And yet they've done just enough (or had just enough luck) to advance this far. With all the yellow/red-carded Portuguese players, they might actually get past them... what a thought.
Argentina's game versus Mexico was rather weak... So hopefully, Deutschland can put them away in the quarters :D</p>
<p>AH! WHAT IS WRONG with that Ghana goalkeeper?! WHY did he run out so far and just HAND Brazil an open goal...?</p>
<p>I mean, with Buffon, Cannavaro, CAMORANESI, and Totti (who always seems to be in the right place at the right time..), on their side, they WILL win; that's a fact.</p>
<p>There is no way Italy can beat Germany on Tuesday. Seriously, unless something goes amazingly wrong for the Mannschaft and a miracle happens for the Azzuri. They have sucked all tournament (see tie with USA) and I don't really see them getting any better (they played 2 easy teams in finals so far), while Germany has been improving and beat one of the favorites. Lehmann, Klose (can see him winning most goals), Ballack...</p>
<p>I hope that Italy beats Germany and France beats Portugal and Italy.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it seems like the deck is stacked for Germany to beat everyone. The problem with France is that they are not a high-scoring team.</p>
<p>WC games have actually been fun to watch, as long as I could create someone/some team to pull for or against. I wish that Brazil and France weren't in the same bracket, and that there weren't so many low-scoring / no-scoring games.</p>
<p>I must confess that when the Earthquakes were here in San Jose, I never went to a game, even though youth soccer in the San Francisco Bay Area is extremely popular. </p>
<p>MLS needs more media coverage in the USA, but I got so sick of the ESPN/ABC focus on Landon Donavon.</p>
<p>Arena football seems more popular than MLS !!!</p>
<p>soccer doesn't get that much attention like other sport. May be because there are only one comercial in the entire game so that people can't make money out of it.</p>
<p>France ALL THE WAY since my top team-Ghana- was eliminated by Brazil. But then France eliminated Brazil so France is my fave now. Anyone see the England-Portugal match? What was Rooney thinking?</p>