Most exciting 3rd round (1st phase) in a long time?

[WilliamFAlmeida]

Looks like the 3rd round of the 1st phase will determine a lot of first place and second place teams who'll in turn, face some exciting 2nd phase opponents!

Germany and Ecuador
England and Sweden
Holland and Argentina
Portugal and Mexico
Czech and Italy

Im assuming some results here but....
The 3rd round is a lot of times boring, but it seems this time around, it would be very exciting to see these final match ups...


also
If Ecuador and Germany tie, and England win- we could see England vs. Germany

If Portugal get a tie or better against MExico, they'll play either holland or Argentina - who also play on the last day.

Czech vs. Italy - whatever the outcome, one will play Brasil (yea, Im assuming Brasil at least qualify)


I think this makes for a very exciting 3rd round, as opposed to other WCs

 

[faceNside]

Shame it won't determine which teams will go through in many cases. Too many already decided groups

 

[Kibe Kru]

yup, agree with faceNside. I'd love to watch Argentina vs. Holland, England vs. Sweden, Mexico vs. Portugal, Italy vs. Czech in the first matches. Having them with not much at stake is a bit boring.

 

[newbie original]

I think first place in your group is enough motivation....better Australia or Croatia than Brazil!

 

[SlayerDeuS]

This is the World Cup, none of these teams are playing as if "not much is at stake", they want to win their group no matter what. The biggest thing is confidence and if a team has that and a little luck then any of these teams can beat each other on any day.

 

[MuRcY[b]]

Originally posted by SlayerDeuS
This is the World Cup, none of these teams are playing as if "not much is at stake"

Except for Brazil the cocky ****s

 

[teccomin]

there are still problems. for example:
group A plays first, so if Germany ties and get 2nd, if i were sweden i wouldnt even try to beat england.

 

[Joe Star]

Except for Brazil the cocky ****s

They can afford to. Argentina, Netherlands and Spain have put on great shows but I still think Brazil will take it even with an obese Ronaldo.

 

[Kibe Kru]

So, you'd rather see Holland vs. Argentina without their yellow carded players? They're already through, is it worth risk getting Robben out of their next match because they may face Mexico instead of Portugal, or the other way around?

Will England play Gerrard and risk a yellow? I wouldn't. Whoever is next, Ecuador or Germany, they'll be quite tough the way it is, and without Gerrard it'd be worse.

 

[faceNside]

Argentina, Netherlands and Spain

I would take out Netherlands of that list and include Czech Republic. I mean, Holland defense is very weak, if Ivory Coast didn't score more goals was because of his low accuracy, no thanks to Holland defense.

As for Czech Republic, their main handicap is that both Baros and Koller are injured Let's see if they can keep their scoring rate with the sub forwards.