*André and Pedro shaking hands* :)

Bruno Jesus: Yes, I'm in. If Portugal doesn't make it to semifinals (Top 4), you'll buy me a 6 months of rook membership. If it does make it to the semis, I'll buy you a rook membership of the same length. Deal?

Bruno Jesus: I take that bet...Portugal is not going to make it to the quarterfinals - look at Group C - Argentina, Serbia and Montenegro, the Netherlands - all of them are better than the Portuguese I guess...

Czuch Chuckers: Yes, it is but that doesn't mean that it's better. The Czech Republic is ranked second for instance and I'm more than sure that we aren't the second best team in the world.

But - look at the groups the US and Portugal are playing in. It is almost certain that the Portuguese will promote from the Group D, while the Americans are the outsiders of the Group E. All the other teams seem to me to be better.

Congrats on your free six months, André...LOL

MagicDragon: Inscrutable - I mean hard to fathom, I don't know what to expect from them. They were playing great football in Korea/Japan, other recent results are not so dazzling though. It's easier to prepare for a team there's a lot of information about, which the USA isn't. They're simply inscrutable...:)

MagicDragon: I was hoping not to get the USA from the last basket, they're inscrutable. I will personally attend this match in Gelsenkirchen and believe it will end up in the similar way as the last time these two teams (or actually Czechoslovakia and the USA) met at the WC (4-0). :) And yea, Group E is one of the toughest, maybe together with Group F. Looks like an easy way for Germany, Portugal, France and Spain. I was personally hoping the Czech Rep. would play in Group D, but the Portuguese took the place...:)

A: Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador
B: England, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Sweden
(LOL @ Eriksson)
C: Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia and Montenegro, the Netherlands
D: Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal
E: Italy, Ghana, USA, Czech Republic
F: Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan
G: France, Switzerland, Korea, Togo
H: Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

Congrats to Australia on making it to the Germany'06.

Socrates: Is it really so obvious?.......definitely not to me...

Hrqls: That was just a training match, I bet the players focused especially on that nobody would get hurt in that game.