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[kingcool1432]

http://english.pravda.ru/society/showbiz/22-06-2006/82389-Nostradamus-0

The world will be celebrating the end of the FIFA World Cup 2006 championship on July 9. Football fans all over the world make their own verbal and financial predictions of the winner. Forecasts from football specialists and sports analysts are not enough for many die-hard fans of the most popular game in the world. Many of them go to fortune-tellers and astrologers. Spanish journalists managed to find a prediction about the outcome of the World Cup 2006 made by world-known foreteller Nostradamus in 1555. They believe that the Spanish team will be the winner of the championship this year.

Nostradamus wrote that the Spanish king and his army will cross over the Pyrenees at the end of the sixth month of the sixth year. The king will win the battle with Beelzebub on the fields of Central Europe, and the army will return the Holy Grail to Spain. The journalists interpreted the prediction in the following way. “The Spanish king and his army” is the national Spanish football team and its coach Luis Aragones. “The fields of Central Europe” are the football stadiums in Germany, and “the Holy Grail” is the World Cup, of course.

It goes without saying that such a discovery has given a lot of hope to Spanish fans. Traditional specialists of football, however, are not so optimistic about Spain’s victory in the championship. The Spanish team has never made it even in the semi-final throughout the history of football. The Spaniards have been quite successful in Germany so far: they have played two matches for the time being and won both of them (4:0 vs. Ukraine and 3:1 vs. Tunisia).

The majority of specialists predict Brazil’s victory in the World Cup 2006. The Brazilian team will most likely play France in the final match of the current championship. Spanish, Argentine, Italian and German teams do not have many chances to win, not to mention other teams.

Nostradamus could be wrong with his prediction because football is an unpredictable game. It is enough to recollect the surprising third place which the Korean team took at the World Cup 2002 or the triumph of the Greek squad during Euro-2004.

[keep-it-cool]

Ha ... 1-3 to France .. there goes that prediction!

[dhruvdeepak]

woe is me. i was sitting in a bar full of french supporters too

[keep-it-cool]

LOL .. but finally some glimpse of the French magic ... France-Brazil would be a good one, as would Argentina-Germany

[arjun]

The outcome of the france-brazil match is a foregone conclusion though!

[keep-it-cool]

The outcome of the france-brazil match is a foregone conclusion though!

just as the nostradamus prediction??

but seriously, i hope Brazil wins ... Brazil v/s Portugal would be a great semifinal

[toney]

Ugh, Henry was play acting for that crucial free kick. My hatred for him has increased ten fold. If yellow/red cards and suspensions can be relaxed by looking at video replays, FIFA should look at such incidents and punish players accordingly. Henry the cheat was the reason for the Spansih defeat.

[dhruvdeepak]

tell me about it. giving zidane a free kick from there 

[feverpitch]

I am hoping that Brazil beat France, nay, humiliate them, to revenge 1998 and 1986... and that 'tusker'* Ronnie scores a double to nullify Zidane's double in 1998... But I am esp hoping that Ronnie junior finds his Barca form... this WC needs an infusion of magic after Ghana, Ivory Coast have been eliminated and Argentina too seeming to have peaked early...

*tusker : an animal with tusks; especially, a male elephant with two developed, elongated and greatly enlarged tooth.

[keep-it-cool]

Ghana was a pleasure to watch in almost all their matches. Too bad they had to face Brazil so soon ... that too, without Essien on the field

[arjun]

Too bad for any team that faces Brazil before the final! It is invariably their last day at the festival.
Come to think of it, Brazil is still in second gear, with Ronaldinho saving it all for later!

[keep-it-cool]

Well ... anyways ... am off to Goa for the weekend and hope to catch england-portugal and brazil-france as part of a large soccer crazy crowd on a big screen!!!

[pieterSAN]

I feel a little sorry for the Spanish team...they always struggle at the WC finals. They have hope for the future with players like Fabregas, Torres and Villa doing well in the tournament. At the same time, I hope they sack that racist pig mofo Luis Aragones. I am so sick of the racism in Spanish football.

[toney]

jiet, I dont think racism is specific to La Liga. Henry has done a lot against it in the EPL too.

Spain will remain an enigma, football's version of Agarkar. I am not counting my chickens before they hatch but I think Brazil will prefer facing France over Spain. I cant wait for the Arg Germany match. Damn, the WC is almost over and I have to wait another two years for anything comparable.

[pieterSAN]

jiet, I dont think racism is specific to La Liga. Henry has done a lot against it in the EPL too.

Spain will remain an enigma, football's version of Agarkar. I am not counting my chickens before they hatch but I think Brazil will prefer facing France over Spain. I cant wait for the Arg Germany match. Damn, the WC is almost over and I have to wait another two years for anything comparable.

Racism in English football has been literally non-existent for the past 2-3 years. Even hooliganism is well checked. It is true though that this was a serious issue not so long before that. A number of things, especially the conscious effort to fight racism in football has helped.

The real issues have been Spain and Italy in recent past. That's where things get ridiculously out of hand. While racism is not specific to the any country's  league, football authorities in Mainland Europe has been slow to react to these issues. This has become an issue because the big leagues like Spain and Italy have a lot of imports and that's where the problems have been visible.

[keep-it-cool]

I agree with Toney. Brazil-Spain would have been a cracker. I think, overall, Spain was playing better football than France thru the tournament. Just one of those days ... wonder how Spain always has one of these days in major competitions!

Ghana showed that you can create chances against the champions. Of course, they were unable to get past Dida on most occassions. A stronger team could maybe make the match more interesting. Spain could have done that; hope France can provide a tough fight.

[toney]

k-i-c,
A more experienced team in Ghana's place would have had a couple of goals at least. I think Brazil has been rather lucky not concede more than one till now. They'll be murdered by Argentina for eg.
But I dont understand it. They won 4-1 against the Argentinians in the Conf Cup and I saw the match. It was a display of beautiful football. I think the "awe factor" is one of Brazil's biggest reasons for consistent victories. Their defense is nowhere near what a top class one is.

On second thoughts, the awe factor and their tendency to keep coming at you.

[keep-it-cool]

k-i-c,
A more experienced team in Ghana's place would have had a couple of goals at least. I think Brazil has been rather lucky not concede more than one till now. They'll be murdered by Argentina for eg.
But I dont understand it. They won 4-1 against the Argentinians in the Conf Cup and I saw the match. It was a display of beautiful football. I think the "awe factor" is one of Brazil's biggest reasons for consistent victories. Their defense is nowhere near what a top class one is.

On second thoughts, the awe factor and their tendency to keep coming at you.

toney, more than the awe, i think when teams play brazil, they get a bit more defensive themselves to prevent goals being scored against them ...

and this may not just be brazil ... i was reading maradona's column (and he does make some very good points .. not sure if it is ghost written) ... he says that in the knockout stages, teams will get more cautious ... given that now its largely the better teams out there ... in order to prevent any early goals being scored against them ... after all it is now a knockout stage and one slip up .. and u can be history