Spain v Ukraine 14/06/2006 Leipzig kick-Off-3pm BST Now for us Englishmen, this match may not be the one we all jumped up and down about when the draw was made, but this WILL be a good match. There's too much talent involved in this match for it to be a poor match. It is fairly likely that the winner of this match will go onto to win the group as the other two teams that make up the group (Tunisia & Saudi Arabia) aren't bad sides but on paper Spain & Ukraine should be too strong for them. The Spanish are 21 game sundefeated but do not let that put you off the fact that they are not playing well and they struggled in the qualification phase to an extent. Their domestic sides took both the big European tropheys, the Uefa Cup & the Champions League with Sevilla & barcelona winning respectively. Spain Flag- Country Facts Population-40.02 million Capital-Madrid Country's Officlal Name-Reino de Espana Currency-Euro Life Expectnecy At Birth-79.23 Internet Code-.es World Cup History 1930 Uruguay - n/a 1934 Italy Quarter-final Play-Off 1938 France - n/a 1950 Brazil Fourth place 1954 Switzerland - n/a 1958 Sweden - n/a 1962 Chile Fourth, Group Three 1966 England Third, Group Two 1970 Mexico - n/a 1974 West Germany - n/a 1978 Argentina Third, Group Three 1982 Spain Second Group phase 1986 Mexico Quarter-finals 1990 Italy Second Round (last 16) 1994 U.S.A. Quarter-finals 1998 France Third, Group D 2002 Korea/Japan Quarter-finals The Manager Coach-Luis Aragones-began his playing career at Getafe before moving to Real Madrid only to be loaned straight away to Recreativo de Huelva. He later moved to Real Oviedo were he made an impact on the top flight. He later moved to Real Betis and from there finished his career with his beloved Athletico Madrid. He began his managerial career with Athletico Madrid. He led to them a European Cup Winners Cup title as player manager and once his playing career finally ended he took charge of no fewer than 9 premiera league sides, with three of those being Betis, Valencia and Barcelona. He is a controversial figure and has found himself in hot ater a few times because of his outbursts. Coaching Career International Side: • Since 2004 Spain Clubs: • 1974-1978 Atletico Madrid • 1978-1979 Atletico Madrid • 1981 Real Betis • 1982-1987 Atletico Madrid • 1987-1988 Barcelona • 1990-1991 Espanyol • 1991-1993 Atletico Madrid • 1993-1995 Sevilla • 1995-1997 Valencia • 1997-1998 Real Betis • 1999-2000 Real Oviedo • 2000-2001 Mallorca • 2001-2003 Atletico Madrid • 2003-2004 Mallorca Squad 1 CASILLAS Iker (GK) 2 SALGADO Michel 3 DEL HORNO Asier replaced by Mariano Pernia 4 MARCHENA Carlos 5 PUYOL Carlos 6 ALBELDA David 7 RAUL 8 XAVI 9 TORRES Fernando 10 REYES Jose Antonio 11 GARCIA Luis 12 LOPEZ Antonio 13 INIESTA 14 XABI ALONSO 15 RAMOS Sergio 16 MARCOS SENNA 17 JOAQUIN 18 FABREGAS Cesc 19 CANIZARES Santiago (GK) 20 JUANITO 21 VILLA David 22 PABLO 23 REINA Jose Manuel (GK) Current World Ranking-5 Pre WC-Friendlies v Ivory Coast-Won 3-2 v Russia-Drew 0-0 v Egypt-Won 2-0 How They Got To Germany 2006 The Spanish didn't make easy work of what looked like an easy group. The Spanish finished second in their group to Serbia & Montenegro due to poor performance against teams like Lithuania as they drew with the Eastern European minnows and held to a score draw against Bosnia & Herzogovina. Had Bosnia not drawn with Spain in the final match and won by 3 goals to nil it would have been the Bosnians and not the Spanish playing in this match, this is how below par the Spaniards played in the qualifying but they have made it and that is the most important point to note here. Qualification Results including some friendlies 16-Nov-05 SVK:ESP 1:1 (0:0) 12-Nov-05 ESP:SVK 5:1 (2:0) 12-Oct-05 SMR:ESP 0:6 (0:3) 08-Oct-05 BEL:ESP 0:2 (0:0) 07-Sep-05 ESP:SCG 1:1 (1:0) 08-Jun-05 ESP:BIH 1:1 (0:1) 04-Jun-05 ESP:LTU 1:0 (0:0) 30-Mar-05 SCG:ESP 0:0 09-Feb-05 ESP:SMR 5:0 (3:0) 13-Oct-04 LTU:ESP 0:0 09-Oct-04 ESP:BEL 2:0 (0:0) 08-Sep-04 BIH:ESP 1:1 (0:0) Star Player Now many people would have expected this to be Raul or Iker Casillas but i have chosen Fernando Torres, simply because he is going to be the player along with Raul that is going to be carrying the hopes and aspirations of their nation. Spain have only opted to take David Villa, Fernando Torres & raul as strikers to the WC and as such Torres needs to play to his potential and if he does that, they'll be few strikers at WC as good as him. Key Player Again a lot of people would expect this to be Raul but he is not as good as he used to be. i have chosen Xavi as their key player. Xavi sets the pace of the side, his wide range of passing skills and his hard tackilng(when he's up for it) makes him the Spanish general. All creative play throughout the middle of the park will come from him. Torres & Raul will be looking to Xavi to feed them or feed the ball out to the wings were the Spanish are very strong as they have numerous players who are more than capable of playing in the side. Xavi has had his injury problems this season but looks to be over them and he should be a player to keep an eye on, even though we all already know how good he is. Young Player I was going to put the spotlight on Francesc Fabregas but i have chosen to put it on Sergio Ramos, the Real Madrid centre half. For his National side he plays right back, the same position played at his old club which i believe was Real Mallorca please correct me if i am wrong. A lot of Spanish pundits think he i going to struggle at right back should he start there in place of either Juanito or Salgardo who has been struggling with a knee strain and has been out of sorts all season. Ramos could turn out to be a useful squad player as he cna play at centre half and at right back and should an injury crisis hit them in Germany, in a squad full of midfielders, Sergio could do a good job for them. Injury Doubts Xabi Alonso-It is touch and go whether he will be fit for this match Asier Del Horno-Returned to London injured. Bookies Odds 15/1 A big problem for the Spanish side is that they do not know what formation to play at the moment. In the last few matches they have swapped starting line-ups for the midfield and are playing different wide players, different central midfielders. Against the Ivory Coast they played to holding midfielders in Fabregas and Albelda leaving Alonso and Xavi out of the starting 11. Torres also hasn't been starting instead, they have been playing David Villa who himself is a top striker and has had a good season in La Liga but he is no Torres. Guillem Ballage on Talksport this afternoon sounds far from impressed with the way they are playing and is not a keen believer in the defensive line-up Aragones is playing. Ukraine Flag- Country Facts Population-48.06 million Capital-Kiev Country's Official Name-Ukraynia Currency-Hryvnia Life Expectancy At Birth-66.5 years Internet Code-.ua World Cup History 2006-First Apperance The Manager Coach-Oleg Blokhin-This man is a hero in the Ukraine, not only for getting them to Germany 2006 but because ofhis playing days. he played for Dynamo Kiev and was part of a team that won the league championship for the former USSR no fewer than seven times. He also won two European Cup Winner's Cup medals one of which he won agaist Athletico Madrid in 1986. He also won the award of European Footballer of the Year in 1975 due to his superb performances all over Europe.He scored 42 goals in 112 games for the former USSR. It is often the case that great players, do not make good coaches for a variety of reasons but Oleg Blokhin is the exception to the rule here. He not only got them out of the group of death, he has got them to the World Cup as group winners beating Turkey, European Champions Greece and Denmark along the way. A famous quote in the media by Oleg Blokhin was, "Many people said I was living in cuckoo land when I promised to take Ukraine to the World Cup,", "I know they’re going to scream with derision again, but I believe we’re capable of winning it" He believes his Ukraine side is more than capable of winning it, i personally love the mans optimism but i feel they are not quite there yet to really announce themselves on the world stage...maybe by 2010 they will have enough experience to be a forceful nation. Coaching Career International Side: • Since 2003 Ukraine Clubs: • 1990-1993 Olympiacos (GRE) • 1993-1994 PAOK (GRE). • 1994-1997 Ionikos (GRE). • 1997-1998 Chornomorets Odesa (UKR) • 1998-1999 AEK Athens (GRE) • 2000-2002 Ionikos (GRE) Squad 1 SHOVKOVSKIY Oleksandr (GK) 2 NESMACHNIY Andriy 3 IATSENKO Oleksandr 4 TYMOSCHUK Anatoliy 5 YEZERSKIY Vladimir 6 RUSOL Andriy 7 SHEVCHENKO Andriy 8 SHELAYEV Oleg 9 GUSEV Oleg 10 VORONIN Andriy 11 REBROV Serhiy 12 PYATOV Andriy (GK) 13 CHIGRYNSKIY Dmytro 14 GUSIN Andriy 15 MILEVSKIY Artem 16 VOROBEY Andriy 17 VASHCHUK Vladislav 18 NAZARENKO Serhiy 19 KALINICHENKO Maksim 20 BYELIK Oleksiy 21 ROTAN Ruslan 22 SVIDERSKIY Vyacheslav 23 SHUST Bogdan (GK) Pre World Cup Friendlies 28-May-06 UKR:CRC 4:0 (3:0) 02-Jun-06 ITA:UKR 0:0 Two matches left to play versus Libya & Luxembourg. Current World Ranking-45 How They Got To Germany Ukraine found themselves drawn in the group of death along with Denmark, Turkey and European Champions Greece, all of which were more than capable of taking the automatic spot. The Ukraine didn't get off the best of starts with a draw against minnows Albania and a home defeat to Turkey. At this point nobody even the Ukrainian public didn't give the nation a chance of qualifying out of the group of death but they went on not to lose another match and only conceded four goals in their remaining ten games scoring 10 goals along the way. Qualification Matches 08-Oct-05 UKR:ALB 2:2 (1:0) 07-Sep-05 UKR:TUR 0:1 (0:0) 03-Sep-05 GEO:UKR 1:1 (0:1) 08-Jun-05 GRE:UKR 0:1 (0:0) 04-Jun-05 UKR:KAZ 2:0 (1:0) 30-Mar-05 UKR:DEN 1:0 (0:0) 09-Feb-05 ALB:UKR 0:2 (0:1) 17-Nov-04 TUR:UKR 0:3 (0:2) 13-Oct-04 UKR:GEO 2:0 (1:0) 09-Oct-04 UKR:GRE 1:1 (0:0) 08-Sep-04 KAZ:UKR 1:2 (1:1) 04-Sep-04 DEN:UKR 1:1 (1:0) Star Player It does not take a genuis to work out who this man is. Andriy Shevchenko, number 7. This man has been one of the worlds top strikers over the past 6/7 years and will be playing in his first World Cup. The man has pace, skill and has that little something extra what other strikers do not have what makes hima cut above the rest. the new Chelsea record signing is currently under going rehab for an injury and is a doubt for the match versus Spain. He will be fit for the second group stage match should he not be ready for the Spain game. Key Player Sergei Rebrov-The man hated by most Spuds fans for costing them a fortune and delivering so little, but he has transformed his career since leaving the White Potato Lane. He is also an injury doubt for the game versus Spain but it is fairly likely that he will play some part in the match. He currently plays for Dynamo Kiev and is doing well for himself since his career took a nosedive in England. He has made 69 appearances for his country scoring 17 goals. Young Player Bohdan Shust-Plays for Dynamo Kiev- aged 19. Shust plays in goal and is currently being scouted by teams in italy as a player for the future. He was heavily linked with Fiorentina in January but they pulled out when Shust said that he wished to play another season for Kiev. He has made two appearances for the Ukrainian national side with one of those coming as substitute. Should he get a game during the World Cup he could be a player to look out, simply just to see if he's as good as some teams in Serie A think he is. Injury Doubts Rebrov & Shevchenko are the only injury doubts that Ukraine have. Bookies Odds 66/1 with William Hill Ukraine are a good side, it takes a good side to get out of the group that they have gotten out of to make it here to the World Cup and as such i believe that if they play their game of football and make use of Shevchenko, get him the service he needs they will make it out of the group and will be a side that you'd want to avoid. There are many better sides to be worrying about meeting in the World Cup but neglect the Ukraine at your peril. Prediction Spain 2-3 Ukraine I just got a feeling that Spain's lack of formation and settled side will be their downfall and i feel that as long as Rebrov and Shevchenko are fully fit, they will punish a very unsettled Spanish side. Forget the 21 match unbeaten streak that the Spanish are on, they are not prepared for a physical Ukrianian side.

The papers are Spurs, it wouldn't suprise me if the owners of Spurs own a couple of national papers, it would make sense as to how they get all of their money for transfers. lol Arsenal won't get kicked out of the CL so Spuds won't be able to activate this so called "release clause".

I wouldn't say i'm getting worked up over it, i'm just fed up of journo's making up utter BS that some fans believe. They'll be some thick Scouser now thinking his sides about to sign bellers.

What part of "I have haven't got a clause in my contract, Mark Hughes doesn't deal that way" do these journo's not understand. I could have sworn that Bellers has said that on numerous occassions.

From what i've heard some of them call us Dingles! Cheeky barstewards ain't they, trying to compare us to them by using the same name.

I'm in both now with both sides called downwiththedingles

Football fan from Essex-Man United Supporter also see prawn sandwich brigade.

If you put your name down for it you will be on it, the developer at the time promised that everyone who put their name in before a certain date would be in it, but i'll check anyway for you. Just checked and theres a Adam Clarke, a Bob Clarke and a Kevin Clarke. I didn't see a Ricky Clarke on there. I spotted Cocker though on it. I still cannot believe they stook me as a right winger when i told them i played left wing and to make it worse they stuck me at Yeovil Town lol. p.s. even Grooby is in it lol.

Not a football club but would love to see it added to a Rovers dictionary BARRY FERGUSON - A whinging Scotsman on huge wages, commands high transfer fee and then cries about being homesick and expresses a desire to play away at Motherwell instead of Old Trafford.

Can we campaign for that to be added to the Oxford Dictionary for the word pleasure because it seems to be a very accurate description to me.

I've voted for second round simply because i don't trust Sven as far as i could throw him, he is a poor manager managing a lot of great players. People hark on about how good is record is as England manager, well even i could pick the England side and have just as good a record as him. Our players are better than the second round, a lot better than that but without Wooney(Rooney to others) and the fact that were kinda relying on Theo Walcott it could be a fairly dissappointing summer.

Ukraine should have a good tournament as most of their players do not have the excuse of playing too many games due to a lot playing in the Russian league and many sitting on the bench of Top European clubs with the exception of a few, on the otherhand they have the excuse of not having match sharpness due to lack of matches. I only mentioned that as i was reading that Gerrard article about him playing in 59 matches this season before the World Cup.

If the pic had loaded up on my p.c. first time that wouldn't have happened. I'll get my coat for a second time i think.

It wasn't that big a seller i believe and as such it was scrapped as far as i know. I bought the one from the 2003/2004 season and if i am truly honest it was sh!te. If it were made by a decent developer the idea of a game for individual clubs could really work but this one just didn't work. I know the price tag was only £19.99 but i truly expected more than that. Saying that i was one of the people/fans who got a mention in the instructions to the game. When us fans were allowed to email the developer and give them our name/position and they would add us. i played for Yeovil on it, right winger lol.

Out of interest have you sold them yet as i may be able to buy them, my parents want to buy me some sort of a graduation present before i go to university and i cannot think of anything better than the World Cup! But seen as this thread is only a joke, i shall also get my coat!

Predictions for kind of dark horses!!! Togo to finish with a point Australia to finish third in their group behind Brazil & Japan. T&T to finish second in group B behind England Spain to make a rare appearance in the Semi's Argentina/Germany/Holland all fail to make it out of the group stages Sol Campbell to have a winning goal disallowed at some point of the knockout stages. This post should have really been put in the predictions page!

Is it just me or did Emerton actually play really well, well second half at least. As an Englishman it pains me to say that you Aussies looked good. You seem to have a fair few players who love to get on the ball and spring passes around and a fairly decent defence although saying that i never really saw them tested by a very poor Greece side. I only watched the game to wach Lucas & Brett play but after todays game i think i'll look out for the Aus game sin the WC for sure, just because i loved the attacking football they play. World Cup wise i think Australia may come 3rd in the group as you haven't got a chance against the Brazillians, and the Japanese aren't no push-overs, it could be a very even match but a draw is probably the best you can hope for and you should beat the Croatians as they are not as good as they used to be. I feel you'll only miss out on second place to Japan on goal difference but i hope i am proved wrong and they make the Second Round. Oooh please get rid of that goalkeeper who played everytime he got near the ball he flapped at it, he made David James look like safe hands.

For some reason that made me laugh!!!

That is right, Dunny requested a transfer and removed his request when Souness took over. If we had lost both of those two we probably wouldn't have come back up, just think back to how valuable those two were to us in Div 1, Duff used to terrorise defences and Dunn would make a killer pass to Jansen or Bent. I have always creditted Souness with making Matt Jansen, he may not have been the bloke who signed him but he made him. That makes me think he is a good coach but i also feel he is not a coach who can stay at a club for a long time. He becomes stale, he's tactics become repetitive and easily worked out and his transfer dealings become strange in terms of who he buys and why. Could we start like a mini-list of Soueys good and bad signings for us because i have always felt a manager is just as good as the players at his disposal and when a manager like Souness has had funds availible pretty much wherever he's been, IMO they have no excuse for buying crap players. I'll start; Good Craig Short Brad Friedel Tugay Henning Berg Paul Dickov (he did a job for us) Steven Reid ( he signed him but Sparky made him) I'll leave the rest to maybe be debated as there are some good players i have missed out Bad Javier De Pedro Dominic Matteo Lorenzo Amoruso Vratislav Gresko (good on loan, shocking when signed knee injury more likely to be at fault) Jon Stead (half season wonder) Corrado (Ciccio) Grabbi Brett Emerton Barry (Crybaby) Ferguson Again i've left many off for others to maybe mention.

Good luck to Souness, i hope he gets the job and does a good job for them. I believe he could do a good job for them with little or no money afteral he signed us one our best keepers of all-time for free, Friedel. He is also a big name and big names can some bigger name players to a club, well players who may be seen as big for the Championship. Maybe he could sign Grabbi, we may have had a sell on fee clause put on him when we got rid. As long as Dean Saunders doesn't get a job with him he could do a good job. i feel Saunders is not coach material and is just a yes man for Souey.

Its not a bad squad but IMO there are many better sides then them in the tournament but saying that should they get on a good run they have the players to win the thing.

That quotation sums it all up to me. I heard the same thing on Talksport yesterday and it has now made me believe that most referees are bottlers, they are scared to give a decision against a big club as if they get it wrong they will be in the spotlight for the next week. Well wuppee doo, they'll be in the press but surely a referee should not go into a match saying that if any big decision comes along that he is not sure about, he should side with the big club. What a farce!! But OTH the referee should he make the big decision against the big club and get it wrong, Gab Marcotti said that that referee would more than likely find themselves refereeing some match like Stoke v Southampton instead of Man Utd v Arsenal. I suppose the ref is only looking after his career when making these biased decisions. Thats no excuse IMO.

Giuly is one of the best attacking wide midfielders/strikers in Europe and France haven't picked him!! Big mistake IMO as he can terrorise a defence with his skill and he can spring a pass cross pitch as good as anyone i have seen. His first touch is also superb, just look at his control on Wednesday night when Ronaldinho was making cross pitch passes which rarely were on target so Giuly had to move to them with Cole on his heals and he did him narly everytime. As for the inclusion of Boumsong, does the French coach have a bet on somebody else winning the WC because they will not win it with him in the side.

His effort could very rarely be faulted, he gave everything he had, IMO he when he first joined us seem to set the pace for the side, his team-mates would see him chase every single ball down and they would follow suit. I always thought that in the 04/05 when he didn't play we looked lazy and not willing to battle, when he played the whole side battled and gave that extra 10%min effort. His 10 goals were probably the most important goals of that season, without them we wouldn't even be in the Prem nevermind achieving what we achieved last season.

Top Post bluebruce!!! This whole series of events could cripple Italian football, t.v. rights when they come up for negotiation are going to not be worth as much which will have a knock on effect on the teams in Serie A. A league without its top players is just an average league and should Juve, Fiorentina and Lazio all be demoted as far as Serie C1/2/3, with AC Milan losing players to other European clubs such as Shevchenko to Chelsea and the possibility of deducted points from AC Milan it could lead to less money being made from International t.v rights. This would leave teams like Inter Milan and Roma being the big boys of Italian football, Inter have some top players but they are not the side they used to be. This whole disgrace is going to cost somebody big money and i for one will guarentee it won't be the televison companies. On the subject of money should any of these teams be relegated, what it is going to do to their sponsors, these companies pay top money to be shirt sponsors of these teams especially a team like Juventus. these sponsors would very likely withdraw their money and as such leave the league and the clubs in an even worse financial stuation.