Poland

parkendhead · 05-22-2002, 10:22 PM

Conrad,

I'm intrigued as to why you've made Poland your 'lay' of the tourny. They qualified well from what looked a tricky group on paper and South Korea and USA wouldn't particularly strike me as tough opponents. Are Poland really that bad, and if so why?

(not questioning your judgement or anything - I've got no opinion on that group at all yet - just curious).

Regards,

Parkendhead

Conrad · 05-22-2002, 11:17 PM

First of all I'm banking on history repeating itself yet again. The hosts have always qualified in all the World Cups so I'm counting on this trend continuing, even though there are now two host nations and Korea doesn't have any player that I would recognise as playing in the top flight so to speak.

Poland qualified well as you mentioned, in fact they were the first team to qualify in Europe, so that is an argument that goes against me. So does beating Norway (both home and away) which is no easy feat, let alone going to Kiev and coming back with all three points against Ukranine. There were some great goals in that game if you can catch the highlights on Eurosport. That Nigerian-born player is quite an interesting chap, maybe Houllier should give him a look as a replacement for Shaq... sorry... I meant Heskey.

But overall I think that the home crowd coupled with a bit of leniency from the ref will give Korea a good shot at going through. They aren't favourites to advance, but they're in with a decent chance. Poland, on the other hand, are favoured to go through along with Figo & Co., but it's the high odds against them that I like more than anything. 33/1 to bomb the tournament with not a single point looks a bit enticing. I could be proven wrong very quickly, but I'm willing to give Shawn $4k to follow my instinct with bets on 0,1,2,3 points (which most probably won't be enough to advance).

parkendhead · 05-22-2002, 11:47 PM

Really don't know what to make of South Korea. They played some good stuff yesterday in patches, but looked twitchy in others - too eager to please, almost (they have got one lad who plays in Serie A - he was shooting from miles out, LOL). Had England been on blob, we'd have won 2 or 3 nowt no problem.

Thanks for the insight,

Parkendhead

Dingle · 05-23-2002, 12:46 AM

Conrad

Isnt Shaq the Dominant player of his respective league.

Heskey is Bruno!!!

Dingle

Conrad · 05-23-2002, 08:01 AM

Parkend, hope Shawn can come up with something, otherwise I'll have to look elsewhere.

Dingle, you're right, I shouldn't have used that comparison as Shaq gives much more to the Lakers than Heskey gives to us. But when I see Heskey play I can't help but think of Shaq because he too tries to muscle his way in, relying more on power than on speed.

Kjetil · 05-23-2002, 08:35 AM

I think one of the main reasons for backing this "Poland zero points bet" is the fixture list in this group. It is never easy to meet the hosts in the opener, Portugal will be a tough task and should this be two defeats for them then I will cover the last match for sure, hoping it will be a meaningless one with rather even odds or perhaps even slightly in favour of USA since I think the "American spirit" could be stronger than a Polish side waiting for the holidays to start.

As for the qualification, being Norwegian I obviously also got a good impression of Poland and they looked rock-solid at that time. However it should be mentioned that Norway was in a deep crisis at that time, looking capable of losing against whatever sort of team (0-0 Armenia at home, great start! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]. Further I think Ukraina has become somewhat of an overrated team, yes they had a few very good years with Rebrov/Schevchenko tearing defences apart, especially in Champions League for Kiev, but frankly, their national side has never taken the final step from being a very talented/promising side to become a top European side.

And sure Olasidebe is exciting up front, but to me he seems like a bit of a on-and-off player, let's hope for the latter [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Further the absence of midfielder Bartosz Karwan is a loss to them too I think.

Even with a rather conservative 30% (Korea and USA), 50% (Portugal) to win assumption you get a fair odd of approx 22, and that is not counting the obvious dependency of the matches. Personally I took Intertops 34,0 yesterday with approx $350 and I will be praying for a bad start before I start to buy back [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Kjetil