Dice Man and beloved folks,It is too complicated and footbal (soccer for our US friends) is a matter of simplicity . . . as life, i think.Let me tell you a history. In 1958 World Cup - won by the brazilian magic team - a very very crazy player called Garrincha (genious) was listening the coach instructions just before the final match against Sweden . . . it took 30 minutes of complicated tactics, movements etc . . . after finishing, the coach asked if the group had any doubts/questions . . . Pele (with just 15 years old) kept smiling . . . after 1 minute of a noisy silent, Garrincha asked the coach if he "had already combined all those stuffs with the "other team" . . . The game strated, following the instructions the brazilians suffered the first goal, the swedish team scored . . . Didi took the ball, and went walking to the center to re-start the game, and during this walk, Garrincha and Pele screamed to team - "Let´s forget everything, let´s play it as we used to play in the Rio de Janeiro streets" . . . The result . . . Brasil 5 x 2 Sweden . . . if you have the opportunity, try to get a DVD of that final match, and watch the attitude of Garrincha/Didi e Pele. In the next world cup (1962), it was almost the same brazilian team . . . the coach of 58 world cup was replaced by . . . a very fat brazilian guy that used to sleep during the games and gave no instructions to the players . . . The result was the second world cup for the brazilians . . . and without Pele that had a problem in its right leg Privately, I would be very happy if one of the Africans will win this World Cup . . . but my favourites are:Brazil (of course)England (it is interesting and very good how the Bits football evoluted)Spain (they alwas have good teams but always loose for Germans, Braziliasn or Italians etc)PortugalArgentina Italy, (these guys are very dangerous!)

my gambling instinct tells me that it's going to be Spain this time.Their time has finally come.nAnooK

Maybe 50 years ago you could play without a coach but not anymore. These days there are no weak teams anymore and you have to do everything (tactical, physical, technical, mental....) 100% if you want to win. The reasons for the early exit:* Pires and Zidane (the 2 best players) were injured. ZZ played the last game but he was clearly not 100%.* Luck was not on our side (we hit the posts 5 times). * Referee mistakes against us (the game against Urugay with the sending off oh Henry at the 25th minute and no Urugayens players sent off for similar faults, goal disallowed for imaginary offside, we should have has a penalty in the 2nd half).* Wrong choice of players: some people should have retired 2 years ago (djorkaeff, lebeuf, dugarry, lizarazu...). Past their best + clearly don't show the same motivation.* Tactics: The 4-2-3-1 formation doesn't surprise anybody anymore. It was made so that Pires and Zidane could play their best football. With both of them out there was no reason to keep the same tactics.* Wives/girlfriends: I think we were the only team to allow them in the training camp. No wonder the players didn't seem to have much energy on the pitch.* Overestimation of themselves: they clearly overestimated themselves and were talking about the 2nd round before the world cup started. * Well done to Senegal and Danemark: they do deserve their qualification. Happy Urugay didn't go through: they played for a draw against us when they were 11 against 10 most of the game.

DiceMan"Wives/girlfriends: I think we were the only team to allow them in the training camp. No wonder the players didn't seem to have much energy on the pitch."Well, not sure about that. sex the night before the game is said to enhance the performance on the pitch...anyway, didn't work either way for france. sorry about that...svunt

svunthow do u release your energy on the pitch when you've already released it the night before?

DiceManDuring sex, endorphins and serotonin are released and since these chemicals produce a natural “high,” dulling pain and even providing a second wind, this might actually help boost athletic performance. So Zinedine should have had the excitement before the Denmark game...Furthermore, a recent survey of people who completed the London marathon found that runners who had sex the night before had faster finishing times than those who skipped sex...Is that enough to convince you?svunt

svuntI'm not talking about the effect it has on the physical state. I'm talking about the effect it has on the mental state. Regarding Zinedine his wife stayed in France as she had just given birth. He shouldn't have played against Danemark as he was not fit, he couldn't run... But that's another story.

Furthermore, a recent survey of people who completed the London marathon found that runners who had sex the night before had faster finishing times than those who skipped sex... >>But was this stratified & confirmed by age group? You'd expect younger entrants to be fitter generally, and they will also typically be more sexually active - age will tend to be a better determinant of both finishing time and probability of having sex the previous night. Seems like a case of mixed cause and effect.

During sex, endorphins and serotonin are released and since these chemicals produce a natural “high,” dulling pain and even providing a second wind, this might actually help boost athletic performance >>I don't really think the effect of the endorphins will last long enough if you have sex the nite before and run a marathon the morning after... may be the only efficient way would be to have sex during race (but then you'd better be what we call in France a "2-minuter incl. shower"...).More seriously during an interview, the director of a cycling team in the Tour-de-France admitted that he'd rather have the spouse of the bikers along so that they don't spend their nite hunting in nightclubs... make sense to me!------------------------------------------------Xmas in Spain, Easter in Rabanne

Svunt,I do agree with you! Sex (hetero one!) is very good for your mind and body!Dice man,I do agree with you too, but too much technical details is too much . . . for instance, see the Germans playing, do you know what i mean? It seems an exciting (?!) baseball game . . . PS1: A couple of years ago, there were discovered 3 sons of Garrincha . . . they were from Stocholm and Gottemburg . . . guess what!?PS2: Svunt, are you from Denmark? Given what i saw in 1998 WCup and in this one, the girls from Denmark have distinctive quality!PS3: Jimmy, it could be worse than this . . . !PS4: Last but not least was Argentina! Pele

What do wives and girlfriends think of people spending so much time on the Forum? Is it affecting their sex lives? Or do those endorphins and serotonins make for better posts? P

DiceManCan't imagine that sex has a negative effect on one's mental state. As Pele said, sex is good for your mind and body. However, there is an argument that abstinence makes you hungrier and more aggressive.PeleI'm a dual nationality guy (Swiss and Danish).Sex didn't help, abstinence didn't help, wonder what happened to the French...Any ideas apart from DiceMan's facts?Svunt

Where is reza? Has anyone seen reza since yesterday?

svuntof course it doesn't have a negative effect. They're gonna feel good and peaceful etc...which is a good thing. But i don't think it is the best mental state for a world cup competitive game. I agree it would be bad not to see them at all because the guys would become too agressive and it wouldn't be good for the atmospehere within the squad.I think it is better if they don't have sex before the game: energy, aggressivity are piling up before the game and they release everything during the game. Now the question is: what about the substitutes?

A boxer must defeats his opponents with a vengeance, hence sex usually is not recommended at least a week prior the bout. But, the quality of sex does have prominent role even for traders as well members in this forum, methinks.