No, Bielsa left after the president of the federation changed. We changed to Claudio Borghi who almost leaves us out of the WC and we changed him on time to bring Sampaoli, who would give us a 5W-1D-1L in the last matches of the qualifiers.

The thing is, Sampaoli is a huge fan of Bielsa, so we play very similar, only that with Bielsa our tactics were almost suicide and it was "attack, attack, attack" and playing with 3 in defense with crappy defenders(our weakest players) meant that sometimes teams with good strikers would kill us easily in counters.

Now we are more versatile and focus on attack but with posession in the midfield, high pressure and always mantaining the offensive mentality. This has given us better results added to the fact that young players in 2010 have grown.

Argentina will cruise to the second stage. Colombia, has a good chance of making to the second round, I'm rooting also for Japan, but I'd never ignore Greece and Cote d'Ivoire. Either way, going against group D is not good :(

Groups B, D and G will have amazing games. I can't wait for the World Cup to start.

I'm confident in our team, but I'm sure it won't be easy. It wouldn't be a stretch to see you guys and Italy qualifying. Last time we didn't win any of our matches against European teams... A tie with France, and two losses with Netherlands and Germany.

I'm actually surprised to see the pessimism in some of you... Last time you had to face Germany in the 16 round, and you had the misfortune of having our Uruguayan referee not validating Lampard's goal... (Sorry ! >.<)

Oh, so you're from Uruguay ? Do you live in the UK, or it's just your profile false ?

osed125 said: Holy fuck Costa Rica

I'm counting on you guys to surprise England and Italy, k ?  ^_^ You won't surprise us, we already know you...

I wouldn't know. South America is CONMEBOL, and Costa Rica is CONCACAF, they played with USA, Mexico, and Honduras. I do know that both Costa Rica and Honduras had a better qualification than Mexico, that had to go through play-offs.

Aaaagh how ignorant of me! Sorry!

I cant believe how lucky Argentina, even though they would probably make it out of any group anyway

lloolololol-you blaming me to have an aggressive attitude?are you kidding?

it's like hitler blaming hussein to be a bad guy. I am still trying to find one single post of yours that is not passive aggressive.

but to answer your question ,though i'm 100% sure if  you were not english you wouldn't even have ignored my post let alone answering in such a pathetic way (without even being asked) like:"aggressive attitude"

I am german,but not from origin and there are two other countries at the tournament i belong to and i don't care wether they'll win or not as long as the two most arrogant football countries uk/brazil don't win

and i'll leave this thread for sure after realising who made it.

I don't think England will survive that group.. they aren't playing along the coast so thats a big disadvantage for them

seiya19 said: kowenicki said: seiya19 said: No luck for us... (Uruguay) We just had to get 2 Europeans... Just had to ! And World Cup champions at that... Oh well, at least the fun will start early. >.< Lucky Argentina is lucky. Chile, not so much... You should be qualifying.  It should be Uruguay plus either England or Italy. I'm confident in our team, but I'm sure it won't be easy. It wouldn't be a stretch to see you guys and Italy qualifying. Last time we didn't win any of our matches against European teams... A tie with France, and two losses with Netherlands and Germany. I'm actually surprised to see the pessimism in some of you... Last time you had to face Germany in the 16 round, and you had the misfortune of having our Uruguayan referee not validating Lampard's goal... (Sorry ! >.<) POE said: Go Uruguay!!! Hard group for us, but we have Suarez and Cavani so you never know. Oh, so you're from Uruguay ? Do you live in the UK, or it's just your profile false ? osed125 said: Holy fuck Costa Rica I'm counting on you guys to surprise England and Italy, k ?  ^_^ You won't surprise us, we already know you...

If I had to bet, I would say you will get through, I think it will be Italy-Uruguay or the other way. England is a strong side but Italians are playing better and in south america we all know of your magical powers to advance even if you play bad added to the fact that you have great players

Hmm... I'm not sure if I like all this... We tend to do better when we go as underdogs, not favorites. And in such a complicated group...

We do have great players (mostly on the attack), but our problems are usually on the creation side, as a team. Italy is playing more on the offensive these days from what I've seen, but if they or England score us a goal and then close themselves well... They know Suárez and Cavani quite well, so I expect 2 strong defenses in those matches at least. Maybe we end up a tie with both...

By the way, you guys have it quite rough, but you do have the team to surprise there. Your matches will be very interesting... Probably more open than ours, so careful with that defense !