SOCCER NATION!

[AngraRULES]

I don't know about Argentina. Don't ignore Portugal. I think that it will be interesting to see who among Argentina, Portugal, Italy and Germany make it.

The thing with Argentina is to worry about the two problems they have. The first, and more important one is their defense. It offers no consistency. As for their offensive side, it's one of the best in the tournament. Messi, Tevez, Milito, Higuain... seriously. If Maradona (who's an awful coach, has no clear tactics for his team) can somehow pull off a miracle and give them a certain direction, they can go far (and I hate to admit that).

By no means I am ignoring Portugal, but the thing is, they're in a very difficult group, and I think they won't get out of the group stages. I think it'll be us (Brazil) and Cote D'Ivoire. I could be wrong though.

Italy and Germany are teams that I wanna watch playing before I make an actual comment. Italy disappointed in the last few matches pre-WC. Germany (to me, at least) is a big question mark.

Tomorrow morning has a hell of a game at 7am. Netherlands x Denmark. I can't wait.

 

[RagePSV]

Really sad that the USA game aired at like 3 am, but have watched a majority of the game and was in the city when South Korea won

Yeah, that's how I felt when the cup was in Korea/Japan....

 

[RagePSV]

and did anyone see steve mcmannaman after the game he looked like he was going to cry.

Ha! reminded me of Roenick after the Blackhawks won on Wednesday.

 

[AngraRULES]

I take back what I said about Germany. They looked flawless today.

 

[RagePSV]

So who is everyones predictions as who will play in the final?

I have got Brazil over Argentina.

Germany looked pretty damn scary today.

 

[Stingray11214]

Germany took Australia to school. Simply tore apart the defense. The Nationalmannschaft were unlucky not to make the game 10-0 the way they played. Australia really just showed that Asian football has a long way to go. Sadly, they might as well pack their bags now that Tim Cahill is gone for the straight red. Ghana will not lose to them.

 

[GoRillaBoy76]

I said i thought it would be Brazil over Argentina, but after seeing Germany I might need to rethink that. Best showing so far.

 

[Cheiron]

Lets ignore the Germany Australia game after Austrialia was down a man. Prior to that Germany was passing accurately, had great touch on the ball, was creative offensively, and had excellent crosses finding open spots, etc. Australia's defense looked like they were often playing a zone defnese deep in their territory, which does not work against a team that is quick and accurate. I'm not sure what they were thinking. The only area sthat Germany looked vulnerable were in their defense, particularly on transitions, and in physical play. In physical encounters for the ball, Australia looked stronger. Still, Germany will be tough to beat.

Australia's tournament is essentially over. Cahill has to skip the next game right? I hope that they overturn the red, as it was an extremley weak red, and no more of one than many of the yellows in the tourney thus far.

 

[Cheiron]

The U.S. has respect. Sure, still mocked at times, but mostly out of spite/frustration. People from various countries will mock U.S. soccer full well knowing that its national team is better than theirs. As it should be. We have a huge population and spend a lot of money on it. The U.S. tieing England gives a little respect, but not much. It didn't happen in some strong way. It was a poorly played game.

Nobody cares about shutting down players. If you shutdown a player and leave yourself vulnerable to somebody else, its not impressive. Players do get props for shutting somebody down. Rooney was not shutdown, so much as he was a non factor as U.S.'s left side was so vulnerable (as it has been the last 2 years). The U.S. is respected by teams as they have shown they can beat very good teams.


For U.S. Soccer as a whole to get some respect they'll have to compete better at the club level. They haven't. MLS soccer plays at a fairly good level now, and because of he $$ in it is starting to attract some of the better central america players, which is good, and potentially it might start being able to leach more players away from the lower tiered european leagues. But that's all sponsorship $$.

I don't care much anymore if the U.S. gets respect. We have a lot of people in this country, and a lot of people playing soccer, so you have to really wonder what is holding the U.S. back from being a top 8 team in the world. Is it the U.S. national soccer system? Perhaps. Maybe its just not as good at building up the juniors. But then the U.S. has done well at the junior level. So maybe they are burning the kids out. I don't know enough about it all. But, while I'll continue to root for the U.S., I'll do so mostly because I like how much it bothers other fans when the U.S. wins. I just can't get into rooting for the U.S., because I'm from the U.S. I don't get personal pride from watching them win. I prefer club level more anyhow, even if the football club level needs some reworking (salary cap please, as well as the frustration of not only having players switch teams, but switch leagues). Frankly, I think that Europe would be better off having a European Premier League, but I guess they figure they mostly have that with the CL.

 

[Force10]

The U.S. has respect. Sure, still mocked at times, but mostly out of spite/frustration. People from various countries will mock U.S. soccer full well knowing that its national team is better than theirs. As it should be. We have a huge population and spend a lot of money on it. The U.S. tieing England gives a little respect, but not much. It didn't happen in some strong way. It was a poorly played game.

Nobody cares about shutting down players. If you shutdown a player and leave yourself vulnerable to somebody else, its not impressive. Players do get props for shutting somebody down. Rooney was not shutdown, so much as he was a non factor as U.S.'s left side was so vulnerable (as it has been the last 2 years). The U.S. is respected by teams as they have shown they can beat very good teams.


For U.S. Soccer as a whole to get some respect they'll have to compete better at the club level. They haven't. MLS soccer plays at a fairly good level now, and because of he $$ in it is starting to attract some of the better central america players, which is good, and potentially it might start being able to leach more players away from the lower tiered european leagues. But that's all sponsorship $$.

I don't care much anymore if the U.S. gets respect. We have a lot of people in this country, and a lot of people playing soccer, so you have to really wonder what is holding the U.S. back from being a top 8 team in the world. Is it the U.S. national soccer system? Perhaps. Maybe its just not as good at building up the juniors. But then the U.S. has done well at the junior level. So maybe they are burning the kids out. I don't know enough about it all. But, while I'll continue to root for the U.S., I'll do so mostly because I like how much it bothers other fans when the U.S. wins. I just can't get into rooting for the U.S., because I'm from the U.S. I don't get personal pride from watching them win. I prefer club level more anyhow, even if the football club level needs some reworking (salary cap please, as well as the frustration of not only having players switch teams, but switch leagues). Frankly, I think that Europe would be better off having a European Premier League, but I guess they figure they mostly have that with the CL.

I've gotten past worrying about "respect" anymore. Personally, I think on any given day we've shown that the USA can compete with anyone. Our runner-up at the Confederations Cup shows that. We've come a long way from our thrashing by Czechoslovakia 5-1 in the 1990 WC. Do we need compete at the highest level more consistently? Absolutely. But we are getting there.

But we can use any lack of respect positively. Might the English keeper have been saying to himself "It's just the Americans, I need not be concerned for 90 minutes"?

What needs to happen though for us to improve is that soccer needs to become more of a street sport. Currently it is not. Currently it is all about youth leagues on manicured fields where players learn how to be organized enough to win a game, but not learn how to play imaginitive soccer. Our best player (Dempsey) is one of our few street players. He has that attitude and creativity that comes with playing "on the street".

MLS has been important in our growth. While it has been steady, I actually think the level of play has not improved that much. Yes, they have better players in the league, but they have about double the amount of teams than when the league started. In my office I'm looking at the team picture of DC United I took around '97. There are 5, maybe 6 legitimate internationals on that team. You can't say that about many MLS teams anymore.

Sorry to continue the digression away from WC 2010 - it's off to a pretty solid start...

 

[GoRillaBoy76]

I agree with you about it needs to be more of a street sport in the US, but that would involve public parks adding soccer goals, which where I live the closest place to go and just kill a day playing soccer is a good 30-40 minutes drive.

 

[Force10]

I agree with you about it needs to be more of a street sport in the US, but that would involve public parks adding soccer goals, which where I live the closest place to go and just kill a day playing soccer is a good 30-40 minutes drive.

You don't need standard sized goals!! You invent your own using cones or boxes or whatever. And you play wherever (the street, a backyard, a driveway - 2v2, 3v3, 4v4) - that's how you become creative in any sport, playing in non-normal conditions.

 

[Cheiron]

Street soccer and public parks with soccer goals do not go together.

Playing in gravel lots with shirts marking goals, or playing in alley ways is street soccer.

I think the other thing fun about rooting for the U.S. is just to see how many sports the U.S. can come to get on top of, at some time.

The U.S. is so good at basketball because so many kids and adults play it. Its so easy to go and play a game, whether there's a hoop there or not. Same with baseball. Same with American football. Hockey is mostly a result of having the numbers in my opinion, as it is not an easy sport to just get into in the U.S., but we have the numbers, and a few places where pickup games are common.

But football is not our culture. Youth football is, with all the 'soccer moms' and whatnot. Lots of kids play. So what happens? We have lots of traveling teams, etc. Maybe one of the factors is that a lot of development stops when we hit high school. Clubs become for off season. The best players end up playing with poor players and poor coaches. Some kids go onto college, but even then, is college the best place for development of football athletes? I don't think so. But that's the way it is. It works for other sports, but not as well for football.

One thing I'm curious about is how many guys currently in MLS could be starting for a team in the premier leagues in Germany, Italy, England or Spain, but don't because they don't want to move, can make more money here, or because they are just plainly ignored because nobody knows just how good they are.

Are you going to tell me that there's any starter on the U.S. national team that couldn't start on some european premier league team?

 

[AngraRULES]

You don't need standard sized goals!! You invent your own using cones or boxes or whatever. And you play wherever (the street, a backyard, a driveway - 2v2, 3v3, 4v4) - that's how you become creative in any sport, playing in non-normal conditions.

100% true. Having grown up in Brazil, I can attest. You don't need standard sized goals. You can play soccer wherever you want, using whatever you have available to you. And believe me, if soccer is your passion, you have fun even if it means making two goals using your sneakers and playing barefoot with tennis balls.

 

[AngraRULES]

Street soccer and public parks with soccer goals do not go together.

Playing in gravel lots with shirts marking goals, or playing in alley ways is street soccer.

This. And dude, I must say (after doing this for my entire lifetime... IT'S SO MUCH FREAKING FUN!!) I remember going to a buddy's house as kid... As you can imagine, most houses down in Brazil have taller fences and gates. We would keep the gate of his house open (imagine a big garage door), and use it as one of the goals. The other goal would be across the street. We'd ask the neighbor if we could use his gate. It was like a little street soccer arena. Just watch for the cars...

We also had an alleyway that was another one of our "special soccer stadiums" lol. Not to mention every parking lot, front lawn, yard, empty lot, decent-sized grassy area is used for football. And most of the times, the property owners don't even mind (which would be like the end of the world here).

I miss that. I'd still be doing that if I could. And the cool thing is that people all ages do it. It's just so cool.

The U.S. is so good at basketball because so many kids and adults play it. Its so easy to go and play a game, whether there's a hoop there or not. Same with baseball. Same with American football. Hockey is mostly a result of having the numbers in my opinion, as it is not an easy sport to just get into in the U.S., but we have the numbers, and a few places where pickup games are common.

But football is not our culture. Youth football is, with all the 'soccer moms' and whatnot. Lots of kids play. So what happens? We have lots of traveling teams, etc. Maybe one of the factors is that a lot of development stops when we hit high school. Clubs become for off season. The best players end up playing with poor players and poor coaches. Some kids go onto college, but even then, is college the best place for development of football athletes? I don't think so. But that's the way it is. It works for other sports, but not as well for football.

This.

 

[GoRillaBoy76]

OK I missed it, some one fill me in, did Paraguay play good or did Italy play poor?

 

[Force10]

OK I missed it, some one fill me in, did Paraguay play good or did Italy play poor?

I watched about half of it on replay last night. It was probably a combination of Paraguay playing well and Italy maybe a little off their game. Paraguay had a great goal off a restart. If their goalie doesn't misplay the cross that led to Italy's goal they may have won.

New Zealand scores with seconds remaining to steal a 1-1 draw v Slovakia this morning.

 

[AngraRULES]

New Zealand scores with seconds remaining to steal a 1-1 draw v Slovakia this morning.

New Zeland has such a crappy team. I couldn't believe they actually pulled off the goal in the end.

Did you see their goalie trying to clear the ball and totally missing the kick, almost giving Slovakia a goal?

 

[Saladbar]

New Zeland has such a crappy team. I couldn't believe they actually pulled off the goal in the end.

Did you see their goalie trying to clear the ball and totally missing the kick, almost giving Slovakia a goal?

I think New Zealand took the title away from Greece as the worst team on the cup so far, however they did manage to score somehow.

That goalie needs to stay on the bench for the rest of the tournament, absolutely terrible.

 

[chestery]

There is no debate about this the samba boy have the title. Bet with me they are about to roar this world cup.