Not sure how many are fans of soccer here, but I am, especially the World Cup. The USA is in a tough group but had a good win (friendly) against Poland the other day. Italy put it to the host team, I think 4-1, which is good news and bad. Anyway, does anybody have predictions, darkhorses…etc…
Predictions:
Winner: Italy:unhappy:
Darkhorse(s): USA, Portugal, Netherlands, Australia (I have heard good things but have not seen them play)
USA will be fortunate to get out of the group, but they can.
I think Brazil is in a tough Group.
The only team I’m worried about in ours is Italy.
Anyway…98 more days…
I’m pulling for the US (no, really?) and Portugal.
If the Argentines could get their act together, they could contend.
I also think if Coach Lipsitz could get a gender exemption, the Lady Niners would roll anyone in their path.
Brazil’s talent is head and shoulders above everyone…they should win…but I hope not.
The USA pulled a tough group…but I like our chances. We have been playing real well lately and scoring goals in buckets…something we have had trouble with in international play.
I think we are ranked 6th in the world right now according to FIFA…and thats pretty damn strong and speaks to how the MLS is bringing along a lot of our guys.
Anyway…I cant wait…its good to read some discussion on the sport too!
I’m by no means a soccer fan but I’ll watch some of the World Cup games. I actually try to find a bunch of foreigners around and watch it with them. Last time was some Chinese. It’s more fun that way.
I'm by no means a soccer fan but I'll watch some of the World Cup games. I actually try to find a bunch of foreigners around and watch it with them. Last time was some Chinese. It's more fun that way.
Me and my wife watched the '98 World Cup in Spain with people from all over the world. It was great until the French won and a bunch of French kids came out with the French flag running circles around the center of town for an hour, yelling and screaming. And the “I didn’t know the US had a soccer team” joke got pretty old after the 100th time.
Why do we care about non-American teams?
For those that care…
[URL=http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5414768]United States moves to fifth[/URL]
[QUOTE][B]The U.S. national team improved to fifth in FIFA’s monthly rankings - the highest it’s ever been placed by world soccer’s governing body[/B][/QUOTE]
America’s domination of every country not named Brazil begins this summer!!!
Now that hoops season is over, maybe I can catch up on the World Cup scense…
The Czech’s are 2nd??
Sadly, I cannot name more than 3 players on our national squad. This whole working thing has made it harder and harder to keep up with. I miss grad school days when I could watch matches at whatever weird hours ESPN played them.
Okay, I underestimated my memory - I know about 10 or 11 of the guys on the roster. Lots of holdovers from '02.
The draw though - wow. Italy and the Czechs? And Im guessing Ghana is on par with Cameroon or Nigerian teams of the past?
That’s a heckuva tough draw. If the US advances, they’ll have earned it.
meant to reply a long time ago, but got sidetracked. glad it got bumped…nonetheless
i’ll actually be going this summer, got tix to us-ita and us-ghana, hopefully the us won’t be out of it by the time they play ghana, would hate for it to be a meaningless match. really stoked anyways.
i don’t put much into the fifa rankings, is the us really the 5th best? i’d put them i bit further down the ladder. i mean, italy #12? c’mon, that’s almost as worse as GW being ranked #6 (were they that high?). to me, the us would have trouble with france, england, italy, spain, sweden, and germany (ranked 22nd??), all teams ranked below them. But with that said, i still think they can get out of their table with a win and two ties, 5pts usually will get you through unless there’s one team that everyone beats up on and it makes it tough. hard to pick a winner right now, gotta lean towards brazil, ronaldhino is badass. i’ll go with germany, home teams always do well, and netherlands. darkhorses i’ll go with us (obviously no bias-wishful thinking here), england (rooney just seems to score all the time), and i’ll go with france as a third.
now about the us team, i don’t dig on mcbride that much. i believe when he matches up with a good defender, he becomes too stationary. something twellman doesn’t do. eddie johnson has shown flashes, but i’d like to see how he does against quality compitetion, i.e. germany this wednesday. i like dempsey, donovan, beasley in the lineup. i don’t like eddie lewis that much, but man he can put the ball in the box like a winger/outside mid is supposed to, plus he plays on the left, hard to find that. heck no need to break down each player, lineup would be this:
gk k keller
def eddie pope
def o onyewu
def f hedjuk
def c bocanegra
mid eddie lewis
mid c reyna
mid j o’brien
mid d beasley
str twellman
att md l donovan
i’m not completely sold on all of these guys, so if someone can make an argument over one of them, you could change my mind, you know, something besides the classic “he sucks” argument.
and to add, i’m surprised at the lack of “soccer sucks/boring/etc” in this thread, i thought it was unamerican for any soccer thread to last longer than three responses before the obligatory “soccer sucks”. tsk tsk tsk, i had much more respect for the soccer-bashers before.
[QUOTE=geeosphere;163104]and to add, i’m surprised at the lack of “soccer sucks/boring/etc” in this thread, i thought it was unamerican for any soccer thread to last longer than three responses before the obligatory “soccer sucks”. tsk tsk tsk, i had much more respect for the soccer-bashers before.[/QUOTE]
World Cup soccer is the only soccer I watch. I mean, it’s the best the sport has to offer. It can’t suck that much.
First, I looked online and tickets for the Italy-USA game were going for $750 minimum. Good for you Gee, write back and let all of the flat broke NNN posters know how that went. 
And although it is not that big in the USA, soccer is it just about everywhere else. I’ve seen a few games in Italy (AC Milano, Juventus) and I’ve never seen anything like it. Even if you don’t like soccer, if anyone here gets a chance to travel to Europe, no matter what country, go see a soccer game. Crazy.
And Gee, you’re right. The US being ranked 5th is a little generous, especially considering the teams behind us. But we have a chance to get out of the 1st round this year although it will be tough (They call me Mr. Obvious:smile: ). Czech is usually tough, Italy we know is tough, and NA, I think it was you asking about Ghana. I saw on a soccer sports show a conversation about Ghana. Seems like the consensus was that they are particularly strong this year and have a legitimate shot of going into the second round. Arguably, the US is in the toughest group.
We’ve had it handed to us in basketball, now baseball…how nice would it be to hand it to the rest of the world in their sport?
[QUOTE=geeosphere;163104]meant to reply a long time ago, but got sidetracked. glad it got bumped…nonetheless
i’ll actually be going this summer, got tix to us-ita and us-ghana, hopefully the us won’t be out of it by the time they play ghana, would hate for it to be a meaningless match. really stoked anyways.
i don’t put much into the fifa rankings, is the us really the 5th best? i’d put them i bit further down the ladder. i mean, italy #12? c’mon, that’s almost as worse as GW being ranked #6 (were they that high?). to me, the us would have trouble with france, england, italy, spain, sweden, and germany (ranked 22nd??), all teams ranked below them. But with that said, i still think they can get out of their table with a win and two ties, 5pts usually will get you through unless there’s one team that everyone beats up on and it makes it tough. hard to pick a winner right now, gotta lean towards brazil, ronaldhino is badass. i’ll go with germany, home teams always do well, and netherlands. darkhorses i’ll go with us (obviously no bias-wishful thinking here), england (rooney just seems to score all the time), and i’ll go with france as a third.
now about the us team, i don’t dig on mcbride that much. i believe when he matches up with a good defender, he becomes too stationary. something twellman doesn’t do. eddie johnson has shown flashes, but i’d like to see how he does against quality compitetion, i.e. germany this wednesday. i like dempsey, donovan, beasley in the lineup. i don’t like eddie lewis that much, but man he can put the ball in the box like a winger/outside mid is supposed to, plus he plays on the left, hard to find that. heck no need to break down each player, lineup would be this:
gk k keller
def eddie pope
def o onyewu
def f hedjuk
def c bocanegra
mid eddie lewis
mid c reyna
mid j o’brien
mid d beasley
str twellman
att md l donovan
i’m not completely sold on all of these guys, so if someone can make an argument over one of them, you could change my mind, you know, something besides the classic “he sucks” argument.
and to add, i’m surprised at the lack of “soccer sucks/boring/etc” in this thread, i thought it was unamerican for any soccer thread to last longer than three responses before the obligatory “soccer sucks”. tsk tsk tsk, i had much more respect for the soccer-bashers before.[/QUOTE]
I love Twellmans play…the guy is all over the place. I Know a lot of guys are high on Dempsey but he still has work to do before I’m sold on him. He does show flashes of great play…It just seems like he likes to take stretches of play off.
Why is Reyna still on the squad? I know he is sort of an American “legend” but his prime is way behind him. Time to move on in my opinion.
I was kinda suprise about all the soccer talk also…no “soccer sucks” comment??? Wow!
I was kinda suprise about all the soccer talk also...no "soccer sucks" comment????? Wow!
Simple explanation:
Bobanded started this thread. People know that a ‘soccer sucks’ comment would bring out the patented “SMACKDOWN” from Bobanded personally. :ticked:
In the famous words of the immortal and beloved Homey the Clown:
Bobanded don’t play that.
Yesterdays friendly:
Germany:4 USA:1
:unhappy:
I like the lineup in general but McBride is essential to our success. Why? Because in that group we are NOT likely to control possession. Counter attacking will be key and he is better than any US forward in history at beginning counters because of his ability to win long balls out of the back and hold the ball. Also, his ability to finish clinically in the air (polished in England) will be critical if we only have a few special opportunities per game.
Our group is brutal. We play two European powers and Ghana is dangerous. If their youth performances from the past translate at all to the full team they have just as good a chance as anyone to get out of the group. Many experts have us coming in 4th in the group, and we are good. That says it all.
The Deutschland Mannschaft was coming off a major arsch-whooping from Italia, and the criticism of Herr Klinsmann (Germany’s coach and former Verein Fussball Stuttgart scorer) made complaints about Lutz and Sendek look quite tame.
In Germany, it will be difficult for the US to advance. If Germany plays like it did against the US, they could be dangerous playing at home.
On McBride, it’s never been a personal choice of mine to have your striker as a stationary target, Charlotte Soccer Coach, but the point is valid. I would hope that the US really presses the attack to keep Italy/Czech/Ghana midfield and fullbacks somewhat back. But as seen last night, if the US’s midfield can’t properly distribute the ball forward and plays almost nothing but long balls forward out of the back, I think you’ll see similar results as to last nights drubbing. But in defense, it was essentially US’s second team, but the absence of the midfielders control was too apparent.
Bobanded49er, got one pair of tickets throught FIFA, US-Gha and the US-Ita through a ticket broker. Want to say I got them for $420/piece. Yeah, that much.