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World cup is football

Hum

(06-17-2014 09:01 AM)the Dragon Wrote:  link

Soccer haters, go ahead and hate, but you will soon see that the beautiful game is here to stay. It will soon overtake baseball in popularity and take its place as a top 3 sport in the US.

It is the world's game, and it is time for the US to take part in a serious way!

"I believe that we will win!"

I think UAB should adopt this cheer! We need that attitude.

I don't think it'll overtake baseball as that is also an international sport as well as America's pastime. It'll become more relevant & you'll definitely see it more often & maybe replace things like hockey in the overall view of American eyes. I don't fully get all the nuances/rules of the game but find it exciting especially at Olympic/WC times.

USA was fortunate to win. Ghana was the more consistent agressor and controlled the ball more.

I'm pulling for the USA, but was not very impressed with our quickness and ball control. After watching France, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina, the difference in quality is pretty obvious. We'll really have to step it up and get lucky to advance.

I'm not familiar with the team, but maybe the guy getting a hamstring hurt our offense.

It might be instructive regarding the various national team's depth of players to know how many good to great players were eliminated in choosing who made the national squads. In the USA where soccer remains a secondary (or worse) sport, the pool of such talented players might have been much smaller than for some other nations. Sort of like asking what portion of Sun Belt FB players would make the starting units of a major P-5 conference team?

One great US player limited by a hamstring injury might be worse for our team than for other teams where there were more and higher levels of competition.

(06-17-2014 05:12 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  It might be instructive regarding the various national team's depth of players to know how many good to great players were eliminated in choosing who made the national squads. In the USA where soccer remains a secondary (or worse) sport, the pool of such talented players might have been much smaller than for some other nations. Sort of like asking what portion of Sun Belt FB players would make the starting units of a major P-5 conference team?

One great US player limited by a hamstring injury might be worse for our team than for other teams where there were more and higher levels of competition.

Huh? That's the most amount if words I've ever seen to say "other teams have more depth than we do"

Well, for starters they didn't select Donovan for the team.

(06-17-2014 05:12 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  It might be instructive regarding the various national team's depth of players to know how many good to great players were eliminated in choosing who made the national squads. In the USA where soccer remains a secondary (or worse) sport, the pool of such talented players might have been much smaller than for some other nations. Sort of like asking what portion of Sun Belt FB players would make the starting units of a major P-5 conference team?

One great US player limited by a hamstring injury might be worse for our team than for other teams where there were more and higher levels of competition.

A bit wrong assumption/analogy. From what little I know the players for the most part for any country's team, play professionally in the pro soccer leagues in Europe & US. The better analogy would be who got the best/most quality free agents in the market or is more similar to the way Olympic basketball is, where NBA players play for their country's team else if not drafted to that team go to some other country & offer their talent there.

(06-17-2014 05:16 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Well, for starters they didn't select Donovan for the team.

Yeah...if they had, perhaps the team would have fed off of his "I can't go hard every day" attitude, and our boys would have given up a goal in the first 5 minutes, as was our WorldCup habit with him on the field.

I just don't understand this fascination with thinking he had a God given right to be in this team

(06-17-2014 05:57 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  

(06-17-2014 05:12 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  It might be instructive regarding the various national team's depth of players to know how many good to great players were eliminated in choosing who made the national squads. In the USA where soccer remains a secondary (or worse) sport, the pool of such talented players might have been much smaller than for some other nations. Sort of like asking what portion of Sun Belt FB players would make the starting units of a major P-5 conference team?

One great US player limited by a hamstring injury might be worse for our team than for other teams where there were more and higher levels of competition.

A bit wrong assumption/analogy. From what little I know the players for the most part for any country's team, play professionally in the pro soccer leagues in Europe & US. The better analogy would be who got the best/most quality free agents in the market or is more similar to the way Olympic basketball is, where NBA players play for their country's team else if not drafted to that team go to some other country & offer their talent there.

I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you're saying, but if I do, you're incorrect. Players can't go to any country as a free agent. They can only play for a team if they are a citizen of that country.
We have seen a recent rise in dual citizenship players choosing the US over their other country, but it certainly isn't a free agent system

I was saying 2 things - first w/ soccer being world's game & many WC players playing professionally that when WC time comes around they play for their country just like what happens w/ Olympic sports & second there's always the odd man out as a country that has too many good players only has so many spots on the team so player may seek another to play for & there's always some little country willing to take him up as a "FA" & give them dual citizenship. IIRC there was some female skier this past Olympics that didn't make her country's team due to quality of members & spots available (woman was Canadian I think but trained in US & was one of the top skiers in the sport so was just odd person out) but competed for some other country in the Olympics. That's the part I mean by FA & the better analogy being the NBA/Olympics rather than P5/G5. While it doesn't happen often nor with some of the bigger name countries, it does happen.

(06-17-2014 05:16 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  

(06-17-2014 05:12 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  It might be instructive regarding the various national team's depth of players to know how many good to great players were eliminated in choosing who made the national squads. In the USA where soccer remains a secondary (or worse) sport, the pool of such talented players might have been much smaller than for some other nations. Sort of like asking what portion of Sun Belt FB players would make the starting units of a major P-5 conference team?

One great US player limited by a hamstring injury might be worse for our team than for other teams where there were more and higher levels of competition.

Huh? That's the most amount if words I've ever seen to say "other teams have more depth than we do"

...or "the loss of Altidore hurts us more than it would for deeeper teams."

I don't know how much the loss of altidore hurts us in the long run. He for perfectly into what we wanted to do against Ghana but not necessarily what we want to do in the Portugal game. I like johannson's upside, but he may not be ready yet. I think altidore is a player we can replace more easily than some players at other positions.

For what it's worth, we have plenty of depth and talent to choose from in this country, our youth system just wasn't up to par in the past. We also haven't had enough guys playing overseas. Klinsmann is fixing that, and I expect to have a very solid roster heading into the next World Cup.

Despite what some newfound soccer experts like to tell us every 4 years, LeBron James as a soccer player doesn't work.

How does the loss of PeePee from Portugal impact our chances?

It's not as significant as people like to make it out to be. He's a starter, so that helps, but that is a team with their backs against the wall. I also don't have a clue how our defense is going to contain Ronaldo. It would have been a lot better if he got that red card in our game and we played a man up for 60 minutrs

(06-17-2014 07:48 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  I was saying 2 things - first w/ soccer being world's game & many WC players playing professionally that when WC time comes around they play for their country just like what happens w/ Olympic sports & second there's always the odd man out as a country that has too many good players only has so many spots on the team so player may seek another to play for & there's always some little country willing to take him up as a "FA" & give them dual citizenship. IIRC there was some female skier this past Olympics that didn't make her country's team due to quality of members & spots available (woman was Canadian I think but trained in US & was one of the top skiers in the sport so was just odd person out) but competed for some other country in the Olympics. That's the part I mean by FA & the better analogy being the NBA/Olympics rather than P5/G5. While it doesn't happen often nor with some of the bigger name countries, it does happen.

gotcha. but i believe there is a difference. if you are considering playing for country A or country B, the only way that can happen is if you were a citizen of both countries before you played for either. that is to say, you can't play an international game or two for country A, realize you aren't going to make it to their big time, and then go apply for citizenship to country B and join their team.
If you weren't a citizen of country B before you ever played for country A, FIFA won't let you join up later. MOST of the players that do have options of more than one country do have legit ties to both

(06-16-2014 06:18 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 04:46 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Soccer was invented by European ladies to keep them busy while their husbands did the cooking.

That's uncalled for. You don't like it fine, but no need to trash it for the fans who do.

Pot meet kettle

I suspect he hasn't ever watched King of the Hill

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dir...28934.html

"Before it became a rallying cry for enthusiastic college basketball student sections or hopeful U.S. soccer fans, the trendiest chant in American sports began as something much less grandiose.

It was the brainchild of a Naval Academy Prep School student who never expected it to spread across his own campus, let alone across the nation."