FIFA WORLD CUP

[Lascar78]

yeah I tried warning my friends but they wouldn't listen. I mean team USA has improved a LOT, but they've gone from a joke, to a not so good respectable team. They are always ranked high in the rankings because other than world cup they only play cupcake teams.

England is through but a man down.

I hope france can pull it out tommorrow or I'm going to be super pissed. They choked last world cup, I would hate to see them robbed because of referreeing this time

[AHF]

The US needs to develop some legitimate forwards really badly. Their lack of skill players up front led to the disasterous 4-5-1 lineup that didn't help them against either the Czech Republic or Ghana.

However, I am PISSED at that ridiculous penalty kick they awarded to Ghana in stoppage play. That was a piss poor call. Given the amount of mugging that goes on routinely in the box, that was about as little contact as could have been made on that play (arms not involved, not much body, etc.). It utterly changed the dynamic of the game in the second half (seen in the 15+ times Ghana players were "hurt" and had to be treated so that the US counterstrike was stopped, the clock bled and the Ghana players could get a breather and reset defensively - I also like how the way, way too late yellow card that was dealt for delay of game didn't result in any extra time on the clock in extra minutes which means that not only was the delay fully effective, they ref awarded additional delay while handing out the yellow).

[Lascar78]

yeah that penalty was bad. That being said, even 1-1 wouldn't have been good enough, but they did get robbed. At least the US only got robbed once out of three, France is 2 for 2!

[Plainview1981]

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yeah that penalty was bad. That being said, even 1-1 wouldn't have been good enough, but they did get robbed. At least the US only got robbed once out of three, France is 2 for 2!

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I could be wrong, but I can't see soccer catching on ALOT until the USA team does really well.

[mdawg]

Very disappointing showing from the US team. The only guy who played with any confidence or urgency is Dempsey. Donovan and Beasley were awful, Johnson didn't get a chance, and what was the point of bringing O'Brien if he wasn't going to play? Why not bring a young guy who could give some energy? It's time for Arena to move on. He's too attached to a certain group of guys, and we need some new ideas and formations (I can't believe they played the 4-5-1 again.) I think soccer will get bigger because of all the immigrants we have living here now. That's the sport they love, and they'll pass it on to their kids.

[Lascar78]

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I could be wrong, but I can't see soccer catching on ALOT until the USA team does really well.

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It's a catch 22. Team USA won't do well until it becomes a really popular sport here. It won't become a popular sport here until team usa does well.

It's the same thing the rest of the world faced with basketball. In that case, the dream team made the sport really popular even in countries where the national teams couldn't remotely compete with the dream team. Not sure if the same thing can happen to the US with soccer.

[AHF]

To me the obvious problem for soccer is that the big revenue sports in the US and the prestige sports are football, basketball and baseball. The best athletes in Brazil, etc. absolutely play soccer. The best athletes in the US are very unlikely to play soccer.

Anyone else think it would be interesting to see Dwayne Wade as our big forward or Lebron James as our goalie or Allen Iverson in the midfield? (Obviously having grown up playing soccer).

[drzachary]

LETS-GO-TO-GO!!

[Lascar78]

yes and no. Even in a lot of the big soccer countries, the best players are usually playing abroad. There is no single dominant league.

To me, if the US is ever going to truly succeed, I think it's basically going to be:

-First, some young really good american players emerge

-Second, those players go abroad in the big leagues like Italy or England and get real experience

-Eventually people will follow them more, and follow those leagues more

-Then our world cup teams will do better

-hopefully, interest in MLS will increase, salaries will increase, and it will eventually be a half-decent league

I don't think soccer will ever truly be big here, but I think it will eventually much bigger than it currently is.

I'm already getting psyched for the france match right now. Apparently my wishes came true and instead of replacing zidane with a midfielder they're putting trezeguet in, so with trezeguet-henry we'll be playing the best pair of strikers outside of brazil. If things go well I hope we'll keep playing both.

Current mood: Very cautiously optimistic

[DJlaysitup]

They were interviewing a soccer dude on espn the other night with ties to Ghana. He said that's basically the only sport youngsters play over there. No baseball/football/basketball rotation like over here. So one can imagine that their best players would be pretty darn good. Dee Brown would likely be a great soccer player if that was all he did from age 3.

[Lascar78]

yeah that was freddie adu, the supposedly 13 year old (maybe 15 by now - i don't know) american originally from ghana. They're hoping he can help bring soccer into sight in the US. He's been put in the spotlight way too soon, he's all potential at this point

He's right about that though. I remember growing up in france soccer was all kids played. Every day at recess, whenever, soccer everywhere. Then the dream team hit and all of the sudden a lot of the kids switched to basketball. 10 years later you see the payoff in international competition. You just need to find a way to get american kids involved, and they don't seem all that interested.

[DJlaysitup]

Yeah, my son's Little League baseball coach wouldn't take a kid on his team who played soccer too. Said it was unAmerican. He was a great baseball coach though.

[AHF]

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He's right about that though. I remember growing up in france soccer was all kids played. Every day at recess, whenever, soccer everywhere. Then the dream team hit and all of the sudden a lot of the kids switched to basketball. 10 years later you see the payoff in international competition. You just need to find a way to get american kids involved, and they don't seem all that interested.

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I just don't see that happening right now in this country with soccer, though. With rare exceptions, our best athletes (the Bo Jacksons, Reggie Bushes, Kobe Bryants, Andrew Jones, etc.) are going to go to the biggest sports in this country as much as a product of the culture as a matter of earning potential.

[kudzu23]

I was noticing how, since there were two 45 minute periods, there is hardly time for a commercial break. I could see how the networks wouldnt like this, more than just world cup footage as ESPN provided, seeing how with basketball and auto racing, you get a commercial break like every 10 minutes. If they went to a commercial while the game is still on like they do it auto racing, you could miss the play of the game.

[rascurrein]

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He's right about that though. I remember growing up in france soccer was all kids played. Every day at recess, whenever, soccer everywhere. Then the dream team hit and all of the sudden a lot of the kids switched to basketball. 10 years later you see the payoff in international competition. You just need to find a way to get american kids involved, and they don't seem all that interested.

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I just don't see that happening right now in this country with soccer, though. With rare exceptions, our best athletes (the Bo Jacksons, Reggie Bushes, Kobe Bryants, Andrew Jones, etc.) are going to go to the biggest sports in this country as much as a product of the culture as a matter of earning potential.

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I dont live in USA but i think you are right. But i think that the main thing is "a product of the culture" than the "earning potential". If i get it right when you said "earning potential" you talk about money, and i have to say that there's a lot of money involved in soccer, Real Madrid payed U$S 30.000.000 for Robinho, of course is more easy to earn money in your country when you have a lot of sports that give you that chance and you are a good athlete.

[Lascar78]

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I just don't see that happening right now in this country with soccer, though.

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Agreed. I'm talking decades down the line.

[AHF]

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He's right about that though. I remember growing up in france soccer was all kids played. Every day at recess, whenever, soccer everywhere. Then the dream team hit and all of the sudden a lot of the kids switched to basketball. 10 years later you see the payoff in international competition. You just need to find a way to get american kids involved, and they don't seem all that interested.

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I just don't see that happening right now in this country with soccer, though. With rare exceptions, our best athletes (the Bo Jacksons, Reggie Bushes, Kobe Bryants, Andrew Jones, etc.) are going to go to the biggest sports in this country as much as a product of the culture as a matter of earning potential.

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I dont live in USA but i think you are right. But i think that the main thing is "a product of the culture" than the "earning potential". If i get it right when you said "earning potential" you talk about money, and i have to say that there's a lot of money involved in soccer, Real Madrid payed U$S 30.000.000 for Robinho, of course is more easy to earn money in your country when you have a lot of sports that give you that chance and you are a good athlete.

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I agree it is domestic earning potential. People in the soccer culture know they will probably play overseas when they are coming up. American athletes generally want to earn their money without leaving their country.

[rascurrein]

I think that MLS has to change direction. I have the chance to see matches in ESPN and i see players from Honduras, Guatemala, etc. Instead of that i think that the MLS can get players from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to give the league more quailty at the same price.

[AHF]

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I think that MLS has to change direction. I have the chance to see matches in ESPN and i see players from Honduras, Guatemala, etc. Instead of that i think that the MLS can get players from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to give the league more quailty at the same price.

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At least one of the teams has been after Brazilian players of even the caliber of Ronaldo (I think the Red Bulls franchise).

[Catapult]

What a complete BS call to give the game to Italy.