I can watch good soccer, say: Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Netherlands. I'm not gonna watch bad soccer, such as USA soccer, because quite frankly it too closely resembles kids out there just kicking the ball around and chasing the damn thing. Not enough quality, precision, or skill for me. And the other thing is you realize the soccer dudes we put out there aren't near the upper echelon of athletes this country has. In those other countries soccer is what most of their best athletes are drawn to. edit...and what I said is the truth: I did watch those other teams play. I did not watch the USA. I may watch them when they play Portugal (they looked like crap), and Germany because I want to see those teams play.
Vuvus are not allowed. This US team has the best work ethic of any US team I've ever seen. They had the Portugal game won after giving up an early goal. We were up 2-1 and Portugal, the number 4 team in the world, scored with no time left. We are tied with Germany in first place and need a tie against Germany or a tie between Porto and Ghana to advance to the final 16. Very proud of this team.
Watching the game today, we all got a good view of just how much ground is left to make up (for the US to an elite world program). Germany is a machine. Even near the end, when we had a chance to score, I felt like Germany had taken their foot off of the gas (much earlier in the half). I've enjoyed this World Cup, and of course watching the US, but I'm not a soccer person normally. So, for those of you that keep up with things, is getting out of the group round into the knockout round considered a successful World Cup for the US? I know we aren't going to win the whole thing, but what were the die-hard fans wanting (advance out of the group? win a game in the next round? Semi-final?)?
The US wasn't even expected to make it out of the group stage. Ghana had beaten them in consecutive World Cup group stage matches, and Germany and Portugal were expected to advance. And this is the first time that the US has made it to the knockout round in consecutive World Cups. I'm happy with the results. I'd love to see them beat Belgium and advance. They've never made it past the quarterfinals. They made it to the semifinals in 1930, but the semifinals were immediately after group play. There were only 15 participating countries.
Is it possible that Belgium will be a step down from the group play for the US? We have a few injuries but Belgium is really hobbled coming into Tuesday's game.
With all the young uns we had out there we will actually build on this cup. International competitions are much more compelling than mls, so that's understandable, eilson. But we can look forward to watching this team in the copa america, the confederations cup,and the gold cup, all of which will help our boys get prepared for 2018.
I'm a lazy American fan. I really don't plan to get into soccer, but I really want our program to continue to get better so that we can beat the world's best. I'm proud of our team, I thought they did well, and I really like our coach.
Yeah, I'm not really a soccer guy myself, but I'll watch just about any sport if you give me a team to cheer for. One thing I really like about the world cup is that we're sending our best players, and it's competitive. Football barely exists outside of the US, basketball isn't competitive, and we don't send our good pitchers for baseball. I'm super excited for Rugby 7's getting added to the Olympics in 2 years, though. That will be a blast if we have any success. I'll probably watch the CONCACAF or whatever it's called. I can't get myself to watch exhibition matches, but if we're playing in a tournament I can. I hardly know anything about soccer, but that Yedlin kid was fun to watch. I'm excited to see where he's at in 4 years.
We won one out of four games we played in the World Cup. I get the World Cup buzz and all that, but if anyone thinks the good ol USofA is ready to be a real player on the world stage they be wrong.
I will too, for what, a week?...DGAS about "futbol". If they would change the game to outlaw headers and provide for lots more scoring, I could warm up to it.
Yeah, knowing little about the program, I thought we were pretty good going into the WC. The real wake up was the Germany game. We're still pretty far away from being as good as the elite. Of course soccer is a much bigger deal in those countries, and I just don't ever see it being that big here. Hell, hockey (which I do really like) barely competes with the other big 3.
Soccer will never be really big here unless some of our elite athletes start choosing soccer from a very young age and focus almost exclusively on it, because that's what happens in the countries that are good at it. That's not likely to happen because we well know that our best athletes are from a young age funneled into basketball and football, and I just don't see that changing.
The Belgium game was sort of telling for me, because even though Tim Howard did everything short of standing on his head to keep the USA in the game, Belgium TOTALLY dominated play, and even though this Belgium squad is pretty good - they're not to be confused with a world power.
Curly, host Brazil lost 7-1 v Germany. We lost 1-0 to Germany a week ago. Brazil has won more cups than any other country. In the other semi Argentina will play the Netherlands for the right to meet Germany for the cup. A German v Holland final would be the best matchup we could as for. Tomorrow at 3 I think we'll see the Dutch pour it on pretty good. 7-1 is crazy. Worst loss for Brazil since 1920?
That kind of amused me, too, but we came out of "group death" with a goal differential of 0. By American standards it's nothing to write home about, but we held our ground against the big boys. I'm not a soccer guy, but I think we'd have done better if Altidore hadn't gotten hurt or if our coach hadn't cut Donovan just to act like a bada**. I also think we might have beaten Belgium if we hadn't been held down by Jones' earlier heroics. The dude was so banged up and should not have been in that game.
