2014 FIFA World Cup |OT6| The beautiful game in all its thrilling glory
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WonkyPanda
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BTW, I want to thank ESPN for teaching me that Sweden and Switzerland are not, in fact, the same country.
I'm trying to get tickets to see Arsenal play the NY Red Bull and I'm looking at 200+ for upper level seats.
Nope.
Well that's a special game, the regular MLS games aren't all that expensive.
What's your point? That he was the best cheater against cheaters?
You can look at it in the same way you could Barry Bonds. Everyone was cheating in one way or another, and these guys rose to the top of a drug soaked sports. It steals any legitimacy that they had, but if everyone is cheating and the playing field is level in terms of that, are they still the best? I'm not proud of either one, but in context of what was going on in cycling and in baseball, it was par for the course and they still rose above everyone else.
I think you are missing the point. The point is that the talent pool for football in the US is watered down because the US has so much other sports that talented youngsters who might dominate in football are instead pushed towards baseball, basketball, american football. Maybe that guy who is riding the bench of a baseball team is the next ronaldo but we will never find out because the US doesn't focus on football currently like that.
In a world which seems more and more to accept diving in football as "part of the game" it's always refreshing to see the American fans (for the most part) rejecting it and that's even more surprising when you consider that their team is coached by one of the greatest divers of all time.
Bam Bam Baklava
Member
Are you saying the US team didn't dive?
Actually that's exactly what people have been saying.
How good Messi is has very little to do with anything "atheltic". He's a midget that doesn't have great stamina, he has a good burst of pace though.
theusedversion
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Always enjoy watching Tim play. He did a magnificent job tonight.
CraigerGamer
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Exactly. Many Americans I speak to casually about football don't understand how a kid from Ghana is working over the Greatest Country To Ever Exist. Its because scouts see talent and that talent leaves for a high-tech, intensive training facility that makes them into quality football players. Sure, countries invest in their players but the club level is to blame for what is right in the game for those small but soccer loving countries.
Again, I know nothing about football so take it for what it is.
CheDominik
Member
I dislike Jones as much as the next guy, but being blindsided like that hurts.
figadapaura
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I got to play for my school for one match when I was in primary school. We never actually had an official team and my high school never had one either, but I did play for my local team Union Mills FC lol.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
Man, that set piece free kick deserved to be a goal.
I would've loved the see the US win in penatly kicks.
Would've been freaking intense.
Then even the last people in the USA would've understood why this sport is so great.
Edit: But Klinsmann did a great job nevertheless. A lot of young talent to be seen. I hope he keeps working on the team and maybe TeamUSA can go a long way in 2018.
I would've loved the see the US win in penatly kicks.
Would've been freaking intense.
Then even the last people in the USA would've understood why this sport is so great.
Edit: But Klinsmann did a great job nevertheless. A lot of young talent to be seen. I hope he keeps working on the team and maybe TeamUSA can go a long way in 2018.
I have always been a fan of soccer, but I think this World Cup has solidified it as my favorite sport. Every game (except maybe against Germany heh) has been unforgettable. So many great moments for our team.
I have followed MLS for some years now and I hope others will now as well. I am very hopeful that soccer will continue to grow here and this US team has certainly helped that, in my opinion.
I have followed MLS for some years now and I hope others will now as well. I am very hopeful that soccer will continue to grow here and this US team has certainly helped that, in my opinion.
People begin playing from not long after they can walk in most nations. Taking the 14 year old basketball failure and turning him into a football player isn't going to be the next Ronaldo he won't even be the next Ade Akinbiyi
US needs the tiny short guys who play slot WR but are usually too small to make it in the NFL to play soccer instead.
CheDominik
Member
Messi is an outlier. Or wouldn't you say that Drogba or Rio Ferdinand in their primes were freakishly athletic?
WonkyPanda
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Be ready Belgium:
Hasphat'sAnts
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That's a pie-in-the-sky sort of hypothetical when there are tangible things we can do immediately to improve our team and our talent pipeline.
Being a good athlete is encompassing in different areas. Skill, physical ability / endurance, intelligence, creativity, etc. When we say being athletic, it's not just some dude running a sub 4.4 / 40 and pounding absurd weight. You are being single-minded in that you assume we all mean that.
I didn't say pushing failed kids from other sports is what is missing. My point is that America doesn't have a soccer culture because of the dominance of our other major sports. That is the point.
Maintenance
Member
Yeah, I can't wait to see that too. I started at some team on The Conference North in the UK, trying to climb up to the Premier League. My dream will be to get eventually (I hope) nominated as the England manager, and try to win the World Cup, just because I feel bad for them. Should be hard enough and take me quite some time, I guess.
There is a difference between average players, and world class players. You can only achieve some with acquired skills, but world class players are born with special talents that is unattainable. You won't see a wold class caliber football team in US since the game does not have deep roots. It will takes years of investment to see a competent team that can upset European giants.
Australia!
I agree that - although the argument is often made in bitter circumstances - money and cultural cache have significant power. It is true that soccer doesn't require the athleticism of most other sports, but that does not mean that a person that is talented in one sport will not be talented in another. A lot of it is about hand eye coordination and mastery of the body, which are applicable in every sport. Obviously some skills are more easily transferable into others; cricket into golf or AFL into NFL punting for example. But there are other more extreme cases. Shane Warne was on the brink of playing Australian football, maybe the most purely athletic football code on earth, but instead became the greatest leg spinner (cricket bowler) of all time, the most technical and difficult artform in a sport composed almost entirely of difficult art forms.
might have a point there
All this talk of what makes a good football nation is really rather a simple answer.
You have to LOVE the game and the people have to love it like it's life itself and then someone has to come along with a true footballing philosophy and imprint across the nation at every level of game.
Football can't be the #4 sport in the hearts and minds. If it remains that way then only fluke can take you all the way.
Everything else is folly. So long as other sports occupy the heart you'll always be chasing....
You have to LOVE the game and the people have to love it like it's life itself and then someone has to come along with a true footballing philosophy and imprint across the nation at every level of game.
Football can't be the #4 sport in the hearts and minds. If it remains that way then only fluke can take you all the way.
Everything else is folly. So long as other sports occupy the heart you'll always be chasing....
What made them good wasn't pure atheltics. Otherwise Akinfenwa would be playing in the premier league
CraigerGamer
Member
Also a good point. One of the things about American Football, most coaches will tell you that its not a difficult sport to learn. In fact, most don't start playing until they are 14-15 years old. If you have a talent for american football you don't have to play it from a really young age. Soccer seems to be the complete opposite.
Fitting image. Messi does all the work while the rest of the team stands around dumbfunded doing nothing. But hey, as long as it works...
Hahaha, no. He scored 39 goals in two years. In his last (and best) year he scored 23 goals earning him 4th place in the top score list, 8 less than the top scorer Wilfried Bony.
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jozy-altidore/profil/spieler/39378
AZ finished 10th place. It's easy to score goals in the Eredivisie.
I like Jozy, he's very cool during interviews, never stops giving 100% and he's big, strong and reasonably fast. But he is also a bit clumsy.
Bony otoh, is kinda lazy, but he's very strong, deviously clever and has impeccable technique. That's why Bony scored 17 goals in the EPL.
CheDominik
Member
Of course not, all I'm saying that being big,strong and fast can only help you. That other factors play a major role is a given.
WonkyPanda
Member
As long as it works until it doesn't!
That was a great free kick. More teams (at least ones without real specialists) should try that, instead of inevitably booting it into the wall or over the bar.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
These kinds of conversations basically boils down to, "Well none of our good athletes are playing soccer so if we actually cared we would've done better!"
That's basically boiling it down to "If we were like Canada, we'd totally dominate hockey!"
But that'd never fucking happen so you have to do everyone else has to do. You improve your process and you make sure you don't let talents fall through the cracks.
Do what they do in Uruguay, Belgium, Holland.
That's basically boiling it down to "If we were like Canada, we'd totally dominate hockey!"
But that'd never fucking happen so you have to do everyone else has to do. You improve your process and you make sure you don't let talents fall through the cracks.
Do what they do in Uruguay, Belgium, Holland.
Unknown Soldier
Member
O.J. Simpson would have delivered some devastating slashing runs through the middle of the defense amirite
"Eye of the Tiger" is what I call it. You've seen it. You know that out of shape guy that can play just about any sport. Some people just have it, but it takes a combination of a hell of a lot of things to happen for someone with the natural gifts and determination to make it big in any sport
The US has done pretty well compared to other nations who focus on football solely though. I think if the US can get football to 2nd or third most popular sport in the US and really develop a culture around it. That the return in the World Cup could be a lot greater.
Well in my town kids won't be playing at all unless they can convince other kids to play pickup games or have someone available to drive them to the nearest team. When I was younger my dad worked late and my mom didn't drive so my only option would have been finding some other kid who wants to play and has transportation. Easier just to play (american) football with all of my friends and the practice field within a few blocks of my house.
figadapaura
Member
Controlling a ball with your hands comes much more naturally than controlling one with your feet. That's probably why.
Lance Armstrong might have been the greatest goalie of all time too
chicko1983
Member
I agree. Only when they lose it's they weren't trying, before then it was American spirit which got them to the knockout stage!
Fuck off, don't diss my team. Black cats for lyfe! But really, why wouldnt you pick from a local London team if you were in London, you only have yourself to blame...
Grenouille
Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, but football is one of the most popular sports in Russia and the second most popular in China and yet look at them in the World Cup.
Delicious Waffles
Member
The thing is, in America, soccer is looked at like a sport with no action and floppers galore. You see clips of LeBron dunking, Mike Trout hitting a bomb of a home run, or Peyton Manning throwing an amazing TD pass. Kids see that excitement and want to grow up to do the exact same thing. When they think of soccer, they think of constant passing, no action whatsoever, and matches ending 0-0 all the time. Hopefully, a lot of kids have been watching the World Cup (if not that, at least the US matches) and saw how thrilling and exciting it could be and maybe, it'll push them to stick with it (growing up, it's up there as one of the top sports little kids play here).
And having one or fast and strong people doesn't guarantee success like you seem to think if they have nothing else to offer.
There seems to be a prevailing thought that if someone can run fast and is strong skill doesn't matter and is easily learned. When skill is the hardest part of the game otherwise we'd just sign sprinters.
Skill>>>>>>>>>>>>> atheltics in football.
Yep, most football codes are pretty easy to walk straight into (there are plenty of code hoppers between rugby league and union, and Australian football and basketball and NFL), but soccer seems to require a lifetime of dedication. Which is why infrastructure and cultural capture are so important if you want a technically proficient soccer team.
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