figadapaura
Member
Had to be fucking England lol. You might have a chance of qualifying for 2016 though, just as long as you don't beat us.
Can't see anything other than Germany topping our group.
2014 FIFA World Cup |OT6| The beautiful game in all its thrilling glory
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Had to be fucking England lol. You might have a chance of qualifying for 2016 though, just as long as you don't beat us.
Can't see anything other than Germany topping our group.Jean Valjean
Member
There won't be any riots if we lose. It didn't happen in 1950 (contrary to the popular belief) and won't happen now.
Maninthemirror
Banned
Official : Barcelona wants to have a taste of Suarez for £60 million pounds but is suarez ready to bite the bait ?
http://bbc.in/1qujHiD
http://bbc.in/1qujHiD
Aye Germany will walk that group easily. It frustrates me how poor we are at producing true elite players, we used to do it all the time. We'll need luck to go anywhere we aren't good enough.Had to be fucking England lol. You might have a chance of qualifying for 2016 though, just as long as you don't beat us.
Where is the next generation Dalglish, Bremner, Johnstone etc etc, the last really good players we produced were Lambert and John Collins.We've been on steady decline since the late 90s.
figadapaura
Member
Fred will save the day.
CheDominik
Member
Yeah, while you guys were never world beaters the Scottish team was a team that could beat anyone on a good day and was an uncomfortable matchup.
What happened though? Lack of funds for youth development? Has there been any piblic discussion how to fix this? I mean even Wales produces a Ryan Giggs and Gareth Bale from time to time.
Holy shit dude. Why are you such a downer? Literally every post haha.
figadapaura
Member
This is my fear for Ireland atm. We have decent players, but nothing like we used to. In 10 years we've really gone downhill. There's probably 3 or 4 that are slightly better than the rest, but they're no fucking world beaters, and I don't see any good future prospects either. We'll have to stick to poaching England's players that aren't good enough for their team. Sucks, but that's just the way it is.
There were three really tough groups: G, B, D
Of the three, group D had the best "worst" team and was probably the toughest of the bunch. No one expected Costa Rica to play so well.
I'd say final ranking, based on performance in the WC, would be D > G > B
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
FREEDAYMN LOST.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Not 100% on how it works, but if Klinnsman hadn't put Green in for that last few minutes would he have technically been eligible to switch to the German nt?
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
No he's already featured for the U.S. senior team in the lead up to the tournament. He couldn't have switched regardless.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Ok right. It's only friendlies that don't count, right?
smokeandmirrors
Banned
just ignore him and move on. it's his schtick and it's not even cute anymore.
No one is entirely sure, the explosion in the 90s of everyone buying foreign players meaning it stopped youngsters getting first team experience definitely played a part, as did the financial implosion of many clubs in the 00s partly due to old firm dominance and tv money drying up after many abortive attempts to become like the premiership.
In regards to youth development, most clubs are heavily focused on it now due to not having enough to buy good enough foreigners and the need to be selling players to stay a float(Gauld etc at Dundee Utd are a good example).
In overall development strategy the SFA switch development programmes every few years after expecting instant success even though the programmes need 10 years minimum to have any effect. So its in a constant state of upheaval.
Yeah the same thing is slowly happening, no one has really stood out since Roy Keane and Robbie Keane. Maybe McGeady but you poached him from us
lolD > B > G. portugal was dead the moment Ronaldo injured himself before the world cup, clearly wasn't 100% and still nearly dragged his team to the knockout stage anyways. everyone knew this ghana side wasn't as good as four years ago, but they're like the USA, a respectable, scrappy side who will give any top team a tough day at the office. if anything, the biggest disappointment has been Germany. what the fuck Low is doing, I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure it's going to bite him in the ass against France.
england, italy, spain... okay we all saw England's implosion coming but spain and italy collapses were pretty shocking. I dunno. plenty of surprises to go around.
no I don't think so. He filed a one time switch I think. Same with Aron.
We get lucky with kids having one American parent or in the case of Aron,jus soli. Pity another talented kid like Diego Fagundez who is a product of American academies just got his green card and might never play for us.
Yep he's fucked for life now.
If klinsman had not brought him on he would have reneged on the deal
silver.tongue
Member
sounds like we'll get Zelalem though. that could be a huge coup if he develops; couldn't be at a better club and under a better manager to be groomed into a top midfielder.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
Friendlies don't "lock you in" per se, but situations like Jermaine Jones and Thiago Motta are exceedingly rare.
EDIT: BTW, Brazil would've loved to have Thiago Motta manning the midfield for them this year. What a loss.
I don't. I want to see France go to the final, if only to see us be eliminated at the group phase in Russia
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
OriginofHysteria
Banned
I wouldn't say it was a lack of heart, it was simply just the fact that Belgium was a better team than the U.S. and it showed. I mean I'd say quite the opposite, the U.S. did show heart and they definitely tried but that can only get you so far when you're playing a team with better talent.
Yeah FIFA only rules out switching if you play a full competitive international afaik.
MrJustinius
Member
I really really hate the second game time slot. It's at 6 AM in Australia, so I doze off during the first half when nothing happens, and by the time I wake up again I've missed everything. Bah.
Anyway, well done Belgium! Seemed like the better team for most of the game, and if it wasn't for Tim Howard putting on a masterclass of goalkeeping in that second half they'd have won easily.
The US oh so nearly pulled off a ridiculous comeback in extra time. That miss will go down in history.
It's a shame national team Howard is a million times better than Everton-Howard. He's solid there but not god-tier like he has been these past few weeks.
Rooting for Colombia and CR in the top half of the draw and Germany and Belgium in the bottom half.
Time to scroll back through the thread for the freedom meltdowns!
Anyway, well done Belgium! Seemed like the better team for most of the game, and if it wasn't for Tim Howard putting on a masterclass of goalkeeping in that second half they'd have won easily.
The US oh so nearly pulled off a ridiculous comeback in extra time. That miss will go down in history.
It's a shame national team Howard is a million times better than Everton-Howard. He's solid there but not god-tier like he has been these past few weeks.
Rooting for Colombia and CR in the top half of the draw and Germany and Belgium in the bottom half.
Time to scroll back through the thread for the freedom meltdowns!
the truth is that Everton's squad is better than USMNT's squad. often, for keepers, it's easier to save lots of shots because they get in a rhythm as opposed to have to stay concentrated all match long. bad teams make keepers look better than they are. same thing with Mexico and Ochoa. Howard's a damn good keeper, but Courtois is one of the three or four best in the world. but you wouldn't know it from this game because Courtois was barely worked at all in the game.
figadapaura
Member
Yeah the same thing is slowly happening, no one has really stood out since Roy Keane and Robbie Keane. Maybe McGeady but you poached him from us
lol I forgot we stole McGeady off you. I don't think he's ever really lived up to my expectations, but he's definitely one of our better players. We're still relying on a 33 year old Robbie Keane to do the business though.
He doesn't really need to be in god-tier mode at Everton. They actually have a defense to back him up.
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
He, as well as I, have a deep hatred for cunts who do nothing but hate on an entity. In this case its the USMNT, most likely because they are from America. Because hating America is just what some sad sacks do on this board.
I disagree, at least for the first 60 minutes. The US team barely played, barely fought over ball control, barely attack and was way too often in panic mode.
Then again, the Belgian side was better, but they also lacked a lot in finishing what they were starting, they wasted too many scoring opportunities and the US should have taken advantage of that.
They had more heart and more will to win during their games against Ghana and Portugal.
i really hope you don't plan on following the premiership.
figadapaura
Member
Fair enough.
The Chosen One
Member
Re: Regarding Player Development in the US
People who say the US is behind in soccer simply because our best athletes play other sports know nothing about youth soccer or even soccer in general. Lebron even if he focused solely on soccer most of his life, would probably make a mediocre soccer player.
Yes there are some common attributes that are shared across top athletes. But a great basketball player will not make a great soccer player if we're talking at the highest levels. Yes soccer players have gotten bigger and taller over the years, but there's still a ceiling. Someone who is '6'9 will not have the agility and center of gravity needed to have world class technical ability and change of speed of someone a foot shorter. There's always exceptions but just look at Peter Crouch. So it's not just about funneling all our best athletes toward soccer. They still need to have a proportional body type and posses exceptional balance and talent with their feet. Some kids you can throw a ball at their feet and after 15-20 minutes it almost feels like they were born with the ball at their feet. Other kids it sometimes takes years for them to look like a natural with the ball even if they are exceptional athletes.
Another huge thing and this is the biggest reason why we struggle to compete in soccer. Our whole youth and to pro system in America is based around high school and college. Generally you try to play well in high school so you get recognize by a top college. You then play baseball, football, or basketball at that top college and hope to get picked up by the pros. That's how it works for all the professional sports in America.
The problem is, this doesn't work at all for soccer. In the rest of the world, players get recruited at ages 7-9 years old and play at full-time soccer academies (often sponsored by major clubs) and then they turn pro around 16 or 18 at the latest. So in the US, the college system puts us at a severe disadvantage because they usually stay in high school until 18 and then spend another 4 years playing soccer at a college (which probably has mediocre to terrible quality soccer). American players don't get out of the system and turn pro until there about 22 years old. This puts us 4-6 years behind the equivalent European player. Imagine if Neymar wasn't at this World Cup but instead still stuck playing at Duke University coached by someone who doubles as a history professor.
If you look at the youth national tournaments, the US is actually pretty competitive with the rest of the world in the u17 age groups. But we just lose so much ground when the players are 16-22 years old.
Also in the US we have child labor laws where you can't sign kids to professional contracts. However in the rest of the world for the most part, there's no such rules. Clubs can have kids sign contracts and they own the rights to those 9-10 year olds. They in turn spend money developing those players, so hopefully when they get older they can sell the players for a transfer fee. It's a business and it's business that is incompatible with the US labor laws. So there isn't incentive to train little kids in soccer as intense in the US as in other parts of the world because there isn't a perceived payoff. Instead the Youth soccer system in America is "pay to play" and it's mostly composed of middle and upper middle class kids who can afford the club fees and travel.
This is the real reason why we are behind the technical curve with soccer in America. Not because Lebron is playing basketball.
[/realtalk]
People who say the US is behind in soccer simply because our best athletes play other sports know nothing about youth soccer or even soccer in general. Lebron even if he focused solely on soccer most of his life, would probably make a mediocre soccer player.
Yes there are some common attributes that are shared across top athletes. But a great basketball player will not make a great soccer player if we're talking at the highest levels. Yes soccer players have gotten bigger and taller over the years, but there's still a ceiling. Someone who is '6'9 will not have the agility and center of gravity needed to have world class technical ability and change of speed of someone a foot shorter. There's always exceptions but just look at Peter Crouch. So it's not just about funneling all our best athletes toward soccer. They still need to have a proportional body type and posses exceptional balance and talent with their feet. Some kids you can throw a ball at their feet and after 15-20 minutes it almost feels like they were born with the ball at their feet. Other kids it sometimes takes years for them to look like a natural with the ball even if they are exceptional athletes.
Another huge thing and this is the biggest reason why we struggle to compete in soccer. Our whole youth and to pro system in America is based around high school and college. Generally you try to play well in high school so you get recognize by a top college. You then play baseball, football, or basketball at that top college and hope to get picked up by the pros. That's how it works for all the professional sports in America.
The problem is, this doesn't work at all for soccer. In the rest of the world, players get recruited at ages 7-9 years old and play at full-time soccer academies (often sponsored by major clubs) and then they turn pro around 16 or 18 at the latest. So in the US, the college system puts us at a severe disadvantage because they usually stay in high school until 18 and then spend another 4 years playing soccer at a college (which probably has mediocre to terrible quality soccer). American players don't get out of the system and turn pro until there about 22 years old. This puts us 4-6 years behind the equivalent European player. Imagine if Neymar wasn't at this World Cup but instead still stuck playing at Duke University coached by someone who doubles as a history professor.
If you look at the youth national tournaments, the US is actually pretty competitive with the rest of the world in the u17 age groups. But we just lose so much ground when the players are 16-22 years old.
Also in the US we have child labor laws where you can't sign kids to professional contracts. However in the rest of the world for the most part, there's no such rules. Clubs can have kids sign contracts and they own the rights to those 9-10 year olds. They in turn spend money developing those players, so hopefully when they get older they can sell the players for a transfer fee. It's a business and it's business that is incompatible with the US labor laws. So there isn't incentive to train little kids in soccer as intense in the US as in other parts of the world because there isn't a perceived payoff. Instead the Youth soccer system in America is "pay to play" and it's mostly composed of middle and upper middle class kids who can afford the club fees and travel.
This is the real reason why we are behind the technical curve with soccer in America. Not because Lebron is playing basketball.
[/realtalk]
It's really too bad he played that ball with such a heavy first touch. So many what ifs. It would've been total robbery had we won though, so there's some consolation in that...I guess.
Pope Francis watching the game, the other guys are the Swiss guard
I feel like that goes without saying.
McCarthy too lol
Both of them were the SFA's fault though, the irish fa contacted McCarthy when he was 16 for youth teams. He said he would've chosen Scotland if they bothered to contact him
McGeady was a sorta similar situation, Celtic have a policy that youth players can't play for their school. The SFA have a policy to not pick players that don't play for their school team so the irish fa contacted him again and he said yes.
We tried after the fact to get both back but they refused because they were already part of the irish set up.
Long story short SFA are dumb as shit.
The first time they mentioned him: they were talking about sending or showing him something. Not sure if it was a video clip or a photo. I didn't really pay attention to the chatter
The second time they mentioned him it was because he had just arrived at Univision. I guess he was visiting the studios. They said "Ryan Seacrest is in"
Yep, the talent and skill gap was just too wide. The US team fought hard and tried to win but simply couldn't match the skill.
Belgium may not be a great team yet, but they have as much raw talent (if not more) than any team the US faced.
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