US Men's National Team Soccer Thread! (lower division thread)

[Cire]

see this is why soccer sucks, hey lets call it a tie guys, everybody wins. 

agreed. Should always do PK's.

[j-von]

LOL at the announcers talking about tomorrow's game: "What if somebody WINS tomorrow? "

I really hope it goes to a draw as well.      Very happy with a draw today, like REALLY HAPPY. 

A lot of non-soccer fans just saw this as a pretty boring 1-1 game with a lucky goal thrown in, but we were really pressing for the tie which led to the slower play.  If they would have scored again it would have opened up again, but after we got that goal we were very willing to just take our chances with Howard in goal and it worked out.  If that was a situation where both teams needed the 3 points to advance the game would have looked completely different.

Look for the pace of all the games to pick up as teams get more desperate for points.

[j-von]

Unfortunately my wish didn't come true.

With Slovenia winning today it looks like next Friday's game just got a lot more interesting.

There is still too many games to be played to know for sure but to me it looks like a loss would put us out, a tie would mean we need to beat Algeria, and a win would mean anything but a loss to Algeria would almost surely put us through.

In case you are wondering how tiebreakers work with points, here is the order.

a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
b) goal difference in all group matches;
c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.
If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings will be determined as follows:
d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
g) drawing of lots by the Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup.

[The42Yardstick]

Australia getting prison raped right now

[Cire]

yeah, the NAZI's look good.

[Dr.Spaceman]

poor soccerroos   

[Pexikan]

Australia being in this tournament is a f'n joke. They are shite, coming from the pussiest of all qualification groups. The Germans shoulda won 5-0.

[The42Yardstick]

New Zealand being in this tournament is a f'n joke. They are shite, coming from the pussiest of all qualification groups. Everyone's gonna beat 'em 50-0.

FYP

[The42Yardstick]

Denmark playing good defense against the Netherlands. Would be a huge upset if the Danes won

[mcmwcat]

 

german weltmeisterschaft is gut.  ballack gone is gut.  hoping if US gets through we won't be matched up with them in round of 16.  will happen if we finish 2nd and they finish 1st in their group.  krauts definitely look the best  so far.  but a lot of the other favorites haven't played.  dutch, spanish, portuguese, cote d'ivoire, brazil

US needs probably needs 5 points to get out of the group.  and 7 to win it.  thought u.s. deserved the draw and with a little more luck could have got the full 3.

through 1/2 the first round of games in the group stage i'm thinking

goalkeeping - .  the south african keeper was awesome against the mexicans, the nigerian keeper kept their team in it against argentina. and tim howard's dominance of that stupid british $!#* of a  keeper was epic

crazy balls and slick pitches - this ball is flying in the altitude and all long passes, if they hit the turf, are bouncing uncontrollably.  the ball also skips real hard on the grass and gets to players a lot faster than they expect.

vuvuzela's - don't mind them and get used to them.  broadcasters though are getting pissed

germans - wow.  aussies are down but that was a downright dominating performance.  germans in last 3 cups have scored 16 goals in their opening game.

out of here until i watch all the games on dvr tonight.

8 games down ... 55 to go

[The42Yardstick]

Jesus, Denmark.

[Cire]

lol, though it did hit the dude's back.

[The42Yardstick]

About the only exciting thing in the Japan-Cameroon game is that Univision just had a close-up of a cute bird eating a worm on the grass. OMG

[The42Yardstick]

GOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL HELLO KITTY!!!!

Upset alert?

[theswo]

Damnit Eto'o

[The42Yardstick]

GOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL PAIR OF GUAYS!

suck on it, italy

[Pexikan]

The blue samurai will be moving on to the knockout round... and satan's checking the thermostat. 

[kat_émawn]

Poor Australia. At least they have the title "SoccerRoos"

Hoping for a bounce back against Ghana!

[mcmwcat]

another day completed and another dearth of goals.  especially goals that make you open your eyes.  goal of the tournament still belongs to south africa in the first game.   about the 1:15 mark:

i don't have high expectations for today either with Slovakia playing New Zealand and a negative Portugal side taking on Ivory Coast.  good news though with didier drogba being cleared to play: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jiDsOMk7FTky2mKgJv2_GCGXHCOQ

but Brazil v N Korea in the afternoon game could produce some gems.  or it could produce a shocking result that would put to shame all other shockers

[mcmwcat]

an ealry usa-slovenia preview: http://theshinguardian.com/2010/06/14/kickstarting-our-usa-vs-slovenia-coverage/

While the Russia win was quality, it did come against a Russian side that was down a man for nearly 40 minutes and down two men for stoppage time.
A better measuring stick that broadcasters should be keying on is the Green Dragons match that transpired the night the States clinched a World Cup trip in Honduras. Slovenia away at Slovakia.

Koren should Sunday he's still got it....
Slovenia calmly went into Slovakia’s den–that’s right the same Slovakia who beat the U.S. 1-nil in November–and walked away with an impressive 2-0 win over a full-strength Slovakian team. The Slovenia attack, led by Robert Koren and Milivoje Novakovic, outplayed the classy triumvirate of Martin Sestak, Marek Hamsik and Vladamir “Jonathan Bornstein is in my pocket” Weiss.”
If you’ve been watching a lot of World Cup, then those last three names are quite household.
In that game, Slovenia scored on a hell of a boombasa (see here) for their first goal and–roll tape below–took a page from the Yankee playbook with a gorgeous counterattack goal. Make sure to press play and watch because TSG will be talking more about the counterattack shortly.

[mcmwcat]

Also, an imminent podcast will have my World Cup Group winners, My World Cup winner and a break down of my pending World Cup bets.

thanks mr kk 

highest scoring group: group B 6-1, group G 5-1
shocking to bet on a group w/ Greece in it.  although they could spring a ton of goals.  they gave up 2 against s korea.  group G could be a bonanza with n korea going.  but portugal seems to play defensively.  we'll find out today i think if that's a good bet.  right now you're only competition is Germany's Group (D)

golden ball: Xavi 14-1. i like this.  w/ an injured Iniesta in Spain's midfield Xavi could get all the glory

golden boot: Fabiano 10-1.  you took my advice 

winner: Brazil 5-1.  def cannot argue with this

[PowercatPat]

Ronaldo is such a whiny little bitch. He flops more than anyone I've ever seen.

[steve dave]

Poor Australia. At least they have the title "SoccerRoos"

Hoping for a bounce back against Ghana!

Oh man, congrats on this though

[Jeffy]

England vs USA





in Legos.

[Pexikan]

I overheard the commentators during the Brazil v. North Korea game saying that the N Korea fans in attendance were actually hand picked Chinese people hired to pose as fans. Probably because that little fat facist won't let anyone out of his country for fear of defection.