Official 2014 World Cup Thread (Spoilers)

[#Cookie]

My sisters dog before the game yesterday.....sis is actually in Brazil now as they had gone to the Germany game so the dog is with my mom right now.

Was posted on Facebook saying: POLLY BELIEVES THAT WE WILL WIN!!! She's ready for the game!! GO Team USA!!������������

 

[arydolphin]

Pretty interesting....some people in this country are blaming Klinsmann for the loss yesterday. Meanwhile, some people across the pond want him to be the next coach for England: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...United-States-and-become-England-manager.html

 

[ImaBeRealReal]

I was listening to ESPN radio on the way in and I was surprised to hear that there have only been 8 countries that have won the World Cup since 1930.

Enter FIFA... They're trying to keep it that way.

 

[ImaBeRealReal]

But what's interesting is the last few "World Baseball Classic" tournaments, the USA team has been bad and Japan has crushed it.

Because the pros don't play... Just the college kids.

 

[Brianbigoats]

Because the pros don't play... Just the college kids.

The Pro's do play but just not the stars

 

[deuce]

Because the pros don't play... Just the college kids.

Actually the pro's do play. Here is the 2013 USA WBC Team roster. All pro's, which makes sense since it's MLB pushing this "classic". As I mentioned earlier though, they try to fit this in during spring training so pitchers are on pitch counts, players are coming off winter rest, etc.

 

[arydolphin]

Did anybody see Olbermann last night and his seven things MLS/US Soccer needs to do to make the sport more popular in the U.S.?

Video of Olbermann:

[video=youtube;d6z7-u7EZ1g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6z7-u7EZ1g&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Somewhat agree with #1, disagree with #2, agree with #3 and #4, don't think #5 would make any difference, would love to do #6 but it's not really feasible, and #7 makes a lot of sense.

 

[ImaBeRealReal]

Actually the pro's do play. Here is the 2013 USA WBC Team roster. All pro's, which makes sense since it's MLB pushing this "classic". As I mentioned earlier though, they try to fit this in during spring training so pitchers are on pitch counts, players are coming off winter rest, etc.

Yeah that roster might not even intimidate some first place teams in the MLB let alone the world.

 

[deuce]

Yeah that roster might not even intimidate some first place teams in the MLB let alone the world.

Not saying it would ... it's like getting NBA players to play in the Olympics lately. They have multi-million dollar careers to worry about, and winning it all for the stars and stripes isn't on their radar.

 

[ImaBeRealReal]

Not saying it would ... it's like getting NBA players to play in the Olympics lately. They have multi-million dollar careers to worry about, and winning it all for the stars and stripes isn't on their radar.

True... But at least most of the NBA stars played in the most recent Olympics.

 

[deuce]

True... But at least most of the NBA stars played in the most recent Olympics.

Which, as I said, pretty much proves my point. Basketball is big business in the USA, between the NCAA and NBA. It draws in lots of athletes, tall and quick athletes which could benefit the USMNT. American athletes are more inclined to turn to football, basketball, and baseball before they consider soccer. That's the way it has been in the US, and probably the way its going to be for the foreseeable future. If US soccer wants to be more than a quarter-finalist in the World Cup, they need to change that paradigm. It's going to be very hard to do so though.

Just look at the countries which don't have soccer as their #1 sporting attraction. None of them have had sustainable World Cup success.

 

[rtparty]

Pretty interesting....some people in this country are blaming Klinsmann for the loss yesterday. Meanwhile, some people across the pond want him to be the next coach for England: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...United-States-and-become-England-manager.html

Personally, I felt Klinsmann blew the roster BIG time. Terrible coaching from beginning to end and it showed. Beckerman HAD to play and slow down the attack. Instead, he let Bradley and Cameron give away the ball in the middle all game. Bradley was a major disappointment the whole cup and I don't know why Green only saw limited minutes. Kid can run circles around our other strikers. Terrible coaching yesterday.

Jmo of course.

 

[ImaBeRealReal]

Which, as I said, pretty much proves my point. Basketball is big business in the USA, between the NCAA and NBA. It draws in lots of athletes, tall and quick athletes which could benefit the USMNT. American athletes are more inclined to turn to football, basketball, and baseball before they consider soccer. That's the way it has been in the US, and probably the way its going to be for the foreseeable future. If US soccer wants to be more than a quarter-finalist in the World Cup, they need to change that paradigm. It's going to be very hard to do so though.

Just look at the countries which don't have soccer as their #1 sporting attraction. None of them have had sustainable World Cup success.

Depends on where you come from I suppose I grew up in a suburb of Dallas which was and still seems to be the youth soccer capital of the country. I played soccer from 5 on and still play in an adult league today. My dad got me into baseball and football as well but it was soccer from day one and nothing came close for a long time... Ironically I played for the same team as Dempsey (different age group) for a few years and didn't realize it until recently. I know I'm more of an exception than the rule... But I can't imagine there isn't enough talent in this country to build a great team. Eventually the USMNT is going to have to find a way to keep talent here rather than let them slip away into the abyss of 2nd and 3rd level European leagues never to be seen again.

 

[adwillingham]

Somewhat agree with #1, disagree with #2, agree with #3 and #4, don't think #5 would make any difference, would love to do #6 but it's not really feasible, and #7 makes a lot of sense.

I agree with your assessments on his ideas. I love Ian Darke, but I do have to wonder if the fact that a British voice calling our games sounds so right is in fact just an effect of #1. I will be very interested to see the approach Fox takes (be it Gus Johnson or others) as they proceed for 2018.

In short, for anyone who can't stand to watch six minutes of Olbermann, the ideas were essentially:
1) Stop trying to make everything British.
2) Find American announcers
3) Lay off the elitism (talking about soccer fans)
4) Calm down (talking about soccer fans insisting that the game is not ours to Americanize).
5) Americanize the MLS team names
6) Avoid FIFA at all costs
7) Target the kids by somehow utilizing the fact that FIFA is a very popular video game.

 

[EaglevsFalcon]

Personally, I felt Klinsmann blew the roster BIG time. Terrible coaching from beginning to end and it showed. Beckerman HAD to play and slow down the attack. Instead, he let Bradley and Cameron give away the ball in the middle all game. Bradley was a major disappointment the whole cup and I don't know why Green only saw limited minutes. Kid can run circles around our other strikers. Terrible coaching yesterday.

Jmo of course.

Pretty much agree. I don't know why the old guard is clung to so much. If Green is good enough for Bayern, then he should be playing, IMO. Then again it doesn't say much about the talent depth when Landon Donovan had been our best striker option over the last few WC's. I am a little surprised that with the Latino population in the US that more good players don't come through the ranks. Maybe it comes back to the development system. In sheer numbers, I have to think that the amount of people playing soccer in this country is equal to that of, say, Belgium.

 

[rtparty]

Pretty much agree. I don't know why the old guard is clung to so much. If Green is good enough for Bayern, then he should be playing, IMO. Then again it doesn't say much about the talent depth when Landon Donovan had been our best striker option over the last few WC's. I am a little surprised that with the Latino population in the US that more good players don't come through the ranks. Maybe it comes back to the development system. In sheer numbers, I have to think that the amount of people playing soccer in this country is equal to that of, say, Belgium.

Just comes down to the best athletes in Belgium play soccer. The best athletes here play basketball, baseball or football.

 

[blugold]

 

[HBirdman80]

Pretty much agree. I don't know why the old guard is clung to so much. If Green is good enough for Bayern, then he should be playing, IMO. Then again it doesn't say much about the talent depth when Landon Donovan had been our best striker option over the last few WC's. I am a little surprised that with the Latino population in the US that more good players don't come through the ranks. Maybe it comes back to the development system. In sheer numbers, I have to think that the amount of people playing soccer in this country is equal to that of, say, Belgium.

I don't know, feel like that is kind of harsh. Look at the substitutions he made. First sub had to be used for injury. Second sub was for Wondolowski, who choked away the win. Third was for Green, who scored the only goal. Maybe he should have pulled the trigger quicker as Dempsey and Bradley seemed surprised a game was happening (and Dempsey apparently needs a gold plated invitation delivered by a unicorn to shoot the ball) and an infusion could have helped wake up the team. But he did call that brilliant set piece that Dempsey choked on.

Klinsmann got the team through the toughest group in the tournament (where we were picked to finish last) and had the team in position to win against a superior team, only to have the players choke, so I think it's unfair to say Klinsmann was awful.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[blugold]

Pretty much agree. I don't know why the old guard is clung to so much. If Green is good enough for Bayern, then he should be playing, IMO. Then again it doesn't say much about the talent depth when Landon Donovan had been our best striker option over the last few WC's. I am a little surprised that with the Latino population in the US that more good players don't come through the ranks. Maybe it comes back to the development system. In sheer numbers, I have to think that the amount of people playing soccer in this country is equal to that of, say, Belgium.

Btw. Green is good enough for Bayern's reserve team. It's also not about the numbers of people play soccer. The fastest, quickest, most coordinated people in Belgium are soccer players.

Here in the states, the best and most talented athletes play point guard and running back. (Not limited to those positions).

 

[rtparty]

Wondo was a poor, poor sub when you have Altidore available. Assuming he was actually healthy enough to play. Then throw in Cameron being a total no show when Beckerman is sitting there. The injury sub is out of Klins control but the other two were bone head calls that cost us a possible victory. Belgium had every right to win the game 5-0 but super Tim handled them.

Jurgen did not coach a good game.

 

[blugold]

Wondo was a poor, poor sub when you have Altidore available. Assuming he was actually healthy enough to play. Then throw in Cameron being a total no show when Beckerman is sitting there. The injury sub is out of Klins control but the other two were bone head calls that cost us a possible victory. Belgium had every right to win the game 5-0 but super Tim handled them.

Jurgen did not coach a good game.

Juergen gets zero blame from me and complete credit. He put a team together with many players that previous regimes neglected. Got Julian Green to commit to the USA for the rest of his career.

Was a Won-d'oh away from winning and upsetting one of the pre tournament favorites. The injury sub was what threw him off. The fact that some pieces got interchanged and the team still had a chance to win. The USMNT isn't 11 players deep anymore.

I am not accepting the loss or making excuses. I'm really excited for the next few years. But I was this excited in 2002.


Also - France / Germany is going to be a fantastic game.

 

[TheCrest4]

Juergen gets zero blame from me and complete credit. He put a team together with many players that previous regimes neglected. Got Julian Green to commit to the USA for the rest of his career.

Was a Won-d'oh away from winning and upsetting one of the pre tournament favorites. The injury sub was what threw him off. The fact that some pieces got interchanged and the team still had a chance to win. The USMNT isn't 11 players deep anymore.

I am not accepting the loss or making excuses. I'm really excited for the next few years. But I was this excited in 2002.


Also - France / Germany is going to be a fantastic game.

Thank you this post didn't want to make me throw my phone like some of the other posts in this thread SMH

 

[Nate]

Thank you this post didn't want to make me throw my phone like some of the other posts in this thread SMH

No doubt!

 

[JTnumbers]

I agree with your assessments on his ideas. I love Ian Darke, but I do have to wonder if the fact that a British voice calling our games sounds so right is in fact just an effect of #1. I will be very interested to see the approach Fox takes (be it Gus Johnson or others) as they proceed for 2018.

In short, for anyone who can't stand to watch six minutes of Olbermann, the ideas were essentially:
1) Stop trying to make everything British.
2) Find American announcers
3) Lay off the elitism (talking about soccer fans)
4) Calm down (talking about soccer fans insisting that the game is not ours to Americanize).
5) Americanize the MLS team names
6) Avoid FIFA at all costs
7) Target the kids by somehow utilizing the fact that FIFA is a very popular video game.

1) That's a worldwide thing, not just England. Those are common soccer terms. Disagree
2) Agree, but only if they are able to add perspective and be knowledge about the game. Right now, that's Ian Darke and I love it. If you find one that's an American, I would be all for it.
3) Mostly agree, There's a difference between attempting to teach because you are knowledgeable and calling others stupid for not knowing something you know. If it's the latter, that needs to stop. But, I do think some the American fan base that's new to the game getting some teaching wouldn't hurt at all.
4) Disagree completely, You want to make soccer a laughing stock in America? Americanize it. We're playing catch up. Americanizing the game will only set us further back.
5) I'm indifferent. I will support regardless of team name.
6) If possible, YESYESYESYESYES. However, it's almost impossible.
7) 100000000% agree. I've been trying to drive this point home. It's half the reason soccer is the 2nd most popular support among youth in America. The game is fun. Kids learn the players and learn all the different worldwide teams. Now, I don't know how to do this, but bring those players here. Kids will go to games and support those players because they know who they are.


Now, about Jurgen Klinsmann. The man is the best thing to ever happen to the USMNT. I'm sorry, but it's true. He is extremely knowledgeable and he knows how to develop young talent. He's half the reason Germany's team is so stacked. He helped build that youth team in 2006. He might do things that make us mad, but he knows what he's doing. It's not something where he sits back and says, "Oh yes, this will make fans REALLY mad." There's a reason he's been successful with Germany. Blaming him for the loss is pointless. Blame our lack of quality and talent. That's why we can't hold possession. Not tactics, not gameplan. It's all pure ball skills and ability on the ball to make passes and being aware of what's going on around you.

I'll just leave with this thought. Who else are we going to get? Would you like Bob Bradley or Bruce Arena back?

 

[JTnumbers]

Juergen gets zero blame from me and complete credit. He put a team together with many players that previous regimes neglected. Got Julian Green to commit to the USA for the rest of his career.

Was a Won-d'oh away from winning and upsetting one of the pre tournament favorites. The injury sub was what threw him off. The fact that some pieces got interchanged and the team still had a chance to win. The USMNT isn't 11 players deep anymore.

I am not accepting the loss or making excuses. I'm really excited for the next few years. But I was this excited in 2002.


Also - France / Germany is going to be a fantastic game.

You are a faster typer than me Blu!!! Exactly my thoughts.