I very much enjoyed the Netherlands-Mexico game. I was laughing my ass off when the penalty was awarded in stoppage time. I turned the Greece-Costa Rica game off about 35 minutes in, and I only watched about ten minutes of it. There are times when you tune into a game and just see the players doing shit. They're going after the ball, playing through fouls, and making shots even when the opportunity isn't 100% there. Meanwhile, the Greece-Costa Rica game was just sluggish and stupid. Neither side was even coming close to making good opportunities, and it brought out the worst characteristics of association football - stalemate, with both sides diving to try to create an advantage. I hope the next team whoops the fuck out of Costa Rica.
That was a fantastic game. You kind of knew the Dutch equalizer was coming. They looked very dangerous and Ochoa's teleportation could only go so long. But the penalty was hilarious. Clear dive on minimal contact, but it couldn't happen to a better dude than that asshole Rafa Marquez. Herrera is funny and I kind of like Chicharito, but man, fuck Mexico. Couldn't have turned out any better. Continued karma from all their shithead fans at Azteca pelting people with bags of urine. Costa Rica-Greece was horrible. Nice story coming out about them turning down their WC bonuses, but man do they suck. From playing for a scoreless draw to being completely worthless against a gassed, 10-man Costa Rica team during extra time. They had a 5 on 2 and didn't get a shot on goal from it. I can't believe they got that bullshit penalty to beat Ivory Coast who likely would have romped Costa Rica.
Apparently Altidore will be on the bench tomorrow and Fellaini will not. Maybe fate is conspiring to let the US win. Was anyone else rooting for Algeria today? They looked decent against the Germans, much better than the Americans did. I'm not sure if thats bc the Krauts played worse the Algerians better.
US got very fortunate with injuries on the Belgian side. Fellani is out, Vermalen is out, Kompany is questionable and at the very least won't be 100%. Hopefully this leads to them playing more aggressive against a weakened defense, especially on the wings. As for Algeria, they were interesting in the first 10 min and in the final 2 min after they went down 2-0, but otherwise, they were playing a 6 back set up. 5 across the back and a sweeper, fuck that. Even if it is a prudent strategy, I'm not gonna pull for an underdog playing like that. Germany, unfortunately, played like ass. They should have started Klose against a defense like that. Gotta put some size up front and throw crosses in, cause you won't dribble through it. Speaking of dribbling, Gotze was an ineffectual ghost and Ozil continued to be absolutely worthless. Sure he scored a big goal at the end, but he almost made a mess of it. What pathetic finishing attempts by most of the German team outside of Muller who is just a warrior. On that final goal, Ozil had a lazy pass to an even lazier pathetic attempt by Shurrle. Ozil was lucky he got the rebound to finish well. Algeria's keeper acquitted himself very well, its amazing that he's the backup for fucking CSKA Sofia in the Bulgarian league. I remember him being tough in 2010 as well.
A lot of the keepers for the lower ranked teams have done extremely well, and kept their nations in the contest. The standout performance so far was Ochoa for Mexico against Brazil. Brazil should have won that game by 3/4 goals, but he made some outstanding relex saves, so all of a sudden Brazil are struggling. Crazy how much impact one player can have.
Congrats to Messi and Di Maria for going for the win and getting it done, but really what I think was more prominent was Switzerland playing for PKs. To me, its really annoying that a clearly inferior team can sit back for an hour and go to PKs and win the game. I know its just soccer, and it'll never change, but there has to be a better way to decide the game.
And that should be that for the USA unfortunately. I feel slightly better about forgetting to sub Lakaku out of my (admittedly terrible) fantasy team now though.
The talent for the USA just isn't there compared to the traditonal powers, that just seems obvious after these last two games and it was well known before. I'm hoping the US will start churning out better players now that the USMNT is getting so much attention. This country has a huge well of athletic talent, if we can start getting some of our star athletes to play soccer its a sure thing the US will become a soccer power. What was striking to me is the US simply can't posses the ball like the other countries, the finesse to make small passes and move with ease is not there. It seems like simple passes always get missed, it just seems like its more difficult for the Americans. It kind of reminds me of US hockey. For a while US hockey lagged the Canada, Russia and the Scandinavian countries in terms of talent. Then US hockey developed the National Development Team and started pouring real resources into the program and now the US Junior team is dominant. Similarly, if US soccer can put together a cohesive development program I'm sure we'll see results.
The fact Switzerland managed to produce a couple of serious goal-scoring opportunities in the span of the last 5 minutes of overtime should really go to show what they could have accomplished if they hadn't attempted to hedge their bet for the first 115 minutes of play.
I keep seeing that America had a great tournament. They only won one out of four games. This is basically like saying the Browns had great season. I will never understand this soccer.
Believe me, you've made that painfully obvious throughout the thread. The United States was internationally considered to be one of the weaker teams in the tournament, and advanced against the odds after being drawn into one of the toughest groups. They were expected to lose to Belgium, and they were expected to get stomped by Germany. They didn't win the possession battle, and no, it's not a miraculous underdog story like the Miracle on Ice. They did, however, prove they can compete with the best teams in the world, which is hell of a lot for a country who's in fandom infancy.
Great post, I'm really happy you felt compelled to share this thought.... The US does not have the talent of most the European teams. The fact that they were able to compete with them is progress, the fact that the American fans were there is compelling as well. Yes, they only won one game, but they almost drew against Germany (one of the best teams in the world) and took Belgium to extra time and made the end of the game compelling, not to mention they should've beat Portugal, and beat Ghana. All those teams have far more talent than them. They competed with sub part talent, thats something to be proud of. The fact that people like you don't get the game doesn't matter anymore. There is a substantial fan base that appreciates it. That fan base will continue to grow I'm certain. I don't know about you guys but I'm actually pretty disappointed the season is essentially over, I want to see them keep on playing. I'm actually pretty excited for the future of US soccer, I think this tourney may have been a turning point for the program and fan base. People saw the energy of the international tourney, people saw the excitement of it, people really got into what makes the game compelling. I promise you there were a few star athlete 12-14 year olds who saw the tourney and thought maybe this sport is for them. All these things are good.
Kind of funny that a country whose most famous citizen is Tintin and another country that is largely apathetic towards soccer manage to produce the most entertaining game of the tournament. In any case, I find that I quite like the "silver goal" concept. If I remember correctly, it used to be unique to the Euro Cup, but then I guess FIFA adopted it from UEFA. It definitely makes the game a lot more competitive and increases the tension until the end of the 30 minutes, even if it does make an overtime goal a bit less climactic. But it really made this game a lot more interesting, and it was impressive how both teams kept playing for goals right to the end.
At the 2010 World Cup New Zealand managed to not lose a single game, and with eventual winners Spain losing to Switzerland in the group stage we were the only undefeated team at the world cup. I mean, we didn't make the second round or anything, but NZ Football and the fans would not let that get in the way of a good story (or DVD, see below).
It produces compelling stuff. It eliminates a fluke goal that can end it early in OT and alot of times you can see multiple goals as things open up and teams begin to press in desperation. Regardless of outcome, I'm proud of how the US played. Howard was absolutely unreal, an incredible performance in goal topping even what we saw from Ochoa and the Algerian keeper yesterday. The US was down their striker, a position they are not flush at, and it effected the way they were able to play alot, not to mention losing Fabian Johnson in the first half who had been one of their best players all Cup. All those things considered, hanging till the end with a dark horse contender to win it all is impressive. Belgium had the luxury of bringing a striker, in Lukaku, off the bench in the 90th minute who would be the best player on alot of teams. He's had issues with management and was thus sitting, but he scored tons of goals in the EPL and is ridiculously talented, and he ran amok on an exhausted defense. But this was great for the sport in the US. Another exciting cup building on the excitement of 2010. The future looks bright for the national team. Yedlin was a revelation with his speed, and Julian Green, for all the controversy, scores with his first damn touch of the Cup at 19. Bradley, Johnson, and Gonzalez will all be only in their late 20s in 2018. Hell, Jozy Altidore is only 24. Klinnsman will keep doing his thing and his revitalization of the youth development in the US will begin paying dividends. Alot of smart soccer minds think the US could be very dangerous come Russia in 2018.
Australia considers their World Cup a successful campaign, and we didn't get a single point. Laid the platform for the next Asian tournament though. I read somewhere that Howard's 16 saves is a new World Cup record. Performance if the competition so far