Hey! First of all, my grandparents were born there, along with half of their children. And I totally took a first year University course in Italian. Eight years ago. And I visited the once. For one night in a region where they spoke just as much French as Italian. So I can totally get away with wearing a blue jersey.
This World Cup has been great so far. The goals in particular have been really high quality. Good to see a lot of aggressive play being rewarded, and very little tiki-taka bullshit. Casillas has completely lost it by the way. For the same reason they resisted goal line technology and baseball resisted strike zone technology: tradition and the "human element." Alternately: it's easier to rig.
Hasn't been one draw yet, and every game except one has had 3 goals or more. Makes for exciting viewing. However, haven't really seen a good defensive unit yet. Italy and Switzerland are usually very good, but each conceded soft goals. Germany and Belgium still to come though.
So apparently the best guy on the US team just injured his hamstring running down the field and had to be hauled off on a stretcher.
With no contact. Dude just tweaked his hamstring, grabbed it like someone shot him, and they immediately pull out the stretcher. Didn't Paul Pierce try a stunt like that a while back and got hung by the media? Ladies and gentlemen, soccer.
So you're saying he's either faking it, or that they're not athletes. Either way, good luck with that.
Well, 89 minutes in this US-Ghana game has been fun to watch. I can only imagine the stoppage time will be pretty crazy.
I've seen football players go down with non-contact injuries, but it's pretty much always a knee injury, not a hamstring. I've never seen a guy have to be carried off the field for a hamstring injury, let alone for a non-contact injury. The diagnosis ended up being a strained hamstring, so yeah, I don't question his need to sit out for the rest of the game, but he probably could've gotten off the field under his own power. Either way, an injury like that implies poor conditioning and/or training.
Phew, that was intense. I don't know how the United States won that game when it looked like Ghana completely controlled the tempo all match. To have hope of getting out of the group we really needed the win, and revenge for '06 and '10 was a nice bonus. I think Altidore has a good chance to come back for the tournament. I mean it really didn't look bad, but you never know.
Massive boost for USA with the shambles that is Portugal now. Best defender is out, and they looked amateur against Germany.
I don't understand this kind of reaction at all. Your star player strained his hamstring and the reaction is to crucify him? Have you ever pulled or strained a hamstring? It hurts like shit, you cannot complete a game like that. Maybe he could have walked off, but maybe he was trying to minimise any damage, so he can be fit to play in the next match. It's the same with people crucifying Lebron for getting cramps. Have these people ever had a cramp before? You can barely move your leg, let alone keep playing an NBA game. When an Australian sports star gets injured like that no one insults them or questions their manliness, they just hope they get better. Any way, America have significantly increased their chances of getting out of the group stage. Frankly, they were pretty lucky to come away with the win. Ghana was dominating in the second half, but just could not break through. Looks like they may even have a decent chance against the lackluster Portugal side. They're lucky to be facing Portugal straight after their humiliating defeat to Germany and without Pepe. I'd say Germany have marked themselves as the most dangerous looking team so far.
The same people make absolutely no mention of Dempsey getting kicked in the face, breaking his nose, and shoving two plugs up it and staying on the field. He said after the game he felt he was less effective cause he couldn't breath great and was spitting out blood the rest of the game. But that doesn't fit with the HAHAH SOCCER PLAYERS ARE ALL PUSSIES narrative, so it gets dropped. Whatever. I will say, conditions have seemed absolutely brutal with heat and humidity. Teams with poor depth or less than stellar conditioning are going to get exposed sooner rather than later as they run out of gas. I feel that's what happened to England on Saturday. Looked sluggish all second half. Amazing win for the US. Got a monkey off their backs, gained confidence, won in dramatic fashion, and I hope this is a turning point for Brooks. They need his depth in the back especially if Besler is hurt. Really pumped for the kid. Also, I need Klinnsman celebration gifs from yesterday BADLY. Looked like he just got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas or something.
There is a difference between getting truly hurt, and this: ...I bet rugby players who watch that wish they were dead just so they could spin in their graves. People like that are what gives what really IS a good sport its bad name. It was would have miles more respect if they just played the game, and hired officials that get less distracted than pro wrestling refs. An American football ref can see a facemask in a pile of bodies slamming together, these guys can't see a pussy diving on a massive open field?
The problem is soccer kind of accepts it, and they embrace it kind of by calling it simulation. I even heard a commentator praise a player for diving so well he got a call. It tends to be a cultural thing too, look at the players and countries who dive the most, it really is a reflection of the country they come from. Another thing, there's really no punishment for diving. If a player dives and the ref thinks its a dive, they just allow the play to continue, thats not really a consequence so its no wonder it continues. I am a sports fan and pretty much enjoy watching any sort of high level competition so I'll watch and enjoy the world cup but the diving does detract from the game because every time a player goes down I'm left wondering is he faking it.
If it's egregious enough, players will get carded for it. In the video Crown posted, a few of those players were carded for diving. One of the dives - the Brazilian player who had a ball kicked at his thigh and then grabbed his face - actually had the card against the "offender" revoked and then was then carded himself by committee after the game. And that often does carry consequences, as any 2 yellow cards during tournaments results in an automatic one-game suspension. Punishment the day after the game only does so much, but whether it be cards, fines against the player / coach / team, sanctions and game suspensions, etc., it'd cut down on a lot of that bullshit. Especially if it were against the coach. "Oh hey coach, 5 of your players got yellow cards for diving over the last 3 games. Have fun not being allowed in the stadium for your next game."
I was at one of the three NFL games to end in a tie in the last three years (Bengals, Eagles). I'm still angry about it. The amount of cheers that coke after these ties is astonishing to me. You paid shit tons of money to see this game. Don't you want to see a winner?