2010 World Cup

John P- many of the U.S team play professionally and are handsomely paid, especially those that are in the English Premiership, so much of your post is uttterly misinformed and inaccurate, based on outdated stereotypes and typically narrowminded Yankocentric view points. The U.S.A are ranked 14th in the world, which is respectable and have beaten the favourites, Spain, last year and did well against another favourite, Brazil.

We’re obsessed by it because it’s our national game, which we invented- we think you North Americans being obsesssd with Baseball, American Football and Basketball are quite barmy, but that’s the way it is.

The U.S does like soccer, just not as much as the rest of the world does, which when you think about it, is truly a World Cup, not the World Series.

Yes, we messed up today, but a draw isn’t a disaster. Probably because there’s not bimbetic cheerleaders on the side, muscle-bound thick-as-planks halfwit jocks on the field, a higher score than 1-1 and a game of two halves that means you have to concentrate for more than 5 minutes at a time, means soccer is probably not for you. But truly, for the rest of the world, it is.

But, please, do some research regarding your players. Just because you didn’t invent it and the jigoistic nonsense disguised as national pride seeps out regarding a sport you don’t get, doesn’t mean it’s not a passionate game enjoyed by millions everywhere else. The world is truly bigger than the great U.S of A.

Before anyone accuses me of having an anti U.S rant. I was educated at NYU and my dad, who is British lives in Pasadena and whilst, in the main, it’s a wonderful country, it would be great if some of its residents could be a little more self-critical.

Moderated

John, you’re sounding homophobic.. You gotta do better than that. I’ve heard my name being changed to ‘gay’ every so often since the mid 1970s. It must of taken a long time to think that one up. What next, I wonder?

I I can’t imagine what your last name stands for. It’s so mysterious! Perhaps I should start a thread and get some of the other members of MUBI to work it out?

Andrew you already made that post earlier:

You won’t win against England. None of the U.S.A team can be deemed ‘world class,’ whereas most of the England squad share comparisons with the world’s finest. You might sneak a draw (not a tie, a tie is the match itself, not the score.) Dempsey and Donovan are your best hopes, especially as they play for the English Premiership, ranked as the best in the world, (based mainly on the very fast pace of the English game) even though Barcelona is probably the best regional team in the world.

The World Cup truly encompasses the world, not the World Series, which is just wishful thinking! The U.S might be the world’s policeman, but that has nothing to do with sport.

For a country that doesn’t embrace football, not soccer, ranked as 14th is pretty impressive. It would be even more impressive if TV companies in the U.S would actually respect the 45 minute-without-ads rule and not demand FIFA to widen the goals, hence why football isn’t as big as it could be with better TV coverage. Certain things remain sacred. Low scores, a la football are also not attractive to the U.S sports psyche, as most of the U.S sports are high scoring.

Looks like Thierry Henry will be heading to the U.S to see out the rest of his career, unless West Ham make it worth his while. At least that should raise the profile of football in the U.S.

You’re repeating yourself.

I did, but it was remixed and was in direct response to John P’s comments. If you read it carefully you’d notice the differences. Was is really required to cut and paste the original comment? No, but thanks for bringing it up.

Perhaps if John P hadn’t made those comments, I wouldn’t have felt the need to respond. By the way, User, when did you become this site’s moderator?

“Our team doesn’t even LIKE soccer and we still pulled a draw! "

it’s FOOTBALL, not soccer.

more like SUCKer

Oh do grow up; the US has a large population to draw on, so even a minority interest sport will still have a decent number of participants compared with many small countries where football is the main interest. Just as in the US there are more people so fat they can barely walk than the entire populations of some countries in the world cup. That too is a US speciality, and one sadly it’s exported to sucker countries like the UK who tend to follow its model. Yes, if football was a higher priority sport in the US no doubt you would do better and be a major threat, but in football weaker teams often get a draw, or sometimes win, against stronger ones (missed chances, weird goalie gaffes as seen in yesterday’s match, or referee decisions, there are a range of elements), you don’t judge on one match. When Wales have beaten the likes of Brazil, Germany and Italy that didn’t mean we were better. You can have major shocks like non-league Hereford beating Newcastle Utd, Colchester beating Leeds. In the FA Cup Final, Chelsea hit the woodwork 5 times, and only won 1-0 v Portsmouth, while Argentina really should have beaten Nigeria more easily.

As mentioned above, the US is hardly an amateur team that’s not even interested in the sport; nor is it a team of great worldbeaters, but well organised and playing to its potential, ranked 14th and no mugs. England were still the better team, created more, but as i said results don’t always reflect the general run of play, it’s not scored like a boxing match. In general- irrespective of this cup-, the US has the resources to attract decent managers, which also makes a difference.

I was surprised England played Heskey (simply doesn’t score enough), Milner (not 100% fit and hardly a star player anyway) and brought on Carragher (poor season at Liverpool and too slow). I would have played Cole and Crouch though neither are essential; it will be interesting to see what will happen when Barry is fit as the manager sees him as important, and he’s been a very steady and effective player who can free up both Lampard and Gerrard. For years England could have done with a top quality left sided attacking midfield player/winger like Giggs. Gareth Bale would probably fit in nicely too. They had a good head of steam in qualifying but seem to have lost their way a bit, whether through injury or players like Walcott losing form. With Ferdinand injured and King doubtful England may lack pace in central defence, which will be a worry

This could gateway to the Pacific! Yay! NO footwear! 2010 Beach World Cup, Italy

A while ago I troubled myself to look up ‘soccer’ and although there is debate about this many sources site the origins of the word to be derived from a shortening of ‘association’ because in the beginning football was called ‘association football’. There was a suggestion therefore that the word ‘soccer’ was coined by the English themselves.

I think it should just be called Futbol all over the world, with that spelling, no more soccer, just Futbol, no more Football, just Futbol.

Now let’s slow down. I won’t have anybody talking bad about cheerleaders. They didn’t do anything to anybody! And I think they counterbalance the “muscle-bound jocks” beautifully.

Speaking of which, soccer players aren’t quite pencil-necked geeks, if you’re trying to draw distinctions.

I think this match was more of a victory for the US because it stung the English pride so much. That newspaper front page is hilarious. Just because of a draw, you would think the world ended. Ruins? Wow. The amount of pressure you guys are going to put on yourselves for the next match will be insane. You gotta learn to play loose, not tight. The mentality has to be “nothing to lose and everything to gain,” not the opposite. I mean, it’s not like you guys are in serious contention for the title every four years.

In any event, the group is wide open for America to advance. U…S…ahh, you know the rest.

Now, on to more important issues for today. SR-BI-JA, SR-BI-JA, SR-BI-JA!!!

Capello deserves the highest amount of criticism for refusing to pick the second best striker in England and instead picking a carthorse whose finishing ability is disgraceful for somebody whose job it is to score goals.

I knew his appalling squad selection would come back to bite him, but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly!

Seriously, what’s wrong with British goalkeepers, is it because of the British lack of investment in British goalies and just buying them from other countries in the premier league? Which is not the solution if you look at the last champions league semi-finals where there were no British teams.

No, the problem is not simply the coach, I think British football is in a bigger crisis. So is Argentina, which builds its entire formation around Messi (who can not win a match by himself if there’s a good goalie, like that amazing short Nigerian one)

Neither Argenina or England will win the world cup. Let’s see in what shape Germany is tonight.

Bobby is right that the media here (English not British) is ridiculous in its hype and also pressure of expectation that is applied to the team. The main BBC news 2 days ago was taken up almost entirely of the world cup and even included a press conference with inane questions for Capello; and that is more important than all the world news put together! Also the media continues the nonsense that England is “the nation” and “we”, as if Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland don’t exist.

Frank, i wouldn’t write England off yet, even though i think they would have been stronger with a fit Ferdinand. It’s true the English goal-keeping isn’t up to the standard of my youth, when there were goalies like Banks, Shilton, Clemence (and Bonetti was usually excellent, apart from v W.Germany) and from Wales, Southall and from N Ireland, Jennings (in those days goalies like Zoff and Meier wouldn’t have won half as many caps if they were English), but Robert Green had played well enough for England previously. One of the finest goalkeeping displays i’ve ever seen was by the Welsh goalie Myhill for Hull this season (he was born in the US!)

Goalies aside (i can’t say Hart and James are bad), England have a strong central spine, and Ashley Cole is a fine full-back, but are a few players short of a full team of the necessary class. Then again, so they were in 66- Banks, Moore and Charlton were their true quality players- but somehow came through with the right system and teamwork, as Greece did in 04. Now England could be ko’d in round 1, but if they do make the next round then they could find the right selection, balance and form. In 86 they started badly then with enforced changes found their feet. Often the team which plays the best and most entertaining football in the early stages then gets ko’d by one which hadn’t impressed. W.Germany won the 74 cup after a bad start v E.Germany if memory serves, Italy ko’d Brazil in 82 when Rossi suddenly came to life, and so on.

As for British football in crisis, it’s ironic that while Wales have to make do with some second rate players and suffer from even a couple of injuries due to lack of depth, we also have a few who England would be delighted to have in the squad. Scotland used to churn out many of the best players in the English as well as Scottish leagues but have slipped badly.

There are too many couch potaoes, schoolkids are unfit, and long gone are the days when most kids would play together outside; this effectively reduces the pool of potential. It is a spectator society, and the more unhealthy for channelling too much of its hopes and identity into the country’s sporting results.

I think also there are too many matches in the English league- in the 2nd half of the season there have been lots of injuries and players get jaded. I would cut the premiership to 16 or 18. Look at how many injuries there have been to players based in England (eg Chelsea) from other countries, i doubt that’s pure coincidence.

I feel for the goalkeepers, they cannot catch a break! Neither team won the match, yet the British goalkeeper is all but banished and the American goalkeeper looks now to have a few broken ribs. In the same way I could not get beyond ‘what’ Trier did in Antichrist to care enough to analyze the ‘why’ – something is not right about taking to battle for 90 mins…to have the fate of the match lie solely in the hands of one player – the goalie. Why not just do away with the goal tender and make the goal smaller and more challenging. The goalie can then kick about defending the goal with his teammates. I suppose that is as likely to happen as it is the day pro basketball nets are raised……no matter, perfection comes in the form of a sand volleyball game in a bikini.

No goalkeeper? You must be out of your freaking mind. The goalkeeper is what makes football the best sport in the world. The best goalie in the world may not be in the tournament, but there’s already been amazing saves by the Nigerian goalie(who picked up every single Messi shot) and this Slovenian goalkeeper is quite a talent too.

It just seems to me too much responsibility is on them to save the day. They’re heroes when they make those amazing saves…but when they don’t, they become the targets for ‘ruining’ the day.

Oh no, goalies are a great part of the sport, they have to have broad shoulders to take the flak, as there’s no goalie who’s been infallible, but that’s part of the excitement and uncertainty. The English goalies really aren’t that bad (the US one would not be first choice ahead of them according to their careers in England), I think Frank has a point about too many non-English players in the English league but that’s the free market for you. There was a time teams like Liverpool and Notts Forest won the European cup with British players, not all of whom were great, mind- they did work well as teams with very good managers and work ethics and a few stars, like Rush and Dalglish. Hanson and Souness were other fine players in the noble Scottish tradition that seems to have gone down the pan

Amen to Bobby Wise and Kenji with their considered, informative views. I will take issue with Bobby: we are always a serious contender, whether it’ s media hype or the expectation of the country. We’re all sick of seeing the win in 1966 replayed for the last 44 years! But we are good enough. We do have good form and we are one of the favpurites. Rob Green made up for his screw up with a brilliant save in the second half and we did play better than the U.S.A, mainly because we’re a better team.

Besides, I don’t think you can lay all the blame on Rob Green for that goal going in last night.To be fair, the ball had just left an American’s foot, it was probably covered in oil.

Before anyone goes buckwild, the last part was a joke, but it’s doing the rounds.

IS the best goalie in the world not in the tournament?

Well, assuming he’s who I think he is, I’m delighted to hear it (because he may be the best goalie in the world but he’s one of the most obnoxious human beings in professional football). But maybe we’re thinking of different goalies?

@ Andrew – I hadn’t heard that joke, but .. ouch he he … it only hurts when I larf…

“Besides, I don’t think you can lay all the blame on Rob Green for that goal going in last night.To be fair, the ball had just left an American’s foot, it was probably covered in oil.”

Hourray for Ghana! Fully deserved, but it seems some teams are on a suicide mission, what a ridiculous hand ball. Serbia are now in deep trouble. The runners up in this group are due to play the winners of England’s aren’t they? A pity Essien isn’t in the cup

go Australia, beat those dreadful Germans!!!

hate the referee >,<

I’m happy Ghana won !!! Best african team imho !

Chic. Viva Ghana!

I don’t think that the “too many non-English players in the English league” argument holds much water. The influx of foreign players is the same across Europe.

With the exception of 66, England have never reached the finals in the WC, even when the English league was comprised solely of British players.
English clubs have always done well in European championships. Nothing, really, has changed.

Good win for Ghana.

@Dimitris: yeah, beat those dreadful Germans! (I’m dead serious)