The USA just won against Mexico 2:0 ... so they're in the next round, the quarterfinal...
.. too bad they will loose against Germany now
The USA just won against Mexico 2:0 ... so they're in the next round, the quarterfinal...
.. too bad they will loose against Germany now
USA! USA! USA! USA!
not bad huh...
USA! USA! USA! USA!
I've got to agree with you there wwwMAJORLEAGUEde, I know there's been a lot of surprise results in this World Cup but for USA to beat Germany would be a shock of cataclysmic proportions...Originally posted by wwwMAJORLEAGUEde
The USA just won against Mexico 2:0 ... so they're in the next round, the quarterfinal...
.. too bad they will loose against Germany now
I just cannot for the life of me see USA winning that game, I've gottal tell you that I would love to see it happen but the World Cup's being played in the real world unfortunately....
When England beat Brazil we've got a relatively easy Semi-Final against Turkey, Japan or Senegal...
It's coming home, It's coming home, It's coming
Football's coming home......
England wins against Brazil ? Umm... I saw some English players in the stadium during Brazils game versus Belgium. I hope they learned something from that game. Belgium really played a good game, especially Marc Wilmots.Originally posted by King Cantona
I've got to agree with you there wwwMAJORLEAGUEde, I know there's been a lot of surprise results in this World Cup but for USA to beat Germany would be a shock of cataclysmic proportions...
I just cannot for the life of me see USA winning that game, I've gottal tell you that I would love to see it happen but the World Cup's being played in the real world unfortunately....
When England beat Brazil we've got a relatively easy Semi-Final against Turkey, Japan or Senegal...
It's coming home, It's coming home, It's coming
Football's coming home......
Damn... who's Brazil ?
I'm dreaming of a World Cup final between Germany and England!
great win today for arena's crew. Defense could carry this team to a world cup I believe. Mexico controlled the game with a 67% to 33% advantage in ball possession, but the US defense played amazing!
"They used to call us the sleeping giant in the old days. I think the sleeping giant has woken up," U.S. Soccer Federation president Bob Contiguglia said. "Someone said to me this is the World Cup for the minnows. The minnows are becoming bigger fish."
dont like soccer so i dont care who wins the world cup...
You'd need a lot of luck to win it.. Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England.. they're all still in there...Originally posted by Up-State
great win today for arena's crew. Defense could carry this team to a world cup I believe. Mexico controlled the game with a 67% to 33% advantage in ball possession, but the US defense played amazing!
I see Italy and Brazil in the finals.Originally posted by wwwMAJORLEAGUEde
You'd need a lot of luck to win it.. Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England.. they're all still in there...
but if America can make it past Gemany...
ahhh!! even a smiley heading a soccer ball!!Originally posted by Ansky39
USA! USA! USA! USA!
not bad huh...
USA! USA! USA! USA!
gotta love it -- USA is constantly criticized for this sport not being popular here on a professional level even though it's played by so many youngsters -- we're holding our own I guess...Go USA!!!!!!
I admit that I don't really follow soccer, but I am truly impressed by America's success so far. I know enough to realize that the US beating Germany would be an upset of phenomenal proportions, comparable to a Division 3 football team beating Nebraska or a AA team beating the Yanks.
Even so, the game starts out 0-0, and anything can happen....
USA! USA!
When I was watching Pardon the Interruption yesterday, some guest said that the US has a terrific chance in beating the Germans. It could happen, but what do i know??
Every team has a chance to beat every team. But try betting here... you will get a lot of money for a US-win... the quarterfinal is enough for you, we want our next title, after 1990 and 1996...Originally posted by YanksRockMan
When I was watching Pardon the Interruption yesterday, some guest said that the US has a terrific chance in beating the Germans. It could happen, but what do i know??
LOL, sascha -- I should have bet you that if we won, I'd change my user title since you hated it so much!!Originally posted by wwwMAJORLEAGUEde
Every team has a chance to beat every team. But try betting here... you will get a lot of money for a US-win... the quarterfinal is enough for you, we want our next title, after 1990 and 1996...
Originally posted by b-ball-lunachick
LOL, sascha -- I should have bet you that if we won, I'd change my user title since you hated it so much!!Jeanne... but I don't have trivia books or something to come up with really good questions... there's still time left until the game, we'll find something
As a sport, I don't give a crap about soccer. However, I realize it means an awful lot to millions of people around the world. Although I follow the game only occasionally, I certainly wil say:
GO USA! KICK SOME BUTT!
Well I hope you're right Palmer but I know it ain't gonna happen...Originally posted by PalmerGA
As a sport, I don't give a crap about soccer. However, I realize it means an awful lot to millions of people around the world. Although I follow the game only occasionally, I certainly wil say:
GO USA! KICK SOME BUTT!
And I feel totally safe in that statement, it just will not happen...
But then again I would be jumping for joy if it were to happen...
And when it all comes down to it, it is just eleven against eleven...
Come on USA......
Them Germans have won it enough............
Dem English tooOriginally posted by King Cantona
Them Germans have won it enough......
Today South Korea kicked Italy out of the tournament.. I still can't believe it..
but then again... those f***ing referees.. during the first round they took away three regular goals from Italy and now again... damned !
The Italians are out because of their messed up mentality....
They've got no one to blame but themselves...
Get a goal up and it doesn't matter if they're playing a World Power or South Korea, they just shut up shop, it serves them right...
All that Catenacio stuff should have died out thirty years ago but it seems they still revert to type...
I have absolutely no sympathy for them at all...
A good attractive team like Brazil is what The World Cup should be about, not all that defensive stuck in the dark ages stuff you get from Italy...:rolleyes: ...
Gotta give those Koreans some props today for beating Italy(as I am a proud Italian-American). Those boys can run and run and run. They must have some *special* Gatorade over there or something... they just don't tire, at all...
It's the SI curse!!! Argentina vs. Italy in finals and Italy wins? HA!!! (I looove upsets
Are the Italians storming the streets too?
~*~ Bleeding Maize and Blue since 2001 ~*~
Speak for yourself, Luna.Originally posted by b-ball-lunachick
-- we're holding our own
Hey, maybe team USA is destiny's team this time around, who knows.
Jim
Could be, this has turned into a great tournament, wide open.Originally posted by Winger03
Hey, maybe team USA is destiny's team this time around, who knows.
I'm going to stop picking which team I think will win, every team I've chosen has lost! (Go England
Mo
I'm sorry, but that game was total bull................. 2 goals disallowed against Croatia (I was at the game and it was obvious there and on replays that Vieri was not offside and the foul against Pippo was extremely debatable), two against Mexico (again very difficult to call Pippo offside), and Tommasi's against South Korea (who was NOT offside as replays clearly showed). Then the red card to Totti. I'm not saying it should have been a penalty because contact was obviously made with the ball. But there WAS contact with Totti, just enough to trip him up at the speed he was going. Did anyone actually SEE the ref? He wasn't even in the tv screen. The ref was 50 meters from that play. The linesman initially called the foul against Korea but when the ref arrived on the spot the red was shown. It was absolutely ridiculous. Moreno didn't even realize Totti had another card and the Koreans were the ones to tell him to send Totti off for such a ridiculous play. As a ref you keep track of the game and do NOT pull out a red card, ignoring the linesman's decision, in golden goal extra time in an elimination round of the World Cup when you are 50 meters away from the play. If the Italians committed a foul, it was a yellow card. If Korea committed a foul, the ref raised his eyebrows at them to warn them. Look at Vieri's goal. Only his size and strength allowed him to head that ball in. Defenders were both CLEARLY holding on to Del Piero's and Vieri's shirts on that play. It was going on all match long, but only the Italians were punished.
"Numerous yellow cards followed, many for tussling that many referees would not have punished as strongly. "
"Television replays suggested Tommasi was onside when the ball was passed to him."
"But the ref apparently forgot when making that decision that Totti received a yellow earlier and therefore had to be sent off. It was only on the prompting of the Korean players that he pulled out the red."
ESPN article
By the way King Cantona, I happen to think it was a good strategy for Trap to employ. The Koreans are quick and dangerous on the counter attack and throughout the tournament employed more strikers than Italy did. The Koreans just run, run, run and don't seem to tire. Italy got the early goal and with South Korea pushing forward and with Fabio and Alessandro out, it was wise to try and stay away from the risk of the dangerous South Korean counterattack against a defense forced to play Coco more as a defender than his traditional role similar to Zambrotta's. Both Coco and Tommasi were forced to stay back and were unable to support Totti up front simply because w/o our two important defenders, Maldini and Panucci were BOTH playing out of their normal positions. Zambrotta generally does a good job pushing forward from midfield, but with his injury Trap was forced to go with the more defensive minded Di Livio. Moreno made some very bogus calls in the Portugal/USA game as well.
I was at England-Argentina (I'll be posting pictures as soon as I can figure out how). England got the early goal and did EXACTLY THE SAME THING ITALY DID. They kept Michael Owen up front and just tried for the counterattack, but their mentality was defense, defense, defense. England did it more successfully, though the non-penalty call against Aimar was ridiculous considering the foul against him was the exact same thing but only called for England because Michael Owen is smaller and tends to "be fouled" more obviously. (I talked to loads of English fans on the flight back to Tokyo from Sapporo and all of them surpringly agreed if Owen was fouled then so was Aimar...but that's a whole other issue!
A "good attractive team like Brazil" was able to constantly attack because of the weak defenses in their group. Against Belgium for all of the first half and most of the 2nd half Brazil was on their back foot as Belgium pressed forward. The goals from Rivaldo and especially from Ronaldo came fairly late in the game. If the good attractive team should win the World Cup games then Marc Wilmots and Belgium deserve to be playing England.
andy14:
The British mentality when going a goal up and this goes for all The British Isles including Ireland is that to be safe we need another goal...
Therefore a British team would keep on attacking, the Koreans obviously were much more used to the conditions as they were playing at home but I've got to disagree with you about England's second half against Argentina...
I've lost count of the number of times England could easily have made it two or even three nil, I can remember Scholes and Sheringham offhand...
I also believe that as they're playing Brazil in the middle of the afternoon the conditions will favour the Brazilians this time, nevertheless I expect England to win 2-0...
Back to your first point, I remember in 1967 when Inter Milan went a goal up against Glasgow Celtic in The European Cup Final that the Inter team immediately defended their advantage...
There was absolutely no attempt to increase their advantage, on that occasion as yesterday they paid the price...
The difference between yesterday's game and England's (well deserved) victory over Argentina was that England were still a very effective attacking threat whereas Italy only threatened very sporadically...
Because they were a goal up England had the luxury of hitting Argentina on the break which they did very effectively but Italy just didn't seem interested in scoring again...
I've seen this since the first Italian team I saw live (Juventus at Old Trafford in the mid seventies), sometimes Italians teams can be very effective on the break but only if they actually want to score...
I guess we'll have to agree to just disagree then!
Michael Owen was the only one who stayed in a position to attack. The way he was playing was very similar to the way Christian Vieri was playing against Korea. Coincidentally, they were both called offside just a few meters beyond the midfield line, clearly showing the defensive mindset of their teams.
Owen had two close opportunities and so did Sheringham just minutes after he came on. However, the majority of the English fans were quite anxious at England's defensive mindset after the penalty (especially once Crespo came in). England's counter attacks were dangerous while Italy was unable to manage the same threat because of the lack of attacking strength in the midfield. That's been Italy's problem for a long time. The strikers are able to finish, but the midfield seemed incapable of generating the opportunities that players like Inzaghi and Vieri need created for them. Too much pressure was placed on Totti and when he failed to have the WC that everyone expected Italy's offense lacked spark. That's not to say they didn't try for that second goal. Gattuso had a brilliant run, Tommasi all alone failed to chip the ball over the keeper, and Vieri took a considerable number more shots than any of his previous games.
Being at both games, I honestly say Italy and England played similar games. Italy's defense has generally been its strong point, but without Nesta and Cannavaro they would clearly be vulnerable against the quick South Korean counterattack had they played more offensively. I admit England plays a much more aggressive game while unfortunately the Italians do tend to guard a one goal advantage. However, this one game I can understand the strategy, though I would have personally preferred to see Montella see some more action in such a crucial game as he is very quick and can create great scoring opportunities.
Though if you compare Italy's strategy in this tournament to Euro2000 and France 98, I would say that Trap clearly was mindful of critics of and did employ a more offensive strategy. Let's not forget that Italy had FIVE goals disallowed on terrible decisions. Surely if those goals had counted we might not even be having this discussion because Italia would be in the next round if Tommasi's goal was rightfully allowed.
Although, I will NEVER forgive Trap for putting an end to Il Divin Codino's brialliant international career. This entire nation is convinced that Baggio might have been able to singlehandedly carry the Azzurri into the next round as he carried them in '94. If there is one decision I will never understand, it was taking Delvecchio (who is completely unable to dictate play the way Robby can) over Baggio...and my allegiance is to Roma!
I'm happy the U.S. has gone as far as they have. I follow soccer slightly during the world cup. I was watching the game between Ireland and Spain (Saturday?). The score was tied at the end of regulation time. They played two overtime periods - still tied. Then they decided the game on a shootout(?) - I think that's what it's called - when it's one on one between kicker and goal keeper. I think each team is allowed 5 kicks. This is only my opinion of course, and maybe someone who understands the game better than I do can enlighten me - but to me this is like deciding the winner of the world series on a home run hitting contest.
Yes Barb51850, you're right and every Football (Soccer) fan will doubtless agree with you...
This new golden goal business is something that came from America, where the first points scored in overtime by an American Football team wins the game...
I don't actually like this new rule mainly because it has in the past made teams sit back and defend rather that taking the bull by the horns and trying to score themselves...
But I'm coming round to the idea now because in the games that have gone to this "sudden death overtime" the two teams have actually tried to win it...
But as of now I can't think of a better way of settling a game than penalties and I've felt the heartbreak of penalties more then most because England have gone out of major tournaments after penalty shootouts more times than I care to remember......
Thanks for your input. Good luck to England the rest of the way. Hope you get that national holiday.Originally posted by King Cantona
Yes Barb51850, you're right and every Football (Soccer) fan will doubtless agree with you...
This new golden goal business is something that came from America, where the first points scored in overtime by an American Football team wins the game...
I don't actually like this new rule mainly because it has in the past made teams sit back and defend rather that taking the bull by the horns and trying to score themselves...
But I'm coming round to the idea now because in the games that have gone to this "sudden death overtime" the two teams have actually tried to win it...
But as of now I can't think of a better way of settling a game than penalties and I've felt the heartbreak of penalties more then most because England have gone out of major tournaments after penalty shootouts more times than I care to remember...
Barbara
I must say that I too am still trying to get used to the golden goal overtime. Personally, as Italy has suffered from this new addition, I hate it.
Im kinda glad USA won against Mexico! Out here in Southern California there were rumors on the TV & Radio there could be riots in the streets if Mexico won! And Last Year there was ! This year peace still lives among the socer fans cause USA USA USA won!!!!!!!
Yankees Are Still the Best in the MLB! Better than ALL the Rest!!!!!
I like the golden goal rule, I've always hated penalty shoot-outs, can never watch themOriginally posted by andy14
I must say that I too am still trying to get used to the golden goal overtime. Personally, as Italy has suffered from this new addition, I hate it.
Mo
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