World Cup 2010

[Engels]

Ya, I think I'm gonna be rooting for Ghana now. Last African team in the first African continent World Cup, facing seriously stiff opposition. I love me some tough underdogs.

Tomorrow is gonna be interesting. England vs Germany at 6:30 am PST.

[WayAbvPar]

Bob Bradley realizing that Ricardo Clark is fucking terrible 30 minutes later than everyone else on the planet cost them the game. If they don't go down early they would have gotten some more counterattacking chances instead of having to chase Ghana all over the field. Bradley also missed the boat on Findley. Pace alone does not make a striker. The guy couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. Should have been Buddle, with Gomez coming on as a super sub after Jozy tires from trying to beat 3 defenders with ball all the live long day.

Those 2 decisions were crucial. Bradley lost that game for them.

Looking forward- good christ I hope we have some young defenders that can play coming up- our back line is fucking clownshoes. Never pace-y, and now old to boot. Just a total shit show. Maybe this kid? They better get him a cap before Mexico convinces him to come play for them instead.

Uruguay is going to crush Ghana. 3-1.

[Chimpy]

The US really needs to go back to dribbling and passing school.

That first half was full of bungles in midfield.

Overall was a fun game to watch though.

Glad the U.S. made it as far as they did, but they need to get a few more players with better ball handling skills. And they REALLY need someone who can distribute the ball in the midfield.

[Abagadro]

Ghana/Uraguay should be a pretty good game.  Looking forward to tomorrow's killer doubleheader.  I'm thinking Messi is going to break out in this one.

[Numtini]

Very tense and exciting match to watch despite US failings and it was a fair result with the better team winning. It's hard to complain.

But yes, US can't settle the ball and falls into stopping to pass. They're sorely lacking speed as well.

[Triforcer]

Well, poop.  Can't in any way say Ghana didn't deserve that victory, though.  We were stone cold outplayed.

[Teleku]

Ah well, time to stop paying any attention to soccer for another 4 years.  Goodbye thread!

[Mosesandstick]

I think this is one of the few matches where a lot of people would've been happy with either team winning. Well played to both teams.

[sigil]

Rico clark is probably done for the nats. I can hope anyway.

[Falconeer]

(on Torres) Ya, wasn't a dive. There is a better angle that clearly shows he was clipped. No need for a card there, but it wasn't a dive.

I see the clipping now, but he still jumped as if electrocuted. I hate that shit.

[Hoax]

1st goal was three players fault:

1. Clark, clearly.

2. DeMerrit, gave up too much ground, let the defender turn him and wasn't cutting off enough angle.

3. Howard, the striker should have had to beat him far post or with a wonder shot or deflection, 9 times out of 10 under less pressure Howard makes that save its too bad and I'm sure he wishes he could get it back.

As for Findley, he did miss their only clear chance in the first half but Buddle showed us nothing for the brief time he was on. I'm very saddened by all this, despite what all of you are saying they hardly got run off the pitch so much as the US really looked spooked under the pressure of the moment and the pressure of Ghana playing so far up which is really not how I wanted to see them go out.  There was far too much throwing away of the ball during essentially the entire game except for the 20 minutes leading up to the pk and it was done by the entire team as a unit.

Back to the drawing board but I see no reason that our strikeforce and midfield will not be better in Brasil then it was in Africa so now its just as others have said I prayer that somewhere there is an American playing left back who doesn't suck complete monkey ass though those four guys really did pull through and give us a fighting chance, with a little more luck, a little more finishing or a Howard having a spectacular game instead of his usual great games (he could have possibly made either one of those saves the first one he should have had, the second would have been a highlight reel amazing reflex save though maybe I'm asking too much of him since I didn't stick around to watch replays) and really by the 3rd and 4th game our defense was no longer the absolute worst defense in the tournament hands down without question which is a massive improvement.

*edit typo*

[Strazos]

Ghana is going to have a tough game against Uruguay, since a few of their players will be out due to yellow cards.

[HaemishM]

If the U.S. just had a midfield, backline and finishers, they'd really have something.

Actually, they have a midfield. Bradley just can't figure out how to play them. They don't have any fucking WINGERS it seems. But if he'd started Feilhaber instead of Findley and Edu instead of Clark, they might have come out and gotten better possession to start the game. I can't figure out for the life of me why Findley was in the side to start 3 of the 4 games they played. He had no chemistry with Jozy - all he could do was run at the defender solo and miss shots. Clark was a similar head-scratcher. He did fuckall against England. Not having Onyewu really fucked our backline and it showed. At least he can defend. Bocanegra is just not a central defender. But for fuck's sake, how they continued to bang their heads against the central of that Ghana defense was irritating. I don't think Landon or Dempsey went wide once during that whole game. They just kept crowding the middle and getting shut down.

The whole team spent the first 30 minutes asleep. Their passing was slow and tentative, and they got caught in possession WAY too many times. Feilhaber changed all that, but he couldn't be everywhere. And Jozy, man he really needed some help to get those fuckers off of him.

[Hoax]

Augh my univision thing keeps screwing up, I can hear the announcers but the pictures don't move augh.

wtb the ability to understand spanish pst

I noticed this too. Then I realised I was running flash 10.0 rather than 10.1. I upgraded and the glitching/hangs went away. YMMV

Does this mean Univision puts a stream online of even the afternoon games on weekends when espn3 doesn't carry them? Or are you not using espn3 for a reason and nobody puts those online but the pirates?

[HaemishM]

So I know this makes me unamerican and whatnot, but I really would like to punch that Donovan guy in the face. I don't even know why.

He has a doucheface. His face, for whatever reason, begs to be punched. David Villa has the same kind of look.

[Amarr HM]

Bradley looks like a decent all rounder, looks like hes at least trying to do intelligent things with the ball and his movement off it is good.

[Triforcer]

Where was the defense on that goal?  The goalie kicks it the length of the field and it just goes in 1v1?

[Numtini]

This is just embarrassing to watch.

[pants]

As an Australian, its making me feel a little bit less embarassed.

Of course, what the hell happened against Serbia?  Are there two German teams?

[Distinct]

The comeback is on !!!!

[Mosesandstick]

I can't remember the last time I felt sorry for England. Tough, tough.

[Segoris]

Holy hell Eng was robbed 

[lac]

They sure were. Awesome first half so far.

[Jeff Kelly]

Now we are never again allowed to complain about Wembley in '66

[Azazel]

Yeah, clearly having a video ref would break the flow of the game. what a load of shit. this is supposed to be the world cup.

[lac]

Over Sepp Blatter's dead body.

At least this will get the discussion going again.

[ghost]

Wow.  Worst referee judgment of the cup so far.  That ball was a yard into the goal. 

Instant replay now.

[Jeff Kelly]

Now I actually feel bad for England. I don't want my team to win like that.

[Paelos]

Seriously, how much longer are we going to have to put up with this nonsense of disallowed goals? Even baseball accepted replays for home run calls, and I see nothing different about doing it for goals.

[ghost]

At least there is no excuse for this.  There is no, "it was a judgment call and I thought there was a foul" type reasoning that can come from the ref.  The only thing that can be said is that it was a huge mistake. 

[Paelos]

Yeah, it wasn't subjective at all. England was totally jobbed and there is no reason for it.

[Paelos]

Oh wow, good counter with a horrible goalkeeping decision.

EDIT: And 4-1 now, the wheels have come off England, and the Germans look like counterattacking masters.

[Mosesandstick]

Wow, England have just been over the place.

[lac]

Horribly slow defense.

[Distinct]

 

No Doubts Germany have been the better team - England have been poor.

But , What would have happened if it had been made 2-2 and momentum completely changed what could have happened.