Official World Cup 2010 thread

[Dr. Jones]

Uruguay is no pushover.... And honestly.... Neither is the USA.

They beat Spain and almost Brazil in S. Africa last year.

And we took the Brits to the end of their rope a week ago.

 

[Shzm13]

Lol @ Uruguay being a pushover.. They will bunker the shi t outta you and beat you on the counter with their top strikers.

 

[rode kardinaal]

The soccer gods are smiling upon the US. Looks like it'll be USA-Ghana. Omg, id kill for that matchup instead of Argentina

Ghana is no Algeria. The danger lies with being way too happy not having to play Germany and underestimating the opponent here. It's a completely different game going in as favorites in stead of going in as underdog with a chance to surprise the world. I'm impressed by Ghana.

Very glad to see the anti-football Serbs eliminated. Love it.

 

[Shzm13]

Im glad for Ghana that they were the only African team to advance. Hosts failed, so did Cameroon. Im still not convinced by Ghana, both of their goals have come off the officials signaling penalties.

This world cup is getting GOOD!

 

[Zeno]

3 days until US/Ghana

 

[ajcardfan]

Why not if you can get two pushover games instead of playing 2 of the other top 5 teams.

lame

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Im glad for Ghana that they were the only African team to advance. Hosts failed, so did Cameroon. Im still not convinced by Ghana, both of their goals have come off the officials signaling penalties.

This world cup is getting GOOD!

No Ivory Coast either, but that group had crazy amount of talent.

 

[chickenhead]

lame

I agree, it's bad juju. You try to avoid one team and then get upset by another because you lost your momentum. Or, why not just eliminate stronger teams earlier, before they get on their own roll? I've never been a supporter of tanking, even for draft picks.

 

[sundevilscott]

England Germany will be fun!

 

[Dr. Jones]

England Germany will be fun!

With Klose's return it should be a war.

I will be in my Bunker (basement) for both games on Sunday. Being the boss.... I just let my other managers know that I will be taking a half-day on Saturday starting at 1pm.

What an awesome weekend of soccer.....

 

[TucsonDevil]

It was the 90 minutes of crappy, biased refereeing that turns most sports fans off...

Exactly. Why watch 90 min of that, when I can tune into an NBA game for 48 min of the same?

 

[Shzm13]

You can tell who the noob fans are by the bitching of the officials.

You're gonna get bad calls in any sport you look at. The good teams are usually the ones who overcome them.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Exactly. Why watch 90 min of that, when I can tune into an NBA game for 48 min of the same?

Because 48 minutes of the NBA last longer than 90 minute of soccer when you include halftime, breaks, free throws, etc.

 

[TucsonDevil]

BTW, my above post was meant as a knock on the NBA. I love World Cup soccer. MLS... not so much.

 

[TucsonDevil]

You can tell who the noob fans are by the bitching of the officials.

You're gonna get bad calls in any sport you look at. The good teams are usually the ones who overcome them.

Hope your not referring to me... I have been following International Soccer since living in Brazil in 1994. Love the World Cup. Officiating is inconsistent, and at time bias in any sport. Thank goodness for Instant Replay in the NFL.

 

[Chaplin]

You can tell who the noob fans are by the bitching of the officials.

You're gonna get bad calls in any sport you look at. The good teams are usually the ones who overcome them.

Soccer referees are pretty bad all around, but missing blatant goals and handballs should be unacceptable.

 

[Shzm13]

BTW, my above post was meant as a knock on the NBA. I love World Cup soccer. MLS... not so much.

Youre good in my book.

 

[sundevilscott]

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Lorenzo]

I don't see why there is so much critique on altidore. the dude was the player of the game. dempsey a close second. altidore dropped into the midfield and was creating for his teammates all game long....almost like what rooney does for his teams. BTW how is rooney looking in the box? he missed a point blank chip shot today no?

buddle, findley, and gomez haven't done much at all. gomez had two good strikes today, but hit them right at the keeper. buddle's header went right to the keeper. Bradley has done well to push dempsey up and add a midfielder. dempsey and altidore are the best strikers on this team. the goals will come for them eventually, today they just couldn't get the damn ball in the net. but this is the world cup. everyone is struggling to score goals at this level...even the GREAT internationals aren't killing it. so keeping things in perspective.... young jozy and the rest of the boys are doing ok.

 

[Chaplin]

I don't see why there is so much critique on altidore. the dude, by far, was the player of the game. dempsey a close second. altidore dropped into the midfield and was creating for his teammates all game long....almost like what rooney does for his teams. BTW how is rooney looking in the box? he missed a point blank chip shot today no?

buddle, findley, and gomez have given this team nothing. Bradley has done well to push dempsey up and add a midfielder. dempsey and altidore are the best strikers on this team. the goals will come for them eventually, today they just couldn't get the damn ball in the net. but this is the world cup. everyone is struggling to score goals at this level...even the GREAT internationals aren't killing it. so keeping things in perspective....jozy and the rest of the boys are doing ok.

The problem with you Jozy apologists is that you take EVERYTHING that is said against him as being 100% negative. You conveniently ignore us when we say he has potential, but is not qualified to be a starting international striker. You and your pals have yet to provide any solid reasoning why he is qualified to be our #1 striker. And I said earlier, this may be one of the finest games I've seen him play without scoring, but you not surprisingly ignored that.

And you SAW the game today, Buddle made an instant impact on the game. His technical skills match Jozy's brute force, and since we know Jozy will be starting, Buddle must start next to him. It makes the most sense. Agree with Findley, the guy has done nothing in the tournament and Gomez was nonexistant today--but he's still a good player and has a future in the side.

 

[Lorenzo]

The problem with you Jozy apologists is that you take EVERYTHING that is said against him as being 100% negative. You conveniently ignore us when we say he has potential, but is not qualified to be a starting international striker. You and your pals have yet to provide any solid reasoning why he is qualified to be our #1 striker. And I said earlier, this may be one of the finest games I've seen him play without scoring, but you not surprisingly ignored that.

And you SAW the game today, Buddle made an instant impact on the game. His technical skills match Jozy's brute force, and since we know Jozy will be starting, Buddle must start next to him. It makes the most sense. Agree with Findley, the guy has done nothing in the tournament and Gomez was nonexistant today--but he's still a good player and has a future in the side.

I'm not a jozy apologist. he is the best forward we have in our pool...unless you are going to take our best midfielder, donovan, and play him there. same could be said for dempsey who plays in the middle. I will say dempsey and donovan are the best two goal scorers we have and then there is a drop.

you are all over buddle, but what has he done? What are these technical skills that you speak of? I'm not impressed by buddle at this point. he doesn't seem to impact the game at all although he hasn't been given much time. I thought he blew some opportunites today and didn't look comfortable at all with the ball at his feet...definitely made much less of an impact than what altidore did. gomez had more impact than buddle did in reality. he had two quality strikes on goal and setup dempsey on the goal that was called back. buddle had the one chance and was unlucky to put it right at the keeper. buddle gave the ball away almost instantly when the ball came to his feet. I was listening to the end of the game on espn radio and tommy smith was ripping buddle for panicking with the ball at his feet late in the game.

I'm not saying jozy is a #1 striker at the international level. He is Team USA's #1 striker...because we have no other options right now. and you have to give the guy some credit. he may not have had success in europe, but he has played well for the US team.

 

[Chaplin]

I'm not a jozy apologist. he is the best forward we have in our pool...unless you are going to take our best midfielder, donovan, and play him there. same could be said for dempsey who plays in the middle. I will say dempsey and donovan are the best two goal scorers we have and then there is a drop.

you are all over buddle, but what has he done? What are these technical skills that you speak of. this is not the galaxy. I thought he blew some opportunites today and didn't look comfortable at all with the ball at his feet...definitely made much less of an impact than what altidore did. gomez had more impact than buddle did in reality. he had two quality strikes on goal and setup dempsey on the goal that was called back. buddle gave the ball away almost instantly when the ball came to his feet. I was listening to the end of the game on espn radio and tommy smith was ripping buddle for panicking with the ball at his feet late in the game.

I'm not saying jozy is a #1 striker at the international level. He is Team USA's #1 striker...because we have no other options right now. and you have to give the guy some credit. he may not have had success in europe, but he has played well for the US team.

READ. I DID give him some credit. You are right, he is our #1 striker right now because we have nobody to take his place. Doesn't mean he's good enough to be that #1 striker. It doesn't reflect badly on him, it reflects badly on the quality of American strikers. It's probably too late for Buddle to take that kind of responsibility, but Jozy has a long time to improve, but he can't be a forgotten man and headbutting opposing players and expect to be a world-class player.

He played well today, and has been invisible in the other 2 games. Buddle caused Algeria some problems, but he was only in there for a short time. Gomez didn't do anything today. Benny Feilhaber was better than Gomez today for chrissakes.

 

[Lorenzo]

READ. I DID give him some credit. You are right, he is our #1 striker right now because we have nobody to take his place. Doesn't mean he's good enough to be that #1 striker. It doesn't reflect badly on him, it reflects badly on the quality of American strikers. It's probably too late for Buddle to take that kind of responsibility, but Jozy has a long time to improve, but he can't be a forgotten man and headbutting opposing players and expect to be a world-class player.

He played well today, and has been invisible in the other 2 games. Buddle caused Algeria some problems, but he was only in there for a short time. Gomez didn't do anything today. Benny Feilhaber was better than Gomez today for chrissakes.

whether he's good enough or not...it is what it is. we have no strikers outside of jozy, dempsey, and donovan. and we know how important donovan is to the MF. I can see how jozy can piss people off with his attitude, but he is 20. most 20 year old athletes think they are a lot better than they really are. I'm sure donovan would tell you he was way more cocky than jozy is at that age.

I think feilhaber showed his worth because bradley was able to push dempsey forward and add another quality midfielder to the pitch. feilhaber showed his worth as a creating MF'er. If you ask me dempsey is the best striker we have, but isn't a great creator in the midfield. he can hold the ball, but when it comes to creating a goal scoring opportunity for someone else..there are better guys on the bench. so I like what bradley is doing starting dempsey in the midfield and then pushing him forward in the second half, bringing on a feilhaber/holden type. the gomez/dempsey play should have been a goal, but oh well.

chaplain I get you..at least we can both celebrate a victory.

 

[Lorenzo]

the fact that altidore at 20 has more caps and goals than any of the other forwards combined tells you the desperation we have at the forward position. If buddle, gomez, or findley were that great they would have actually been in the mix a long time ago. just 2 years ago jozy was nothing more than a youth team wonder making the best of it no matter who what when or where.

I think jozy, while needing a lot of work moving forward, has done a decent job of handling the pressure. he did a good job of that today(or yesterday). he or dempsey will need to score against ghana. we need goals. I feel at the end of the day jozy and dempsey are the two mainstays at forward...going into the knockout stages.

 

[Lorenzo]

Ghana/USA will be a interesting matchup. Ghana has looked very impressive in ball possession and creation. however, they have lacked the finish and that has been a major problem for them. in fact their lone win took a PK to be the difference. so that would be my concern for ghana. as bad as the USA have looked for getting goals...you can't overlook that they have scored 4 and probably should have done much better than that while having 2 wiped off the board. the USA will have to be strong on defense again and not allow ghana to have uncontested runs at howard. at the end of the day this is a much better draw than germany, but i wouldn't consider the USA favorites.