All-Is-Not-Lost-Still-Tied-For-First-Place Posbang!
Btw his total incompetence has his team of mls "stars" 4 PTs in the group of death of which they went into as the least likely to come out.
that I am very knowledgeable about soccer. I honestly don't know the first thing about it. But what I do know is that we played a major game today and our team choked!!! NO if's and's or but's about it. You don't need to be an expert to see that. It was very reminiscent of the PSU game last year.
So, you admit to not being very knowledgeable about something - soccer, in this case - and yet we have this post - HERE - in a soccer thread where you are supposedly attempting to explain to someone what will and will not happen. You make no projections, but instead simply try to tell someone the "truth" (your word) about something about which you claim here to have limited knowledge. You claim that you are not trying to influence thoughts, but in the mentioned post you are clearly making an attempt to lower expectations. I might seem forward, but that reeks of inconsistency to me. Care to explain it?
so I'll just come out and call him an ass. I'm sure his previous Mgolives would confirm this.
just a realist. It's a bummer that this blog can't handle someone who has a different opinion
it's not about your opinion being different. it is about your opinion being completely wrong, and ignorant.
I am very much leaning on the talking heads in that thread, the same way the average European would be if they were to guess the outcome of Bama vs TCU for instance. Desmond, Kirk, and the rest would bet everything on Bama right? I am doing the same thing just in reverse. This does not make me an expert, but I trust the Desmond Howard equivalent of Soccer over a bunch of biased guys who post on this blog.
What the hell were you watching?
well if you don't know anything about the game. then maybe you should stop talking like you do. watch and enjoy the games, or don't. but leave the assessments to people who have followed the game for a good portion of their lives.
and when those people are projecting a loss for the US against Germany???
Choking would have been not fighting back to equalize after a crushing early goal and getting run off the pitch 2 or 3-0.
It's literally insane to blame Klinsmann for the late magic that Ronaldo produced. If they had only added 4 minutes of stoppage time your sports radio style narrative would be even more meaningless today than it already is.
I saw both Wondo and Yedlin milk the clock in the corners in the extra time, about 30-45 seconds each. I saw Bradley - a coach's son and a player coached in Italy for a few years - make the error of not knowing how to milk the clock. Bradley also did this at the end of the Ghana game where all he had to do was dribble to the corner and instead puked it up to a Ghana player for one last chance. Maybe Bradley needs to think out there late instead of playing hero ball.
You can tell a player something 100x, some won't do it no matter what. I am sure Bradley is not so dumb as to not know what to do - if he doesn't do it, that is on him. I will get on a coach when it is correct but he can't technically go out there and be the player.
You rightly point out you don't know much about soccer and I'd stick to the ethos to not throwing out broad generalizations about a sport you don't know much about. I don't comment about field hockey for similar reasons.
sucking comes with the territory. Our D stinks. It's stunk for 25 years. Giveaways have happened for 25 years. 2 shutouts in 24 World Cup games since 1990. One of those was Mexico, a team we know well. And we HAVE a great goaltender!!
Cameron is first choice fullback in the Premier League. He is not the problem. Giveaways happen.
Germany can beat the US by 3 goals and the US would still go through if Portugal wins by only 1 or if Portugal/Ghana tie. Hell, Germany could beat us 10 - 0 and we are still through if Ghana/Portugal tie (and there is a decent chance this happens).
I don't know how you put those last 15 seconds on Klinsman. At 94:30, the USA probably had literally a 98% chance of winning that game. Klinsman has done a terrific job so far this World Cup, all without his star striker.
Again, that's on Klinsman how? This isn't pee-wee AYSO soccer where the players are told exactly what to do and that's all they do. The players are in charge on the field.
Forgot the /s tag?
ahahaha this post is AMAZING! "Voice of reason" holy shit you know nothing.
Yeah it was JK's fault that Cameron made a play an average AYSO 12 year old can make. It was JK's fault that Bradley did not clear the ball in any direction in the last 30 seconds something any Under 13 player would be taught to by that age considering the time and situation.
Tell me what you would have done differently than JK. Full confession, I would have taken Dempsey out around the 70th minute to get fresh legs up front and he seemed to disappear in the 2nd half, and I would have been a fool since he got us the second goal. Other than bringing Donovan to Brazil I don't see what JK has done wrong in this WC. We are technically the worse team in this group, don't match up athletically well with Ghana and just outplayed a team full of European league players.
Silly comment.
if you are going to slander someone. the least you could do is search google to correctly spell their name.
But.. TomVH tweeted that this stud plans on visiting next month. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/_/id/18886…
Heartbreaker
I said US matched up best against Portugal out of this group and it played out. Huge technical error by Cameron really cost us - I thought a first early goal against Portugal and they would mentally check out. Played great football overall, and I have not read the comments but all Bradley had to do late was clear the damn ball - kick it out of bounds, kick it anywhere, make them chase it.
Bradley was much better obviously than v Ghana, Jones was out of his mind today (what a goal) on defense and offense - best player out there considering Ronaldo was his mark, loves the runs by both outside defenders - fun to watch U.S. to play with overlap system, Bedoya had a tough time. Howard fantastic, so tough to see that Bradley shot hit the Portugal defender. Thought U.S. could have won this 3-0, or 2-0.
Unfortunately my last prediction is Ghana will run Portugal into the ground. US needs a tie in that game or a Portugal win to advance on goal differential. Ghana is the same matchup problem for Portugal as they are for us. I see Ghana winning something like 3-1 and US losing a decently close game to a motivated Germany.
Or maybe JK can talk to Germany and talk about "managing" a tie - both advance, Germany wins the group. :)
Just a big bummer today because of what I think Ghana is going to do to Portugal. Hope I am very wrong!
Disagree.
He was a 2/10 last game and today was around a 6.5/10. Still some dumb turnovers but his penetrating passes were there and he had a lot more possesion. His turnovers are strange to me - maybe I watch him too much versus CONCOCAF but that is just not his thing, but in first 2 games a lot of them overall for him. But I think from minute 15 to minute 75 he played great. Maybe wore out at the end. He didn't play great, but I simply said much better than Ghana which was probably the worse I've seen from him since pre 2010 world cup.
I agree. I dont follow the transfer market that much but my friend told me there was not a big market for Bradley. Maybe his play in Italy dropped off a bit in the past 18 months. I don't know.
You disagree with my calling him mediocre but then you give him a 6.5/10? That's mediocre, I think.
Messi at his best is a 10/10. A US player will never be a 10/10 lol. Jones today was probably a 8/10 or 8.5 :) [probably the best game of his life internationally consider his marking assignment and quality of that goal] so I consider 6.5 pretty decent. Mediocre would be something above Ghana but below today's action. He was piss poor vs Ghana.
Sorry I don't have a scale to explain, its my finger in the air. I thought Ronaldo was 6.5/10 today too - pretty average today with 1 moment of brilliance.
This isn't very posbangy
it's just realism
Let's beat Germany 8-0 and let the winner of the Portugal-Ghana game go through as well.
If I may say so, I do like your daughter's attitude towards this game and the prospect of moving on in the World Cup. Rather reminds me of my own daughter's never-say-die thoughts on the game, and she is only seven (eight in a mere three weeks, as she likes to remind us). Of course, my mother being German, I did get the question - "Can we still visit grandma if we beat Germany?"
These gaffes happen every damn game against teams not from the Caribbean. Our goaltending keeps us from looking like Switzerland against France in every game.
And Cameron didn't cover his man at the end either!
Soccer defense is like playing the secondary in American football. Getting it right 67 out of 70 snaps isn't good enough when the guy is 5 yards behind you on the other 3.
Yes, the offense was good (although how much of that was due to Portugal doing zip until the Jones goal was scored). Who cares when the defense is going to stink game in and game out.
Hey, the CONCACAF has performed pretty well this World Cup.
I really wish we would have won that, so all of the "I'm only watching the World Cup when the Americans play" fans would stop criticizing Jurgen's every move... Everything he did tonight was spot on... Yedlin's speed led to the second goal, and inserting Gonzalez was a solid move at the end. Just a shame that Cameron made two critical mistakes... Feel bad for the guy as he is a quality defender but will take the brunt of the media heat.
As for Thursday, I'm scared.
We are not going to get anyone better than JK for U.S. soccer. He has lived here for a long time, so he knows the U.S. culture,yet he comes from a football nation. Better yet he comes from the exact right nation for U.S. soccer to try to mimic - a Brazilian coach or a Spanish coach doesn't work for the U.S. type of players. Even a Dutch one I think would have trouble. Germany does fit - they are basically the U.S. on steroids and with better technical skills... but we can play a similar system and now are beginning to do so. Of the "great nations of soccer" the German system is the best to fit with U.S. type of players over other more flee flowing, individual, technical skill types like Dutch, Argentina, Brazil, etc.
You could not ask more than what he has done with the type of players we have - I compare us to Japan or South Korea in type of skill set, determinationa, organization and players and we have played very nicely compared to them. After he is done with coaching I hope they move him to a role in national player development and he works on our system of developing elite youth soccer which is focused so much on height, speed, physical domination rather than technical system (I've been exposed to it for 10-12 years). In fact I hope after this Cup is done he spends most of the next year helping on that end - we need some individual brilliance coming through the ranks - the U.S. always will have high spirit players with determination who don't quit (unlike some countries). If you could ever marry that with a higher level of technical skill...well you have Germany.