OT - Congrats CONCACAF [Soccer]
Congrats to the CONCACAF region. Raise your hand if you had 3 teams with a chance to win their group going into the last pairing of group play. If not for a goal in the last 10 seconds (ARRGHHH) the 1st, 2nd, and 4th place team from our region would currently have 19 out of a possible 21 points.
Mexico has gone from a disjointed team the U.S. gifted into the tournament with a meaningless goal late in its own last qualifying match (that meant zero for the U.S. other than pride) to a team that gave Brazil a great battle on its own turf (probably one of the best goaltending performances I've ever seen) and convincingly beat a very good Croatia.
Costa Rica has been the Cinderella of the tournament, taking out 2 champion level countries, and already advancing through- and barring a massive goal surge by Italy or Uruguay will win their group. Probably one of the most attractive levels of play in this tournament thus far.
U.S. had a mighty struggle with Ghana but found a way, and certainly deserved a win vs Portugal and sat seconds away for locking up a spot into the next round.
Even our buds down in Honduras - after running through a buzz saw in France, struggling after losing a man, put in a solid 2nd match.
So for the Rodney Dangerfield of regions, 2 out of 16 slots are guaranteed with a 3rd potentially Thursday. Not too shabby and it would be nice to see this continue in years ahead to raise the profile of the region.
"(probably one of the best goaltending performances I've ever seen)"
He had like one decent save. The rest were right in the middle of the net.
But yea, great showing for the CONCACAF. How much longer until we get another qualifying slot?
I disagree, but I'm admittedly biased-- Ochoa was well positioned on every save against Brazil... he had an amazing game, quite possibly the best I've seen out of a GK in the world cup
He was in great position so it appeared like the shots were right to him, but that was because he showed great instinct and first step.
As far as best ever, I don't think so. Even ( GKs as recent as) Casillas has some nice games in the 2010 WC.
*trips you while you carry liquid*
Knew it all along. Followed all these teams closely; clocked their lap times; studied film on pad level . . .
Nah, I just got lucky and I always pick my two home countries (USA and Mexico) so . . .
SEC = Europe
Pac 12 = South America
Big 12 = Africa
Big 10 = CONCACAF?
Maybe.
As for 3rd best probably Africa would have an argument with you - until the U.S. had risen of late it was basically Mexico and no one else in this region which I think is why there is a perception problem. The other issue is just plain size... after you take out Mexico and U.S. I don't know who has the 3rd highest population (I am excluding Canada which is not a soccer nation). Some of these countries we play have populations of sub 5M - in fact many of them in our region. Meanwhile many countries in Africa have over 20M.
Right now in Africa you have Ghana, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Cameroon and Nigeria in the WC. Other than Cameroon all have shown anywhere from relatively well to very well so I'd have us 4th right now due to depth - Panama currently would be our 5th team....then it goes to someone like Jamaica.
...see what I did there?
Is world cup OT?
Completely agree. CONCACAF's surge is one of the reasons that this is the World Cup of World Cups.
Go CONCACAF! Obviously I'm hoping we make it 3 teams into the knockout rounds. And then I think we have a legitimate shot at 2 or even 3 teams in the quarters. Can you imagine 3 CONCACAF squads in the quarterfinals? Sepp Blatter's head might explode.
Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. Canada, United States, and Mexico make up the north, a slew of nations make up the central and a slew more the carribean. Just so we all know.
Just rolls right off your tounge.
How about something more catchy like "Big Ten".
A question for the more knowledgable futbol fans out there: is scoring up in this World Cup compared to previous years? If so, is there a reason for this?
I seem to remember the 1994 WC, and it seems to me we expected games to be 1-0 or 0-0. This year, it seems to me we're expecting games to be 2-1 or 1-1. Did international soccer get the memo on boring, defensive strategy? Has someone finally broken the code on how to beat teams playing for 1-0 or 0-0 results? I have a sense that the Spanish team of the past few years did find a way to play to make the "pack it in" teams pay for their passivity. (Other than the Brazilian approach, which is to field so many players so much better than your players that they will get their goals regardless of what you do. Works only if you have a talent pool as deep as Brazil's.)