DoubleB

June 23rd, 2010 at 6:04 PM ^

England has the major championship record of average European nations like Czechoslovakia, Portugal, and Greece and yet somehow think they are God's gift to soccer. It's the rough equivalent of say Pitt crowing over their football team with schools like Florida, Ohio State, Texas, etc. They aren't in the same class and frankly never have been.

Beavis

June 23rd, 2010 at 5:29 PM ^

While I love to rub it in, we should be careful we don't make the same mistake as England. 

blue_shift

June 23rd, 2010 at 6:43 PM ^

How does one stupid headline from The Sun become representative of the opinion of every person in England? It's a cheap, trashy tabloid.

I know ESPN has been playing this cover up and ranting on constantly about how the US players aren't respected by the English, but that doesn't make it true. Howard and Dempsey play in the Premier League, for fuck's sake. I've just returned from a trip to the UK, and almost everyone I talked to about the World Cup was worried about the US game and generally sarcastic about their English squad and its chances. This notion that we don't get respect is pure bullshit and ESPN's usual hysterical sports "reporting."

I love soccer, and I'm a huge fan of the USMNT, but it's hard to call out England's media when ours' has been just as insufferable. The last three matches have all been dubbed "the biggest game in US soccer history" and it seems like whenever a US player takes a dump it becomes a "historic moment" that needs to be mentioned 45,000 times in the course of the broadcast.

I like our draw, I like our talent, and I like our team cohesion, but I don't for a minute believe that any of our matches at the WC so far have been historic. 2002 was historic. CONCACAF was historic. Our WC so far is just prelude.

US soccer will have finally arrived when we stop freaking out about "historic" moments and start expecting results - we have the talent now, and we should expect no less than the quarters and probably the semis. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like US soccer is here yet, but I hope it's coming.

And I think I might watch the rest of the WC on Univision, because ESPN is getting on my nerves.

PurpleStuff

June 23rd, 2010 at 7:37 PM ^

Steven Gerrard claimed that for Algeria (a team that held the squad he captains 0-0) playing against England was their World Cup final.  Joe Cole, after the team squeaked by Slovenia (Slovenia!), said he thought a 3-0 or 4-0 result would have been a fairer indication of England's (piss poor, in my view) performance (a performance he contributed to by running around for twenty minutes like a chicken with its head cut off screaming, "Pick me, Fabio, pick me!" before tripping over the ball).  The entire country was in meltdown mode yesterday with the team apparently in dissaray but now (after that handsome thrashing of mighty Slovenia) all of their pundits and former footballers see England having no problem with ze Germans on Sunday. 

Also, it is just the English who do this.  Scots and (even) people from Wales are not clueless, arrogant assholes (the English are all Brits but not all Brits are English).

/Scottish grammar police

SysMark

June 23rd, 2010 at 8:43 PM ^

The Brits advanced, but let's just say it hasn't gone quite as smoothly as they expected.

They weren't expecting the US to be looking like their equal at this point.

wildbackdunesman

June 24th, 2010 at 9:09 AM ^

I hate to say this, but quite a few of our fans are just as bad as the worst English fans.  I lived in England for a short time and heard fellow Americans say the following unsolicited opinions to the English:

-The US would win every World Cup if we ever decided to care about the sport

-If our best athletes decided to play soccer, we would have to pull Shaq before half time after he scored a dozen goals on your scrawny team

-You guys can't do anything in soccer like you couldn't do anything in WWI or WWII

-If we cared about soccer our entire line up would be made of NFL players that were all 6'4'' and 300 lbs your team wouldn't even take the field against that

-All soccer players are "lawn fairies" real men don't play girlie sports

wildbackdunesman

June 24th, 2010 at 1:16 PM ^

Just pointing out that the trash talk goes both ways.

P.S. I do have a serious problem telling a British WWII vet that he and his country didn't do anything in the war like his soccer team doesn't do anything in the World Cup.  British soldiers fought just as bravely as our men and for less pay and more years angaint the Axis Powers.