World Cup (Day 11) Thread
| Sun 6/22 | 11:30 a.m. | ABC | Belgium vs. Russia | H | Rio de Janeiro | 31 |
| 2:30 p.m. | ABC | South Korea vs. Algeria | H | Porto Alegre | 32 | |
| 5:30 p.m. | ESPN | United States vs. Portugal | G | Manaus | 30 |
***Note, times are the start of coverage, the match starts 30 minutes later. The US/Portugal coverage has actually been moved up 30 minutes and will be a full hour starting at 5pm.***
12:53pm...so far 0-0 in the Belguim/Russia match, neither team looks good (which is good for Group G, because the top two are likely to play these two teams).
Fuck Portugal.
as a half-American, Half-Brazilian soccer fan, I can't think of a bigger win-win situation for me: root for my country and against the ex-colonizers! huzzah!
I think the US has a really good shot at winning this-- Portugal is gonna be a lot more exposed in the back after Pepe's red card and Fábio Coentrão's injury. Now, more than ever, Portugal will be completely dependent on CR7, and if the US is just physical enough w/ Ronaldo... game, set, match...
altidore? is that going to be troublesome?
that's my one fear-- if Jozy were playing it'd be a lot easier as his physicality would be a handful for the defensive backups to handle. That being said, Klinsmann should still be able to strategically explore the Portuguese backfield, albeit not as effectively as he otherwise would with Jozy's presence. Set-pieces, particularly corners, may prove the be the US's best scoring chance today...
I believe that we will...
(edit: I believe that I was a couple minutes late to the party. Oops!)
I believe I can fly
Belgium has really underwhelmed in this tournament thus far. They'll probably advance to the round of 16, but they're not looking like the scary outsider they were supposed to be.
Is all over Paris. Fresh out of the tap, it's very good.
I said "growth" and I actually chose that specifically because I didn't mean that it would rise to be as popular as the big 4 (plus NASCAR).
What I meant is actually what you're talking about.
I think a big win in an exciting match "raises the floor" for where soccer is in America right now.
After every world cup, interest peaks and spikes for a year...then slowly fades back to where it was.
I think a win can bump up that "where it was." It'll certainly fade back, but where as if soccer is currenly at level 4 (where as NFL is 10, NBA/MLB at 8, Hockey and NASCAR at 7)...we may see a spike in interest of soccer to a 7, but when it fades, it'll settle in at a 5 or 6 versus going back to where it was before the World Cup. That's permanent growth.
Shitty analogy on my part, but hopefully it makes sense.
--------------------------
I do think soccer ends up being as popular as hockey in this country, but I think we're a ways away. I think as our nation continues to grow in Hispanic population AND these babies/kids that are 0-8 years old now grow up in a MUCH more soccer friendly American sports culture...THAT is what's going to grow soccer in this country. So we're 20 years away from seeing it be at that hockey level. Also, don't discount the concussion issue in american football. Eventually a number of factors are going to lead to soccer seriously growing, the U.S. will likely host another World Cup in that period too which will help.
At some point you have to think a world superstar is going to be playing FOR the U.S. versus against us and that's when you'll know soccer has arrived. You'll also see a lot more interest. If the U.S. had a LeBron of soccer, that would also help.
That said, IMO, it'll never be as big as the Big 3. But rivaling hockey and NASCAR isn't bad...or out of the question IMO. Wouldn't shock me if it passed both and settled in ahead of those two, but behind the Big 3 sports.
People focus too much on the Hispanic population in relation to the growth of soccer in this country. The two are not really all that correlated. I know several Hispanic people who are soccer fans, but none of them roots for the U.S. team or follows MLS. (They're not necessary anti-U.S., but just kind of indifferent to the team - their emotional ties are to their ancestral countries.)
The real story of the growth of soccer is about how in the last 20 years the young, white suburban population has embraced it. Seattle, Portland and Columbus are three of the best soccer cities in the country, and they're all pretty white (and young).
supportive of the Azzuri than the US.
I will add that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this. A good friend of mine, of Colombian descent, prefers Colombia to the U.S. team because it simply means more to people in that country if they win, than it does to the average American if the USMNT wins. (There were celebrations in the streets all over the country when they won each of their group stage games.) I think that's a fair point.
...if the rules say that you could theoretically play for that country. I have no issues if you root for it.
Really, I don't have any issues if you root for a country that you couldn't play for either - simply because I can't control what other people do/think/etc. so whatever, "do you" my friend. I'm definitely not going to get all bent out of shape about it.
There are quite a few Americans who root for Brazil, simply because they're front runners and they like the flair, history, women, or whatever.
Me, I root for AMERICA. Proudly.
Like I said, there are MANY factors.
Soccer is a the "thing" to do in many of those cities as well. It's replaced minor league baseball in a lot of ways. And for the cities that don't have MLB, it kind of is their baseball in a lot of ways.
Atmosphere is totaly different, obviously. But you're talking about that same young (primarily white) group of friends that get together to go have a beer and watch a game.
In those cities that's HUGE just how that same group goes to Cubs games in Chicago or Sox games in Boston.
In the end, they're all contributing factors. Just like I said about the concessions, that's not #1, American football isn't going ANYWHERE. But it'll have some impact on parents choosing to allow their kids to play soccer instead of football.
Mr. Hockey
would like
a word---and an elbow---with you!
Algeria is going nuts right now.
This man is not impressed.
Is absolutely AWFUL as a commentator.
He doesn't have the voice for it or participate in a conversation that flows naturally.
Good day so far for the "second French team." The Algerian federation has made good use of FIFA's generous nationality standards - 14 of its 23 players were born in France.
It's interesting to see how the strength or weakness of a national league can potentially affect national teams. French league teams tend to have smallish budgets, so their stars regularly leave for other leagues. So it's incumbent on clubs there to develop local talent, and you can see it in all the quality players for France (and Algeria). Meanwhile, England has some of the richest clubs in the world, so they can buy almost any player they want. But this may be stifling the development of young English players, and the English national team has been mediocre for awhile now.
To be fair to the Algerians, the greatest French player of all time (and in my opinion a top 10 player of all time), Zinedine Zidane, was of Algerian descent and considered an Algerian citizen. Though he was born in France so not quite the same thing.
Goals on goals on goals. And really, there could easily be more goals in this game. This second half has been wide open. And to think I almost didn't watch this game because I thought it would be just like Korea-Russia.
He speaks English and has in some interviews. I'm sure he's more comfortable in German, though. Same thing goes for Brooks, btw.
He's one of five players on the team (Brooks, Chandler, Johnson and Green are the others) who was raised in Germany. All were born to American serviceman fathers and German mothers. They can all speak English to some degree, but German is their first language, so having Klinsmann as the coach is obviously helpful.
Bradley coming to life would be nice. It'd be like getting an extra player.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Aw, fuck. We didn't need that.
horrible mistake there...