OT: USA World Cup Qualifier vs. Costa Rica

Submitted by Michiganguy19 on

We really need some points from this match. Quite the weather for the match in Colorado... Go Yanks!

denardogasm

March 22nd, 2013 at 10:28 PM ^

What genius scheduled a game in colorado in the Winter? If this game finishes tonight I'll be amazed.  There's gonna be 6 inches of snow before the final whistle.  If it does finish, though, we have no excuse for not winning.  The Costa Ricans have never even seen snow before.

 

edit: GOOOOAAALL!!!

mgowake

March 22nd, 2013 at 10:33 PM ^

Big, athletic target without great touch. Perfect for nasty conditions. I believe he had the assist on the Deuce goal. Gotta love just pounding the ball in this one and hoping the USA can skip another one off the slush.

mGrowOld

March 22nd, 2013 at 10:36 PM ^

I'm sorry but this is freaking hilarious.  Snow soccer?  I've seen a lot of fucked-up games in my 53 years but this one has got to be near the top.  What's next - outdoor basketball on ice?

So.....if we have a qualifier in July will it be played in Palm Springs California or the Mojave Desert?

mgowake

March 22nd, 2013 at 10:53 PM ^

Average summer daytime temp: 106 degrees!

 

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/average-temperature-rain-fall-qatar-1345…

 

 

Average Summer Temperatures

This is the desert, so June, July and August see average daytime temperatures of 106 degrees F, though they can surpass 114 degrees at the peak of the noonday sun. Nights are more tolerable at around 84 degrees, luring most of the residents of Doha, the capital, out of their homes for an evening stroll along the main promenade, the Corniche.

TheGhostofYost

March 22nd, 2013 at 11:01 PM ^

USA soccer sucks. It doesn't matter if it's Klinnsman, Arena, or Bradley, the team will never be good until this country starts to love the game, and that is decades away.

TheGhostofYost

March 22nd, 2013 at 11:17 PM ^

Fair question.  I think it means a few things, including several things you have mentioned. FIirst, youth participation is up, but it's still roughly 1/3rd of what you would find in Brazil and Argentina.  That needs to increase.  Second, the MLS is simply not going to be attractive to the general population unless you start attracting major world talent and increase exposure.  At an average salary of less than 200,000 per year, that isn't going to happen.  Third, attracting washed up coaching talent isn't going to put us in the world elite. Klinsmann was a bad choice  when he was hired, and he's a bad choice moving forward. 

I'm curious why you think the U.S. has made strides in the last 5 years.  Personally, I have seen seriuos regression over the last 5 years. 

methylene blue

March 22nd, 2013 at 11:29 PM ^

I think youth participation has always been a strength of US soccer.  It's keeping that interest that has been the problem.  I agree that I have never been particularly attracted to MLS, but I think that has a lot to do with Detroit's lack of an MLS team.  I love the EPL (COYS) and think that there is a burgeoning interest in high level club soccer in this country.  That is evidenced by the increased TV contracts paid by NBC sports.  The fact that there is a USMNT thread on a college football site should be evidence enough of soccer's increased support in this country.

TheGhostofYost

March 22nd, 2013 at 11:32 PM ^

Ok but the numbers tell a very different story.  Compared to the major soccer powers of the world, participation in this country is a joke.  And are you really arguing that one thread on MgoBlog is evidence of a strengthening soccer movement in this country?  Seriously?

methylene blue

March 22nd, 2013 at 11:39 PM ^

Straw man, much? That is not my argument at all.  And US soccer has a huge youth soccer pool to pull from.  But I'm not wasting my bourbon buzz  on this played out argument anymore.  If you hate US soccer, peace be with you, and I hope you find solace in wasting your time watching glorious snow bowl II (or III, or IV, I stopped counting after the first few).

TheGhostofYost

March 22nd, 2013 at 11:29 PM ^

I completely disagree.  Trying to rub the truth in an opponents face is one thing.  Simply pointing it out as an example of your own teams inadequacies is quite another.

Needs

March 23rd, 2013 at 10:08 AM ^

Briefly, and probably no one will read this, here is why you are trolling here.

It's not only the inflamatory statement, which is particularly inflamatory in a game thread when people wnat to discuss the game, not engage in a meta discussion about the nature of US Soccer's difficulty ascending from the 2nd or 3rd tier of world soccer (depending on your opinion) to the 1st. 

It's that you treat the other people in the threads as if they're idiots with no history of watching soccer. Most people here, I'd venture, know that US Soccer is not likely to make the semi-finals of the world cup in Brazil (and likely not Russia or Qatar). But still, they watch, likely because they're interested in this team and how it is changing over time, whether it's improving, with most knowing all the time what its relative place in the world is. In that context, "sucks" adds nothing to the conversation other than to provoke conflict. 

It's as if you dropped into someone's house for a big dinner and the first thing you said was, "this food sucks." And yet everyone else knows the food is not great, but maybe Bill or Ellie or whomever is cooking has been working for a while at becoming a better cook, and the people there eat it not only because they're interested to see him or her get better, but also because they care if they do. That doesn't mean that you can't say, "this would be better with more salt" or "have you considered using chicken broth instead of water" or "these German ingredients don't really suit this Tex-Mex." But you probably shouldn't drop in and say, "God, the problem here is that you haven't trained at le Courdon Bleu" if you don't want people to think you're an unholy dick. That's a solution that's not helpful. Bill's not going to Paris, and the US isn't Brazil. To judge them by the same standards isn't just silly, it's treating the rest of the people there as if they have no history and know nothing about the thing they're interested in. It treats others like idiots. 

And of course it is true that, as Larry Summers once began a famous economics paper, "There are idiots. Look around you." But it's best to not put that assumption at the forefront of your communication strategy if you want people to listen to you.

And that you pose this decontextualized belligerence as a form of brave truth telling probably speaks to an outsized sense of your own intelligence. 

MGlobules

March 22nd, 2013 at 11:19 PM ^

sure it wins you a fair hearing, but your often-inflammatory posts don't really, either. About 6 million kids play soccer every Saturday in the US, I once read; that's probably a good start. And there's enough enthusiasm to support a league--and now a women's league--although that's an urban and ethnic thing, to a degree, I will admit.

Personally, I think we're one or two really great players away from blowing up here. Who knows when they will come along. . .