Nick Against the World (57 Viewers)
- Thread starter IncuboRossonero
- Start date
mikhail said:
Reyna's a fine player, but if he's the best the US have to offer, I doubt they're overrated. I'd expect them to go no futher than the 2nd round or the quarters.
That said, Greece.
That said, Greece.
And yeah...you cannot exactly judge team performances by individual talents..
yes, I watched the game, but I guess I don't know the USA players that well (like I said a few pages back), so they could have been playing sone non-starters, but I know the England team better (from watching the EPL, and seeing many of England's games), and know that their's was an almost complete second team
I thought England was the much better team...sorry to say
I thought England was the much better team...sorry to say
My Taxicab Confession
It's rather embarrassing. But I used to hail taxis just so I could … can I just say how excited I am about tomorrow’s World Cup soccer draw in Germany?
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Mark Starr
Newsweek
Updated: 12:54 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2005
Dec. 8, 2005 - OK, I’ll fess up. But don't go getting too overheated. My taxicab confession is not X-rated. Indeed there is a lot more pathos here than eros. Once upon a time—more than a decade ago—I would occasionally hail taxicabs just to find someone with whom I could talk soccer. I lacked that option with my sports buddies, who were every bit as interested in soccer as they were in cricket. But you could rely on cab drivers to hold passionate opinions on the world’s game.
"Where are you from?" I would inquire upon entering the taxi.
"Bolivia," replied one typical driver.
"Ah, 'El Diablo'," I would say with appropriate reverence, enjoying the stunned expression in the driver’s mirror as I rattled off his homeland’s reigning star. "You know El Diablo?" he marveled. And off we would go—at 20 cents per quarter mile—debating whether the aforementioned devil would ever rein in his temper, where Romario ranked as a scorer in the Brazilian firmament and whether a fat Maradona was better than no Maradona at all.
We never discussed American soccer. Foreigners knew nothing about it and, anyway, there wasn’t all that much to say. By international standards, the U.S. game was unworthy. It had produced some estimable goalkeepers, not surprising given how that position’s skills relate to baseball and football, and a few talents—often sons of immigrants like John Harkes and Tab Ramos—who could have been solid cogs on far better teams. But the ranks were thin. Desperate U.S. coaches wound up recruiting faux Yanks—players raised abroad that, while unable to speak English, qualified by dint of paternity. It didn’t add up to a winning formula. At the '98 World Cup in France, it added up to dead last among the 32 teams.
But what a difference a few years can make. Today there is pride in being a fan of American soccer and no problem finding kindred souls with whom to discuss it. And on Friday we’ll be one with the world, our eyes on Leipzig, Germany, where the critical draw will take place for the 2006 World Cup. (Another sign of great progress is that ESPN2 will carry the doings live at 3 p.m.)
The coming-out party for American soccer took place at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea. In their opening game against Portugal, then the fifth-ranked team in the world, the Americans stormed to a 3-0 lead and held on for the upset. It was a stunning moment to discover that our boys could finally play with the world's best. And our youngest players, most notably Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, didn’t appear cowed by the pedigree of the opposition. When they thrashed archrival Mexico to reach the quarterfinals, putting the U.S. in the company of Brazil, Germany, England and Spain, I was delirious.
It was a stunning turnabout from France '98 when a well-placed German elbow in the opening minutes of America's opening game seemed to knock all the gumption out of the squad. In Korea, our proudest moment probably came in the quarterfinal rematch with Germany when we clearly outplayed one of the world’s great soccer empires, alas in a 1-0 defeat. (That’s not just the view through red-white-and-blue glasses; even German soccer icon Franz Beckenbauer conceded the U.S. deserved to win.)
Now American soccer fans can only hope that our current team—ranked a can-you-believe-it eighth in the world, just ahead of England—can reprise that successful World Cup act next June on German soil. Its successes over the past four years assure that it can no longer sneak up on anybody, as it may have done on Portugal. U.S. coach Bruce Arena calls the 32-team field the deepest in World Cup history. And while tradition dictates that one of the eight, four-team, brackets selected tomorrow will be labeled “the group of death,” Arena claims he see death everywhere he looks. “I don’t think any group is going to be easy,” he said. “The balance there is going to be tremendous”.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10381845/site/newsweek/
It's rather embarrassing. But I used to hail taxis just so I could … can I just say how excited I am about tomorrow’s World Cup soccer draw in Germany?
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Mark Starr
Newsweek
Updated: 12:54 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2005
Dec. 8, 2005 - OK, I’ll fess up. But don't go getting too overheated. My taxicab confession is not X-rated. Indeed there is a lot more pathos here than eros. Once upon a time—more than a decade ago—I would occasionally hail taxicabs just to find someone with whom I could talk soccer. I lacked that option with my sports buddies, who were every bit as interested in soccer as they were in cricket. But you could rely on cab drivers to hold passionate opinions on the world’s game.
"Where are you from?" I would inquire upon entering the taxi.
"Bolivia," replied one typical driver.
"Ah, 'El Diablo'," I would say with appropriate reverence, enjoying the stunned expression in the driver’s mirror as I rattled off his homeland’s reigning star. "You know El Diablo?" he marveled. And off we would go—at 20 cents per quarter mile—debating whether the aforementioned devil would ever rein in his temper, where Romario ranked as a scorer in the Brazilian firmament and whether a fat Maradona was better than no Maradona at all.
We never discussed American soccer. Foreigners knew nothing about it and, anyway, there wasn’t all that much to say. By international standards, the U.S. game was unworthy. It had produced some estimable goalkeepers, not surprising given how that position’s skills relate to baseball and football, and a few talents—often sons of immigrants like John Harkes and Tab Ramos—who could have been solid cogs on far better teams. But the ranks were thin. Desperate U.S. coaches wound up recruiting faux Yanks—players raised abroad that, while unable to speak English, qualified by dint of paternity. It didn’t add up to a winning formula. At the '98 World Cup in France, it added up to dead last among the 32 teams.
But what a difference a few years can make. Today there is pride in being a fan of American soccer and no problem finding kindred souls with whom to discuss it. And on Friday we’ll be one with the world, our eyes on Leipzig, Germany, where the critical draw will take place for the 2006 World Cup. (Another sign of great progress is that ESPN2 will carry the doings live at 3 p.m.)
The coming-out party for American soccer took place at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea. In their opening game against Portugal, then the fifth-ranked team in the world, the Americans stormed to a 3-0 lead and held on for the upset. It was a stunning moment to discover that our boys could finally play with the world's best. And our youngest players, most notably Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, didn’t appear cowed by the pedigree of the opposition. When they thrashed archrival Mexico to reach the quarterfinals, putting the U.S. in the company of Brazil, Germany, England and Spain, I was delirious.
It was a stunning turnabout from France '98 when a well-placed German elbow in the opening minutes of America's opening game seemed to knock all the gumption out of the squad. In Korea, our proudest moment probably came in the quarterfinal rematch with Germany when we clearly outplayed one of the world’s great soccer empires, alas in a 1-0 defeat. (That’s not just the view through red-white-and-blue glasses; even German soccer icon Franz Beckenbauer conceded the U.S. deserved to win.)
Now American soccer fans can only hope that our current team—ranked a can-you-believe-it eighth in the world, just ahead of England—can reprise that successful World Cup act next June on German soil. Its successes over the past four years assure that it can no longer sneak up on anybody, as it may have done on Portugal. U.S. coach Bruce Arena calls the 32-team field the deepest in World Cup history. And while tradition dictates that one of the eight, four-team, brackets selected tomorrow will be labeled “the group of death,” Arena claims he see death everywhere he looks. “I don’t think any group is going to be easy,” he said. “The balance there is going to be tremendous”.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10381845/site/newsweek/
