WC Play So Far

onetouchfutbol wrote:

PilotNut wrote:What a boost to soccer in the US... had we not advanced, soccer and it's officiating would have been blasted incessantly (not that the officiating in the US games so far didnt deserve it).

GO USA!

Winning definitely helps, however, I'm not sure how much of a boost this win gives to the sport. It helps to win the group and keep interest high, and I'm ecstatic about the win. The reality though is I think the win is more of a relief than anything. Winning a group for the first time since 1930 is huge and going undefeated is impressive even if there were 2 ties. Our defense still looked kind of shaky though; our defenders take some unnecessary risks at times and it's still pretty easy for forwards to get behind them early in games. I hope we're capable of playing at the Confederacy Cup form on the world's biggest stage; I hope the players can envision it.

For soccer to really thrive in this country, the sport needs both success and money in my humble opinion. MLS payrolls continue to be pocket change compared to the best clubs in the world. It would be great to be able to see a 20-24 year-old top 5 player in their prime in the MLS at some point. But, maybe that's a pipe dream... We're definitely spoiled with player-fans in the northwest, but, this part of the country is definitely different than most of the US...

I did my local pub survey just now. most of those guys are NBA/NFL/MLB guys. hey all watched. they all said it was thrilling. some of them loved that a score doesn't come every 35 seconds, but is a big deal. I think this was a win for soccer.

Tomorrow's games: Denmark v. Japan for a spot. Denmark must win, Japan can tie and advance. Plus Italy and New Zealand both play (not each other), dead even in the standings. NZ has the tougher opponent in Paraguay, who is not safe and cannot rest starters.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100623&content_id=11500028&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

http://www.fanaticos.com/2010/06/23/asi-narro-andres-cantor-el-gol-de-landon-donovan/

(click the big red button)

Geezaldinho wrote:http://www.fanaticos.com/2010/06/23/asi-narro-andres-cantor-el-gol-de-landon-donovan/

Bravo, Geezaldinho! Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!

Geezaldinho wrote:Prepare for the end times.

And now Italy goes home, losing to Slovakia 3-2. I caught the 2nd half; what a wild finish!

France and Italy, the finalists four years ago, both finish last in their group.

Here's an inteview i thought was fun. Bora Milutenovic and Marcello Balboa being interviewed by Andés Cantor after the game.

I had no idea Bora's Spanish was that good!



and Andrés making the call. You can't hear a thing but the vuvuzelas.

up7587 wrote:Tomorrow's games: Denmark v. Japan for a spot. Denmark must win, Japan can tie and advance. Plus Italy and New Zealand both play (not each other), dead even in the standings. NZ has the tougher opponent in Paraguay, who is not safe and cannot rest starters.

There was also Netherlands-Cameroon, but that was a dead rubber (soccer term; means the result will not affect the standings).

Note to Paraguay: Don't foul the Japanese. They're pretty good at free kicks.

What odds would you have gotten for New Zealand to finish undefeated?

And another Euro team goes down.

2 of 3 Asian teams go through the first round. Also 2 of 3 North American teams. 0 of 2 Pacifica teams, but only one loss between them. Only 1 of 6 African teams. Looks like South America will go 5 of 5! And only 6 of 13 Euro teams will go through. Who has that on their bracket?!

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:There was also Netherlands-Cameroon, but that was a dead rubber (soccer term; means the result will not affect the standings).

It could have affected the standings. If Netherlands:Cameroon had been 1:2 rather than 2:1, we would have had Netherlands and Japan with identical records:

• 2 wins
• 1 loss
• 4 goals for
• 2 goals against
  

which would have resulted in a coin-flip.

Or am I missing something?

up7587 wrote:Looks like South America will go 5 of 5!

That's very possible. And if Chile (against Spain) and Brazil (against Portugal) both win or draw, the South American teams will all be top in their respective groups with a collective undefeated record of 10-5-0, 11-4-0 or 12-3-0.

The bracketing is such that the final four teams could all be South American.

I guess there is something to home-field advantage: link.

England Celebrates

eProf wrote:

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:There was also Netherlands-Cameroon, but that was a dead rubber (soccer term; means the result will not affect the standings).

It could have affected the standings. If Netherlands:Cameroon had been 1:2 rather than 2:1, we would have had Netherlands and Japan with identical records:

• 2 wins
• 1 loss
• 4 goals for
• 2 goals against
  

which would have resulted in a coin-flip.

Or am I missing something?

Netherlands beat Japan 1-0. I do believe that head-to-head is the third (or fourth, or whatever number) tie-breaker, before the coin toss. So, it would have taken a 1-0 or (>2)-1 Cameroon victory to get Japan the group win...I think.

WOW!

Torres just got away with the most egregious dive ever. I can't see any contact even on the slow motion replay. Even worse, it was away from the play as Spain were scoring their second goal, and the Chilean picked up his second yellow, so Chile is down to 10.

That kind of garbage is bad for the sport regardless of who you support.

Just a follow up to the Adres Cantor call... the vuvuzela's didn't totally ruin it. Here it is over-layed on the video:

http://deadspin.com/5572603/now-heres-andres-cantor-calling-landon-donovans-gooooooooool

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:WOW!

Torres just got away with the most egregious dive ever. I can't see any contact even on the slow motion replay. Even worse, it was away from the play as Spain were scoring their second goal, and the Chilean picked up his second yellow, so Chile is down to 10.

That kind of garbage is bad for the sport regardless of who you support.

Chile goes through anyway. They are second in the group, though. They will have to play Brazil next.

They were content to sit behind the ball and the Spanish side took pity on them and just kicked it around so Chile goes through on points. All 5 south American sides go through.

So, the call ruined the game. That last 10 minutes was pretty dull.

Well, there was another nice goal by Villa. The Chile keeper may have given him a perfect pass, but he still had to put it in from way downtown.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Well, there was another nice goal by Villa. The Chile keeper may have given him a perfect pass, but he still had to put it in from way downtown.

great score, but the Chile keeper was way more ambitious than he should have been. that ball should have been tapped out over the touch line.

Coach Bradley on flopping:

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/bradley-punish-the-floppers--fbintl_dw-flopping062510.html

Was I the only one pulling for Chile to get another goal to win the group and force a Brasil-Spain second round match? This was the first time I got to watch Chile and thought they looked more dangerous than Spain before that red card. The 'group of death' has kind of grown into the pod of death with the teams matching up with Spain/Chile.

I can't remember who, but one of ESPN's analysts said they thought South Korea was the most impressive team in the Cup so far. I have seen very little of them but found that quite interesting.

mattywizz wrote:Was I the only one pulling for Chile to get another goal to win the group and force a Brasil-Spain second round match? This was the first time I got to watch Chile and thought they looked more dangerous than Spain before that red card. The 'group of death' has kind of grown into the pod of death with the teams matching up with Spain/Chile.
I can't remember who, but one of ESPN's analysts said they thought South Korea was the most impressive team in the Cup so far. I have seen very little of them but found that quite interesting.

South Korea is interesting, but they have limitations that affect their ability to go on.

As to Chile, I'll remind folks that they came in second in qualifying in COMNEBOL. (and EVERY COMNEBOL team went through to the knockout rounds)
They are not a joke flash in the pan team. they have players who could embarrass the Brasil team or any other team they face on any given night. their coach is the former Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa, who is revered in Argentina and some think should have been Argentina's coach instead of D10S. One of their strikers, Gary Medel, is a flakey Boca striker with a reputation of sometimes being unstoppable and being able to create from nothing.


They lost 3-0 to Brasil in 2008, but this is a different team. They also lost 4-2 in a pretty controversial game that involved the ref we love to hate, Jorge Larrionda, who awarded a questionable PK to the Brasilians in 2009.

Chile plays attractive ball, and they have a reputation (even in down years) of being able to embarrass the big powers. right now they are on a bit of a roll.

Chile's reputation extends from it club teams.
The Chilean team Peñarol gave River Plate the most odious nickname in South America, Las Gallinas (the hens) when they came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat them 4-2 in the Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious Tournament in South America.That was almost 50 years ago when River was so good it was known as "la Machina" , and "Los Millionarios". No one has forgotten, and my favorite club , Boca, sings about it every game in their team anthem.

You don't take anything to do with Chile lightly.

Chile is dangerous. They play a unique style of almost constant pressure. Even with a lead, when some teams in this tournament might decide to sit back and get conservative, Chile keep attacking. They are one of the teams I really wanted to have a look at after hearing and reading about them in the lead up to the Cup.

There are a couple areas for improvement I noticed. Against Honduras and Switzerland they had plenty of chances but could only finish twice. And today we saw they have a habit of picking up fouls and cards. All that said Chile is definitely a quality side and is going to be a tough one for Brazil.

I'll admit that I don't watch a lot of football other than the World Cup and Champions League final, but I like to think I still remember a few things from my playing days. But can someone tell me what's the deal with Jozy Altidore. Supposedly he was our leading scorer during qualifying...how was this possible? He did not show me anything during the four games in SA. He has a dreadful touch, really doesn't look all that fast and for a guy who seems to be a little bigger, gets knocked off the ball pretty easily.

As a whole I wasn't very impressed with our options up front this Cup. I liked Dempsey up front the best. Findley is all speed and nothing else (as evidenced by his breakaway today). Gomez looked alright, but I really didn't see too much of him.

Donovan and Bradley defintiely seemed to be our best threats at goal, and oftentimes Bradley was stuck in more of a holding position. Hopefully we can develop a true world class striker like we had in Earnie Stewart (j/k) in the next four years.

On another note, Cherundolo looked absolutely dreadful to me today. And that pains me to say because he was one of my favorite Pilots. But he had too many turnovers, took too many chances on tackles and got beat, drew a dumb yellow and really didn't send in too many quality balls into the box. But before today, he really impressed me.

Since I hate reading people's posts that are all negatives and that is exactly what I just did...I will try to end with something positive. The team showed a lot of heart with three 'comebacks' and never really giving up. They fought to the end today too. Well, there's always next year.

aw, Stevie wasn't so bad. He was playing Into the middle to help out there. They let the winger free a lot because they were vulnerable big time inside. Both goals prove that, especially the last one when we were pushing up so much. Stevie is 31 now, so this might have been his last shot at the WC. actually, it looks like the whole back line will be new Blood. I sure hope some youngsters step up.

Jozy worked hard, but he clearly had fitness issues ( holding his shorts in the first half). He's only 20, Younger than some of the guys on the UP team. Maybe this will wake him up as to what he needs to do. He did hold the ball pretty well, and he did get a couple of assists ( most notably the cross on Landon's wonder goal)

I think we missed Charlie Davis, though. The young guys up top didn't cut it, including, I'm afraid, OSU's Findley.

It pains me to say it, but we got a pretty good result out of this World Cup. Realistically, we are in the top 16, but we have a way to go yet. It will take time. We are getting better, but slowly.