All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

Brazen as Hugo Chavez might be, he's beyond dumb if anything happens (that they can trace to him) to the US soccer or basketball teams.

Gonna be a busy summer with the U-20 Championships up north, the Gold Cup at home and the Copa.

 

A bit of humor, Ricky Gervais-style, with "Peter Crouch" and "Wayne Rooney":

 

After watching Deco play for Portugal, the couple Brazilians who played for Mexico and many other notable transplants, it occurred to me that one of the biggest problems with U.S. soccer at the international level is just this: poor recruiting.
Who is running the show? Bruce Weber?

 

Twoback, that is rather funny. You should also include all of the Polish that played for Germany.

I think with the case of Sonny, he was on the outside looking in for the US U-20s. So, to me, I am not too concerned. I would, obviously, rather have him trying his best to make the American squad, but that isn't going to happen.

I also find it rather interesting that the mighty Mexicans need to come to America in order to obtain talent.

 

Barca-Chelski today, but only on ESPN Deportes. Hey ESPN, hispanics already watch soccer -- that's not the audience which you need to go get.

 

"Gaffe" implies Robinson made a mistake. Every time I see that clip, it seems more apparent that he was entirely blameless. The ball took a ridiculously bad hop that he couldn't have anticipated. It's shit luck, nothing more, and he's no more guilty than any other keeper who has ever chosen to boot a backpass on the first touch, rather than settling the ball, taking a dribble and punting it (which is to say, every keeper in the world).

Sure, it's embarrassing for him. But what did he do wrong?

 

Gotta play to that huge Bayern-Sporting fan base.

Good to see the Moscovites got smart and went with an artificial surface at the Luzhniki Stadium. Did anyone see that shot by Shishkin at around the 50th minute or so? Hit it so hard it knocked the ice off the crossbar.

 

The keeper for Levski Sofia had a terrible own goal yeterday. Failed to control a simple back pass and it squirted over the line.

 

Nice, underwhelming performance by Arsenal against an totally overmatched CSKA Moscow team today. How many point-blank chances can you blow in one half and how many times can Fabregas either make a stupid slide tackle from behind or screw the pooch on a scoring opportunity?

Although the sight of Lehmann angrily pushing Toure away and jumping his case after making a save was amusing -- about the only amusing element to this Arsenal fan.

 

Heh.

Tomas Rosicky ... deadly from 25 yards, clueless from three feet. Even Christian Vieri wouldn't miss that.

 

Today, I'll be watching Rangers v Maccabi Haifa. It should be an interesting match. At least Rangers are home for it.

 

Between Rosicky and Helguera, I think that we saw the two worst misses of the season yesterday.