Running, all-purpose World Cup thread

Go Italy! You're my favorite team. Well, you and Portugal.

 

Buckweaver, I just don't buy into the "need to play abroad" argument. I believe all players need to be challenged in order to excel to their full potential. However, if you look at the last two World Cups, the best players were not the ones playing in those top flight leagues.

(Side note: O'Brien was with Ajax up until 3-months ago. He didn't join Chivas USA until a month into MLS' season. Thus you can't argue that he hasn't played under the high pressures of Europe.)

In '02, you had Donovan, Beasley, McBride, Mathis and Pope breaking out. Three of the four went over to Europe to play. One of the three returned because he's a fucking crybaby.

Can an argument really be made that Beasley played better in this World Cup than the last one?

This World Cup had Gooch and Dempsey as larger figures that imposed themselves on the game. Pope, due to age, was a step slower than four years ago but he wasn't brutal on the backline.

The reason for this team's failure has nothing to do with not playing overseas or a lack of pressure in MLS. It has everything to do with Reyna and his role with the team and Donovan shrinking from responsibility.

Well, were you to bring in someone off the bench you would lose a sub. You only have 3-subs for the whole game.

Bringing someone off the bench to take a free kick, then run off the field, would seem a bit silly. It would also be like having Wade go down, sitting on the bench for a few minutes while someone comes off the bench to shoot free throws.

Additionally, having a better PK or free kick taker behind the ball after the foul penalizes the offending team further. A team could challenge Peter Crouch for the ball outside the box but if they foul him hard to avoid the risk of him beating them, David Beckham will be the one taking the free kick.

There are no rewards for committing to a play that could injure someone.

 

Don't know if it's been posted...but I enjoyed this:

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=2fc3873368fb593469ec47e91255e695.578077

 

Pardon my math. Three MLS guys started the opener, and one of them could be in Europe but chooses not to be. So it's 73 percent. Your original point still holds no water. MLS is not the problem.

 

KAAAAAAHHHHHNNNNNN!

In goal for the Mannschaft today. Lehmann gets the day off.

 

Mannschaft ... my favorite club name.

 

That so sounds like a name someone would give to their unit...

 

Crass, I disagree. It's hard to point out the players that played well and didn't play well this tournament because, well, everyone played awful. Dempsey was the best of a bad lot, and he's expressed interest and is looking to play in Europe. I just don't think our players can get the proper seasoning in MLS. It's a developing league, and I'm a huge D.C. United supporter, but the reason for domestic leagues outside of the four super leagues (English, Spanish, Italian, Bundesliga) and maybe the secondary ones (French, Dutch, Scottish Premier, Portuguese) is mainly for player development. Look at the Argentine league. So many stars come through their, but they pay shit and so those stars head over to Italy or Germany. Is there anyway that Juan Riquelme is going to stay at Boca Juniors when he can play at Villareal for 10 mil?

MLS needs to expand its league. They also need to form a working, healthy partnership with the USL to provide a decent minor league system. They also, and I can't stress this enough, need to develop the youth teams better. Instead of johnny midfielder playing for his expensive club and ODP team (too rich for hispanic and inner-city kids to afford btw), let DC United sign him to a contract, educate him and develop him in a pro environment...

 

Posted way early in the thread, but Die Mannschaft = "The Team."

Very Bauhaus of the extremely minimalist Germans.

And now is the time when we dance ....

 

Small point of order: JOInjured actually spent the season before he joined the Gringo Goats as a sometime player for ADO Den Haag (former employers of Cory Gibbs and Kazuyuki Toda).

 

Team Jerry trotting out Ollie Kahn and Robert "Emergency Center Forward" Huth ... looks like the usual lineup for Portugal.


Japanese ref crew for this one -- don't fuck this up, Kamikawa!

 

The anti-soccer crowd is dead-set against the type thing we just saw from the tripped-up German dude. He grimaces in agony after barely being hit from behind.
Ten seconds later, play resumes with no comment from the TV guys.
And no comment is warranted.
People see soccer as a game of floppers.
For all its "beauty", you still have to stomach the floppers time and time and time and time again.
Every team does it.
U.S. Portugal, France, England, everyone.
That's the culture of the game that's taught to these players from the time that they are very, very young.
Earn your cards, boys and girls !
Sell, sell, sell !