World Cup

[snowmonster]

England turned into a turnip. USA should have won that game (effin' ref). Germans miss a penalty.

What a strange day of football.

USA controls its destiny. A win against Algeria and it's hello second round!

 

[bvibert]

I was surprised to hear that England tied 0-0 when I got home today. Very good news for USA!

 

[JimG.]

I watch these World Cup games and the refereeing and it makes me see my boys playing soccer because the same things happen.

It used to make me nuts but now I'm a very rational sideline father.

US got robbed.

 

[snowmonster]

How can the last World Cup champion, a country that obsesses over soccer, lose to a country that prefers rugby? At this rate, I'm looking at North Korea to shock the world -- again.

 

[Geoff]

How can the last World Cup champion, a country that obsesses over soccer, lose to a country that prefers rugby? At this rate, I'm looking at North Korea to shock the world -- again.

Technically, Italy didn't lose to the Kiwis. They tied.

 

[powpig2002]

how about mvpedroia pulling it out from under manny. and he didn't run around and yank his shirt off after. that is american, dammit

 

[4aprice]

What a nerve racking win by the US. On to the 2nd round.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[bvibert]

What a nerve racking win by the US. On to the 2nd round.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

I was watching the commentary on Gamecast, I didn't think they were going to pull it off! I may have to watch the game on ESPN.com when I get home today.

 

[snowmonster]

We were crowding around the set in the office and people were yelling when the US scored. Whew! My friend in New York is saying that firetrucks and sanitation trucks are going around their neighborhood blasting their horns with people yelling "USA! USA!" Who says this isn't a soccer nation?

 

[Geoff]

We were crowding around the set in the office and people were yelling when the US scored. Whew! My friend in New York is saying that firetrucks and sanitation trucks are going around their neighborhood blasting their horns with people yelling "USA! USA!" Who says this isn't a soccer nation?

I was on a conference call from my sofa with the 50" plasma going on ESPN. I saw the goal but it's not quite the same with the volume muted.

 

[JimG.]

As usual I was watching the match going from one customer to the next.

Was at Beekman Country Club at the 89th minute and saw the winning goal.

One thing is clear after the US had another goal waved off for dubious reasons...they will not get any help winning games. To the contrary, the US clearly has no political pull here.

 

[mondeo]

We were crowding around the set in the office and people were yelling when the US scored. Whew! My friend in New York is saying that firetrucks and sanitation trucks are going around their neighborhood blasting their horns with people yelling "USA! USA!" Who says this isn't a soccer nation?

This isn't a soccer nation until people stop celebrating just making it out of the group round. The expectation for sports in this country should be to win.

They beat a team that didn't score a single goal in three games. Whippee!

 

[snowmonster]

^ Excuse me for being happy that Team USA is going into the knockout phase of the World Cup. I'd rather be doing that than wondering what happened to the national side like what the French are doing now or why my national side is not in South Africa like other FIFA nations who didn't qualify. And yes, Donovan and Co. beat a team that hasn't scored a goal but, along the way, they played well enough to lock down England, and, as far as I am concerned, won against Slovenia.

 

[drjeff]

For all you soccer afficiando's out there. The science of the penalty kick, as figured out by a doctoral student at my alma matter, Rensselaer Polytichnic Institute

http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2745

 

[JimG.]

This isn't a soccer nation until people stop celebrating just making it out of the group round. The expectation for sports in this country should be to win.

They beat a team that didn't score a single goal in three games. Whippee!

They did win...their bracket. Which they were certainly not favored to do.

And instead of looking at the glass as half empty (beating a team that scored no goals), how about looking at it from the angle that they won the bracket despite being clearly robbed out of 2 scores by poor refereeing.

Oh, and by the way they totally dominated the Algerians, more so than other opponents did.

I'm sure the last finalists, Italy and France, wish they were in the US postion instead of going home.

You and I can have a long debate over this topic and I'm sure you are game. This country is FULL of closet soccer fans who are only now coming out. I suspect you are one who just needs some more convincing.

Hey, anyone want to talk about that ridiculous tennis match at Wimbledon that went on forever? That one was won by an American too.

 

[bvibert]

Oh, and by the way they totally dominated the Algerians, more so than other opponents did.

I kept an eye on the gamecast while the game was going on, which basically showed the stats, had some commentary, and some animations of the shots on goal. It made the game seem pretty even, or even that the US was struggling. When I got home I watched the whole game replay and was amazed at how strong the US looked throughout the game, the stats didn't reflect that to me.

Hey, anyone want to talk about that ridiculous tennis match at Wimbledon that went on forever? That one was won by an American too.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php?t=78892

 

[mondeo]

They did win...their bracket. Which they were certainly not favored to do.

And instead of looking at the glass as half empty (beating a team that scored no goals), how about looking at it from the angle that they won the bracket despite being clearly robbed out of 2 scores by poor refereeing.

Oh, and by the way they totally dominated the Algerians, more so than other opponents did.

I'm sure the last finalists, Italy and France, wish they were in the US postion instead of going home.

You and I can have a long debate over this topic and I'm sure you are game. This country is FULL of closet soccer fans who are only now coming out. I suspect you are one who just needs some more convincing.

Hey, anyone want to talk about that ridiculous tennis match at Wimbledon that went on forever? That one was won by an American too.

I was off point in my post a bit. I've got nothing with individual soccer fans being happy with unexpected success. I do contend that the win was not historic, and that the U.S. is not a soccer country.

Reaching the next level for the first time qualifies as historic, along with stuff like repeats, domination, etc. Qualifying into the 1990 WC was historic. Knockout round in 1994, historic. Quarters in 2002. But at this point, merely making the knockout round isn't really anything new, and if the program is on the rise as many contend, should be expected.

As far as being a soccer country, no way. Compare England-US vs Canada-US in the Olympics for hockey. Similar national overtones. Similar underdog status. Both weekend games. US-England had a 6.1 rating with 10.8 million viewers, US-Canada a 4.3 with 8.2 million. US-Canada was on MSNBC, the Olympics aren't hockey's biggest stage, and there were other Olympic events going on at the same time. I'd call viewership fairly similar, and eliminates the closet aspect. And the U.S. isn't a hockey country. There are hockey regions, but it isn't a hockey country.

I'm a fan of sports, I played soccer for about 10 years, it's a fun game (just boring as golf to watch.) But as a fan of sports overall, I think its rise in the U.S. is overblown. Yes, increasingly popular, but not yet a competitive program nationally, MLS is not on par with other leagues, and it still doesn't rank in popularity with basketball, football, baseball, or NASCAR.

And I already covered tennis: http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php?t=78892

That was historic. :lol:

 

[JimG.]

I was off point in my post a bit. I've got nothing with individual soccer fans being happy with unexpected success. I do contend that the win was not historic, and that the U.S. is not a soccer country.

Reaching the next level for the first time qualifies as historic, along with stuff like repeats, domination, etc. Qualifying into the 1990 WC was historic. Knockout round in 1994, historic. Quarters in 2002. But at this point, merely making the knockout round isn't really anything new, and if the program is on the rise as many contend, should be expected.

As far as being a soccer country, no way. Compare England-US vs Canada-US in the Olympics for hockey. Similar national overtones. Similar underdog status. Both weekend games. US-England had a 6.1 rating with 10.8 million viewers, US-Canada a 4.3 with 8.2 million. US-Canada was on MSNBC, the Olympics aren't hockey's biggest stage, and there were other Olympic events going on at the same time. I'd call viewership fairly similar, and eliminates the closet aspect. And the U.S. isn't a hockey country. There are hockey regions, but it isn't a hockey country.

I'm a fan of sports, I played soccer for about 10 years, it's a fun game (just boring as golf to watch.) But as a fan of sports overall, I think its rise in the U.S. is overblown. Yes, increasingly popular, but not yet a competitive program nationally, MLS is not on par with other leagues, and it still doesn't rank in popularity with basketball, football, baseball, or NASCAR.

And I already covered tennis: http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php?t=78892

That was historic. :lol:

Huh...

Only a few points I would argue.

I agree the MLS sucks and the level of play is poor compared to World Cup soccer. I can't watch it.

I agree that reaching the knockout round is not historic, but it is a stepping stone to something like reaching the semis which would be.

I don't agree that the US is not a soccer country. Do you realize how many kids play soccer? Far more kids play soccer than just about any other sport including baseball and football. I do not rate a sport's success by commercial/TV exposure, I rate it by participation. Soccer, like hockey, will never be a commecial success because both games are too fast paced with too few interruptions in play to satisfy potential sponsors. Yet I consider soccer and especially hockey to be the sports where you will find the very best athletes because they are both so physically demanding.

And I really disagree it is boring to watch. It may be boring to watch for those with very short attention spans (most Americans I guess) because it does not translate well to TV, much like hockey. In both sports, the true beauty of the game is the movement and flow of the players which cannot be captured on TV which tends to follow the ball/puck. I think this is why most Americans don't understand the strategy of the game.

And as much as I enjoy motorsports, NASCAR's popularity baffles me. Racing on oval tracks is the epitomy of boring to me. But then again, I love drag racing which I guess is even more boring. I guess the sudden burst of intense power and danger is the attraction there.

 

[mondeo]

I don't agree that the US is not a soccer country. Do you realize how many kids play soccer? Far more kids play soccer than just about any other sport including baseball and football. I do not rate a sport's success by commercial/TV exposure, I rate it by participation. Soccer, like hockey, will never be a commecial success because both games are too fast paced with too few interruptions in play to satisfy potential sponsors. Yet I consider soccer and especially hockey to be the sports where you will find the very best athletes because they are both so physically demanding.

And I really disagree it is boring to watch. It may be boring to watch for those with very short attention spans (most Americans I guess) because it does not translate well to TV, much like hockey. In both sports, the true beauty of the game is the movement and flow of the players which cannot be captured on TV which tends to follow the ball/puck. I think this is why most Americans don't understand the strategy of the game.

And as much as I enjoy motorsports, NASCAR's popularity baffles me. Racing on oval tracks is the epitomy of boring to me. But then again, I love drag racing which I guess is even more boring. I guess the sudden burst of intense power and danger is the attraction there.

I think the reason it'll never be as popular in the U.S. as it is in the rest of the world is that basketball fills its role in the U.S. It might not be organized, but basketball is the sport of the masses here. All you need is a ball, and find the nearest playground. Same reason baseball got to its popularity level (stickball.) I don't think soccer will ever really displace basketball on the streets. It might (most likely in the south under influence of immigration,) who knows. And I'm betting participation rates are a bit misleading. At least the ones I found (http://www.nsga.org/files/public/2009_Participation-Total_Participation_4Web_100521.pdf) list softball and baseball seperately, skiing and snowboarding seperately, and football only gets 50% of the population to begin with.

I've tried watching soccer. I really have. But so much of the time is spend in the midfield, and the field is so big that there aren't really legitimate scoring chances all the time. That's the big distinction (to me) of soccer relative to the major 4 sports. Very little time in hockey is played between the blue lines for more than just a transition, and when there's a lot of it it's a terrible game to watch. Football, there's always the chance of a big play. Baseball, the home run threat. Basketball, there's so much scoring that it's just as boring as soccer to me, it's to the point that the game's either a blowout or the first 45 minutes are meaningless.

And I can't stand watching NASCAR, for the same reason as I can't stand watching soccer. 30 minutes of meaningless passes, then somebody wrecks, the pit lanes open, and the meaningful passes happen because one pit crew is a second faster than another. Give me road racing any day, where there's fewer passes but they actually count.

I was probably in a bit of a flamewar mood (due to people calling a victory over a scoreless team historic) when I had that first post. For the most part, I'll make fun of soccer fans, but it's all in good fun and because they're an easy target. I personally find it a fun sport to play, but boring to watch, but hey, that's just me.

 

[bvibert]

There's no way that you can tell me that Soccer is more boring to watch than Baseball. There is always something going on in Soccer, in Baseball they spend most of the time standing around scratching themselves. I'll watch even a 'boring' Soccer game over any Baseball game any day of the week.

BTW you should have watched the US vs Algeria game, there was very little time spent in midfield.