Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Obi Wan Bonogi]

And still no draws!  Wow at that Swiss finish!

[yuma]

Should have been a red card for Pogba.

[Qvist]

I want to see less own goals, that was the third already.

[Teproc]

Should have been a red card for Pogba.

Should have been a red card for both honestly. The initial foul was really nasty.

But yay, we won ! And Benzema scored two (kinda three) goals, which is very important because he's always sucked in big competitions with France, so that's out of the way.

Edit : While I'm at it : what the hell, Netherlands ? By which I mean, yay, Spain is going down (probably not but one can dream) !

I have nothing against Spain in sports generally (as opposed to, say, England, which by the way, thanks Italy), but they've won enough lately.

[ashersky]

I have nothing against Spain in sports generally (as opposed to, say, England, which by the way, thanks Italy), but they've won enough lately.

All three of those are generally abhorrent to someone.  I'd rank them Italy > England > Spain in order of humanity.

[Titandrake]

As someone who doesn't follow soccer (okay, football) at all, how excited should I be if US beats Ghana tomorrow?

[ashersky]

As someone who doesn't follow soccer (okay, football) at all, how excited should I be if US beats Ghana tomorrow?

Extremely.  They knocked us out of the World Cup last time.

[yuma]

As someone who doesn't follow soccer (okay, football) at all, how excited should I be if US beats Ghana tomorrow?

Extremely.  They knocked us out of the World Cup last time.

Hmmmm and I would say tentatively excited. A win combined with a Germany-Portugal tie might just leave me ecstatic.

[Davio]

So they calculated Robben's sprint was at 37km/h which is only 7km/h less than Usain Bolt's top speed!
Ramos only moved at 30km/h.

I didn't get to watch Argentina last night (24:00 local time), but didn't miss much it seemed.

I'm excited for Germany - Portugal!

Portugal usually sucks at a team, with too few excellent players (their striker often sucks). Germany on the other hand has a lot of good players this time, but we'll have to wait and see. Maybe Klose can score his 67th World Cup goal?

I expect to see Germany have a lot of possession, but having problems getting one behind Pepe and Bruno Alves. Germany on the other hand has to watch out for deadly Portugal counter attacks with Ronaldo and Nani.

It will be quite similar to a match between Bayern Munich (Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Götze) and Real Madrid (Pepe, Coentrao, Ronaldo).

[ipofanes]

The goals are also of entertaining quality: van Persie's header, Honda's strike, Campbell's goal and assist.

Pirlo's free kick, Honduras' own goal (unreal angle by Benzema).

[soulnet]

I didn't get to watch Argentina last night (24:00 local time), but didn't miss much it seemed.

You did not. Unless you want some live proof of how awful it is to change the system used in the entire world cup qualifiers for the first match. Second half was a little bit interesting, and Messi's goal was a nice one, but maybe it was just in comparison to the first half.

[2.71828.....]

As someone who doesn't follow soccer (okay, football) at all, how excited should I be if US beats Ghana tomorrow?

Extremely.  They knocked us out of the World Cup last time.

Hmmmm and I would say tentatively excited. A win combined with a Germany-Portugal tie might just leave me ecstatic.

I don't think a Germany-Portugal tie would actually be the best for the US.  I think that Germany needs to win, because that would mean that we only have to tie Portugal to position ourselves to have a good chance at advancing.  I see Germany most likely beating US and Ghana, so if Portugal were to beat Ghana then the group would end at 9-4-4-0, and we would have a chance to advance on goal difference.

Of course, all of this speculation is moot if we don't come out and take care of business today against Ghana.

[2.71828.....]

Germany is looking scary good.  (except for one or two small little defensive errors)

[yuma]

PEPE RED CARD!!!!

I am so happy! Major plus for USA!

WOOT!

[yuma]

As someone who doesn't follow soccer (okay, football) at all, how excited should I be if US beats Ghana tomorrow?

Extremely.  They knocked us out of the World Cup last time.

Hmmmm and I would say tentatively excited. A win combined with a Germany-Portugal tie might just leave me ecstatic.

I don't think a Germany-Portugal tie would actually be the best for the US.  I think that Germany needs to win, because that would mean that we only have to tie Portugal to position ourselves to have a good chance at advancing.  I see Germany most likely beating US and Ghana, so if Portugal were to beat Ghana then the group would end at 9-4-4-0, and we would have a chance to advance on goal difference.

Of course, all of this speculation is moot if we don't come out and take care of business today against Ghana.

You may be correct and with the way Germany is playing + the red card now I am just hoping for a totally shellacking. 5-0 would be nice. To get the goal difference to be extreme difficult for Portugal to overcome... and to potentially completely kill their self-confidence, which already looks very shaky.

[soulnet]

Isn't the US favorite over Portugal? Ronaldo is a great player and all, but Portugal in general is a lousy team. I did not follow the US close enough to know how good they became, but their results in the qualifiers seem pretty good.

[theory]

PEPE RED CARD!!!!

I am so happy! Major plus for USA!

WOOT!

This does mean he can't get sent off in the USA game though ...

[yuma]

Isn't the US favorite over Portugal? Ronaldo is a great player and all, but Portugal in general is a lousy team. I did not follow the US close enough to know how good they became, but their results in the qualifiers seem pretty good.

I would speculate the worldwide Portugal is favored. I think the odds makers have the US at a 33% chance of advancing from the group. Both Portugal and Germany were higher (90% and 50%) I think.

[2.71828.....]

Watching the Germans play, you can tell that their defensive strategy is one of "anyone can try to beat us but not Ronaldo."  Every time he touches the ball there are 2-3 defenders immediately on him

[yuma]

Watching the Germans play, you can tell that their defensive strategy is one of "anyone can try to beat us but not Ronaldo."  Every time he touches the ball there are 2-3 defenders immediately on him

And no one on Portugal wants to beat them. Multiple Portugal players have had good looks only to try and slip it to Ronaldo instead of going for goal themselves.

[theory]

Every other team has multiple players standing near free kicks, deciding who will take it.  Portgual players don't even bother pretending it will be taken by anyone except CR7.

[Davio]

This was actually the first  game I've seen where the 1st half was more interesting than the 2nd.

Portugal mostly lost to itself. 3 of the German goals were caused by Portuguese errors. Hummels' header was pretty good.

[ashersky]

Cut Bradley now.  Man he's terrible.

Dempsey for President.  But every time Bradley touches the ball, a puppy misses a meal.  Should be Donavan there.

[yuma]

Cut Bradley now.  Man he's terrible.

Dempsey for President.  But every time Bradley touches the ball, a puppy misses a meal.  Should be Donavan there.

I'm sorry ash, but you don't know what you are talking about.

Bradley isn't having a great game here, but he is the best player on the USMNT. He is having a hard time as the player defending him is doing a spectacular job--and the players around him aren't connecting passes to him.

Yes, Donovan should be on the team, but it shouldn't be Bradley out instead. Donovan doesn't play central the way Bradley does. He likes the wing, so probably Bedoya--who is having a pretty good game--who would be out instead. If anything Donovan should be on the bench to come on late in the game.

[theory]

Bradley is definitely the best USMNT player (maybe tied with Howard) but is also playing remarkably poorly.  In general the USMNT right now is playing pretty sloppy (particularly in possession) and lucky to not get punished for it.