Unofficial World Cup Thread de 2014

[Freak Out]

I absolutely love the world cup.

I remember June 21st 2002, my daughter came over at something like 4am to watch USA vs Germany with me in the knockout stage. It was raining like a son of a bitch and my direct tv went offline. I called my mother at 4:30am (she lived a mile away) and asked if we could use her tv. We come strolling in a 4:35am watching an extremely tight match, yelling and screaming. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed a couple of loud futball fans waking me up and then going crazy at that hour.

That was a great game.

[Freak Out]

I think Red is our resident expert. What I do know is that the U.S. has only 5 players who have played in a World Cup, and none on the back line. They looked kind of shaky in the match I saw last week, although they beat Nigeria 2-1 today.

Jozy Altidore with 2 goals today. http://soccer.si.com/soccer/planet-f...ndly?eref=sihp

He looks like he could play football as well as futbol.

Nigeria stinks so it means nothing. If the USA makes it out of the group it will be a victory....highly unlikely but we can dream right?

[Freak Out]

Howard may be a top 10 goalie in the world. At least, he played like it for the last year. Dempsey isn't our best player any longer. Michael Bradley is. Dempsey was actually one of the best players on a middle tier team in the EPL. Then, he moved up to a slightly better team and it didn't click for him. That's the way it seems to go in soccer. You really need to be at the right level and in the right system, and there is a lot of politics--especially against American players. There are a bunch of solid players on the team. More talent probably than we've ever had. We lack superstars though. Always have. More specifically, we lack superstar forwards, and those guys are like QBs in the NFL. Gold. I think the kid from Iceland has potential to be really good. He might be better than Altidore already. The MLS has gradually improved from a league that wasn't one of the 20 best in the world to somewhere around the 12th best league in the world. Some have even rated it higher. It ranks 8th amongst soccer leagues in attendance.

Since about 2002, we have been a solid top 20 team in the world. We are about average when it comes to the teams in the World Cup. So much of our success depends on the group we end up with. When we get the Group of Death (like this year and 2006), we are out in the first round. When we get an easy group, we advance to the Round of 16 (like 2010 and 2002). I don't mind alternating between easy and hard group, but the thing that bugs me is Mexico generally gets a better draw. We beat them in the 2002 round of 16 and have finished atop our region in every cycle since (ahead of Mexico), so it bugs me how often they get a better draw than us.

As usual Harv nails it.

[vince]

This thread = instant derection

Think women's soccer, or...

[pbmax]

That mole has to be a stick-on, no?

[denverYooper]

Bomb Pops?

[Freak Out]

That mole has to be a stick-on, no?

No.

[pbmax]

Bomb Pops?

3 of them.

[mraynrand]

Futball is the biggest sport in the world and the way they celebrate futball make us Packer fans look like arena football fans.

Perhaps it would help if we started killing people at games?

[MadScientist]

Perhaps it would help if we started killing people at games?

Isn't that a standard Oakland thing?

[wootah]

Nice, a WC thread at Packerrats. Sorry to break it to you guys, but as Red said: the US just doesn't have the quality at the moment. Strange though that Klinsmann openly said that they have no change to win it. Even if the rest of the world basically knew this already, it's a strange coaching philosophy. Maybe he wants to take away pressure from his team, but I always thought the American fighting spirit was their biggest asset. I had to laugh at the player presentation at SI.com a couple of days ago where they were selling the team as one of the best. I think they'll have a rough time getting much done in their group.

I'm a Belgian and we have a young, exciting squad with a couple of world class players (but also with some holes in defence, unfortunately). This is the best team our small country has ever produced. We seem to be in a relatively easy group with Russia, S-Korea & Algeria and if we should qualify for the next round, we'll meet an opponent from the US's group. It's crazy but I think we even play a friendly against the US next week, for what it's worth. Lack of experience at big tournaments will be our greatest enemy.

Either way, enjoy the WC, it's one of the coolest things ever. For us it's somewhat like the Superbowl, if the SB would actually be for a global sport and if it would be played once every 4 year. Most non-soccer fans underestimate the technical & tactical aspects of the game and focus on the flopping, but if you look at it with an open mind I'm sure you'll appreciate the skills that will be at display the upcoming weeks.

I'll definately check in here from time to time to check the updates.

[wootah]

Anyone watching the opener today?

[Joemailman]

Can Croatia play with Brazil?

[wootah]

I think it will be difficult... But with the few goals in soccer, everything is possible: Brasil will go for it and Croatia may benefit from the space they get.

Croatia definately has less quality, but their crucial players (Rakitic, Modric) are in top form at the right time. In the end I expect the Croatian team (and definately the midfield) not being strong enough defensively to cope with te Brazilian attacking power.

There's a Croatian with Brazilian roots who said he will sing both national anthems. Never saw that one before

[Joemailman]

Did Brazil miss their wake up call?