Unofficial World Cup Thread de 2014

[Brandon494]

You don't have the proper scouting and coaching from a young age. Internet tells me the US has over 2,5 registered male soccer players, that's 1/4 Belgiums total population. Players enough, while from your whole team only the goalie would be part of our selection of 23 and then as 3rd goalie.

I don't think it has anything to do with scouting or coaching, just the best athletes in the US favor other sports over soccer. Kids growing up don't see soccer games on the TV in the US, its all about football, baseball, and basketball.

[Joemailman]

[red]

I'm here. Out of town on one of those new fangled smart phones I just got yesterday.

I'm proud as shit about the way we played today, we left it all out there

And I do agree about beckerman, I heard was was being left out on the bar and I thought it was a pretty stupid move. Hes been one of our best players this WC

[red]

In world wars

US. 2-0

Belgium 0-2

[Freak Out]

I was was telling my Flemish friends that even though they won today it's only because we saved their ass a couple of times.

[Freak Out]

He wouldn't be third, but Thibault Courtois might be the best goal keeper in the world right now and only 22 years old.

This. I agree with Brandon on Courtois but show me a ranking that has Howard as waterboy on that team. wootah the Walloon is just a bit cocky after the win.

[wootah]

16 saves by Howard, the most in WC history since 1966. Don't get me wrong, guys: no disrespect to him or any of you, but we might have the best GK in the world on our team and behind him is Mignolet who was playing for the EPL title with Liverpool until the last day. Great game by Howard, but I value the other 2 a bit higher.

15 years ago, our soccer federation changed their your development program and now a very talented generation is stepping up. Adnan Januzaj, considered the biggest young talent in the world, didn't even come of the bench yesterday. Sure if soccer was your nr1 sport, and all public focus (money) and quality coaches (money) would be pointed towards it, you guys would dominate. But just seeing at the volume of players you currently have, you should have been able to develop some better players. It's not a coincidence that your best players have spend their youth/whole life in Europe. That's not because they are more talented than the Lebrons or Jadeveons, it's because they have better coaching there and can thus play on a higher level there.

2,5million male players is an ENORMOUS base to tap from. Uruguay has a little over 3 million total inhabitants and see what kind of team they can provide from such a little pool of available players.

I have to laugh a bit with the WW refences guys We also eliminated Russia in the first round, so it seems we're betraying all the allies I'm not a Walloon btw; I prefer to stay away from the Flemish/Walloon thing and I consider myself a true Belgian. So... Vive la Belgique / Leve België

[wootah]

About the talent topic: soccer is a sport where almost you don't need extreme measurement numbers to excel: you can be small/frail/big/strong/somewhat slow/super quick and still use other qualities (vista, technique, smarts...) to get the upper hand.

[Fritz]

Howard was superb, hats off to him. All the Belgian players that were interviewed lauded him enormously as well.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I enjoyed the game and am okay with the outcome, though disappointed. The US played hard but they just weren't as good as the Belgians.

I will be rooting for Belgium (until they play Germany; sorry Woot). They played with class - I liked this game because there wasn't all that stupid flopping all game long. I admit to my Euro-prejudice, too - I think the South and Central Americans are flashier but they are flopistas and I can't stand that.

Belgium looked like a stand-up bunch of guys with a tough goalie. I liked them.

Hats off to the US, though - a gutsy effort. They just lacked quite enough talent. But they played hard and I enjoyed it all.

[hoosier]

I'm not an expert by any means, but I enjoyed the game and am okay with the outcome, though disappointed. The US played hard but they just weren't as good as the Belgians.

I will be rooting for Belgium (until they play Germany; sorry Woot). They played with class - I liked this game because there wasn't all that stupid flopping all game long. I admit to my Euro-prejudice, too - I think the South and Central Americans are flashier but they are flopistas and I can't stand that.

Belgium looked like a stand-up bunch of guys with a tough goalie. I liked them.

Hats off to the US, though - a gutsy effort. They just lacked quite enough talent. But they played hard and I enjoyed it all.

I don't know how you can call the South Americans flopistas after those gems from Robben.

[Joemailman]

Not World Cup, but an interesting moment for Tim Howard while playing for Everton:

[wist43]

I thought now that the Collectivist States of Amerika lost in the Commie Cup, you ballarinas would go back to reading Marx and dying your hair pink...

Take heart girls, Amerika is becoming more like the rest of the world everyday - won't be long before anyone can afford to play any sport but soccer - like most of world.

[pbmax]

We save you guys from Germany in 2 World Wars and this is the thanks we get?

NUTS!

[pbmax]

Joe: I agree about Beckerman as the announcers and Twitter denizens were curious before the match about why. The color analyst said it was about defending set pieces and crosses as Cameron is taller. That worked, but it cost them in possession.

Teamcheez1: I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I bet football, basketball and baseball/hockey have more full time scholarships available than the soccer team does, in terms of fielding a team with some backups. Non-revenue sports often have less than a starting lineup of full rides and then several partials available.

(nevermind, didn't read the second paragraph of your post)

Fritz: Agreed, Belgium played pretty straight up with fouls/collisions. I have to say one problem that the World Cup setup (maybe universal I don't know) is that with one ref who call stop play for an injury, you have to stay down to get attention or a sub. It makes diving and staying down attractive. Perhaps they could make the team of the injured player play with 10 for the time the player is down.

[wootah]

I will be rooting for Belgium (until they play Germany; sorry Woot).

That can only happen in the finals. I can live with that