World Cup of Soccer

fan19740 · June 6, 2006

While you are waiting for football to arrive, take some time to watch the U.S. Men's National Team during the 2006 World Cup. They are fielding their most talented squad ever, so there is a good chance that they will make some 'noise' in the second round. Enjoy!

Cowtown · June 6, 2006

We have the toughest group in the tourney and I fear we may not advance.

We possibly have the best goalie in the world and he will have to steal some games for us to move on to the next round.

FIFA really screwed up when they made Mexico a #1 seed instead of the Dutch (The Dutch B team beat the Mex A team last week). So Mexico, who have never won a game in the second round, who lost to us last Cup, who havent beaten us outside of Mexico City in a decade, who finished second to us in our qualifying group, who were ranked behind us the world ranking...Mexico gets the #1 seed instead of us and the Dutch. Since the rules say we cant play a #1 from our region we get stuck with a Euro powerhouse...the #2 team in the world, the Czechs, Monday 10:55.

The

While you are waiting for football to arrive, take some time to watch the U.S. Men's National Team during the 2006 World Cup. They are fielding their most talented squad ever, so there is a good chance that they will make some 'noise' in the second round. Enjoy!
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NTEagle08 · June 6, 2006

sort of stinks that the U.S. has to finish 1st in the group to avoid a first round matchup against Brazil, but I guess that's the way it goes.

Cowtown · June 6, 2006

Yes that is the next hose job, the only way for us to avoid the #1 team in the world is basically to beat the #2 team in the world.

The Italians cried foul after the drawing because of the easy road Germany gets to the finals.

They said some of the pingpong balls were heated so the German dude selecting the groups could pick and choose. And as it turned out the only country that knows more about fixing games than the Germans is the Italians, so I guess they would know.

FirefightnRick · June 6, 2006

sort of stinks that the U.S. has to finish 1st in the group to avoid a first round matchup against Brazil, but I guess that's the way it goes.
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That's the price this country pays for losing to Canada in World Baseball!

Rick

eulesseagle · June 6, 2006

A blurb on the German team

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2042484,00.html

MGW · June 6, 2006

USA! USA! USA!

emmitt01 · June 7, 2006

I'm going on record right now...

The U.S. will finish first in their group.

ntmeangreen11 · June 7, 2006

I just want them to beat those damn czechs. That's all I care about.

Edited June 7, 2006 by ntmeangreen11

Travis · June 7, 2006

I'm going on record right now...
The U.S. will finish first in their group.
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Those who stay up with the goings on of the group we are in and our current state would say you aren't too off base with that comment. I wouldn't be shocked if we got first in the group.... then again, i wouldn't be surprised if we got third either. Disappointed definitely, but not shocked.

Varsity · June 7, 2006

Soccer?

No thanks.

the green rokemi · June 7, 2006

futbol on the football board? sweet

Cowtown · June 7, 2006

Barros's injury is definatly a blessing, hopefully they will fear our attack and play for the tie (which is what I think we will be doing). They have better technique and are bigger than us, and their goalie is fantastic. I am hoping for the best, but our tune up games have been very average, and unless something has happened since our 1-0 win over Angola, after which the Angola coach said his team pretty much dominated match...I am not too optimistic. I think we are going to have to hope for the exact same thing that have hoped for over the last decade, that McBride will pull one out of his hat. When it all comes down to it McBride is our only forward with the size, toughness and fearlessness to battle around the goal.

Hopefully I will be freaking out like I was 4 years ago in the upset against "The Golden Generation" Portuguise, but the Czechs are really really good, they make few mistakes, they will put your butt on the ground and they finish.

Those who stay up with the goings on of the group we are in and our current state would say you aren't too off base with that comment. I wouldn't be shocked if we got first in the group.... then again, i wouldn't be surprised if we got third either. Disappointed definitely, but not shocked.
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eulesseagle · June 7, 2006

http://www.sportsline.com/worldcup/standings

emmitt01 · June 7, 2006

Barros's injury is definatly a blessing, hopefully they will fear our attack and play for the tie (which is what I think we will be doing). They have better technique and are bigger than us, and their goalie is fantastic. I am hoping for the best, but our tune up games have been very average, and unless something has happened since our 1-0 win over Angola, after which the Angola coach said his team pretty much dominated match...I am not too optimistic. I think we are going to have to hope for the exact same thing that have hoped for over the last decade, that McBride will pull one out of his hat. When it all comes down to it McBride is our only forward with the size, toughness and fearlessness to battle around the goal.
Hopefully I will be freaking out like I was 4 years ago in the upset against "The Golden Generation" Portuguise, but the Czechs are really really good, they make few mistakes, they will put your butt on the ground and they finish.
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Don't underestimate Bruce Arena. The lineups you saw throughout the qualifiers and tuneup games were a hodge podge and probably not the true lineup you'll see in our first game. Also, I think we played a reserved style of attack...something that you will not see with Wolff, Donovan, McBride and especially Eddie Johnson on the pitch. They'll be all out and trying to run up the score on whomever we play.

fan19740 · June 7, 2006

These are all good points, but what worries me is that the U.S. has never played particularly well in Europe. The Italians will no doubt have a large base of their fans when they play the U.S., so let's hope our boys don't get rattled. My gut tells me though that we still have enough to qualify for the second round.

THOR · June 8, 2006

I hope we make it out of the first round, but we better win the group. I don't want to play the Brazilians....That's bad news bears if we have to play them...USA...USA...USA...

Coffee and TV · June 8, 2006

I cannot believe what I'm reading. Maybe I actually converted some of you.

Its not all bad if we finish 2nd in this group, either. I mean who's to say the Aussies won't win group F?

I'll say we beat the Czechs, tie Ghana, and lose to Italy. We'll get to the 2nd round with 4 points and win the tiebreaker against Czechmate. We'll probably be booted there by Brazil barring a Yankee miracle or a Brazilian disaster.

eulesseagle · June 8, 2006

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/08/soccerpoll.shtml

this is interesting

NTEagle08 · June 9, 2006

If anyone happened to catch Sportscenter this afternoon they were running a piece on how some of the fan's over there in Europe are getting out of hand with their insulting of black players. Apparently FIFA has created a rule penalizing players and officials if they do anything derogetory, but there are no rules on the fans so it probably isn't going to do much.

FirefightnRick · June 12, 2006

Uh, it's gonna be a short tournament for the red, white & blue. The Czech's are up 3-0 at the 72nd hour.....I mean minute? Seems like hours, did I say hours? I meant minutes.

We do look good at times though. One time, this one dude for the U.S. passed it across the field to this other guy on our team and we got it down by the other teams net before it was intercepted and kicked all the way back the other direction. It was really exciting.

Rick

NT91 · June 12, 2006

No back to real football!!!!!!!

FireFightnJoey · June 12, 2006

That was an incredibly horrible game by the US. Did they forget they were wearing blue and not white?? Did they have jet lag too, because they didn't seem to be running at all. Atleast Johnson starting taking some shots from outside 18. Tough break for Reyna's shot off the post. Just an inch or two more inside and it would have glanced in. The Czech that took down our guy on the breakaway should have gotten a red. It was just him and the keeper once he got around that guy. Bad judgement by the ref and a whole different game playing with 10 and not 11. But, doesn't matter. The way the US played, they didn't act like they wanted it.

Now, they're really in a hole. They have to win out to even have a chance at winning this group. If they aren't first, then they will play Brazil in the next level and our chances of winning that one will be pretty low...

fan19740 · June 12, 2006

The U.S.A. is down, but not out. Two games remain for a maximum of six points. I have to admit though, this game was ugly. It reminded me of the 60-something to zero loss that UNT suffered a few years ago in Austin.

CorinthEagle · June 13, 2006

I saw all I needed to see when Reyna made the tackle on one of the czech guys. He's writhing around in such pain that you would have thought Reyna had ripped his leg off. Reyna gets the yellow card, they cart the guy off the field on a stretcher then as soon as he hears the whistle to start play again he jumps up and runs back on the field like nothing happened. It's like watching the WWE or something.