FIFA 2014 World Cup all-purpose thread

[cmr27]

Jurgen did an average job and the in the end showed nothing to me that Bradley and Arena hadn't showed. Wait, I'll take that back, Arena made the quarter finals and his team played Germany even, i would rate Areana ahead of Klinsman, I would give Klinsman the edge on Sampson however. We played four games and were soundly outplayed in three of them and yet we get the gushing over Klinsmann and of course yedlin isn't going to second guess Klinsmann. Everyoone on that team knows what happens if jurgy doesn't like you. You can become a cautionary tail even if your the best player in US soccer history Landon knows his days on the USA Nats are over so he could afford to be honest and he simply said what alot of us were thinking after Belgium. The Belgium game was a Tim Howard away from being a huge embarassment by the way.

Well, the obvious things first... Jurgen's team showed they could do something no one else was able to do: beat Ghana. He breezed through qualifying (never a given) with 3 signature games high on fun factor: snow game/draw in Mexico City/playing Mexico, our arch rival, into the WC when we had nothing on the line (That last one earned the States respect). His team qualified out of a brutal group whereas Bradley's team was drawn into a group aptly nicknamed EASY (I don't accept that we got outplayed by Ghana by the way, at least not heavily. Better teams than the USMNT have parked the bus up 1-0 after 1 min.)

All that said, the jury is still out. Arena's run was great. What did we do with that? Absolutely nothing. It was the equivalent of George Mason going to the Final Four, a nice story unlikely to be repeated. I assume Jurgen is putting a structure and talent development program in place on par with the big Euro sides. The first tell-tale sign of how successful we are is how many of our guys get picked up by prominent European sides in the next season or two. Hope springs eternal about our young guys after every World Cup. No one has actually been able to put the talent development over the top. I'm betting he can.

Finally, if not Jurgen, then who? I'd take him over some anonymous American coach in a heartbeat. Dude is a winner with an amazing pedigree, strong tactical instincts, a great intuition for what makes players tick, and a vision for where he wants to take the program. We have a future with the guy. It's nice.

 

[Alsacs]

Well, the obvious things first... Jurgen's team showed they could do something no one else was able to do: beat Ghana. He breezed through qualifying (never a given) with 3 signature games high on fun factor: snow game/draw in Mexico City/playing Mexico, our arch rival, into the WC when we had nothing on the line (That last one earned the States respect). His team qualified out of a brutal group whereas Bradley's team was drawn into a group aptly nicknamed EASY (I don't accept that we got outplayed by Ghana by the way, at least not heavily. Better teams than the USMNT have parked the bus up 1-0 after 1 min.)

All that said, the jury is still out. Arena's run was great. What did we do with that? Absolutely nothing. It was the equivalent of George Mason going to the Final Four, a nice story unlikely to be repeated. I assume Jurgen is putting a structure and talent development program in place on par with the big Euro sides. The first tell-tale sign of how successful we are is how many of our guys get picked up by prominent European sides in the next season or two. Hope springs eternal about our young guys after every World Cup. No one has actually been able to put the talent development over the top. I'm betting he can.

Finally, if not Jurgen, then who? I'd take him over some anonymous American coach in a heartbeat. Dude is a winner with an amazing pedigree, strong tactical instincts, a great intuition for what makes players tick, and a vision for where he wants to take the program. We have a future with the guy. It's nice.

The Globe in London nailed it in 2010 when they had the back page England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks with the EASY bolded.


Your first paragraph is 100% on the money. We earned Mexico's respect which we never had while we were always rivals. The USA dominated the first 20 minutes of the Ghana match and then Altidore tore his hamstring and we stunk until the Brooks game winner. Arena did nothing in 2006 we played Ghana in the last match and if we won that match we would advanced but we didn't. Bradley did nothing special he got the job because he was the caseholder and won an easy group at the 2010 WC by the skin of Landon Donovan's 91st minute GW against Algeria.

 

[cmr27]

What a save on the Messi breakaway. Love this guy.

 

[Moontan]

A bit disappointing... was expecting more from Belgium... including a win.

 

[Alsacs]

We weren't beating Argentina in South America so I am as disappointed in the loss to Belgium as I was in 2010 when we lost to Ghana.

In 2010, if we beat Ghana in the round of 16 we would have played Uruguay in quarters(winnable game), Netherlands in the semifinals and then Spain. That was a lot easier draw than Belgium, Argentina, Netherlands/Costa Rica, Germany/Brazil.

 

[cmr27]

The Globe in London nailed it in 2010 when they had the back page England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks with the EASY bolded.


Your first paragraph is 100% on the money. We earned Mexico's respect which we never had while we were always rivals. The USA dominated the first 20 minutes of the Ghana match and then Altidore tore his hamstring and we stunk until the Brooks game winner. Arena did nothing in 2006 we played Ghana in the last match and if we won that match we would advanced but we didn't. Bradley did nothing special he got the job because he was the caseholder and won an easy group at the 2010 WC by the skin of Landon Donovan's 91st minute GW against Algeria.

It's also not like this is the first time the USMNT has had stellar goalkeeping. Friedel came up huge against South Korea at the 2002 WC. He stopped a penalty and without that 1-1 tie against the home side, they never get out of the group.

 

[Alsacs]

It's also not like this is the first time the USMNT has had stellar goalkeeping. Friedel came up huge against South Korea at the 2002 WC. He stopped a penalty and without that 1-1 tie against the home side, they never get out of the group.

Friedel stopped a penalty in the last game against Poland as well in that 3-1 loss. We have never been a dominant possession or highly skilled team ever. Klinsmann is upping the USA system from the ground floor. 2006 Keller had to make crazy saves to keep the Italy game 1-1. People hating on Klinsmann are Landon Donovan supporters. People always ask coaches/players to be honest and Klinsmann was the talent on the USA team wasn't good enough to win a WC and he was honest. It was good enough to be one of the last 16 or 8 but to win it all. Now everyone wanted to shove it in his face when we did okay.

Donovan is bitter Klinsmann cut him plain and simple. The biggest mistake Klinsmann made was cutting Eddie Johnson for Wondo but that is hindsight 20-20. Johnson is the only guy who could replace Altidore in our lineup in case of injury.

 

[cusefan88]

Friedel stopped a penalty in the last game against Poland as well in that 3-1 loss. We have never been a dominant possession or highly skilled team ever. Klinsmann is upping the USA system from the ground floor. 2006 Keller had to make crazy saves to keep the Italy game 1-1. People hating on Klinsmann are Landon Donovan supporters. People always ask coaches/players to be honest and Klinsmann was the talent on the USA team wasn't good enough to win a WC and he was honest. It was good enough to be one of the last 16 or 8 but to win it all. Now everyone wanted to shove it in his face when we did okay.

Donovan is bitter Klinsmann cut him plain and simple. The biggest mistake Klinsmann made was cutting Eddie Johnson for Wondo but that is hindsight 20-20. Johnson is the only guy who could replace Altidore in our lineup in case of injury.

I slightly disagree with your EJ-Wondo statement. Yes Eddie would have been a better replacement than Wondo but EJ only has the speed and a little hold-up play. For me, Terrence Boyd should have been on the team instead of Wondo. Legit size, scored 20 goals in all competitions for Rapid Wien and earned a move to fast-rising German club Red Bull Leipzig (now in the German 2nd division but resources to get promoted this year or next).

I was very surprised he brought Wondo over Boyd in the first place. That miss against Belgium says it all. One of the best MLS strikers of the day did that with a golden opportunity.

And yes, LD is so bitter. I get why JK didn't take him. Look at Donovan's career, two big goals in 2002 and 2010 world cup and a career of dominating MLS, aside from a brief but positive loan spell with Everton.

 

[cmr27]

And yes, LD is so bitter. I get why JK didn't take him. Look at Donovan's career, two big goals in 2002 and 2010 world cup and a career of dominating MLS, aside from a brief but positive loan spell with Everton.

As great as Donovan was, I'll always have that feeling his career could have been so much more had he committed fully to playing in Europe. I saw him against Chelsea on one of his Everton loan spells. He absolutely ate Ashley Cole alive that day. Everton won 2-1 because of Donovan. The only other guy I've seen run and up and down like that at the Bridge was Arjen Robben back when he had hair. Donovan should have joined Everton full-time. I'll always wonder whether he truly maximized his incredible talent.

 

[Alsacs]

I slightly disagree with your EJ-Wondo statement. Yes Eddie would have been a better replacement than Wondo but EJ only has the speed and a little hold-up play. For me, Terrence Boyd should have been on the team instead of Wondo. Legit size, scored 20 goals in all competitions for Rapid Wien and earned a move to fast-rising German club Red Bull Leipzig (now in the German 2nd division but resources to get promoted this year or next).

I was very surprised he brought Wondo over Boyd in the first place. That miss against Belgium says it all. One of the best MLS strikers of the day did that with a golden opportunity.

And yes, LD is so bitter. I get why JK didn't take him. Look at Donovan's career, two big goals in 2002 and 2010 world cup and a career of dominating MLS, aside from a brief but positive loan spell with Everton.

Eddie Johnson was good at the Gold Cup last year. He played the Jozy spot and our offense was fine. Go watch the Bosnia friendly last August. The USA fell down 2-0 at halftime. Then Klinsmann put in Johnson to play up top with Jozy in a 4-4-2 and Johnson scored right away and then Jozy had a hat trick and the USA won in Serajvo 4-3 over Dzeko and Bosnia.
Boyd never showed me anything over Johnson.

 

[CanadianSU]

I see everyone is enjoying Costa Rica Netherlands



Zzz

 

[PoppyHart]

I slightly disagree with your EJ-Wondo statement. Yes Eddie would have been a better replacement than Wondo but EJ only has the speed and a little hold-up play. For me, Terrence Boyd should have been on the team instead of Wondo. Legit size, scored 20 goals in all competitions for Rapid Wien and earned a move to fast-rising German club Red Bull Leipzig (now in the German 2nd division but resources to get promoted this year or next).

I was very surprised he brought Wondo over Boyd in the first place. That miss against Belgium says it all. One of the best MLS strikers of the day did that with a golden opportunity.

And yes, LD is so bitter. I get why JK didn't take him. Look at Donovan's career, two big goals in 2002 and 2010 world cup and a career of dominating MLS, aside from a brief but positive loan spell with Everton.

Well that's an interesting revisionist view.

 

[CanadianSU]

Robben is such a damn flopper

 

[longislandcuse]

Enough with this Robben character. What a clown this guy is.

 

[CanadianSU]

Jeremain Lens DYNAMO KIEV represent

 

[cusefan88]

Well that's an interesting revisionist view.

I'm curious, how did I revise his career? He's a beast MLS player with brief success in Europe. As an international, he's best known for big goals in the 2002 WC and the 2010 GW against Algeria. He never established himself in Europe and took on the challenge. If anything, after his stint with Leverkusen he ran back to MLS.

LD was a great player but let's not make a myth out of him. If the US is ever going to win the World Cup, we have to demand more of our players. LD shied away from Europe in his prime.

 

[CanadianSU]

As much as I love an underdog...

Hope Netherlands wins, so we don't have to watch them defend the entire game again

 

[PeteCalvin]

I'm curious, how did I revise his career? He's a beast MLS player with brief success in Europe. As an international, he's best known for big goals in the 2002 WC and the 2010 GW against Algeria. He never established himself in Europe and took on the challenge. If anything, after his stint with Leverkusen he ran back to MLS.

LD was a great player but let's not make a myth out of him. If the US is ever going to win the World Cup, we have to demand more of our players. LD shied away from Europe in his prime.

When Donovan decided to take his leave of absence, he showed Klinsmann that he wasn't fully committed. I get that Donovan may have needed a break, and he did come back and perform very well for us. But that leave really came back to hurt him. IMHO, if he doesn't take that leave, or handles it differently with JK, he would have been in Brazil.

LD did it to himself. I get that he's bitter, but it's more than that. I think it really bothers him that this team did as well as it did, and under less than perfect circumstances, without him.

 

[cmr27]

Wow. Dutch hit the post three times. It took a while but this has turned into a good match.

 

[djcon57]

This goalie swap reeks of a disaster

 

[CanadianSU]

Well that game took a 180.

 

[Alsacs]

CONCACAF goalies sans Honduras have been awesome this entire World Cup.

 

[djcon57]

This goalie swap reeks of a disaster

...or I'm wrong and the new ManU coach clearly is a genius.

 

[CanadianSU]

The better team won

 

[cmr27]

In the pantheon of unlikeable characters, the trash-talking back-up keeper is a nice addition to the unlikable diver and smug coach.