Soccer: World Cup

[tornado]

what's everyone think?? US plays Monday...any overall thoughts?

I have just three observations...

-these are the very best players & coaches in the entire world, and yet we have announcers who constantly pick apart
everything that happens, and constantly tell us how they should be playing and what they are doing wrong.

-Referees - have to admit, if this is the world's best, how can the refs so consistently miss major plays and key calls?
They blow calls on fouls that never happen, and they miss off-sides calls regularly. Biased?

-lastly - despite their skills, the game has changed from players trying to avoid the defenses in order to score --
to players trying to intentionally head right into the defenses, then FLOP, in order to get the ref's call and score.

[ChewaBrave]

Super excited for it. Love every minute of it.

[tornado]

Outstanding passing from the French team this afternoon in their 3-0 win

The world's best player Lionel Messi is about to make his first appearance and he & his Argentina squad is about the take the field for their first futbol game at the World Cup!

[tornado]

USA pulled out a win against Ghana 2-1..
a classic example of being outplayed yet still winning on the scoreboard.
Ghana dominated possession 60-40, outshot the US 21-8, and had a lot more good scoring opportunities, and yet the USA was fortunate and come away with 3 pts in the standings.
Just maybe this is the year we make some noise.

[ChewaBrave]

It was a dicey game and exposed some weaknesses. I'm actually less worried about Johnson's lapse, than Beasley's defensive abilitiesvon the left side. Then of course there are the potentially huge injuries we suffered.

In the end our midfield going forward was awful - but that will improve. We just need to figure out how to play without altidore.

[tornado]

knockout stage doesn't start for a couple weeks - so if the US can gets some points in their games against Portugal & Germany - we may get Altidore back at full strength although muscle injuries are always unpredictable and can be re-aggravated

The Dempsey injury (kicked in the face/broken nose) wasn't even called as a foul by the ref even though the opponent kicked high to play the ball while Dempsey's head was right there!

[tornado]

Spain - the defending World Cup Champions - are losing at half 2-0 to Chile!!
Spain on the verge of dropping to 0-2 and being eliminated!!

[Chico]

Spain - the defending World Cup Champions - are losing at half 2-0 to Chile!!
Spain on the verge of dropping to 0-2 and being eliminated!!

Yawn

[ChewaBrave]

Quite the turn of events. Many people thought Chile had a chance but figured they would battle Netherlands for second in the group. Spain just looked slow against an aggressive and progressive Chilean side.

[tornado]

Yawn

seriously - you call yourself Chico and futbol bores you??

[Chico]

seriously - you call yourself Chico and futbol bores you??

Got my name from my childhood hero, not my nationality. Any guesses who it might be?

[tornado]

Chico Carrasquel - played SS for the White Sox just before they landed Little Luis

[Da Coach]

US forward Jozy Altidore is ruled out for Sunday's game against Portugal.

http://www.sportingnews.com/soccer/story/2014-06-19/world-cup-2014-us-striker-altidore-ruled-out-of-portugal-match-fifa-brazil

[ChewaBrave]

Interested to see how we adjust things. It may push us to pay more defensively. I think I would stick with Aron up front and possibly adjust that with wondolowski at half if he isn't making an impact. If it's really rough, just pay direct ball with Dempsey and wondo up front and park the bus.

[Da Coach]

Funny article studying the amount of time World Cup players spend embellishing injuries, and which teams do it the most-

http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-world-rankings-of-flopping-1403660175