The World Cup is underway. I am way excited. I took off the afternoon to watch one of the opening day games. I have been following the U.S. men’s national team for the past two years. I watched almost all of their World Cup qualifying matches. I have cable so that I can watch US players work for their English Premiership and Bundesliga club teams. I have been counting down the months until the tournament starts. I’ve been flocking to the US soccer website for daily updates on the team.
I love soccer. And the older I get, and the more I start adopting a heterodoxic approach to life, the more I take the heretical stance of dismissing American football, baseball and basketball as lame spectator sports. I grew up following the Washington Redskins and dedicating my brain to memorizing player stats. Today, I think American football is a bunch of overgrown apes crushing each other in 5 second spurts. Baseball and basketball are equally as boring to watch and follow. I recognize that the hardest thing to do in professional sports is consistently hit a round ball with a round bat, but the overall sport doesn’t captivate. Basketball doesn’t do much for me either as a spectator sport. With so much scoring, I just want to tune in the last two minutes of the game, and even then I could care less about the outcome.
I laugh every time I hear someone call a US sports team the “world champion.” What a joke! Nothing compares to the World Cup in terms of international sports craze. It’s amazing to see a tournament based on a sport in which every nation on the planet pursues vigilantly. It’s the best of the world competing at the highest level. There is only one sport. It is soccer.
LET’S GO USA!
Goalllllll!!!!!!
Did you see the 4th goal by Germany? Dude hit a wicked shot from outside 20 yards that curled upper 90.
They’re using a new type of ball with no seams. Apparently it’s knuckling and a bear for goalkeepers.
Poland looked slow. Germany was lucky to be playing Costa Rica, because they were a little sloppy. Costa Rica’s 2nd goal, the dude was obviously offsides, though.
My $.02 Weed
My ref…
One of my refs from my school days would have fouled him on that in a second. Obviously kicking it from inside the box.
Ahh, well. Germany still won, though I’m fairly certain they thought they were robbed on that shot. I love soccer defense… it’s so dynamic. Understanding the interaction of goalie with his defenders is really this whole kind of world into itself, all about angles and approaches, steering the offense so that you can adequately defend. No way you can defend 8 yards by 8 feet of goal by yourself, so the defensemen really have to be on the ball to keep the offense where you need it to be on the pitch.
I felt for the offense with that one shot that just bounced off the right goalpost, too. Been there, done that. It’s so disappointing to watch your perfectly-aligned shot curl into a post. Gives you that “I’ve been robbed!” feeling.
Wait… crap! I’ve just spoken up in a conversation about sports, and I actually know something about what’s going on! There go my geek creds!
Uhh, yeah, so, uhh, Germany got a lot of, uhh, home runs, right?
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Matthew P. Barnson
Trinidad goalie
Guy was out of control against Sweden — can you believe all those saves? He played for Howard in the 90s.
Prayer
Please, please, please, please let the U.S. beat the Czech Republic.
Bunch of us taking off work to go downtown and watch the game…
Embarrassing
After watching the U.S. get absolutely embarrassed 3-0 today in front of a global audience, I started thinking about what the loss meant. For those of you who aren’t fans of soccer, losing 3-0 in the World Cup opening match is a disastrous effort. Trying to put the loss in perspective made me think about the role of sport in international competition and relations.
I think of international sporting competition in terms of the 1980 ‘Miracle On Ice,’ the US victory over Russia in Lake Placid. During a time in which both superpowers were combating politically and militarily, the game pitted an underdog US team against the top hockey power in the world. The game didn’t directly result in Russia’s demise, but it is widely heard from those in political office at the time that the game did affect superiority in both feelings and emotional drive.
When was the last time the US won an international competition in a sport which countries around the world professionally pursue?
-Basketball -Baseball -Hockey -Soccer -Tennis -Golf
I’m thinking tennis and golf are the only sports in which the US has been winning of late. Am I missing others? It’s safe to write that the US was embarrassed in recent basketball and baseball tournaments; we were expected to win and fell way short. Hockey hasn’t been close. And we saw what happened today in soccer, suffering the worst loss of any team in the first round so far.
I’m not trying to be pessimistic. However, those working in our national sports committee levels need to step it up and start producing winning teams, because continuing to lose over time could damage a sense of pride domestically as well as a perception of power across the world.
Not Even Tennis
Not even tennis anymore. The men are dominated by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. The women have a winner of the week.
The NBA has established a committee and stated it fully intends to win the next Olympics in 08. They’re trying to select players who will work well together and get them practicing earlier so they can have some continuity when they play.
Hey, now the US knows what it has to do. Beat Italy and Ghana. Otherwise, we’re home.
My $.02 Weed
Cycling
The US dominated in team cycling for the past 7 years.
True
Thank you, Lance.
And in women’s sports, we rock. Softball, basketball, golf, we’re always up there.
For all of America’s problems, I think we can be proud how we treat our women overall. Not that we can’t do better, but we’re ahead of the world curve.
My $.02 Weed
8 Years
Floyd!!!
Doped Up!!!
Floyd, Floyd, Floyd 🙁
Got caught cheating…
My $.02 Weed
The World Has Caught Us
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-09-20-forum-sports_x.htm
Beat Italy, Lost to the Refs
Kind of disappointing to win a game but lose to the refs. The U.S. had two competitors last Saturday.
Zero Offense
The U.S. was ousted from the WC today after losing 2-1 to Ghana. The U.S. was inferior to the other countries’ teams in one area: midfield. Because its midfield was low quality, the U.S. had no offensive. We scored only 1 goal in 270 minutes of play (3 games).
Regardless of the horrendous calls by the refs, the U.S. team registered a total of 4 shots on goal in its three games. That’s it. You can’t blame the refs when your team manages 4 shots on goal and 1 goal in 270 minutes of regulation play. As stated above, the U.S. midfield was abysmal. Players such as Donovan and Beasley, who were touted as upcoming superstars, played awful.
It’s embarrassing to wait four years and see such a terrible showing at today’s greatest global sporting competition. As a result, it will be another four years in which soccer doesn’t grow in national importance. I don’t think people want to associate with a loser, especially a loser sport in which the U.S. looked so inferior against the rest of the world.
Thankfully Arena Got Fired
Glad that Bruce Arena was fired — you can’t put on that horrible an offensive display and expect to keep your job.
Sad though…
It’s sad, though. He had a really impressive winning record. I wonder if people just turn weird when they get old?
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Matthew P. Barnson
We Just Kicked Mexico’s ***
To recap: the U.S. pulled an inspired come-from-behind victory last weekend to topple Mexico 2-1 and claim championship of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Gold Cup is our geographical region’s version of the World Cup, and it’s importance is that, above pride and victory in the region, it serves as a qualifier for 2009. Also, Mexico hasn’t been the U.S. on domestic soil since 1999. We own them!
The US MNT is 10-0-1 in 2007 under new coach Bob Bradley.
The MNT is prepared to open tonight in Venezuela for the Copa America tournament, although we didn’t bring our top players on travel.
Why can’t we have this kind of success in the World Cup?
Because the number of people
Because the number of people interested in football from a young age is very small in the USA, while the pool is very large elsewhere. Those who would be our standout players are 20lbs overweight and developing their thumb muscles on a Playstation.
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Matthew P. Barnson