Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Open World Cup Post


We need a place to talk about all things World Cup. Post many WC comments below! USA, USA, USA!!!!!!

21 comments:

  1. As a true Real SL fan - I am suffering from inner conflict and finding it very hard to cheer for Donovan. Yes, he made THE goal - this is the conflict I have.

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  2. I had Slovakia coming in second in the group in my bracket so this win over Italy is nice for me--not for Jed. Italy had no heart until the end and Slovakia looked a lot like the U.S. in their game with Algeria.

    Just enjoy the ride Cathy. Ghana here we come.

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  3. Rob, how do you believe the U.S. looked against Algeria? From what I have seen, Rob's pick of Argentina is strong. They have the best ball control from any team I have seen play in the world cup (caveat: I have only seen half of the games).

    I also believe that the U.S. off-sides call against Algeria was legit. They were off-sides. But the call in the Slovenia game was whack.

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  4. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

    Someone made the comment at work today that the world cup this year is just like WWII. France and Italy fall early, England vs. Germany, US comes on late but leaves victorious baby!

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  5. Nice Mat.

    Against Algeria, the US looked very active on the ball in the midfield and created a lot of pressure. I thought Slovakia had that same kind of energy. We were robbed on the offsides against Algeria. (Okay I'll have to watch a replay but I thought it was bunk.)

    Argentina have great ball control. I think I picked a good one. Spain didn't look good against the greasy Swiss but they were really back to form against Honduras. (I guess that's not too impressive.) Chile will be the test for them. Brazil haven't looked unbeatable to me so we'll see how they do vs. Portugal. I only watched part of the Netherlands v. Denmark game so I don't have a good feel for how strong the Dutch are. Germany and England both look very mortal.

    My favorite player to watch so far . . . Japan's Keisuke Honda. He has awesome control. It looks like he isn't running but he makes everyone miss and creates great shots and assists. He put on a clinic against Denmark. Congrats to Naoto on a rising Japanese team.

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  6. Bud House: 32 Fans, 1 Goal. Seen that commercial a million times now on ESPN...

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  7. Best call ever on the Landon Donovan goal--in Spanish of course (thanks Cougarboard). Definitely give it a listen, it's so awesome.

    http://www.fanaticos.com/2010/06/23/asi-narro-andres-cantor-el-gol-de-landon-donovan/?sms_ss=twitter

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  8. Moose post: http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/14698/chambers-goal-restores-world-cup-beauty

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  9. How about those North Koreans? Their victories in this world cup will bring about a glorious new era in...

    What now? How many goals? 7? Man...I gotta stop watching that North Korean highlight show. I thought they beat Portugal.

    I respect Cathy's Donovan hatred. If Kobe played for team USA and scored the goal that was the greatest moment in American history (not sports history, AMERICAN HISTORY) I'd be a little annoyed. Although I was unaware that Real Salt Lake had fans (HI-O).

    I'm enjoying this World Cup although watching it has reasserted to me why a large number of Americans don't care about soccer. It seems watching requires too much patience. There are so many near misses and so many moments of frustration. If you miss a shot in basketball your team will have another shot in a few seconds. If you miss a goal opportunity your team might not have another one for the rest of the game baby. This isn't a critique of soccer, more a critique American attention spans, my own included.

    It's probably good in some ways we're not as intense as other countries as that ref who screwed us would be dead by now if it happened against a more soccer loving nation. I sort of wouldn't be surprised if either a coach or player from the Italian team...uh... disappears in the next few weeks.

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  10. Yeah, that ref is from Mali. I'm sure he can't have great security and hitmen probably don't cost that much there.

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  11. Did anyone see the last few minutes of Chile v. Spain? Why was Chile playing so defensively when they needed a goal to tie it up? It was mindblowing how defensively they played in the last 20 minutes when they should have been more aggressive.

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  12. Dempsey was onside.

    It's cool though. The offside call, the no-call on the forearm that bloodied up his face, Landycakes (I know, he's a real man now, but I'm probably going to still call him that) scoring the biggest goal in US soccer history* off of his rebound, it's all adding up, and Clint's going to explode and hang a hat trick on Ghana. It's going to be awesome.

    I hope Findley also gets in on the action against Ghana, too. And I hope that Saborio drops a couple on San Jose tonight, but I'm getting off track here.

    Umm...oh yeah, South Korea and Japan have been my two favorite teams outside of the US to watch this tournament.



    *Apologies to Joe Gaetjens and Brandi Chastain and maybe Paul Caliguri

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  13. I'm a big S Korea fan (mission country and all that), but they got schooled against Argentina. Didn't look good--and I thought they looked average against Nigeria. I hope they improve and knock off Uruguay tomorrow. Japan looked awesome against Denmark.

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  14. Gil, Chile were down one man and tie would still advance them.

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  15. After reviewing twenty times...I concede, dempsey was onside.

    Netherlands v. Brazil determines who will go to the finals. The U.S. actually has a shot at getting to the final four. Not sure if they can beat Netherlands or Brazil. I like all four teams in the U.S. side of the tournament for the second and third rounds. Those games are going to be really fun to watch.

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  16. Chile V Spain. Classic Drury stall. The commentators even got bored. Both teams were satisfied with the result, as the winner got Portugal instead of Brazil, so why try super hard to win. It still kinda bugged me that neither team seemed to care for 20 minutes.

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  17. Yeah, I fell asleep at my desk during the end of that Chile/Spain game.

    Another commentator goes nuts (this time in Italian). This is not the Donovan goal--just another good one: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/soccer-announcer-goes-crazy/20971ou3

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  18. Tony, it was better than the Brazil/Portugal snoozefest. That thing set soccer popularity in the US back 20 years.

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  19. Lousy Ghana! Dashing all my world cup dreams. And now Korea is out too. To whom should I throw my allegiance? England? Ghana? Japan? Netherlands?

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  20. That was a pretty lively match between Portugal and Spain. At least the parts I saw. That could have been the finals.

    Speaking of funny announcers at a goal, this clip is pretty funny not because the announcer is so animated--though he is--but take a look at his co-announcer's annoyance that he is stealing the show. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/soccer-announcer-goes-goal-crazy/20qfh6td

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  21. Spain looks awesome now. Brazil and Netherlands look great too. I didn't see Germany/England. Nice clip Gil.

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