[SuperJon]

That offsides call was the only call he got right.

[LUconn]

And we wonder why soccer hasn't caught on in the US as much as other sports! I am a casual fan and will support the Red, White, and Blue in any sport, but I understand the less-than-casual fans' lack of concern for the World Cup. Look, if in any major sport, a grown man pretends to be hurt long enough for his opponent to be punished, then scampers off as if nothing had happened to him, the guy would be railroaded on the next play (his teammates would probably approve as well!). But not in soccer! The diving is ridiculous! McBride gets nailed by an intentional elbow and the perp is tossed. (note, there was blood to prove the injury). In that case, the punishment fit the crime. Then, two US players are red-carded within a couple of minutes of play for late tackles (and Italian pansies rolling around on the grass). How are real men supposed to get into this stuff?

You can take this quote to the bank. Sometimes, I can't get into a slower paced soccer games. But even in the best most action packed game in history, it will still have this crap in it and it almost makes the game unwatchable. They're almost as bad as Dwayne Wade. (did I just say that!? )

[SuperJon]

The world soccer community is coming out against all of the diving. Nike Soccer made a commercial about it. Everyone, even players, are tired of it.

[Brokeback Flamer]

Wow have I fallen behind on this thread. Ok so it is late but I am picking ARGENTINA. Why? I like their wine and they are eitehr the 2nd or 3rd largest beef producer. Booze and Beef what better combination.
XM is great, b/c you can catch all the games if you are away from the TV!!
The USA/Italy game was interesting to say the least. Having watched the game with a veteran soccer coach/player/official he agreed with the first American red card. Something about coming in cleats up. I am not sure but wasn't going to argue. As for the second one, a good conversation could have taken care of it. Suprisingly, he was most upset with the offside call that took the goal out of the net. He rationalization was that the player was not part of the play and in fact tried to get out of the way and should have been ruled a goal. Having said that, who would have thunk we STILL have a chance to advance!!
What is everyone's favorite nickname? Mine.............Socceroos, what can I say. The Black Stars (?) is a close second.
Would Madonna, Cher or Beyonce' be just as good playing women's soccer, after al they go buy a one name monicer.
Can you believe the passion? This is WHY it si so popular. I was watching with my "partner" and they really are not the soocer cognisent, but couldn't take their eyes off of it. Was it because there were sweaty men in shorts, maybe, but they could not believe the game went by so quickly.
Why haven't we had a streaker yet?
My favorite moment so far: The crowd for England singing God Save the Queen. It was GREAT.

[PeterParker]

I would like to see Dempsey and Beasley on the field at the same time instead of inplace of each other, Dempsey had a fearlessness that was refreshing to see coming from the American side...

[LUconn]

Beasley was terrible in the first game. Onyewu or however you spell that, needs to learn how to be a little less physical at times. The guy is gonna get carded becuase he basically grabs and pulls at every challenge. It's fine that he does that but if you do it 10 times in a row they're gonna card you.

[ALUmnus]

Other than the lack of creativity and generally overall feel for the game, I've thought Beasley has been one of the biggest flaws in both US games. He has displayed such minimul effort and willingness to challenge and his passing has been aweful. I would have much rather seen Eddie Johnson yesterday than DeMarcus Beasley.

[bigsmooth]

eddie johnson over beasley anyday. damarcus has proved to me that he is lazy.

[ALUmnus]

Well, I feel pretty good about the US' chances. I have no doubt in my mind that they can beat Ghana, they play very well and have lots of success against teams with that style of play and type of player, not to mention their striker is suspended for the game. And Italy will be playing it's heart out for a win, they do not want to play Brazil in the next round, so they need to win the group. I'm thinking the US is going to be playing Brazil next week.

[SuperJon]

We just freaking got screwed on that penalty. That was complete and utter bullcrap. There was no way that was a penalty. I'm starting to believe this Us against The World stuff.

[LUconn]

That was the worst call I've ever seen. I don't think there's any other sport where a ref can basically determine who wins, like in soccer. Goals are so rare that when you hand one to a team, they're gonna win.

[SuperJon]

If that was outside of the box, I could somewhat, barely, understand a foul there. However, in the box you can't call that. Like the studio guy said, in this type of game, the only way you call a penalty is if you pull the guy down by the hair and punch him a few times.

[BJWilliams]

Man, that's terrible! Are they trying to keep us out of the next round or something?

[SuperJon]

Yes.



The funny thing is, we're wanting so hard to get to the next round. Our reward: Brazil.

[SuperJon]

Yea, we're screwed now. Ten minutes left, refs not giving us a call. Ok, as I said that we get one. That better be a card. Ok, good. Free kick right outside the box. We better capitalize. Yet again, Donovon plays a piece of crap ball. He has completely freaking sucked this World Cup. So much for him being our best player. I guess he's our version of A-Rod. Italy's helping us out, we just can't finish a friggin shot.

Yes, I'm bitter. We're better than this and the refs screwed us and gave Ghana a goal they didn't deserve.

Now we're just throwing up crap shots that are worthless.

[SuperJon]

Now Ghana's just falling down randomly to waste time. Yes, I'm ticked.

[SuperJon]

Donovan just had a shot inside the box and didn't take it. I don't even know why I'm still watching.

[LUconn]

What a bunch of BS. If soccer players didn't show such great "sportsmanship" by kicking the ball out of bounds when a player is down rolling around, 100% chance that players would get up instead of faking it. How can these pansies live with themselves getting taken off the field in a stretcher because they fell down on level ground?

[SuperJon]

Thank you ESPN Analysts - Bruce Arena blew this. It's the truth. Julie Foudy is defending him a little bit but they're still throwing a lotta blame on him.

[Libertine]

All over but the cryin'. Lazy effort from Game 1 put us in the hole for the next two. Nobody wanted to take control and it looked like Arena was out of ideas in the first 5 minutes.

In their defense, the US soccer players are, by and large, physically inferior to that of most of the world's players. I think their as talented and athletic as anyone else but the size difference is overwhelming. Our US players are, for the most part, average-sized guys. In the US, if a kid is 6'5" 240, he puts on pads and lines up at tight end. Everywhere else in the world, they put him at striker or defender. The first goal against us in the Czech game was a header off of Koller who's 6'7" and was defended by a guy six inches shorter. Until we can put physically bigger athletes on the stage, success for us in the World Cup is going to be sporadic at best.

[SuperJon]

We were too defensive minded and made stupid mistakes (dribbling in the back bit us in the butt more than once). most people are calling for Arena's head. He won't be coach next time the World Cup rolls around.

[bigsmooth]

i consider myself to be very knowledgable about soccer, having played and coached at the select level. guys, bruce arena is the best coach the USA has. he has won at every level, and despite the world cup failure, we have faired pretty well in international friendlies and qualifiers. the players have to take some of the blame on this. our so-called superstars, landon donovan, damarcus beasley, and claudio reyna were horrible. in the end the coach is the fall guy, so im sure arena will get the boot. yes the size of players is a factor, but in the czech game we had players caught out of position which contributed in that goal being scored. also dribbling to the back sets up the play down the field. watch any team and you will see that we may have gone too far back in our defensive third, but that is tactical soccer. in then end this team was way too hyped, and it shows the USA is still along way from being a national player. we will continue to produce good individual players that can play overseas, but as a whole unit, we still lack the tenaacity, and skill to be great. finally until we become great or a top 4 team, we will never get calls overseas. it is a shame that FIFA turns their heads on this, b/c that PK call was ridiculous...not even a fringe call. all of this, plus the hype and the diving makes a fringe soocer fan hate the sport. personally i like college soccer much better anyway. certainly a sad day for US Soccer....this has set us back.

[A.G.]

At least we won't have to watch ESPN's stupid countdown timer EVERY FREAKING DAY!!!

[SuperJon]

Smoothie, I consider myself pretty knowledgeable of the game. I played all the time growing up (best keeper in the league...these were in the BF days). Arena is a great coach, but I think he coached way too conservatively. He's been here 8 years (or something like that) and I think the players are just getting tired of him. It happens in all sports.

[bigsmooth]

SJ, im not hear to argue on who knows more and we both have our opinions. i do not think we were conservative, we just did not play the way we have over the past year. look at all the qualifiers we played, they took plenty of shots, and played better defense. i dont care if the players grow tired of the coach or not, play to your abilities and if you still lose then fine. we played lazy for the most part and it showed.