Forbidden Donut

It won't be an upset considering England hasn't been doing good as of late

WE SHALL DESTROY YOU!!!!111212!!!


xD

Just kidding, not too hawt on the states side, but u definately have some solid players and I can't say I have that much faith in our side. I wouldn't be surprised if we scraped 2nd in the group stages. Still, fucking pumped!

WORLD CUP!

Now that question is, should I watch it at a friends place, or go to the bar?

Depends on the friends. Depends on the bar.

I'll be going to the "British Style"* Pub run by an Australian and staffed by Mexicans to watch me some WC action.

*I think that is supposed to refer to there being Boddington's on draft and an entirely gray menu.

xD

I wil most certainly be hitting up some pubs for that uber awesome atmosphere. You guys are really missing out on that front.

I'll watch, but the Irish got fucking shafted. So my enthusiasm levels are rather low.

USA looked alright vs Australia, made me feel a little bit better about the team. England played that friendly vs a local South African team, so I don't know how much you can take away from that game. I am glad all of USA's friendlies are over. Every other time a USA player gets the ball I am scared they are going to get jacked up before the tourney starts!

Two

More

Days!

USA! USA! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

1st place in the group for the first time since 1930.

Suck it England. <3

holy crap that was intense! rock the world cup!

Cunts.

Sorry it pains you to see soccer become more popular. our side kick balls better than your side.

neener.

Have fun playing ... Germany is it?

Epic.

That game was so stressful with such a release I don't even know how to put it into words.

That ending is something out of a movie.

Now USA is set up for games against Ghana and South Korea/Urugway. Tough games, and we are not really favored, but with the path to the Semi's that we have it is totally possible that we can make it. Then all we would have to do is beat ...Spain? again..and that will be easy right? Good luck England with Germany....Argentina would be rough.

GO USA!

On another forum I frequent someone made an interesting point. While soccer is certainly not the most popular sport in the USA, you tell me a series of games, or game that pulled so many Americans together in the streets to root for America. The bars were packed, the streets were full of people wearing red/white/blue. Great day.

I don't believe it did, but the USA/Canada Olympic hockey games deserved it.

Lets hope more of you retards start to come round to the idea of football being the worlds greatest game.

/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" />


I have a best friend in Germany, so I have to be honest I'm looking forward to phoning her during the game, if only for all the world war 2 chants I'll be throwing her way, but our draw looks rough from hear on out.

Never the less, I fucking love the world cup none the less, even with the constantly underwhelming performances our national team put out year after year.

If you guys put in the performances you are capable of you could give Ghana a run for their money, but I'd honestly favour them ever so slightly to edge you out. I wouldn't of been to pleased at the prospect of Ghana either, so facing Germany now is a good way to give our first true knock out game a real juicy feel.

It's funny because watching more soccer has done precisely the opposite for me.

People making poor decisions at this level of play is pretty terrible. And frequent. In every single game where a team has a lead they should be wasting time. The team that is behind should be pushing. Period. It's the only strategy that advances your respective goals. So when you're ahead and near the sideline and a player from the opposing team kicks a ball out in your general direction you should *let it go*. I've watched every team that has gotten ahead stop balls from going out.

I wonder if these players play on pure instict and just never think about why they are doing what they are doing.

Shots flying 6 - 10 feet over the goal? That upsets me.

idk. I like it and all, but I'm still either not grasping the strategy or it's just not there.

I mean there are diff ways to approach the game. Of course after getting ahead you don't want to push like crazy and open yourself up to counter attacks but sitting back, playing one forward, and trying to hold on to a 1 goal lead isn't always a great idea unless you have real faith in your defense.

To me changing drastically your style of play backfires a good amount. How many times have you seen an NFL team take the lead in the final quarter and instead of playing like they did before, they play deep saftiess and try to just cover their bases. What ends up happening? The opposing team drives down the field and does some serious damage.

You also have to consider the way the tie breakers work with goals made having a huge effect. If England had scored a couple more goals in the last game, they'd be in first place instead of us and be playing a different team.

Also, if you want to enjoy the games more, watch the broadcast on the Spanish channels (Univision or Telemundo). The broadcasters are really into it and give you the cues to get excited that are lacking in the English broadcasts.

Obviously, I'm speaking to the guys in the States, but it may be true over the pond or up north as well. I just don't have the credentials speak for it.

If you want to stream the games and espn3 doesn't work for you, I've been using univision:
http://futbol.univision.com/fifacopamundia...rtidos-en-vivo/

I think you are just not getting the strategy.

Probably.

Meanwhile, who is the better goalie?

A. Oliver Kahn
B. Jorge Larrionda

2 minute drill.

They absolutely do change strategies in the NFL when the game is low on time. And the type of strategic approach they take depends on precisely how many points ahead/behind they are.

Ahead 2 - 6? Get that field goal at all costs. And go after their quarterback. This is when the offensive line is weakest and the QB is the slowest. Strip the ball.

Ahead 7+? Run that clock down.

Behind 2? Field Goal. Dowit.

Behind 3 - 6? You need to push for the TD. A field goal is nearly worthless.

Behind 7? You need the TD and a 2 point conversion.

Behind 8+? You need a TD. Then you need to assess your defense. If they can make a stop or get a possession change in <1 minute maybe you'll just kick that bad boy. If there's not enough time on the clock, or your defense sucks, then you try an onside kick to get possession back right away.

You're right about one thing. It's not really wise to just drop your safeties deep in the 2 minute drill unless you're playing against Peyton Manning. You probably want to press coverage with your corners (assuming their built for it and have the speed) because their wide receivers will be tired that late in the game and slowing them down gives you more time to get after the quarterback. Leaving your safeties about 4 -7 yards behind your linebackers is probably the sweet spot.

And then there is clock management. How many timeouts do you have? How many does your opponent have? Who is up? How long has each team been taking to make a decent drive happen in this half? Do you go to the sideline to stop time or do you run the ball down the center of the field to get fewer yards but eat up more of the clock? How far are you from field goal range (by the way, how good is your kicker and what's the weather like today?)

But the comparable point of strategy would be the Hurry Up Offense. Sacrificing complexity of play to take less time off the clock and maybe catch the defense on their heels, having not had adequate time to set up for whatever the hell it is you're doing. Probably some dump pass or a counter run.

In the NFL, when time is tight and the score is close it is a brand new game. A lot of this soccer seems to be more of the same for the last couple minutes and then it just kind of peters out. I'm not seeing their plans, whether they pan out or not. Seems like they just kind of hope the tug of war works out in their favor before time runs out. I'm not saying it would be wise to completely revamp your strategy, and of course with only 3 substitutions some of those options are heavily limited. But it would be nice to see a real push with some heart from the team that's only down by a point. I want to see a defense in soccer "bend" 30 yards back and forth over midfield, wearing down the other team while minimizing their effort. More passing volleys when they are ahead, fewer when they are behind.

Stuff like that. Like I said, maybe I'm literally so ignorant of this sport that I *can't* see what is changing.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
LLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3-1(or 2 if you ignore the stupid effing ref)

They need more refs or cameras... Just a dude whose exclusive job is to stare at one of the goals from the corner.

Robbed of a goal!

=(

Revenge for the 1966 final, but that said we were fucking abysmal and they thoroughly deserved the win. Sucks for Mexico too, conceded the first when it was offside. Not a good day for the linesmen.


Also, I think you're not grasping that much of the sport in general and are having wildly inaccurate expectations based on how a completly different game is played.

You cant expect the tactical approach employed in one type of game to universally apply to all other sports. Tactics are heavily evident in a "soccer" game, but they are more likely to be slow burners, in that a different tactical approach is not going to have an immediate impact. Its a free flowing game.
If the game were to pause every two minutes then sure, you could expect a more obvious instant impact from a substitution or formation change, but it isn't american football and to expect the same kind of spectating experience seems pretty naive.