Everything Soccer

[notredomer23]

Gyasi looks good. Zusi is active at least and wants it. Yedlin not bad.

Michael Bradley. I can almost only laugh. No more defending this guy. Let's hope Emerson Hyndman and Gedion Zelalem grow up big time in the next two years because Bradley has been trash the last three major tournaments now. His last good tournament was 2010 WC.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

Everything Soccer

There are two players on the US side that look like they are playing the same game as Argentina.

Everyone else looks so lost and scared that it's frustrating. Bradley is sooooooooo bad tonight.

Bradley looks so bad in the midfield in every major tournament game!


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[DomerInHappyValley]

Mens team sucking and Skylar gets engaged. I almost want to ask, but I'm afraid of the answer.

 

[Emcee77]

Wow, that was so bad. I'm honestly not sure that anything we could have done would have changed the W/L result against a team that strong, but I gotta figure we could have been better than that.

Beckerman was totally overwhelmed in midfield. I thought he was the real goat, although Bradley was bad too.

Pulisic looked bright after he came on. Should have started.

I don't know what was up with the utter inability to string passes together, which Donovan pointed out during the telecast. So many balls just to no one. We looked either panicked or deficient in skill. I'm not sure which I'd prefer it to be.

Another good point Donovan made is that sometimes you do have to just give credit to a better team. Argentina is just faster than us, physically and mentally, and we couldn't cope with their pressing. Again, I'm sure we could have performed better than we did, but some of it is just down to playing a better team.

 

[gkIrish]

That was embarrassing. Our first touches were about as bad as I've ever seen. Our headers were atrocious. We gave up the early goal and gave up in general after that.

Zardes was the only guy I thought even attempted to create any chances.

 

[Emcee77]

That was embarrassing. Our first touches were about as bad as I've ever seen. Our headers were atrocious. We gave up the early goal and gave up in general after that.

Zardes was the only guy I thought even attempted to create any chances.

Agreed, Zardes, whom I've criticized a lot in this tournament, was a bright spot. He has the athleticism to hold his own against anyone.

The morning after: Boiling down the USMNT loss to Argentina – ProSoccerTalk

The above article pretty much describes how I feel about it. Zusi was ok I guess, but we really, really missed Jermaine Jones and Bedoya. Especially Jones. There was just such a deficit of athleticism last night.

 

[ACamp1900]

We missed Wood... His work rate alone was a huge miss.

 

[NDohio]

Agreed, Zardes, whom I've criticized a lot in this tournament, was a bright spot. He has the athleticism to hold his own against anyone.

The morning after: Boiling down the USMNT loss to Argentina – ProSoccerTalk

The above article pretty much describes how I feel about it. Zusi was ok I guess, but we really, really missed Jermaine Jones and Bedoya. Especially Jones. There was just such a deficit of athleticism last night.

Yeah, I am not much of a fan of Bedoya's game but he was missed last night. He had been playing the defensive midfield spot really well this tournament and not having him last night opened up the middle of the field for Argentina.

I hate that Wondo continues to get the opportunity to play over our young, athletic speedsters. The only impact Wondo had was fouling Messi to set up a beautiful free kick. Not having Wood available hurt, but can we please retire Wondo?

That Argentina team is good...

 

[calvegas04]

Hahaha iceland!!!

 

[ACamp1900]

Iceland v England... Those two should just play the game and go home, neither team has neither enough quality to sniff the rest of the bracket's jock.

 

[ACamp1900]

No offense to Iceland***

 

[nlroma1o]

Iceland v England... Those two should just play the game and go home, neither team has neither enough quality to sniff the rest of the bracket's jock.

I agree. They'd be doing the rest of the bracket a favor. lol

 

[ND NYC]

will the US Mens team ever get there?

pathetic showing last night.

 

[NorthDakota]

Iceland v England... Those two should just play the game and go home, neither team has neither enough quality to sniff the rest of the bracket's jock.

You mean the Pub All-Star team?

 

[ACamp1900]

will the US Mens team ever get there?

pathetic showing last night.

Yes, not this generation though... Im very confident that by time I'm old and gray, I'm 36, the USMNT all be consistently among the better teams in the world.

 

[ACamp1900]

You mean the Pub All-Star team?

I mean, they can't even pronounce 'Bar' correctly....

'Speak English to me Tony. I thought this country spawned the fuckin language... and so far no one seems to speak it!'

 

[ACamp1900]

They go from missing a gimme goal to hitting a world class one a minute later....


Ireland.

 

[Saint Shamrock]

Turkey must be raging with the side Conte put out .

 

[dublinirish]

They go from missing a gimme goal to hitting a world class one a minute later....


Ireland.

yeah crazy few mins alright. when wes missed that sitter i never thought we'd score but this sunday should be a fun match up

 

[NorthDakota]

yeah crazy few mins alright. when wes missed that sitter i never thought we'd score but this sunday should be a fun match up

Never forget.

 

[IrishLax]

I like the idea of taking penalty shots from where the foul occurred however I would allow a player to "center" the ball if the foul occurred outside the goal post lengths. I would also allow a referee to use discretion to allow a normal penalty kick for egregious penalties like tackling from behind even if it's just inside the box.

I think most fans agree that there should be no shootout. I like the idea of pulling a player.

Actually really like the PK idea...

I do like the PK idea.

I always thought it would be great if yellow cards were also a 5 minute penalty like a power play.

Instead of bringing a player of the field every 15 minutes for OT, just automatically make it 8 on 8. It is such a more wide open game at that. You don't even need to make that golden goal. Two 15 minute periods of 8 on 8 will have at least three or four goals. Especially if you allow unlimited subs from the 3 people of the 11 that you had taken out for 8 on 8.

The PK idea is by far my most legitimate, because I think it irks everyone the effect that one (possibly blown) call can have on the game because the conversion rate for PKs is so high. Making them kick from the spot of the foul would be much more organic. If you had to take it from the spot of the foul (GK's centering idea also seems legit but you'd probably need to trial and error with some sort of arc) it's going to weight egregious fouls on golden scoring opportunities higher than ones on the sides or edge of the box... would add a lot of intrigue.

I also really think the card system should be revamped and I think there is legitimate merit to sending off players for a short amount of time for certain fouls. "Power plays" = aggressive soccer = everyone wins.

In general, I think everyone agrees hat the most exciting soccer is played wide open and aggressive. I'd love rule changes that encourage that type of play versus "parking the bus"... in the current state of affairs a "lesser" squad is alays incentivized to play conservative. Who has some (realistic) suggestions for how that could happen?

 

[ACamp1900]

I'd love to see Ireland give the world a "Brazil moment"... doubt they could trash them like that but at least knock them out.

 

[gkIrish]

In general, I think everyone agrees hat the most exciting soccer is played wide open and aggressive. I'd love rule changes that encourage that type of play versus "parking the bus"... in the current state of affairs a "lesser" squad is alays incentivized to play conservative. Who has some (realistic) suggestions for how that could happen?

One thing I hate is that when teams take a lead they just start passing it back to the goalie every few minutes and burn 30 seconds. Obviously this is smart strategy but it's frustrating to watch because soccer has no shot clock and it's fairly easy to play keep away. You can't force teams to turn it over without committing a lot of men and that completely opens you up to a goal so teams don't do it.

So I would give referees the discretion to hand out a "team" yellow card if he feels the team is unnecessarily playing it backwards too much. The first yellow would essentially put the team on notice that it must stop doing it and the second yellow (resulting in the offending team removing one of its players) would rarely happen after that initial warning. These cards would have no effect on subsequent games.

 

[NDohio]

USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann emerges as favorite for Southampton coaching job

One can hope!!

 

[notredomer23]

Pulling for Iceland and Ireland as underdogs even though I picked France to win. It would be the ultimate redemption for Ireland for the 2010 WC.

As far as others go, I am really looking forward to Portugal v Croatia.

Italy and Spain should be great as well.

 

[ACamp1900]

Your first mistake was taking sides with France.... some American you are.

 

[NDRock]

USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann emerges as favorite for Southampton coaching job

One can hope!!

Who would you like to see take over? I don't watch a ton of NT soccer but the talent just isn't there no matter what line up decisions or player choices Jurgen makes. Maybe it's his fault the talent isn't there since he is the technical director. As my old high school basketball coach used to say "it's hard to make chicken salad out of chicken shit".

 

[ACamp1900]

We have better than 'chicken shit' talent... Too many squares in round holes currently and I would argue some of our best/ better players simply don't play on Klinsmans team... Or don't play where they are naturally suited.

The obvious choice is probably Caleb Porter... I'd also throw Jesse Marsch out there, I feel his high work rate, pressing style would be such a breath of fresh air for us... Make other teams freakin earn it. Though with his style say good bye to Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore, cuz they ain't chasing the ball around in the offensive third. I also think his style might help Bradley's current issues.

No matter who takes over next, address the heavy touches or send the heavy touch players packing... It's really not THAT hard to find players that can control loft and through passes... Unless your the USMNT apparently... And fix the damn complete inability to control the ball at the midfield and string some passes together ( forwards with any kind of above average work rate, see Pulisic and Wood, can really help with this). I think it's about time to move on from the Golden Generation of Dempsey, Bradley, Donovan, Jones and company( unless Bradley, who is younger, can find himself again)... They brought us so very far from where we were, but they're not taking us any further.

 

[ACamp1900]

Just when it starts to look like Celtic and Rangers indeed have an open path to joining the English system... the feckin English go and do something daft.

 

[ACamp1900]

I know the Swiss goal early was great but what a bad day to display soccer all day for American audiences... Two bad games in the Euros, then the MLS game has been a snoozer... Hopefully our boys show up tonight...

On the Euros, everyone is completely over reacting to the brackets... I get that Germsny, Spain and Itsky are all bunched together... But the other side of that bracket is kind of a laugher... I'd love to see Ireland pull it off but realistically I have to think France will cake walk to the Semis, the winner of the other game certainly has no chance... Then on the opposite side you have Poland, Portugal, and (especially) Belgium... We shall see... I got Germany and Belgium ( how epic would that be!?) as Germany ends Frances run on home soil.