OT World Cup Thread

[pbiflyer]

Phantom, this is one of the reasons that the Us will not ever be good at soccer. All of our athletes that can perform at that level chose instead to go into professional wrestling.

[unclejohn]

Phantom, this is one of the reasons that the Us will not ever be good at soccer. All of our athletes that can perform at that level chose instead to go into professional wrestling.

Not true. As Suarez has proven, such an athlete could also join the Mike Tyson school of boxing.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I view the dives and making the most of challenges in soccer the same way I view prima donna wide receivers calling for a flag every time they don't catch a pass (as though they couldn't possibly ever just miss a ball, it HAD to be contact), NBA players that flop miserably (cough, Wade/James, cough), and frankly pretty much every other form of cheating from offensive lineman holds to pine tar on a bat or ball to you name it.

As soon as we start keeping score, someone starts looking for a way to cheat. Arjen Robben yesterday was infuriating and his blatant dive put Mexico out of the tournament, but there is an art to that and it's part of the game, just like cheating is in any other sports. Honestly, it'd be nice if the USA had a world class diver like Robben or Ronaldo. It might improve our odds of winning the thing in my lifetime.

[mutpm]

I have been an advocate for soccer for more than two decades, ever since my son joined the Bavarians at age nine. Both my son and my daughter played premier level club soccer and school soccer. My daughter played two years of D-3 college soccer before transferring to UW, and my son was recruited by several schools and was told he could play mid-major D-1 (though he gave up soccer after high school).

I coached soccer for 10 years at the school where I taught, and each year I came to appreciate the game more and more as I began to understand some of the game's nuances.

However, after watching about a half dozen World Cup games, my attitude about the sport - at least as it is played at the highest level - is changing. I will still watch the game Tuesday against Belgium, of course, but I am growing incredibly weary of watching players end up on the ground - often writhing in apparent agony - at least once every two or three minutes, and sometimes three or four times in a single minute.

If I had the patience, I would chart how many times a player ends up on the ground following contact with an opponent. My guess is the count would be somewhere around 50, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were much higher. Yes, the players are incredibly skilled, and they are extremely athletic. But I find the style of play almost unbearable to watch.

I enjoyed watching the U-17 Bavarians play the U-17 Brookfield Soccer Club team in 2000 much more than I've enjoyed watching the best soccer players in the world knock each other to the turf.

I call BS. You're saying 50 times a player goes down in a 90 minute match? I need to start charting this, but in the games I've watched, the number of stoppages for an injury appears to be 6-8, maybe 10 at most. Maybe a couple more over the weekend with the matches going 120 minutes. Do you have an issue with NFL and college football players going down? Those games have at least a couple of stoppages every game for an injury and studies have shown there is only about 15 minutes of action in a 60 minute football game. The ball is in play for nearly the entire 90 minutes in soccer. There are no automatic rests or substitutions like there are in other sports. You play the entire game. That will lead to the increase in fatigue and injuries. Do soccer players fake or embellish an injury? Of course they do. Is that any different than a football player that falls down to stop play? This isn't an anti-football post, I'm just trying to point out that it happens in other sports.

[Phantom Warrior]

I'm not talking only about the "injuries" - real or faked. I'm talking about the number of times a player ends up on the ground and the flow of play is stopped - period. Count the number of fouls - regardless of where they occur on the field. Yes, I'll wager the number is close to 50 on average in a 90-minute game. Each one leads to a stoppage of play - some fairly short, some a good deal longer (especially if they involve a yellow card).

As far as other sports, I feel the same way about an NFL game that has 30+ penalties or an NCAA or NBA basketball game that has 50+ fouls. I don't enjoy watching any of those because of all the stoppages of play. Now, an NFL football game with 10-15 penalties, or an NCAA or NBA basketball game with 25-30 fouls - those I can usually enjoy.

[mutpm]

I'm not talking only about the "injuries" - real or faked. I'm talking about the number of times a player ends up on the ground and the flow of play is stopped - period. Count the number of fouls - regardless of where they occur on the field. Yes, I'll wager the number is close to 50 on average in a 90-minute game. Each one leads to a stoppage of play - some fairly short, some a good deal longer (especially if they involve a yellow card).

As far as other sports, I feel the same way about an NFL game that has 30+ penalties or an NCAA or NBA basketball game that has 50+ fouls. I don't enjoy watching any of those because of all the stoppages of play. Now, an NFL football game with 10-15 penalties, or an NCAA or NBA basketball game with 25-30 fouls - those I can usually enjoy.

I'll wager the number is way lower. Just using the US games, 22 total fouls in the Ghana match, 25 in the Portugal match, and 24 in the Germany match. That's 71 fouls in over 270 minutes. Not all of those fouls result in a delay. Compared to the other major sports, there are far fewer stoppages in soccer than basketball, football, hockey, or baseball.

[Mucrisco]

I think this has been one of the most entertaining World Cups ever.

Brew City, I like the lineup, but I'd keep Fabian in the back. It sounds like Belgium plays a high line and are susceptible to flank runs. Fabian should have a field day at that. I'd also like to see Mix in there. I'd put Johansson up top with Dempsey. Put Jones on the left wing, move Bradley back and on the right side, Beckerman centralized and put Mix in the 10 role. Jones can attack from the wing, cut back and let one of his thunderous right footed shots go.

--------------------------------Dempsey------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------Johansson-------------------------------

---------------------------------------Diskerud------------------------------------------

--------------------Jones-----------Beckerman--------------Bradley-----------------

-----Beas---------------Besler----------------Gonzalez-------------Johnson--------

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I honestly struggle to understand how people can watch American football and not get bored. 11 minutes of action over a 3-hour period? Wall Street Journal did a study and that's it. You spend 2 hours and 49 minutes watching replays, commercials, sideline shots, and Chris Berman at halftime. 11 minutes of action in 3 hours.

Anyway...my worry with that lineup Crisco is there's not much real width to it. One of Belgium's biggest weaknesses is that they are playing 4 central defenders at the back, so I love the idea of being able to get Beasley, Johnson, and Yedlin all raiding down the flanks. Johannsson was just so poor against Ghana, starting him in a game of this magnitude would terrify me.

Either way, I really think Mix is key. Can't wait to see tomorrow's lineup, and hope Jurgen gets him in there.

[Nukem2]

I honestly struggle to understand how people can watch American football and not get bored. 11 minutes of action over a 3-hour period? Wall Street Journal did a study and that's it. You spend 2 hours and 49 minutes watching replays, commercials, sideline shots, and Chris Berman at halftime. 11 minutes of action in 3.

OTOH, watching people run around for a couple hours achieving virtually nothing is rather like watching grass grow.

[ValiantSailor]

OTOH, watching people run around for a couple hours achieving virtually nothing is rather like watching grass grow.

Take away field goals - is there any more useless play in football - and you're left with about the same number of scores between a typical contest in football and soccer. You just have more points awarded in football. But there are many, many more scoring opportunities in a typical soccer contest.

VS