World Cup 2006 LIVE!

[riffjim4069]

A lame effort from a sad-sack US squad: zero wins, two losses, one tie...el stinko!

 

[brainiac]

Si non ho visto la partita degli US... Solo quella dell'Italia.

Ah, capisco adesso!

 

[Purogamer]

The tie doesn't count because they didn't score the goal...

the US just flat out sucks. I couldn't have been happier when reyna got taken off, he's the worst of the worst. ESPN would have you believe these are world class athletes...Hell before the cup they tried to say Casey Keller was one of the best goalies in the world, I just about rammed my head into the wall when they said that, he's AWFUL.

And why does everyone on the US team look so damn old?!?

 

[jollygrunt]

I for one drank the kool-aid. and believed all the pre WC hype from ESPN that the US was better than they actually are.

Fifa's ranking system is a bunch of hooey. After watching the games up to the present, there is no way that the US is ranked 5th in the world. Ghana was ranked 48th or something and beat the stuffing out of the US team.

I hope that a better more experienced coach who's a proven winner is hired to replace Arena ASAP.

 

[Purogamer]

USA looked pretty good before the WC, in fairness. Ghana is a complete surprise, they had like 4 coaches since they qualified for the WC.

But USA is a bunch of old guys with no desire it seems. They just want to stay uninjured for their MLS teams, which are in mid-season. I think it's odd that MLS didn't suspend play while WC is going on...

 

[dimi1963]

USA looked pretty good before the WC, in fairness.QUOTE]
I agree they looked really good before the competition started, they qualified with two games in advance.

 

[salsadancer7]

The US Team had NO IMAGINATION whats so ever offensively. Throughout the entire WC, they looked lost...like a deer in headlights when they had the ball. The ONLY game they played with any sense of urgency/heart was the game against Italia, and they were bailed out by a 'own goal'....but I must admit, they did get a hose job in the Ghana game with the 'phantom penalty' in the box. But, IMHO, the team to me gets a "D-" for a grade.

 

[brainiac]

I'm looking forward to the matches today, especially Argentina-Mexico.

 

[Purogamer]

I'll give the US credit, they miss like nobody else. Never saw a team miss so well...

I think an F is in order since they didn't advance. They were a massive failure on every level, which is what F stands for...

 

[brainiac]

To be honest, I think it was more of a case of unreasonable or false expectations. That #5 world ranking was a sham since they really didn't defeat anyone of consequence during their two years of qualifying, except Mexico.

 

[Ilya]

Good games today! I am glad we are now in the elimination phase of the World Cup. Better teams, more tention, and only 2 games per day. It was hard to follow four games a day in the past few days.

FYI: I have updated the schedule on the first page of this thread (Not the PDF file though - I don't have Acrobat at home).

 

[Purogamer]

The problem is there are only a few true dominant teams here, which is why the US got such a high ranking. Who could have been ranked ahead of them? Look at the 16 teams left, on paper the US should be better than most of these teams...

I didn't expect them to get out of the first round but I expected them to take more than 4 shots on goal in 3 games...

The Mexico-Argentina match is great, and going to Extra time as it is tied 1-1. A shame that one of them has to go so early...This is what football is all about and of course, ABC passed on it in favor of the 3rd Round of the Booz Allen Classic from Potomac MA...Good decision ABC. Golf is established, how about giving football some favorable treatment for once so your investment can start getting some coverage eh?

If you get football popular here, it'll start getting ratings like golf would. I'd like to think there's no better time to pre-empt golf than a saturday afternoon in June when most golfers are PLAYING the damn game and not watching it...

 

[Ilya]

I am glad it's on ESPN, not ESPN2: no ticker at the bottom!

The first extra time of this World Cup...

 

[brainiac]

The problem is there are only a few true dominant teams here, which is why the US got such a high ranking. Who could have been ranked ahead of them? Look at the 16 teams left, on paper the US should be better than most of these teams...

You've got to be kidding! How about Spain, Portugal, France, Argentina, England, Italy, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland just to name a few. According to FIFA:

"Taken into consideration for the ranking are all international-A match results over a time span of the last eight years:

* World Cup finals matches
* World Cup preliminary matches
* FIFA Confederations Cup matches
* Continental championship final matches
* Continental championship preliminary matches
* Friendly matches

The ranking list is produced by a computer program which assigns a team points for every match, according to clearly defined criteria. The factors taken into consideration are:

1. Winning, drawing and losing
2. Number of goals
3. Home or away match
4. Importance of the match (multiplication factor)
5. Regional strength (multiplication factor)

For each team only the seven best results per year are given full weighting. Results from the past are given progressively less weighting year by year until after eight years they are dropped completely. In this way current success is rated more highly than past results. "

Since Mexico is the only other quality team in the CONCACAF region, it would seem like factor #5 would drop them down. Again, over the last two years, the only quality team they've beaten has been Mexico.

 

[Sean Mota]

I have been following the WC very closely although I have not posted a whole lot.

My critism goes against ESPN. ESPN has been talking about the USA Team since Day 1. The Day After the USA was elminiated they will still talking about it. Today 2nd Day after elimination ESPN was still talking about it (What the F***.... What do I care?). Luckily I do not have to listen to ESPN bla bla bla about the USA Team... DVRs are a great thing.

The Sweeden vs Germany was kind of a sleeper game as Sweeden looked kind of lost and did not know what to do with the ball. I am still keep waiting for someone to take down Germany because when you look at them, they still look like a team that can be beat but they find ways to score and keep the other team from scoring more than they.

Argentina vs Mexico was a sweet game. It is a pity that Mexico is already gone from the tournament but someone had to go. I am more an Argentina guy because I have seen some of the players they have in their roster in LA LIGA played on WorldSport.

Tomorrow's matches are going to be very interested. I am going to be watching in delay mode again as I won't be available until the afternoon game.

 

[Purogamer]

I agree, ESPN has got to stop talking about team usa. During Mexico/Argentina today they were talking about someone and said "Another great header...brian mcbride..." and I just was like "He's sitting at home, let it go..." Nobody wants to hear about Team USA...

Spain, Portugal, France, Argentina, England, Italy, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland just to name a few.

France? Are you kidding? England, Argentina, Germany I'll give you. Throw in Mexico and Brazil. That's all I'll give you in terms of being better than the US Team on paper.

 

[hwkn]

I recomend if you have XM turn the Espn/ABC audio off and listen to XM's broadcast[it's much better imho].

 

[brainiac]

I agree, ESPN has got to stop talking about team usa. During Mexico/Argentina today they were talking about someone and said "Another great header...brian mcbride..." and I just was like "He's sitting at home, let it go..." Nobody wants to hear about Team USA...



France? Are you kidding? England, Argentina, Germany I'll give you. Throw in Mexico and Brazil. That's all I'll give you in terms of being better than the US Team on paper.

I didn't include Brazil and Mexico because they're already ranked higher than the US. And are you kidding? France won the World Cup as recently as 1998, and has two of the world's top players in Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane. They're also still playing. As the US found out, you don't play the game on paper.

 

[dimi1963]

Do not leave Italy out of this race, I think that Italy can go all the way. We'll see tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprise that the final would be Italy/Germany vs. Brazil.
ITALIA!!!:clap ITALIA!!! :clap ITALIA!!!:clap

 

[brainiac]

Do not leave Italy out of this race, I think that Italy can go all the way. We'll see tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprise that the final would be Italy/Germany vs. Brazil.
ITALIA!!!:clap ITALIA!!! :clap ITALIA!!!:clap

I didn't forget Gli Azzuri. I mentioned them in my earlier post.