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Confederations Cup

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TX Bill said:
Well one of the USA announcers said it best.

If you had told us before the Confederations Cup started that the USA would get runners up medals, I think we'd have all been thrilled.

But after that match, I can't help but think of what could have been. You could see it on the faces of the American players. They had it in their grasp and then lost it.

All credit to Brazil. That's why they're Brazil.

But I'd be lying to you all if I didn't think we might pull it off.

I think one of the positives out of this though is that the USA now knows that it can player against quality teams. We just need to learn to be consistent and develop a level of consistency in our play that we haven't had before.

This should tournament should do wonders for us in terms of the rest of our World Cup qualifying as well as the World Cup next summer.
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It was a good show for football for the USA IMO. I think it showed the team is full of really good players that will probably be snapped up in the summer IMO.

Its a shame the MLS is seen as such a poor league. I feel that the majority of that USA team who arent alredy playing football aboard really should do to improve their game. But as most teams (like South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon etc) the more exposure and more believe in the sport, the better the players that come out of that country. Its took years but it showed the USA are a good and very hard team to beat. And hey, you beat Spain, which is a far cry from the England national team anyway

They just didnt stop the wing play in the second half, which is Brazil's big threat under Dunga...everything else from them seem below par.

I think they whole fitness level dropped and they looked tired. They didnt get out done tactically, they got out done stamina wise IMO. Bradley was a big miss.

But hey, I was all USA when they banged those two goals in...showed how poor Brazil are defensively.
 
Maverick said:
Since the upset on Wednesday, soccer has been all the talk here in the states. I follow a bunch of people (both random, friends and celebs) and this afternoon was all soccer talk.

This weekend definitely will be a big boost for popularity of the USMNT (US Men's National Team) here in the USA
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But even thought the USA lost, you'd think that the match would've encapculated wants amazing about Football?

One minute you're on cloud nine, the next its tension, then dread then you wait for the glimmer of hope in the dying seconds. The term "its the taking part that counts" doesnt seem to bode well over in the States it seems.

If that were England who beat Spain after coming back from nothing in the group stages and almost beat Brazil in the final, there would be praise across the board.
 
kenada_blue said:
It was a good show for football for the USA IMO. I think it showed the team is full of really good players that will probably be snapped up in the summer IMO.

Its a shame the MLS is seen as such a poor league. I feel that the majority of that USA team who arent alredy playing football aboard really should do to improve their game. But as most teams (like South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon etc) the more exposure and more believe in the sport, the better the players that come out of that country. Its took years but it showed the USA are a good and very hard team to beat. And hey, you beat Spain, which is a far cry from the England national team anyway

They just didnt stop the wing play in the second half, which is Brazil's big threat under Dunga...everything else from them seem below par.

I think they whole fitness level dropped and they looked tired. They didnt get out done tactically, they got out done stamina wise IMO. Bradley was a big miss.

But hey, I was all USA when they banged those two goals in...showed how poor Brazil are defensively.
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That is probably true but I don't think it would help in generating interest in the States. They need a strong domestic league to create enough interest to start competing with NFL/AFL/NHL and Basketball. I think an immediate answer would be to attract more world stars in the short term to raise the profile.
 
Lao said:
That is probably true but I don't think it would help in generating interest in the States. They need a strong domestic league to create enough interest to start competing with NFL/AFL/NHL and Basketball. I think an immediate answer would be to attract more world stars in the short term to raise the profile.
Click to expand...

Its catch 22. They always do that thing of bringing world stars in...most of who are over the hill and looking for a payday.

Its tough for the MLS to make an impact unless they just steal a load of players from South America and go that route of bringing in cheeky youngsters in.

Soccer over their will never be as big as Baseball etc.
 
MLS isn't as poor as everyone makes out but it certainly isn't on par with most of the well known leagues around the world.

We've made pretty good strides in the following areas since the league's inception in '96:

  • Getting footbal specific stadums built vs. sharing with American gridiron football clubs or universities.
  • The quality of the players brought in from overseas. Simply just marquee names the first few years looking for a final payday but now the names brought in from overseas are predominately for the improvement in play.
  • The coaching, tactics, etc....
  • The supporters and fan base. Look at expansion team Seattle. They sold 20,000+ season tickets in their first season.
  • Media coverage and televised matches.
However, there are several areas that need continue improvement such as:

  • The development of the American player. NCAA Division 1 football will NOT be the future of MLS. We need to develop academy systems just like the clubs overseas.
  • The technical development (on the ball) aspects of the MLS player.
  • The players salaries. They could hardly be considered "professional" except for a select few.
  • A well run reserve system.
  • A league schedule that is in line with the rest of the world. MLS was originally set up for the match dates so as not to potentially conflict with gridiron football.
  • I'd say that that single entity that MLS in terms of holding players contracts needs to be sorted in the future. When? I don't know.
Some would say we need to go to a single table system with relegation and promotion but we're a long, long way from that.

I'm sure I've missed a few areas that my fellow Americans can add but the league has improved immensely from the days that MLS first started.
 

It needs work put it that way hahah.

Hopefully the final will be a stepping stone further. Alot of people were impressed with USA who would write them off normally.
 
TX Bill said:
MLS isn't as poor as everyone makes out but it certainly isn't on par with most of the well known leagues around the world.

We've made pretty good strides in the following areas since the league's inception in '96:

  • Getting footbal specific stadums built vs. sharing with American gridiron football clubs or universities.
  • The quality of the players brought in from overseas. Simply just marquee names the first few years looking for a final payday but now the names brought in from overseas are predominately for the improvement in play.
  • The coaching, tactics, etc....
  • The supporters and fan base. Look at expansion team Seattle. They sold 20,000+ season tickets in their first season.
  • Media coverage and televised matches.
However, there are several areas that need continue improvement such as:

  • The development of the American player. NCAA Division 1 football will NOT be the future of MLS. We need to develop academy systems just like the clubs overseas.
  • The technical development (on the ball) aspects of the MLS player.
  • The players salaries. They could hardly be considered "professional" except for a select few.
  • A well run reserve system.
  • A league schedule that is in line with the rest of the world. MLS was originally set up for the match dates so as not to potentially conflict with gridiron football.
  • I'd say that that single entity that MLS in terms of holding players contracts needs to be sorted in the future. When? I don't know.
Some would say we need to go to a single table system with relegation and promotion but we're a long, long way from that.

I'm sure I've missed a few areas that my fellow Americans can add but the league has improved immensely from the days that MLS first started.
Click to expand...

Great post. You are spot on I think with Technical development and coaching. MLS needs to attract European and South American coaches.

I hope you don't think we are being patronising, because I know soccer has made tremendous strides in recent years. As you say though it has a lot to compete with before it can stand on it's own and demand air time without consideration for so called bigger sports.
 
Gutted by the result but we gave it our all. Remember Brasil can put on Danny Alves in the 66th minute while (and this is not a critizism) we have Johnathan Bornstein.

I'm most happy to say I finally got to see a tourney to see a dedicated Donovan putting in 100% before his 30th birthday and not shying away from physical contact. He was awesome and his 1st touch is well, just can't be taught. That goal on the break in the 27th was world class stuff. You could make the argument that he was the best player in the tourney (in my opinion Macon, Fabiano and maybe Kaka were better). Hopefully a La Liga team will stump up the 5-10M US to get him.

Funny: I'm listening to WSD on the radio and someone just asked where they liked to see Donovan and they said Fulham or Everton (though Sevilla or Villareal are my opinion where he'd be best at - that being said we'd never have to worry about a bad corner again and he's played on the right before).

Bradley deserves to be critized for his subs (Casey should not be allowed to be anywhere near the national team) but I really don't think say Torres would have a difference. We weren't holding them at 2-2 for 120min they way they were playing. However he also deserves a ton of credit for sticking with Dempsey when he was awful, moving Spector to LB, and putting in Charlie Davies who was on nobody's radar.

I looked up the Wiki on this Charlie Davies cat. Appearently he had 14 goals in 27 in the Swedish league last year and has 4 in 9 this year. He's a player that Tx was talking about that's a problem for American players. He's 23 now and languished for 3 years in college footie (where by rules you can only practice like 20hrs/week for only about 6 months/year). He has AJ like ability to stretch a defense (he helped give Donovan a ton of space to work with) and be a nuisence and would be alot further along if say he was born in Europe and worked in academy growing up.

Though DeMerrit had a good showing with Watford in the prem so was happy he had a good tourney. He might have bought a ticket back to the prem (was hurt all last year). There's a great article on him in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/sports/soccer/28cup.html
 
Tourney rankings:

Howard - 8

Spector - 7

Onueyu - 8

DeMerrit - 7

Bocanegra - 5

Dempsey - 7

Bradley - 7

Clark - 7 would be higher if not sent off though it wasn't his fault

Donovan - 9 Has more god-given talent in his pinky than the rest of the squad combined.

Davies - 7 - stretched the defense; don't think it's a considence that we were alot better as soon as he came in.

Altidore - 5.5

Subs:

Bornstein - 4 played hard just out of his league against the players he was up against

Feinhaber - 7 (some mistakes; some brilliance)

Casey - 2

Beasley - 2 (He's not recovered from his knee injury and about 3 steps slower than last year)

Klejstain - 3 (one good shot on goal against Italy, bad mistakes everywhere)
 
Rook said:
Tourney rankings:

Howard - 8

Spector - 7

Onueyu - 8

DeMerrit - 7

Bocanegra - 5

Dempsey - 7

Bradley - 7

Clark - 7 would be higher if not sent off though it wasn't his fault

Donovan - 9 Has more god-given talent in his pinky than the rest of the squad combined.

Davies - 7 - stretched the defense; don't think it's a considence that we were alot better as soon as he came in.

Altidore - 5.5

Subs:

Bornstein - 4 played hard just out of his league against the players he was up against

Feinhaber - 7 (some mistakes; some brilliance)

Casey - 2

Beasley - 2 (He's not recovered from his knee injury and about 3 steps slower than last year)

Klejstain - 3 (one good shot on goal against Italy, bad mistakes everywhere)
Click to expand...

8 for howard is harsh, 2 for casey is generous
 

Jones courted controversy in 2004 for an interview for popular sports magazine Sport-BILD. When asked whether there were gay footballers in the Bundesliga, he said "hopefully not."

:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
TX Bill said:
MLS isn't as poor as everyone makes out but it certainly isn't on par with most of the well known leagues around the world.

We've made pretty good strides in the following areas since the league's inception in '96:

  • Getting footbal specific stadums built vs. sharing with American gridiron football clubs or universities.
  • The quality of the players brought in from overseas. Simply just marquee names the first few years looking for a final payday but now the names brought in from overseas are predominately for the improvement in play.
  • The coaching, tactics, etc....
  • The supporters and fan base. Look at expansion team Seattle. They sold 20,000+ season tickets in their first season.
  • Media coverage and televised matches.
However, there are several areas that need continue improvement such as:

  • The development of the American player. NCAA Division 1 football will NOT be the future of MLS. We need to develop academy systems just like the clubs overseas.
  • The technical development (on the ball) aspects of the MLS player.
  • The players salaries. They could hardly be considered "professional" except for a select few.
  • A well run reserve system.
  • A league schedule that is in line with the rest of the world. MLS was originally set up for the match dates so as not to potentially conflict with gridiron football.
  • I'd say that that single entity that MLS in terms of holding players contracts needs to be sorted in the future. When? I don't know.
Some would say we need to go to a single table system with relegation and promotion but we're a long, long way from that.

I'm sure I've missed a few areas that my fellow Americans can add but the league has improved immensely from the days that MLS first started.
Click to expand...

I would add officiating in the "needs improvement" area. I know everyone knocks refs everywhere including the Premier League, but the inconsistency of the MLS officials is something of a joke. There are a few decent officials but I see way too many strange decisions in almost every game.
 

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