Let me be the first to say, suck it, rest of the world. We know you don't like us and we know you don't think we're a worthy soccer nation, but I speak of many of us who played soccer for a long time and who actually enjoy international soccer when I say, bite me.
The USA men's team is undefeated (and was almost out of the tourney despite being undefeated) and not only defeated Algeria on an extra time goal, but also overcame two incorrectly disallowed goals in three games. Several incorrect out-of-bounds calls (a late one today that would have resulted in a corner kick for the US), an incorrect handball call on Jozy today, etc., etc. I am not normally one of those people who points to referee calls because I think in sports it usually evens out.
That said, I do not think that about the World Cup this year. The US is widely disliked and, as I have said, thought of as a lesser soccer nation. And the referees displayed ridiculous contempt for the US by trying to screw them over and, in one case, refusing to explain a call that cost the United States a win. Incredible. And inexcusable. Well, again, suck it, and yes, call us arrogant, call us obnoxious, whatever. I don't care. None of us do.
The USA just won their group -- which contained England, among the snootiest d-bags out there -- and moves on.
And good for Landon Donovan. Guy has given a lot to USA soccer and has had his named cursed in many countries for not being up to their standards.
10 comments:
If I ever saw a man writhing in pain as Altidore was in the second half, I'd call an ambulance and then the police to try to detain the thug who perpetrated such an atrocity.
But, after a few seconds on the ground, he was up and at 'em.
Of course, Dempsey gets his face bloodied on an elbow- that's not a foul. Soccer makes sense.
I'm happy the US won...only because I like people not liking the US and them moving on should help. Plus, I like seeing people cry in the stands and there was plenty of that for the Algerian fans.
My word verification is "fiters"
As in, Some of the US players are fiters...the rest are typical soccer softies.
I won't claim to be well-versed (or even versed) in soccer well enough to argue about just about anything soccer-related, but here's my one observation.
They need more on-field officials. It seems like some of these calls are the result of officials not being in right position. It's a big field, it's alot of running, the game moves fast at critical moments.....one guy cannot see everything.
There isn't a bigger sport in the world and the idea that you can get by with one official would be laughable in any other team sport. The NBA has three guys and they don't have nearly as many players or space to watch.
Throw in the fact that one official can make or break the game, and it's ripe for game fixing.
They are jealous of our GDP and liberty.
I don't understand why soccer has offsides. If you are craft enough to get behind the defense and score, shouldn't that be rewarded and encouraged? Its like they want less scoring. Imagine basketball with backdoor passes made illegal.
Image golf with people allowed to talk while someone is trying to get out of a bunker.
Soccer without offsides would be an embarrassment. It would become a game of cherry-picking and screening the keeper.
Actually, it would be more like six-on-six basketball, where some people would never leave the offensive end. More scoring? Oh no. You'd just have more defensive players hanging back to neutralize the offensive players.
Chris, it's more like hockey: the assistants can call some things and can alert the ref to others, but yeah, having another on-field ref sure wouldn't hurt, especially when you consider things like fouls/handballs in the box being completely miscalled or missed. (They could also use some help making offside calls, but that's not going to happen. It's taking enough effort simply to get a system in place to detect whether or not the ball is across the goal line.)
Speaking of the officials, we ought to expect that they're going to blow some calls. What sucks is that the USMNT is playing like some Purdue football teams from the past: just good enough to cause some real problems for the top sides, but not (always) good enough to overcome bad calls.
It should have been 2-0 or 3-0 US at the half, regardless of the three blind mice on the field. We can't leave goals on the field like that. When the net is open, a ball needs to go in it. Algeria is a middle-of-the-road side and we made them look like a top-16 side.
Ghana is about the same class as Algeria, although they've played somewhat better recently. Avoid conceding PKs (that's been exceptional luck so far, DeMerit needs to stop grabbing jerseys in the box) and for God's sake, stop falling down on defense at the five-minute mark, and we should be through to the quarters. South Korea is another side playing over its head, and while Uruguay won their group, they're not the best South American side at all. Forlan is dangerous, but Uruguay wasn't tested nearly as much as expected (especially considering how poorly cheating France played), and if they beat the Koreans, we could still make it to the semis, which means a) two more matches, no matter what, and b) we're there and all but three others are not, screw the rest of you.
J,
I had to listen to the game while driving to Corpus for work. Thank God for 97.5! I had to pull over when the signal was fading. When we scored, I was yelling inside my car parked at a gas station! Unbelievable...I'll leave the conspiracy theory stuff alone for now...on to Saturday's matchup!
Brent
Zlionsfan, you sound like a foreigner with your "facts" and "knowledge" and "understanding of the game". All those well reasoned opinions make you sound like an NPR listener or a Canadian. You need to be more like Purdue Matt with his sophomoric simplifications like "They are jealous of our liberty".
lol! How's this: If you're not a Yank, you're a Wank! (I have a few friends who follow English Premier League soccer pretty seriously. They're American, though, so hopefully I can get them to come up with some solid insults for the next match or two. Obviously if we get far enough to play England or Germany, the insults write themselves.)
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