[Bytor Peltor]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

As in just letting the game run cos they are both through?

Believe it was more about being forced to play in bad conditions and not wanting to have any players injured. Said the teams could just kick the ball back and forth across the center circle. I was surprised to learn this tactic had been used in the past.

[!@#$%!]

i believe the weather is due to a fissure between alternate universes because klinsmann is still germany's coach in the other universe and the waves of contradiction are too potent

[Rob Instigator]

I enjoyed the SHIT out of the Argentine Nigeria match! It was fucking awesome!

[Rob Instigator]

The good folks at my work have assigned our Rockwell Pavillion to be used to screen the USA/Deutschland match!

Deutschland unter alles!

[o o o]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

As in just letting the game run cos they are both through?

The only example I can think of is Austria and Germany in the *thinks* '82 world cup. Supposedly just an awful game where even the commentator was saying the ref should stop the game and make them actually play.

edit:aye it was '82

On German TV, commentators immediately made reference to that specific Gijón 82 game, as soon as Sunday's USA-Portugal game ended and it was established that both Germany and USA could qualify with a draw on the last game... I have the feeling there is a good chance that the guy Bytor Peltor mentioned was indeed also making reference to that game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Ge...80%930_Austria

After 10 minutes of furious attack, West Germany succeeded in scoring through a goal by Horst Hrubesch. After the goal was scored, the team in possession of the ball often passed between themselves in their own half until an opposition player came into the vicinity of the ball. The ball was then passed back to the goalkeeper. Isolated long balls were played into the opposition's half, with little consequence. For the next 80 minutes there were few serious attempts on goal, e.g. by Wolfgang Dremmler of West Germany. The only Austrian player who seemed to make any effort at livening the game up was Walter Schachner, though he had little success.

This performance was widely deplored by all observers. German ARD commentator Eberhard Stanjek at one point refused to comment on the game any longer. Austrian commentator Robert Seeger bemoaned the spectacle and actually requested that the viewers should switch off their television sets.

Likewise, many spectators were not impressed and voiced their disgust with the players. Chants of "Fuera, fuera" ("Out, out") and "Que se besen, que se besen" ("Let them kiss, let them kiss") were screamed by the appalled Spanish crowd, while angry Algerian supporters waved banknotes at the players. The match was criticized even by the German and Austrian fans who had hoped for a hot rematch of the 1978 World Cup match, in which Austria had beaten West Germany; one German fan burned the national flag in protest.

I hope we won't have this today!

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

This is total #Kharma for that snow game against Costa Rica...

ALL
WE
NEED
IS
TO
DRAW

[!@#$%!]

There is no ball that Bradley does not lose.

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I enjoyed the SHIT out of the Argentine Nigeria match! It was fucking awesome!

right...perhaps it may have been sloppy like _*(&%(*$&^%@ said....but it kept things very interesting! I mean the fact that Nigeria didn't let Argentina take that one easily was enough for the group play to be exciting!

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

That is true, but I think he gets dissed too much.. He is solid. Could he be better?? Of course. He does enough though..

Really, I think that we are overly relying on Beasley and Jones, and its become VERY CLEAR that Germany scouted against them well.. Jones is pushing his luck, we need some more variety. What we did in the 1st half to keep control of possession by bringing it back to Howard was good, it mixed up Germany's defense, we need to go back to that balance.

Our attacks have been rushed. We can't out speed Germany, but we can play OUR game and sneak in an equalizer..

 

Praise the LORD that thus far Ghana and Portugal are tied..

[EVOLghost]

It looks like Jones is annoyed....but he's annoying me with those dives.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Jones is annoyed because the Germans are pressing him very hard, bordering on dirty, and the ref is enjoying the show..

However my two cents: The US is overly relying on Jones, he played very well in the first games against Ghana and Portugal, but he's not THAT good and Germany is.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Bedoya and Jones just crashing into each other is a great example of those guys trying too hard to do too much..

USA needs to play ITS style and not get too crazy.

I will say this, between ALL the teams playing, including Germany's, I don't recall seeing this many bandages and black eyes in the Group stages.

This may be a high scoring Cup, but its also VERY VERY physical. Thankfully coming from CONCACAF USA is in great shape to compete against physicality, shit, we almost invite it.

[!@#$%!]

we dodged a motherfucking bullet

but

usa defense = sucks

usa attack = sí se puede

[!@#$%!]

ps lucky as second we get an extra rest day. we play… belgium?

[_tunic_]

congratulations guys!
It will probably be Belgium, unless they loose their match. Which would be a disgrace

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

we dodged a motherfucking bullet

but

usa defense = sucks

usa attack = sí se puede

Our defense is actually what saved us. It could have been better, but we won by having the best goal differential in goals allowed, not goals scored.. remember this was a group of death and we just shut down the best offense in FIFA to ONE SCORE?????

USA earned this yo. Its a fucking Group of Death and we competed well.

Beating Ghana sent them home, period.
Drawing against Portugal sent them home, period.
Keeping Germany to just one score sent us through, period.

This is BIG for USA futbol, and I dare say we can play well against Belgium if we just tighten up our mistakes. Against Portugal we just fell apart in the final minute of injury time. Against Ghana we were solid defensively but our offense got stagnant against a better defense. Against Germany the 1st half was about as good as USA is going to get defensively and we managed to have some great offense and control of possession, all credit due to Germany who rushed all our attacks thoroughly neutralizing them.

I don't think Belgium has the same level of defense as Ghana or Germany, so naive as it is, I like our chances to advance to the Quarters..

A lot of Americans will not understand the intricacies as to why this was a great World Cup showing, indeed, they may just think we sucked. They need to take it in the context of American sports..

This was the equivalent of an American sports team beating the 3 top teams in their league in the playoffs. THAT is huge. Its like the Phoenix Suns beating the Rockets and the Thunder and then only losing close to the Spurs.

Its like the Indianapolis Colts beating the New Orleans Saints, the 49ers, and losing close to the Denver Broncos... This was HUGE. I only hope Americans will understand that!!!!

[demonrail666]

Not a great game, especially for USA but it must've been hard for Klinsmann to know quite how to approach it. In the end congratulations to them for doing enough. Assuming they play Belgium, and if they keep playing the way they are and not feel tempted to open up and really go for it, I think they have a decent chance.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I think only the 2nd half was bad. The 1st half was great, but its clear that the weather and the pressure defense focusing on Jones and Beasley was taking its toll. Why no magical Klinsmann substitutions? Where was Wondo so spark the offense in the 2nd half???

All in all, I think we should give more credit to Germany in the 2nd half, but look at it tempered with the perspective that USA did what it had to do. Germany scores 2 goals we go home. Germany is the 2nd highest scoring team in the Group stages with the 2nd best in goals allowed. We did very well.

Shit, remember all those futbol aficionados who said USA didn't stand a fucking chance in this group? Remember smart people saying USA wouldn't even draw in a single game?

Yeah. USA did its job.. The great thing about futbol is there are realistic expectations, and we just realistically exceeded ours

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

Our defense is actually what saved us. It could have been better, but we won by having the best goal differential in goals allowed, not goals scored.. remember this was a group of death and we just shut down the best offense in FIFA to ONE SCORE?????

USA earned this yo. Its a fucking Group of Death and we competed well.

Beating Ghana sent them home, period.
Drawing against Portugal sent them home, period.
Keeping Germany to just one score sent us through, period.

This is BIG for USA futbol, and I dare say we can play well against Belgium if we just tighten up our mistakes. Against Portugal we just fell apart in the final minute of injury time. Against Ghana we were solid defensively but our offense got stagnant against a better defense. Against Germany the 1st half was about as good as USA is going to get defensively and we managed to have some great offense and control of possession, all credit due to Germany who rushed all our attacks thoroughly neutralizing them.

I don't think Belgium has the same level of defense as Ghana or Germany, so naive as it is, I like our chances to advance to the Quarters..

A lot of Americans will not understand the intricacies as to why this was a great World Cup showing, indeed, they may just think we sucked. They need to take it in the context of American sports..

i'm going to leave your analogies out: of course it's a big result, but you underestimate the public i think-- i just saw pictures of people celebrating in big cities. they understand.

about the defense, we were lucky they scored only 1. could have been 3 easily. we did suck today. just not in teh aggregate.

today the pivot was bradley and he kept losing and losing balls. which is why we couldn't move up the center. brad davis was a zero but at least gave bedoya a break. once yeltsin got in things got exciting for us for a little bit on his flank.

the thing is though we're much better when we go forward. this kind of masochistic passivity cannot work in the long run.

ghana could have easily fucked us. they scored an own goal. say they don't do that and score another, and germany scores another, and we're out. this was a very close shave. for me it was a very tense match.

i'm glad we go through, but i got a bad taste in my mouth from today's performance. one thing is to defend a tie, another is to defend a one-goal loss. i understand scoring back and sitting on it but this was too much.

of course germany is really the better team, one-for-one their players are amazing. but i see us with more chances when we go forward instead of playing it all inside our own half.

[demonrail666]

Suchfriends^Yeah full credit to USA. They're where they are now on merit and have become one of the most likable teams left in the tournament. They know their limitations but work to their strengths.