[!@#$%!]

ps- thanks van buyten for teh 11 or so points in the fantasy league

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

In the emotions of the game I was way to harsh on Clint. He just isn't THAT GUY like we had hoped he could be. Beasley was a beast in this tournament, and we probably should have brought Wondo and Green in a bit earlier considering how much of a spark they brought offensively down the stretch. Bradley played better in THIS match than he had in the past few, I think y'all were to harsh on him, he had an ASSIST and a solid chance at two more if Clint or Jermaine Jones had better capitalized on his passes to them near the goal.. BUT we were always asking too much of Jones to begin with, I am most impressed with his showing in this Cup, he can eat at the grown ups table now. As for Clint? We also asked him to do too much. Jozy's absence was a dagger for our hopes to do any better, indeed it is all the more impressive that we advanced out of our Group without him. Can we dare say that with the statistically worst offense in the Cup having played against some of the strongest teams in the Cup that USA had THE BEST DEFENSE IN THE WORLD CUP??? I dare say so..

As for Clint, he is at Dwyane Wade status now, which was what everybody though Landon was. I think Clint and Landon together would have been a stronger offense, Clint is a great #2 option, and Landon was still sharp enough to have made a difference on this squad considering how basically boring and vanilla our offense was. Literally anything could have helped..

Green proved he is a solid future. More Green and Wondo in the upcoming 2015 Gold Cup. USA wins that and they go to the Confederation Cup. USA needs to play STRONG in the Gold Cup to get into shape for that.. so I hope we can take what we did well in this World Cup and build on it. We won't face teams that difficult for a few more years...\

Props to USA!! A GREAT FUCKING WORLD CUP!!! TOO MUCH FUN!! WORTH THE BUILD UP!!! Fuck the Group of Death, and we even stepped up to Belgium!!

[demonrail666]

Bradley got better in extra time but given how pivotal his role was he really didn't have an impact on the game till then, when the US had to go all out attack and tactics effectively went out the window. Dempsey wasn't great tonight but he had almost nothing to work with for most of the 90 minutes so it's really hard to criticise him. USA just didn't have enough of the ball generally. Vertonghen was going past Zusi like he wasn't there and if it wasn't for Howard it could've easily been 2 or 3-0 in normal time. And De Bruyne had a great game. But USA's sheer commitment meant they very nearly took it to pens and I don't think anyone would've called it unjust if they'd gone through.

Either way, a fantastic game.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

ah shit, that was TREMENDOUS!

congrats to belgium who today for the first time i've seen play as a team.

one-to-one they have the greater talent and the more technical players, and that's something one could see in the small interactions of the game. without howard, who was a TOWER, we'd likely have been spanked.

great also our comeback after julian green came in. had we played that way the first 90 minutes we could have won.

tough luck against us with that fabian johnson injury, we lost a sub, but de andre was superb going up i thought.

fuck! great game, in the end. i have a stiff neck from all the tension. worth waiting 4 years every time.

see you in russia!

This, although I still think Belgium lack some cohesion, going back anyway. It's just a shame the US weren't able to really attack them more. I'd have rated the US's chances of keeping out Argentina higher than Belgium's. Belgium look good in attack but I can't see them really putting on the kind of backs to the wall performance the US did. Sad the US are out. They were only just beaten by a team that on paper they should've never stood a chance against.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

My top five of this World Cup:

(1)Dempsey's goal in 31 seconds against Ghana
(2)Jan Huntelaar kicks the flag like a combo move in Street Fighter II
(3)Robben kisses Spain good bye
(4)Those bad ass saves by Ochoa to stun Brazil in Mexico's Draw
(5)Swiss get their payback by beating Honduras decisively

Biggest Disappointments!

(1)Chile hitting the cross bar on that goal with seconds left to beat Brazil
(2)Ronaldo being Ronaldo and scoring that goal against USA with seconds left
(3)Greece's penalty kick against Ivory Coast
(4)Reza's three missed shots on goal in a row against Argentina
(5) Japan's draw with Greece which in hindsight turned out to both eliminate Japan AND Ivory Coast at the same time

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

A great read on the art of match fixing by the way

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/a-...p-allegations/

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

 

IF the Dutch go on to win this motherfucker this takes over as the top of my list as best moment of the World Cup

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

This, although I still think Belgium lack some cohesion, going back anyway. […] Belgium look good in attack but I can't see them really putting on the kind of backs to the wall performance the US did.

Same as Argentina, no? Oh, that should be an exciting match.

[pad_023]

Argentina vs Switzerland was poor but only because the Swiss 'Parked The Bus'. It's been frustrating to watch Argentina this tournament because except the Nigeria game their opponents have played with 9 men in the box and it has made most of their games pretty dull. It would have been a shame if the swiss won on penalties because that's what they looked like they set up to do from the 2nd half onwards. Argentina deserved to win, pretty confident they will beat Belgium who will probably set out to attack.

The US were unlucky, great team spirit and they really pushed Belgium right to the end, match should have gone to penalties.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to pad_023 again.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

Same as Argentina, no? Oh, that should be an exciting match.

Yes but I get the sense that Argentina are identifying problems and at least trying to work on them. Belgium just seem like they've read their own hype and believe they can transcend the casual laziness of certain key players because of their talent. The frustration for me is they've so far proved that they can, but for all their possession last night, De Bruyne seemed the only player really wanting to energise things for them, while Hazard wandered around waiting for things to happen. He was playing entirely in accordance with the criticisms Mourinho made of him a few months ago.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...is-impossible/

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...is-impossible/

good article, i'm trying to comprehend all that

if you like it, you should like this particular site:

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone

feel free to go into the match zone and see what happened yesterday through the eyes of the matrix

======

DEMONIO:

can you remind us who is who in the SYG league?

who is that Mike Obiku with his astronomical score? is it pokkeherrie? And is Bertrand the Gerbilfeet you've been battling for second? I am confused now. and Vexlecize? (Austrian flag?) Kindly help. the other names i recognize!

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

good article, i'm trying to comprehend all that

I particularly was digging it because while it was a complex layout of futbol statistics, they were flavored by a basketball perspective of analysis in terms of shooting efficiency and shot location preferences, so it was easier for me to absorb it. It definitely entirely changed my previous perspective of Messi and just how fucking impossibly good he is, I hadn't realized in particular not just how effective he is as scorer but also a facilitator which all the more agrees statistically with what Lebron James posted on his twitter about Messi the other day..

Originally Posted by LebronJames
"heard messi made the game winning pass! That is my type of player. Win, loss, draw u make the right play to help your team be successful"

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

I particularly was digging it because while it was a complex layout of futbol statistics, they were flavored by a basketball perspective of analysis in terms of shooting efficiency and shot location preferences, so it was easier for me to absorb it. It definitely entirely changed my previous perspective of Messi..

oh-- this is all you need to understand:

 

the rest can all be logically derived from it, ha ha ha...

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

oh-- this is all you need to understand:

 

the rest can all be logically derived from it, ha ha ha...

I think that pretty much sums it up BUT all that Messi is clearly lacking now to be a true Saint of futbol it a big international trophy, and the World Cup I heard is as big as it gets

All the all-time best NBA players have multiple league championships AND Olympic/FIBA tournament trophies and Argentinians like Manu Ginobili already have both NBA trophies AND a very rare Olympic Gold Medal (rare unless you played for the American international b-ball team who have collected about a dozen )..

I dare say that as it stands Manu Ginobili is the more accomplished Argentinian having won more NBA trophies than Messi has won League trophies in futbol AND having won both Olympic Gold for Argentina's b-ball team and a few FIBA trophies too...

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

By the way thanks for the Stats link, I can waste hours there absorbing the game from that more technical perspective, its really how I've gotten to have such an in-depth almost scouting approach to basketball. Good thing I'm on summer and the NBA season is over, or I'd be spending like waaaaaaaaay to many hours reading sport stats

[!@#$%!]

[quote=SuchFriendsAreDangerous]I think that pretty much sums it up BUT all that Messi is clearly lacking now to be a true Saint of futbol it a big international trophy, and the World Cup I heard is as big as it gets

yes yes. for obvious reasons. but if you know what he does, you know.

 

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

Manu Ginobili

ayayayayayayayyy….

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

What, is not Ginobili comparable to Messi in regards to accomplishments as an Argentine athlete? Messi hasn't won any international tournaments yet meanwhile Manu has an Olympic Gold medal IN BASKETBALL which is about the most coveted Gold medal in the Olympics considering how much the Americans essentially own it.

Don't think the Argentinians don't like Manu, don't think they don't like their FIBA basketball team, indeed the landscape is changing worldwide as so many countries field great basketball and especially baseball players. Interesting that over the next ten years we may see a huge reversal..

The USA has always not been competitive at futbol because all our athletes play soccer for fun more or less then focus on NBA, NFL, or MLB or even Olympic sports for their professional careers. Meanwhile in other countries most athletes play American sports for fun but commit to futbol professionally.. YET increasingly over the past decades international players are filling up the ranks of MLB (upwards of 40% are foreign born, particular from Japan/Korea and Central America/Caribbean) and NBA (25% are foreign born, many from France/Spain/Argentina who are traditional futbol countries)... There is a significant shift in athletes' focus.

International players are more and more competitive at American sports and filling the ranks of American teams meanwhile the USA is gradually getting better at futbol.. What if in 10 or 20 years Spain and Argentina are the basketball countries and USA becomes a futbol country?? Don't sleep on it, demographics are suggesting it strongly possible

[!@#$%!]

every time you start your trans-sport comparisons i just space you out.

different sports, different rules, different number of players, etc. highly contrived. might as well compare the world cup to hell's kitchen.

find fútbol comparisons and i'll read your full posts. even if you use MLS as an example, at least is the same sport.

eta: or, you know, just explain the idea without the distracting transport conceits.