Power Pros Forum

Spain and the Netherlands are in the final, making it assured that we will have a first time champion and it will be a European champion for the first time in a World Cup outside of Europe!

LET'S GO SPAIN! *vuvuzela horn blasts for thirty minutes*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bupO6Z2Btms&playnext_from=TL&videos=1EaEMLTYZH0&feature=sub
Click the soccer ball icon.

Oh, I know the vuvuzela button. I love the vuvuzela button!

Spain wins!!!!!!!!

I know this late, but honestly, shut up. People who say US soccer suck have absolutely no idea about us.

We don't suck, suckish teams don't beat Spain and score 2 goals against Brazil.

We made the quarterfinals in 02' (or 94' one or the other) and the semi's in 30'.

We have the youngest player ever to debut for a professional team on US (Freddy Adu, debuted for D.C United when he was 14 years old) He's now only 19, Landon is only 28 or so, Jozy Altidore is one of the greatest young strikers and only 20. We have arguably one of the greatest goalkeepers in the world in Tim Howard. We have solid centerbacks in Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu. We also have solid young defenders. Our midfield is a good mix youth and experience. Learn US soccer, get your facts right, then come back to talk to me about US Soccer.

Until then, shut up about the US National Team.

I'll just say a couple things. Not meaning to get into an argument (though you did, to an extent), but I'll just point out some facts:

1. Tim Howard is great. Always been a fan of his.
2. What has Adu done since then? Nothing, he's been a flop, basically.
3. It took a missed save by the Algerian goalkeeper and an England win for us to even advance past the group stage, where we ended up losing anyhow.
4. In the 2006 World Cup, we were the only country where ratings for any other country's matches were higher than our own. Brazil, Italy and Mexico all beat the U.S.A. out in ratings.

I have my facts straight, and though I understand why we had all the hype, because our team has done better of late, we're still not going to be a world power in soccer/football. We'll leave that to Europe and South America, and beat 'em in most everything else.

As a causal soccer fan in club ball and an avid soccer fan in international play, I thought I'd join this

1. Tim Howard is great. Congrats for that

2. I agree to an extint, but he has plenty of time to develop some more. Landon Donnovan was no where near as good as he is now since the 2002 cup in S. Korea/Japan

3a. How the heck is this a missed save?!?!? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVU_2TM4o3I He made the right play and stopped Dempsy. Landon just ran up and put it in. The Goal Keeper is not at fault.

3b. England did not have to win for the US to advance. If the US WON AT ALL, they moved on, which we did. Slovenia or England could have won either way and we would have had to win to advance.

4. Ok, granted, good point.

Anyway, no, you don't have all your facts straight. Also, yes, we most likely will never hit the top 5 in the fifa rankings, but we are in the top 15. Out of the 200+ national teams around the world, that's pretty powerful to me.

So you expect Adu to make an impact at the national level when he is only 19 years old? He debuted when he was 14, developed in the MLS (One of my more average leagues in the world) Where he could develop much better when in Europe. A 19 year old won't make a huge impact on the national stage, and I brought him up because you said US would always suck. How can you say that a 19 year old has been a flop? He's younger than me! He has loads of time.

The Algerian goal was not a mistake by him! He was let down by his defense.

The England was lucky, but it was smart for Dempsey to take a shot and test the goalie, stuff like that happens in soccer, and you can never be to sure when they will happen. You need to take chances like that.

We will eventually be in the top 5, in fact I think we already have been. If we play strong in the first 15 minutes (which we are notorious for playing poorly) we can beat any team in the world. But honestly, rankings don't mean anything.

So no, you're facts aren't straight. I know my international soccer from A-Z, especially American.

All right, all right, I'm obviously not the biggest follower of U.S. soccer/football. My points are flawed (some of them), and I do understand that U.S. is improving.

As for Adu, he's a flop compared to all the hype around him. Because yes, people WERE expecting him to make an impact, and he hasn't. Not that he can't recover and shed his bust status, but for now...

I'll just say this: that Algerian goalie was making saves all day.

Plus, you have said our team is young. And what does that mean? That we're still developing. The hype around us was blown way out of proportion, when really, we have a better shot in 2014.

And finally, let me add one more thing:
How many players on the U.S. soccer/football team do you think a guy from Spain or Brazil can name?
I can name lots of guys on Spain, for instance:
David Villa, Torres, Iniesta, Raul, Xavi, Puyol.
But as for the U.S? They might know Howard or Donovan or Dempsey, but that's it, really, Altidore's still on the rise, and the other 3 might be a bit too old by 2014 to make as much of an impact as they did here. Gonna be hard to fill such big shoes...

Oh yeah, and they're called small sample sizes. Let's see what happens if the U.S. plays Spain again. Hey, even the Orioles beat the Yankees on occasion.

You're kidding? How the hell can you call a 19-20 year old a flop? You obviously know nothing about him because there is no hype around him to play for the national team yet. He wasn't even named to the preliminary 30-man roster! He has not bust status and any American that knows our National Team would know he doesn't have that much hype yet.

The Algerian goalie can scream at his defense for blowing his clean sheet.

The team is young, but we have hype for this World Cup because we have a good balanced mix between youth and experience.

By the way, your last part about Spain and Brazil naming American players is completely irrelevant even if you can't name a player, doesn't mean he or his team isn't good. Not many people know who AEK Athens, Olympiakos and Panthiakos are, but they are winning Greek Super League championships left and right. I doubt there are many that know who the Orlando Pirates are, but they are a powerhouse in South African Premier League. The point I'm making is that just because people can't name players from a team doesn't make them bad.


And I'm quite sure there are many Spanish people who know all about the American team after we beat them, same with Brazil as we gave them a scare. They would know us anyways because whether you want to believe it or not, there isn't a team in this world that would blow-out America if we have our game.

and there, quite possibly, isn't a team in the world that, at this point, would blow-out America if we DON'T have our game. Well, maybe a couple, but whatever.

I'm cutting out now, I'm already acting like Cownip here (in reference to those arguments you brought up in "Remember When..." I do remember those...)

Either way... If we don't have our game there are over 100 teams that wouldn't be able to beat us...

I'm just trying to defend the boys, they don't enough respect from their own country.

*vuvuzela horn blares in all of your collective ears for hour and a half*

Actually, pertaining to how the US "calls the game by the wrong name", did you know the term "Soccer" was actually coined by England?