2010 World Cup

[twobrewers]

GOOOAAALLL!!!

 

I knew the results. (Hard to avoid at work today) But I've never enjoyed watching a DVR sporting event more than that. I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

[Menotti80]

GOOOAAALLL!!!

 

I knew the results. (Hard to avoid at work today) But I've never enjoyed watching a DVR sporting event more than that. I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

 

 

 

 

Same here.

[crewcrazy]

I'm still amazed at the result, considering how many good chances at goals they had choked away before Donovan finally put one in. Disallowing the goal in the first half was a bad call, but if they had tied, it would've been their own fault with Altidore and Dempsey both missing shots that still stick out in my mind.

 

I'm not a big soccer fan, but this was by far one of the most exciting sporting events I've seen in awhile. Yeah, there was no scoring until the last second, but there were plenty of scoring opportunities and it took amazing defense on both sides to keep the game at 0-0. There was a sense of urgency with every possession that you didn't really see in the first two games, when both teams were just playing for a point.

[homer]

A reasonable bracket for the US. If they can get past Ghana they play the winner of Uruguay and South Korea.

 

No easy task but when you see the other side of the bracket is currently England, Germany, Argenina, and Mexico you realize things could be much much worse.

[bacon06]

In real time, I thought Dempsey was offside and after the replay I still think he is off because his left leg is beyond the defender. And to be in an offside position is to have any legal playing surface past the second to last defender. It was such a bang bang play though, I would have had a hard time putting blame on the assistant referee for costing the US the game. Thankfully the game winner came through. I literally had tears in my eyes and I couldn't even watch the replay so I needed to ask someone who actually scored. Such an emotional roller coaster.

[TooLiveBrew]

I literally had tears in my eyes and I couldn't even watch the replay so I needed to ask someone who actually scored. Such an emotional roller coaster.

 

That's awesome. It was really cool seeing the emotion come out of Donovan in the post-game interview, too.

[chrisisoutrunning]

In real time, I thought Dempsey was offside and after the replay I still think he is off because his left leg is beyond the defender.

I'll admit I thought he was offside in real time, but I'm going to disagree with you on the second part. ESPN showed the replay numerous times, freezing it when the ball is kicked with a line drawn on the field with the farthest back point of the next to last defender. In my opinion no part of Dempsey was beyond that line. Was it a bang bang play? Yes. Was it offside? No.

 

When Gomez crossed the ball the defender was spinning, I believe the linesman misjudged when the ball was kicked, therefore seeing Dempsey offside. Understandable? Yes. It's like a bang bang play at first. Excusable? That's debatable, especially when we have the technology to confirm or overturn a call within seconds. Literally all that would have to be done is have the 4th official take a few steps to a TV with that frame from the ESPN broadcast, look at it for 2 seconds, come back and say goal. Game is delayed 30 seconds tops, which is about as long as a team is going to argue over sometime like that.

 

The NFL has replay, MLB has replay, tennis has replay, the NHL has replay. I think we're too the point that especially on this level, to have blatent bad calls ruin sporting events is inexcusable.

 

Link to replay with offside line

[strawbossisevil]

On a play that close, I think those line judges need to use more caution. On a goal scoring play, unless you are 100% certain that he was offside, don't put up the flag. To take away a goal in soccer is absolutely killer because of the low scoring nature of the sport.

 

I have to agree with Chris, every replay I've seen showed Dempsey clearly onside. Not by much, mind you, probably by less than a foot, but it was a costly incorrect call. I, quite honestly, am less angry with that disallowed goal than with the first one. At least I could understand why in the heat of the moment the line judge would get the offsides call wrong. I still don't understand how the head referee disallowed our goal against Slovenia other than for ulterior motives.

 

Although I'll say this much, Donovan's goal would have been a whole lot less exciting had they been given the result that they deserved against Slovenia.

[chrisisoutrunning]

As nice as it would have been to coast to a win (had Gomez put that away before the offside call, Dempsey not hitting the post, Jozy missing the wide open net are the obvious missed opportunities I can come up with right away), though not the most technically and tactically sound game of soccer ever, was probably one of the most exciting games I've ever seen. Soccer in the US (mainly talking about at the Men's National Team level) hasn't even come close to reaching it's potential. With the amount of resources that we can throw behind something should we decide we want to, we could be a power in every World Cup.

 

When you think about it, this group of players would have been between 4-15 when the US hosted the World Cup in 1994. They are part of the generation that started playing or were given more opportunities/better funding because of the event. 1998 was a forgettable cup, but I think the 2002 team did roughly the same thing in exposing even more kids to the game (they made it to the quarterfinals and outplayed Germany in the game they lost for those who don't know). I find it hard to believe that you could show this game to a kid and have them consider it boring. It was basically a Phoenix Suns basketball game on grass. I think the main thing holding back the development of youth in soccer right now is coaching. There just aren't enough coaches who know the sport and understand how to teach it to children.

 

Towards the end of this year FIFA will pick the host countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup's. The US is biding to host one of those. Right now the thinking is the 2018 Cup will go to a European country (most likely England), but I would think the US would have a very good chance at holding the 2022 Cup. Either way, I truly believe that these come around, the US will have a consistently top ten ranked men's team and a good opportunity to win.

[Menotti80]

looks like italy is out.

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

[thebruce44]

On a play that close, I think those line judges need to use more caution. On a goal scoring play, unless you are 100% certain that he was offside, don't put up the flag. To take away a goal in soccer is absolutely killer because of the low scoring nature of the sport.

 

I have to agree with Chris, every replay I've seen showed Dempsey clearly onside. Not by much, mind you, probably by less than a foot, but it was a costly incorrect call.

He was onsides. Also, I believe the rule actually states that if it is a close play, advantage to the attacker.

 

When you consider the two goals taken away, the US actually dominated Group Play. They now have a relatively easy run to the Semifinals as well. This is exciting stuff for sure.

[thebruce44]

I think the main thing holding back the development of youth in soccer right now is coaching. There just aren't enough coaches who know the sport and understand how to teach it to children.

There are two schools of thought on that. A lot of our players lack the creativity and one on one ball skills of the Latin American or African players. Do they learn this in the streets? I don't know.

 

Look at Freddy Adu's development though. He was identified very early on and coached the hell out of. That didn't work out at all. On the flip side, I believe Dempsey was playing as a kid against mostly Mexican grown men in pickup games. He also has arguably the best one on one skills on the whole team.

[TooLiveBrew]

looks like italy is out.

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

Unbelievable. Italy & France knocked out, & England barely sneaking through group play. Never saw those coming.

[Paulus88]

I think the main thing holding back the development of youth in soccer right now is coaching. There just aren't enough coaches who know the sport and understand how to teach it to children.

There are two schools of thought on that. A lot of our players lack the creativity and one on one ball skills of the Latin American or African players. Do they learn this in the streets? I don't know.

 

Look at Freddy Adu's development though. He was identified very early on and coached the hell out of. That didn't work out at all. On the flip side, I believe Dempsey was playing as a kid against mostly Mexican grown men in pickup games. He also has arguably the best one on one skills on the whole team.

Coaching at the youth level is results oriented so there are lots of games and not a lot of one on one work on things like ball skills. On the other hand, depending on the quality of coaches, this seems to result in players that are tactically proficient.

[chrisisoutrunning]

Look at Freddy Adu's development though. He was identified very early on and coached the hell out of. That didn't work out at all. On the flip side, I believe Dempsey was playing as a kid against mostly Mexican grown men in pickup games. He also has arguably the best one on one skills on the whole team.

Actually I don't really really think the Adu part is quite true. He was identified as a very skilled player early on, but didn't really learn the tactical side of the game. Once he jumped into MLS it was realized he didn't have the knowledge to play the team game. Which is why he didn't really play that much to start off with. I don't even know what to say about Freddy... other than he's just been disappointing... sad thing is he's only 21 I think...

 

As far as Dempsey, I don't know his exact route into the game other than what I've seen in stories about his sister and random websites. I haven't found anything about playing against Mexican men, just against Mexican children.

 

I guess I agree with you though, I don't think the one-on-one creativity is something that can be taught, in my opinion it's something learned from pick-up backyard/street games.

[chrisisoutrunning]

Paulus88 wrote:

Coaching at the youth level is results oriented so there are lots of games and not a lot of one on one work on things like ball skills. On the other hand, depending on the quality of coaches, this seems to result in players that are tactically proficient.

From what I've read about the coaching of soccer in the US vs the rest of the world, we actually play way too many games and spend too little time practicing. I don't remember the numbers but the ratio of practice to games was flipped from where the rest of the world is. For better or worse I don't know, I'm just stating what I've read.

[Tedaldtada]

 

Here is a great video. I was laughing, cheering, and crying all at the same time.

[gobrew23]

Tedaldtada29]

 

Here is a great video. I was laughing, cheering, and crying all at the same time.

Great find!! Thanks for posting. That is really well done.

 

[razzzorsharp]

Nothing better than the USA chant.

[chrisisoutrunning]

Yeah, that's a great video, I found it on CNNSI.com's Hot Clicks last night. It made me laugh at my reaction to the goal. I was sitting at my desk at work watching on ESPN3.com stuck on solving a problem. Two seconds after a coworker walked in to help me out Donovan put in the rebound, I literally jumped up, put my hands on my head and waited a second for it to be called back for something, then threw my hands up. My coworker was speechless. He had no clue what was going on. My friend in another building was running around the halls high fiving anyone he came across.

[Tedaldtada]

Yea, I was silently pumping fists with another gal in the computer lab here at work.

[TooLiveBrew]

Thank you, Tedaldtada! That was so cool. The real-time reaction clips are awesome.

[M Skjellyfetti]

That gave me goosebumps and made me wish I had been in a packed soccer pub somewhere instead of in a BWW with about 5 other people. Nonetheless, that moment was still amazing.

[hawing]

Oh, man, the "Rudy" music. Thanks for sharing. I think my favorite part was the kid who appeared to be watching alone in his wood paneled basement, then ran up the stairs, then ran back down with his jersey off.

 

As I type this, at UW-Madison's Memorial Union Rathskeller is a very avid group of Chile fans watching Chile-Spain. One appears to have brought a drum to keep time with their songs and chants. I wish I could have stayed, just to watch those fans, but my lunch break ended.

[thebruce44]

When Landon scored, I was on a conference call with like 5 other people around the state of Illinois on a train station job, all of whom I don't think have a clue about soccer. I had ESPN's gamecast minimized and sort of lost track of how much time was left thinking hope was lost anyways, then the girl down the hall who is as into soccer as me came running down and I had to put my phone on mute as soon as I saw her face. After we jumped up and down like little kids for a minute I had to get back on the phone and act like an adult.

 

For the rest of the tourny, I will now make sure I am surrounded by fans and not at work. I hate that I hadn't canceled that meeting and gone out to a bar. As a huge soccer fan I will always remember where I was when that goal happened, and after seeing that video I wish it was spent truly celebrating.

 

After I got off the phone I ran around the office celebrating though. In the end, it was great to see so many casual fans taking an interest. I just wish the moment it happened was better for me.