We just have to beat Algeria, and by a few goals would help. Assuming we beat Algeria, if England wins their last two games, we finish second. If England beats Algeria, and ties Slovenia, we need a better goal differential than one of them, as the 3 of us would be tied. Anything beyond that gets messy. The worst that could happen today would be England beating Algeria by a bunch of goals. And strangely in some ways a draw between them today would be the best outcome, because we could potentially slide by with 3 draws, while if Algeria wins, we would have to beat them.

_________________
"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

Yeah, a 0-0 tie in England/Slovenia would be awesome if we can get a 2-0 win against Algeria

_________________

Man... watching Rooney in this game today against Algeria. He is having a shitty cup. Maybe he'll break out in this game but he's lost balls with bad touches and raised his hands for a penalty every time he screws up.

Messi has been the best so far if you ask me. When he gets the ball you just feel like stuff is about to happen. He looks old, I had no idea he was so young.

A big break for the USA with England not scoring and the tie. But, that goal the officials took away from Team USA still hurts tho

What a BS call that was.

Portugal WTF OWNED North Korea today 7-0 wow!

David Villa scores the two sexiest goals ever. Go Spain!

_________________

See my previous post about David Villa. There was no doubt who the best player on the Pitch was in that game yesterday. He was all over the place.

Ok, this was exciting.

_________________
My stuff on facebook.

USA USA USA

Yeah, and the USA's interest in soccer continues for a few more days!

But what a finish, oh man.

_________________

In other news, the Isner/Mahut tennis match that is going on right now is fucking sick. As of this second, it is 40-39 in the 5th set. Longest match ever, most games in a match ever, most games in a set, most aces..... Still going.

That second half was seriously great stuff. Each team tried hard to win, until Algeria seemed to give up in the final 10 minutes. After getting robbed yet again in the first half with a bullshit offsides, they somehow found a way in the 91st minute. My legs were shaking for 10 minutes afterward.

The fact we won the group will be huge for the next game. If England wind up facing Germany it will be a great game, and I look forward to seeing who the US' opponent is.

The Isner match is now 51-50 in the 5th. Ridiculous.

_________________

56-55 and going strong.

Speaking of going strong, Australia needs a two-goal swing against Germany to advance, so if they score one more goal and Ghana scores one, they'll move on. Crazy times.

_________________

Very nice group play. We get Ghana, now. England gets Germany (heh). If both teams play to form Germany will win by at least 1 point. I can't wait for this weekend.

Yeah, it's going to be pretty awesome. Playing Uruguay after beating Ghana though, is not something I am excited about.

Also Isner/Mahut suspended at 59-59 in the 5th. Jesus.

_________________

I agree, Uruguay is one of my dark horse teams. But... It could be a lot worse.

I definitely think we got the better matchup against Ghana. I don't know that it's a walk to the Quarterfinals, but the way Germany unloaded on a pretty bad Australia team and then failed to do anything against Serbia tells me that they're out for blood against England. That is not a team I would want to face in a win-or-go-home situation. I wouldn't count out Ghana, as they're basically playing for the continent at this point, but if Uruguay attacks the way they did in the group phase, our Quarterfinal match could be embarrassing.

Spain plays tomorrow, which I am excited about. Other than my patriotic loyalty, Spain is my favorite national team.

_________________

Tennis match is back on. 62-61 right now.

Wasn't the US team like #16 in the world coming into the Cup? So if we DIDN'T get to the elimination round it would have been a HUGE letdown. Also, wasn't Algeria like a 30-40 ranked team? So we should have beaten them. Yes, Donovan's goal in extra time was big, but it is no where near as big as "Miracle on Ice". If I hear "Miracle on grass" when talking about that shot/game I think I will get sick.

I did watch most of the first half of the game with the TV on mute. I forgot to come back for the second half.

That tennis match is crazy. I wonder if it will get to 100 games each.

eleven hours, five min. Final 70-68 Isner survives

Here are the current FIFA rankings (as of May 26):



I think the history of the US and soccer in this country as a whole was the bigger deal than their current rank. The Cubs could have the best record in baseball going into the playoffs, but it would still be a HUGE deal if they won the World Series.

But they did not win the cup, nor advance to the finals with that win. They just progressed to the round of 16. They did that in 2002. In 2006 they were supposed to go to the round of 16 but were upset. It will be a HUGE deal if they make it to the finals. Hell, every win going out will be big.

Italy and New Zealand are out, all New Zealand had to do was score one goal to advance, and they couldn't do it. This afternoon, there's a game for second place, Japan vs. Denmark, and a game that literally no one will watch - Netherlands (clinched to advance) vs. Cameroon (clinched to go home).

_________________

Hey I'll watch that game, I love the Netherlands And I 'm so glad Italy is going home. Bunch of underachieving, diving assholes.

What is the real story with the French team?

uh. they're French ?

nuff said !

This just in: the French still suck!

Some Americans do like Soccer:

I'm totally over whether Americans care about soccer. I had to sit there and listen to some douchebag badmouth soccer while I'm watching the fucking end of the US game right in front of him.

Did you see the video from the bar in Seattle? It's in Brightcove so I can't embed... here is the link. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/2 ... 23625.html

I am not badmouthing soccer, I am just asking people to put some things in perspective. Was the win vs Algeria good? Yes. Was it the best thing ever to happen in US soccer? Not in a long way.

This team DOES have a chance to go far. They have a beatable opponent in (32)Ghana for the next round then should they win they'd play the winner of (16)Uruguay and (47)South Korea.

I could be wrong but if Portugal beats Brazil tomorrow that would have the Netherlands vs Slovakia and Portugal vs (Spain or Switzerland) as the other half of the bracket. Of those teams I think Spain would be the most difficult match for the US team.

The bottom half of the bracket looks to be the killer:
Germany vs England winner plays winner of Argentina vs Mexico
Paraguay vs (Japan or Denmark) winner plays Chile vs (Portugal/Brazil)

With a little luck the US team could make the Finals.

Really not a tough road for the US if we can get past Ghana and Uruguay. But it's really easy to dream that it will happen. I predict a Golden Goal in overtime versus Ghana (Dempsey) and then a pretty bad loss, like 4-1 versus Ururguay.

Unless we naturalize some defenders, pronto.

_________________

Yup, Uruguay is scary.

It's the first time we've won a group since 1930, which pretty much doesn't count because the game is completely different. We consistently underachieve at the World Cup. The first time something bad happens, the team folds. This is the first time I can ever remember seeing 3 games where they showed the kind of grit they have.

We have gotten through to the knockout several times. But it's always been because we've come in second place to a much stronger team, and eked out ties/wins to the inferior African, North american or Asian teams. This was the first legitimate advance into the second round that I can remember.

Portugal vs. Brazil - do it, do it

Dutch are methodical, they're my pick for the finals, have been even before they won 9pts and their group

Tiago just got a yellow for diving in the box when he wasn't touched. Love it.

Villa is fucking awesome.

Read about the goal, need to find some video... I'm quickly becoming a Spain fan.

Cripes, that goalie wasn't doing shit!

I think the goalie made the right play (had he kicked it out of bounds). Torres was definitely going to create a problem if he got the ball there.

That's just good situational awareness.. To know the goalie is that out of position and strike the long ball in a way that he can't get it.

I'm starting to get excited to see some of these teams play each other... To say nothing about tomorrows game with the USA.

How do you get to be the 14th rated team in the world and have a defense that is so completely awful ??

Its all over for the USA but that's my question, no goal they gave up in the WC was ever a paticularlly hard shot or a well executed shot they were all pretty much gimmes that Hoawrd couldn't get on his own, and his defense just said O NO WE SUCK AGAIN !

Decent run but kinda like Confed cup finals they pretty much gave up late IMO

The USA Defense made it look like it was like Prarie View A&M DEF vs the St. Louis Rams offense from early years of 2000's

If you watch every other (non-USA) game, you'll see the defenders all on the other players. For some reason, USA's defenders always (ALWAYS) gave away too much space. Not making excuses, because I honestly thought the first goal (at least) was Howard's fault, but just saying... their defense was definitely the weakest part of their game.

I just hope maybe this Cup run will do something to increase the appeal of the sport in America.

Germany is putting on a clinic in the first half.

Damn... their counter attack is CRAZY...

After today, I really don't want to invest into the sport of soccer anymore (or care about the World Cup). Mexico and England had bad calls, and I did not forget what happened to Team USA.

FiFA is not doing a good job of gaining my interest and support at all. Are all World Cups this bad?!?! Because if the World Cup is high end soccer, it's not what I thought it would be. No sport is perfect, but I don't remember seeing soo many issues in others compared to the games I have seen so far.

If anything, this event might hurt the appeal of the sport in America, Neesha. But that is just me. With the negative press focusing on the the bad calls, it won't be helping in my eyes.

I had my ticket for the Angels game today, and I stayed home (wasted the money because no refunds) to watch the matches live. England and then Mexico sealed the deal for me in a bad way. Maybe I'm pissed because I missed a great baseball game at the Big A for two bad soccer games lol But I was giving the sport a try to hook me in tho.

These calls don't make soccer fun to watch, and hurts it's integrity etc. I might be a bit too hard on FiFA, but I'm new to soccer and have no history with it. Not a good start trying to get a new person on the bandwagon haha

The calls suck, but every single sport has shitty calls.

Yeah, I knew after the first goal the US gave up against England that the defense was going to be a huge problem. Seems like the back line couldn't figure out when to converge, and they basically would concede the entire box inside the D because the guys weren't putting up any challenges. Howard was being worked way too hard, and even though he definitely shouldn't have given up the first Ghana goal, he was outstanding for the bulk of their run.

So yeah, Spain tomorrow.

_________________

I think Howard was good in one game, and average in the others. He let a few shots get past that he probably shouldn't have. But the defense is markedly worse and put him in bad situations. We've had better and worse goalkeeping in the Cup before. Still, one of the few bright spots for us is usually our keeper, and I don't think we can say that this year.

_________________

That's sad, because it's the absolute best of sporting events, and it only happens once every four years.

Today, Spain plays Portugal, which should be a fantastic game. Both teams have gorgeous artistic styles, but Portugal is definitely a harder attacking team. I hope Spain is up to it.

_________________

Here is why people are not following it (at least what I have gathered)

1 - Team USA is done
2 - The games are in the early morning (US time zones)
3 - Lack of scoring and/or scoring opportunities
4 - Too many bad calls
5 - Not understanding the rules
6 - When Team USA was still playing, most people only knew at best the name of one player, Landon Donovan, and still didn't connect with the team.

That is a good list, krby71. Since Team USA has been out, I'm not really been following the World Cup (other than the England and Mexico games). I do want to watch Team Portugal's game against Spain, but I'm at work when the game will take place.

Japan goes home due to a cruel crossbar in a penalty shootout. Why do Americans not like this sport?

_________________

It's like a boring version of hockey, the only really interesting thing about the sport is how international it is.

_________________
Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

So in other words, you are still interested in 3 of the 6 games that have been played since the US lost. I'd say you're still following it.

Soccer is not big in the US because we suck at it and have alternatives that we don't suck at. It's literally that simple.