100

6/25/2010 4:05:56 PM

fuck dweedle you beat me to it

Oh well, go USA!

6/25/2010 4:06:50 PM

i wont lie ive been refreshing for 20 minutes till it got to 49 posts (thanks hey now)

6/25/2010 4:07:50 PM

Quote :

"looks like CONMEBOL is making a case for more qualifying teams here. how many UEFA teams are in the round of 16 so far? (SEC of international football?)"

If results stay like they are now:

UEFA: 6 (48%)
CONMEBOL: 5 (100%)
CONCACAF: 2 (66%)
AFC: 2 (50%)
CAF: 1 (16%)

But if you go back to 2006, UEFA had 10 of the 16 teams in the round of 16 so it is hard to judge these numbers.

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 4:20 PM. Reason : ]

6/25/2010 4:09:25 PM

honduras still has a shot!

6/25/2010 4:10:17 PM

oh i know, that is why I had to clarify that as basing it on current results heh

6/25/2010 4:10:45 PM

yellows are reset after the quarters iirc. That way you can't get eliminated from the finals unless you get a red.

6/25/2010 4:10:53 PM

Someone asked about yellow cards:

Quote :

"For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the rules were changed so that any player who received two yellow cards between the beginning of the tournament and after the quarterfinal round (instead of the end of the group stage matches) would serve a one-match suspension for the next game. As a result, only players that received two yellow cards or a straight red card in the semifinal game would not be able to play in the final."

6/25/2010 4:11:25 PM

welp, this spain-chile game is a officially a snooze fest.


might as well go back to showing those spanish and chilean girls

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 4:21 PM. Reason : ]

6/25/2010 4:17:05 PM

zzzzzzzzz............ wha?

6/25/2010 4:17:53 PM

BZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

6/25/2010 4:21:13 PM

^^^^ yea, I really am not a fan of that considering how easily cards have been flying for stuff, but oh well.

6/25/2010 4:23:56 PM

For everyone whining about Torres, did you actually watch the replay?

I fucking hate diving more than the next guy, but Torres was at full stride and Estrada did unintentionally knee his foot behind his leg. Of course the fall was going to be a bit embellished (you can count on one hand all the players in the world that don't embellish fouls), not to mention Torres wasn't looking behind him and may have thought it was intentional from the start.

To compare him with Eduardo and some others where there was no contact whatsoever is ridiculous.

Also, the end result was a red card for Estrada, which should have happened after his previous foul - a legitimate second yellow. The refereeing was shit, but at least in the ends justified the means this time. I have a bigger problem with the referee on this play than Torres.

6/25/2010 7:19:51 PM

nah screw torres. dude a diva and it was a complete dive.

i've seen the replay over and over both then and before; still ridiculous. I still hold that there was absolutely 0 contact (If there was any, it was EXTREMELY minimal. You could ALMOST argue that Chilean player stumbles and say there was contact there but it is so little it is almost a moot point). Also, thinking something is intentional (if he did indeed feel anything) doesn't give an excuse to dive. If there was contact, it wasn't enough to even cause him to fall, let alone act like he just took a forearm to the back of the head. It is one thing to embellish something when you did get fouled and are already going down (still stupid). It is an entirely different think to jump then dive because another player's shorts brushed against your leg hair.

Truth is he was 100% looking for a foul. He didn't even FALL, he actually *jumped* up in the air to fake the foul. Watch this and tell me anything different:



[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 7:37 PM. Reason : ]

6/25/2010 7:30:48 PM

wow

6/25/2010 7:38:28 PM

Here is a slowed down version from 99



Was there contact? It looks like it. You can see the defender's head turn at the same time Torres right heel makes contact.

Did he embellish it? Absolutely

Was a flat out dive (a la De Rossi)? Close, but no IMO

6/25/2010 7:38:33 PM

hahahaha it is even worse in slow motion. Definitely can see a little contact there in the slowmo now but the dive looks even more hollywood. I'd still give a retroactive yellow for a performance like that were that kind of system implemented to allow FIFA to do that.

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 7:42 PM. Reason : ]

6/25/2010 7:40:33 PM

definately contact and he would have at least stumbled because of it. Its just like in college bball where you sell a charge. same deal here.


is it gay. absolutely

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 7:43 PM. Reason : a]

6/25/2010 7:42:58 PM

Dude tripped himself. These guys could win Oscars in hollywood.

6/25/2010 7:47:35 PM

ahahahaha the head fling sold it

6/25/2010 8:20:26 PM

this didn't deserve the booking but he had made a play 10 minutes earlier that did. He should have been out of the game even before this point.

6/25/2010 8:24:17 PM

I'd argue that the Iniesta dive prior to Torres's was even worse. Torres was going to fall either way, running fairly fast and his foot gets knocked into the back of his other leg. Iniesta's was a total flop, although I have to say Torres's acting was much more dramatic for something that probably wasn't painful in the slightest.

Either way Villa's goal was brilliant, definitely one of the top of the tournament so far. If he keeps this up he might be able to carry the rest of the under performing Spaniards a few rounds further.

6/25/2010 9:06:00 PM

i disagree. torres' dive was absolutely terrible. an embarrassing moment for him and his entire country.

6/26/2010 2:12:19 AM

Quote :

"JOHANNESBURG -- There has been a subtle shift in South Africa these past 24 hours, a feeling that American soccer fans -- and the U.S. team itself -- have been making a kind of slow mental turn. They're nearly finished with their basking. Now, they're spending less time with their happy memories, reflecting on what's happened, and more time in their dreams, seeing what's to come. They're replacing replays with their imaginations. The lag has been understandable. In those 12 seconds between Tim Howard's throw and Landon Donovan's finish, in those 12 seconds when the U.S. team managed to go from elimination to winning its group, a massive psychological shift occurred. That goal against Algeria changed everything. The Americans went from disappointments to heroes; Bob Bradley went from being the wrong man for the job to a strategic genius; Donovan himself saw stories about his missed potential erased and hastily rewritten, turned into stories that instead celebrated his gifts, his stone-cold ability to finish when his team, his country, needed him most. It was as though too much happened in too short a time, and it took everybody an extra day to digest. But today, it's not about Algeria anymore. It's about Ghana. And then, amazingly, it's already become about whatever might come next. Strangeness has happened here. Because of a single goal, the Americans have become a team suddenly worth projecting. Their journey to the knockout stage has been so unpredictable, so melodramatic, that they've been freed from the usual restraints of low expectations. This team has been through everything already, and so, seemingly overnight, it has become capable of anything. Even players on other teams are openly wondering what the Americans might be able to achieve in South Africa. Spain's Cesc Fabregas said recently, "The USA never gives up. That's why I believe they can go much further because they fight to the end and work so hard. So, I can see them reaching the semifinals, and then who knows what happens?" Wait. The semifinals? The Americans needed England's Robert Green to flub a Clint Dempsey shot for them to earn a 1-1 tie in their opening match. Then the U.S. spotted the Slovenians -- the smallest country in the World Cup, with a population equivalent to Houston's -- a 2-0 lead before storming back for a 2-2 tie (and what should have been a 3-2 win, were the go-ahead goal not inexplicably disallowed by referee Koman Coulibaly). And then they failed to finish against Algeria -- Jozy Altidore and Dempsey missing open nets -- before Donovan finally bailed them out at the last possible moment. "It's such a fine line," Howard said. So fine, in fact, that it's now been all but erased. Putting that goal against Algeria in our collective memory bank so that we might look ahead is one thing. Forgetting 80 years of soccer history is another. The U.S. has enjoyed a lead here for exactly two minutes in its three group stage games combined, the fewest of any team ever to advance. They've never gone past the quarterfinals at a World Cup. They haven't even won consecutive games at a World Cup since 1930. And yet: the semifinals? There are two reasons for the over-dreaming. The first is simple math -- the first is that time-honored American tradition of bracketology. By winning their group, the Americans have found themselves on the "easy" side of the draw. England, finishing second, meets Germany. The U.S. is happier facing Ghana. Jones For more from Esquire writer-at-large and ESPN The Magazine contributing editor Chris Jones, check out his daily entries in our World Cup blog. The Ghanaians knocked out the U.S. in the previous World Cup, winning their group stage match 2-1. But they haven't looked nearly as good in South Africa. They've scored twice, both times on penalty kicks. Their best player, Michael Essien, is out with a knee injury. Their keeper, Richard Kingson, has looked jittery. They're beatable. And if the Americans do come out on top, they'll then face the winner of the game between Uruguay and South Korea -- likely Uruguay -- at Soccer City in Johannesburg. The Uruguayans have looked very good, but their biggest win came against lightly regarded South Africa, and they managed a scoreless draw against hopeless France. They also aren't named Brazil, or Argentina, or Germany, or Spain. Those monsters don't come into play for the U.S. until the semifinals -- the semifinals? -- when, only then, Brazil, Portugal or the Netherlands will belatedly loom. But more important, what's truly caught the soccer world's attention here, is how the Americans have played: not necessarily the results of their play, but the character of it. Their mistakes have been large, but they've recovered from them. When they might have given up -- down against England, down against Slovenia, all but down and out against Algeria -- they persevered. While other teams have suffered personality rifts or even outright mutiny, there hasn't been a whisper of discontent out of the U.S. camp. They've become the embodiment of optimism here, of the power of hope and belief. That's why people are talking. That's why people are dreaming. The semifinals? Why stop there?"

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/columns/story/_/id/5326677/ce/us/american-dream-come-true?cc=5901&ver=us

6/26/2010 2:19:32 AM

god damn torres. i hope that asshole stays injury plagued the rest of his career

6/26/2010 3:58:42 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10422361.stm

LOL at the picture and caption of Alexi Lalas in that article.

6/26/2010 6:09:58 AM

GAME DAY!

USA! USA! USA!



























[Edited on June 26, 2010 at 8:35 AM. Reason : pics]

6/26/2010 8:25:10 AM

In response to the Torres dive you can clearly see his foot hits the knee of the defender and thats what knocks it towards his foot. Sure it was played up, but if you are running full speed and hit like that its gonna make you fall relatively hard.

All that considered, was it a foul, no.

6/26/2010 9:36:32 AM

It was a bullshit dive. Look at his face when he realizes he's gonna go down.

6/26/2010 9:39:32 AM

^^ Well said. I agree 100%

^ He completely exaggerates it, but he was tripped.

I'm sitting here wondering if Bob is going to make any changes to the back line from the Algeria match. They played pretty well back there after the shot off of the crossbar, so maybe he should stand pat and bring Gooch in as an extra defender if needed.

Also, Buddle, Gomez, or Findley up front?

[Edited on June 26, 2010 at 9:43 AM. Reason : ^]

6/26/2010 9:42:35 AM

I'd start Buddle to give more strength up top against a strong African team and bring Findley on later to break down the tired defense with speed later in the 2nd half.

6/26/2010 9:44:53 AM

honestly, i dont think he was hit hard enough to trip and fall. he kicked the back of his own leg and then fell. when he was clipped he was still upright, maybe if he stumbled and fell id believe it. but the motherfucker jumped to the ground and was sniped in the face. and he layed on the ground for several minutes as if he was hurt...all while his team was celebrating a goal. torres fuckin sucks

[Edited on June 26, 2010 at 9:48 AM. Reason : f]

6/26/2010 9:45:13 AM

^this

6/26/2010 9:47:10 AM

^^ to each his own, but fuck Torres, the US is playing today!

Findley, Buddle, or Gomez up front $?

6/26/2010 9:53:47 AM

I think your previous Torres hate is coming into play with your reaction to this dive. It's an awful exaggeration and definitely a dive but I've seen plenty worse before.


I think Bradley will start the same backline against Algeria and I'm guessing he goes back to Findley for Gomez up top. I hope not, I thought Gomez was pretty good in the first half the other day

6/26/2010 9:54:48 AM

Finally go time for the best part of the tourney. No more draws win or go home bitches

6/26/2010 9:59:03 AM

hate to break it to you doss, but a lot of the games end up in draws(til pks) in this stage and a lot of times there are boring games 0-0 style. but lets hope not this year


and on that note, GOOOOOOOLLLLLL

6/26/2010 10:08:56 AM

Well that was just poor defense and laziness

6/26/2010 10:09:54 AM

Yes I know this i'm not stupid lol but still there are no draws if they wanna play a shitty 0-0 boring game at least we will get a PK situation which is always exciting

6/26/2010 10:12:11 AM

this game has been pretty exciting so far, actually. pretty wide open.

6/26/2010 10:32:57 AM

youre pretty wide open

6/26/2010 10:37:20 AM

your mom's wide open.

6/26/2010 10:41:08 AM

and she scored too

6/26/2010 10:42:30 AM

What kind of shin guards does she have??

6/26/2010 10:54:26 AM

mitre

6/26/2010 11:01:58 AM

S. Korea definitely playing better than Uruguay this half.

6/26/2010 11:16:42 AM

Yeah Uruguay needs to get at least some possesion if they keep going how they are I wouldn't be surprised for S Korea to catch a lucky break and get one through

6/26/2010 11:19:04 AM

game starts at 2:30 right? Stupid announcers always say 2:00

Where are ya'll going to watch it?

6/26/2010 11:19:33 AM

^^ doesn't look like they'll need a lucky break to score, just need someone to shoot. they are clearly outplaying Uruguay, but they need to put shots on net instead of passing around in the box.

^ game is at 230, coverage starts at 2. ruckus.

6/26/2010 11:22:09 AM

gooooooooooallllllllllllllll

6/26/2010 11:24:10 AM