a blunder worse than the english keepers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94DiMJCjf3o&playnext_from=TL&videos=xEFRhFk9sWA&feature=grec_index

7/18/2010 2:28:15 AM

Quote :

"^ Doesn't know anything about wrestling."

Doesn't know anything about endurance or cardio. Guys that big would be lapped by a soccer player on a trail or a run.

If we are talking about MMA or boxing then yeah, those guys are in good shape.

7/18/2010 1:21:10 PM

^^ I want that 7 seconds of my life back

7/18/2010 1:25:47 PM

The Meltdown of the Traditional Euro Powers
The Azzuri's collapse was a shocker only because they were in the easiest group. If losing to either Korea was considered disgraceful, then what about this year's three game flameout? Does chokejob mean anythign to you guys? At least, you watched the rest of the tourney with the Frenchies--from home.

As for the French, karma is real bitch, isn't it? Henry's handball. The white players bitching about there being too many black players on the squad. A coach that totally lost his way and his expulsion of one player led to an outright mutiny. How bad is it that your president personally stepped in, to the point where Blatter is threatening to expel you?

Outside of that bullshit call that nullified Lampard's goal, most English players just didn't give a fuck, especially Rooney. Group C EASY, huh. The Three Lions played more like The Three Lambs.

Portugal...I refuse to touch 'em.

Next, Germany was quite surprising. They should be up there with Spain as Europe's favorites in 2014.

This tourney was ripe for the Netherlands and Spain, and the Spanish wanted it more. The Oranje now have to be in the same category as Mexico—these guys perennially do less with more to the point where I just don't want to hear anybody talking about them until they do something worthwhile.

The Great African Flameout
As far as African nations go: WHAT THE FUCK WAS UP WITH THAT SHITTY PERFORMANCE? Seriously, one team to the Round of 16? One?

Outside of Algeria, who was never much of a threat, that effort by the entire continent was even below that of France's.

Nigeria played too much like a European team and got burned. Cameroon was the epitome of an epic fail. Really guys, that was all you had?

As for the Ivory Coast, they have bigger problems than one of its players disgracefully acting like he was shot with an AK-47 by Kaka. No one really bothered picking up the slack when Drogba was obviously less than 100%.

This brings me to the fallen host nation: As a country, you had seven years to prepare! Thanks for making history by being the first hosts to flop (no pun intended) in the group stage, guys. With your performance against Uruguay, soccer on Africa was set back by a decade.

Ghana carried the flag for a continent as far as it could. However, Gyan missing that penalty kick with essentially no time remaining in the 2nd OT was completely inexcusable. Any scrutiny he gets for the rest of his career is well-deserved.

As a confederation, Africa just failed miserably this year and will be hard pressed to make any meaningful progress four year from now.

On This Side of the Atlantic
I will also remain tight-lipped on Mexico and Honduras.
Uruguay, with its performance, is ready to return to its former self as a world power. Chile and Paraguay will greatly benefit from home-continent advantage, but they won't be much of a threat in Brazil.

Will Mardonna be back in Argentina? Who knows? The good thing is that everyone in Buenos Aires was spared the the ungodly sight of seeing the pudgy 50-year-old streaking down a street. Messi, like Rooney and Ronaldo, can best be described this way

Quote :

"You can't handle the pressure, you pussy"

The 2014 tournament is Brazil's to lose. Period.

That leaves the U.S. This team was supposed to not only return to the quarterfinals, but it was supposed to be legit semifinal contenders. No one can tell me that the '02 squad was better because it wasn't. Of course, if Jurgen Klinsmann hadn't been in the broadcast booth, there would be no second guessing. I have no idea if Bob Bradley deserves to be canned, but the USMNT will be rebuilding in 2014—a three-and-done is not out of question. Too many players who were around in South Korea were on this year's squad, meaning that there can be no spinning the fact that America won't be WC competitive until 2022 (it's safe to say that Europe's getting the '18 bid, 'nuff said).

Other Things
What's more likely to happen first, Oceania getting a full spot in the WC or New Zealand winning a WC match?

A special note for the Japanese manager: Don't let players take penalty kicks if they have never attempted them or converted on one.

The Aussies have a better shot of advancing Asian soccer than the South Koreans. As for the North Koreans, see you in 44 years—if there is no Korean reunification that is.

A special message to Sepp Blatter: JUST FOAD already! The refereeing set a new low for corruption. The fact that this cretin is running for reelection next year when he is 100,000 times worse than Bud Selig is appalling and should piss off any true soccer fan. Underming any replay attempt further ruins FIFA's credibilty.

[Edited on July 20, 2010 at 1:26 AM. Reason : emphasis]

7/20/2010 1:25:58 AM

Quote :

"Guys that big would be lapped by a soccer player on a trail or a run."

Rey Mysterio Jr. - 5' 6" 170 lbs.
Matt Sydal - 5' 8" 175 lbs.
Chris Jericho - 5' 10" 210 lbs.

GUYS THAT BIG

7/20/2010 2:26:44 AM

You knew exactly what he is talking about as most wrestlers are roided up monkeys, so why do you try to continue this lame argument?

7/20/2010 10:55:54 AM

Most is an exaggeration.

Yes, there are plenty of roided up giants who need a 45 second rest hold for every five minutes of work, but a large percentage of pro wrestlers are between the size of a wide receiver and a quarterback. You think Kurt Angle won a gold medal by being out of shape?

7/20/2010 11:06:04 AM

Let me just put it out there that I don't give a fuck either way.

You were just taking his statement way to literally purely for the sake of argument.

7/20/2010 11:21:40 AM

Looking for an MLS thread to no avail (I'm probably blind)

These late games the last few days have been pretty fun. Also just get goal line review already.

7/22/2010 11:54:22 PM

i wish buddle had at least come in one 2nd half during the world cup - if he does well then great, but if he's shaky then at least he's getting international caps. he's been pretty good for galaxy (albeit playing in mls)

7/23/2010 12:06:49 AM

well hes either 30 or almost 30 so i highly doubt youll see buddle at the next world cup. this was his last chance. he was the hottest striker coming into the team for usa and wasnt used. but hey, at least we got to see the findley a lot. hes an awesome striker......

7/23/2010 7:32:14 AM

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/30/north-korean-soccer-team-punished-for-world-cup-exit.html

Sounds like they got off pretty light.

Quote :

"In June, the North Korean soccer team dropped ignominiously out of the World Cup without a point after conceding 12 goals in three games. Since the players returned home, they have been publicly shamed, according to reports. The manager has been forced to become a construction worker, and there are fears for his safety. North Korea is one of the most oppressive regimes on earth. The soccer team's first game was not televised in the country, for fear of embarrassment. But when the team put up a remarkably good show against Brazil, narrowly losing 2-1, hopes were raised and the second game against Portugal was shown. The team lost 7-0. And then lost again, 3-0, in their last game against the Ivory Coast. According to reports from Radio Free Asia and the South Korean media, earlier this month the team and manager were forced onto a stage at the People's Palace of Culture in front of 400 government officials, students, and journalists. According to the Guardian, the athletes were subjected to a "six-hour barrage of criticism" for their poor performances that was led by a TV commentator and sports minister Pak Myong-chol. The only players who missed out on the humiliation were Jung Tae-se and An Yong-hak, who are based in Japan. The players were then asked to step up in turn and publicly criticize manager Kim Jong-hun, who had apparently been singled out for punishment. He has been forced into a construction job because, it is thought, his team's failure is seen as a personal betrayal of Kim Jong-un, the son of current leader Kim Jong-il. The Guardian reports that plans were in place, in the case of a good performance at the tournament, to credit the team's success to the heir apparent to help ease the transition of power. Instead, there are reportedly fears for the manager's safety. Still, a South Korean intelligence source told the newspaper Chosun Ilbo that the team had probably escaped with a light punishment. In the past, he said, athletes and coaches who displeased the regime were sent to prison camps: "Considering the high hopes North Koreans had for the World Cup, the regime could have done worse things to the team than just reprimand them for their ideological shortcomings.""

7/30/2010 2:48:18 PM

to be honest, I'm surprised that North Korea even made the world cup.

7/30/2010 2:54:37 PM

yeah, they really had no business being there anyway. i don't know what north koreans were expecting, but after they got put in a group with brazil, portugal and ivory coast i don't know how they didn't see at least a couple ass whoopings coming.

8/1/2010 11:56:13 AM

No business being there? The fact that they were to be outclassed in the Finals was pretty obvious, but they qualified just as legitimately as Japan did.

8/1/2010 12:47:39 PM

you know what i mean, dickweed/

8/1/2010 12:51:55 PM

that region turns over more different teams than any other region in the world, whether it be the middle east teams such as saudi arabia, iran, qatar, etc or some of the oriental teams or australia or new zealand through a playoff, there really hasnt been a consistent team coming out of that region besides maybe south korea....we wont see north korea in 2014, itll be some other team from asia.

hell north korea can barely qualify for their own asian cup...

no way you care about north korea, you just want to argue for the sake of arguing

[Edited on August 1, 2010 at 1:01 PM. Reason : f]

8/1/2010 12:56:07 PM

I wonder if this incident will make FIFA to ban North Korea from international competition. FIFA tend to look down on the mixing of politics and soccer.

8/1/2010 1:05:14 PM

They'll probably ban themselves. I seem to recall that they didn't even bother to enter any competitions for like a 30 year span.

8/1/2010 1:08:27 PM

I'm just saying, this isn't like the Olympic swimmers from Equatorial Guinea who could hardly do a lap of the pool but were admitted to the Games in the spirit of goodwill. DPRK were the fourth place team in a weak region, but they still qualified like everyone else.

8/1/2010 1:10:13 PM

the obvious point that he is trying to make is not that they qualified, but that they shouldnt have been there....

8/1/2010 1:22:59 PM

The only way that argument is valid is if you cut the field back to 24 teams.

If the field is 32, there are going to be third tier teams in the Finals. DPRK were undefeated in their semifinal AFC group and finished the final group with a with more wins than losses and a positive goal difference.

8/1/2010 1:52:23 PM

Quote :

"FIFA considers World Cup changes BERLIN -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter says soccer's governing body will consider eliminating ties in all World Cup games. Blatter said Saturday on Germany's Focus weekly that the dramatic change would make the tournament more interesting. He says the change could involve going to a shootout after 90 minutes of regulation or adding sudden-death overtime. Sudden-death overtime was used in the knockout rounds of the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. FIFA then reverted to its previous rule of having teams play a full 30 minutes of overtime if tied at the end of regulation in the knockout rounds. First-round games always have ended in draws if tied at the end of regulation. "

GIVE US THE GOLDEN GOAL

8/15/2010 3:23:02 AM

so damn stupid

8/15/2010 8:14:20 AM

that would be terrible, ESPECIALLY if it went to PK shootouts directly after regulation in the group games. If they think weaker teams playing for a tie is bad now, think about how much more defensive and boring they'll play if they think they actually have a chance to WIN the game after purposely trying to do nothing but not-lose all game.

8/15/2010 9:38:38 AM

if you're going to do anything...just make golden goal OT

someone will lose eventually

8/15/2010 9:43:04 AM

I agree with both ^^ and ^

8/15/2010 10:40:18 AM

booo, let it be a tie,
stop trying to make soccer more interesting for people with a short attention span

8/15/2010 2:13:51 PM

Golden goal wouldn't be terrible - PKs is just downright stupid.

8/16/2010 10:23:03 PM