^They left the OFC to join the AFC because the AFC is about the skill level of CONCACAF, or a little less and they get 4.5 births in the World Cup. They wanted an automatic bid to the World Cup like the USA and Mexico pretty much have. The OFC gets .5 births in the World Cup and has to win a 2 leg playoff to go to the World Cup. Basicly Australia beat the crap out of islands you can't find on the map (They won 36-0 one time) and then had a 2 game playoff vs CONMEBOL, or AFC (depending on which cycle) which they lost most of the time. That is why they weren't in the World Cup for something like 36 years. They got sick of having their bid ride on 1 two leg series every 4 years, so they joined the AFC.

6/15/2009 10:02:32 AM

TOO SLOW

I WIN

6/15/2009 10:03:45 AM

Quote :

"Enjoy if you want, but don't try to force anyone else to enjoy it."

I don't think anyone EVER forces you to interject your glum and purposefully different points of view on any of these threads. We wouldn't even be wasting our time on this discussion if you didn't exist, and those of us that wanted to enjoy the games and discussing it here could do it without being bothered.

6/15/2009 10:13:19 AM

It's a dumb fucking tournament, everyone other than B4C knows this. It was pointed out a couple times before VB showed up in this thread and dozens of times in the USMNT team thread (which I've never seen you post in).

6/15/2009 10:16:59 AM

it's basically a bunch of friendlies in the same place in a short period of time

We were excited to watch the England / Spain / Argentina friendlies last year because we were actually playing good teams... the same applies here. We're interested because we're playing good competition, not because there's a tournament or cup involved.

I'm interested because I think Bradley is going to be super-exposed, the USSF will do nothing about it, and it will kill all my anticipation for the World Cup because I know we'll get blown away in it.

/ reverse jinx (plus a little bit of seriousness)

[Edited on June 15, 2009 at 10:23 AM. Reason : .]

6/15/2009 10:23:02 AM

I'm just excited to find out who will be 2010's Jan Koller for the US.

6/15/2009 10:28:38 AM

We're gonna get steamrolled with or without someone pulling a Koller.

6/15/2009 10:36:37 AM

I wonder what the official excuse will be when we don't win a game. Injuries? Fatigue? Adapting to environment?

6/15/2009 10:42:25 AM

I'm blaming apartheid.

6/15/2009 10:43:47 AM

The HIV.... sorry.

6/15/2009 10:47:45 AM

Does anybody know of a good ESPN stream for this? I forgot to set the DVR before I left for work..

I know they're re-showing it at 10 tonight but I would like to watch it before then.

6/15/2009 10:49:29 AM

^If you can pick up ESPN 360 it will be on there. Do a search on http://www.justin.tv because they always broadcast South American soccer.

6/15/2009 10:52:26 AM

Quote :

"It's a dumb fucking tournament, everyone other than B4C knows this. It was pointed out a couple times before VB showed up in this thread and dozens of times in the USMNT team thread (which I've never seen you post in)."

I was never overly excited about it. It's just more exciting than looking forward to our Gold Cup match in a few weeks vs Haiti. Would you rather watch USA vs Haiti, or USA vs Brazil?

6/15/2009 10:55:35 AM

wow, Egypt scored 2 goals in a minute.

6/15/2009 11:17:11 AM

^^^^ here's the feed i'm watching. not in english though

http://www.justin.tv/gerks12

6/15/2009 11:21:45 AM

Quote :

"Would you rather watch USA vs Haiti, or USA vs Brazil?"

I guess the Brazil match will be kind of fun for 20 minutes or so. After that it'll just be a soul-crushing realization that we're screwed if we make it back to South Africa next summer.

6/15/2009 11:24:21 AM

Brazil escapes in the 90th after a handball in the box to keep a header from going in. They looked good but Egypt exposed that back line for the Brazilians.

6/15/2009 11:50:53 AM

This could easily be a 3 loss tournament for the USA. That was a very inspired Egyptian team.

6/15/2009 11:56:16 AM

Quote :

"I guess the Brazil match will be kind of fun for 20 minutes or so. After that it'll just be a soul-crushing realization that we're screwed if we make it back to South Africa next summer."

You never know what will happen. Who would have guessed we would have been up 3-0 on Portugal after 20 minutes, or tied Italy in 2006? We do alright vs UEFA's top teams in the World Cup even when we lose. The problem is we need to quit blowing it in our last group match vs average teams like Poland and Ghana.

6/15/2009 12:16:49 PM

Oddly enough, I like our chances against the defending WC champions more so than the other two teams

Italy's players are a lot older, no Cannavaro today, they're not in good form (4-3 versus New Zealand recently, wtf), their laid-back counter type attack matches up a little better with us than an all out attack like Argentina/Brazil/Spain has

I'm still predicting a loss though

6/15/2009 12:34:55 PM

...Ghana is anything but an "average" team, son.

6/15/2009 12:35:08 PM

it will be some NC State shit when that Rossi kid scores on us.

6/15/2009 1:14:47 PM

Quote :

"...Ghana is anything but an "average" team, son."

They are about like the USA. They just managed to beat us in 2006.

6/15/2009 1:27:14 PM

And the Czechs, who put it in our pooper.

6/15/2009 1:34:59 PM

Quote :

"Howard; Spector, DeMerit, Gooch,Bornstein; Feilhaber, Bradley, Clark, Dempsey; Donovan, Altidore"

US Lineup... Boca unable to go due to injury. I'm hoping this is a 4-2-3-1 with Donovan on the left and Dempsey on the right instead of a 4-4-2 but we'll have to wait and see

Italy Lineup

Quote :

"Buffon; Zambrotta, Chiellini, Legrottaglie, Grosso, Pirlo, Camoranesi, Gattuso, De Rossi, Gilardino, Iaquinta"

[Edited on June 15, 2009 at 1:47 PM. Reason : Italy]

6/15/2009 1:41:35 PM

anyone got a good feed for the USA game?

6/15/2009 1:47:52 PM

http://www.atdhe.net/index.html is the answer 99% of the time.

6/15/2009 1:48:47 PM

I hope we blow them away early. I'm pissed because I have been going to work at 4:30pm every Monday for about the past 3 months now. For some reason my boss scheduled me to come in at 4:00pm today which will cause me to miss about the last half hour of the game. My plan was to leave her a note that I would be 10 minutes late because of a meeting, but that won't work now.

6/15/2009 1:49:17 PM

http://www.rojadirecta.com/

I found a really good stream that plays on Windows Media player - its STV3

6/15/2009 2:29:40 PM

egypt got beat by Algeria bad a couple weeks ago in Africa qualifying and the egyptian public was screaming bloody murder as they should not have lost to Algeria, espcially not 3-1. So they made some lineup changes, hence, why they looked alot better against Brazil.

6/15/2009 2:33:05 PM

not a bad first 10 minutes... 50/50 possession, Altidore looks active, good high pressure from us

6/15/2009 2:41:31 PM

Really J.P. Dellacamera?...Bradley scores more as he gets closer to the goal?...You don't fucking say!!!...God, he and Harkes are the worst.

6/15/2009 2:58:00 PM

C'MOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN Jozy

6/15/2009 3:00:25 PM

damnit Jozy what was that

6/15/2009 3:00:32 PM

^,^^ SERIOUSLY!!!

6/15/2009 3:01:06 PM

jozy has to shoot that ball

we are lookin good so far though

6/15/2009 3:01:25 PM

^ i don't get US Futbol, they have this basketball mentality like they need to do layups. Shoot the damn ball.

6/15/2009 3:01:26 PM

I like having Jozy up there, but if that's Dempsey there's no way he's passing that.

6/15/2009 3:03:52 PM

wtf, a red card for that?

6/15/2009 3:04:21 PM

FUCK

6/15/2009 3:04:27 PM

how is that a red?

6/15/2009 3:04:32 PM

Way to fucking go you stupid shit Clark. As if our shooting wasn't disadvantage enough...

6/15/2009 3:04:57 PM

stupid ass challenge but not deserving of a red

6/15/2009 3:05:55 PM

Thank God for offsides. Figures, we shoot better at our own goal than we do at theirs.

6/15/2009 3:09:25 PM

bornstein is a goofy ass fuck

6/15/2009 3:09:55 PM

GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!!

6/15/2009 3:11:03 PM

6/15/2009 3:11:23 PM

and another Landon PK

good stuff from Jozy to draw it

6/15/2009 3:11:31 PM

FUCK YES

6/15/2009 3:12:22 PM

that red card is really a shame, we're playing very good

6/15/2009 3:13:05 PM