England is always teh epic fail though.

6/12/2010 6:03:31 PM

lol at beckham

6/12/2010 6:04:37 PM

i just remembered in the 2002 world cup england vs brazil when ronaldinho scored against them. david seaman let in a goal he easily shouldve saved off a free kick. its prob not as much of a howler as this one but i was just trying to think of keeper goofs and the first thing i can think of from a world cup is also england....


lol at seaman, james, robinson, carson, and now green







and ahahah robert green in the past:




[Edited on June 12, 2010 at 6:13 PM. Reason : ahaha i forgot robinson's error was against croatia too]

6/12/2010 6:08:19 PM

^lol!

6/12/2010 6:10:44 PM

sucks for Green that none of his teammates picked him up immediately after the goal or at halftime (at least from what I saw)

I actually felt kind of bad for him

6/12/2010 6:12:44 PM

you guys thought gooch was really good today? i thought he was ok but he looked slow, like he hadn't played in a while. on the goal, and on the really good save howard made on heskey, gooch got caught coming up way too high and couldn't get back. he ended the game well, and looked like he got better as the game went on, but he has to be better. luckily demerit was so good today.

with clark, he wasn't great on offense, but a lot of the times our defense was getting beat by lennon and SWP, he was the one clearing their shitty crosses. he should've been marking gerrard closer on the goal, but he's a midfielder, he shouldn't be the last guy back on defense. to me that was gooch's mistake.

findley was pretty good out there, his passing with altidore was nice, it seemed like they were on the same page.

was it just me or does that ball fly once it hits the ground on long balls?

6/12/2010 6:24:24 PM

clark is super defensive as a midfielder and hes always used as an anchorman so it actaully is his job to follow up gerrard and be in the areas of defense to help or fill in when another defender runs up field or is maybe out of position. its not really his job to attack so im not sure why anyone is questioning that side of him today. bradley will be attacking more but he likes to play a holding midfielder which is why i absolutely loathe playing those 2 together but sweatpants does it all the time. it really hinders any creativity out of the midfield which is why we have to rely on demps, donovan and altidore all the time

6/12/2010 6:30:30 PM

moment that stands out for me was when Gooch/Rooney were both chasing that long ball and Gooch had the speed to get to it first

He wasn't "good" by typical Gooch standards but I had serious concerns about him going into the game and I thought he handled himself pretty well. I guess saying he was one of our better two players wasn't the right thing to say though, so that's my bad.

I don't think Findley had a good game but not necessarily a bad one either. I actually agree with what Lalas said pre-game - If I were Bradley, I would like to bring Findley in as a sub and utilize that speed in the 2nd half when the opposing defense is tired

6/12/2010 6:31:16 PM

im noticing the ball flies in general. ive seen a lot of free kicks go up and just never come back down...im not sure if its a bunch of terribly taken kicks or the ball just likes to soar upwards...

6/12/2010 6:33:47 PM

Cannot wait for Germany to kick off tomorrow.

6/12/2010 6:36:57 PM

yea gooch really came on strong in the end. he played really well for a guy who hadn't played in like 6months or whatever. it is really good to see him play a full 90 after his injury. im sure he'll get better and thankfully he wont be playing against a striker like rooney most of the time.

altidore manhandled king, carragher, and terry. it seemed like he won almost every ball to him and did an amazing job of holding up the ball and shielding them off. if only he could finish better, he wouldve scored on the donovan cross, and his breakaway.

6/12/2010 6:43:24 PM

6/12/2010 7:05:45 PM

LoL. I'm not sure there is a Soccer equivalent to a Baseball "error," but that goal would be it. But hey, I'm not complaining.

6/12/2010 7:43:56 PM

That last Robert Green video is hilarious. Kind of like the David James missed kick earlier this season before Portsmouth got relegated.

I agree that Hart should start. He's definitely got the most talent and even though he lacks international experience I think he has the maturity to handle it.

6/12/2010 8:10:10 PM

Quote :

"i thought he was ok but he looked slow, like he hadn't played in a while."

he looked slow as far as reading the game and seeing the things going on around him is concerned. but like someone else said, he's physically fit enough to beat rooney to a ball one on one which means that it's a matter of match fitness and not physical fitness which is excellent news for the team. a few more games at match speed and hopefully he'll get back to where he needs to be so that when we make it to the next round he'll be playing at or close to 100%.

6/12/2010 8:21:53 PM

the closest goalkeeping error i can think of in the world cup, i believe belongs to packi bonner in the '94 cup, where he blocked a ball near the top of the box, couldn't control it, and the ball continued toward the momentum and bounced off the post (no goal). i'll look for the vid

6/12/2010 9:09:12 PM

poor green. he played decent over in west ham and saved their ass plenty of times.

my english bartender had a good questioning look at me as the token west ham fan in the bar. lolz. sux for him.

[Edited on June 12, 2010 at 10:02 PM. Reason : the booing of beckam each time he was on made me lol too.]

6/12/2010 10:01:40 PM

^Were you at the Cary Hibernian too?

6/12/2010 10:08:45 PM

no i live in wisconsin, but i was at my local irish pub.

6/12/2010 10:13:57 PM

^The same thing was happening at the Cary Hibernian...lol!

6/12/2010 10:18:14 PM

[Edited on June 12, 2010 at 10:45 PM. Reason : f]

6/12/2010 10:45:24 PM

i could watch this for hours

6/12/2010 10:52:48 PM

I really want to know why Capello thought Green was a better option than a sack of onions in goal.

6/12/2010 10:58:15 PM

hahaha. capello made a couple errors this game (playing green. starting a not 100% milner. brining on SWP. starting heskey who prob has less minutes this year for his club than gooch). i also think he shouldve named the starter well before the game too instead of waiting til the game. that puts too much unneeded pressure on the keeper having to guess which one will start.

im guessin we will not see robert green on the field anymore this world cup

[Edited on June 12, 2010 at 11:11 PM. Reason : f]

6/12/2010 11:10:44 PM

calamity james can re-earn his name.

6/12/2010 11:11:56 PM

I want to watch the Algeria-Slovenia game, but I'm on CDT.

I think Serbia-Ghana should be pretty interesting.

And here's to hoping that Australia surprises Germany and the world.

6/12/2010 11:47:14 PM

Watching the replay

How often during is a side's national anthem written about the country standing beside you

Awesome

6/13/2010 12:28:49 AM

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/13/england-1-1-usa-tactic/

solid tactical analysis of the game here (except I don't really understand the Heskey love)

Quote :

"England rarely start well in major tournaments, and the result was not entirely unpredictable. We should avoid going overboard, but the game presented so many problems for Capello – Milner’s indiscipline, King’s fitness worries, Carragher’s lack of pace, Green’s confidence after his mistakes, Heskey’s wastefulness (despite his otherwise excellent display). England’s formation as a whole didn’t look to be the problem, but this game suggests that stopping Rooney getting on the ball and stopping Ashley Cole getting forward stops England. The one bright spot was the right-hand side, where Lennon and Glen Johnson attacked well and created chances."

6/13/2010 12:28:54 AM

Quote :

"The problem with declaring the system a (partial) success, though, is that they were never going to be tested in that respect anyway. In Michael Bradley and Ricardo Clark, the US play two defensive-minded midfielders that rarely look to link up directly with the forwards. They leave that to the wide players – and in fact, the full-backs offer more attacking threat than the central midfielders."

that describes the 4-2-2-2 almost to a "T" though i didnt realize we were playing a 4-2-2-2 this tourney. makes a lot of sense though since we have no really great wingers on this team.

lol at onyewu "doing a vermaelen" which he was by being dragged upfield out of position.

[Edited on June 13, 2010 at 12:53 AM. Reason : f]

6/13/2010 12:49:43 AM

^^good read overall, I laughed at "Heskey plays role brilliantly" too. He did win balls in the air and had that nice pass, but at least threatening to score is part of the "role," considering where he plays.

6/13/2010 12:58:58 AM

i was just thinking but so far this tourney has been dominated by incredible goalkeeping performances so far (robert green aside, though he did make a great save denying altidore). i wonder if this ball is actually hurting the players rather than the keepers since it does seem the ball doesnt want to come down out of the air from what i can tell

6/13/2010 2:26:11 AM

So far both teams are looking pretty meh having a hard time stringing together more than a few passes at a time.

6/13/2010 7:49:40 AM

Holy shit, Harkes DOES sound like Mary Carillo.

Also, we didn't have the audio on yesterday; did Tyler dare to mention the Terry/Bridge business with Harkes in the booth?

6/13/2010 8:02:18 AM

LOL!

I don't think I heard about Terry and Bridge yesterday. Also, Danny Jordaan says they might consider a ban on vuvuzelas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8737455.stm

We need to get someone just to throw one onto the pitch at a player or ref, and we can get the damn things banned.

6/13/2010 8:04:22 AM

Tyler briefly said something about it when the players were in the tunnel, if I remember correctly

6/13/2010 8:05:36 AM

6/13/2010 8:47:39 AM

ahahaha what a stupid ass handball to get sent off

6/13/2010 9:00:05 AM

LOL at Ghezzal for Algeria. A stupid foul 10 seconds after he comes into the game to earn himself a yellow and then a blatant handball 10 minutes later for the 2nd yellow. I hope he enjoyed his 10 minutes of WC playing time.

6/13/2010 9:02:33 AM

come on 0-0!!

6/13/2010 9:03:37 AM

^ agreed. and WOW, that pass almost ruined that 0-0 tie we are hoping for. Neither of these teams impress me today so I really hope 0-0 sticks. That stupid red pissed me off for that very reason. I don't want any team to have a better chance and scoring haha.

[Edited on June 13, 2010 at 9:05 AM. Reason : ]

6/13/2010 9:04:33 AM

usa should really have no problems with either of these teams but since we love to play to our competitions level we will undoubtedly struggle against both

[Edited on June 13, 2010 at 9:05 AM. Reason : asdfg]

6/13/2010 9:04:45 AM

dangit there goes the tie

6/13/2010 9:06:02 AM

damn.

good goal for Slovenia


[Edited on June 13, 2010 at 9:06 AM. Reason : wow, shitty goalkeeping]

6/13/2010 9:06:07 AM

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLL SLOVENIA!!!

6/13/2010 9:06:16 AM

ahahha robert green jr

6/13/2010 9:06:40 AM

haha what a weak-ass goal

6/13/2010 9:06:51 AM

that Algerian must have attended the robert green school of goaltending

6/13/2010 9:06:56 AM

from here on out in all world cups, the misplaying of a save off the hands when the ball is in front of you will forever be called "doing a robert green"


that really looked like it shouldve been an easy save

[Edited on June 13, 2010 at 9:08 AM. Reason : f]

6/13/2010 9:07:48 AM

Quote :

"usa should really have no problems with either of these teams but since we love to play to our competitions level we will undoubtedly struggle against both"

yea. in reality this group should be decided by who can score more goals against slovenia and algeria between England and the USA, but I'm expecting us to play "down" to our competition as well.

also, upon watching that replay, that was a decent strike but that also should have been saved.

6/13/2010 9:08:10 AM

that was way worse than green's mistake

i'll still looking forward to seeing calamity james

because if capello wasn't smart enough to pick hart before, i don't see why he will be now

6/13/2010 9:08:43 AM