Well, it's like any other sport, Joe - the passion comes from having played the game and/or being a lifetime fan. That's something relatively new in America, but the sport is growing and I think the recent success of our young Men's team reflects that. In the past, all of our best athletes went into baseball, football and basketball but now more and more are playing soccer, so naturally the quality and interest have improved. Stay tuned for the next men's World Cup - it's being held here in the U.S.. As for our women, I think their biggest problems are that they are a program and team in transition - many new players and a new coach - and I hate to say it, they don't have the warrior spirit their predecessors had. There's no replacing the talent and leadership of players like Abby Wombach, but we've still got some tough veterans from those dominant U.S. teams and with time and success this new bunch might catch that fire. There's still time to turn things around, and while I don't expect them to win this Cup and I think they need a new head coach, there's some great young talent on the USWNT and they have a bright future. As they say, you can't win 'em all. This year we're going to let someone else win the women's World Cup.
Brazil out. Solid defense, good and creative midfield but atrocious offense. The midfield often delivered good balls to the offense and then the forwards would always make the wrong decision, running into traffic, shooting when obviously there would be a block, crossing directly to the feet of the Jamaicans, and not passing the ball to open players. I thought the Brazilian forwards displayed incredible stupidity and lack of awareness. Ultimately it was more than fair that Brazil got bumped out because you can't compete beyond the group phase with such a toothless offense. Italy out, Brazil out, the United States struggling, not a good Cup for me.
In Brazil's defense, Jamaica was totally sandbaggin' it out there. It's tough to break down a defense when the entire team is playing back in its own end. At some point the Rasta Girls are going to have to discover a thing called "offense". They've scored all of 1 goal in their three Group games, and that came against Panama who gave up 6 goals to France and 4 to Brazil.
Jamaika did what Jamaica did what they had to do and Brazil was unable to adjust, or did not have the quality up front to break the Jamaican down. Sometime it needs just that tip of knife luck, or bad luck in football. I did not not moan and grown about Germany loosing to Columbia. Germany hit 3 or 4 times the upright and posts. Sorry that is football and lost in the final seconds of OT, that is football, too. If you are dominant like Brazil or Germany were, you have to put that game away, by scoring, or you will lose. Same for the US. I will watch the German game at 9am MT, that's when it will be shown on TV. My hope, that they take that game more serious. I think the 6:0 opener, after the shiiiity prep games, made them a little arrogant against Columbia, which was never the less second in the South American Championship.. Its crunch time. World Cup is crunch time.
OK, but Brazil had an incredible 28 crosses that were completely botched. This is a rather unbelievable stat! While I didn't count myself, I was frustrated at the high number of bogus crosses, and then later I read the stat from a Brazilian website. This is unacceptable.
All good points, particularly about Jamaica. They went into the game knowing all they needed was a tie and then leaned on their strength - defense - to get what they needed. In the end, Jamaica executed their game plan - what more can you ask from a team? -- and Germany scores the equalizer! I was just getting ready to say SoKo has done a good job of closing down the passing lanes and Germany hasn't been sharp enough to pierce their defense, but then they go up and over the D to Popp for the goal. Nicely done.
That is an incredible stat. Unfortunately, it's reminiscent of Team USA's own frustrating inability to finish. When opportunity knocks, you have to answer....
Looks like Germany has figured out how to crack SoKo's defense and they'd better make good on their chances because it looks like they're going to have to win to get through....
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, was that bad. Reminded me of the men team last year. Don't know what happened since the 6:0 starter, but it was all going down hill.
Team USA is on the same trajectory, and I fully expect Andonovski to lose the game against the Swedes before it even begins. Here's the completely lopsided bracket - England's gotta be loving its chances of making the final. I'm thinking they'll face the winner of the Japan-Sweden semi:
We could use a zebra. There's been so many zebras, why can't a subpar US team beat Sweden? Let's hope! It's unusual for us to be seen as a zebra but hey, I'm willing to take it if it means we'll keep advancing!
It's been interesting to see all confederations and continents represented in the round of 16. There's been more parity, with several giants crashing out and surprises happening, such as Morocco, Jamaica, Colombia, and South Africa. This has been an interesting tournament. Not good for the teams I root for, but interesting. So now, England and Japan seem to be on the driver seat, but with so many surprises having already happened, one never knows what the round of 16 will bring.
Japan continues its winning path; advanced to the round of 8. I tried to record their latest game but due to some DVR failure it didn't record. I haven't seen Japan yet. Apparently they are very good and true title candidates.
@Talon @Montegriffo @gnoib So, what's your prediction? Who will win it all? Japan? Spain? Sweden? England? France? Colombia? I won't dare to include the US as a serious title candidate, but hey, like I said, there's been surprises and currently we're underdogs, "any given Sunday" so, here's to hope. Based on results I see, I'd have to predict Japan but like I said I haven't seen their games so I can't predict with authority. But certainly they are beating everybody by multiple goals and have the lead candidate for the Golden Boot. I haven't watched too many games outside of the teams I am (was) rooting for, the US, Italy and Brazil. I did watch one game by England and was impressed.
Once again we've got a tale of two brackets - on one side, the Bracket of Death with Japan, Sweden, Spain and some other good teams (USWNT where art thou?). On the other, the Bracket of Meh, that includes England, perennial underachiever France and meh. I see England making it to the final to play the winner of the Japan-Sweden semi. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm taking Japan. They've given up only 1 goal in 4 games and in a tournament where team after team after team has shown an inability to convert on opportunities and score, Japan's offense has been just the opposite. That being said, soccer is like horse racing, on any given night a team can come out and throw a clunker and that goes for Japan. That's why my next choices are Sweden and then England.
Lets not forget how far the men Marrocco team got. I got a feeling this might be the underdog WC. Spain, Sweden and Japan are very impressive and solid, England is a diva, could do it. We see tomorrow if Sweden or the US advance. My guess from then on its every bodies chance. What is going on with those own goals, playing back to the keeper, its a pandemic lately.
