Modern Vespa

Spain will win it !!!!

gutted you cousins are out.
Altidore played for my team Hull City(Tigers)in the premier league last season.
bring on the Germans today,bout time we showed some bulldog spirit.

Come on boys!!!!!

The US certainly had their chances but, save for Donovan's penalty kick, none went in. The Ghanain goalie and defense were outstanding. For as young as Ghana are they played very maturely. Their passing was crisp and precise.

I'm for England now. Still a (non-flag burning ) Scouser by blood.

Well, what a shellacking...
Again, this world cup has shown how truly awful the referees are. But as everyone has said, that 'goal' made 1966 Even Stevens..
Thing is, you battle back from something like that. The US did it twice. England's defense just collapsed.
Ultimately is this a surprise? England came in 2nd in group play, behind the US...
Watching this game, and the Ghana game also really showed that as much fight as the US had in them they do not have any world class strikers. Ghana seized every chance they got and got 2 great goals. Germany seized their chances and got 4 great goals. No doubt, no hesitation.
The US needs players that can finish.

As for Rooney, man what a disappointment. He had 4 games in which he could have showed something. Not including the previous world cup in 2006 where he also choked. All hype, no product. Guess he should just stick to provincial play.

Next up, Mexico vs Argentina! Should be entertaining..

we were awful,time to change my profile pic i think.
the Germans as ever the best team.

Watching Mexico vs Argentina..

Another unbelievably bad call by the linesman, allowing the Argie player who was waay offside to score...

This is weak.

I think the ref thought it may be a new FIFA rule, since they gave one pretty much like that to NZ against Italy.

Seriously, I wonder if they thought the keeper touched it, because other than that it was really friggin' obvious. (Though not as obvious as the England goal, which was likely the most ridiculous WC ref mistake in recent memory.)

+1

The worst part is that in this case, if the ref and its assistant were to use their brains, you don't need a video replay to realize that it was offside. Tevez went past the goalie, as the goalie blocks the ball away from the goal, Messi passes it back to Tevez, and the defenders from Mexico haven't got to Tevez yet. Offside, period. The replay only shows the yard+ of offside, and it also shows that the assistant referee can see the same yard+ of offside.

The local football associations must enforce video replay, and tell FIFA either join in, or fk it.

Well...

I'm pulling for Slovkia now. Slovak by marriage. (But I already liked Pieorgies!)


Well, I still have Pierogies.

Okay, game over
Argentina 3 Mexico 1

Argentina's 3rd goal was a scorching beauty. Hot damn. Mexico's goal was nice but not on the same level.

But.. what it shows again (I know I'm beating a dead horse here) is that the US has no strikers at that level. None. For the US to get better they need to have that kind of talent.

Segueing... (sp?) I was thinking about Rooney's performance over the last 2 world cups. And came to the conclusion that he is the equivalent of a college ball player in the US. May be a star at college level but on the international level just does not have what it takes. How else could he suck so bad in every frickin' game?

To get that kind of talent that many of these countries have, it takes a cultural change in how kids are brought up playing sports in this country. We have athletic talent in the US (Lebron, Kobe for example). It's not that our athletes are genetically inferior to other nations. Not at all. Our kids however do not grow up wanting to be the next Maradona, Beckenbauer, Pele, or Messi. They want to be Lebron, Manning, Jeter etc. I'm not knocking our American sports. In fact I follow them when I'm not following soccer (football, calcio etc.) The United States cultural approach to the game of soccer is the underlying reason as to why the most populous country in the world cup (the US) gets schooled by a respectable African side (Ghana) whose country is the size of Oregon. In the US soccer is just something that kids play in YMCA until they can play the "real" sports (Football, Basketball etc.)

It will take a considerable cultural change in how Americans approach the game of soccer before we will ever be in a position to realistically achieve the goal of being World Cup champions. I would love to see it in my lifetime.

You've got some points, but I'll give you a name: Giuseppe Rossi. He's an american, a top striker in La Liga (Villareal), but chose to play for Italy, the country of his parents. Unfortunately for him, Lippi didn't pick him for the WC, but it also brings an other issue: When we get these players of the high caliber, they are choosing to play for their parents' country rather than the USA (There is one in the Mexican team, another one that plays for one of the Balkan countries, there is one who played for Germany and is now back at the US). Perhaps it has to do with the "lower" reputation our team has versus these other countries, or at least the lack of an international coach. But we need to address this problem.

Also there is the issue of money. The salaries available for an average pro player in baseball, basketball, or even hockey, is far higher than an MLS player. And if you're good here in the US and want to take your game to Europe, you're competing against hundreds of players from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Not an easy task.

That might require quitting school at a very young age and dedicating your life to the sport. Not that every great player does this, but it is something that is done in many more poverty stricken areas.

Which is very hard to do here in the USA, because, 1) we don't have an academy system put in place which can identify these kids, and 2) we don't have the professional league that can reward this talent.

My experience in the past 10+yrs of coaching/refereeing club soccer in Southern California shows that: 1) the nascent talent from the latino sector goes to Mexico to continue in their academies, 2) the good talent from the non-latino groups aims at getting a scholarship on college, and 3) the rest of the good athlete talent switches to a more "rewarding" monetary sport (ie baseball or football). Given that the "great" players currently have been products of soccer academies since their puberty years (Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Boateng, Drogba, etc) I can't see our bulk of college-produced players having a chance against these guys.

In other news, biggest jackass move of the day was from the Dutch goalkeeper. Holland is up 2-0 with the final seconds literally coming to a close. Slovakia has a break through, the Slovak player manages to dribble past the Dutch goalkeeper. Worst case scenario? Dood scores and game is over 2-1, Holland advances.
Butt nooooo. The goalkeeper brings down the Slovak player! Penalty awarded with yellow card! So the Slovakians score anyway, time runs out, as it would have anyway. Butt now the keeper has a yellow card which means if he gets another one in the next game (it could happen in an instance just like this) if they win he would have to sit out the semi final game.
Dumbass.

While I agree on a whole with this dead horse beating, it's my opinion that the US defense lost that game, not the offense. A good defense prevents the other team from scoring as well as making it easier for your team to have more opportunities to try score. The goals they made on us in that game were both due to very bad failure in our defense. If we had better defensive play we would have won that game even with just the one Donovan goal. And, I contend, we would have had more shots on them as well, and therefore might have scored even more.

Yes, the US needs real strikers who can score, but both of those goals we gave up were preventable if the defensive players had performed better. I was very disappointed.

Ronaldo or Rooney?

Both massive flops.

Yes !!!

Agreed. Gooch was not himself after not playing for so many weeks after his injury. The US let in so many soft goals especially in the group games. If we stop those goals, then maybe we wouldn't have needed to empty ourselves in the Algeria game and would have had more in the tank for Ghana. Would've, could've, should've. Oh well time to enjoy the rest of the tournament and look forward to Brazil 2014.