Posted on 06/17/2014 5:36:33 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
After an extraordinary start, the World Cup saw its first day of truly mediocre soccer on Monday. It is no coincidence that Monday also saw the debut of the U.S. men's team.
Don't get me wrong. The U.S.'s 2-1 victory over Ghana was about as dramatic as they come, a fitting chapter in what has turned out to be an improbable rivalry stretching over three World Cups. Clint Dempsey scored a fine goal in the first minute, before powering through a broken nose to complete the game. John Brooks came off the bench to score the winning header just moments before the final whistle, lifting the spirit of a team that had been battered like a punching bag for a solid 80 minutes.
But good soccer this was not. The U.S. played about as badly as you could play while still winning. And yet it is impossible to escape the overwhelming sense in the American media today that Team USA's victory over Ghana was somehow a triumph.
Every World Cup we are treated to a slew of stories about how this time the U.S. team will be different, which is to say a step above its usual uninspired play. Driving the hype this time around is the U.S.'s coach, the German Jurgen Klinsmann, a gifted former player famous for his blistering speed, his ultra-competitiveness, and his penchant for soaring when he could merely dive.
Klinsmann promised a more attacking kind of football. As Matthew Futterman wrote in one of the many profiles of Klinsmann in the run-up to the tournament: "Mr. Klinsmann taught the U.S. players to see the field differently — to impose themselves on opposing defenses, and for defenders to push high into the middle of the field and even to join the attack." As Klinsmann himself said, "You want to play an open game. You want to put your stamp on the game."
Sounds good, right? And so it was with some curiosity that I tuned in last night for my quadrennial viewing of the United States team — only to find the same dull, flabby soccer that has defined America's playing style for decades.
For most of the game, the U.S. was seemingly incapable of stringing together more than three passes at a time. Michael Bradley, supposedly the linchpin of the midfield, gave the ball away every other touch. It's bad enough that the U.S.'s sole striker is Jozy Altidore, who scored all of one goal last season for his club Sunderland, but he pulled up with a hamstring injury early in the game, leaving the U.S. with literally zero offensive options.
Then there's the defense, which was as adept at keeping its shape as a Jenga tower, falling apart at the slightest offensive push by the Ghanians. John Brooks may have turned out to be a hero, but the Ghanians appeared to be running at him as if he were the weakest link in an already fragile defensive chain. More shockingly, the Black Stars won the vast majority of 50-50 balls, easily out-muscling and out-hustling an American team that should at least be as fit as its opponents.
But all these glaring flaws were largely glossed over in the glow of victory. The U.S. defense was an "impenetrable force field," according to The New York Times. USA Today praised the team's "depth" and "workmanlike defense." CBS hailed Team USA for "bossing a match when it mattered most," and for "finding a way to be economical and resourceful and cunning and alert when all is on the line against an elite opponent."
Oh, please. This is shameless propaganda. It all fits the same pattern: ridiculous overpraise that is in no way connected to the reality on the pitch, fueling outsized expectations that cannot possibly be met. Klinsmann may want to institute a regime of lively, attacking soccer, but that seems like a pure fantasy when you take into account the players on his squad.
Now, of course, the national press is bound to overstate the national team's achievements. This happens everywhere. It is World Cup mania, after all. But in case there was any doubt about the truth of the matter, it is this: the American team is not very good.
Yeah. But the cat’s eyes look like the Brazilian flag in honor of the World Cup. So that’s cool. (Or - yet ANOTHER part of the evil plan. Did ya ever notice how cats have slits in their eyes and they hiss. Just like snakes.)
Soccer fans in Europe are anything but elitists.
Of course you would.
Baseball is in deep trouble, it’s become a regional sport. Like hockey, it will continue to draw good crowds but TV ratings are sinking.
It’s just too slow, games 50 years ago took an hour less. Players preen and adjust after every pitch now.
Well, the League is trying to control that out-of-the-batter’s-box stuff. We’ll see.
“Oh, and do you know where God mentions baseball first in the Bible?”
Genesis 1:1
In the big inning...
Ouch!
Champions are the best team. That’s the definition. I don’t give a damn about potential, bad calls., tough breaks etc. The playoffs are the process for finding out who wants it and can get it. That’s the best team.
But other than that...
Someone told me that there’s only fifteen minutes of actual play time.
Robert Green knows. ;)
Does anyone really think the George Mason team that went to the Final Four was one of the four best teams in the country? No one would support that statement.
This has nothing to do with bad calls or tough breaks. The best team does not always win the championship.
We differ. The champion is the best team; all other opinions are whining.
My first guess is that it can be played by kids anywhere and is free. All they need is an old beat up soccer ball
On one of my trips to Honduras I watched a group of kids who were the children of the campusinos (field workers) playing soccer barefooted out in the boonies on a beat up field overgrown with weeds and stones..........That was the only playtime available for them.
Here in the states you seldom see kids gathered together playing pick up soccer or pick up baseball by themselves. Everything has to be organized......
I'm retired and play lots of senior softball (age 55+). Mon and Wed mornings are league days and Fri and Sundays are pickup days where anywhere from 20 to 35 guys show up and we pick up sides and play.
And we all reminince about growing up as kids and spending all day every day of the summer at the playground playing pickup ball. Maybe 4 kids, maybe more, it didn't matter, we always had a way to improvise a game with our bats balls and gloves........
You never see that anymore with today's kids. They're all on organized teams with organized practices, and all vying to get picked up by a "travel" team separate from the little league team.......
The managers of these "travel" teams are all crazy, they expect to get into tournaments every weekend and they expect the parents of these kids to cooperate. The monetary outlay on these kids by their parents is astronomical when you consider the traveling, the gas, the food, and in many cases lodging..........
With all the above going on, I can't really call baseball a "kids" game anymore.....
Virtually every team had full uniforms and every kid had a matching gear bag. The gear bags have rollers and cost in the neighborhood of $100 - $125..........
When we played little league the manager gave us a cotton t-shirt that we had to give back at the end of the season......LOL!
It is not about whining or anything else. Baltimore Ravens? Congratulations on a great run to the Super Bowl, but again, were the Ravens the best team in the league, of course not. FWIW, I like the Ravens, so no whining here.
If I was whining, I would tell you which team I thought was the best team and I didn't do that. In fact, I don't even recall which team that would be. But I do know the Ravens barely made it to the playoffs as a wild card team and played superbly for a few weeks and won the Super Bowl. Overall best team in the league.....ahh, no.
As I said we differ. No working definition of “the best” is superior to the answer to the question, “who won?”.
No, championship tournaments are specifically NOT designed to find the best team, which would require tons of time, many many games, and waiting out all injuries so each team can play complete. They’re designed to make a winner, the champion, who hopefully aren’t just a bad team team that got lucky at the right time.
It’s like this. I’m right, you’re wrong. That’s how this ends no matter what you have to say. This is my last response. Enjoy yourself.
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