Posted on 06/11/2006 7:33:41 PM PDT by Atlantic Bridge
Long unknown at home and ridiculed abroad, the United States isn't being written off in the soccer world anymore. But the Americans will need to pull together as team to get past their tough World Cup group.
A motorcade of police cars with flashing blue lights and a massive, unmarked FIFA bus has announced the arrival and often rapid departure of the US soccer team in Hamburg over the past week. But when the American players are on their own, it's a different story.
On Friday, star midfielder DaMarcus Beasley sat, blissfully anonymous, at a sidewalk café outside the Americans' well-guarded hotel in downtown Hamburg. A group night out by some of the team early in the week warranted only brief mention in the local paper.
The contrast is typical of the US soccer story. Individually, the players are unknowns, their limited impact on the top European leagues ensuring them the sort of privacy their opponents in their World Cup group matches can only dream of. But as a team, the US is slowly making the rest of the world sit up and take notice.
Their impressive showing at the last tournament in 2002, which began with a 3-2 win over Portugal and only ended with a defeat against Germany in the quarter-finals, raised eyebrows abroad. At home, it added to the profile of a sport that has struggled mightily for attention in a crowded field of spectator sports.
"We've gained some fans that didn't have anything to do with soccer and that's, obviously the hardest person to get," said Eddie Pope, one of the team's central defenders and a veteran of two World Cup campaigns. "I think before we weren't getting those guys at all."
(Excerpt) Read more at service.spiegel.de ...
No I never said that.
Since when was loyalty determined by a sport? How about basing it on political, religious, and cultural things.
Keep reading. Some of these comments are rather heated, and over a sport at that.
But in soccer, Brazil is a superpower while the United States is a minnow. They wouldn't really care much about how the US is doing.
http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/worldcup/winner.php
This one gives both the US and Australia at 1:151.
[*Dons asbestos underwear*]
Oh, and that said, I do hope our guys do well.
The United States still has a chance. Some other country than Brazil should win, though. The French seem to be more proAmerican than them.
Today's game follows the Australia vs Japan game. So its going to be around lunch, in which case you can root for USA in the office. Though I doubt we'll have crowds watching on open-air TV like they did in Mexico City when they cheered each time Mexico scored a goal. Football is contagious and in most of the world, its hard to get people to do anything as they see whether their home team makes it to the World Cup final.
Its just a game. They're in a tough group but if they do have one thing going for them and that is Americans love underdogs. Personally, the low bar for this team should be one that's easy to beat since Americans don't expect much from them in the World Cup except to lose gracefully to one of the football heavyweights. It would be a wonderful consolation prize if we could end up fourth. But I know, I'm dreaming! ;-)
whoop de do
These are the top 20 sides using the ELO rating system, which is good enough for every other sport that uses ratings and is a far better system than the cock-eyed method FIFA uses:
Ranking Team Rating
1 Brazil 2010
2 Netherlands 1977
3 England 1957
4 France 1944
5 Czechia 1939
6 Spain 1936
7 Argentina 1918
8 Italy 1913
9 Portugal 1894
10 Germany 1888
11 Denmark 1866
12 Mexico 1859
13 Uruguay 1818
14 Romania 1816
14 United States 1816
16 Sweden 1812
17 Croatia 1807
18 Ireland 1794
19 Australia 1793
20 Turkey 1780
Argentina looks a little low down at 7th and I think this underestimates the African sides but I think that gives a truer reflection of the US team, which is useful but hardly fifth in the world. 14th is not bad anyway, given how competitive international soccer is. FIFA don’t even use their own rankings for World Cup seedings. They know their system is flawed.
Once upon a time I attended a soccer game and actually saw a goal scored.
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