2014 World Cup

[Jocephus]

[/youtube]

[pioneer98]

During the National Anthem they showed Dempsey and he looked like he was in the zone. His teammates were all singing along or at least mouthing the words. He was just standing there silent with an intense glare. It was cool to see him score just after that.

[pioneer98]

I'm excited for it. The thing that's weird to me about it is that they really don't have a "regular season" leading up to it. It just jumps straight to a massively important playoff. So unless you follow soccer really closely, you don't know who the players are outside of a couple star players. I guess I need to follow pro soccer more closely...But even without much familiarity with the players, I'm still looking forward to it.

Well... The regular season would be qualifying matches in your region. CONCACAF is our region. So, I follow that closely. Most of the games are televised on ESPN, so it's a good way to get to know the Natl Team.

I don't have cable and usually make a point not to watch ESPN so that might be part of the problem.

[Fat Strat]

I'm excited for it. The thing that's weird to me about it is that they really don't have a "regular season" leading up to it. It just jumps straight to a massively important playoff. So unless you follow soccer really closely, you don't know who the players are outside of a couple star players. I guess I need to follow pro soccer more closely...But even without much familiarity with the players, I'm still looking forward to it.

Well... The regular season would be qualifying matches in your region. CONCACAF is our region. So, I follow that closely. Most of the games are televised on ESPN, so it's a good way to get to know the Natl Team.

I don't have cable and usually make a point not to watch ESPN so that might be part of the problem.

Well, if you cared enough you could watch the qualifying matches on ESPN3 or whatever they're calling it now. They probably keep the matches online for several weeks.

[go birds]

bradley played like [expletive]

i cant see jozy returning at all

[pioneer98]

I'm excited for it. The thing that's weird to me about it is that they really don't have a "regular season" leading up to it. It just jumps straight to a massively important playoff. So unless you follow soccer really closely, you don't know who the players are outside of a couple star players. I guess I need to follow pro soccer more closely...But even without much familiarity with the players, I'm still looking forward to it.

Well... The regular season would be qualifying matches in your region. CONCACAF is our region. So, I follow that closely. Most of the games are televised on ESPN, so it's a good way to get to know the Natl Team.

I don't have cable and usually make a point not to watch ESPN so that might be part of the problem.

Well, if you cared enough you could watch the qualifying matches on ESPN3 or whatever they're calling it now. They probably keep the matches online for several weeks.

Yeah, ESPN3 requires you to sign in via your cable provider now...but you are correct that I could probably find a way to watch it one way or another.

[Fat Strat]

Yeah, ESPN3 requires you to sign in via your cable provider now...but you are correct that I could probably find a way to watch it one way or another.

I don't think you have to log in if you are going to watch on a laptop. Mobile app requires it. And it might be required for live viewing, but not replays. Anyway, there would be ways to watch it if you wanted.

Happy we won, but that was not convincing. How are we the 11th best team in the world and Ghana 38th? We looked like a team playing for a puncher's chance (worked, though).

We're 11th by FIFA's rankings, but we were 20th by ESPN's SPI rating. Ghana was 38th by FIFA and 25th by SPI.

Which do you believe? Personally, 20th in the world sounds about right for us. 25th sounds about right for Ghana. I'll be honest and say that I think we are a slightly better squad than Ghana, but we played one of the worst offensive games that I've seen us play in several months. As bad as we were offensively, we still scored two goals pretty easily. And if Jozy had been healthy and played all game, I think it would have felt different. We would have had more counter chances.

[thrill]

bradley played like [expletive]

i cant see jozy returning at all

Deuce might have a occipital too. Not good.

Injuries to key guys aside, your best and most important player being [expletive] and still winning is a huge luxury. Can't fix Jozy's hammy, can't fix Clint's face but Bradley can bounce back.

[Freed Roger]

I think I've watched enough WC to know this, but what is meant by an American-style win.

[Freed Roger]

Scouting report on Portugal?