General Soccer Thread

[MrSaigon]

There's another one on SounderatHeart from Dave Clark about how the Sounders faithful need to sing songs about their "oppression". So goddam hilarious. Can you believe that fanbase has a reputation of entitlement?

3 games feels about right to me, but I also like the ref union's response.


...eh that's not entirely fair to Clark (though not especially unfair). You know I do get a little tribal about this stuff, but at least I hate myself for it.

[thrill]

There's another one on SounderatHeart from Dave Clark about how the Sounders faithful need to sing songs about their "oppression". So goddam hilarious. Can you believe that fanbase has a reputation of entitlement?

I've been to a handful of Sounders games in Seattle. There's a huge fan base relative to MLS, so there are tons of great fans, but like any large fan base, there are tons of morons. Then there's the other thing that happens in soccer in this country. The euro posing. You know all about that being a Timbers fan. The over the top passion, the singing, the "I'M BLANK TIL I DIE, I'M BLANK TIL I DIE, I KNOW I AM I'M SURE I AM, I'M BLANK TIL I DIE" crowd. It all seems a little too forced and manufactured, but the people doing it believe it and feel it completely. You kind of just want to tell everybody to settle down and watch for the sport, not for the hooligan cosplay. Because Seattle has such a huge fan base, that element is more populous than in other cities. It does make them particularly insufferable. The worst is when you're there and you hear the dudes singing in cockney accents. That actually happens. I've been at Century Link and had to fight the urge to tell people around me to settle the [expletive] down. Standing the whole game is cool, the boom boom clap thing is cool, filling a giant stadium is cool but that element I'm talking about is very uncool.

I like the Sounders because I love the city of Seattle, I love vacationing there in the fall because I get tired of constant sunshine here and I've loved Clint Dempsey for 10 years, but to answer your question, yes, I can believe that fanbase has a reputation of entitlement, because they might be the most entitled fans I've ever seen. They're like the Toronto Maple Leafs. They are somehow the league's flagship franchise without ever winning any titles. Nobody takes the USOC seriously until the final 4 and even then, nobody takes it as seriously as Seattle. Then people start doing my favorite fan BS argument where they talk about how the Supporters Shield is the real trophy because it reflects who had the best season for the whole stretch and "that's how they do it in Europe anyway." without ever acknowledging that if the Supporter's Shield was the trophy everyone wanted to win, the best managers wouldn't let their teams essentially take entire months off in the middle of the season to save their legs for the playoffs.

[MrSaigon]

Supporters Groups are kind of annoying all the way around. I appreciate that the Timbers Army are more fun than militant like Seattle's or, especially, San Jose's. But they're also far too much about the Timber's Army than the Timbers for my liking. They also put a whiny message to the FO in tifo up on the capo stand wrt not being in playoff position 11 games (most without Valeri and Johnson) into the season. We were literally in playoff position three days later. That wasn't the first time they've whiffed going negative, either. The second anything goes wrong we demand the GM ousted (he isn't very good, to be fair), but the fingers never point to Porter. And Portland, as you say, absolutely has an inferiority complex. That extends to NBA as well.

Anyway, rumor is we're shopping for a hotshot striker.

[Vidor]

Soccer coverage is weird. The USA just beat Colombia 2-0 in the Chick World Cup and the announcers keep yammering on and on about how we didn't play well enough. I can't imagine watching the Cardinals beat the Brewers 2-1 and then listening to postgame commentary about how we should be mad because it wasn't 8-0,

[Tim]

Soccer coverage is weird. The USA just beat Colombia 2-0 in the Chick World Cup and the announcers keep yammering on and on about how we didn't play well enough. I can't imagine watching the Cardinals beat the Brewers 2-1 and then listening to postgame commentary about how we should be mad because it wasn't 8-0,

You never read me during a game thread?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

A better example might be if the USA men's basketball team played say, Brazil, and won by 10 only after making a bunch of free throws late. The women's soccer team isn't as dominating a power as men's basketball, but making it past this round of the tournament was still a pretty base expectation. Doing so wasn't worthy of much praise, and in the fashion they did(missing a PK, only scoring 11 v 10 and with another PK, on a 3rd string keeper no less) certainly exacerbates some of the previous criticism about their ability to score.

[thrill]

A better example might be if the USA men's basketball team played say, Brazil, and won by 10 only after making a bunch of free throws late. The women's soccer team isn't as dominating a power as men's basketball, but making it past this round of the tournament was still a pretty base expectation. Doing so wasn't worthy of much praise, and in the fashion they did(missing a PK, only scoring 11 v 10 and with another PK, on a 3rd string keeper no less) certainly exacerbates some of the previous criticism about their ability to score.

Honestly I don't think it has as much to do with the play as the coach. Like certain me's watching the Men's team, when you despise the manager, you're going to find criticism in any result. Jill Ellis makes it really easy to armchair coach with her insistence to play the conservative 4-4-2 and Abby hasn't done her any favors by finishing like a scrub. It's tough to justify with Leroux and Press sitting on the bench. Her lineup choices are stuck in the 4 years ago past and even though we have no idea how this team would look in a 4-3-3 with Morgan, Leroux and Press up top, it makes it too easy to nit pick. Not that it matters to die hard fans either, but that 3 forward lineup not only might be more effective, but they're all suuuuuuuuuper hot and "casual" fans just want to watch them play more. Ellis shouldn't base her coaching on any of this stuff, but it sure would have been nice to see her trying more of it out in the run up to the tournament. That would have eased a lot of the criticism, but now it's just perceived as blind allegiance to a system and a past her prime superstar, even if that's not the reality.

Abby's finishing has sucked, sure, but Carli Lloyd has been the real zero so far. She and Holliday are repeating the Bradley-Jones pairing issue from last year's Cup. They're trying to occupy the same space and make the same runs and neither of them are effective because of it.

[go birds]

I dont think the announcers were giving colombia enough credit...they sure havent been playing like the #28 team.

Their goalie is pretty damn good.

[JackofDiamonds]

England...

[Freed Roger]

My 12 year old daughter and her friend -both soccer players - got into the women's WC a bit, but it took some doing by me to disengage them temporarily from Pretty Little Liars on Netflix. And the comments about which players were lesbian and wowsa!-Alex-Morgan-is-cute and athletic!, came from them, rather than me.

the kid tracked down Japan Netherlands game last night. Japan was clearly smaller, maybe slower and less athletic than the Netherlands - but they sure play well.