The Soccer Thread

[Guest]

WOW.

[wolf stansson]

The [expletive] strikes!

[wolf stansson]

Soccer is the best sport.

[wolf stansson]

DiMaria has been superb.

[Guest]

Atletico hasn't had any legs left since before extra time started.

[Guest]

And of course we get all the disgraceful theatrics Spanish League soccer specializes in.

[wolf stansson]

Super classy finish from these two teams. Pure class. Shirtless flexing, suits fighting, coaches starting fights, cards getting handed out and Ramos looking like a voice of reason.

[Mark Priors Calves]

Atletico's manager was a lunatic.

[shnsajax]

Atletico's manager was a lunatic.

 

Beckham agrees.

[shnsajax]

Ramos is such an [expletive].

 

He and Pepe together are the worst.

 

I forgot about Marcelo, [expletive] him too. Di Maria however is a badass. Ronaldo's pk celebration is why I hate him. Simione is going to get a CL sideline bad.

 

The Costa decision was stupid to even play him.

Edited May 25, 2014 by shnsajax

[shnsajax]

Dup

[USSoccer]

Marcelo's goal as about as unimpressive as Johannsson's goal agains Panama, when they were all crying on the field last year. He waltzed by a bunch of guys who couldn't move anymore and scored.

 

And Ronaldo, who was invisible all game, fell down and was awarded a PK, and celebrated like it was a Golden Goal winner. Meh.

 

Bale blew 3 clear, clear scoring chances, and thankfully for his sake put away a really tricky header.

 

Sergio Ramos is a purse-carrying bitch. Di Maria was the best player on the field along with Gabi. Surprisingly exciting game. Irritating ending.

 

It was nice to see CR7 running around on an injury for 120 minutes, though, from the USMNT perspective.

[USSoccer]

After reading Evans and Parkhurst's comments about how the cuts were handled, I'm kind of concerned that this is going to brew into a mess.

[Guest]

After reading Evans and Parkhurst's comments about how the cuts were handled, I'm kind of concerned that this is going to brew into a mess.

 

Link to the story?

[wolf stansson]

After reading Evans and Parkhurst's comments about how the cuts were handled, I'm kind of concerned that this is going to brew into a mess.

 

Link to the story?

I didn't see Parkhurst's comments but the comments from the always professional and honest Evans are here:

http://www.soundersfc.com/post/2014/05/24/interview-brad-evans-world-cup-roster-decision

 

 

Also, Donovan with 2 goals and an assist tonight. Now the all time MLS goal king.

Think he was excited about that record goal.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2014/05/25/goal-landon-donovan-nets-135-breaks-mls-record

[USSoccer]

@magee9: HAHAHAHAHAHA DONOVAN HAHAHAHAHA I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE HE BROKE THE MLS GOAL SCORING RECORD UNTIL MY PHONE NOTIFIED ME HAHA #LegenD

 

Mike Magee with the best tweet ever

[USSoccer]

After reading Evans and Parkhurst's comments about how the cuts were handled, I'm kind of concerned that this is going to brew into a mess.

 

Link to the story?

 

Too lazy to look it up, I am, but Parkhurst basically said what Evans said; that JK had his mind made up prior to camp, and the cuts were handled in about 10 seconds randomly, and that he would have never come back to MLS from Germany had he known

 

ETA: Goodson now chiming in as well. JK really fucked this up.

Edited May 26, 2014 by USSoccer

[TruffleShuffle]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/05/an-espn-anchor-was-utterly-baffled-by-a-european-soccer-graphic

 

lol

[Guest]

Wouldn't that kinda be how it's supposed to happen? Camp is like Spring Training, you largely know who's on the roster and let performance in camp help(but not dictate) in deciding who gets those last few spots. As for how quickly it was done, were they looking for a specific reason or something to work on? Does it really help to tell Brad Evans that he needs to work on being faster and a better athlete? Especially in the case of Parkhurst(who had the more scandalous of the quotes), it can't really come as a surprise that you were a borderline selection, he can't even claim to be a hex stalwart like Evans was.

[USSoccer]

Wouldn't that kinda be how it's supposed to happen? Camp is like Spring Training, you largely know who's on the roster and let performance in camp help(but not dictate) in deciding who gets those last few spots. As for how quickly it was done, were they looking for a specific reason or something to work on? Does it really help to tell Brad Evans that he needs to work on being faster and a better athlete? Especially in the case of Parkhurst(who had the more scandalous of the quotes), it can't really come as a surprise that you were a borderline selection, he can't even claim to be a hex stalwart like Evans was.

 

Well, except in your spring training analogy, JK chose to bring Green (fewer minutes with Bayern than with the USMNT), Chandler (clearly uncommitted), Brooks (completely unproven) over guys with more proven NT track records. It would be like the Cubs deciding they were going to break camp this year with Baez, Bryant and Almora.

 

The fact that the NT manager decided to make his cuts a week+ before necessary, and the fact that he wouldn't tell one of the guys why until "after the World Cup" is just poor man management.

[Guest]

Correct, the camp time is more about the younger guys validating their talent, not the retreads showing they're in particular form. That's the big reason why I think that's pretty much a no-win situation. If it had been Green, Brooks, and/or Yedlin going home, you could give them that explanation because their shortcomings can be shored up with experience. Telling Parkhurst, Evans, and now Goodson "you're going home because you lack the athletic ability and talent to compete against our group compared to the alternatives" isn't productive either. Declining to give a reason at all isn't a bullet-proof solution, but in this specific instance, JK makes a pretty justifiable roster decision, and no matter how he handles it(reason, no reason, not inviting them to camp at all), it's not going to be sufficient for competitors like Parkhurst, Evans, and Goodson.

[wvcbxl]

I don't want to break up the US talk, but it was great to see the debuts of the teenagers Adnan Januzaj and Divock Origi (on the pitch where his dad played in his prime) with Belgium this evening, even if it was "only" against Luxemburg.

[USSoccer]

Correct, the camp time is more about the younger guys validating their talent, not the retreads showing they're in particular form. That's the big reason why I think that's pretty much a no-win situation. If it had been Green, Brooks, and/or Yedlin going home, you could give them that explanation because their shortcomings can be shored up with experience. Telling Parkhurst, Evans, and now Goodson "you're going home because you lack the athletic ability and talent to compete against our group compared to the alternatives" isn't productive either. Declining to give a reason at all isn't a bullet-proof solution, but in this specific instance, JK makes a pretty justifiable roster decision, and no matter how he handles it(reason, no reason, not inviting them to camp at all), it's not going to be sufficient for competitors like Parkhurst, Evans, and Goodson.

 

I dunno. I do think Parkhurst would have been more useful than Brooks, who I think isn't near ready to play in a WC, and I really, really question the inclusion of Green on the roster. It seems clear that the roster spot was the price JK paid for getting his commitment to the team, because you don't take an 18 year old with less than 10 minutes of 1st team football to a World Cup without some compelling, non-soccer reason to do so.

 

I do think, however, that if JK had his mind made up, it would have been better to pull an England, and announce your 23 man roster and 7 alternates right away, as opposed to going through the kabuki motions of a camp and then randomly cutting guys before the first friendly. USSF was caught off guard, too-Parkhurst had a Google + chat scheduled for the day after the cuts.

 

The middle ground that JK took between announcing your 23 right away, and going through a full camp and friendlies seems like it gave him the worst of both options, as opposed to giving the appearance like it was a fair competition for spots.

[wolf stansson]

I agree with TT.

 

I don't necessarily agree with Jurgen's roster choices, but I don't have a problem with how he went about selecting it. He's not there to be nice when he cuts people. He's there to win games. I don't give a [expletive] if he's too ruthless or cold in how he makes cuts. Whether or not the roster he selected is the best to do that is up for debate but the whining about who is owed what is bush league (no one here is really doing that, more a comment about the uss media). He was hired to shake things up and he's doing just that. Whether or not hes the right man to have that power is, again, a totally separate conversation and hard to judge.

[wolf stansson]

Ray Hudson on the Donovan exclusion.

 

https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmfc/the-football-show-ray-hudson-goes-ballistic-because-of-landon-donovans-wc-exclusion