wolf stansson

Kyle's point isn't necessarily moot, just misguided. It's been fun arguing with people who spend much less energy following and understanding the subtleties of a sport than USSoccer and I, but since it's clear you're happy in your obstinacy, I'll leave it at this. A 65% chance is better than a 55% chance. Beyond that, more than any other sport, soccer is difficult to quantify. Unlike baseball, abstract things like confidence and momentum matter. With all the importance stressed on this game both among fans/media and the teams themselves, getting a point is very important. What's more important is the confidence and momentum it imparts to the US team. The US and England will advance. They probably would have advanced even if England won, but to say you're not sure how this helps just shows your ignorance of the sport.

Keep hammering overly simplistic explanations that miss important nuances with heavyhanded sarcasm. It's apparently the only club in your bag, so I can see why you feel the need to use it every shot. The only realistic scenario in which the point against England makes the difference between advancing and not advancing is if the U.S. draws with either Slovenia and Algeria, defeats the other one by a narrow margin, the one that we draw against beats the one that we lost against by a large margin, and the one that we draw against manages to lose to England narrowly. That exact scenario has a slim chance of happening. In the World Cup system, the marginal value of "points" is not nearly as absolute as you want to pretend it is. Some points are huge, some are relatively unimportant. You just made my argument for me. Thank you, Kyle. In a tournament when there is so little margin for error, leaving points on the table is unacceptable. As unrealistic as your proposed scenario is, it could still happen and if it does, you spend the next 4 years kicking yourself for it. Last year at the Confed's Cup we lost two terrible games and had to beat Egypt, the two-time reigning African Champions 3-0 and had to have Italy lose to Brazil 3-0. That was the only scenario where we would advance. I think if you went to some Italian message board, there'd probably be some misguided, under-informed poster arguing like you, that leaving points on the table against Egypt in the second game wasn't a bad thing because it didn't effect their odds of advancing due to the unlikelihood of the confluence of events that happened to happen. But it did. So please stop being dumb, it's ruining my favorite thread.

I'm going to say something snarky because I don't have a good counterargument. I'm not sure why you need a counterargument. I learned to count when I was a toddler and ever since then, I've known that one of the certainties in the universe is that having one of something is more than having zero of it. Well, since I clearly posted "1 and 0 are the same number," you've made a brilliant point. Kudos. Hahaha...you don't have to grasp at straws, you can just stop posting. If being one of the two teams with the most points means you advance, it's pretty apparent how having one point (especially against the favorite in the group) instead of none is beneficial to your odds of moving on. No one else in the group will get points off England. While I admire your dedication to belligerence, you might want to stop talking for a while, Champ.

I'm going to say something snarky because I don't have a good counterargument. I'm not sure why you need a counterargument. I learned to count when I was a toddler and ever since then, I've known that one of the certainties in the universe is that having one of something is more than having zero of it.

Yes because starting off with one point is the same as starting off with none?

Gooch answered every question. DeMerit and Cherundolo were massive. Dempsey is magic. I'm drunk and happy.

Watched Seattle-DC tonight. DC has gone from one of the worst MLS sides I've ever seen early on to being legitimately fun with the resigning of Emilio, the emergence of Najar, Pontius and Quaranta getting healthy and Onalfo figuring out his best team. Seattle have some problems. Their defense sucks, they get bogged down in the final third trying to pass it into goal and while they do get some shots, they're rarely legit scoring chances.

SSR thinks we should start Rondo next to Bradley in the center mid.

Glad to see I'm not the only one on the Mexico and Argentina bandwagon.

The secret history of American Soccer: http://www.slate.com/id/2256165/ Great article on how soccer almost became our second past time in the early 1900's.

Group A - 1 Mexico, 2 France Group B - 1 Argentina, 2 Nigeria Group C - 1 England, 2 United States Group D - 1 Germany, 2 Serbia Group E - 1 Netherlands, 2 Cameroon Group F - 1 Itlay, 2 Paraguay Group G - 1 Brazil, 2 Portugal Group H - 1 Spain, 2 Chile Sweet 16 - Mexico over Nigeria, England over Serbia, Germany over US, Argentina over France, Netherlands over Paraguay, Brazil over Chile, Cameroon over Italy, Spain over Portugal. Elite 8 - England over Mexico, Brazil over Netherlands, Argentina over Germany, Spain over Cameroon. Final 4 - Brazil over England, Argentina over Spain. 3rd place - Spain over England Final - Argentina over Brazil

Oh, Drew Magary, you are awesome. http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2010/06/the-us-world-cup-team-gets-its-proper-dose-of-motivation.html THE OVERLORDS OF DEATH ARE HERE.

I've gotta say, just from watching all the video on USSoccer.com and reading his interviews and stuff, Jay DeMerit is the coolest dude ever. Not only is his story unbelievable, he's just a cool guy. Lives in Camden, captains a great club with great fans and is super loyal to them. Works his ass off, plays with an edge but is into some really cool, unique stuff off the field in the arts musically and what not. I love these posters: http://worldcup.afootballreport.com/post/633720032/32nations-32worksofart

Yet another example of how bogus Wade's "disloyal" comments were.

We have enough cover at CB, we don't need to replace him. If we do though, I'd prefer Gonzalez to Marshall.

With Essien out and this Australian team looking not very talented, Germany and Serbia shouldn't have much to worry about. Findley's speed was creating some excellent chances but his final touch sucked. Clark was awful and it hurts Bradley's value when he's in there. I was really expecting Edu to get 90 today. He seems like the best pairing with Bradley against England and I hope that Clark getting 90 today isn't indicative of Bob's intentions for next week. His touch and decision making is just too slow and tentative against England's midfield. Howard - 6 Hahnemann - 6 Cherundolo - 8 DeMerit - 7 Goodson - 7 Onyewu - 7 Bocanegra - 7 Donovan - 7 Bradley - 6 Clark - 4 Dempsey - 7 Findley - 5 Buddle - 8 Gomez - 6 Beasley - n/a Bornstein - 7 We're a class above Australia. Cahill put away their only real chance and that's pretty much what he does. Outside of that goal, we gave them nothing.

http://www.televisadeportes.com/futbol/futbolmexico/equipos/atlante/171075/jonathan-bornstein-al-atlante Bornstein to do some work in Cancun for Atlante. At first I thought it was odd that he'd make a move before the World Cup, then I remembered that might not be a great idea for someone like Johnny B. Better to go now while he can.

http://theshinguardian.com/2010/06/03/sacha-kljestan-skips-across-the-pond/ Sacha to Anderlecht. I like it a lot. Big club, solid league and should be a chance to get some good coaching, good teammates and refine his style. Maybe his technical skills will finally be put to proper use.

No Drogba, Ferdinand, Ballack, Beckham and Essien.

This Andy Najar kid at DC United is the truth. I know he's eligible for Honduras, but we need to get him in for next cycle. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5219888/ce/us/future-us-soccer?cc=5901&ver=us Also, this article on Ajax's youth academy is fantastic: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?pagewanted=1&ref=homepage&src=me

That is awesome.

I agree with the Walcott exclusion because England has bigger fish to fry than us, but Walcott would have absolutely murdered our back line.

I could be misremembering this, but I thought I remember Rossi being the first ever Italian player to play in a league other than serie a. Yeah, you're definitely misremembering that. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/09/09/article-1053715-02A5247A000004B0-856_468x667.jpg And many others.

http://www.worldcupblog.org/files/2010/05/mag_05172010.jpg http://www.entertonement.com/clips/vcfhzqhncj--Price-is-Right-Loser-Horn-MP3-Sad

Suck it, Giuseppi Rossi.