wolf stansson

Hopefully the beating is so bad the Brazilian people are too stunned to do something stupid like riot.

My Brazilian coworker who is super cocky is pouting right now. It's really great. He was talking [expletive] about the US during the Belgium game.

God...this German team. Nothing fazes them. Methodical. Overwhelming.

Neymar and Van Persie haven't been as good as Messi. Muller too, though that's a little closer.

That or compiled by a Brazilian.

StatsBomb does cool little infographics based on Opta Data. They finally have MLS data and it's interesting. Wil Trapp is better than I realized, and I thought he was pretty damn good already. Also, validated my thinking that Nagbe is being played out of position too often to produce end results. He does all the major european leagues. Fun info.

Haha I love the women's team and I am proud of players like Abby Wambach, but man, that column is willfully wrong-headed at almost every turn. Even her concession to give the MNT credit, calling the accomplishment of getting out of the group 2x in a row "extraordinary" is completely wrong.

http://www.noshortcorners.com/2014/07/oh-you-are-gonna-love-this.html Apparently the Roma deal with him remaining on loan to Seattle until January is all but done. Love it. Macon is old, learn Serie A tactical discipline and play at a big club.

All so Krul for CostaRica hahaha [expletive] you, Adrian Healey.

Real gangsta ass Van Gaal's don't flex nuts, cuz real gangsta ass Van Gaal's know they got em.

If Klinsy tried to put Rimando in as the pk specialist, Timmy would fatality him by yanking his spine out.

CR were assassins in pk's & the Dutch often choke. This is going to be nutz, you guys.

As much as I like the idea of dudes from the Columbus Crew winning in pk's here, I want a real semifinal with the best teams going through.

1st corner of the game for CR. Hahaha they better not win.

Only sog since the group stage was the goal vs Greece. They've been in the bus for almost 300 minutes.

Pro tip: let the guy who has hit the post x2 take the kick.

This game reminds me of something.

Costa Rica's run of luck is amazing.

I thought it was Me-row-teach. That seems to jive with similar Balkan name pronunciations I've heard.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jp0TEjtueyU/U7f5-k4r_WI/AAAAAAAACrM/4oyIUiQtrB0/s1600/29b3cf80-03a3-11e4-82c9-a7e4c3ccce4c_howardsavesBIGFINAL.gif

Like everyone, I've been thinking a lot about US player development and the future of the national team. One thing I've been thinking about a lot is our talent level's progression. Our top-end talent hasn't really grown as much as you'd expect since 2002. 2014 Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard aren't that much better than Claudio Reyna, John O'Brien, Landon Donovan, Brian McBride and Brad Friedel. That's disappointing, but ultimately not the whole story. If you go back to 2002 and compare the average talent level of American players in MLS and compare it to the average level of the American players in MLS today and you're looking at two completely different leagues. The average american player being produced is so much better and there are so many more of them that it's not even comparable. That's a great sign. The single biggest hurdle among a few pretty big hurdles is how we develop our players from age 18-22. For every Wil Trapp, Kelyn Rowe and DeAndre Yedlin doing their thing, there is a Luis Gil or Darlington Nagbe who, for as good as they are, haven't honed in on their true position yet. Their coaches value their versatility too much and they're yanked around the field way too much to truly develop their skills to the best of their ability. Those two are really the best case scenario for the 18-22 break down. Think about how many names have popped up in the u-20 levels that get hyped and then disappear? Some wash out in Europe, but way too many go to MLS and do nothing. The college system gets criticized fairly, a lot, but it's not like college ball didn't help DeAndre Yedlin transition to the pros, or Omar Gonzalez or Matt Besler or…the list goes on and on. We shouldn't completely tear down the system. Ideally you'd have the baseball system where some players go straight to the pro system and some go to college. Either way, we need to do better getting them more games, more training at a high level and more continuity. If you're interested in our youth development and our current crop of prospects, I can't recommend yesterday's Soccer Morning podcast enough. Jason Davis did a panel with Will Parchman and Travis Clark from Top Drawer Soccer and they did a great job discussing our developmental system fairly and answered questions about our up and coming prospects. You can download from iTunes or watch/listen here: http://soccerly.com/article/soccerlypodcast/soccer-morning-july-3rd After that podcast, its safe to say I am now officially excited for when Jordan Morris goes back to the Sounders from Stanford. So much so that if Obafemi Martens doesn't can it with his new contract demands, they should sell him immediately and let Deuce show Morris how to play and train.

Would love to know the role Berti Vogts played tactically. Everything changed in the last friendly. National teams don't figure out their tactics a week before the World Cup. This one did.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/wp/2014/07/03/50-random-thoughts-from-the-2014-fifa-world-cup-in-brazil/

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