soccer10k

Just got out of class, and much to my surprise, the Cubs are losing. I didn't see this one coming.

I would have th go with #2. What made Hendry think that Neifi and Glendon would be average players this year? There was no reason for him to think that. Regardless about what you think about the obsession with speed at the top of the lineup, I don't think anybody thought Pierre would be performing this poorly this year. So based on the fact that most everybody knew Rusch and Perez were no good, that was his biggest mistake.

I thought Pierre was really going to help us.

Right now I'm just excited about the World Cup starting. But after the World Cup final on July 9, I don't know what I'm going to do. Basketball and hockey will have finished and football would still be a few weeks away from starting so baseball will be the only thing to do.

"The Astros did it, why can't we?" Because we're the Cubs and the Astros aren't.

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that. I'm always afraid of the African nations because they always seem to fly into the World Cup under the radar but always pull of upsets. People know what to expect out of the European and South American nations but you never know what you're going to get out of the African nations. Group E is most definately the Group of Death and there will be upsets. Like you said, I hope we're the team handing out the upsets.

As Mark_R alluded to, if Dusty wants to blame one player, he needs to blame everybody and that includes himself.

Even if we got ARod he would either get hurt or he would start to hit .250 and his power would leave him.

that we don't play the Royals in interleague play, and I'm not talking about how it could help us get another win or two this year. If we played the Royals then we would be able to find out once and for all who the worst team in the league is this year. We've assured ourselves of, at best, a .500 finish against the Marlins this year and will have plenty of chances to lose to the Pirates, but we don't play the Royals this year.

There's another thread dealing with Peter Gammons talking about the problems with the team.

That is awesome. Somebody posted something about this in another thread and I thought it was a complete joke but obviously it wasn't.

How tall? 8-[ *6 foot 4 and growing.* 6 foot 8. 215. Not growing anymore though.

But that's the story of U.S. soccer - keep playing balls in the air into the middle when you're clearly outclassed. It's as frustrating as watching the Cubs not take walks. Here's the thing: it's a decent gameplan for us. McBride is excellent in the air, and can put balls over the top down onto the feet of the support. Unfortunately for the US, the support (Donovan, Wolff, especially) can't finish. When a team packs 8 back in defense, you can't play chip and run. And that's the key. You HAVE to be able to adapt to what your opponent is doing. Sure McBride is excellent in the air, but when the opponent is packing it in defensively there is no need to chip the ball up into there zone. As I said earlier, if they are packing it in, that means your half of the field should have, at most, 2 of their players in it. There is no reason you can't dribble the ball up and string together a series of short passes. The key to winning is adaptation. You come out to play a certain style. If it works then you continue. If it doesn't work, then you have to change something. If you don't adapt you aren't going to win games. It's plain and simple.

Even if the US doesn't score a single goal, it won't keep me from watching continuously right up through the final. Unless the Cubs make a miraculous recovery, there will be next to zero baseball for me from June 9-July 9. I couldn't agree more. I'm graduating on June 17 and have made it my goal to watch as many games as possible. I've already requested days off from work for the World Cup semi's and the final.

Dempsey is nails. No reason Arena shouldn't be able to find a starting spot for him somewhere. What we've always lacked is a player who is willing to attack defenses. We have plenty of players who want to dance around and play through balls, but only Dempsey and Convey will run at a defender and force the issue. Ching is horrible. Out of position for every minute he was on the field tonight. God forbid McBride get hurt... Eddie Pope is going to be the 2006 version of Jeff Agoos. Mark my words, if we make it to the Round of 16, he'll be benched for it. Arena has a lot of work to do. I know our team doesn't get much playing time together, but they'd better gel fast, and Reyna better not be hurt. As much as I don't care for him, this team needs him on the field. I think Reyna is the key. He is the playmaker on the team and controls everything. He's a savvy veteren that knows how to win. He was out there for less than 20 minutes tonight and that didn't help one bit. I think a completely different US team would have played tonight if he was out there for most of the match. If he's hurt seriously I don't think we have much of a chance in the World Cup. Like you said, this team had better gel fast or we're going to get smoked in the World Cup. We couldn't handle a team that couldn't qualify in Africa? Ghana qualified in Africa and they are the weakest of our three opponents. If the US doesn't play well, they're looking at a repeat of 1998 and a HUGE step back for USA soccer.

Speaking of SF, one thing I noticed when I visited what was then PacBell Park was that a lot of Giants' fans collect pins that they wear on their hats. Pins of all sorts in honor of Mays, Bonds, McCovey, the 89 Giants so on and so forth. I was at the Giants game against the Dodgers in 2001 when Bonds hit his 500th HR and we sat out in the bleachers in leftcenter field. There was a lady a couple rows in front of us that had a Giants jacket covered in pins. I mean COVERED. Literally hundreds of pins. You name a Giants pin and she had it. This led to one of the funniest lines I have heard in my life. My dad is a Dodgers fan and he and a random Giants fan right in front of us were going back and forth trading friendly jabs about the opposing team. At some point during the game my dad says: "You see that lady a couple rows down with all the pins? Do you know the one pin that she doesn't have? A San Francisco Giants World Series Champions pin." The guy just laughed. My dad takes great pride in the fact that the Giants haven't won a WS since moving from New York.

I know somebody has said this already but I'm pretty sure it was in another thread. I have to commend Pierre for not making any excuses and for not blaming anybody or anything but himself.

I'm sure there are stereotypes out there for every type of fanbase. I live in Northern California so here are a couple local stereotypes. Note: these are NOT stereotypes that I have come up with. SF 49ers fans are all fat white men. Oakland Raiders fans are all either Hispanic or Black that have served time in prison. As people have proved in this thread, there are all kinds of stereotypes out there for the fans of sports teams. It doesn't make them right.

I need some grass. I need something harder. And what are the odds that the Cubs will reach 70 wins in 2006? -2

I used to pitch. And I'm tall. That's gotta mean something.

Huh? Why does anyone want to hear about a player sucking? Why should that be publicized? A player reviving his career, OTH, is actually news. i was just saying i don't buy the change of scenery argument. You ever feel like you got a fresh start...got a second chance? Maybe thats how he feels. He doesn't need to worry about the pressure as much anymore. Heck, its not like he didn't have the tools. It was always a mental thing with Cpatt. He also doesn't have to worry about getting booed every time he does something wrong.

We suck.

One more Dempster.

<- crosses fingers and hopes for a double play.

Close play at first. I would think they would walk Cabrera here.