World Cup 2014

[Coy]

Strongest continent is still Europe, but they are strong as they always are.

You are right, the strongest continent is Europe, but playing the world cup in south america is a big bonus for the countries in the region, the are the home team in almost every game.

 

[JBS]

Depends how you look at it. Europe clearly has stronger numbers..

But imo, south America is stronger up top

 

[RastaRocket]

Depends how you look at it. Europe clearly has stronger numbers..

But imo, south America is stronger up top

Brazil & Argentina vs. Germany & Holland (very arguable 2nd best European team)

The top 2 in South America is clear cut, while you could make an argument for many teams in Europe. However Europe has a lot of teams that can beat both Argentina and Brazil. Germany, Italy, Holland, France, Belgium, etc... can all compete with Brazil and Argentina. Out of South America I like 4 teams; Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.

 

[RastaRocket]

Great post buddy.

It's amazing how Soccer keeps growing in the US, they tripled stanley cup finals rating and had almost as much as the NBA even with Lebron playing (the finals were on sunday night and US-Ghana was on Monday), that's amazing.

Just read this:

Americans are increasingly developing a taste for the "beautiful game," at least when their own team is playing...

Monday night's World Cup match between the U.S. and Ghana drew 15.9 million viewers total between the two channels carrying the game, ESPN and Univision, according to preliminary overnight Nielsen ratings. The figure set World Cup viewership records for both networks.

The ratings trounced the audience for the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup finals on Friday, which attracted 6 million TV viewers. Perhaps more surprising, the viewership numbers for the soccer game had an admirable showing against Sunday's National Basketball Association finals game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, which attracted 17.9 million viewers.

On Monday, ESPN—which is airing the World Cup in English along with Walt Disney Co.DIS +0.51% siblings ESPN2 and ABC—drew 11.1 million total viewers, making it the most-viewed men's soccer match ever on ESPN or ESPN2, the network said. The match also set a record for ESPN's mobile streaming app, Watch ESPN, which had a total of 1.4 million viewers.

Keep reading:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-match-in-world-cup-sets-a-tv-record-1403034850

Just wait until the US game on Sunday, it will blow the original ratings out of the water most likely because people wont be at work during the game.

 

[LatinMind]

Brazil & Argentina vs. Germany & Holland (very arguable 2nd best European team)

The top 2 in South America is clear cut, while you could make an argument for many teams in Europe. However Europe has a lot of teams that can beat both Argentina and Brazil. Germany, Italy, Holland, France, Belgium, etc... can all compete with Brazil and Argentina. Out of South America I like 4 teams; Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.

I would put italy over holland

 

[CATCH17]

I just woke up and had a dream that I was at some kind of sports bar and I looked up at the TV and it said Altidore would play.

 

[burmafrd]

Great post buddy.

It's amazing how Soccer keeps growing in the US, they tripled stanley cup finals rating and had almost as much as the NBA even with Lebron playing (the finals were on sunday night and US-Ghana was on Monday), that's amazing.

Just read this:

Americans are increasingly developing a taste for the "beautiful game," at least when their own team is playing...

Monday night's World Cup match between the U.S. and Ghana drew 15.9 million viewers total between the two channels carrying the game, ESPN and Univision, according to preliminary overnight Nielsen ratings. The figure set World Cup viewership records for both networks.

The ratings trounced the audience for the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup finals on Friday, which attracted 6 million TV viewers. Perhaps more surprising, the viewership numbers for the soccer game had an admirable showing against Sunday's National Basketball Association finals game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, which attracted 17.9 million viewers.

On Monday, ESPN—which is airing the World Cup in English along with Walt Disney Co.DIS +0.51% siblings ESPN2 and ABC—drew 11.1 million total viewers, making it the most-viewed men's soccer match ever on ESPN or ESPN2, the network said. The match also set a record for ESPN's mobile streaming app, Watch ESPN, which had a total of 1.4 million viewers.

Keep reading:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-match-in-world-cup-sets-a-tv-record-1403034850

whoooopie doo. Means nothing. I have lost count of the times that some one has claimed we reached the tipping point; I heard that first back in the 70's with Pele. Every ten years someone claims this and every time they have been wrong.

15 million is NOTHING. There are 315 million in the US.

All those kids that play youth soccer- 90% of them lose interest once they get to high school. They barely even watch it after that if at all. Soccer will never become all that in the US. Just will not. Because there is TOO MUCH COMPETITION for what many see as a boring sport. Football, Basketball, Baseball will always be more. NOW I could see Soccer replacing Hockey one day- that sport has slipped badly. So it is possible that it could become a distant 4th - but that is all.

 

[CATCH17]

whoooopie doo. Means nothing. I have lost count of the times that some one has claimed we reached the tipping point; I heard that first back in the 70's with Pele. Every ten years someone claims this and every time they have been wrong.

15 million is NOTHING. There are 315 million in the US.

All those kids that play youth soccer- 90% of them lose interest once they get to high school. They barely even watch it after that if at all. Soccer will never become all that in the US. Just will not. Because there is TOO MUCH COMPETITION for what many see as a boring sport. Football, Basketball, Baseball will always be more. NOW I could see Soccer replacing Hockey one day- that sport has slipped badly. So it is possible that it could become a distant 4th - but that is all.

How diverse was our culture now compared to the 70's? There is people coming in from all over the world that love this sport.


As far as the youth goes I think you are right. There is good youth competition for every sport but for Soccer most of the kids will never even learn to kick the ball the right way. This will always hold us back until it is taken more seriously.


But there is no reason that at some point the USA can't have 3 or 4 world class players on the pitch at 1 time. We may never have the depth of a country like Germany or Spain but our starting 11 should one day be able to compete for a World Cup.

 

[jterrell]

The more I think about it, the more I think it is unlikely that Germany would rest their starters against the US, even if they have everything locked up. If the US can beat or get a draw against Portugal, beating Germany would mean that they win the group. That would be the difference between Belgium and Korea/Russia in the knockout round. Might be worth it to go for every point.

germany will definitely play some back ups if they have group locked up.
you bring 23 players to the cup and coaches like to get most of those guys some minutes.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

whoooopie doo. Means nothing. I have lost count of the times that some one has claimed we reached the tipping point; I heard that first back in the 70's with Pele. Every ten years someone claims this and every time they have been wrong.

15 million is NOTHING. There are 315 million in the US.

All those kids that play youth soccer- 90% of them lose interest once they get to high school. They barely even watch it after that if at all. Soccer will never become all that in the US. Just will not. Because there is TOO MUCH COMPETITION for what many see as a boring sport. Football, Basketball, Baseball will always be more. NOW I could see Soccer replacing Hockey one day- that sport has slipped badly. So it is possible that it could become a distant 4th - but that is all.

I pretty much see it the same way.

Not sure about it surpassing hockey though.

The casual viewer looks at the tv screen and doesn't see anything more than running around UNLESS there is chaos around the net as one tries to score.

They need to make it more "offensive"... Action draws attention, action sells.

In all of sports, the accolades and notoriety goes to a scorer. Rarely does a defensive scheme, player lead the charge popularity-wise.

 

[jterrell]

whoooopie doo. Means nothing. I have lost count of the times that some one has claimed we reached the tipping point; I heard that first back in the 70's with Pele. Every ten years someone claims this and every time they have been wrong.

15 million is NOTHING. There are 315 million in the US.

All those kids that play youth soccer- 90% of them lose interest once they get to high school. They barely even watch it after that if at all. Soccer will never become all that in the US. Just will not. Because there is TOO MUCH COMPETITION for what many see as a boring sport. Football, Basketball, Baseball will always be more. NOW I could see Soccer replacing Hockey one day- that sport has slipped badly. So it is possible that it could become a distant 4th - but that is all.

what you say has some merit but the largest difference is now the EPL is shown every week on major channels (NBC/ESPN/Fox all show some games).

The World Cup games are doing NBA Finals numbers.

 

[jterrell]

I pretty much see it the same way.

Not sure about it surpassing hockey though.

The casual viewer looks at the tv screen and doesn't see anything more than running around UNLESS there is chaos around the net as one tries to score.

They need to make it more "offensive"... Action draws attention, action sells.

In all of sports, the accolades and notoriety goes to a scorer. Rarely does a defensive scheme, player lead the charge popularity-wise.

they don't need to do anything, it is the most popular sport in the world.
the fifa games are more popular than madden and soccer overall is taking off in areas it has never has before.
plus the concussion data is gonna hurt football.
for the majority of kids under 6 foot tall soccer is going to the sport of choice.

 

[jterrell]

Alot o f people are selling the portugal team short. Even without Ronaldo the portugal team is better then anything (canada, united states, mexico) has. i see a 2-1 portugal win. People are talking bout their loss to Germany. Germany is probably the best team in the world. What you saw against Germany isnt what youre going to see vs the united states. One team is so much better then the other.

Portugal is built around Ronaldo.
Combine his loss and the massive beating to Germany and you have the recipe for full on disaster.

The US is not as skilled but is better in pure athleticism.
They have the ability to simply outwork Portugal.

Also Portugal is vastly overrated. They were the last or one of the last to qualify.

 

[jterrell]

BTW, The Soccer Power Index has Portugal 17, Mexico 19 and the US 20.
The US and Portugal have almost identical rankings on both offense and defense with the US very slightly behind.
Remove Ronaldo and the SPI would rank BOTH the US and Mexico easily ahead of Portugal.

http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1865575/soccer-power-index-daily-update

 

[Future]

Comparing ratings of the World Cup to the Stanley Cup is silly, imo. For one, it was on ESPN, so people who are just flipping channels and go to ESPN will tune in. Plus, it plays into the whole Patriotism thing...its not like everyone who watched is a hockey fan.

 

[Future]

I pretty much see it the same way.

Not sure about it surpassing hockey though.

The casual viewer looks at the tv screen and doesn't see anything more than running around UNLESS there is chaos around the net as one tries to score.

They need to make it more "offensive"... Action draws attention, action sells.

In all of sports, the accolades and notoriety goes to a scorer. Rarely does a defensive scheme, player lead the charge popularity-wise.

Not sure I agree there...going to hockey, since it was mentioned, guys like Chris Pronger, Scott Stevens, and Nik Lidstrom are all long-time captains and fan favorites. For the NYR, Henrik Lundqvist is the face of the franchise and how many other goalies have carried their teams to cups? In baseball...pitchers certainly get notoriety and Ray Lewis - like him or not - is one of the most prominent faces of the last decade or so in the NFL.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

they don't need to do anything, it is the most popular sport in the world.
the fifa games are more popular than madden and soccer overall is taking off in areas it has never has before.
plus the concussion data is gonna hurt football.
for the majority of kids under 6 foot tall soccer is going to the sport of choice.

No.

Excluding the USA.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Not sure I agree there...going to hockey, since it was mentioned, guys like Chris Pronger, Scott Stevens, and Nik Lidstrom are all long-time captains and fan favorites. For the NYR, Henrik Lundqvist is the face of the franchise and how many other goalies have carried their teams to cups? In baseball...pitchers certainly get notoriety and Ray Lewis - like him or not - is one of the most prominent faces of the last decade or so in the NFL.

I hear ya. But the majority is offense.

In baseball. You don't see a build up for soon to be record breaking defense stat or player.

In football, it's all about TD records, WR receptions, running back yards.

In hockey, yes the goalie is in the spotlight. But going back to rangers in 1994. It's all about messier.



Yes, you can find instances of defense in history. It just will just never be the consistent forerunner in notoriety.

 

[Future]

I hear ya. But the majority is offense.

In baseball. You don't see a build up for soon to be record breaking defense stat or player.

In football, it's all about TD records, WR receptions, running back yards.

In hockey, yes the goalie is in the spotlight. But going back to rangers in 1994. It's all about messier.

Yes, you can find instances of defense in history. It just will just never be the consistent forerunner in notoriety.

Leetch won the Conn Smythe...staying in soccer, the Italian team that won in 2010 was anchored by their defense. It wasn't Totti, Pirlo, whoever that got all the recognition, it was their back line, Nesta and Cannavaro in particular.

 

[JBS]

What a great day of games!!!

Pumped for Colombia and obviously the massive england Uruguay game. ..

Ivory coast getting a little too much love. Don't thin they can beat Colombia. .

Im thinking England Uruguay ends in a tie.. But im praying for England to win it