World Cup 2014

[jimmy40]

can someone that knows about soccer tell me why the Bradley guy gets to play? He seems to suck and I would guess where he plays is an important position.

 

[joseephuss]

can someone that knows about soccer tell me why the Bradley guy gets to play? He seems to suck and I would guess where he plays is an important position.

He usually plays a little better than he has at this World Cup. He has gone through a poor stretch of games in Brazil. This game was actually his best out of the four played. He fed that ball perfectly to Green for the U.S. goal. I think the U.S. needs a better player to fill his position, but he is one of the better players on the squad. Just chose the wrong time to play as poorly as he did.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

There it is. BEL scored. was only a matter of time after 300 shots on goal lol

Yeah. It was gonna happen.

Also, valiant effort by USA but Belgium belongs. 4 games and 4 wins.
They are who we thought they were.... And we let them off the hook....lol

 

[RastaRocket]

can someone that knows about soccer tell me why the Bradley guy gets to play? He seems to suck and I would guess where he plays is an important position.

He's one of the best players on the team no doubt. He's a defensive midfielder who covers a ton of ground.

 

[jterrell]

various:
this was exactly how my bracket predicted.. US to 16 then lose to Belgium.... sucks to be right sometimes.
in a pat myself on back moment note I suggested I hoped they played Origi over Lukaku because of the terrible match up Romelu was for us...
again being right is overrated....

bradley: he is a defensive midfielder and a quite good one. he was forced into attacking duties here and that's not his strong suit.
but he is being given too much blame for the midfield showing that had a lot to do with jozy being out and dempsey playing farther up front.
bradley and dempsey or jones side by side were always dangerous unfortunately not enough defense behind them to play that way until down a goal.

it is a good look for the US with Yedlin and Green going forward. those two guys flat out played fearless versus the insanely talented Belgians whom I have losing the Finale to Brazil.

 

[jterrell]

OFC
0 teams qualified

AFC
4 teams qualified(12.5%)
0 in final 8

CAF
5 teams qualified(15.625%)
0 in final 8

CONCACAF
4 teams qualified(12.5%)
1 team in final 8(12.5%)

CONMEBOL
6 teams qualified(18.75%)
3 teams in final 8(37.5%)

UEFA
13 teams qualfied(40.625%)
4 teams in final 8(50%)

Final 8 numbers are very misleading.
UEFA largely stunk up this tourney.
Having Spain, England, Portugal and Italy all get knocked out in group play by CONCACAF and other supposedly lesser federations was a nasty blow.

For CONCACAF having 3 of 4 teams advance out of group play was stellar.

CONMEBOL has been about as expected. Brazil and Argentina could make the Final tho I think the Red Devils are simply deeper.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

can someone that knows about soccer tell me why the Bradley guy gets to play? He seems to suck and I would guess where he plays is an important position.

He is usually one of our best players. He had a horrid world cup though . By far the worst player on the pitch .

 

[Leadbelly]

can someone that knows about soccer tell me why the Bradley guy gets to play? He seems to suck and I would guess where he plays is an important position.

I don't especially like him but as bad as he has been in recent years, he's more complete than what's behind him. He's not someone a team should be built around though.

I'll also add his dad has been a fairly successful coach and former coach of the US men's national team before Klinsmann. Because he's the son of a coach, he displayed early field intelligence and leadership as a teenager that most other players his age didn't have. I feel he plateaued years ago and people have been assigning to him a level of field intelligence far greater than what's really there.

 

[joseephuss]

Final 8 numbers are very misleading.
UEFA largely stunk up this tourney.
Having Spain, England, Portugal and Italy all get knocked out in group play by CONCACAF and other supposedly lesser federations was a nasty blow.

For CONCACAF having 3 of 4 teams advance out of group play was stellar.

CONMEBOL has been about as expected. Brazil and Argentina could make the Final tho I think the Red Devils are simply deeper.

No, it isn't that misleading. AFC and CAF weren't that good and it shows in that none of their teams made it to the final 8. CONCACAF having 1 of the 8 spots is in line with the same percentage of teams they sent to the tournament, which is a good thing. Nothing misleading about that. CONMEBOL and UEFA having a slightly higher percentage of teams in the final 8 than they had in the tournament illustrates they are both stronger federations. Those slight increases come at the expense of AFC and CAF being poor.

 

[9darter]

UEFA largely stunk up this tourney.

Not at all. Even with Spain, Italy and England knocked out before the final 8, UEFA still has 50% of the remaining teams and a plausible winner in Germany, The Netherlands or maybe France. Argentina should be favorites against Belgium. You can't expect more than 50% of the remaining teams at this stage - in an environment like that of Brazil (should naturally help teams from that part of the world)

It was a weak Italian NT. Nothing surprising there. England has sucked for decades. And the extreme possession approach of Spain has been successfully countered (as witnessed in the UEFA CL).

Now, if Europe has one team in the semis and that team is eliminated...yes, "UEFA largely stunk up this tourney". Right now it's still looking good.

What's more important, though, this World Cup has been nothing short of amazing. I've followed all World Cups since Italy 1990, and this is truly one to remember. I hope we'll see a South American winner.

 

[daschoo]

Not at all. Even with Spain, Italy and England knocked out before the final 8, UEFA still has 50% of the remaining teams and a plausible winner in Germany, The Netherlands or maybe France. Argentina should be favorites against Belgium. You can't expect more than 50% of the remaining teams at this stage - in an environment like that of Brazil (should naturally help teams from that part of the world)

It was a weak Italian NT. Nothing surprising there. England has sucked for decades. And the extreme possession approach of Spain has been successfully countered (as witnessed in the UEFA CL).

Now, if Europe has one team in the semis and that team is eliminated...yes, "UEFA largely stunk up this tourney". Right now it's still looking good.

What's more important, though, this World Cup has been nothing short of amazing. I've followed all World Cups since Italy 1990, and this is truly one to remember. I hope we'll see a South American winner.

Pretty much agree with all of this. Only bits I would disagree with is the last sentence and about the Italians. Hope Germany win it and before the tournament started I had Argentina to beat the Italians in the semis and go on to beat Germany (who got by Brazil in the semi) in the final so although they were in arguably the toughest group on paper I can't so I wasn't surprised at how much the Italians struggled.

 

[MC KAos]

Fantastic World Cup so far, it was just a shame that chile got stuck playing Brazil, I wish chile and Greece could have switched places. I think chile is easily the best team that didn't make it to the quarter finals in this tournament.

 

[MC KAos]

Don't be surprised if Colombia beats Brazil and France beats Germany. Honestly those are the two teams that have looked the best this World Cup. If those performances came from Brazil and Germany people would be freaking out declaring it over

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I honestly don't follow soccer much so I didn't know about the concussion issues. But I do know a lot of parents who don't allow their kids to play football because of all the big publicity concussion issues. I think the publicity alone is enough to scare off a lot of parents.

I think that's true. It's a perception thing to a great extent.

 

[joseephuss]

It was a weak Italian NT. Nothing surprising there. England has sucked for decades. And the extreme possession approach of Spain has been successfully countered (as witnessed in the UEFA CL).
.

Spain lost to another UEFA team and a CONMEBOL team in their group. The only other team they faced out of those federations, they beat. I think it is too much of an over generalization to say that Spain's or Barcelona's system has been successfully countered. The players playing that system aren't as good or at least aren't playing as good as they were when they were winning. For both Spain and Barcelona, the defense and the goalkeeping have played poorly. While never their strength, they usually are better than what they have shown the last couple of years. Gerard Pique has gone downhill fast. I guess Shakira is wearing him out. Puyol is gone and was as solid as they come back on defense. Barcelona or Spain have not found a good replacement for him. Ramos played a poor World Cup. St. Iker was poor in the World Cup as well. He is better than his showing or at least was when they were winning. The system still works, but some of the players just aren't as good and that is mostly on the defense.

I agree that England wasn't that good. It wasn't surprising that they didn't advance. They too lost to another UEFA team and a CONMEBOL team. They tied the team that wasn't from one of those federations.

UEFA and CONFMEBOL are the two top federations. That is why they get the most teams into the tournament and then advancing deep into the event. Everyone else is a tier or more below. CONCACAF can be proud that they have had better showings than AFC or CAF. And lowly OFC can't even get a team into the World Cup Finals.

 

[UKCowboysFan]

can someone that knows about soccer tell me why the Bradley guy gets to play? He seems to suck and I would guess where he plays is an important position.

It's funny that you should say that, because I've seen a bunch of comments from fans over in the England saying that they would pick him for the midfield ahead of ANY of the players in the England team.

The thing is the role he plays is often very under valued by fans, but is appreciated by coaches and other players as they do the dirty work that allows the rest of the team to play.

Will be interesting to see just how much Brazil miss Gustavo in the next round.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Nick Bilton ‏@nickbilton 35m
NYT graphic: Photos: All 16 of Tim Howard's saves from the World Cup match with Belgium http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/02/sports/worldcup/all-of-tim-howards-saves.html?smid=tw-nickbilton…

 

[jterrell]

No, it isn't that misleading. AFC and CAF weren't that good and it shows in that none of their teams made it to the final 8. CONCACAF having 1 of the 8 spots is in line with the same percentage of teams they sent to the tournament, which is a good thing. Nothing misleading about that. CONMEBOL and UEFA having a slightly higher percentage of teams in the final 8 than they had in the tournament illustrates they are both stronger federations. Those slight increases come at the expense of AFC and CAF being poor.

Yes, it is misleading.

At the end of group play 16 teams were alive. Only 5 of those were UEFA clubs.
No region did worse in group play versus their FIFA or SPI ratings than UEFA.

The 5 highest rated FIFA teams already eliminated are ALL UEFA clubs: Spain, Portugal, Italy, England, Greece. 4 of those didn't make it out of group play.
Group play hugely favors deeper UEFA sides normally but they performed dismally versus their rankings and expectations.

In the round of 16 UEFA faced 2 African sides and 3 CONCACAF sides. They were the favorites by large margins in 4 matches according to rankings.
So going 4-1 was hardly some great accomplishment and doesn't come close to overcoming the complete eggs top UEFA sides laid.

 

[jterrell]

Spain lost to another UEFA team and a CONMEBOL team in their group. The only other team they faced out of those federations, they beat. I think it is too much of an over generalization to say that Spain's or Barcelona's system has been successfully countered. The players playing that system aren't as good or at least aren't playing as good as they were when they were winning. For both Spain and Barcelona, the defense and the goalkeeping have played poorly. While never their strength, they usually are better than what they have shown the last couple of years. Gerard Pique has gone downhill fast. I guess Shakira is wearing him out. Puyol is gone and was as solid as they come back on defense. Barcelona or Spain have not found a good replacement for him. Ramos played a poor World Cup. St. Iker was poor in the World Cup as well. He is better than his showing or at least was when they were winning. The system still works, but some of the players just aren't as good and that is mostly on the defense.

I agree that England wasn't that good. It wasn't surprising that they didn't advance. They too lost to another UEFA team and a CONMEBOL team. They tied the team that wasn't from one of those federations.

UEFA and CONFMEBOL are the two top federations. That is why they get the most teams into the tournament and then advancing deep into the event. Everyone else is a tier or more below. CONCACAF can be proud that they have had better showings than AFC or CAF. And lowly OFC can't even get a team into the World Cup Finals.

I suggested Spain may struggle and the system was figured out BEFORE the tourney.
As you note Barca's fall off happened at the same time as Spain's using that system.
So Barca will change system and likely go on a long win streak again.
I expect Spain to do the same.
Soccer evolves and the system has its weaknesses.

As I noted above in detail UEFA stank up the group rounds period.
The bright spots for UEFA clubs in group play were versus other UEFA clubs....

 

[jimmy40]

I did learn one thing about soccer this week, when ESPN is running the scores across the bottom of the screen and they show the goals scored like 25', 15' etc. it means what minute, not how many feet. Lol. Now who knew less about soccer than me?