Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

[Banz]

48 more days left to the start of the season. :|

 

[Ryoutarou]

Argh. So Mexico are out at the second round for the sixth time in a row. I'm really upset that the last goal shouldn't have been a penalty, but I guess it makes up for that missed one in the first half. After playing a fantastic first half, I felt like Mexico had to play catch up quite a lot during the second half and just really let themselves go as soon as Sneijder made that goal. It's such a shame, after a horrible qualifying campaign, Mexico had a fantastic run of games during this World Cup.

 

[Pepperton]

Another really exciting game today, of which I thought Mexico had surely clinched minutes before Sneijder's pinpoint perfect goal that even the on-fire Ochoa couldn't defend. Afterwards, the penalty kick - another perfect goal; even if Ochoa had guessed right, there wasn't much chance for a deflection or block. That said, a well-played game by Mexico and a hopeful way to bow out of the tournament.

 

[Hitsushiro]

Both teams deserved to go through. This match could have been the Grand Final, really... sucks to see Mexico go, they were amazing all tournament.

I did go for Netherlands though because I believe only they/France can beat Germany. (yep)

 

[Gabri]

Netherlands' current squad have great strikers, but their defence seems really shaky and they can't seem to hold the ball for too long, trying to send it to their strikers as fast as possible. They can't beat Germany. France can, though. (Never thought I'd say this, considering how France has been lately, but they don't seem the same ego-dominated squad they were in recent years)

I feel bad for Mexico, and even worse for Ochoa. That guy will sign for a top team after this, guaranteed. Costa Rica have done nice as well, but the Dutch will give a serious challenge to the good and consistent defense they've shown lately.

Also there's an almost certainty of there being a France vs Germany match next round. And I'm cheering for the French in that case.

 

[Pepperton]

Man, Costa Rica have a lot of heart. Started watching halfway into extra time, and their squad looked exhausted on the field, and I mean you could visually tell how tired they were. Ball-handling was sloppy, movement was off, everything was slow. And yet, somehow, they managed to hang in there, and pull off an astounding win after penalty kicks. Great win for them, but I don't see them ending up with the same result against the Dutch.

Ochoa will definitely get a lot of attention after this WC, he played brilliantly!

 

[Eruption]

A huge problem with the game catching on in the US is that it doesn't lend itself very well to TV marketing. The US is a country whose programs and broadcasts absolutely thrive on commercials - the average American football game, on TV, is about two hours long and only somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 minutes is actual game time. The rest of that two hour black is dedicated to replays and, not surprisingly, commercials. With there being no time outs in soccer, you're left with a sport that only provides a very short window for advertisements during a 90 minute game.

I'm not even sure this would do anything for the sport, winning often doesn't guarantee popularity. As an example, my favorite sports team, the San Antonio Spurs, are absolutely underrated by the American media. This is a team that has won five championships in 17 years, that regularly finishes in the top four teams during the regular season, that has only finished out of the top five once in 15 seasons, basically the most successful American sports team by winning percentage, and yet they're criminally underrepresented by media here.

Other teams that don't win as much get much more notoriety because their players have these loud and boisterous personalities, which I think is what the broadcasters and the people in general want. I've always felt that soccer doesn't allow for this as regularly as other sports and I think that, among other reasons, does a lot to make it difficult for potential fans to identify with players and find some sort of connection.

But I think the biggest problems is just that advertisers can't shill their products out as often in this game as they can with other popular sports in the US.

You've probably hit the nail on the head in terms of needing personalities in US sports. At the very least they like to focus on the top, top players if it isn't explainable to personality. Sure Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are two of the greatest players in the sport, but for some reason they don't fit ESPN's obsession like LeBron or Kobe so the Spurs get less focus regardless of their successes. Come to think of it I've seen a lot of American adverts when watching NBA games online and I'd be hard pressed to remember one with a Spurs player, it's all Blake Griffin, James Harden and the two I mentioned before.

That said when I was watching the NBA draft the other day and ESPN had a little World Cup roundup, they had the 'Degree Moment Of The Groupstage' or something like that so I'd say they can apply their advertising in time. I'm thinking they could use cooling breaks in the MLS as opportunities for advertising.

On a more immediate note though: USA can beat Belgium. Belgium have great individual players but they struggle to work as a unit.

Totally agree and I think from what I've seen so far, I'd actually say USA are more likely to win that tie. I don't see them getting any further after that though.

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

Well the Germany vs Algeria match is scoreless at the half. Hopefully Germany will beat Algeria. It would certainly be revenge for Germany then since the last time Germany faced Algeria in a World Cup match was back in 1982 where Algeria won. Course the winner of this match will be going on to face France in the quarter finals.

Edit: Well after going into extra time Germany ended up beating Algeria 2 to 1. So one of the quarter final matches is Germany vs France.

 

[Pepperton]

Expected results there, but the heart shown by Algeria was seriously great to watch. In fact, I badly wanted them to persevere, but Germany, in the end, was much too strong. They are valid contenders, maybe even more so than the Dutch, who had a difficult time dispatching Mexico. Picked Germany to get through that QF.

All in for USA tomorrow! The Dallas Cowboys are holding a free watch party in the AT&T stadium. I wish I could go, it would be epic to watch the game on that gigantic screen they have.

 

[Banz]

Liverpool sign Adam Lallana

 

[Ryoutarou]

Liverpool sign Adam Lallana

It hurts. So much.

Seriously, is Southampton going to have anyone left?

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

Well the US vs Belgium match is scoreless at the half. Fabian Johnson went out early with a hamstring injury. The winner of this match will be going face Argentina in the quarterfinals. Now to wait and see how the second half will turn out in this match. Course it is going to be tough.

 

[Ryoutarou]

Going into extra time for the US and Belgium. The US hasn't seemed like much of a threat for most of this game but Yedlin and Howard have been the real standouts, with Howard having to do far more than he should to make up for the rest of the team's lack of effort. I think the US have a decent shot at moving on if this game drags itself out to penalties.

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

Well Belgium won against the US in extra time. The final score ended up as Belgium 2 USA 1. To somewhat quote one of the commentators, "The US went out, but they went out on their shield." Course Tim Howard got between 16-18 saves. Now the only country I have left to root for in the World Cup is Germany.

 

[Pepperton]

Say what you want about the USA team, but they fought incredibly hard this match; left it all out on the field, and I think this match gained the team some much-deserved respect. Even in the face of seemingly inevitable defeat, they kept pushing, never gave up, and almost, almost turned it around. That tricky free kick seemed crazy enough to work for a split second; I jumped out of my seat and yelled like a crazy person, but no cigar. Well played by Belgium. Closing thoughts: Tim Howard is the man.

 

[Banz]

Liverpool sign Adam Lallana

It hurts. So much.

Seriously, is Southampton going to have anyone left?

Wow, you're a Southampton fan?

 

[Ryoutarou]

Wow, you're a Southampton fan?

Yup! When I was getting into English football, I really wanted to be able to follow a team, so I set out to watch a few EPL games and...ended up watching Championship games, specifically a few Southampton games. I loved the way they played and the energy their crowds brought, so I decided to follow them best I could until they were promoted back to the Premier League when it became a whole heck of a lot easier for a foreigner to catch their games online.

 

[Banz]

It's not that difficult to follow Championship games either. Quite a lot of Championship and League One games are telecast here in India.

 

[Eruption]

It depends on the games really, I know it's difficult to find Boro games because I only get to watch 1 or 2 away ones per season. When I don't have my ST next year it'll be pretty annoying.

Calling Lallana to flop at Liverpool now.

 

[Pepperton]

Really hope Brazil does well tomorrow, and that's not just because my coach is Brazilian and if he loses, he'll be in an unbelievably bad mood for the entire day, of which we'll spend together on a road trip after the game. Would love to see them in the final, though I'm not sure they can take down strong teams like Germany and France with such flimsy defense.