I think the opposite.

The main complaints from the US regarding the sport are almost certainly:
*not enough goals/excitement (shootouts guarentee both).
*"A TIE!? THEY PLAY 90 MINUTES AND NOBODY WINS!? WTF!?" (these rules would get rid of 'ties'.)

The ratio of goals to ghost goals in overtime would be so small its not even worth mentioning. I think you're a little paranoid there Kurt

If anything is to change, Golden Goal would be the only thing I'd accept, though I am fine with the way things are and would prefer it remain that way.

No it wouldn't, soccer is huge in the North America. Its by far the most funded, most played sport in North America. Here in canada, where hockey dominates, the number of participants in soccer is double that to hockey and people here don't even watch soccer.



The usa is no different. The amount of participants in soccer is more than all other sports.



North America is going to be a powerhouse for soccer in the future.

MLS is starting to take shape with more teams joining in. It has a very balanced structure that ables it to maintain the league for a long time unlike europe, which is based on how patient the banks are willing to be.

NASL and USL Premiere are adding teams as well. (Thats MLS div 2) The growth in soccer in north america is huge.


--

Huge? They can't even spell the thing properly...

Well thats a given. They probably can't even spell barack obama properly.

First, weren't you the one going on for ages about a bad decision going against you in the WC??

Second, what difference would it make if the goal that shouldn't have counted was a golden goal, or a goal in extra time? It's still very unlikely to comeback from it anyhow, and it would eliminate one major US-based complaint, which is the injury faking and stalling, which happens more often in extra time when someone is ahead, than in regular time.

Hockey plays just fine with a sudden death OT. It's pretty exciting knowing a match could be over at any second.



Sigh. I think you're right.

Yes? I fail to see your point? I'm the one that doesn't want Golden Goal, I want the game out of the refs hands, so I don't see what you're getting at here.


That's pretty straightforward really. If a ref makes a horrid mistake and you go out, you're out. If he makes a horrid mistake and it's just regular ET, you've a chance to comeback at the very least.


It's a completely different sport. Plus any debatable goals are reviewed, unlike football.

You made it sound as if complaining incessantly about refs is germane to American fans.




Well the obvious answer is to review debatable goals, no? I'm not familiar with how these things work, but IFAB (?) is reviewing this topic in October, from what I read awhile back. In the very least they will come up with a goal-line ref.

I was just using you as an example because you were 1) for Golden goal and 2) Complained about (irrelevant) decisions that went against you. The point was, how do you think you'd feel if you actually went out because of a Golden goal or other horrible decision? It's not very nice knowing you went out of a World Cup based on the stupidity of one man, I would know.


You say it's obvious, I say it's obvious, my dog knows it's obvious. But this is FIFA were talking about, the same governing body whos head came out with "Football is better with mistakes". Obvious and logic is not something they can compute.

IFFHS voted - hold your breath - St. Gigi as the top keeper of the last decade. Dida finished sixth, which to me seems fair considering how up and down he was from '05 onward.

How on earth did Barthez make the top ten, though?

1.Gianluigi Buffon
2.Iker Casillas
3.Petr Cech
4.Oliver Rolf Kahn
5.Edwin van der Sar
6.Nelson Dida
7.Jens Lehmann
8.Roberto Abbondanzieri
9.Fabien Barthez
10.Rogerio Ceni

Not a bad list as it doesn't only contain players from the big clubs. Still a bit poor though.

Jens Lehmann?

NO ABBIATI!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! THE GREAT ABBIATI DOESN'T EVEN MAKE THIS LIST!????/



IFFHS has lost all credibilty.

Peter Cech above Kahn and VdS?! I can't agree with that!

EDIT: and I'm not sure why Toldo isn't there...

Oh well.

Russia 2018 it is.

Best Managers of the Decade (IFFHS)

It's a pretty terrible list.

Scolari and Benitez above Carlo. Wenger on top??

that list is just plain stupid. I'm not going to say mourinho should be at the top but wenger? What is based on transfer market performance history?

+1

Not even the spelling is accurate.

Wenger?? OMG! The guy hasn't won sh!t in the last five years! Pathetic.

Brian Clough hasn't managed for nearly two decades sweetie.

As for the list... does anyone actually take this seriously? It's IFFHS guys...

brian clough wouldn't be included because its from 2000-2009

pwned.

my bad im gunna go sit in the corner of my room now later

yep

and hes passed away sadly

Noticed that, did you?

just thought i'd add it to the end of your text....smart ***

(from eurosport)

Nooooo!

So... what do you guys think about the Ballon d'Or nominations?! I'm surprised that it hasn't been discussed yet (or has it?).

I just can't wrap my head around one thing: what were the idiots at France Football thinking when they decided Milito had not done enough to be on the list?!

Ballon d'Or just lost a bit of its credibility as far as I'm concerned...

It depends... feel bothered to share that list? I mean, if you want us to discuss it...

World Player of the Year nominees:

Xabi Alonso (Spain), Daniel Alves (Brazil), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Julio Cesar (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Maicon (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Muller (Germany), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Holland), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Holland), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).

World Coach of the Year nominees:

Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Vicente del Bosque (Spain), Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Pep Guardiola (Barcelona), Joachim Low (Germany), Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan/Real Madrid), Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay), Louis Van Gaal (Bayern Munich), Bert van Marwijk (Holland) and Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).

I was also surprised at the absence of Milito. I guess being benched in the Word Cup and the awful start of the season with Inter payed their part. As for the winner, I'm undecided between Sneijder and Iniesta. I think Sneijder deserves it more for what he's done this year, but the milanista part of me wants Iniesta to win. Coach of the year should go to Mourinho, no doubt.

Too long list to leave out Milito for sure, yes. Mourinho and Sneijder IMO.

Yep, agree. It was Inters year.

I think the WC win will overshadow Inter. So it can easily be a Spanish player and Del Bosque going home with the titles

Which one? If it goes to a Spanish player, I just can see Iniesta or Casillas winning it.

Mourinho won the treble though, that's really strong. Same goes for Sneijder who played also the WC final - and played a key role during the WC, that's very strong.

"Diego Maradona" Twitter Account:“I am happy your psychic octopus is gone, it's your fault we lost the World Cup,”

-twitter

Classic Maradona

The award will go to a spanish player for sure. It's an unwritten rule that it goes to a World Cup winner.

In that case I'd give it to Xavi...

Toss up between Iniesta and Villa, in my opinion. Think it'll go to Iniesta.

In unsurprising fashion, The Sun seemingly feels England shuld just stop football altogether seeing as for the first time ever we had nobody selected for World Player of the Year.

They're putting too much stock in it really, because there's too much of an emphasis on the World Cup. Rooney was outstanding in the league, but was terrible at the World Cup. Yet a player like Klose who couldn't outscore Emile Heskey at league level last season, but because he had a few half decent World cup games, gets in the list.

It looks like Paul the Octopus has been dead since 9 July, and that the Germans replaced him with a sosia when predicting the final. So, after all, it looks like Paul wasn't that much of a guesser, but simply all cephalopods are attracted to the red color.

Link

Agreed.

It's ridiculous how they completely ignored the league and CL performances (particularly) and chose the nominees based on a couple of world cup performances - especially when you think the quality level of world cup was arguably way below the CL.


I don't understand Italian and am not in the mood to google translate it. is this a conspiracy theory?

Learn Italian and you'll find out.

Well, a Chinese guy is making a movie about Paul titled "Who killed octopus Paul?", and he came up with the theory that Paul has been dead since July. The Germans never told the truth because otherwise people would think that cephalopods are just attracted to the red color, and Paul didn't have any "special powers".

Diego Maradona

I will, only after I've learned French

A Chinese guy? not sure why I'd want to believe him anyway unless he comes up with good proofs. I don't think Paul had any powers. he was just a puppet doing what his owners wanted him to do. credit to the person or the team that predicted the results though!

Worst miss of all time????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyNdt9yVugk