i hope you get rained on for such traitorous comments

Yeah, that's what I keep saying to my friends. They seem stuck in the World of 'we drew 1-1 with England' without actually looking at how they played.

It might seem a strange thing to say, but I think Slovenia may top the group. They were great defensively in qualifying and knocked the Russians and the Czechs out, these guys are no pushovers. I think England might go into the last game needing a draw to qualify and a win to top the group, and only get a draw.

I think people who feel either that Gooch was good or the US midfield dominated were, er, perhaps watching a different game. Gooch's poor positioning is what let Gerrard through for the goal. That's not MOTM mateiral. And the US midfield was mediocre - I wouldn't say that they dominated the English midfield at all (then again, until the last 15 or so minutes, very little was seen from the English midfield aside from the Gerrard goal.) Rooney was...almost invisible this game. That really surprised me. I agree about Heskey doing well (and do NOT want to run into him, he'd break off my fins). And about Howard doing well for the US. The rest? Meh.

My fins are verging toward down for both sides, to be honest.

Dst will now face competition from diavolo

slovenjia has some quality players with 2 star national players.

National gems: Novakovic, Handanovic

great potential players: Khrin, Birsa, Oblak (16 yo GK going to Liverpool, i hate them but i've dealt with khrin going to inter so, i'd be pleased with this)

Solid performers : Dedic, Ljubljankic, Jokic

Robert koren's not half bad as a captain either, i know you (kurt) seem you dislike him but for country he is commanding.

i'll be laughing at all of you when we make it through the group

i agree that US didn't create many chances going forward, but I think that had more to do with your defense rather than offense. Also don't think you guys create too many chances in the first half either.

also most US fans never said that a draw wouldn't be a good thing for us. sure, we said we thought we could've won (which could've happened), but I don't think you would've found many US fans that wouldn't have been happy with a draw with England.

I thought we played well...and if you say we played poorly then I hate to see how you guys compare against, what you say, are better opponents.

Thank you! Here's a panzerotto for you.

i like this , based on on nice things said it seams Kurt and tennie are on the Slovenian band wagon!!!

But mtl, Khrin has cooties!


EDIT:

YAY PANZEROTTI!

but I give Gooch credit FOR shutting down Rooney. yes, the first goal was partly his + others fault. But for the most part he played a good game. Made a lot of critical slide talkes in the box and removed Rooney from the game. Remember, he hasn't played a full 90 minutes since last September. I was pleasantly surprised for how well he played compared to how he played in the previous couple of friendlies.

i still, and will always, feel like our midfield, for most of the game, controlled the ball a lot more than England's midfielders did. and considering England's midfielders are suppose to play on a completely different level than the US's midfielders, that shouldn't have happened.

i would like to see Altidore do more...we really missed having Charlie Davies up there.

on a side note: if the US's chances of passing through this group are based on what you think of tonight's game...then no team that has played up to this point is going to go through their group.

so too does balo, but i love him too. I can safely say i admired their play this year because we are no longer in the same club status as them.

The bit you highlighted doesn't hold true with me, a few posts later I said that Slovenia could probably top the group.

Koren plays for the enemy, he's a ****, I hope he falls on his face repeatedly.


Well, there's a few things you can take into account. One of our only bright points in the McClaren era and one of the best players in qualifying - Gareth Barry - was missing, that's why you got a bit of space behind the midfield. Robert Green made a huge mistake and jokes aside, that happens, what, once every few years? Rooney also never turned up and Milner went off early due to sickness.

If our GK doesn't make a howler, Barry plays and Rooney plays well - 3 things that aren't exactly an awful lot to ask for - we'll be fine. We dominated a game without them, we'll sure as hell do it with them.

But sure, you have to give the US credit. You made us look very average at times, I won't deny that. Dempsey and Donovan had their moments and you have some incredible pace in your team that caused us problems. I also thought that you were very well drilled with set plays, I can't remember causing you any trouble with them an you had 1 or 2 chances from attacking set plays. Very good coaching that.

Alot of US fans seem to like Altidore? I watched him at New York a few times and he was good. But he was horrible for Hull last season and I've not seen him do anything of note for a few years. He isn't all that good a player it seems.

Oh, one other thing. What do you Americans think of the commentary? Was Tyler biased at all or did he call an even game? We had ITV commentary in the pub, unfortunately.

Um. I watched it in Portuguese on ESPN Deportes. So not sure of the commentary.

-Tyler seemed fine to me, though I was so in the moment I was barely listening to them.

-Gooch had an excellent second half, the first half was questionable. I think you need two solid halfs to be MOTM, but there is no denying his incredible second half.

-Milan needs a goal keeper, and Tim Howard freaking rocks. Hmmm.....

-Kurt, you can say well this went wrong and we didnt have this guy and blah blah blah, but I mean, thats an easy way out. We could say the same thing. If Davies had played...if Altidore's shot went in...if one of the headers fell...I mean, its all give and take.

-USA did not play well tonight, but we played a mature game, which is something we've been missing in the past. I'm looking for us to improve in the next two games, because Slovenia and Algeria are NOT jokes. They will give both us and England a hell of a go.

- Grats to Kurt and any other English people on here on a game well played. I enjoyed watching it, and I think England was the better team today in most respects as possession was 57 to 43 in their favor.

(P.S. its funny that both goals were scored on what are considered our team's main weaknesses. US - poor defense, England poor goalkeeping.)

Did Howard actually play that good? I don't remember any particular save from him.

Nigeria's goalie was incredible today, maybe we should keep an eye on him.

wow! that looks sooo delicious!!!

Was Tim Howard good? Do bears piss in the forest?

Hahahaha.....clever

Well in the first half after the goal was conceded (I actually put it down to DeMeritt's positioning than Gooch...he was the one who lost his marker...Gooch was supposed to be on Rooney) and a couple of times afterwards you can hear Howard screaming at his defenders to 'Get out!' and stop the attacks. I think that's why he advanced so much.

Gooch totally nullified Rooney and Lamps too a couple of times I think. No nonsense stuff true but still remarkable. De Meritt after that goal and the Howard ticking off was left to sweep up behind Gooch. The threat he provided on setpieces was considerable as well.


As for mid-field. The truth is possession came to England's favour only because of the last 15 minutes when they laid seige. Otherwise, the ease with which the ball was finding it's way to Donovan/Altidore/Findley was embarassing. If one of Altidore/Findlay was replaced by a U.S replica of Rooney, the 3 Lions were looking at a thumping. Both those players had atrocious movement.

My MotM by position:
GK: Howard
DF: Gooch (Terry was the best for England, but then he was unspectacular)
MF: Dempsey (Gerrard and Lamps both disappeared. Not to mention their defensive gaffes which provided so many openings to the US)
DM: Bradley (got stuck in, slowed things down when momentum threatened. Nice work alround)
ATT: Rooney. (US fwds sucked balls. Rooney did everything except score. He needs to put his gloves back on)

actually won't disagree with anything in the post.

Altidore actually scored more goals than anyone else during qualifying. I was actually hoping he'd do well with Hull...but I agree, he did awful while over there. the reason americans like him though, is because he's one of the first promising strikers we have coming out of the US at the moment. he's still young though (20), so i'm hoping he gets more chances to prove himself over in europe.

i didn't notice any bias one way or the other with Tyler. honestly, i think he's too much of a professional for that. it was nice hearing his voice rather than some of the other announcers ESPN has used in the past.

also...i think one of the reasons US fans are excited after the 1-1 draw with England is because our opener in 2006 was a 3-0 lost to the Czech Republic.

This Adu fella. He's definitely out then?

I would say he never truly got 'in', at least not on the NT. Life is full of surprises so, who knows maybe he'll show up again one day but I'd say hes done.

currently no spot for him. the one thing the US is not lacking is midfielders. he'll probably be in the squad for 2014. he's also only 21.

one of those....photos caught at the right moment.

Lol. Good one!

ARE YOU MADE!?

Heskey even got praised on the Villa forum and that says an awful, awful lot.




Brilliant.

Heskey's a deep lying target man, not a forward. Get your facts straight!

P.S: I was born not made. Like genius.

A deep lying target man is a forward..

I'm pretty sure everyone was born and not made. It's not like I accused you of being a test tube baby or something!

EDIT: HAHA, now I see why you said it. Very good Jack, I guess I was accusing you of being made.

Love the picture and reminded me about something..
Was Wayne Bridge playing, I think Peter Crouh was playing but no sure if Wayne was playing

Wayne Bridge didn't even go to the WC...

ooh okay

Slovenia 1-0 Algeria.

Just back from the pub where I watched that game with friends. We were sitting next to a table of Algerian fans who thought the ref was crazy to send Ghezzal off for that handball. Oy.

So, mtl, happy?

I thought both teams looked poorer than expcted.

Strange WC so far, Korea look about the best.

Yep, that's what I've been thinking. So far, it's South Korea ftw.

The late game today should on paper be a good one but...

Poor Serbia.They didn't deserve to lose,that silly handball.

Serbia down to 10, Ghana lead 1-0 from a penalty (unrelated to the sending off).

Deserved win for Ghana. with a bit of luck they could have scored more (hit the woodwork twice), but Serbia weren't bad either. overall an enjoyable game.

I couldn't see what's so great about Krasic but I'm not gonna judge him based on 1 game.

I told you!

But, to be fair, "can win" is a lot different than "should win".

A great example of idiocy was heard at the bar from some guy at the table behind me: "If LeBron James played soccer for 2 years, we would dominate the world."

He had to be joking, there is no way someone is that retarded

So, perhaps now, guys who don't watch the Bundesliga can see why this fish is such a huge fan of Mesut Ozil.

The Germans with a dominant display so far.

(And sorry, Ari!)

I only watched the second half (got an exam tomorrow), but wow what a performance. Their team looked so solid and fluent, great one-touch passing and opponent pressure. I think the Germans might be a serious contender for the trophy.

Germany were really great. Best team we've seen so far by a mile

To be fair, Australia were crap but I'm not taking anything away from Germany. even before this game I had this feeling that they'd go far in this tournament (and that Ballack's absence would be a blessing in disguise for them) and I was only reassured by what I saw tonight.

Italy needs to look at this Germany and learn a few things. such a refreshing young team!



I had never seen him before. he was impressive!

I even thought Muller was average (from what I saw in CL final esp) but he was fantastic tonight - as were everyone else.

This. Germany have always had an aged team in the last few years, but this time around they've got fresh and young players, who built their resolve around team work. Loew has done an excellent job.

or just poach brasillian/turkish/polish/hungarian/granadian/bosnian/tunisian talent and call it your own...

This is probably just me, but with a similar haircut, a mustache and a little makeup, Low would make a great Hitler.

I was actually thinking about that, too many oriundi (what's the equivalent term in German?). but that doesn't make a difference to my statement that they're a refreshing young team, does it?

Agreed.

Tut tut, someone's bothered for Germany kicking @ss tonight.

no i just don't know what to think by duel-citizenship cases. i thinks it's a case by case thing. for instance G. rossi should play for italy, Camoranezi, however based on what i know about him owes who he is to Argentina, again, it's really a grey area when it comes to these things. For instance france, had They not historically screwed their colonies, and give out passports to any african that can kick a ball they'd have more then 4 starting true French players last game: Lloris, toulalan, Ribery, gourcoff. I just wish players can play for their heritage, not their employers...