Fifa World Cup 2010

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'll take that result. Bradley always has questionable game plans for me though. Dempsey is probably the State's top guy for breaking games open and making chances, yet they usually have him playing a support position. It is frustrating.

I would say Landon Donovan is your best player.

Decent result for both sides. England took the US defence apart a number of times (and why did it have to be Heskey that got put through on goal? Argh!), and we only conceeded a very soft goal through a keeper error. Feel for Green, he's a decent keeper. Might be seeing Joe Hart in goal next time, though.

Reckon we'll see a marked improvement when Barry comes back in for the next match. The team will have a lot more balance to it, plus we won't have the "it's-never-worked-and-it-never-will" Lampard & Gerrard midfield partnership.

Very impressed with South Korea, Argentina were lucky to get 1 - 0 in my opinion and I think better teams than Nigeria will score against them. Greece were awful and may as well leave now.

 

[Punnuendo]

I would say Landon Donovan is your best player.

I'd argue that Howard is the actual best player on the team, but yeah Donovan is probably a better overall player than Dempsey. The difference between them is Dempsey will try anything just to see if it works, and ends up creating more chances by his own hard work than Donovan does. So he'll have a lot not work, but then having some spectacular end up working and turning a game around. Either way I do like having them both on the team.

 

[Punnuendo]

Man, Ghana/Serbia has been the best game of the tournament so far. Couple of mistakes by Serbia makes what already was one of the better and more interesting groups int he tournament even more wide open. How big is the Ghana celebration party going to be?

 

[Jdvn1]

Here's a question - how many people on this thread knew that the USA beat England 1 - 0 back in the 1950's?

An upset, certainly, but by no means unheard of. Rank 3ish upset by a rank 28ish?

In 2006, during the World Cup, Czechia (10) was beaten 2-0 by Ghana (43).

2002 World Cup, France (1) lost 1-0 to Senegal (27).

So, US beating England in 1950? My response: statistical anomalies exist.

 

[Jdvn1]

I would say Landon Donovan is your best player.

Decent result for both sides. England took the US defence apart a number of times (and why did it have to be Heskey that got put through on goal? Argh!), and we only conceeded a very soft goal through a keeper error. Feel for Green, he's a decent keeper. Might be seeing Joe Hart in goal next time, though.

I'll put in another vote for Howard being the best player on the US side. In fact, I think that the US team has a better goalie than England, though England has a much stronger defense. I really expected to see Hart in there instead of Green.

 

[Phaezen]

SO, group G aka the group of death is up today, Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast and poor North Korea, I am seriously hoping this group lives up to is potential

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'd like to put in a mention for the Netherlands doing well yesterday with a 2 - 0 win over Denmark, not least of which because I've got them in an office sweepstake and stand to make about £40 if they win the World Cup.

Group of Death should be fun, today, although frankly I still expect Brazil to get through fairly easily.

 

[jaerdaph]

I have to say I was really impressed with the turnouts over the weekend for the games at the various bars and pubs in this small American city on Lake Ontario that I now find myself. Monday's turnout was mostly "lunch crowd" hours, and it looks like more of the same today. The complaints I heard, which seem to echo what a lot of "middle America" is expressing, have been 1) it's boring because it plays too slow , 2) those damn horns make it annoying to listen to, 3) blowouts are even more boring (Germany/Australia), 4) ties really SUCK!

It's also interesting to see the difference in response to Saturday's England/USA tie game and the USA's lucky goal. Let's just say the commentary from across the pond has been quite spirited, whereas here, the response of most people is still "We tied England? Oh."

I don't hold those opinions, but of the negative stuff, that's what I'm hearing.

Still, I'm glad people are watching around here.

 

[IronWolf]

1) it's boring because it plays too slow

But we'll watch golf or a bunch of cars going fast turning left!

2) those damn horns make it annoying to listen to

The horns are pretty annoying to listen to. They just drone on and on. I understand it is tradition for the region, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. I'm sort of hoping the broadcast sound mixers figure out a way to tone that down a bit for the television broadcasts.

4) ties really SUCK!

Yeah - folks really like their winners and losers!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Huh...the vuvuzelas don't bother me in the least.

(And no, I don't mute the sound on the games.)