Great Time for Soccer Fans

[tomz]

Between the European championships and the Copa America, it has been a great time for soccer fans, especially if you are retired. The European games have been on in the afternoon (east coast) and the Copa America games have been on in the evening. On more than one occasion, I've watched four games.. Tonight, the US plays Argentina, who has the best player in the world, Lionel Messi. It should be entertaining.

 

[MichaelB]

Enjoyable so far, but no real outstanding matches yet. Hopefully beginning the elimination rounds the pace will pick up,

Chile just destroyed Mexico the other night, 7-0. Won't miss Argentina tonight, they're very good.

 

[mh]

Enjoyable so far, but no real outstanding matches yet. Hopefully beginning the elimination rounds the pace will pick up,

Chile just destroyed Mexico the other night, 7-0. Won't miss Argentina tonight, they're very good.

I think the copa America games have been pretty good. Better than the euro tournament where the big guys are grinding out 1-0 type wins in the early stages like always.

All the games that chile the usa and Mexico have been in have been pretty good excepting maybe the us/Colombia match. Mexico's last game was fun for the schadenfreude factor involved. It was pretty surprising how they pretty much gave up after the first half with almost the whole stadium being Mexican fans.

The big USA/Argentina game will interesting. They won't give up like mexico did against chile if they go down a goal or two but they certainly have a big mountain to climb.


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[mh]

Between the European championships and the Copa America, it has been a great time for soccer fans, especially if you are retired. The European games have been on in the afternoon (east coast) and the Copa America games have been on in the evening. On more than one occasion, I've watched four games.. Tonight, the US plays Argentina, who has the best player in the world, Lionel Messi. It should be entertaining.

Messi has a tendency to sometimes disappear for Argentina if he gets thrown out of his groove in the early stages of a game. One can only hope that happens tonite


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[target2019]

I am thinking Argentina has a very deep team and minus one player in body or spirit will not change the outcome. That's on paper.
Wondering if Klinsmann has a trick or two?

 

[tulak]

Italy vs Spain in the round of 16. That should be an interesting match.

I enjoyed the Croatia game today. They played with a lot of energy. Spain, not so much.

Now to kill a few hours before tonight's game...

 

[MichaelB]

DD took her family to see the Jamaica - Venezuela match at Soldier Field. She said the fans were polite, friendly and happy to be there, even though they had Venezuelan jerseys on but were sitting in the Jamaican section.

The kids (5 and 7) enjoy the game and love to yell at the players on the screen when they are doing "fake injury".

 

[tomz]

Messi has a tendency to sometimes disappear for Argentina if he gets thrown out of his groove in the early stages of a game. One can only hope that happens tonite

Well, he is certainly in his groove so far. That free kick was incredible. 2-0 is going to be tough to overcome.

 

[yakers]

Don't watch the games but live in Pasadena and hang out in old town after the game, always a big party, somebody wins. And in July Liverpool plays Chelsy, another opportunity for a street party.


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[audreyh1]

Who was the team in red and white check today? Or maybe it was the fans in red and white check. I may have just noticed it briefly on the screens in a restaurant when we had lunch. Was curious.

 

[Texas Proud]

One problem is that my channel package does not include Fox sports (well, Fox anything except OTA channel).... so, I could not watch COPA games until the quarter finals and then only on the local Mexican station...

Have been watching the Euro championship... a surprise to me is Iceland... I did not know they had so few people there... I could be wrong, but It think they said 7% of the country went to the games... SOOOO, I am rooting for them to keep advancing..

I was disappointed in USA today.... the defense was pretty bad... standing around hoping for an offside call way too often... and not taking into account the cutters... the score could have been much worse than it was...

 

[tulak]

Who was the team in red and white check today? Or maybe it was the fans in red and white check. I may have just noticed it briefly on the screens in a restaurant when we had lunch. Was curious.

It was probably Czech (red) vs Turkey (white).

 

[audreyh1]

It was probably Czech (red) vs Turkey (white).

The fans were wearing red and white squares, so I don't think it was for both teams.

 

[MichaelB]

That was a whooping last night. The U.S. was outplayed from the start.

 

[Big_Hitter]

That was a whooping last night. The U.S. was outplayed from the start.

we need to stick to real football

 

[MichaelB]

we need to stick to real football

That's what we're doing in this thread.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I think we are so far behind the rest of the world we'll never really be competitive...well at least not in the next 20 years


We would destroy any international team that put pads on...just sayin

 

[tulak]

The fans were wearing red and white squares, so I don't think it was for both teams.

Got it. It's Croatia. I had to search on Google. Here's a site with jersey images: http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/6/5/5777778/world-cup-2014-kits-jerseys-best-worst-photos

Interestingly enough, if you search for "soccer fans red white squares," this thread is the first hit. I had to modify the query to "checkered jersey." Amazing how quickly Google indexes websites.

 

[MichaelB]

I think we are so far behind the rest of the world we'll never really be competitive...well at least not in the next 20 years

The US men's soccer team may not be among the world's half-dozen elite, but it is competitive and would do fairly well in the Euro competition underway. What we saw last night was not so much that the US played poorly, more like Argentina showed why it is among the best in the world. No shame in that loss, painful as it was.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I don't think any team could have outplayed Argentina last night. What a great game to watch.

 

[audreyh1]

Got it. It's Croatia. I had to search on Google. Here's a site with jersey images: All 32 World Cup kits ranked from best to worst - SBNation.com

Interestingly enough, if you search for "soccer fans red white squares," this thread is the first hit. I had to modify the query to "checkered jersey." Amazing how quickly Google indexes websites.

Yay - thanks for figuring that out for me! I was seeing the blue top too. Now that makes sense!

Interesting about the Google indexing!

 

[Texas Proud]

I will agree that US played very poorly... not even up to their standards... but remember that Argentina is ranked #1 right now...


I do think part of the problem is the coach... but, the powers that be think he is the savior and will not budge no matter what happens on the field....

I wish they would not have made it to the semis... that seems to show they are better than they really are... remember, they did not qualify for the Olympics...

 

[mh]

That's what we're doing in this thread.

+1

I don't understand the "soccer is irrelevant" drive-by comments in soccer threads.
By non soccer fans.

You don't see that kind of thing in NFL threads.


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[mh]

I will agree that US played very poorly... not even up to their standards... but remember that Argentina is ranked #1 right now...


I do think part of the problem is the coach... but, the powers that be think he is the savior and will not budge no matter what happens on the field....

I wish they would not have made it to the semis... that seems to show they are better than they really are... remember, they did not qualify for the Olympics...

It's good that they played Argentina and had their mike Tyson-esque

"everybody has a plan till they get punched in the face " moment

They basically had two ways to go at the game
1) go at them full bore and hope the goal keeper and center backs have Lady Luck with them and bail you out through the game and score a goal or two

2) do the Italian "park the bus" and hope you can nick a goal on a set piece or infrequent counter attack

It looks like the plan was supposed to be (1) but they got punched in the face after 3 minutes and then ended up doing neither one or two. As a result they got beaten soundly by arguably the best team in the world at the moment

They also had 3 of their starters out due to yellow cards etc.. Which hindered them badly

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[tulak]

The US was outplayed by Argentina. I don't think that's a big shocker. They played an ok game, but really didn't have a chance. After the first goal 3 minutes into the game, they could have fallen apart, but they didn't.

I think it's amazing they made it this far. They made it to the semi-finals and get a chance to play for 3rd place. Pretty good, IMO.