2-1 ghana final???
2-1 ghana final???
Wow. From a neutral perspective I don't think that was the most fair result but that was pretty exhilarating. Jones or Howard for man of the match. Bradley was disappointing and I don't think Johannson is the solution up front. Lots of work to do for Klinsmann before Portugal. Despite their as\s-kicking today they are better than Ghana.
USA 2-1 Ghana. Brooks expression after scoring was priceless, pure shock. Great start for the US.
Well done USA. If only we Irish had your courage and discipline
I'm tying one on tonight. That was exhilarating
george oscar bluth wrote:
I'm tying one on tonight. That was exhilarating
Agreed. Will be really interesting to see if Portugal mails it in or fights to the death to advance.
dkny64 wrote:
Will be really interesting to see if Portugal mails it in or fights to the death to advance.
Neither. Based on post-match interviews, Portugal think they lost today mainly because of the referee and they are still favorites to advance as runner-up.
US is lucky to have the 3 points. Ghana dominated the US after that first goal by Dempsey. Ghana deserved to win, but now that the US has the 3 points they need to capitalize on it and beat Portugal. Portugal is only better on paper, but they are not playing well. I always thought they were overrated. This group is not the group of death, it's a very weak group. The US can and should get out of the group. I truly believe they are the second best team. It will be Germany and the US getting out of the group. Mark my words...
puro pinche BS wrote:
This group is not the group of death
So far, Germany and Netherlands have left the highest marks. Brazil will catch up throughout the tournament and we will see today if Belgium is in the mix, too. Anyway, Germany's number 2 seed ranking seems fair.
Portugal was ranked:
4 FIFA ranking
7 ELO ranking
12 ESPN Soccer Power Index
They looked stronger than Spain, the current world champion
The US is another top 15 team, so yes, this is the group of death.
Obviously anyone watching the game knows that we didn't look great. Could hardly keep possession for longer than 5 seconds. However, I think had we not scored the 1' goal, we would have been playing more aggressive and not looked AS bad. We will be sitting quite nicely if we can draw Portugal and Germany beats Ghana (obviously a win for us would be much better).
Also, whoever structures our warmup routine should be fired. We had at least 3 guys tweak their hamstrings (various severity) and it was probably 90 degrees out.
Wørd wrote:
dkny64 wrote:Will be really interesting to see if Portugal mails it in or fights to the death to advance.
Neither. Based on post-match interviews, Portugal think they lost today mainly because of the referee and they are still favorites to advance as runner-up.
I didn't get a chance to watch much of Germany - Portugal, but what of it I did see when the game was still 1-0 gave me the impression that Portugal was lacking intensity/focus as a team. If the Portuguese team's takeaway from the loss is "we played fine, we were robbed by the ref, we just need the calls to go our way against Ghana and the US" I don't think they're going to advance. Ghana and the US are certainly not among the very best teams in the tournament, but I think they're both good enough to do well against a Portuguese team that thinks the effort level they showed against Germany is good enough to win.
Nobody outside the US has called group G the "group of death".
Group B is the strongest group based on rankings. Group D has 3 former world champions in it. A "group of death" usually means one where a big team will be eliminated, such as one of NED/ESP/CHI or one of ENG/ITA/URU. Nobody would find it odd if neither the US nor Ghana reach the knock-out stage. And that's not to offend anyone but at a World Cup, teams from Africa or CONCACAF (or Asia) are not usually "expected" to advance.
dkny64 wrote:
I didn't get a chance to watch much of Germany - Portugal, but what of it I did see when the game was still 1-0 gave me the impression that Portugal was lacking intensity/focus as a team. If the Portuguese team's takeaway from the loss is "we played fine, we were robbed by the ref, we just need the calls to go our way against Ghana and the US" I don't think they're going to advance. Ghana and the US are certainly not among the very best teams in the tournament, but I think they're both good enough to do well against a Portuguese team that thinks the effort level they showed against Germany is good enough to win.
That's just what you always get with Portugal. They tend to think they're god's gift to football and have not yet come to terms with the fact that Figo, Deco, Rui Costa and all those guys from the "golden generation" are retired. Yes, they probably will underestimate the US and I hope they do, but I also think they now have something to prove after that disgraceful(!) performance against Germany. A narrow and hard-fought German win would have been better from a US perspective. The fact that US v Portugal will be played in Manaus just makes it harder to predict. The Americans should be in better physical shape but if they let Portugal dominate possession as much as Ghana did, that advantage will quickly be out the window.
Just looking back at Euro 2012, Portugal also started with a loss to Germany but after a more even game. In their second match against Denmark they were lucky to win it 3-2 on a late goal but they played very well and got better as the tournament progressed, beating Holland and the Czech Republic before losing the semifinal to Spain on penalties. Most of those players are still in the team. So they are not out of this by any means.
Wørd wrote:
Group B is the strongest group based on rankings. Group D has 3 former world champions in it. A "group of death" usually means one where a big team will be eliminated, such as one of NED/ESP/CHI or one of ENG/ITA/URU.
Obviously, Spain is sh*t this year and from what I have seen from Chile, there are not exactly a threat for the semi finals either.
ENG/ITA/URU looked great on paper but in reality URU was weak as sh*t and England, well, it would be no loss either if they didn't make it to the best of 16.
Soccer Guy wrote:
Obviously, Spain is sh*t this year...
I'm wouldn't be too sure of that yet. There like a wounded line now, could be very dangerous.
No respite from excitement today - Brazil v Mexico about to kick off!
I think Brazil rebounds well from their awful performance in the game that was gift-wrapped for them and win handily by 3 goals to 1.
Soccer Guy wrote:
Obviously, Spain is sh*t this year and from what I have seen from Chile, there are not exactly a threat for the semi finals either.
ENG/ITA/URU looked great on paper but in reality URU was weak as sh*t and England, well, it would be no loss either if they didn't make it to the best of 16.
This sort of analysis hardly provides proof that the USA group is a 'group of death' as we could just say Portugal are rubbish so they don't count.
What makes USA's group tougher is a lack of what you would call a 'minnow' but it's not 4 strong teams. It's one top team, one team that potentially could be strong and two reasonable teams that sometimes make it out of the groups but sometimes don't.
george oscar bluth wrote:
No respite from excitement today - Brazil v Mexico about to kick off!
I think Brazil rebounds well from their awful performance in the game that was gift-wrapped for them and win handily by 3 goals to 1.
OK, so you think Brazil can rebound from an "awful" 3-1 win over the #18 team in the world and get a "handy" 3-1 win over the #20 team in the world?
trollism wrote:
Soccer Guy wrote:Obviously, Spain is sh*t this year and from what I have seen from Chile, there are not exactly a threat for the semi finals either.
ENG/ITA/URU looked great on paper but in reality URU was weak as sh*t and England, well, it would be no loss either if they didn't make it to the best of 16.
This sort of analysis hardly provides proof that the USA group is a 'group of death' as we could just say Portugal are rubbish so they don't count.
What makes USA's group tougher is a lack of what you would call a 'minnow' but it's not 4 strong teams. It's one top team, one team that potentially could be strong and two reasonable teams that sometimes make it out of the groups but sometimes don't.
And by that rationale, since the "minnow" in Group D (Costa Rica) looks better than 3 of the teams in Group G, the Group of Death mantle goes back to D.
Wørd wrote:
george oscar bluth wrote:No respite from excitement today - Brazil v Mexico about to kick off!
I think Brazil rebounds well from their awful performance in the game that was gift-wrapped for them and win handily by 3 goals to 1.
OK, so you think Brazil can rebound from an "awful" 3-1 win over the #18 team in the world and get a "handy" 3-1 win over the #20 team in the world?
Don't be a typical LRC jackass. There is more to a game than the scoreline and any soccer fan would know that. They played awful against Croatia. The PK was one of many bad calls that saved them. So yes, I'm saying that they will beat a comparable team by the same margin and IT WILL BE A BETTER PERFORMANCE.
If you disagree that they played awful then just come out and say it.