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***Official Soccer Discussion Thread*** (2 Viewers)

Re: Serbia/Croatia, I read a soccer non-fic book not too long ago that talked in-depth about the strange connection between political powers and soccer players/teams/supporters during the whole Yugoslavian crisis. It was a very fascinating read. I can't recall which book it was...I can try to find it if anyone is interested.

 
'Steve Tasker said:
Re: Serbia/Croatia, I read a soccer non-fic book not too long ago that talked in-depth about the strange connection between political powers and soccer players/teams/supporters during the whole Yugoslavian crisis. It was a very fascinating read. I can't recall which book it was...I can try to find it if anyone is interested.
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This game is on ESPN Deportes FYI
 
'Slapdash said:
'NewlyRetired said:
'Slapdash said:
'NewlyRetired said:
Fun start to the day.New Zealand wins their region deep into injury time and Portugal rescue a point in Israel deep into injury time when a strange goal was scored (still not sure if it was an own goal or not), when Israel could not clear a ball off the line.Russia leads group by 4 points and has 1 game in hand. Russia plays Northern Ireland later today. If Russia gets 3 points there today they are sitting pretty to win group.Portugal is in 3rd now in the group as Israel are in second.
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I'm sure Portugal will sneak in some how, just like last time. Hope not though.
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I agree. Israel's second place flatters them imo. They have played more home games than away games and they still have to go to both Russia and Portugal. Russia already pounded them 4-0 in Israel.If Russia win today, I don't see anyone catching them for first as they will have an easy second half as they have not yet played Luxembourg which should be 6 easy points. Portugal really need Northern Ireland to get points today.
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Does Europe still do the 8 groups where the second place teams are matched up in a home and home?
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9 groups, top 8 second place teams make the playoffs. Games against 6th place team in group do not count towards ranking of second place teams.Top 8 second place team do the home and home dance
 
'jonessed said:
'Steve Tasker said:
Re: Serbia/Croatia, I read a soccer non-fic book not too long ago that talked in-depth about the strange connection between political powers and soccer players/teams/supporters during the whole Yugoslavian crisis. It was a very fascinating read. I can't recall which book it was...I can try to find it if anyone is interested.
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How Soccer Explains the WorldThat's where I read about it.
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Football Against the Enemy is sort of in the same vein.
 
'Sinn Fein said:
'wdcrob said:
'CletiusMaximus said:
Wisconsin strength and conditioning coach Brian Bott just tweeted a picture of himself and London Donovan hanging out in Madison today - at an indoor athletic facility and LD wearing a Wisconsin Soccer t-shirt and shorts.
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Where's Lando
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:hey: Here I am!
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Did you get a chance to read the NY Times article I linked? I was curious if you still feel Klinsmann not kissing his butt is the reason he is not playing.
 
'jonessed said:
'Steve Tasker said:
Re: Serbia/Croatia, I read a soccer non-fic book not too long ago that talked in-depth about the strange connection between political powers and soccer players/teams/supporters during the whole Yugoslavian crisis. It was a very fascinating read. I can't recall which book it was...I can try to find it if anyone is interested.
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How Soccer Explains the WorldThat's where I read about it.
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That's the one. I thought that was it, but wasn't sure if it was in one of the other books I have. Good read IMO.
 
Not sure if it's going to happen - forecast is calling for clouds and snow - but right now the sun is out and it's a pleasant 50 degrees in Denver

 
Big 3 points for Iceland on the road as Sigurdsson had a brace in the second to half to lead the team to a 2-1 win at Slovenia.

That puts Iceland in second now, awaiting the result of the Norway-Albania game which is level at half time.

 
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The Andorran Turkey game is being played in a stadium which holds 1250 people. It is ultra tiny. Just a small stand on one side of the field from what I can tell.

 
I will probably watch the Spain - Finland ESPN2 game until the Honduras Mexico game starts at 5:00pm. I am very interested in that Hon-Mex game for numerous reasons.

 
:lmao: :lmao:

FutMex chief denies obscene gesture

March 22, 2013

FutMex Federation president Justino Compean denied Friday that he made an obscene gesture to fans upon his arrival in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Thursday ahead of Mexico's 2014 CONCACAF World Cup qualifier vs. Honduras on Friday.

ESPN DeportesFutMex president Justino Compean gestures at Honduras fans from his vehicle upon his arrival in San Pedro Sula Thursday.

"I have an injured finger. It (the gesture) was misinterpreted," Compean said.

Mexico national team coach Jose Manuel "Chepo" de la Torre said he was not interested in discussing whether or not Compean gave the middle finger to Honduras fans or not.

"I have not seen the image and I am not interested in seeing it," he said. "You are talking about things that have nothing to do with football. Ask Justino. I have come here to talk about a match on Friday."
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Nice interview with Michael Bradley

I really like Deuce, but i was a little surprised Bradley did not get the arm band. I think he will eventually wear it.

DENVER -- Michael Bradley is locked and loaded. On a typical day, the U.S. international midfielder appears to have the simmering intensity of Jean-Luc Picard, Yul Brynner, and Jason Statham compressed into a single human being. The 25-year-old is a man around whom you choose your words with care.

Yet this is no typical day. After February's false start to the Hex against Honduras, the U.S. men's national team is poised to square up to Costa Rica on Friday (watch on ESPN, 10 p.m. ET and on WatchESPN here) and Mexico on Tuesday with an inexperienced squad, weakened by a glut of injuries to seven regulars. If that challenge seemed insufficient, preparations have been rocked by an incendiary investigation by The Sporting News' Brian Straus that depicted a divided national team undermined by problems of communication and chemistry. The story has dominated the narrative in the run-up to the game, and the night before I interview Bradley, he had lambasted the anonymous locker room whistleblowers, suggesting they were "shameful" and "embarrassing."

We meet in a hotel coffee shop packed with boisterous guests watching Bucknell tussle with Butler in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Despite the bonhomie of our surroundings, Bradley's demeanor suggests he is still smoldering. It takes a courageous player to step up and talk at such a turbulent time when most would shy away. Yet Bradley does not hide behind soundbites or platitudes. Though quietly spoken, his words carry a slow ferocity, as if each was forged in an incandescent foundry burning deep inside of him.

I begin by asking Bradley to describe his state of mind. If I were a betting man, I would have predicted "angry" or "irritated," yet Bradley leans forward, pauses to make eye contact and surprises me. "Excited," he says, in the most serious tone I have ever heard anyone employ to express that word. "After the result and performance in Honduras, we are excited to get everyone together and train and know that we have a chance to play a big game before a big crowd. A chance to put this right."

Thinking Bradley is attempting to sidestep the allegations in Straus' article, I begin to ask whether the increased scrutiny was now business as usual for the USMNT, but before I could finish the question, Bradley silenced me with an outstretched arm. "I have to stop you there," he says in a way that is less combative, more a hint at the sense of moral obligation he feels around the issue. "Pressure from the outside -- from the media –- that is business as usual in other countries and it is good to have that here as football's profile rises."

He puffs out both cheeks, then proceeds to enunciate each word slowly to underline the exacting care with which he has chosen them. "Something like this ... where a group of guys speak in an anonymous way ... that is not business as usual anywhere."

I ask what damage the allegations have done to the squad, but Bradley dismisses the question. "The time for talking is over," he says. "It is time to step up -- not through talking and interviews -- but through our play and by giving a performance everyone can be proud of."

What about the 2009 Confederations Cup, when swirling doubt was descending upon the U.S. team? Bradley remembers it well. Upon reaching the semifinal, the pugnacious midfielder had been sufficiently stung to emote in an infamous interview: "All the [expletive] experts in America, everybody who thinks they know everything about soccer, they can all look at the score tonight, and let's see what they have to say now."

In the present-day setting of the hotel coffee shop, Bradley takes a minute to consider the parallel between then and now before rejecting it. "No two situations are the same," he says. "As a football player you learn to deal with things that come from outside the squad that try and disrupt the things you do but ... "

With his sentence tailing off, he grimaces sharply, then drifts off for a second, before snapping back with a stream of action-oriented, staccato sentences. "We will handle this man-to-man now. That is what is important. What's done is done," he says. "We have no time to dwell on what has gone on. We have a game to play … a big game to play."

I read out a list of challenges the U.S. squad will face in the next five days -- Costa Rica, Mexico, the Azteca, continued fallout from "the article," the inexperience of the squad, the makeshift backline, the injury list -- and ask Bradley to rank them.

The U.S. international smiles for the first time. A smile that possibly suggests I am stupid for having asked the question.

"Our No. 1 challenge is Costa Rica," he says. "History shows they have been a very dangerous opponent for us and it is very hard to say how they will play."

Referring to the threat of Real Salt Lake star Alvaro Saborio and Fulham's Bryan Ruiz, he says, "Their strengths are playing forward, so it is not clear to us how they will set up on the road, but this game is all about us. Our chance to show that we can get our mentality right and play with aggression, mobility and athleticism from the first whistle.

Bradley evidences little concern about the number of absent U.S. starters. "Every national team deals with injuries," he says. "The challenge of international football is to find the right mindset to overcome them, which has been one of the strengths of our team. When guys are missing, others step through to make the most of the opportunity."

He spreads his arms slightly to make sure I understand his point. "To win big games we simply need as many guys as possible to have big games. Injuries, articles, who's here, who's not … at 8 o'clock tomorrow none of that counts," he says, veins bulging.

The confidence of those comments reminds me of similar ones the player made at the news conference ahead of the lackluster 2-1 defeat in Honduras. I ask him to describe how an international loss like the one against Honduras feels to him. Bradley puffs his cheeks out as if the question itself has winded him. "Nobody likes to lose, but having been up 1-0 and still losing when you want to start the qualifying process well just makes me feel more frustrated ... angrier ... afterwards," he says, holding his room key card in his right hand as he slices it through the air repeatedly. "It really haunts me. At different times I find myself replaying moments of the match back in my head, which only makes the days until the next game go so much slower, but that frustration and anger does not go away."

As his knuckles whiten when he grips the key card, I read comments Kasey Keller recently made during an interview about the traditional power of the U.S. team lying in its collective spirit, and ask Bradley to sum up the state of the current team's chemistry. "Kasey refers to ‘collective spirit,' I use mentality, commitment, determination ... and balls," Bradley says, with a stabbing finger punctuating every word. "That is what our team has to be about."
 
'NewlyRetired said:
:lmao: :lmao:

FutMex chief denies obscene gesture

March 22, 2013

FutMex Federation president Justino Compean denied Friday that he made an obscene gesture to fans upon his arrival in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Thursday ahead of Mexico's 2014 CONCACAF World Cup qualifier vs. Honduras on Friday.

ESPN DeportesFutMex president Justino Compean gestures at Honduras fans from his vehicle upon his arrival in San Pedro Sula Thursday.

"I have an injured finger. It (the gesture) was misinterpreted," Compean said.

Mexico national team coach Jose Manuel "Chepo" de la Torre said he was not interested in discussing whether or not Compean gave the middle finger to Honduras fans or not.

"I have not seen the image and I am not interested in seeing it," he said. "You are talking about things that have nothing to do with football. Ask Justino. I have come here to talk about a match on Friday."
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I love Mexican alibis. Right up there with "contaminated meat."
 
Here is what I think JK was thinking with Deuce. Bradley is already a leader. I imagine everyone is pretty much already terrified of him. I'm terrified of him and I've never met him and probably have 70 pounds on him.

Deuce is a guy who kind of does his own thing. This was an attempt to get Deuce to step up and become another leader. Which isn't a terrible idea so long as you're willing to pull the plug if it doesn't work. Bradley's still only 25.

 
'NewlyRetired said:
Did you get a chance to read the NY Times article I linked? I was curious if you still feel Klinsmann not kissing his butt is the reason he is not playing.
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I did read it - and I empathize with the burnout. But I still think something happened between LD and Klinsmann that has kept him away from the USMNT since Klinsmann took over.I suspect that Klinsmann's approach is to treat all players equally - and I understand that approach, but I prefer to think that great managers understand that not everyone is the same - and you need to treat different people differently to get maximum contributions.
 
MLS reject Hamdi Salihi scores for Albania in their 1-0 road win in Norway.

That puts them now in second, tied on everything (GD, goals for and goals against) with Iceland, and Norway drops a huge 3 points at home and falls to 4th.

 
'Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Here is what I think JK was thinking with Deuce. Bradley is already a leader. I imagine everyone is pretty much already terrified of him. I'm terrified of him and I've never met him and probably have 70 pounds on him. Deuce is a guy who kind of does his own thing. This was an attempt to get Deuce to step up and become another leader. Which isn't a terrible idea so long as you're willing to pull the plug if it doesn't work. Bradley's still only 25.
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:goodposting: It reminds me a little bit of when they gave Beckham the armband in England to try and settle him down and get him to lead.
 
'Sinn Fein said:
'NewlyRetired said:
Did you get a chance to read the NY Times article I linked? I was curious if you still feel Klinsmann not kissing his butt is the reason he is not playing.
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I did read it - and I empathize with the burnout. But I still think something happened between LD and Klinsmann that has kept him away from the USMNT since Klinsmann took over.
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FWIW, he has played under Klinsmann for the Nats. But who knows, perhaps as you said his relationship with Klinsmann contributed to what ever is going on in his head. I have just never heard that mentioned even once in the press (and they have come up with a lot of different reasons why he is on walkabout).In the end I think Arena has it the most correct. Landon is searching for a Utopia that almost everyone else realizes does not exist, which is kind of sad when you think he appears to be leading the life that many would dream of.
 
'NewlyRetired said:
####. Still more than 6 hours before game time. :popcorn:
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Yeah I kind of wish it was at like 7 central or something. I'm going to be way too drunk by the time this gets started.
 
Belgium lineup-

Courtois, Van Buyten, Vertonghen, Vermaelen, Alderweireld, Witsel, Hazard, De Bruyne, Fellaini, Benteke, Dembele.

wow

 
'Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Here is what I think JK was thinking with Deuce. Bradley is already a leader. I imagine everyone is pretty much already terrified of him. I'm terrified of him and I've never met him and probably have 70 pounds on him. Deuce is a guy who kind of does his own thing. This was an attempt to get Deuce to step up and become another leader. Which isn't a terrible idea so long as you're willing to pull the plug if it doesn't work. Bradley's still only 25.
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Plus Dempsey isn't going to play the whole game so he can hand it over to Bradley when he walks off.
 
'Premier said:
Who does me, the casual US fan, want to win this Mexico-Honduras game?
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I say Mexico if you have to pick a side but others may disagree. I'm more worried about competing with Honduras et al for 2/3/4 than Mexico for 1. Draw would probably be the best result.
 
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