General Soccer Thread

[thrill]

Frankly, I'm surprised River didn't buy out the refs and the Belgrano players.

[robbotis]

Talk about a choke job.
OUr best players played fine(Donovan, Dempsey).
Adu and Agudelo continue to look promising.

More importantly, TIm Howard, WTF???
2 of those should have been saved, easily. You can't, give up a weak near side goal like that. He let in two of those in the World Cup too. I haven't been impressed w/ him for the US in years. He needs to pick it up, or get the boot.

[G. Keenan]

Frankly, I'm surprised River didn't buy out the refs and the Belgrano players.

I'm sure they would have if the team president hadn't already embezzled all the team's money.

[thrill]

Alright, the tears are dry, the cuts on my knuckles scabbed over and the ulcer has subsided, so let's get to some better business.

Souleymane Coulibali is the goods:

[/youtube]


US Player buzz roundup: http://www.soccer365.com/index.php/feat ... -at-onyewu
Onyewu to Sporting Lisbon, three Ligue 1 sides have eyes for Freddy and PSG and Hamburg want some Mikey.


Most excitingly:
http://www.twitter.com/JozyAltidore17
Learning Dutch is gona be hard. Can I get the "how to" on Rosetta stone?


Edit - More.

Hope for the scourge that is Chicharito?
http://www.noshortcorners.com/2011/06/waiting-game.html
Marc Pelosi, u-17 Captain is wanted by Roma. Some other good stuff in there on Joseph Gyau being called up to the big squad for Hoffenheim and the chemistry he's shown with Ryan Babel

[thrill]

7 Mexican players just got sent home from Copa America for getting caught banging around with a bunch of hoooahhs.

[MrSaigon]

I know that we used a pick on Robbie Findley (who went to Oregon State) in the expansion draft, but I hadn't realized we had also used a pick on Jonathan Bornstein. He may have been torched against Mexico, but he is a guy that can help us a lot, and the grumblings are starting, as he isn't playing much with his Mexican club team and isn't happy with them. Findley is probably a real long shot to play with us anytime soon from what I understand, even though injuries kept him out of Nottingham's lineup a good deal.

[thrill]

Geen! What's the buzz on the ground like for Copa America? I is ridiculously excited. The Gold Cup final wore me out. I'm ready for some neutral viewing of the best the game has to offer.

Btw - for the uninitiated, Copa America is South America's continental championship like the Euro's or the Gold Cup and *arguably the second best international competition on the planet (World Cup obviously #1).

Here is a good preview: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... nd-preview

You can catch it on I believe Galavision here in the states, or here for free on the youtubes: http://www.youtube.com/copaamerica

Messi isn't the only genius to watch out for. People who follow the European leagues know all about Tevez, Robinho, DiMaria, Alexis Sanchez and Forlan, but Brazil has some absolute superstars that have yet to make the leap. So you can say you got there when they broke big and check Neymar and Ganso on Brazil (diehard US fans will remember the show they put on vs the US last September).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxJhUdz ... re=related][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2oYoVL- ... re=related][/youtube]


*It's #3. At the top (Argentina and Brazil v Spain, Holland, Germany, Italy etc) and in the middle (Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay v England, France, Portugal) it is very comparable in quality to the Euros, but at the bottom (Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia v Serbia, Romania, Turkey, Russia etc) the Euro's have more quality.

[MrSaigon]

Why are Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico in the tournament but not the U.S.? Is it geography or qualifying?

[thrill]

Why are Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico in the tournament but not the U.S.? Is it geography or qualifying?

Well Ecuador is in South America.

Costa Rica replaced Japan who cancelled after the disaster. Mexico always goes. The reason they invite non-South American teams is so they can have enough teams to fill a full field for three groups. There's just not enough South American federations. Mexico always gets invited because their country pays HUGE money for TV rights and Mexican companies buy a ton of advertising. The US wasn't invited because in 2007 when we won the Gold Cup with our A team, we sent a C squad to the Copa and apparently the South Americans were led to believe we were going to send the full Donovan/Dempsey/Gooch/Howard squad. They got mad and didn't invite us back.

[TimeForGuinness]

I never knew that you were allowed to stop your motion during a penalty kick.