General Soccer Thread

[thrill]

Good stuff on Donovan: http://deadspin.com/landon-donovan-was- ... 1580496270

[Gashouse]

Another interesting article

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/shou ... world-cup/

[BrntOrngStud]

Cristiano is such a dick. The game's over and he goes crazy by taking off his shirt by making a penalty.

Great CL final. Athletico were 6500 to 1 odds to win the Spanish league and Europe. If I bet 150 bucks on them and Ramos didn't score at the last possible minute, then Id be a millionaire...

[Freed Roger]

US v. Azerbajan. Crowd was chanting "landon donovan"..clap clap clappity clap.."landon donovan"....

[go birds]

should the score have been higher than it was? I only saw like 5 minutes of the game.

[go birds]

i cant stop laughing at this:

http://stephendgardner.kinja.com/paper- ... 8/+barryap

[thrill]

Probably time to take US talk out of the World Cup thread.

Matt Doyle's 2018 roster projection: http://www.mlssoccer.com/worldcup/2014/ ... ir-analyst
Includes fun gif's like this one:

Another newbie question...the consensus is that the future is very bright, but how bright? They were clearly far behind Belgium. Where do you think the team will be in 4 years? I think they were ranked like #15 in the world this year. Will they climb much above that? I guess if they were to be matched with a similar team to Belgium next time, would they still be the underdog, or be a lot more evenly matched? Just trying to get a feel for what "bright future" means.

The US team has always taken incremental steps and while a lot of people think there's pretty big leap forward coming in the next 4-6 years, I don't know if the top-tier depth in our prospects are there. It's like an MLB farm system with a half dozen great prospects but not a lot of depth.
IF everything breaks right, we would have talent on the level of teams like Columbia or Belgium. Elite talent, big players on big teams, but still outsiders to the Germany/Brazils of the world. That elite talent will also still be pretty young. It's much more likely that true World Cup contention happens in 2022 and beyond. That said, the 2018 team should be really fun.

[pioneer98]

IF everything breaks right, we would have talent on the level of teams like Columbia or Belgium. Elite talent, big players on big teams, but still outsiders to the Germany/Brazils of the world. That elite talent will also still be pretty young. It's much more likely that true World Cup contention happens in 2022 and beyond. That said, the 2018 team should be really fun.

Thanks!

[thrill]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soc ... in-brazil/

44. Oddly, the No. 1 story on The Post’s sports site for a spell this week was my blog item from two months ago about Arsenal’s Ethiopian-German-American teenager Gedion Zelalem nearing U.S. eligibility. (To the best of my knowledge, he got it.) Family and confidants remain mum, but with the U.S. World Cup campaign over and a new cycle starting, confirmation can’t be far away.

[lukethedrifter]

Why choose the USMNT over Germany? Better odds at making the team?