General Soccer Thread

[Myles]

YO I THOUGHT WE LOST OUR EDGE
I THOUGHT THE WORLD HAD CAUGHT UP AND WE'D NEVER DOMINATE AGAIN
I THOUGHT JILL ELLIS SUCKED


WHAAA HAPENNNN?

Yes that will show all those GRB uswnt haters.

That was whacky and great.

Hey, I just saw a lesbian kiss!

Unfortunately they didn't look like the lesbians many men would like to see kiss.

Did you see the trophy? What the heck? It was smaller than a bowling trophy.

[MrSaigon]

Wambach reached up into the stands and kissed her girlfriend? wife? It was a cool moment given recent social developments.

I was sort of hoping she would have a chance to come in and be the hero. But that was shot by the 5th minute. It's cool how many people were watching.

Women's soccer is a good sport. Morgan and Heath play here in Portland, but I just can't justify going to more soccer games with Timbers season tickets already. Maybe I should make a trade and go see a game. Portland calls themselves Soccer City USA, these numbers (and pre-MLS ones as well) make a pretty good case (suck it, Seattle):

[thrill]

Portland calls themselves Soccer City USA, these numbers (and pre-MLS ones as well) make a pretty good case (suck it, Seattle)

That average attendance for Seattle is a sellout at Starfire. I'm not saying they'd get Thorns numbers, Portland has been incredible for the women's game, but it'd be significantly higher if they played with the capacity of Providence Park. The problem for the Reign is that there's no stadium for them in between Century Link and Starfire.

[Fat Strat]

I'm curious on the backstory of that goal. clearly it was a shot on goal. Sun and scouting report on the goalie creeping out too far? Goalie slipped some. But you just don't see players attempting half-field shots too often.

Definitely caught the goalie out too far. From what I remember, Lloyd stole the ball just around midfield and must have noticed the goalie was too far out and gave it a boot. The goalie back pedaled instead of turning around and running and couldn't catch up to it....dove and tipped it, but not quite enough and it hit off the post and in.

I used to do that in middle school all the time.

In middle school.

That's a goalie mistake that's normally cleared up in middle school. Pretty cool, though, to see it in a WC final. Reminded me a lot of when Michael Bradley scored on an unassisted corner . I used to do that on the freshman JV team. You don't see either of those goals very often at high levels.

[Fat Strat]

BTW, with all the soccer love that's going around right now, don't forget that the USMNT starts play in the Gold Cup Tuesday. If you like to see Americans whip up all patriotic-like on other nations, this is another chance.

It's easily the most exciting USMNT in a long time. Altidore and Dempsey are practically secondary players now. Should be a lot of fun to watch.

[Schlich]

BTW, with all the soccer love that's going around right now, don't forget that the USMNT starts play in the Gold Cup Tuesday. If you like to see Americans whip up all patriotic-like on other nations, this is another chance.

It's easily the most exciting USMNT in a long time. Altidore and Dempsey are practically secondary players now. Should be a lot of fun to watch.

who's going to be our biggest challenger in this tournament?

[thrill]

who's going to be our biggest challenger in this tournament?

USA

Mexico


Costa Rica
Panama

I'm with Fat. I think we're gonna steam roll some chumps. Jurgen finally settled into a system, everyone is healthy and Michael Bradley is going to [expletive] dudes up Carli Lloyd style.

[Fat Strat]

who's going to be our biggest challenger in this tournament?

USA

Mexico


Costa Rica
Panama

I'm with Fat. I think we're gonna steam roll some chumps. Jurgen finally settled into a system, everyone is healthy and Michael Bradley is going to [expletive] dudes up Carli Lloyd style.

I've loved Bradley for a long time, but I really didn't think that we would see Bradley actually improve much over what we've seen the last 2-3 years. IMO, he really has. With all due respect to Landon Donovan and Tim Howard (goalkeepers don't count), Bradley is right now the best American soccer player I've seen. It's not all about goal scoring, because he doesn't do that very well. But, I can't think of anyone who created more goal scoring opportunities when he was on the pitch than Bradley.

This squad is not the most disciplined. It's not the most organized. It's not the most efficient. But, it is the most athletic, most explosive, fastest, and most exciting team that I can remember. It also has the most potential. We know what to expect from guys like Bradley, Dempsey, Altidore, etc. Our potential lies in the performances of guys like Diskerud, Bedoya, Yedlin, Fabian Johnson... guys that, by my eyes, have looked like high caliber players for the Men's team. Bedoya and Diskerud in particular. I think fans are starting to expect great things from Yedlin and Fabian, but Mix and Bedoya running the midfield with Bradley has been an absolute pleasure to watch lately. (How much credit goes to Bradley for that? He's probably the one making our othe midfielders look so good...)

[Fat Strat]

Ugly, but a win.

[Hoot45]

Altidore and Dempsey are practically secondary players now. Should be a lot of fun to watch.

I think Clint would disagree with your assessment of him being a secondary player now...