The World of Football/Soccer.

[jaxmagicman]

Ex-Hawk Childress signs with Greek club team - NBA - ESPN

[stevebydac]

USA Soccer sucks!!!!!

...err, wait a minute...

[bababui]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...y-1715310.html

The worst transfer deals in Premier League history - News & Comment, Football - The Independent

The best transfer deals in Premier League history - News & Comment, Football - The Independent

[phightin]

Originally Posted by stevebydac

USA Soccer sucks!!!!!

...err, wait a minute...

I'll give credit to them on this. But to put things in perspective they finally FINALLY did what they had to do right tactically. Hands down this is the line-up we need to see for the rest of the year, except with feilhaber starting, and into the WC unless someone else comes along who is deserving.

1. Bradley finally ditched his idiotic systems and used a traditional 4-4-2 something that is almost always better to use when playing a better side and with less talented overall players. keep it simple

2. He took Donovan out of the front and put him at outside mid, where he belongs. Landon simply doesn't have the technical ability to make up for his lack of physical ability to play forward at the higher level, and is more naturally an outside mid anyway imo. keep him and clint there and let davies and altidore stay up top.

3. Keep THE DEFENSE AS IS. This has to be our defense the rest of the way hands down.

Some things I would like to see change

1. Feilhaber has to start. He's our best overall player imo and brings so much to the middle of the field with his vision and technical ability. He should start over Bradley or Clark, he's a lot better than both.

2. USSF and Bradley need to start complaining to FIFA and standing up for themselves because the red cards have been appauling. Bradley's card today wasn't a red let alone a yellow, and there needs to be some serious probing of why this is happening. It's obvious to me that there is a whole lot of anti-us setiment over in europe based on america etc, but it shouldnt be held against our players on the pitch. The US IMO is being targeted by referees or fifa as a whole because they dislike the country or our goverment at the very least, and it needs to stop.

3. Can we find someone better than Conor Casey to bring on in the closing minutes? Whenever I see him coming on it looks like an overweight us fan.

[ukhotstove]

I think the anti USA by Europe or FIFA is a mute point imo, the US have had 3 players sent off and 2 of those have been by non European refs so the anti US doesn't work on that line. Also didn't FIFA give you a World Cup not too long ago and even giving you a possible World Cup in the future so can't see where the anti US thing is coming from.

[ukhotstove]

Try being an England fan were your under constant threat from UEFA and FIFA that your teams will be banned from International competition even though fans have been murdered in other countries during gamedays of football, or how about top officials pretty much coming out and stating they hate English football and everything about it, or how about the fact you haven't held a World Cup in over 30 years yet countries like Gemany and Mexico have held 2 in that time then come and talk to me about refs and FIFA being against you.

[ukhotstove]

I think on a whole ref's are poorer than they have ever been, even English ref's who I rate as the best are few and far between. Also imo a couple of things have helped the downfall of referee quality, 1 would be the advent of wall to wall tv coverage were every decision by the ref is replayed time and time again in slow mo super slo mo and different angle's, a ref as one chance to view that incident that happens 100 miles an hour. Another one is the constant pressure they are under from players, fans and tv and this comes also down to the ammount of money involved in football.

Another thing you have to take into consideration is that in International competition is they use refs from all over the world and sorry to say that refs from the lesser countries are not up to scratch be it technical or nerve wise to make decisions in front of 80,000 fans screaming for blood or the top players getting into their face to get somebody sent off. The players also don't help the ref with constant moaning and diving (cheating), an example of that being Landon Donovan last night who got Pique yellow carded for a blatant dive in the last minutes of the game.

[mlyons]

Originally Posted by phightin

I'll give credit to them on this. But to put things in perspective they finally FINALLY did what they had to do right tactically. Hands down this is the line-up we need to see for the rest of the year, except with feilhaber starting, and into the WC unless someone else comes along who is deserving.

If Jermaine Jones does indeed play for the US national team (which would make up a bit for Rossi playing for Italy, since it's the same basic situation), he should automatically become the first choice at central midfield. He's an established, solid, box-to-box midfielder who's been playing regularly for one of the better clubs in Europe (with a bit of Champions League experience tossed in for good measure). Bradley and Feilhaber can rotate for the other spot, and hopefully Clark and Kljestan will stay at home.

[mlyons]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

Another thing you have to take into consideration is that in International competition is they use refs from all over the world and sorry to say that refs from the lesser countries are not up to scratch be it technical or nerve wise to make decisions in front of 80,000 fans screaming for blood or the top players getting into their face to get somebody sent off.

It's not like refs from the "greater" countries are any better at that. When was the last time you saw an English ref making a major decision against Manchester United at Old Trafford?

[bababui]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

I think on a whole ref's are poorer than they have ever been, even English ref's who I rate as the best are few and far between. Also imo a couple of things have helped the downfall of referee quality, 1 would be the advent of wall to wall tv coverage were every decision by the ref is replayed time and time again in slow mo super slo mo and different angle's, a ref as one chance to view that incident that happens 100 miles an hour. Another one is the constant pressure they are under from players, fans and tv and this comes also down to the ammount of money involved in football.

Another thing you have to take into consideration is that in International competition is they use refs from all over the world and sorry to say that refs from the lesser countries are not up to scratch be it technical or nerve wise to make decisions in front of 80,000 fans screaming for blood or the top players getting into their face to get somebody sent off. The players also don't help the ref with constant moaning and diving (cheating), an example of that being Landon Donovan last night who got Pique yellow carded for a blatant dive in the last minutes of the game.

I do give the English refs credit for being more generous. They allow players three yellows before bringing out the red.

[ukhotstove]

Originally Posted by mlyons

It's not like refs from the "greater" countries are any better at that. When was the last time you saw an English ref making a major decision against Manchester United at Old Trafford?

If you read what I had wrote I stated that indeed good English refs are few and far between these days.

[bababui]

Given the speed of the modern game perhaps its time to put a ref on each half of the pitch.

[ukhotstove]

Originally Posted by bababui

Given the speed of the modern game perhaps its time to put a ref on each half of the pitch.

I think the major problem that's been creeping into the game for awhile now is cheating and intimidation by players, it's time they used rules from rugby where only the captain can talk to the referee and if any other player says things out of line to the ref then the ball is moved further up the pitch so if a player gives away a free kick then argues with the ref the ball is moved 10 meters. They could also bring in a sin bin or a penalty box like in hockey, I also think it's about time they looked at video evidence that if players dive then they should face a ban.

[mlyons]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

If you read what I had wrote I stated that indeed good English refs are few and far between these days.

I did read that. Which is why your indictment of refs from "lesser" countries makes so little sense.

[bababui]

Getting offside calls right is also another problem. A quick video review couldnt hurt. Not bad suggestions though.

[ukhotstove]

Originally Posted by mlyons

I did read that. Which is why your indictment of refs from "lesser" countries makes so little sense.

I said English refs are the best and even those are few and far between, refs from countries like Sri Lanka as an example just aren't up to scratch it would be like saying somebody who refs in the English non leagues should be able to ref top matches.

Let me ask you a question do you think an official from a college baseball game who is used to games attended by say 5,000 fans could handle the pressure of a World Series game attended by around 50,000 with cameras from all around the globe, personally I think he'd need a change of boxers every inning.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

I said English refs are the best and even those are few and far between, refs from countries like Sri Lanka as an example just aren't up to scratch it would be like saying somebody who refs in the English non leagues should be able to ref top matches.

Let me ask you a question do you think an official from a college baseball game who is used to games attended by say 5,000 fans could handle the pressure of a World Series game attended by around 50,000 with cameras from all around the globe, personally I think he'd need a change of boxers every inning.

It really comes down to the personality of the person (player or ref) when it comes to handling the pressure. Sure, it would be preferable to use people with lots of big match experience. But then the pool of refs would shrink considerably. Perhaps its time for FIFA to force the domestic leagues to use a few foreign refs.

[ukhotstove]

Originally Posted by bababui

It really comes down to the personality of the person (player or ref) when it comes to handling the pressure. Sure, it would be preferable to use people with lots of big match experience. But then the pool of refs would shrink considerably. Perhaps its time for FIFA to force the domestic leagues to use a few foreign refs.

I think something as to be done, I think it's unfair to a ref who is used to being in charge of a game with say 2,000 people attending or even less then suddenly putting him in charge of a game attended by 50,000 and millions upon millions watching on tv.

[rudel.dietrich]

Both of the US's red cards were deserved. If you tackle late in international football then you get a card. And it is usualy red.
And considering the amount of time the US was pinned in it's own half it is fortunate they did not collect more cards.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Both of the US's red cards were deserved. If you tackle late in international football then you get a card. And it is usualy red.
And considering the amount of time the US was pinned in it's own half it is fortunate they did not collect more cards.

You can pin them all you want...they got the result. USA USA USA!