The World of Football/Soccer.

[The Funk]

Sweet draw for England, and good for the US hopefully both should go through, though Eastern European teams can sometimes be hard to crack

If you guys get your confidence up with a couple of good results in the group stage you could potentially be a tricky tie in the group stages. Do you have a special player who can really make the team tick though. I'm not very up to date with world football over the past couple of years, does the US have any really top class players? Who's your 'keeper these days? Friedel's gotta be a pretty big miss, I've always rated him highly; big and imposing in a Schmeichelesque way.

It's a shame that little Rossi fellow who came through the youth ranks at Man U chose to play for Italy.

[The Funk]

Also Newcastle with a 6 game winning streak, longest in the English leagues this season apparently. I hope we don't get promoted, the Championship is much more fun!

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

Top Ten? Are you kidding? I can easily name more than ten clubs in Europe who are better.

FIFA World Rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These are the FIFA rankings...currently they list the US as 14th in the world.

In the last year or two, FIFA has had the US side ranked as high as 6th.

Like I said...no respect for the Americans.

By your logic, then, the TEN INDIVIDUAL teams would be among the top 13 teams in the world, INCLUDING all national sides?

Your logic sucks.

[Skipaway]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

FIFA World Rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These are the FIFA rankings...currently they list the US as 14th in the world.

In the last year or two, FIFA has had the US side ranked as high as 6th.

Like I said...no respect for the Americans.

By your logic, then, the TEN INDIVIDUAL teams would be among the top 13 teams in the world, INCLUDING all national sides?

Your logic sucks.

The US only really stayed in the top 10 for about 1.5 years in 2005~2006.

Also there are 10 European teams ranked higher by FIFA right now.

[Tommysixfingers]

While I don't agree that the U.S ever was a top 10-15 squad I think that we are about to see some sort of a breakthrough in a near future. Might happen in the next WC even.

With the amount of players in the U.S it is bound to happen sooner or later.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by The Funk

Sweet draw for England, and good for the US hopefully both should go through, though Eastern European teams can sometimes be hard to crack

If you guys get your confidence up with a couple of good results in the group stage you could potentially be a tricky tie in the group stages. Do you have a special player who can really make the team tick though. I'm not very up to date with world football over the past couple of years, does the US have any really top class players? Who's your 'keeper these days? Friedel's gotta be a pretty big miss, I've always rated him highly; big and imposing in a Schmeichelesque way.

It's a shame that little Rossi fellow who came through the youth ranks at Man U chose to play for Italy.

Tim Howard. He's the f'ing man.

[thehatfield]

Can't tell you how pleased I was to see Forest dropped 5 on Liecester this past weekend, Robbie Earnshaw back from injury with a hat trick. I hate to admit it but Billy Davies has them playing solid football. If we can keep this up for a couple more weeks I reckon there'll be some decent pressure to make a signing or two come January.

[ukhotstove]

Alot of talk on this thread at the start of the season was, would United miss Ronaldo well the answer so far is not really as below shows.

2008/09 with Ronaldo.

Premier League - won 9 lost 2 drawn 4 Points 31 Goals For 25 Goals Against 11
Champions League - won 2 lost 0 drawn 4 Points 10
League Cup - won 3

2009/10 without Ronaldo.

Premier League - won 11 lost 3 drawn 1 Points 34 Goals For 34 Goals Against 13
Champions League - won 4 lost 1 drawn 1 Points 13
League Cup - won 3

They are at this moment drawing against Wolfsburg so even their Champions League record would be better this year than last year.

*edit* They went on to win 3-1.

[phightin]

Originally Posted by The Funk

Sweet draw for England, and good for the US hopefully both should go through, though Eastern European teams can sometimes be hard to crack

If you guys get your confidence up with a couple of good results in the group stage you could potentially be a tricky tie in the group stages. Do you have a special player who can really make the team tick though. I'm not very up to date with world football over the past couple of years, does the US have any really top class players? Who's your 'keeper these days? Friedel's gotta be a pretty big miss, I've always rated him highly; big and imposing in a Schmeichelesque way.

It's a shame that little Rossi fellow who came through the youth ranks at Man U chose to play for Italy.

I so agree with you about Rossi. Lord knows we could use a dominate attacking player with his ability.

As far as Friedel he was absoultely brilliant both internationally and in the epl in his prime, but Howard has stepped in nicely over the years and is also one of the better keepers throughout europe currently. I don't know if I would go as far to say he was as good as friedel in his prime, but he is definetly class and more than capable back there. There won't really ever be a shortage of talented american keepers anyway so it's the least of the team's worries

As far as having that one truly special impact player with star power etc, the US still lacks in that area, however the overall talent and quality throughout the entire team is the best and probably overall most experienced it has ever been. Onyewu and DeMerit are both solid when playing well, and spector is a good young back that has proved reliable while Boca has the experience. Defensively is really not the issue as much as the offense is. Like I said before the US still lacks that quality striker as it always has but it does what it can with what it has. Bradley likes to sometimes put Altidore (who gets lost out there a lot) as the lone striker and use Donovan and Dempsey as the attacking forwards on the flanks. This has proved some horrendous results. The best the US looks is when they choose to play a standard 4-4-2 with Donovan and Dempsey as outside mids and Altidore and Davies up top. Davies who really shined for them and was looking like he had a bright future ahead of him likely suffered career ending injuries in a car accident a couple months ago, and not having him in the world cup and or over the next few years is just going to be a huge loss. In the middle the US will use Bradley as a defensive mid (who is inconsistent) and Feilhaber or Clark as the attacking center mid. I wouldn't say either Clark or Bradley is that great but if Feilhaber can solidfy a spot over the next few months that would be huge cause he really is a quality player.

Overall it's just a lot of solid players over the pitch with high level european experience. The team certainly isn't in the same class as England, Spain, Brazil, or the other powers in the tournament but as I said before if they play well they are more than capable on a given day of getting a result against one of them and are going to be taken very seriously as they should be.

[numbuh48]

[mlyons]

I'd really like to see what Jermaine Jones can do with the national team.

[The Funk]

Originally Posted by phightin

I so agree with you about Rossi. Lord knows we could use a dominate attacking player with his ability.

As far as Friedel he was absolutely brilliant both internationally and in the epl in his prime, but Howard has stepped in nicely over the years and is also one of the better keepers throughout europe currently. I don't know if I would go as far to say he was as good as friedel in his prime, but he is definetly class and more than capable back there. There won't really ever be a shortage of talented american keepers anyway so it's the least of the team's worries

As far as having that one truly special impact player with star power etc, the US still lacks in that area, however the overall talent and quality throughout the entire team is the best and probably overall most experienced it has ever been. Onyewu and DeMerit are both solid when playing well, and spector is a good young back that has proved reliable while Boca has the experience. Defensively is really not the issue as much as the offense is. Like I said before the US still lacks that quality striker as it always has but it does what it can with what it has. Bradley likes to sometimes put Altidore (who gets lost out there a lot) as the lone striker and use Donovan and Dempsey as the attacking forwards on the flanks. This has proved some horrendous results. The best the US looks is when they choose to play a standard 4-4-2 with Donovan and Dempsey as outside mids and Altidore and Davies up top. Davies who really shined for them and was looking like he had a bright future ahead of him likely suffered career ending injuries in a car accident a couple months ago, and not having him in the world cup and or over the next few years is just going to be a huge loss. In the middle the US will use Bradley as a defensive mid (who is inconsistent) and Feilhaber or Clark as the attacking center mid. I wouldn't say either Clark or Bradley is that great but if Feilhaber can solidfy a spot over the next few months that would be huge cause he really is a quality player.

Overall it's just a lot of solid players over the pitch with high level european experience. The team certainly isn't in the same class as England, Spain, Brazil, or the other powers in the tournament but as I said before if they play well they are more than capable on a given day of getting a result against one of them and are going to be taken very seriously as they should be.

Thanks! Tim Howard, of course, duh! Also, holy crap, Gooch Onyewu is at Milan! He came on loan to us for a bit a couple of years ago and didn't cut it, though being known as 'Gooch' was quite amusing. Must of got a bit better. Mind you I would be a bit concerned that he and DeMerritt don't have much top league experience. The Belgian league isn't a very strong one, and apart from 1 season in the Premiership DeMerritt's been in the Championship CB few years now. There really is a very big difference in standard between the Championship and Premiership.

[The Funk]

Bear in mind that FIFA world rankings can be quite unreliable, especially before . Because North America is a relatively weak continent it's often been quite easy for the USA and Mexico to pick up a few points in WC qualification/CONCACAF Gold Cup. Kind of an inevitable problem with different competitions and competitors over the planet. But I think the US's ranking has been a bit artificially high a lot of the time.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by The Funk

Bear in mind that FIFA world rankings can be quite unreliable, especially before . Because North America is a relatively weak continent it's often been quite easy for the USA and Mexico to pick up a few points in WC qualification/CONCACAF Gold Cup. Kind of an inevitable problem with different competitions and competitors over the planet. But I think the US's ranking has been a bit artificially high a lot of the time.

Not really, IMO. The top teams in Europe never play one another in qualifying . In CONCACAF the top teams (Mex, USA, CR, HON, JAM) always play one another in qualifying and the bi-annual Gold Cup. A couple also play in the Copa America. In Europe, apart from the Big 3 (Ger, Ita and Fra), what side has really distinguished themselves?

[mlyons]

Originally Posted by bababui

Not really, IMO. The top teams in Europe never play one another in qualifying . In CONCACAF the top teams (Mex, USA, CR, HON, JAM) always play one another in qualifying and the bi-annual Gold Cup. A couple also play in the Copa America. In Europe, apart from the Big 3 (Ger, Ita and Fra), what side has really distinguished themselves?

Ummm, Spain? Remember them? Record winning streak that only ended six months ago? European Champions a year and a half ago? Best midfield in the world? 10 wins in 10 matches in World Cup qualifying play? In fact, I think the only match they haven't won in the last two years was the Confederations Cup match against the US.

[Piggy Lid]

Champions League tonight.
Standard Liege - AZ Alkmaar.
Last minute of the game. Excitable French commentator.
Fun.
YouTube - GOLDEN GOAL Sinan Bolat STANDARD VS AZ

[ukhotstove]

Spain as mentioned above, Holland undefeated in world cup qualifying also Ireland undefeated in group play and they aren't even going to South Africa while compare that to teams who have lost upto 6 games who will be going to South Africa.

[Skipaway]

Yeah, Spain and Netherlands are among the top 3 European teams. There are also several teams that you can argue to be better than France. I don't know how bababui came up with the Germany, Italy, and France list.

[ukhotstove]

No idea about France, imo a very poor team who had two bites of the cherry at getting to South Africa and very very lucky they are there.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by mlyons

Ummm, Spain? Remember them? Record winning streak that only ended six months ago? European Champions a year and a half ago? Best midfield in the world? 10 wins in 10 matches in World Cup qualifying play? In fact, I think the only match they haven't won in the last two years was the Confederations Cup match against the US.

Originally Posted by Skipaway

Yeah, Spain and Netherlands are among the top 3 European teams. There are also several teams that you can argue to be better than France. I don't know how bababui came up with the Germany, Italy, and France list.

Neither Spain nor Holland is one of the three big Euro teams. In the last 20 years of World Cups...

Germany-1 1st, 1 2nd, 1 3rd place finish

Italy- 1 1st, 1 2nd, 1 3rd place finish

France- 1 1st, 1 2nd place finish

Spain- nada..their only top 4 finish was a 4th place result in 1950

Holland- 1 4th place finish in the last 32 years

They have been a bit more successful in the Euro Championships.


In the last 6 Euro Championships...

Germany 1 1st; 2 2nds and a runner up

Italy 1 2nd and a runnerup

France 2 1sts and a runner up

Netherlands 1 1st and 3 runner ups

Spain 1 1st and 1 2nd