2806
10

World Cup – That was it? Seriously?

Posted by under *dislike, Sports |

The World Cup is a cool idea. It’s like the World Baseball Classic, but with motivated American players. However, after seeing this U.S. team play four games all of which were tied at the 90 minute mark, I have to say I’m not impressed. You people who were so thrilled by the U.S. performance need to explain it to me because I just don’t get it. Fifty percent of their games ended with NO winner. Do you know the only way that happens in baseball? If the game is cancelled due to rain (or snow… stupid Colorado). Those games are later made up… and someone WINS. Because that’s what is supposed to happen at the end of a competitive sporting event.

This all reminds me of watching five-year-old kids play a sport in which no one keeps score. Everyone wins. Everyone gets a trophy. Aw Yeah Soccer!

And the U.S. lost to Ghana? Really? Ghana? To put the magnitude of that failure into perspective, Ghana has won 4 Olympic Medals in their entire history. Four. Three of them were for boxing. Do you know how many GOLD medals the U.S. team won in the 2010 Winter Olympics alone? Nine. So Ghana’s total medal count for the country’s entire existence is less than half of the U.S. team’s Gold Medal count this year alone.

Ghana is a true sporting Mecca. Ghana. That’s who knocked this U.S. team that you fell so hard for out of the tournament. Come on now.

They said they were “Ghana Spank the Yanks” and that’s exactly what they did.

There was no grand accomplishment in this World Cup for the U.S. team. None. What would it have been? Failing to lose to Britain?

Now American fans can go back to complaining about how they were cheated by some referee whose career has probably been ruined. Because that’s the true legacy of this team.

The rest of us will go back to watching baseball or waiting for real football to start up…

I already cannot wait to see the disappointment this team will dish out come the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

  • Ryan said,

    Expect a rebuttal.

  • Joe B said,

    Yes, it sucks the US lost. For me though, I love soccer and I will no matter what. I grew up playing the sport, and it recent years have had a renewed interest with the World Cup, Chelsea FC, and my hometown Philadelphia Union of the MLS.

    Soccer along with hockey and COLLEGE basketball are they only sports that can truly get me consistently excited and jumping out of my seat. I love baseball, but more often than not it bores the hell out of me unless I am at a game watching it. The NFL? They lost me. The players are a bunch of useless whiners and it just feels flat. The Super Bowl is hardly ever exciting either. The best game in the NFL is the first of the season and it’s crap after that.

    Soccer has it’s problems, NO REPLAY, but I still love the game. No sport unites and energizes countries in a such a way that all of sudden the problems of the world don’t seem to matter. Also, you can’t deny it’s growth in America. The MLS is expanding every year and drawing in rabid fan bases along with really talented players. Let’s also not forget that the MLS has outsold the NBA and NHL in tickets this season. That’s pretty impressive for a sport that apparently America doesn’t care about.

    You have every right to be upset at America’s loss, but you were just into it because it was America and that makes me question how much you really gave a shit. I definitely think that soccer has found a lot of new fans in America because of this. Unfortunately it appears you were not one of them. You either get it and love it, or you just don’t.

  • mandy said,

    this is the real football.

  • LydonWrites said,

    I can haz vuvuzela?

  • Brendan said,

    “The people always love victories.”
    “Why? They didn’t see the battles. What do they care about Germania?”
    “They care about the greatness of Rome.”
    “The greatness of Rome. Well, what is that?”
    “It’s an idea–greatness. Greatness is a vision.”

    I feel as though Gladiator can explain any situation. During the World Cup I was compelled to watch. I only watch soccer when it is at the National level. If USA plays anyone I watch otherwise soccer is nonexistent to me. Regardless of whether you like soccer, credit must be given to the World Cup because despite the bad refs and poor play by the USA I was enthralled throughout each game. BUT WHY? because I and most others care about the Greatness of the USA. After the lose we are all disappointed and most of us will say “well, back to real sports” because we lost. I feel like If we had gone further into the Cup soccer might have gained some popularity but we don’t like losers. It is similar to when USA Hockey was in the championship against Canada in the Olympics. People weren’t watching because they necessarily like hockey but because we love America. People care about the Greatness of America… and we expect to be the best at everything… Unfortunately in a country of 300 million we still can’t find people who can run really fast, pass really well, and kick the shit out of soccer balls… If the United States was good at soccer things would be different I’m sure.

    P.S. Altidore was a total disappointment.. I thought he was supposed to be the guy but he sucks

  • KevinMLD said,

    Brendan-
    I get why people watched.

    What I don’t get is why people were so impressed by their pitiful performance.

  • Brendan said,

    people were impressed with them winning… when they lost that sentiment faded… Nobody is impressed with them anymore. they needed to win more than the Group

  • Linds said,

    That’s kind of why I like the World Cup – it’s a place the USA doesn’t always win (er, or ever win in this case). the inevitability of US “greatness” gets old. But now that more and more Americans care about soccer and the World Cup, once the US team gets really good and wins a few, it will be hella exciting.

  • Angelique said,

    Ryan, we’re still expecting a rebuttal.

  • Ryan said,

    Alright, Kevin wrote a bunch of silliness about the World Cup this week. Some people do not get the sport or the event. That is fine. I don’t get comic books, but at least I don’t write lengthy uninformed rants. I don’t care who likes soccer. I watch it alone on Saturday and Sunday morning. My enjoyment of the game does not change whether Kevin (or anyone) likes it or not. Just like how he loves comic books.

    Firstly, he is obsessed with ties. Whatever. Baseball requires zero effort to play. Soccer is grueling without many substitutes or stops. Ties are necessary because, without ties, a player would destroy their body. I don’t like the lack of scoring as much as anyone, but a tie is a necessary part of the game. The argument could be made that you can add shootouts to the end of games, but I do not think that has helped hockey. Shootouts used to be special. Now they kinda suck.

    We will get back to Kevin, but lets celebrate the good: the Round of 16 started this weekend and it was great. There were some obvious problems, such as the poor calls that are killing this tournament, but overall the level of play is much higher and teams are trying to win.

    You see, with the round robin, the teams just want to survive. That is the whole point. Be in the top 2 of the group and move on. Unless you are one of the great teams, then you are fine with a tie against the main competition in the round robin. If you tie the second best team, then you can take care of the lesser opponents and you are threw to the next round. If you lose against them, then you have no margin for error. Once you enter the round of 16 you have to win. You have no choice. As such, you saw some high scoring games this weekend:

    Argentina 3 – 1 Mexico

    Germany 4 – 1 England

    Brazil 3 – 0 Chile

    Holland 2 – 1 Slovakia

    In the knock out rounds, if you go down, then you have to score. You have to come back or you are out. This causes losing teams to push up, which leaves open space for counter attack. The Germany vs England game was a perfect example of this. England needed to score. Germany’s countered quickly and scored 2 goals. Landon Donovan’s goal against Algeria came from the same type of play. Algeria needed to win that game and left their defense unprepared for the American counter attack. In the early Round Robin, the urge to win is not there at first. It is a tactical choice that could backfire.

    Finally, Kevin had a problem with Ghana as a nation. Understandable. If we were in the final round of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and they gave me a map of Africa, I’d be fucked too. That does not mean Ghana cannot play soccer. Ghana has become the best African soccer team. They are maybe not the best collection of talent, which is in the Ivory Coast, but they are certainly the best team. Their Under 20 team won the most recent Under 20 World Cup. They have 25 million people that love soccer. They grow up with one game and play it everywhere. American doesn’t have that love. They never will. They don’t have the development system, the knowledge of the game, or the coaching to ever be as good as Ghana. The Black Stars (great nickname) were not a push over and may be one of the top 10 teams in the world. No team walking into a game against Ghana can think they can win without playing a great game.

    America should be thankful that they played as well as they did this World Cup. Landon Donovan will not be around forever. When he is gone, then Americans will be lucky if they could beat Mexico over the next decade. They may not even be in the 2014 World Cup. All of their best players will be into their 30s. They will be left very little young talent (Michael Bradley and who?). The days when the US could compete with Ghana are over.

  • KevinMLD said,

    Ryan- Your rebuttal completely misses the point. I didn’t trash soccer. I trashed the U.S. Team’s performance and more than that I trashed the knuckledragging fans who were impressed by it.

  • Ryan said,

    Last paragraph. USA played as good or better as they should have been. They are not a talented team. Every team they played probably had more talent than them. People that were impressed by them were impressed because they kept playing teams superior to them talent-wise and getting good results. England, Slovenia, and Ghana are all better technical teams. USA wins because they are faster, stronger, and usually better organized. You have to measure a teams performance by the amount of talent on the team. You seem to be measuring their performance based on the size of the country or their location on the planet. Both reasons are stupid ways to evaluate a team.

Join the Discussion