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Napoleon

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Posts posted by Napoleon

  1. 7 hours ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    If Spain beats Germany in the next game up the US' path to the Final is probably Germany (2nd in FIFA rankings), France (4th) and England (3rd)

     

    5 hours ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    Spain has controlled possession in this game, but their finishing is shit. I haven't seen much to think they're going to be a huge problem for the US unless they can play keep away. Germany doesn't look overly impressive without Marozsan so if she's out long term that could make that half of the KO bracket fun.


    Today I watched chunks of Germany vs Spain and France vs Norway(?).

    IMPRESSIONS:

    From passing accuracy, to individual skill, to quickness, to speed, to power of shots... and final touch in general...

    Unless England and/or Sweden are significantly better than the 4 "Top Teams" who played today, I don't think that any team can stay within a goal of the USWNT. I didn't see a player out there today who looked like they could even be a sub for the USWNT and I saw better soccer last fall in the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament (not even "Final Four") than I have so far from any other team besides the USWNT in this entire Cup.

    This year's USWNT would have beaten the 2016 Olympic flops by 4 to 5 goals.

    FC Dallas' U-15 squad would beat Germany or Spain by at least 7-0.

  2. 4 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

    A pretty good take on the problem with US 13 Thailand 0


    Go to Uruguay, round up their handful of athletic females in the younger years in that mostly rural country of 3 million people and slap a national team training program together. Colombia with their semi-pro female players from 2015 would kick Uruguay's women's team's ass for the next 30 years, if not longer. In fact, the K(unt)im called out HALF of CONMEBOL. Why were Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, and Ecuador spared? All of their federations are crooked and none of them put a dime into women's soccer, save Brazil... and athletic country with a rich futebol history and roughly 200 million people, that had a top female player for a while and hosted the 2016 Olympics.

    And in addition to pissing about CONMEBOL feds, I wouldn't exactly say that Portugal is dripping with money, no? If Portugal siphoned off money from their men's team, they would have two mediocre programs rather than one program that has won two trophies in the last 3 years.

    Mexico gets their players from the USA (they are to the USA in Women's Soccer what Algeria & Morocco are to France in Men's Soccer), Croatia has a population of just over 4 million people and hasn't even been a country for 30 years, Belgium probably loses its best female athletes to Net Ball... there is no reason that a country is required to make soccer the #1 female sport in that country. I continually point to Women's Field Hockey in Argentina. Sorry North American/Western European whiners, but Field Hockey is the #1 women's sport in Argentina and no amount of whining is going to change that in the near future.

     

    2 hours ago, Tex Long said:

    ...the thing that was most painful was the fucking idiot ref running three minutes of extra time. 

    I was explaining to a friend that there would be ZERO minutes of stoppage time. I mentioned in the 2014 semifinal matchup between Brazil & Germany, when the clock struck 90:00 (as far as I can remember), the ref mercifully blew his whistle. I said that the same would be the case today...

    And then 3 fucking Minutes were added on?

    That ref shouldn't ref again. That was despicable. 

     

  3. 18 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:


    This makes me happier.

    If he's not going to go to the U-20 WC and then is going to be played at RB in the Gold Cup, then FUCK US SOCCER!!

    Hit the beaches in Europe and get some rest.

    This definitely makes me feel better.

    • Like 2
  4. Quote

    Bhutan defeated by Guam

    Bhutan population: 807,610

    Guam population: 164,299


    Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom on the Himalayas’ eastern edge, is known for its monasteries, fortresses (or dzongs) and dramatic landscapes that range from subtropical plains to steep mountains and valleys.

    Shocking that a USA subsidiary, Guam, could beat a mountainous "country" of monks roughly 5 times its size.

  5. 3 hours ago, JNip said:

    Predict which goal they won't celebrate. I am going with the fourth. 

    I hope that they don't slow it down so I am predicting USA 11-0 Thailand

     

    2 hours ago, JNip said:

    Thailand is so bad, kinda feel embarrassed about the celebrations but oh well... it's an exciting moment for the players. 

     

    2 hours ago, JNip said:

    Ok... they celebrated the fourth goal. I lose. 

     

    2 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

    they celebrated the fifth as well.

     

    2 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

    They are going to celebrate all 11.

     

    1 hour ago, JNip said:

    I've lost some respect towards Rapinoe for that celebration. 

     

    1 hour ago, Rimbo said:

    BBC's feed did a poll at 12-0.

    90 mins

    Post update

    USA 12 (TWELVE)-0 Thailand

    USA within their rights to keep going or is it disrespectful?

    Hit the thumbs.

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    about 2:1 in favor of laying it on

     

    14 minutes ago, JNip said:

    I have no problem with the scoring. You gotta do what you have to do. My problem was the celebrations, that was gloating. I thought that’s what was disrespectful. 

     

    1) I thought that the scoring was excessive and disrespectful, but I understand everyone wanting their goal. If you want to beat Sweden in the group, then beat Sweden, don't worry about GD at 7+.


    2) The excessive celebrations by the squad from 6 goals on was the most classless display in soccer that I've ever seen at any level (male or female). This team is dripping with skill, but is absolute trash. They were every bit the ugly Americans that the majority of the world thinks we are. It would be like knocking down a one-armed boxer and then peeing on them while the ref is giving the person a 10 count. 

    If I were a Thai player, I would have been tearing up knees after seeing celebrations for 8, 9, 10... Fuck if you get a red card, I would have been ending careers. Fight classless trash with classless trash. (Especially when you can't dream of matching them any other way.)


    3) The team was fun to watch from a skill stand point. I'm not a Morgan fan, especially after her makeup-covered injured ass was shoved down out throats for a month or three before the 2015 World Cup and then continued throughout, even though she kind of sucked, but her use of left foot and right foot today was something to aspire to, her ball placement, power... she was amazing today. Just a beast.


    4) I will watch all of the USA matches, but will be pulling for Germany or France to lift the trophy. (If a Scandinavian squad does instead, I'll be okay with that.) I like the underdogs and I like a bit of humility. I'm old school American, not bully trash American.

    • Like 4
  6. 1 hour ago, ztejas said:

    None of this changes the fact that we were spoiled with all 3 of them including Howard. We got off topic in a hurry. US currently has no option close to the level of any of those guys (taking others' word for it as I'm too young to have seen Keller or Friedel).

    I was spoiled to level of thinking that due to football, baseball, and basketball being the three biggest sports in the U.S., that we could produce athletic keepers with insane hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes like Argentina produced attacking players. 

    I thought that we would eventually have GKs llittered throughout all of the top leagues in Europe once soccer “really caught on”.

    Wow... I was delusional. 

  7. 1 hour ago, alincoln said:

    Friedel > Howard > Keller

    Friedel is/was definitely the best, but I think that Keller was steadier than Howard, but Howard was much more spectacular. 

    Either order for 2nd & 3rd could be argued until a mod locks the thread. 

  8. 57 minutes ago, ztejas said:

    Amazing how England struggles to avoid nations they've historically wronged regardless of what group they land in. 

    They just have a head start on the USA. And the USA has done a better job of keeping down the countries that we''ve historically wronged, but then again, we've been at it for such a comparatively short amount of time that the countries are still feeling the effects.

    That being said, having studied the history of Argentina for my tours, The Falklands issue is purely a shiny object that is used to distract the masses. [/end CR post]


    Back to soccer...

    Want to point out that Argentina's #6 lost half of an eye-tooth when a Japanese player smashed her in the mouth with her elbow.

    Hard fought 1st FIFA Women's World Cup point ever for Las Chicas Argentinas in this match.

    They should be exhausted and soundly defeated by the English in their next match, but have a shot at another point or even more (one can dream) against Scotland in the last match of their group.


    **Also, in something absolutely out of character for an Argentine fútbol team, the Argentine side did NOT get even one yellow card!!**

    ...Though somewhat in character, exaggeration did result in drawing 3 yellow cards out of the ref's pocket for Japan... though I don't believe that the elbow to the mouth of #6 was one of them.

    I think that if I played any sport at a high level these days, I'd wear a mouth guard. Just because these are women playing, doesn't mean that you're not going to get smashed in the mouth. (Though I did get my veneers in Argentina and they look amazingly like real teeth, not like Hollywood veneers. And I got 6 for $2,000, back in 2013/14 thanks to the street rate for the US Dollar at that time vs about $2,000/tooth from a good dentist in the USA.)

  9. 47 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

    Howard was good.  But not 15 years in Europe good.  And Howard never had a game for the Nats like Keller/Brazil Gold Cup 98 or Friedel's entire Korea 02 performance.

    Howard vs Belgium was pretty close to being on par with Keller vs Brazil. Howard just had to play OT and his team finally let him down.

    If only Preki had been on the 2014 team rather than Wondolowski...

    And Howard won EPL Keeper of the Year in 2004 (Brad Friedel won it the year before & Keller never won it), so I'd say that he acquitted himself quite nicely.

  10. On 6/9/2019 at 10:34 AM, Hagbard Celine said:

    welp, kind of like France/Argentina last summer in the round of 16, there is always going to be power matchups "before" everyone expects them to occur.  que sera.

    Just want to remind everyone that even though France blew out Argentina in our memories, Argentina was a young winger stepping in front of a teammate with a better angle away from tying that thing on the last play of the match. Even though France just bossed Argentina, remove one over-ambitious effort by a kid and that match goes to OT.

    ...and speaking of Argentina...

    Mís bitches argentinas queridas are tied with 2015 Runner-ups Japan (0-0) at halftime. Observations:

    1) The Argentine chicas aren't as ghetto as I expected. 
    -All Argentine girls with a modicum of income up until just below the level of money that plays tennis (and well below the polo playing income bracket) play FIELD HOCKEY in Argentina. 
    -If you play something other than Field Hockey (tennis or polo), you're probably seen as a lesbian... and lesbians tend to remain closeted until at least after high school. (Though I have a fond memory of walking home at 3am and seeing two chicas making out agains the side of a building about 100 meters from the door to my building.)
    -Some of the Argie chicas are actually fairly cute.

    2) The Argentine squad warmed up playing US college teams + Uruguay (which is a country of 3 million and I didn't know that women even played sports in that country).
    -Japan warmed up against the USA, France... about half of the Top 10 Women's teams in the world.

    3) The graphic for the sky blue lines on the Argentine jersey are so faint that it is almost impossible to tell that they aren't wearing ALL WHITE jerseys.
    -I wonder if the football federation in Argentina wanted to make the blue lines so difficult to see because as of yet, Argentina doesn't really have a women's development program and they didn't want horrific losses to be associated with the classic albiceleste of the men's squad.

    4) Argentina plays England next and should get blown out.
    -Especially since the Falklands War, there is insane animosity between the Argentine population and England. (Not that England thinks about Argentina much.)
    -The "Hand of God" goal came in the first match between Argentina & England since the conclusion of the Falklands War & England were among the favorites to win the cup in 1986.
    -England should crush Argentina and it will be a downer for Argentines who don't even care about women's sports.

  11. 1 minute ago, ztejas said:

    Oh, here's another fun elephant in the room that no one has brought up: we probably don't even know who our best keeper is. Steffen was fucking atrocious on Sunday. 

    I was thinking that Steffen is turning into a Brad Guzan.  😱

    He can provide some nice-to-spectacular saves, but as soon as the ball is played to him on the ground, your sphincter starts to pucker. 

    From bad passes, to slow thinking, Steffen was seriously channeling his inner Brad Guzan. (And that's a whole lot of "no bueno".)

  12. 2 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

    Agree.  Quick point.  I didn't mean Bradley should be on the field in place of Adams or Mckennie.  I meant Bradley would be an improvement over Trapp.  At the very least, Bradley would be in the right spot most of the time.  With what we have, I'd go with a 4 - 2 - 3 -1

    Lima  --- Miazga    ---- ?  ----- Long(1)

       Bradley     Mckennie

    Adams(2)     Pulisic     Zardes(3)

          Altidore

     

    I just woke up and haven't put much thought to this, so I'm open to corrections.

    1) Long played as a CD against Venezuela.

    I don't know where he normally plays or who he plays for, but he was easily overmatched as a CD against Venezuela. I'm fairly certain that Tim Ream will be our starting LB.


    2) Adams will be the RB and Lima will be on the bench.

    If anything, Berhalter would switch Adams and McKennie. Also, after moving Adams back to RB, I think that McKennie will play the #8 and be placed significantly ahead of Michael Bradley on the field.


    3) Zardes is out 2nd string #9... period.

    Zardes will likely never be on the field at the same time as Jozy Altidore, nor has he played any other position under Berhalter at Columbus than the #9... nor has he excelled at any other position in the MLS other than the #9.

    I would not put Zardes out wide. Not against a bad team. Not against a good team. Not against a great team.


    The only positives from these last two matches are:

    I) Tyler Boyd's service into the box.
    II) Nick Lima's service into the box (2nd game)
    III) Duane Holmes' speed, tenacity, and soccer intelligence.
    IV) Djordje Mihailovic did NOT get chosen for the final 23.

    These are pretty much all the positives that can be taken from these last two matches.

    There seems to be no clue and no direction at the moment for the USMNT entire organization. They pretty much have shown that they don't see anything wrong at the moment and feel that we are just a few tweaks from being a force to be reckoned with. It seems like they think that simply dropping Christian Pulisic & Michael Bradley into the equation should be enough.

    (I think that Tyler Adams is either recovering from an injury or was allowed to rest for a couple of weeks before joining the team this week for a week of training before out first game.)

    • Like 1
  13. 11 hours ago, Bottlecap said:

    this wil trapp pantshittingly awful display (ad nauseam) has to be gergg saying "see bitchez, thats why I'm putting 146 year old michael bradley in the first eleven next week"

     

    8 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

    What's scary is that it's so bad, I'm not even sure what the fix is.

    [snip]

    I hate to say it, but we're far better off in the Gold Cup with Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore on the field.  Ugh.  I said it.

    Michael Bradley should be nowhere near the field. 

    Stuart Holden said- “Michael Bradley is far and away the best #6 on the US National Team.” and Stuart Holden showed that either he’s a kept bitch, or a complete fucking moron. 

    Tyler Adams is at least as good right now as Michael Bradley was at his very peak, during his first two years in Italy. 

    Right now Michael Bradley can’t carry Tyler Adam’s jock. 

    Weston McKennie can make mistakes, but his floor is Michael Bradley’s B+ game and his ceiling is something that Michael Bradley has never dreamt of. 

    The USMNT is so much better with an imperfect Nick Lima at RB and Tyler Adams at the #6 than anything else we can imagine. 

    Unfortunately Jozy is currently our best #9. 

    Long should probably never play CB again. He was pure trash. Walker Zimmerman is the Kyle Beckerman of CDs. 

    Will Trapp can’t hang with any country other that smaller Caribbean countries... and not even all of them. 

    Arriola is fairly trash and should NOT START, but his speed late in games makes him a borderline final 23 contestant. Holmes, the NZ kid, Pulisic, and even the Hunchback of Seattle showed more tonight that Arriola making the final 23 should be a question mark, not a given.

    We actually have players not to embarrass ourselves, but the manager does not want to send out a lineup that could possibly succeed. 

    Sargent should have been on the U-20 squad and if you’re not going to play Adams at #6, then he should have been with them too, or resting on a beach. 

    • Like 1
  14. 1 hour ago, ztejas said:

    Brooks when healthy. But thank you for a levelheaded take. I don't think people realize how much of a potential phenom Adams is turning into. At least, Hagbard doesn't realize that. 

    I like Brooks... and I would not have him in the Top 3 above the 3 yutes.

  15. On 6/7/2019 at 12:17 PM, ztejas said:

    Sorry. I disagree with "Failed to impress".

    Apologies if what I wrote was absolutely incomprehensible. 

    Stars and Stripes FC gave him the 2nd highest rating of anyone that took the pitch...

    The SSFC player ratings:

    Djordje Mihailovic - 2.900*

    *I feel vindicated with my "3 stars or lower" comment... whatever day that was.

    Mihailovic is absolute trash and I'm 90% positive that he will be a centerpiece of our Olympic Qualifying Campaign. 😪

     

    7 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

    Dude.  Adams is not our 2nd best player _at this time_, and do you even read the comments, bro?


    I would be interested in seeing your current ratings. 

    If you look at:
    -Impact on club
    -Level of the league the club plays in
    -How the club did this season...

    Adams could currently be our "best player", not even "2nd best".

    I'd assume that most people have Christian Pulisic at #1, though he's been ass for the USMNT since we crashed out against T&T and he's barely featured for Dortmund, but Weston McKennie's club sucked ass this year, he played all over the place out of necessity, and he was injured some. Adams had a much better year than Weston.

    Other than: Pulisic, Adams, & McKennie, who else would even be in contention for Top 3 Best Players for the USMNT?

    • Like 2
  16. 1 minute ago, ztejas said:

    Look I get the frustrations but also there is some serious recency bias going on. At the end of the day it's the U20s. I'd take a senior WC QF appearance over a U20 WC win any day of the week. It isn't even close to me. 

    It sucks getting bounced before the semis again but I dont think the answer is throwing all of our best players at the wall to try and win a tournament that borders on an exhibition. 

    I’d take a U-20 WC win over a CONCACAF Gold Cup win.

    • Like 1
  17. It may be difficult to believe, but...

    Sargent would have scored on that Soto flub. 

    I honestly think that Tyler Adams is better than Durkin. Maybe some will disagree with me. 

    You could even argue that Westin McKinnie might even be slightly better than his former FC Dallas stablemate, Paxton Pomykal.

     I would like the US to excel at some level of soccer on the Men’s side of things. 

  18. 1 minute ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    Soto has to score there fuck.

    Exhibit A for why you have to train with both feet. 

    Ive got an 8 year-old soccer fan who hates practicing with his left foot,?but Weah’s goal and Soto’s miss are all you need to watch to understand the importance of practicing with your weaker foot. 

  19. 24 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    Apparently the Ecuadorian was behind the ball?

     

    23 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    Yep, he was behind the ball. Fuck.


    The whole body doesn't even have to be onside, just a part of the body that can be used to score. (So hands/arms don't count.)

    It was obvious from the start that he feet were well onside by a yard or more, but his Head & Lead Shoulder were the parts of his body in question.

    The fact that you only need to be BEHIND THE BALL rather than also behind 2 defenders seemed to shock the announcer. Why they have fucking retards announcing sports that they know nothing about is beyond me, but I blame FOX. He really thought, even after the image that shows the player CLEARLY BEHIND THE BALL that there would be some controversy over whether the goal scorer was offsides or not.

    Before the image, I understand, but even after seeing the image he felt that there would be discussion over whether the player was offsides... What a fucking idiot!

  20. 30 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    Golazo from Ecuador :(

     

    29 minutes ago, pacman said:

    Wtf! Kind of defending was that...slowest windup to shoot i have ever seen and yet no defensive pressure 


    I played defense most of the time from the age of 6, in large part because I would play my ass off even if I wasn't likely to score AND because I always did what my coaches told me to do.


    I never once remember a coach telling me to "Duck out of the way like a bitch if someone fires on the goal from 27 yards out."

    Unfortunately that's exactly what the USA's #13 did on that goal and the keeper never had a chance.

     

     

    22 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    goddamn another good chance for the US but Soto can't get to it


    Soto was offside even if he had gotten to that ball.

     

    • Like 1
  21. 2 hours ago, UDontKnow said:

    Thanks for that. Never too early to start drinking.


    Had some Trader Joe's Linguini w/Clam Sauce and some white wine for breakfast about 9:30am Mountain Time.

    Not usually a day drinker, but it looked good in the freezer & fridge (respectively).

     

     

    52 minutes ago, pacman said:

    Reached the quarters of 3 straight u20 world cups? Where are those players now and how has it not translated to success for the senior team? 


    Tyler Adams is in the Gold Cup, as is Tripp, Areola (?), CCV, Miazga, GK.... Sargent is sitting at home or getting another tattoo.

     

     

    45 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    Well the 2017 guys are still relatively young and most of the time the U20 World Cup doesn't yield a TON of players to the senior team. The French team that won in 2013 put two starters on the 2018 World Cup team (Pogba, Umtiti)


    I would guess that that 2013 squad had at least 10 players who played in the 2016 World Cup for various countries. 

    The French Football Federation produced the most players participating in the 2016 World Cup by a large margin. I think that it was something in the 30s. [Will now research.]

    CORRECTION:

    The many colors of Les Bleus

    Fifty French-born players appear on World Cup rosters, the most of any country. (Brazil is second with 28.)

    50 fucking players who played in the World Cup. That 2013 U-20 squad might have had 15 players playing in Russia, if not more.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/world-cup-countries-of-birth/?utm_term=.4cf7cc81c119

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