USA World Cup Thread

[PorkChop]

To revise what I said earlier, yeah I'm very surprised Donovan wasn't named in that squad.

I don't get why he's been left out. He's probably the best player the USA has ever produced and is a national team legend, he'd certainly do better than Altidore.

[HFX]

If your team depends on Landon Donovan in his current form then you got bigger problems than LD not making the team. He was once spectacular but right now can you legitimately say he should be starting over even Brad Davis? LD doesn't even have a goal this year last I heard. Choosing a team based on past contributions and nostalgia is no way to go. LD used to be amazing but he's 32 now and he's been showing it. There's no way his presence would mean much against Germany, Portugal and even Ghana. Sure it would have been a nice gesture to include him but Klinsmann knows what he's doing better than any soccer fan. The USMNT has never been in better shape than it is under Klinsmann so trust in him.

That being said y'all are going to get stomped by the Germans and struggle against the Portuguese. Hell even Ghana is a tough go and the Yanks could very well go home early AND winless this World Cup. Y'all definitely got a rough draw.

[PorkChop]

If your team depends on Landon Donovan in his current form then you got bigger problems than LD not making the team. He was once spectacular but right now can you legitimately say he should be starting over even Brad Davis? LD doesn't even have a goal this year last I heard. Choosing a team based on past contributions and nostalgia is no way to go. LD used to be amazing but he's 32 now and he's been showing it. There's no way his presence would mean much against Germany, Portugal and even Ghana. Sure it would have been a nice gesture to include him but Klinsmann knows what he's doing better than any soccer fan. The USMNT has never been in better shape than it is under Klinsmann so trust in him.

That being said y'all are going to get stomped by the Germans and struggle against the Portuguese. Hell even Ghana is a tough go and the Yanks could very well go home early AND winless this World Cup. Y'all definitely got a rough draw.

I genuinely think USA could be lucky to get a point in their group. Germany and Portugal will probably beat them and if they're lucky, they'll draw against Ghana. USA have nothing to lose though, so will probably go out fighting.

USA will improve in future though as the sport begins to grow over there.

[Everlong]

If your team depends on Landon Donovan in his current form then you got bigger problems than LD not making the team. He was once spectacular but right now can you legitimately say he should be starting over even Brad Davis? LD doesn't even have a goal this year last I heard. Choosing a team based on past contributions and nostalgia is no way to go. LD used to be amazing but he's 32 now and he's been showing it. There's no way his presence would mean much against Germany, Portugal and even Ghana. Sure it would have been a nice gesture to include him but Klinsmann knows what he's doing better than any soccer fan. The USMNT has never been in better shape than it is under Klinsmann so trust in him.

That being said y'all are going to get stomped by the Germans and struggle against the Portuguese. Hell even Ghana is a tough go and the Yanks could very well go home early AND winless this World Cup. Y'all definitely got a rough draw.

It's not about being competitive; putting Donovan in over someone else really won't make a difference in the long run. It's about trying to seriously build the popularity of the sport in the USA. You'd think that if they actually had a serious goal of building soccer's popularity in the states, they'd put the sport's biggest name in the country onto the national team, even if he's not going to be a starter or major contributor.

Let's face it, Team USA isn't going anywhere in the World Cup this year, but it's still a chance that comes only once every four years for them to gain exposure and capitalize off of that exposure to increase the sport's American fan base. Four years from now, there won't be an American star of the magnitude of Landon Donovan to put into the team, so why not put him in this year as a sendoff?

[HFX]

Even without Landon playing you still have Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey playing who are both better players than him right now and I've heard fairly popular in US soccer circles. Four years from now Michael Bradley will be King of US soccer and will replace Landon as the face of American soccer. Yah he'll be 30 and he does have a long way to go before he is anywhere near as good as LD was internationally but he's a talented player. Julian Green is another name to watch out for. The kid is 18 and just got eligible to play for the USMNT. He's spent the last couple years in the Bayern Munich system and should be a key contributor to America for years to come.

Trust me, I know full well what it's like to watch some of your favorite players age and no longer be able to rep yours/their country. It happens all the time in hockey here and it will become common place in America with soccer.

[Everlong]

Even without Landon playing you still have Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey playing who are both better players than him right now and I've heard fairly popular in US soccer circles. Four years from now Michael Bradley will be King of US soccer and will replace Landon as the face of American soccer. Yah he'll be 30 and he does have a long way to go before he is anywhere near as good as LD was internationally but he's a talented player. Julian Green is another name to watch out for. The kid is 18 and just got eligible to play for the USMNT. He's spent the last couple years in the Bayern Munich system and should be a key contributor to America for years to come.

Trust me, I know full well what it's like to watch some of your favorite players age and no longer be able to rep yours/their country. It happens all the time in hockey here and it will become common place in America with soccer.

There's a MAJOR difference between "fairly popular" and Landon Donovan. Donovan is the ONLY name that casual fans of the sport in the USA know (I'm defining casual as people who maybe pay attention to the World Cup and that's about it, which is most people). Howard and Dempsey are great players but neither of them has anything near the name recognition or star power that Donovan has in the states.

Team USA has to look at the 2014 World Cup as more of a marketing opportunity than anything else, because they're going nowhere in their group. By not having Donovan on their team they're giving up on a whole ton of free publicity and potentially getting more of the casual fans to pay attention to them.

[Str8Shooter]

Even without Landon playing you still have Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey playing who are both better players than him right now and I've heard fairly popular in US soccer circles. Four years from now Michael Bradley will be King of US soccer and will replace Landon as the face of American soccer. Yah he'll be 30 and he does have a long way to go before he is anywhere near as good as LD was internationally but he's a talented player. Julian Green is another name to watch out for. The kid is 18 and just got eligible to play for the USMNT. He's spent the last couple years in the Bayern Munich system and should be a key contributor to America for years to come.

Trust me, I know full well what it's like to watch some of your favorite players age and no longer be able to rep yours/their country. It happens all the time in hockey here and it will become common place in America with soccer.

There's a MAJOR difference between "fairly popular" and Landon Donovan. Donovan is the ONLY name that casual fans of the sport in the USA know (I'm defining casual as people who maybe pay attention to the World Cup and that's about it, which is most people). Howard and Dempsey are great players but neither of them has anything near the name recognition or star power that Donovan has in the states.

Team USA has to look at the 2014 World Cup as more of a marketing opportunity than anything else, because they're going nowhere in their group. By not having Donovan on their team they're giving up on a whole ton of free publicity and potentially getting more of the casual fans to pay attention to them.

It would have been nice to include Donovan as a shout out to his years of service. But I don't think US casual fans are going to tune out of the World Cup because LD isn't involved. The US is a very patriotic country, they're cheering and watching because it's the United States. If the US does well somehow at the World Cup people won't give a crap that Donovan isn't there.

Of course if they don't do well, the mainstream US media will blame it on Donovan not being there. Then immediately forget about soccer for the next 4 years.

[Everlong]

^No I agree with that, I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying though. It doesn't have anything to do with television ratings; casual and big-time fans will watch the World Cup regardless. It's what happens after the World Cup that the US needs to be concerned about. Big name stars like Donovan can help attract people to American soccer. David Beckham may not have been the US soccer savior that people hyped him up as being, but he DID still bring a lot of attention to MLS that the league had never had before.

When you've got a star as marketable as Donovan in a league that's desperate for mainstream appeal, you've got to milk him for all he's worth if you want to grow the sport. The World Cup is the platform that Team USA needs to use if it wants people to give a shit about American Soccer for the three years and ten months where the world cup isn't happening.

[Str8Shooter]

^No I agree with that, I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying though. It doesn't have anything to do with television ratings; casual and big-time fans will watch the World Cup regardless. It's what happens after the World Cup that the US needs to be concerned about. Big name stars like Donovan can help attract people to American soccer. David Beckham may not have been the US soccer savior that people hyped him up as being, but he DID still bring a lot of attention to MLS that the league had never had before.

When you've got a star as marketable as Donovan in a league that's desperate for mainstream appeal, you've got to milk him for all he's worth if you want to grow the sport. The World Cup is the platform that Team USA needs to use if it wants people to give a shit about American Soccer for the three years and ten months where the world cup isn't happening.

Fair enough. I'm not sure how much cache Landon Donovan's name has anyway. He might be the most well known American soccer player, but he's not as well known as Beckham. He's probably less well known than Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi or Rooney. I don't think there's many people in other US MLS cities saying they're going to check out the Columbus Crew game because Landon Donovan is playing.

[Romo]

Number of the chosen 23 man squad who didn't take a four month break to find themselves: 23

[Hanley!]

In work, 16 of the teams on our floor are having a sweepstakes for the world cup, with everyone throwing in a few quid to make things more interesting. Every team gets two teams from the world cup - one of the top teams and one of the bottom teams, to keep things fair.

So our two teams were randomly drawn today. Our crappy team was Honduras. But our good team was ... the USA. What the fuck? In contrast, another team got Germany as their good team and their crappy team is France. I call shenanigans.

[Tom]

I'd say your workplace did the draw based on t

In work, 16 of the teams on our floor are having a sweepstakes for the world cup, with everyone throwing in a few quid to make things more interesting. Every team gets two teams from the world cup - one of the top teams and one of the bottom teams, to keep things fair.

So our two teams were randomly drawn today. Our crappy team was Honduras. But our good team was ... the USA. What the fuck? In contrast, another team got Germany as their good team and their crappy team is France. I call shenanigans.

USA are ranked in the top 16 in the world rankings so I can see how your workplace had them in the top team pot. France, however, are ranked 17th but probably should be in the top 16 being honest. Ukraine, who France miraculously came back to defeat in the playoffs, are ranked 16th and they are not even in the World Cup. So if your workplace decided it based on the world rankings then France probably should be in the top pot because the team ranked 16th are not in the competition!

[Hanley!]

I'd say your workplace did the draw based on t

In work, 16 of the teams on our floor are having a sweepstakes for the world cup, with everyone throwing in a few quid to make things more interesting. Every team gets two teams from the world cup - one of the top teams and one of the bottom teams, to keep things fair.

So our two teams were randomly drawn today. Our crappy team was Honduras. But our good team was ... the USA. What the fuck? In contrast, another team got Germany as their good team and their crappy team is France. I call shenanigans.

USA are ranked in the top 16 in the world rankings so I can see how your workplace had them in the top team pot. France, however, are ranked 17th but probably should be in the top 16 being honest. Ukraine, who France miraculously came back to defeat in the playoffs, are ranked 16th and they are not even in the World Cup. So if your workplace decided it based on the world rankings then France probably should be in the top pot because the team ranked 16th are not in the competition!

I don't know where they took the rankings from, I just know that USA was apparently 13th and France was apparently 20th! Didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

[Tom]

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/

As of the Fifa World Rankings (which were updated yesterday) they are currently 17th but they may have been lower at the time your workplace did the draw. I can't see France winning it anyway so I wouldn't be worrying about them. However it was bad luck getting the USA, they are probably in the toughest group of the entire competition!

[PorkChop]

The FIFA world rankings are shite, much like everything else FIFA does.

[SKS]

Good win against Nigeria to head into Brazil with momentum. Jozy Altidore scored not once, but TWICE (my head almost exploded while typing this). We will most likely get beat up by Germany but maybe with Reus out, MAYBE something will happen and we'll only lose by 2 goals. With Ronaldo not at 100% I think we have a good shot at beating Portugal if we can keep our form up. Ghana will be tough as well but we SHOULD beat them, even if they always cause us problems. Hoping for a W against Ghana, at least a D against Portugal and a 2 goal loss to Germany, then hopefully Germany wreck both Ghana and Portugal.

[prophet]

Particurlarly liked the chaps who said that they thought Real Madrid were going to do well in the World Cup and thought Gareth Bale played for Italy. They also were adament Brazil won the last World Cup despite being Spain fans

[Tom]

I'd say your workplace did the draw based on t

In work, 16 of the teams on our floor are having a sweepstakes for the world cup, with everyone throwing in a few quid to make things more interesting. Every team gets two teams from the world cup - one of the top teams and one of the bottom teams, to keep things fair.

So our two teams were randomly drawn today. Our crappy team was Honduras. But our good team was ... the USA. What the fuck? In contrast, another team got Germany as their good team and their crappy team is France. I call shenanigans.

USA are ranked in the top 16 in the world rankings so I can see how your workplace had them in the top team pot. France, however, are ranked 17th but probably should be in the top 16 being honest. Ukraine, who France miraculously came back to defeat in the playoffs, are ranked 16th and they are not even in the World Cup. So if your workplace decided it based on the world rankings then France probably should be in the top pot because the team ranked 16th are not in the competition!

I don't know where they took the rankings from, I just know that USA was apparently 13th and France was apparently 20th! Didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

In an effort to make you feel better about seeding USA and Honduras, my workplace did a sweepstakes draw not taking any rankings into consideration. I got Iran and Australia. Needless to say, I wasn't happy

[Everlong]

What a game! I was heartbroken when I saw Ghana get the score on my game tracker I was following on my phone (was at rehearsal), just so happened to get a break in time to see USA get the go ahead score. Awesome start to the cup, but I hope Altidore's alright. Dempsey's injury didn't sound too serious?

[SlightlyJames]

What a game! I was heartbroken when I saw Ghana get the score on my game tracker I was following on my phone (was at rehearsal), just so happened to get a break in time to see USA get the go ahead score. Awesome start to the cup, but I hope Altidore's alright. Dempsey's injury didn't sound too serious?

Altidore's most likely out, I haven't heard anything since the match was going on. Dempsey just got a little facial rearrangement.