"So far I'm only terrified of Germany."

Especially if they start burning books and rounding up the Jews again.

alz wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"So far I'm only terrified of Germany."

Especially if they start burning books and rounding up the Jews again.

Well said, sir. Very well said indeed.

I try not to inject historical events into sporting events, but sometimes it's hard not to.
 

alz wrote:

Well Australia, Spain, Cameroon are all out of the tournament running. 61 teams still standing.

Spain with 1 goal (a penalty kick no less) in two matches. They picked the worst time to play their worst soccer.

Mexico may find they have their hands full with Croatia. They have played very well, but will need to beat Mexico to get through.

Croatia certainly looked good, but I always tend to put an asterisk next to a result that involves a team piling on after a player has been sent off for a red card. I know this is an inapt analogy, but Croatia was essentially on a power play for the last 50 minutes of the game.
No idea what happened to Spain. I've heard commentators say the Spanish looked bored or disinterested. If you're a soccer player and you can't get motivated for the World Cup, what's the point of being a soccr player?
 

Costa Rica - 1
Italy - 0

Say what??????? God damn.... GO CONCACAF!!!!

Terrible mistake there is costing the United states, but short of one other chance brought on by Howard mishitting a punch, we've controlled play against Portugal.

We need to keep running. A lot of shots from outside but we need to connect with someone a little deeper or cross from the corner. I think we'll get at least one in the second half. Hopefully two.

There's two

Fuuuuuuck

Well barring a miracle we're still nearly guaranteed getting through group.

We would have to lose to Germany, and Portugal would need to beat Ghana. And the score would have to eliminate our 5 goal lead in differential.

forsberg_us wrote:

Admittedly I'm a novice, so I need someone who actually watches this stuff to help me.

On Dempsey's goal, there was a lot of discussion about whether Dempsey was offsides (he clearly wasn't). My question--the US had a player who had run himself through the goal line and was just returning to the field of play when the pass to Dempsey was made. He was clearly behind every Portugese defender (including the goalie). Why wasn't he offside?

You're not offside if you don't make a play on the ball. 
 

Well I don't get something... they are talking about the United states needing to own the tiebreaker against the winner of Ghana Portugal.... I get that with Portugal... but if Ghana wins and we lose....

Wouldn't we own any tiebreaker with them because we BEAT them? Nobody is talking about that.

I thought the tiebreaker was head to head result, then goal differential. No?

Last edited by alz (6/22/2014 7:40 pm)

To elaborate on the offside thing, when the ball is played, the offensive player has to be no closer to the goal than the deepest defensive player, not counting the goalkeeper. You can have a guy doing cartwheels on the end line, but if he doesn't make a play on the ball, he's not offside.
If you saw a sequence in the U.S. end about five minutes after the third goal, there were five Portuguese players who were offside, but the assistant referee didn't raise the offside flag until Ronaldo touched the ball.
 

alz wrote:

Damn. Mexico looking like they can turn 1 goal into 5 points in the group lol.

Crazy stuff.

I'm surprised Croatia wasted so much of the game. I think they thought they'd just get the one goal they needed and hold on from there. 
I'm still unconvinced about Mexico, and will remain so until they beat Holland. 
 

And we must take a moment to say a sweet adeiu to Italy. 1-2-0 in three matches in group... Absolutely stunning.

alz wrote:

And we must take a moment to say a sweet adeiu to Italy. 1-2-0 in three matches in group... Absolutely stunning.

Too bad. So sad. Bye-bye.