"If sports want to adopt a rule that players are automatically suspended when they have criminal legal proceedings going against them, I'm cool with it."

The Patriots wouldn't be able to field a team.

I have a couple of friends who are driving to Montreal to watch the game. 
Best part of the tournament so far has been the Brazilian coach complaining that the format has been designed to esnure the Americans win. This after the U.S. was drawn into a group with two other teams ranked in the top 10 (while Brazil's group didn't have another team in the top 15), and then facing Germany in the semifinals.

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

I have a couple of friends who are driving to Montreal to watch the game. 
Best part of the tournament so far has been the Brazilian coach complaining that the format has been designed to esnure the Americans win. This after the U.S. was drawn into a group with two other teams ranked in the top 10 (while Brazil's group didn't have another team in the top 15), and then facing Germany in the semifinals.

Don Mattingly coaches soccer?

LOL. Mattingly is an amateur griper compared to the Brazilian women, who think FIFA is out to get them at the expense of the American women. Brazil has played 31 games against the U.S. and won three of them. And some of the losses, especially in the most crucial games, have been excruciating. Brazil has been knocked out of the WC twice and three times in the Olympics by the U.S. Brazil's only big time win over the U.S. was in the WC semifinals in 2007.
And Brazil's window is probably shut now that they've exited the WC. After the Olympics in Rio next year, Marta's international career is done, and the rest of South America is going to start to catch up to them. 

Well there's a bit of a break.

Ballgame!!!

forsberg_us wrote:

Ballgame!!!

I almost hope they get Japan in the final. They won't overlook the Japanese like they did four years ago. They'd be huge favorites against England, which worries me, because the English are playing well.
 

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

Ballgame!!!

I almost hope they get Japan in the final. They won't overlook the Japanese like they did four years ago. They'd be huge favorites against England, which worries me, because the English are playing well.
 

I think it's been 70 years since the U.S. Defeated both Germany and Japan in competition.

There have been some WWII rematches in this tournament.
There's a legendary story about a match between West Germany and England in the 1970 men's World Cup. West Germany won in one of the knockout rounds, and one of the sportswriters from Germany yelled at the British press contingent "Vee beat you at your own game!!" One of the British journalists replied, "Yeah, well 25 years ago, we beat YOU at YOUR own game."
An English team hasn't beaten a German team (West Germany or big Germany after unification) in a elimination game in either the men's WC or the European Championships since 1966.
 

artie_fufkin wrote:

OMG that poor girl.

Yeah, that's going to sting a while.

At least she's not Columbian.

Uh-oh. I was kind of kidding about the rotten fruit, but ...
From the Daily Mail's message board:

dogooder, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1 hour ago: Laura Bassett should do a walk of SHAME! Millions of people should line the streets and throw tomatoes at her while she walks through LONDON to the Royal Residence and PERSONALLY apologise to the Queen and her announce her IMMEDIATE retirement from the England team! These things are unforgivable but we should show compassion, but NOT before the tomato throwing.

Last edited by artie_fufkin (7/01/2015 10:17 pm)

It's hard to tell, but is that the really tall keeper who has since been relegated to backup duty? She of the lack of athleticism that the commentator unfortunately described during the Switzerland game as the "chink in her armor?"
"Howler" is perhaps the most appropriate term for one of these things. Usually, I see it applied to something Joe Hart has done.
(For the casual soccer fans, Joe Hart is the English men's team's starting keeper. Sort of the way Josh Collmenter was the Diamondbacks' opening day starter this season.)

forsberg_us wrote:

A little redemption for the English women.

You know what Ice noticed in the games I watched? The women don't flop nearly as much as the men do. Pretty funny.

They don't. In fact, one of the criticisms of the U.S. women's team back in the '90s was they didn't know how to flop, and it cost them free kicks. The South American men are the worst. The Copa America final looked like an Olympic diving competition sometimes.
 

I've only been watching soccer regularly for about a dozen years, but I've only once ever seen a team not win a game it was leading by four goals in the first half.