Russ reached out to query about the Refugees interest in this, oh, I don’t know, something to do with soccer…oh, yeah, the World Cup.
As we gather here and birch about litigation and NIL with college football, a most American (if not SEC) thing happened yesterday when President Trump successfully got Balogun’s red card (which would make him ineligible Fridays tilt with Belgium…kind of like sitting out for targeting) overturned through legal maneuvering.
Me, I’ve actually watched Premier League for years, so I’m a fan and it’s been fun to watch. And as I watch, I, like others, see opportunities to improve our favorite sport, college football, from everything from VAR reviews to this:
Now that would be great, would it not?
From the fervent fans from around the world appreciating our country to today’s game of “do you believe in miracles” where arguably the best team the US has fielded takes on traditional powerhouse Belgium (5pm), this has been a wonderful event.
So…are you watching on pins and needles? Or, if you’ve never had much interest, have you started watching this year? What do you like about it….or what do you not like about it?
discuss.
Lionel Messi commits the same foul and it’s no foul. Germany had a goal removed due to alleged interference. The head of the goal keeps union. Yeah apparently that’s a real thing says it was not a foul. No matter the bad call stands Germany goes home. The US needs its best player no problem the president makes the call. Of course there’s president for that exact thing. Portugal’s at the time arguably the best player in the world Christiano Ronaldo gets a two game red card just tossed away when needed.
Upon further review I have zero trust in FIFA rules enforcement. Other than that minor detail it’s been fun to watch which I have.
I am not a soccer fan, so my watching has been limited. What I have seen supports my dislike for the game. The flopping, agonizing drama for little to no contact. Yellow and red cards handed out randomly for what appears to be no foul, and then confirmed to be very little contact on replay. See Kane from England vs Mexico last night which resulted in a penalty kick. These guys are incredibly skilled at what they do, but I have little to no interest in the this event, not the sport.
I wonder if the Haaland kid from Norway has any college eligibility left. He would make a great SEC tight end.
Interesting you posted that, I went on a rant (surprise x2) that if the USA had even it’s 3rd tier athletes play soccer, they would make the that big Norwegian Thor Cosplay lookin’ Hoss seem like a runt (BTW, as a United supporter #GloryGlory I know I shouldn’t do this but I like the guy. Great for Man City but is at another level for his Country-as it should be). Instead we’ve had haffa century of a bunch of dorks that couldn’t make Drum Major prancing around the pitch not doing anything – yes, I’m talking aboot Lexi Grewal, btw.
There are some beefy dudes playing soccer now, along with tiny guys. Each seems to make their own impact. Some of those big dudes would be right at home on the edge or as a tight end.
Just can’t get into soccer. Never much heard of it growing up in GA. I’ll leave it to the fans to enjoy, but l do hope the USA whips all their butts!! Go team USA!!
The Atlanta Chiefs were the first league champion from Atlanta, in 1967 or 1968. They won the NASL championship. 😀
That got by me then. Anyway, thanks.l never knew l guess, or it went where other things go lately. 😊
Watching and loving it all. It’s just a different sport, so I don’t waste any time trying to make one more like the other. Glad Balogun’s suspension was lifted, even if the way it happened isn’t a good look. The card itself was fishy to me, so fair to have part of its penalty reversed. Need to get that W tonight.
I would gladly accept the ad ribbons around the field in exchange for TV timeout free quarters.
I would gladly accept a short true overtime period before the crap that we have now (I detest the college overtime rule). Yes, I also think penalty kicks are the dumbest way to end a game played on a 100+ yard field. Same for shootouts in hockey. I would rather have ties than these 3 overtime rules.
Finally, hats off to Cape Verde. They had the world on the edge of their seats for 120 minutes as they came oh so close to taking out Argentina. Once again, the powers that be in CFB will probably start pointing to that when the playoff inevitably expands to 32.
They do have ties. You just can’t have ties in the knockout rounds when you are trying to determine a tournament chanpion.
I understand that. Sorry for the confusion. I think the way soccer does break their ties (or draws) when necessary where they play the game with the 2 15:00 periods is smart. The PKs after that are dumb. Play the 15:00 periods and then go to the golden goal.
I love the way the NHL plays until someone scores in the playoffs.
At one time if two teams were tied at the end of extra time the way the rules determined a winner was to play again the next day starting at 0 to 0 with full 90 minute timing.
I started follow the Premiere League in 2015 to kill time on Saturday mornings before college football and decided to pick a team to support. I landed on Liverpool and times it well since that is when Jurgen Klopp arrived as manager. Liverpool was similar to Georgia football in that they had a history of success, but it had been awhile since they had won anything.
As a result, I have have been following the World Cup and really enjoy it. FIFA is worse than an SEC run by Bama, but I guess that adds a little mystery and intrigue to it…lol. I love all the patriotism and pageantry on display for all the countries. That is pretty cool to see. The Orange Army marching in to the stadium, El Azteca being a boiling cauldron, and tiny Cape Verde giving Argentina all they wanted. Great stuff.
Flash flood warnings on the streets of Belgium as crocodile tears are flowing like the Apalachicola River after a hurricane.
Belgium whipped our ass 5-2 about a month ago but a lot has changed for Team USA.
Red card was debatable on Balogun, but anytime you show studs at any level of soccer it is a foul… however, the shenanigans to “suspend” the red card is not a good look.
…unless you’re Messi
I thought it was Christiano Ronaldo who benefitted from a suspended red card.
Thanks, JP. I’ve found myself watching all the matches and bloviating like I know what the hell I’m talking about, just like that guy in row 38 screaming about Bobo.
Glad to see the penalty against Balogun was suspended (I guess he’s on double-secret probation for the next year?) but yeah, other fans will bitch about it. Announcers got it right when they said it just fixed what the ref should’ve done initially.
I guess this is the first year of going to 48 countries. It’s followed the expansion path that CFB will inevitably follow with their tournament. As a fan of a “Group of 5″ team (the US in soccer), I can more fully understand the appeal of expansion. Like ee said above, Cape Verde is the perfect example. They wouldn’t have been included and they came within a gnat’s ass of dumping the defending champ/#1 team, Argentina.
Haaland is a beast. He would make a helluva tight end. Makes me wonder how Bowers would have done raised as a soccer kid. BTW, Alex Freeman is the son of Antonio Freeman from the Packers. Looks like it, as he’s 6’2” and fast/lean. There are several guys out there that could translate to football, but there are also stars like Messi that would probably get killed on a gridiron. I wonder how this will affect kids choosing a sport in the US?
I would say ticket pricing is insane but all the matches have been sold out. Cheapest I saw in Houston was ~$150 for Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia before the tournament started and no one knew who CV was. Once the hype started, tickets went to ~$750, which is where all the others started. I did go to see Belgium vs Netherlands in Orlando in the ’94 World Cup (just because it was an event). I had no idea what was going on, but an English fan explained who to watch on each side and basic strategy, and I had a good time. The two fan bases were just like Tennessee and Florida (lots of orange, but less assholes) and the atmosphere was pretty electric. However, after that, any attraction sort of faded. I do watch USMNT and USWNT when they play, but don’t really care about MLS. To me, it’s like going from SEC football to Class A high school football – in Rhode Island.
Anyhoo, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
The main thing that bothers me about the game is the flopping. I’d like to see yellow cards given out for that more often, which I realize they instituted recently, nut they could enforce it much more strictly. Also, the added time at the end of each half is deeply suspicious. One, just stop the clock when warranted and added time wouldn’t be a thing. But if they’re going to have it, then tighten it up. Currently, it seems like the added time gets extended as long as a team is on the move possessing the ball and threatening to score. Imagine the 2012 SEC championship: go ahead Dawgs, you’re on a roll, don’t worry that time has expired, you have momentum.
Agree on the flopping, but the problem is the ref won’t typically call the foul unless the player goes down. I was watching a match recently where the player powered through the foul and as a result no foul was called. The result is players go down when they feel contact to make sure the foul is called.
We did see a yellow card reversed in the first USMNT match against Paraguay. The US player was given a yellow for a foul on Miguel Almiron (Atl United), but after VAR looked at it they correctly ruled Almiron was never touched and they reversed the yellow card off the US defender and given to Miggy.
Kicky ball…yeech! Get a real clock and be transparent about the time left. Penalize the flops…CFB had to. I’ll watch team USA and maybe the semifinals.
It’s the world’s elegant sport. All that is needed is a ball and a pitch with goals. One of my best travel experiences was kicking a ball around with a little boy in a courtyard one summer evening in Venice.
But it ain’t’ American. George Washington told his troops the night before crossing the Delaware river they were fighting for freedom and to play football…which is played by throwing though sometimes there’s kicking to score, sometimes 3 sometimes 1 point.
Hell yes on commercial-less quarters but that will happen when streaming takes over and you’re paying extra already.
Historically, I’ve been very hostile to the sport referring to it jokingly as “un-American activities.” Over time I’ve had 1 cousin play goalie at Wofford, another was a captain/forward at South Carolina and I have a neice who played smaller college soccer so I’ve watched a good bit of soccer since 2010 with interest and gained some degree of appreciation for it. Its far more interesting to watch when you have people out there.
I don’t like how historically bad the US has been and I don’t like fielding a team that loses to countries that ain’t got enough electricity to keep a beer cold. Maybe that will change. I’ll watch them play tonight and see whether they are doomed to fail.
The frustrating side of that is it is that the world puts there best athletes in that sport and our players are guys who suck at every thing else. Plus, the world loves to beat us and we give them a punching bag every 4 years.
The ladies do us proud. The mens team not so much.
What I hate about watching “un-American activities” at this level is all the flopping. Every time someone gets touched they act like they’re gonna die. Its embarrassing and sad. There should be shame and severe punishment to get it out of the sport.
That said some of the matches I’ve watched have been pretty compelling and I have hope that eventually I’ll get to see England lose. If so, it won’t be an entire waste of time.
Still I’m more interested in watching what happens in Croke Park the weekend after next. Go Tribesman!! Now that’s amateur sport!
Tiocfaidh ár lá!!
Haven’t watched a second of it and likely won’t. I hope team USA wins it all.
My observation… teams/countries like Curaçao, Morocco, DR Congo, (& even the US), etc look competitive and “cinderella-esque” are actually made up of players that have been trained and grown up in other countries “soccer system”… but their parents or grandparents are from those “cinderella” countries. The players didn’t make their birth countries roster so they went to plan “B” to play for Grandma’s country.
For example the key players from Morocco are either Belgian, Dutch, or French born. However all of them received training from those countries.
Outside of Pulisic, the best US players(imho) Balogun, Tillman, Robinson, and Dest are not home grown talent… not taking away from us/them but just general comment. Hopefully one day, we have a proper soccer system and federation.
It was like watching Tennessee and Auburn kick our ass in the 90’s and 00’s with georgia born players. A lot of motivation to prove “you made a mistake by not picking me” kind of thang.
Part of the problem is MLS is still considered (at best) 3rd tier, and the name players from the US go to Europe to ply their trade. Then aging superstars come to the US for a few more paydays and fleeting glory.
Not sure how it happens, but if we had a competitive league here it would certainly help.
That said, I love it that the country is cheering a bunch of birthright citizens playing for the US. Some like Balogun had multiple choices of where to play but chose the US, so that’s progress, I guess.
The U.S. roster being made up of a lot of guys who play across the pond doesn’t bother me at all. All the best players go play in the European leagues. Look at Brazil. It’s players litter rosters of the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, etc.
Like others have said, I’ll put on the Premier League in the morning and give it a little attention while I have my coffee. The fan environment is college-level at every game with the chants, etc., and I guess I prefer that to the toned-down almost bored vibe I get from many NFL games. I will say thet the England / Mexico match last night was one of the best matches I’ve seen. How the lads from the UK survived playing in that environment with 10 men most of the game is incredible.
I am not trying to convince anyone to like USA soccer or soccer as a whole…. but please allow me to hit you with some brief patriotic, historical facts about US soccer and general comments about soccer…
1930- Team USA finished in 3rd place at the first ever world cup; soccer well behind baseball and football but not seen as some exotic euro creation as most people playing were still very connected to their countries of origin- italy, ireland, scotland, germany, etc
enter WW2 era – USA came in and “saved” the planet from speaking German or Japanese (but not ruski/commie) as the global language; college football and baseball dominate american sporting landscape… soccer seen as that euro sport and we just kicked all their asses so why play their game. soccer fades from american sporting minds.
1950 world cup – team usa beat england 1-0 in an underdog story that makes the 1980 miracle on ice look pedestrian in comparison; england were overconfident and cocky and let a bunch of st louis missouri 1st generation “sunday league” Americans shock the world with that result. check out the book and movie about it – for those interested it is called “Game of their lives”… truly incredible and very american underdog story. it would be like beating the Larry Bird Boston Celtics with a bunch of random Saturday afternoon pickup players from Columbus, GA.
also the bullshit flopping in soccer is the same as the Duke flopping in basketball.
soccer is just as much a “non contact” sport as basketball and has the same BS “dark arts gamesmanship” too. think the detroit pistons of bill lambeer days was non contact bball…uh larry bird and the chief would like a word with you sir.
when some really does get kicked in the shin or thigh, one can brush it off as that pussy got kicked in the shin and he acts like he got hit with a .50 cal round… friend imagine rodrigo blankeship or kevin butler kicking a 55 yd FG but instead of the ball they are kicking, it is your shin – yes that shit hurts. fully agree that their are phantom fouls but as stated there is gamesmanship in every sport to try gain an edge for your team. the south american teams have the dark arts down to oscar worthy levels, just like those Duke pussies.
love it, hate it, just my $.02 but the 1950 win over england is just the greatest undertold/hidden american sporting achievement in our history. beating england at anything is just as good a feeling as beating the turds, which make the story even sweeter.
i have no doubt – being a fan of soccer teams carries the same passion as a college football fandom in the South. tradition runs deep, it is regional, and hatred for your rivals burns with a glow of a 1000 suns, only difference is that their rednecks speak with a different accent but come ready to die cheering for their team.
U-S-A and Go Dawgs!
I think I’ve only kicked one soccer ball in my life, and my impression was that soccer balls are a lot harder than footballs.
Well said!
The key to the U.S. becoming more of a power is having more of our best athletes choosing the sport. Maybe this World Cup will help that.
You need kids who would grow up to be talented WRs, DBs, and guards in basketball to choose soccer. Those are the athletes needed to raise the level of the talent coming from America.