Landon Donovan

[Squizzo]

Originally posted by martinje
The Italians are sore losers. They try to blame the referees for their misfortunes. Then, they tried to ban the Korean that eliminated them. What class!

1) I'm Italian. We all italians know that our team played very bad, like they do since the few months after 1990 world cup (in USA 94 we reached the final only with a big big big big luck...), but as I've said in another topic some days ago, the referee of Italy-SK is no more a referee because he was expelled from his federation because of corruption, and some referees stealed 4 regular goals in 2 matches, and you can ask to any spanish if they know why their 2 goals with SK in quarter finals were canceled...

However...Italy,like I said, this year played very bad...and all italians knows this, and they deserved to be send at home...we are only angry for HOW our world cup ended...

2) If you don't know what you're talkin' about, please shut up. Only Perugia's presisdent, Luciano Gaucci, talked about this, but he's a...how can i describe him.."a very original person (someone might say crazy... ). No italian planned to ban Ahn out of Italy...

returning in topic...

I' think this year USA played very well in the world cup, as they did in USA 94, where they loose from Brazil but only 1-0 and playing better than Brazil. I' think that USA can be a very good team in the future, cause if the passion for football grows up, in over 200 millions of persons, a good football player is not hard to find, and we all know the potential af the USA...and they already got good players, especially in attack. But they surely have to work on defense...

They got luck with Mexico, but they played better than Germany, even if they lose.

Italy beated USA with no problems before the world cup, but USA played clearly better than Italy in the world cup, so I don't understand why people shouldn't consider them a good team...

PS: watch Senegal...nobody knew them, and they arrived in quarter finals, sooooo near the semifinals, playing the best football af all the world cup...so don't think that a "minor" team will always be a bad team...thing have changed, and they keep changing...

goodnight!

 

[St. Ole]

well said squizzo. your english may be a bit off, but what you say is spot on

 

[Levi]

Originally posted by dgiorgio
bull****

but as far as individual talent goes they SUCK!... Just take a look at ANY MLS game

Ok individual talent does not make up a team. It is the teamwork. If you put davids in with a team like hearts. It may help a little but everyone else on the team stunk he would barely help..... but it you trained hearts to pass really well and send better throughballs they would be really good.
"in conclusion" teamwork makes a team...................... individual talent can only help so much though

 

[solid444]

First of all, if it wasnt for the game against Germany, I would have thought the US has gone nowhere in 4 years. But in that game, they deserved to win. But the same thing happened to Mexico vs. the US, Mexico deserved to win that game. And whoever said that Mexico is not a good squad, they were well in the top 5 in the World Cup. They had exellent games against Croatia, Ecuador and Italy, which was one of the best games in the tournament. On the other hand the US played shaky. They surprised Portugal in the beginning of the match and got some quick goals (Costa's horrible play in that game didnt help either). They were dominated in a tie game against Korea and got their ass kicked by POLAND. Now in the game Portugal against Korea, at one time the US was out of qualification because Portugal was tied and US was loosing. In the Portugal Korea game, Portugal heard about US loosing and they decided to tie their game so that they would have to face Mexico instead of Italy. But Korea scored in the last minutes which send US to the next round. This strategy is what got the Portugese coach fired. Portugal could have easily picked Korea appart and their game against Korea was the most boring of the whole Cup because they just passed around and played for the tie. So in theory, US was lucky to make it through. But i have to give them credit though, they did TOTALLY DOMINATE Germany.

 

[Footballer1387]

-The US team played well at the WC. They aren't up there with the best yet, but looking over the past decade, they're clearly improving.

-I KNOW that the US team will continue to improve even more in the future. Maybe they will never be as good as the best teams, but they will definitely become more of a force internationally.

-The reason I say that I KNOW this, is because I played in a tournament in Italy last spring. In our tournament, my team won 5 and tied 1 on our way to winning the final. We played against quality European teams as well. We played against Torino, Lazio, and Bayern Munich(tie). Juventus was in the tournament as well. Small French and English teams were there too, and a Russian team, though i can't remember their names.
I can tell the players are becoming much better at the youth level in the US.

(Not an exact sign, but nevertheless a sign of future decency .)

Peace.

 

[pxpx35]

is the US domianting Mexico in 6 of the last 7 games a fluke too, that they didn't deserve to win?

 

[TristanAbbott7]

Hey Krister_Nordin #14, take a look at the FIFA world rankings.

Where are Sweden? Not even in the top 20!!!

Don't tell me, you think FIFA, the world governing body of the sport don't know as much as you.

You are without a doubt the biggest idiot we have ever had on this forum and boy, has there been some competition for the title.

What is Sweden known for? Oh yeah, porn movies, blond hair and being the only country in Europe to pussy out of every war other than Switzerland.

Keep your comments to yourself until your own country does something noteworthy or achieves anything. When you've done something prideworthy yourself or your country has come back and then bash America. Until then you're just proving you're full of BS.

 

[m3th0d]

haha amen tristanabbot7. couldn't have said it better myself.

speaking of swedish porn.. mm swedish women......................

 

[zul-aid]

Originally posted by TristanAbbott7
Hey Krister_Nordin #14, take a look at the FIFA world rankings.

Where are Sweden? Not even in the top 20!!!

Don't tell me, you think FIFA, the world governing body of the sport don't know as much as you.

You are without a doubt the biggest idiot we have ever had on this forum and boy, has there been some competition for the title.

What is Sweden known for? Oh yeah, porn movies, blond hair and being the only country in Europe to pussy out of every war other than Switzerland.

Keep your comments to yourself until your own country does something noteworthy or achieves anything. When you've done something prideworthy yourself or your country has come back and then bash America. Until then you're just proving you're full of BS.

Yeah and USA deserve to be in the top ten now look whose kidding

A provern fact that FIFA are bs is Australia and New Zealand

Australia at begining of 2002 were at 50 NZ at 53 (so a gap of 3) then New Zealand beat Australia to qualify to the confederations cup Australia moved to 43 for some reason and NZ to 44. now three months later Australia and New Zealand never played a international Australia moved back to 52 and New Zealand 55 now that doesnt add up the gap increased they never even played an international

Ohh yead USA have to play whom to qualify for any tornament Mexico and thats it your biggest threat - Sweden well theres England Germany Holland Spain Portugal Norway Denmark and thats just scraping the barrel

USA have no real threat Sweden do so forgive me if i think you know Carlos about football

PS dont any of these idiots know anything about football that they didnt learn from EA Sports FIFA or the World Cup (theres more to it then that boy-o).

 

[pxpx35]

play whom? Mexico won their division bud, with Italy. Costa Rica didn't qualify for the knockout phase on goal differential. Do you not ever learn about Central America in your schools? Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatamala, plus Canada all boast tough sides that hardly make qualifying a breeze for any team in the CONCACAF.

 

[zul-aid]

Originally posted by pxpx35
play whom? Mexico won their division bud, with Italy. Costa Rica didn't qualify for the knockout phase on goal differential. Do you not ever learn about Central America in your schools? Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatamala, plus Canada all boast tough sides that hardly make qualifying a breeze for any team in the CONCACAF.

so your saying that Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatamala, Canada are as talented if not better than what Sweden is up against

Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatamala are teams that would resemble something like Faroe Islands not France Germany Holland Czech Republic Norway Sweden or dont you understand what European football is?

I love it when americans contridict themselves

so are the USA as good as Germany, Sweden and the like or are they like Costa Rica and the like?

check the fifa ratings and see the difference since you hold them in such high standard for a reference.

BTW so did Sweden second round a team called England whom they defeated the year before

 

[FuriousGeorge]

I actually think it is too bad that the US doesn't GET to play the really tough teams in qualifying. It is one of the reasons our World Cup team is such a long shot. Whenever they step into a WC type game they are freaked out from lack of experience.

Mexico is really in the same boat.

However, I still think the US has a good team. We might not be the best, but we can challenge anyone...

 

[Universal]

Don't hate...celebrate!

Originally posted by Pirlo
ok lets see...
america won 2 games in the world cup .they were very lucky to reach the qf and when they met an average team they were beaten.

not 1 american player has ever made it big in europe

if the best american team had to play the likes of a team currently still in the uefa cup ...the uefa cup side would probably beat the american team by a couple of goals(no telling what would happen if they had to play milan ,man utd or madrid)

american players are obviously overated ..how can u even put donovan and vieira's name in the same sentence ?

the only reason donovan was on the cover is bcos it was the american version ...most american dont know who the **** giggs,rc or davids are .

The defense mechanism here is that with our sport-focused infrastructure, if the athletic community and the media ever really decided to care about football, The United States would whip major ass...right now, its one of many sports that we don't decide to care about; thus we don't do well consistently.

That being said, I'm trying to count the nations that finished behind us at the World Cup, the ONLY standard that matters; everything else is talk, and talk ain't ****...

Plenty (196 nations were worse than us, to be exact). The US is up and coming...don't hate - celebrate...

 

[pxpx35]

How many CONCACAF teams make the World Cup? 3.

How many UEFA teams make the World Cup? 15? 16? who knows?

and underestimating teams like Jamaica or Canada or Honduras could very easily get any team in this confederation out of qualifying. but, you wouldn't understand that. qualifying, even for Sweden, is easier.

 

[zul-aid]

Originally posted by pxpx35
How many CONCACAF teams make the World Cup? 3.

How many UEFA teams make the World Cup? 15? 16? who knows?

and underestimating teams like Jamaica or Canada or Honduras could very easily get any team in this confederation out of qualifying. but, you wouldn't understand that. qualifying, even for Sweden, is easier.

Yeah tell that to Holland

________

For Universal if the WC is all that matters what was USA's record in the 1994 world cup

didnt they finish last in that group even though they were hosting

ok you get one good run but you cant judge on one competition just to prove your arguement once the next big competition comes round whether that be CONCACAF CUP or something else and the USA get there ass whoped by like Pxpx35 said then Hondurus or something does that still make then better than 194 people

So many could have arguements about how USA got so far

 

[martinje]

I don't think anybody here is saying that the US is a soccer powerhouse b/c of a successful world cup. There should be just a little more respect. Soccer is picking up rapidly in the US which means the future looks bright for the US team.

To say that Sweden is better than Honduras, or is El Salvador is better than Austria, who knows? There is not a "champions league" for UEFA and CONCACAF national teams. So, you can only speculate.

Hey FuriousGeorge, I used to live in Austin, too. Do you play in the soccer league there?

 

[zul-aid]

Qualification for 2002 World Cup

USA and Sweden

Costa Rica 10 7 2 1 17:7 23
Mexico 10 5 2 3 16:9 17
USA 10 5 2 3 11:8 17
Honduras 10 4 2 4 17:17 14
Jamaica 10 2 2 6 7:14 8
Trinidad and Tobago 10 1 2 7 5:18 5


well third - not so good watch out for Honduras btw does anyone in Honduras play outside there local team - whose there big star?

Sweden 10 8 2 0 20:3 26
Turkey 10 6 3 1 18:8 21
Slovakia 10 5 2 3 16:9 17
Macedonia FYR 10 1 4 5 11:18 7
Moldova 10 1 3 6 6:20 6
Azerbaijan 10 1 2 7 4:17 5

well know theres the ticket Sweden beat eventual 4th placed side Turkey and Slovakia (not one of the better teams) and Macedonia a team that draw 12 months latter with England.


These may be a bit hard to follow but these are the FIFA ratings from 1993 to 2002 i believe they speak for themselves
http://www.fifa2.com/scripts/runisa.dll?S7:gp:537808:67173+rank/index+E

2002 USA BRA GER SWE
November 9 1 4 24
October 10 1 4 23
September 8 1 4 22
August 9 1 5 20
July 11 1 5 20
May 13 2 11 19
April 13 2 12 17
March 13 3 10 16
February 13 3 12 17
January 24 3 12 16
2001 USA BRA GER SWE
December 24 3 12 16
November 20 3 11 16
October 19 2 14 18
September 19 2 12 17
August 16 2 5 19
July 16 2 5 19
June 16 2 8 21
May 15 2 9 21
April 18 1 8 19
March 18 1 11 21
February 16 1 11 24
January 16 1 11 24
2000 USA BRA GER SWE
December 16 1 11 22
November 18 1 8 22
October 18 1 8 21
September 19 1 9 21
August 21 1 11 19
July 20 1 9 18
June 19 1 6 16
May 19 1 6 16
April 18 1 5 16
March 20 1 5 16
February 22 1 5 16
January 22 1 5 16
1999 USA BRA GER SWE
December 22 1 5 16
November 21 1 5 16
October 22 1 5 14
September 20 1 5 15
August 20 1 5 15
July 30 1 5 15
June 31 1 5 15
May 24 1 3 14
April 24 1 3 14
March 23 1 5 14
February 23 1 5 14
January 23 1 5 14
1998 USA BRA GER SWE
December 23 1 3 18
November 22 1 3 17
October 17 1 3 25
September 17 1 3 25
August 18 1 3 31
July 19 1 3 30
May 11 1 2 28
April 15 1 2 27
March 16 1 2 27
February 12 1 2 21
1997 USA BRA GER SWE
December 26 1 2 18
November 29 1 2 15
October 35 1 3 17
September 32 1 2 21
August 28 1 4 25
July 26 1 5 25
June 26 1 2 25
May 26 1 2 20
April 21 1 2 17
February 22 1 2 16
1996 USA BRA GER SWE
December 18 1 2 17
November 16 1 2 13
October 25 1 2 11
September 18 1 2 8
August 20 1 2 9
July 17 1 2 7
May 14 1 2 4
April 14 1 2 7
February 14 1 3 12
January 15 1 2 12
1995 USA BRA GER SWE
December 19 1 2 13
November 19 1 2 11
October 19 1 3 13
September 22 1 4 3
August 19 1 4 15
July 20 1 4 15
June 34 1 5 6
May 27 1 5 6
April 22 1 4 5
February 22 1 5 4
1994 USA BRA GER SWE
December 23 1 5 3
November 24 1 4 2
October 23 1 4 3
September 22 1 4 3
July 22 1 4 3
June 23 3 1 10
May 23 1 2 3
April 23 1 2 9
March 21 2 1 7
February 21 2 1 10
1993 USA BRA GER SWE
December 22 3 1 9
November 27 4 3 11
October 26 1 4 8
September 26 1 5 11
August 28 8 1 4

 

[zul-aid]

Re: Don't hate...celebrate!

Originally posted by Universal
.

That being said, I'm trying to count the nations that finished behind us at the World Cup, the ONLY standard that matters; everything else is talk, and talk ain't ****...

what a tournament that only 32 nations took part

if qualifying wasnt an issue and every team had to play each other in the long run USA would never stand a chance

in begining of 2002 USA stood at 25 or 26 in FIFA ratings then they so to the Quarters of the World Cup for the first time and they move into the top ten sorry but thats BS.

 

[m3th0d]

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

 

[Universal]

Originally posted by zul-aid
For Universal if the WC is all that matters what was USA's record in the 1994 world cup

didnt they finish last in that group even though they were hosting

Uh no.

The US finished last (or 32nd out of nearly 200 nations) in 1998; as I submitted in my post we have been inconsistent, for the reasons I submitted there.

You bring up 1994 and that's interesting, b/c it furthers MY point...
In 1994 we made it to the quarterfinals, losing 0-1 to the eventual champions, a Romario-led Brazil.

In 1998 (Tuesday, February 10th, actually), a Romario-led Brazil LOST to the US in the Gold Cup semifinal, with Preki Radosavljevic’s left foot and a performance by Kasey Keller so awesome that Romario had to give him an extended handshake and hug afterwards giving the US a 1-0 win.

Then we turn around and stink out the joint in France...like I said, inconsistent.

But just as this year's Real Madrid team ought not, really CANNOT be judged in the light of any other Real Madrid team (be it one from the 50's 60's or even last years), because every team has its own chemistry and team dynamics and historical context, so must we take the US run at the 2002 World Cup for what it was...awesome. We came out against a Portugal team that everyone thought might win it all, and took the game to them, with a flair and skill level that would have challenged ANYONE. In having two of the best kepers in the Premiership, we were able to have the luxury of knowing that a superb replacement keeper was available should either falter; against Korea, Freidel showed why he was the number 1, and Mathis demonstrated exactly what he could do on the biggest stage of his career (after having already scored 2 against Germany in a WC warm-up match). Against Poland, we went down early 1-0, but Donovan actually tied the score immediately and was unlucky to have a rather questionable foul called against him, particularly in the light of the Referee Committee's pre-tournament announcement that they were going to clearly differentiate between the shoulder charge (legal) and the body shove (illegal). Donovan should have tied that match right up, he DID tie it, but it wasn't allowed...while we don't know how that match might have gone after that, we do know that Donovan stepped up to produce in that moment, against Portugal (yes, I know a deflection, but you've got to shoot to score), against Kahn and Germany, and without question in the Round of 16 against Mexico, who topped Italy's group.

The question is whether or not that performance was unique or a sign of things to come. I think the latter, mainly because of...

(drum roll)...

MLS.

This group is no longer one or two players playing in Europe and the rest of the squad sitting around waiting for call-ups. The entire squad plays competitively throughout the year. Is MLS competition the Bundesliga? Hardly. But this particular generation of Americans, under Bruce Arena (who has had succes at every level he's coached) and mainly playing in MLS (including Donovan) has won their continent's championship (one that, while not taken seriously by Europe, is taken seriously by CONCACAF members) as well as finished very high at the World Cup. German fans had no doubt as to who dictated that quarterfinal match. What German fans were thankful for was the element that Germany had that the United States squad needs: the ability to pull out a win even when they don;t play their best football. Germany beat them playing 65%-70% of their perceived quality. the US will be an elite team when they can do that, and still win.

Elite? No.

That's historically been Brazil, Argentina, Germany, and Italy.

However the USA, right now, is certainly - arguably - among the best of the rest.