Whoo hoo! USA group winners! Looking pretty good to get to the semis all of a sudden! Also, agree that Colombia definitely wasn't tanking the game, they just overlooked their opponent and made way too many subs. If they really wanted to lose, James wouldn't have come on so early as a sub.
At present times the only teams who fear Brazil, are all from North America. At South America, they do get respect for what they are, but no one fears them as they have become in a very average team nowdays.
Im still hoping for a Brazil-USA match for quarterfinals. Hope Ecuador wins vs Haiti while Brazil draws, therefore ending as runner up.
Yeah. Next time, watch the damn game before even making an attempt to cook up an amusing narrative that satisfies your warped perception alone.
I watched both games, the same as every match that has been played from this tournament. They were both, pretty good games. The main reason why Colombia had to make substitutions (basicly, allowing James and Cuadrado to have some minutes), was because they wanted to revert the embarrasment they were heading themselves into, which also is terribly bad for the mood of the players in any team (without the changes, Colombia could've perfectly been slaughtered in an even bigger score than the one they were having, when Costa Rica scored their 3rd goal). Fact is, Costa Rica outplayed completely the colombian team, today (the same as the USA over Paraguay, btw).
They outplayed Uruguay in the World Cup too. Thinking that they could sleepwalk through a game with Costa Rica is why they lost. Not your ridiculous theory...
Yeah, but that's another story. Besides, by that time, Costa Rica had a lots more worthy and intelligent coach, than the one they have now (that team, would've never lost to anyone by 4-0 in an official match, and least of all vs. the USA).
I predict USA losing at quarterfinals. I prefer losing to Brazil than to either Ecuador or Peru. I prefer it even more to beat Brazil.
Average or not, Brazil is Brazil. That's the sad truth. They can be average for South America all they like but they can never ever be ruled out prior to a match. I said this in the other thread though, there is one team Brazil despises playing against and that's Paraguay.
Honestly, you can win all 3 and lose all 3 matches. Brazil is an obvious one but they've become so average as of late that whether you can't rule them out in any match, you also can't rule them out losing. With Brazil its become really difficult to predict their results especially in South American qualifiers. Ecuador are a good team. There is one problem though, they are not a good tournament team and not having passed the groups since 1997 may affect the mentalities a bit. It depends on how they treat the match. I think the Peru - Ecuador match was a prime example of that. They're a better team than us but we caught them playing terribly in the early minutes and scored 2 early goals. As for Peru, we aren't very good but I still think we're capable of beating the USA on our day. We brought mostly in form players for the tournament and they are turning out to be pretty good. We're being let down by the few that aren't in form and just prove to be weak links to the team such as Hohberg and Revoredo. In terms of head to head friendlies, we've usually been good against North American sides.
I clearly said that in South America everyone respects them for what they are, but truth is, that no one fears them as how it was in the past. Btw, who is ruling them out, in advance ? As always, nothing can be ruled, before the last wistle gets blown
If Argentina plays Peru in Argentina, I can safely rule us out because its very unlikely for us to get a result away from home, let alone in Argentina. Brazil are an average team but I'd still think they are very capable of winning in any national team ground in South America (except maybe Bolivia and Ecuador).
This some bull shit BS Suda pride talking. Why would Mexico fear Brazil when we have arguably a better team than when we tied them at the WC, in Brazil! Add that we are at home plus no Neymar and you sound even more arrogant
Interesting theory. For the US, making the semis is a big deal. For Colombia, they'd rather make the final. It didn't look like Colombia was throw the game in the second half though. Certainly not starting their regulars didn't work well. Credit Costa Rica with taking the game to them though.
I'm not sure it'll probably cost them. Brazil didn't look like anything special vs. Ecuador. I give Colombia just as much chance to win that one. It was a reasonable risk Pekerman took, especially since CR was already out.
Brazil's missing key players and isn't a particularly strong side this tourney, but you don't usually want to meet any team capable of finishing top of their group. The odds are better with the #2 side regardless of who they are, so I'll take where the US is for that reason, and second it gets them a home match in Seattle. Probably one of the few places in this country that we could actually have a true home advantage against any team including Mexico.
Ha ha.... honestly, I think we can beat those other two.... not saying we will... just saying I think there's not a huge disparity there..... the only thing I find though is that I am a little more relaxed once my team goes out... until then I can't watch without being on edge most of the time lol...
eso mero, cabron! Aqui por donde vivo hay puro ñaño que apoyaban a Uruguay. 3-1 y see quedaron bien calladitos
That particular point wasn't meant to. Another poster explained why it wouldn't make sense for Colombia to tank a game just to get an easier matchup in a round that they had no guarantee of even getting to. I didn't feel the need to be redundant. Besides which, the same should stands for any team. The tougher opponent out of that group is the team that wins that group, so ultimately, Colombia (if his point has any merit) is choosing a tougher opponent in the next round to get to an easier opponent in the round after. Besides, if you want to win this tournament, at some point someone has to knock off Argentina anyway. I'd rather have the easier path to said match-up with less potential cost in terms of fatigue, yellow and red cards if possible. That is, unless cards reset in a hypothetical final with Argentina and Colombia. If not, then meeting them in the semifinals, is potentially a better shot than meeting them in a final. Plus Argentina is more likely to be caught out in a semi than in a final with everything on the line mentally. There's simply no good excuse, as far as potential opposition goes, for tanking a top seed unless Haiti had simply fluked themselves into the top seed out of that group thereby making the first round on that side a cakewalk. There is something to be said for Colombia getting the match in NY where they have more compatriots and making a better environment for themselves, however. So there's something to be said there. As far as potential crowd advantage, the draw works well for the US and Colombia. Having once lived in NY State and having an insane amount of family members from the Tri-State Area that I visit frequently, I'd never realized that there were significantly more Colombians there than other South Americans like Peruvians or Ecuadorians. I knew there were alot of Brazilians there, and don't get me started with Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. Alot more Mexicans are moving there recently. But as far as Latinos goes, never noticed a significant amount of Colombians vis-a-vis others, but since it's been stated by numerous Colombians that I've seen talking about it, I believe it's probably true.