"Thank you, Jurgen. And good bye. Time to Move on from the Sterile Klinsmann Interlude"

I think that was the plan up until Altidore got hurt, which goes back to roster selection. Boyd should have been there instead of Wondo. And dare I say it, Landon instead of Davis.

Once Altidore got hurt he went to plan B for four games. Kinda like when Bradley got injured before the Costa Rica game. Our roster was not deep enough and could not afford certain deficits. Then I wonder what if Green got more playing time.

 

You are your own best Judge, Taco.

 

I stand by my post. Saying that a coach has to make it to the round of 8 to be re- signed is ignorant. We got out of a group that we were not supposed to get out of. We then lose to a team in extra time that clearly outclassed us, yet we want to fire the coach. Ignorant.

 

Put the 8 teams together in one group. Here's how I think they finish over 7 games each:

(1) Germany
(2) USA
(3) Portugal
(4) Ghana
(5) Uruguay
(6) Costa Rica
(7) Italy
(8) England

This assumes no biting from Chewy Louey. It's pure speculation, but that's how I see it. I'm an Azzurri fan, and I think Italy were crap. Did you see Christian Vieri on BEIN Sports? He said they were crap. Wrong selection of players. No team spirit. They were crap, just like in 2010.

 

Wow a player can say that? Apparently it's wrong to do in America for some here.

 

The funny thing is that Klinsmann is probably loving the fact that there are all of these highly critical articles about him. He wants fans and media to care more and to be more demanding of coaches and players.

This is the first world cup I can remember reading so many strongly worded columns about the U.S. team's and coach's performance. I remember past world cups where I wished that members of the media would be more vocal in questioning tactics and player selections. It used to be a fairly small community of soccer writers who didn't want to risk rocking the boat and upsetting the guys at Soccer House.

This world cup has been so different and it's refreshing. Seriously, who would have imagined just a few years ago the whole Wilbon episode? I remember watching the Sportscenter anchors visibly pained to have to announce the U.S. world cup roster once it had been officially released.
We're seeing progress, folks!

 

The problem is that the media didn't want to rock the boat because they were protecting Bob and Landon and Bruce and every other 'murican.

Now, they can slam Klinsmann because he is upsetting the apple cart. And because he is not 'murican.

On a 14-game round-robin, teams would finish exactly like they are ranked by Elo.

Just his body. His brain has been deprived of oxygen for the last several decades.

 

Of course, the majority of the 60% were delusional Klinsmann haters. Betting services had the US as a 150-300/1 favorite to win the WC (23rd out of 32 teams) and the math/stat based predictions only gave the US ~ 26% chance of getting out of the group.

Of course, if you're fielding 4 d-mids and still allowing 36 shots, then you're allowing them despite the midfield, not because of it.

That's the problem with many anti-Klinsmann arguments and arguers. They didn't like the "defensive" lineup but they didn't like giving up all these shots either. Well, if he put out a more attacking lineup, he would have allowed a bunch more shots. Guys like Donovan and Wynalda can't have it both ways. The US isn't Italy or England that had several $25M strikers to pull of the bench. If the attack got stronger, the defense would have gotten weaker and it was in dire straits as it were.

 

Again, hilarious post.
So the haters thought we were going to advance and the fanboys thought we wouldn't? I am seriously rolling off my chair here.

But go ahead, prove it.

Are we discussing 'betting services' or the claim that 'no one had us advancing out of this group' - except for 60% of the people on Big Soccer USA Men?

The fact that math/stat based predictions only gave the US a 26% chance of getting out of the group should teach you something. But I'm 99% sure that won't happen.

 

If you can't recall what the bettors and the prognosticators had laid out three weeks ago, perhaps you need to up your doze of memory pills.

 

In your mind we are Luxembourg.

 

That's what I mean. You'll never learn.

 

yeah, I think the other interesting thing about getting out is looking at the competition. It would be the winner of group H which would most likely be Belgium, Russia, SK and Algeria in that order. I would def take those conditional odds as well. lol, it would be so much easier if LD were playing just to know our own playing quality...
As I said on the Ghana and Portugal review; after watching both play last night, I am much less worried about not getting out of the group. No thanks to JK, no less.
taylor,Jun 1, 2014

http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...tting-odds-for-usa-placement-in-2014.2005560/

 

I'm as upset as anyone about the Donovan stuff. But Jurgen's not going anywhere, and we all know that. So it's just better to move forward. The silver lining is that he has learned some lessons, and I don't think he'll be sabotaging us further. His revenge is out of his system.

 

Not sure how the convo got to this point. But looking at that, I'd say the teams are fairly evenly matched. I think besides Germany, there's a lot of parity. But this would be my table:

1. Germany
2. Italy
3. USA
4. Uruguay
5. England
6. Ghana
7. Portugal
8. Costa Rica

I really think 2-8 could go in any order tbh.

 

This is an utterly bizarre article. I'm wondering what WC is Gardner watching. The US escaped from a group that included Germany, arguably the best team in Africa in Ghana and the team with one of the two best players in the world, not to mention a pretty good supporting cast in Portugal. The US outplayed Portugal in Manaus and was very unlucky not to win. Then we played Belgium. Gardner may want to review the names on that Red Devil squad. To imply that JK should in a three year span whip up players that are on an elite level in a country where we never really had a player of that caliber is patently absurd.

 

Q,for Mr.G ,no Latinos=no chance.
Nothing else to see.

 

Props to had anyone with Costa Rica winning their group in their bracket!

Revisionist history, in and of itself, makes Big Soccer a treat . .

 

Totally agree mainly because Portugal was a banged up team. Difficult to judge Ghana, they played okay, Ghana drew Germany. We can say we had a more difficult Round of 16 game but in the end, I don't think our group was as hard.

 

I was so, so hopeful after the last two friendlies. It looked like Jurgen had come to grips with what he had and had melded his vision of American tiki taka with the American strength in the counter to create an interesting hybrid. We looked for the counter, but if it wasn't there, we could play possession soccer.

In retrospect, I wonder if the goal 30 seconds in against Ghana was actually a good thing, as weird as it seems. Once Ghana equalized, we showed we were the better team in a level match. I wonder if we would have been the better team the first 80 minutes, too, and if that might have carried over against Belgium.

 

You're like death and taxes, man.

 

You should have just put your order down as:
Group G:
Group D:

 

Maybe, but maybe not. If you're playing only 2 offensive players, you're not going to be able to hold the ball.

You're a big football fan. The prevent defense where a team replaces linebackers with DBs works. The one where they try to rush 2 or 3 players doesn't, because it doesn't matter how many fast players you have covering receivers, if the quarterback has 10 seconds to throw, somebody's going to get open.

The reality is that, like Bradley in 2010, Jurgen shot par.

Let me flip it around...can you identify 2 or 3 things Jurgen got wrong?

PS...those betting services didn't know about the turmoil within the Ghana camp, they didn't know Portugal was going to lose 4-0 to Germany thus destroying their GD, and they didn't know that Pepe was going to be suspended for the US game. If they had known those things, our odds would have been a hell of alot higher.

 

Agree with the spirit of your post but no way is Costa Rica the doormat, you must not have seen that game vs. Italy. Costa Rica beat Italy straight up and shut them down completely. 5 additional players of the Ticos were tested after the game per the "random drug tests", not two as usual. The result was so unexpected and strong. Hard to see a team placed 8th when they beat #2 straight up, no tricks, no dives, no bad calls. Then, Uruguay as well defeats a Suarez-less Uruguay 1-0, Colombia defeats a Suarez-less Uruguay 2-0.

 

The betting services don't know what is going to happen.

But I have entered a few contests. One contest had a spreadsheet to fill out the scores before the Round of 16 and then, no chance to change it, you mailed it in. None of this being able to change one's predictions up to game time. It's amazing that a lot of people actually do very well even within those limitations.

And then, compare that to those who can adjust their predictions during the tournament.