Stellar story from the Guardian of London on the USMNT. They compare our guys to Argentina and say the USA is much BETTER. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/15/world-cup-united-states-charlie-davies To quote: Right now, anyone who gives you shorter odds for Argentina to go far in 2010 is off their rocker. The USA are in a sense everything that the mishmash under Maradona is not. Their team ethic is exceptional, they are drilled to play to their strengths, and their athleticism and attitude makes them a pretty relentless opponent. If the draw is kind to them, they could go further than they have ever been in their modern history.
It's an interesting side, with an interesting coach. I'm ready for just about anything. The team truly believes in themselves, and that's always worth something. They have fantastic chemistry, and they seem to have utterly bought into Coach Bradley, and Coach Bradley seems to have his finger on his teams pulse in a way that not even Arena was able to do.
Huh??? Multiple WCQ comeback wins and ties. Some in hostile road matches. Gut check games against Egypt and Spain. Rip Van Winkle, by any chance?
Wow... I've seen a lot of hyperbole, questionable logic, slander, outright lies, statman corothers, mexicant trolls, sekrah, SoccerAndy5 and shit that would make your stomach turn here in my 10 years on BigSoccer. But never have I seen anything so comprehensively wrong as this post. This is the Joe-Max Moore at Dmid of BigSoccer posts. Congratulations.
Oh yeah, and Guardian still doesn't know shit from shinola. I assume every word of this article is wrong.
Yeah, but you have to admit, he stepped up big time for this one. It's like he was channeling ...In My Defense, sidspaceman and ITS CALLED FOOTBALL all at the same time.
Jozy's always done that. As someone who spent a long time around athletes, it's especially notable how thoughtful and sincere he is in his interviews. The same can be said about Donovan and Gooch. Hockey players used to tend to be like that as well. If baseball, basketball and football players were ever like that, it was before my time.
Nice to get compliments, but you all are aware how unlikely it is for them to say anything good about Argentina, aren't you??
Nice article. Of course, they blew some of their facts. The USA in fact played in the WC in 1934 as well. As guess visiting FIFA.com and clicking on USA is beyond the research budget of the Guardian. Still, nice article.
I apologize, but that struck me as being very funny. Sandwiched between outright lies and mexicant trolls...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz7_3n7xyDg"]YouTube - Liam Lynch: United States of Whatever[/ame]
This is a nice piece but there is a lot of time for Argentina to improve. I understand what the author is getting at but I don't think I'd ever say the USA is better than Argentina. Perhaps better coached at this point in time but to underestimate Argentina now that they've qualified is silly. Plenty of teams have barely made it out of qualifying and then made a deep tournament run -- I believe Brazil was unimpressive during their qualification for 2002. Furthermore, for anyone to suggest that the Confed Cup effort was possibly our federation's best international showing is silly. Frankly, I don't think it even compares to the 2002 World Cup and what the USA was able to do, even despite their heartbreaker versus Germany. The Confed was - at best - a mixed bag. We lost more games than we won - and we often lost bad. We folded miserably against Brazil (something that appears to be becoming a trend). It's a tournament of 8 teams...as opposed to 32. I walked away from the 2002 WC excited about the future of US soccer - we played an exciting, aggressive brand of footie. When the Confed ended, as excited as I was for the chance to play in a final, I found myself unconvinced by our team to some extent. I think this article is dead-on about the USA's characteristic resilience and professionalism; however, those attributes mean only so much and I'm not sure what they will actually produce in terms of SA prospects. IMO, this team has a lot to improve upon in all parts of the field in the coming months. Toughness is great - but toughness does not overcome superior talent, skill, and tactics. This is tremendous press and I am amazed a foreign writer would actually craft such a favorable piece on anything related to US soccer. I just don't happen to agree. I cannot speak for anyone else but I have not seen a consistent level of soccer from the US MNT of late that convinces me we'll really do much damage next summer. I really hope I'm wrong. I certainly don't mean to be a downer on this thread - I just find this article to be a bit off. Regardless, great find.