I like this guy, Hey Chris i am with you on that prediction. ITS OUR TIME NOW. the 2009 confed cup belongs to the STATES. oooooo ooooo ooo ooo o oo o o o oooooooooooo o o o o U.S.A USA will win it all.
i'd like to consider everton, rangers, aston villa, fulham, recently bayern munchen, west ham united, standard, and even hannover 96 as some of the top clubs in the world...not playing for top club sides isnt the problem.
None of these teams are considered among the very top teams in anyones world with the exception of Bayern Munich....and last I looked they don't have an American in sight.
Most of them are on this list: http://www.iffhs.de/?3d4d443d0b803e8b40384c00205fdcdc3bfcdc0aec70aeedbe1a And also the current list: http://www.iffhs.de/?10f42e00fa2d17f73702fa3016e23c17f7370eff3702bb1c2bbb6f28f53512 And he said top, not very top. I'm not saying I agree with the rating system, but it appears to agree with him if you classify top as in the best 150 or so.
rankings from the iffhs are the most ridiculous rankings I have ever seen. Find Everton on that list, look who are in front of them.
Clearly your biased support has clouded your thinking. It would be nice, but with Bob Bradley coaching (if you want to call it that) we're doomed to repeat our 2006 result. What first tier countries have we beat under Bob Bradley? Zero. Mexico is one of the top 2nd tier teams and beating them shows that we're one of the top teams in the 2nd tier...but first tier, nope. Our match in Costa Rica will reveal just how far we need to go. We've never beat them at the stadium that we're playing them at. It isn't going to happen this time because if you watched our matches since Bradley took over you can clearly tell that we're playing 2nd tier soccer. We're going 3 and out at The Confederations Cup and hopefully Bob Bradely will be fired. Hire a coach that has coached in the top leagues or has coached first tier teams: Klinsmann, Scolari, Hiddink...then you will see the team improve to the point where they can compete with 1st tier teams.
What you are saying does not need preaching. Most fans know in their hearts that we cannot compete in soccer with the top 10 national teams. And, with the exception of South Africa in recent time, we have not done well vs African teams (Cameroon is #19) either, even in friendlies (which in truth indicate little). Klinsmann and Scolari have stumbled with club teams and Hiddink is taken, but is by far the best of the three for a team like the USMNT. Hiddink would be great but he won't be available when we go three and out at the Confed Cup. After seeing Chelsea win the FA Cup, Hiddink would be the best guy to coach us at the World Cup. O well, bring on Sigi Schmid and play all our home games in Seattle.
The USA could bring in Ferguson, Mourinho,Hiddink whoever and it won't change the basic facts. To beat 3 or 4 top teams in a row (which is what generally has to happen to win a world cup) you need players better than those available to this (or any other) coach. Bradley is not the problem....a lack of world class talent is.
I've been trying to argue this forever, and it doesn't register. Italy and Brazil have a better player at every position on the field than we do. And for every position other than goalkeeper it's by some distance. It's not even close. (And yes, I think Buffon of Italy and Júlio César of Brazil are better than Howard. But that's at least arguable). I don't know enough about Egypt's team (other than their stars like Zidan and Aboutrika) to know how we stack up with them. Now my analysis doesn't mean we..........can't.........take points from Brazil and Italy. After all, talent-wise, we had no business drawing with Italy at the 06 World Cup. This is soccer. Anything can happen. If we take 4 points in the group stage it will be a major achievement. That's the same number of points we took in the 02WC group stage, when our group was substantially, substantially weaker than this. People just get fixated on Bradley, like he's the problem. He's not the problem. We're just not that good. People watch us crush T&T and Mexico at home, and think that means more than it does.
Just in case we advance, I would add Spain to the list. We have a 0% chance of winning both tourneys. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...global&cc=5901 Spain squad: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Jose Reina (Liverpool), Diego Lopez (Villarreal); Raul Albiol (Valencia), Alvaro Arbeloa (Liverpool ), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Carles Puyol (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Xabi Alonso, (Liverpool), Sergi Busquets (Barcelona), Santi Cazorla (Villarreal), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Xavi (Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), David Silva (Valencia), Juan Manuel Mata (Valencia), Albert Riera (Liverpool); Daniel Guiza (Fenerbache), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Valencia).
The problem is that this is a pure "on paper" argument. We've beaten Portugal, tied Italy, and narrowly lost to Brazil and Germany in World Cups. Brazil and Argentina have gotten their asses kicked in qualifying by teams that also had worse players at every position. It's irrationally defeatist to say we can't beat them, and we should maximize our chances with coaching. Soccer is a sport that lends itself to underdogs.
of course there are upsets in soccer all the time.... any given day a team can beat another... however, if i were a betting man, i would place money on a top side like Italy, Spain or Brazil beating the US in a single match... its not a slight to the USMN or our players, its a simple fact that despite playing immaculate we are still going to be an underdog to a top side like every team mentioned.... in short, yes, the US CAN beat any team... we just cant do it consistently...
FYP...and boy did it need fixing. It is nuts to keep going on about friggin' Portugal without mentioning Poland a week later.
consistently... Say if they do,,,,, WWDWW .. this team can go farther than any other team we had. i cant wait to see our MNT win it all, and wonder what your reactions will be.