In todays LA Times Bill Plaschke laid it all out. If we want to be a Soccer Superpower then we better damn well start acting like. You can find it at www.latimes.com/sports. Basiclly he is saying we sould have been PO'd after the Slovenia and Algeria matches. We should have critisied the coach and the plalyers for not taking care of buissnes. I agree. We need to expect more of our team than being happy we tied Slovinia and barely beat Algeria
We beat Slovenia in all reality after conceding two goals which is just what a team named Brazil did to us last year in the Confed cup final. We should have won 2-0 over Algeria. On top of that we outplayed Algeria we had far more real chances than they did.
umm... since when is Plaschke a soccer expert? also guys, we are having an amazing run but we are not a soccer superpower... i know its hard, but lets try to keep ourselves grounded here.
Yes, I need a former soccer basher like Plaschke telling me how to act. No thanks. This is phase 2 with the media. I welcome them all into the pool, even if they used to bash the sport. But now, they will try to apply their American sports knowledge to the World Cup in ways it doesn't fit. I have seen others who have questioned why we had trouble with Slovenia -- a country of 2 million. Of course, they don't talk about that team qualifying out of a strong group and then beating Russia -- a fairly big country -- to get to the World Cup. Had England crushed Slovenia and Algeria, I might have some empathy for you and Plaschke and your misguided position. As it stands, they were two strong teams who were very, very tough to break down. While we are talking about taking care of "business" you and Plashke might want to do a little research into the history of this tournament. Talk to Italy this year. Talk to everybody's darling Portugal in 2002 or Columbia in 1994. There are plenty and plenty of other examples. The 32 teams that get to that tournament are all good in their own way (ok, maybe not North Korea ) and winning any group is an accomplishment. I'll add to the list John Kincaid. I was listening to his radio show on Sunday after the England game. He was going on and on about how we don't celebrate ties in this country. We don't celebrate mediocrity. He said, "don't tell me that I don't understand. I do understand . . ." No John, you don't. If you understood, you would know that losing your first game in the group stage is a deep, deep hole to climb out of (paging Italy, please pick up the white courtesy phone). If you understood, you would realize that more than game 1 it is like the first period of a larger three period game with a goal of finishing in the top 2. In sum, I'm not upset about these former bashers turned experts. They will pontificate a bit about what the US should have done or needs to do and over time, they WILL figure it out a bit better and they WILL look back at their comments now and realize that they were talking out of their collective asses. That's fine. If they are interested, I'll be happy to explain to them why so many good players all wear the same numbers too. EDIT -- Oops. Italy tied its first game. My mistake. Still, it shows how important dropped points can be for a favorite or seeded team. Columbia 94 and Portugal 02 are better examples of getting 0 points in the first game.
If you had seen Plaschke on Around the Horn on Wednesday you would've seen how much of an idiot he really is...
Oh is this the same idiot? I did see that episode, and the one guy who jumped out at me as knowing the absolute least about soccer soccer was the guy with the balding gray hair and closely cropped gray beard.
Saw this as well. He had no idea what he was talking about and got destroyed...they didn't even have him on the show the next day when they discussed the World Cup again, whether that was a coincidence or not I'm not so sure.
Bill Plaschke is the most retarded sports columnist in the United States, and has been for many many years. He is worse than Woody Paige, Jay Mariotti, TJ Simers, Jason Whitlock, and Scoop Jackson combined. Hell, he would be even worse than Stephen A Smith and Jim Rome, if they could write. Plaschke writes in paragraphs that are each made up of a solitary short sentence, and he still makes no sense... examples Anyone who bothers to read these will realize that this comment is not hyperbole. And this moron is employed by the LA freaking Times.... Newspapers can't die fast enough.
Seriously, though. There is a kernel of truth there. Take care of business and we have 7 pts in the group stage. Don't throw away points in the group stage by not being focused for 90 minutes. USA fans SHOULD have higher expectations. I am glad that the group ended up the way it did, but in all reality it didn't require all this drama.
Italy is going home early. So is France. Plaschke and everyone like him can get run over by this bandwagon. Such trash.
He should have listened to English media after they beat Slovenia 1-0. They're going on to win the world cup now I've heard. Their coach was elated in a post game interview commending how terrific his team was after squeaking out of group play.
American fans should be more like the fans of the big boys! We should overestimate our players' abilities! We should overreact to any setbacks! We should devote entire websites to calling for the ass-raping of players we don't like! And other sites to prying into their family lives! We should be contemptuous of our opponents! We should blame the players for not overruling the referees' bad calls when they cost us goals! If we were more like English fans, we would've propelled our boys to dominate our group like England did theirs! Our team would've ruthlessly stomped its inferiors like France and Italy did! Rah! Rah! Grunt! Grunt!
Agree with most of it, but as South Americans like to say, "que gallego que es". By not growing up with the sport, we mean playing their whole lives AND watching at the stadium and on TV. It is hard to play at a high level when you can't learn from the best. While many kids might play the sport at AYSO when they're 6, they stop at maximum 12, and don't watch it on TV. Also, we aren't that amazed when the U.S. beats Austria in skiing, or when we beat Australia in swimming, because in those countries, the best athletes play either soccer or rugby and cricket in Australia's case. They don't ski or swim. Around the world, the best athletes play soccer, including Algeria. In the U.S., the best athletes play other sports.
this guy is the reason why the term "smacked ass" was invented. total imbecile. a paper that has words written by this man in it is fit to be a birdcage liner only.
Plaschke is an idiot...and I'm pretty sure he's a soccer hater. Take down the link. He's not worth it.
Obviously Plaschke is wrong for reasons that have already been discussed here, but I think it's worth considering how he came across his beliefs. Plaschke's belief that expectations should be set unrealistically high for the American soccer team are probably rooted in the same winner-takes-all mentality that drives American thought in other areas of international competition. Many Americans are repulsed by the idea of the United States being second best in anything (sports, education, health care, manufacturing, science, you name it), and even considering using other countries as models or inspiration for ideas is often politically contentious. Maybe this is a stretch, but I suspect this thinking is rooted in Cold War-era competition with the Soviet Union, when there was widespread fear that if the United States "slipped up" and allowed the USSR to surpass the US in too many aspects of society and economy, it would credit the Soviet political and economic model over the American one and result in a Soviet "victory". You still see this in American political discourse referring to worries about China or Europe "catching up" with the United States in some way or another. In all likelihood, if this situation were removed from the context of a national team, Plaschke would see the irrationality of fans being disappointed in their team getting the best possible result early in a playoff without cruising through. For example, very few sports analysts would have considered writing an article about the Celtics saying fans should have expected them to beat the Cavaliers in fewer games and therefore they should be disappointed and anguished by their team moving on to the next round in such unimpressive fashion, even if they didn't know much about basketball and had no clue the Cavaliers were considered the superior team.
this asshole was on around the horn the other day and was a complete jerkoff. a soccer power is determined by the performances on the pitch, not reactions to your teams. notable soccer teams like france, italy, and england all have the added pressure of the fact that their media and fans will shit on them if they underperform. the us players consistently thank the amazing support from us. i take so much pride in being part of the revolution of soccer fan hood in this country. win or lose, american supporters have always been there to cheer on the yanks and ive seen it myself. any true supporter of this team realizes this team never, ever gives up, and thats enough. so we may not have decades old chants, or traditions that shape our image, but anyone whos seen the videos on youtube of the fans celebrating and the reactions of the people around the country show that we have a true love for our team, and that goes a lot further than bashing them if they didnt beat algeria 5v0 like this asshole said we should. as long as we keep grinding out ways to advance, that will evolve us into a super power, not shitting on them
You didn't get the article at all did you. England qualified just like we did. The English fans and press racked them over the coals. If any major soccer country had done the same their press and fans would do the same. Not us we were over joyed to qualify. We should demand more of our coaches and players. We should critizes the poor defending and lack of scoring we should have called for Bradleys head. Just like the English press did. Yes I am happy we are thru but I am not happy how it happend. We should have beaten the lesser teams handily. We can not get complacent.
England has more talent on their team than we do. So do France, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Argentina and Italy. We haven't reached a talent level on our national team that allows us the luxury of criticizing our coach for not reaching the semifinals or cruising through group play with three wins. For countries like us, with our talent level, getting out of the group is a success. When we raise the talent level on the national team, then we can up the standards. For now, I'll enjoy this team's success in this World Cup.
Saying that they're way worse than us doesn't make it true. Saying that it should be easy to beat an inferior team doesn't make it true. All you have to do know that is watch a couple World Cup group stages. Which the guy who wrote the article has never done.