these kind of posts just ask for ridicule. the us could very possibly beat england, even though england are the better team. the us has beat some very good teams lately, so anything can happen, but 6-0 is slightly ridiculous.
Let's beat Wales (the 49th ranked team in the world and planning to play without most it stars) 6-0 next week first. If we can't do that then discussing whether we can blow out England seems a bit absurd.
I've never quite understood the obsession some US fans have with England. They're not in the same confederation, nor are they a world power against whom other teams are measured. And for the most part, the English don't really care that much about USA. Their main rivals are Germany, Argentina and to a lesser extent, most of western Europe. Sure, they're good and have occasional moments of brilliance, but they haven't been a legit world power for quite some time. It's not 1950, you know.
We obsess because we want to play teams better than us, and for that we have to look out of our confederation, and for your point with england and germany, from what i gathered living in germany, they dn't really care about england. So y do the english obsess with the germans? World War's thats the only reason.
Fair enough, though England and Germany do often find a way to meet each other in big games, i.e. the recent WC Qualification and 1966 WC Final. And I suppose it's understandable with the close ties between the two cultures (US - UK).
That reason could explain why the US is obsessed with England. There are still pending issues from the War of Independence, you know.
Exactly. By 2006 then it will have been 40 years since their last WC win, which, not quite so coincidentally, they won in England. Their brand of football works in Northern Europe and cooler climates. So maybe we shouldn't want to be like them so much....
No it's not. I remember this tripe being trotted out around the WC. Nowadays it has very little to do with either of the large wars - and rather more to do with actual football and proximity. Skip's right, England and Germany (being in the same confederation) do meet each other enough to perpetuate the rivalry. WC Final '66; WC QF '70; WC SF '90; EC SF '96; EC '00; WC Qualifying for '02 etc etc. But to suggest it's because of the wars is ridiculous. We Englanders don't hate Bernhard Langer, Michael/Ralf Schumacher (well Michael we do, but not because he's German) or Boris Becker. Hell, the nation absolutely adored him after he took Wimbledon by storm a bit ago. Surely we should hate these guys too? We don't, ergo, it's not the wars. And as for the 6-0 win over our ladies: When our men start taking as little notice of the game as our women do, and when your men start taking as much attention of the game as your women do, then we might be getting somewhere. I'm not sure people realise how little publicity (and everything that goes with it) the womens game gets over here. Virtually nothing. It is embarassing to see them (not that the game was shown or even narrowly reported here) get pasted - but then I get over it.
Why do we obsess with England? Because we want to be them. They're the easiest major footballing nation to identify with because of the common language, and what England is right now is what most of us want MLS and US Soccer to be in the future. Tradition, respectability, national obsession, history. It's something we don't have and we want. Want an example? What was the first thing we looked for in giving a proper name to the HDC? Streets. In the English tradition of naming football grounds after the street they reside on. We could've gave it a Hispanic name, LA is a major Latin city. But no, the general consensus among a vast majority of American soccer fans was to do what the English do. That's why we want to beat England.
We want England because they invented the game and we broke away from them. I think we could beat England id people like Friedel and Reyna etc would play in the game if it were in the English off-season. It would be tough, but I do believe we could compete. Our back would have to be sound that match as well....
It´s curious. Brazil is never obssesed in beating Portugal, and I doubt the argentineans feel the same way about the spaniards. But the contrary is quite possible. At least the US team cannot complain about having no other countries obsessed in beating them. Look how eager was Iran to beat the USA in France 98. For them it was an WC apart.
i don't get it, do the english only hate the germans when it comes to soccer cause they hardly ever beat them? Is that why that 5-1 felt so good? Cause the Germans don't consider it a rivalry. Doesn't a rivalry need both sides to think that way? Just curious.
I remember one year ago when there were a lot of flame exchange between german and english fans on the Efnet channels discussing the WC.
England beat Germany in the final in 1966 but all other times Germany have been unbelievably lucky to win, usually on penalties. If it weren't for Germany England would have won more world cups and Euro cups.
I don't know what Efnet is, can u tell me? I"m just curious, cause from what i gather from germans, they care more about beating teams like holland and stuff more than the English. But the English care more about beating the Germans. What i think would be cool would be some sort of tourney with England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, North. Ireland, U.S.A., Canada and Aust. That would be cool.
Efnet is an IRC net server. If you don't know there's already a huge rivalry between England and Scotland in the british islands. Some say it´s bigger than the rivarly against Argentina or Germany. It's not difficult to understand, because of all the politics and historical issues there.
Save for the USA, they already have this type of tournament. It's called the Commonwealth Games. Although, these nations don't send their "A" teams.
i didn't think they had soccer at the commonwealth games. I could be mistaken though, I was in england last summer, but i don't remember them having soccer