Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com Don't forget Bearzot in '82. And the Argentines were mostly native Italian expatriates who were brought back into the family ("raided"?), that's all.
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com Fair enough...especially since the Irish side of me has no room to talk. What's the saying? "If you own an Irish setter, you're eligible to play for their national team."
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com And we're supposed to like them for that? Did you root for the Russians in the Olympics?
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com YES !! Well... @ least respect them and give them their props.
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com uhh, what??? not following your logic here. i support USA cause I am a citizen and born here. I support Italia cause my dad was born and raised there and a chunk of my aunts uncles and cousins never left. I frequent the country, speak the language and yes, i love their soccer: team, league, players, and style. as my compare calcio69 noted, you don't need to like them, but you can't sleep on their accomplishments, etc. most sports would agree that good defense wins championships, it doesn't hurt to have a goalie like buffon and playmakers like totti, and pirlo, Dmids like gattuso (best at his position in the world! and easily pushes around all you other flop artists out there! with clean hard nosed calcio!) and strikers like inzaghi (most goals in CL history, period.), Del Piero. We can also talk history with Baggio, Rossi, etc. but nah, those guys weren't dominant and exciting. Italia of 2006, the world champs, brought the entire squad out of their own league, no one at that time was playing elsewhere, and no other national team could claim the same thing. they also had something like 10 or 12 different goal scorers. i guess home grown balanced attack combined with top D is not good soccer these days, it just wins world cups, more than most everybody else can claim.. it is also no coincidence that many many italians left for argentina, brasil and usa over the years and have influenced the games there. heard about giuseppe rossi?
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com That's one way to NOT endear yourself to hardcore US Soccer fans. The kid is American, born in New Jersey but he refuses to play for his home country because he's holding out hope to play for Italy. He's a ************ little traitor.
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com Forget him, we don't want those kind of people representing our country. I just hope he gets a cap on the Italian national team, and is then benched for the rest of his international career.
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com dude, why do assume i don't know what i'm talking about with my own references?? no sh!t. first, i have no need to endear myself to "hardcore US Soccer fans". the kid is also Italian, born to Italian speaking immigrants and has lived outside of USA almost as long as within. if you had a reasonable shot at playing for such a squad as Italia, you'd be a serious chump not to go for it. (he's certainly not the first player to be born somewhere and end up playing elsewhere.) besides, have you thought about the value and accomplishment of having a US born player potentially cap, play, start, score for a world cup champion squad! unheard of as of now, and would be completely epic for "hardcore US soccer fans". lastly, perhaps you missed my point entirely. italians emigrate to other countries and produce quality footballers. rossi being the best USA example as he is the most respected and highest level footballer we have right now. other examples include: zanetti, who plays for inter, comes from argentina, but clearly has italian heritage; within MLS, there are schelloto and caraccio, for example, again, out of argentina but certainly with italian blood... joey red is a hero, yall just wish he'd play for the usa, as i do too (maybe he will), but i still respect what he brings to our game and that is respect from the "hardcore international football community"
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com Whatever, if he wants to play for the Flopper National Team, let him. I can't bother with Italian fans like you who came out of the woodwork in July of 06.
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com then why are you still bothering with me? i remember winning in 82, i remember practically crying when baggio missed high in the final here in the US in 94, i remember when materazzi "flopped" his way into our 4th cup, and many other moments in between... you have no clue.
Re: Name the Team Suggestions @ Sons of Ben.com My personal beef is with the whole growing up in America, paying taxes in America, your family improving their standard of living in America (assumption I know) and then going out to an American Bar and supporting ********in Italy, like I saw at the last world cup (It v Us first round secong game in 06) where the Mosquito Grill (not an Italian esablishment by any stretch) had more "Forza Italia" then "Go USA" by a country mile is an absolute utter disgrace. I don't know enough about Rossi growing up but I'm sure he has many similarities to my friend in the next paragraph. One of my good buddies has this strange way of FRONTRUNNING (yes frontrunning cause if Italy all of the sudden became Ireland i'm sure the US support would benefit) down to the tittle. He wears all the Italian jerseys, he thinks the MLS is a ********in joke with no hope, and above all looks at USMNT in the same regards as Poland. When I express my disgust for his choice in support, he lists many of the things I mentioned earlier and how his dad is from Italy. But I respond with a point that he still has no comeback for: I say "Go, Go to ********in Italy, buy the clothes, eat the food, use the hairspray, hell you could even learn the language and at the end of the day they're going to think of you as One and only One thing... American"
Re: International Teams Discussion just finished "watching" the spain/russia gamecast on ESPNsoccernet ... some of their commentators' remarks are absolutely hilarious, such as this gem at the 93rd minute:
Re: International Teams Discussion That guy doing the commentary was fabulous. "What a day for David Villa. He's been superb today - Kolodin and Shirokov have pooped their pants every time he's got the ball."
Re: International Teams Discussion It wasn't Ray Hudson, was it? If so, huuuuge props to the WWL for doing the right thing. (I was watching at lunch with no sound at Houlihans)
i was talking about the commentary on the gamecast, it's a streaming text only broadcast of the game.
Miss any EURO2008 matches? Working with no ESPN access? Need highlights? Check it out... http://www.101greatgoals.com/