Soccer, Sports and Politics - Part Deux

On the other hand, England has gotten past them for the last five years, just hasn't won.

I mean no disrespect to England, I just think the bulk of the hype surrounding them over the last half century is because of their (deserved) standing in the club game. They are not a Brasil or Germany or France or Argentina in terms of NT success.

It's at the team level that matters. They play Mexico and nobody else, so point taken. But the individual USA players are increasingly coming from European clubs like everybody else, so that's a wash.

It's not difficult to have those numbers with so many teams in the tournament. On the other hand, 30 percent of CONMEBOL has actually won a World Cup.

 

I mean, I know they were old, but they were 15 or so minutes from the next round, and blew it by being too aggressive in a game where the Koreans were clearly willing to share points. I can't be totally sure, but those fouls were in the midfield and not related to stopping a serious run.

Age might have doomed them later on, but it wasn't the reason they went home early.

 

Uhm, England is one of the few nations with regular last 8/final four appearances.
So hardly a hype. They are part of the establishment. They only, until the last 2 Euros, choked in the semi finals.

The teams that make it into the last 16 all have that, but the ones that have the exceptional players like Kevin deBruyne and Modric are the teams to beat the established forces to get to the last 4.

To get to the last 8 you still have to beat the opponents. The last 8 of every Worldcup, especially since 2000, are established UEFA nations with the addition of the South American usual 2 suspects.

 

Dude, that was tongue in cheek....
I never said he was shit , those are your words. I said as far I am concerned, he is an average manager. He had a couple of decent seasons at Spurs until they pushed him out. Even at PSG or Chelsea, he was not "shit", he simply didnt demonstrate any real authority & capacity to impose a style to those teams. At PSG, managers like Enrique or Tuchel imposed their style and philosophy, same with Conte or Tuchel at Chelsea. Never saw that with Poch.
I wish him good luck with the USMNT but his hiring leaves me underwhelmed.

 

The question will be if he can make the team execute a plan to get into the position to exploit/create a situation that leads to a goal scoring chance and execute a plan to prevent the opponent to use their strengths when in possession.

 

Regarding Poch, @soccernutter how can making a quarterfinal for team that has made the quarterfinals once with its golden generation not a massive achievement. Also he struggled at the two basket case administrations that everyone else has suffered from doesn't mean much. You over rate the talent on this, btw.

@charlie15 Klopp would suck at the international game. There is no proof Poch would be better. Hands on coaches have to adjust to being with their players once every few weBTW.

 

@argentine soccer fan Can you run down Scaloni's world class resume before he took of Argentina? I think these guys need a refresher

 

All I picked up from that was the importance of working as an international coach. As he was an assistant before. All these Top Class Club coaches that are named get to see these players all the time. Being an international coach you only see them a few weeks out of the year so you have to come up with a system that takes the talent you have and maximizes it and short training sessions. Then it's about making the right in game substitutions and getting the right draw in each competition. Scalone has gotten that lucky and he's maximized that luck with of course having a very talented Argentina Squad which this cuz Argentina's never been short of talent it's been the right management and the right luck of the drawer like I don't know eight penalty kicks.

American's favorite Club is the national team so they keep pulling up these Club coaches and these discussions and I don't know why. You have high expectations but you got half a cycle for any manager and now would be the time you get yourself a better manager who's experience at producing results even if it's not beautiful because you want to go far in your home cup but for whatever reason we're picking a guy with no International experience.

 

I know nothing about Zanetti other than he was a joy to watch for club and country!

 

Zanetti was my favorite player from that generation. Such a brilliant player.

 

And a class act as well. From that generation,
I had a chance to meet Batistuta in BA, at the Hilton in Puerto Madeiro, a decade ago, he could not have been more gracious.

 

My second favorite Argentine player is Jose Luis Brown. Dude became a legend to me watching the 1986 tournament, and especially the final. Dislocated his shoulder; tore a small hole in his jersey, hooked his thumb in, and kept playing - including scoring the only goal of his international career. I was more or less in my prime playing years then and I adopted him as my talismanic player.

 

That was the first WC final I saw live. I had a VHS of this game for years.

 

He must've watched the 1970 (IIRC) World Cup as a kid: Franz Beckenbauer separated his shoulder on a tackle. Got taped up, stayed in the match:

 

I would go back further. I always liked Ruben Ayala, who played for Argentina in the '74 WC. Maybe it was the rock star hair, but he was also a good forward who I also saw score an amazing goal for Atletico Madrid in European competition.

 

Lacrosse will be in the Olympics in 2028. Haudenosaunee Nation will stand bizness and medal, hopefully gold!

 

They can apply as refugee participants, being exiled in their own country:

1. https://www.sportingnews.com › us › olympics › news › refugee-olympic-team-athletes-2024-summer-games › 513cbfb5a14d9d3d67fdd0fa
   What is the refugee Olympic team? Meet the 36 athletes competing in the ...
   26 jul 2024To help foster change at the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee established an Olympic refugee team. The team made its debut in 2016 at the Rio Olympics, appeared at the 2020...

 

Came acroos this recommendation:


@nvelsen1975
2 jaar geleden
Aanrader: Een boek over de Congo-Arabische Oorlog (locals, België en Engelsen vs Arabieren met het verbieden van slavernij als inzet) is zonder auteursrechten online toegankelijk. Het heet 'The Fall of the Congo Arabs' geschreven door Sidney Langford Hinde die vocht tijdens die oorlog. O.a. het Internet Archive heeft het volledig ingescand toegankelijk. De Congo-Arabische Oorlog is essentieel om te begrijpen hoe de stammen over elkaar dachten en waarom België bepaalde stammen uitsloot van hogere functies (ze waren pro-slavernij en hadden tegen België gevochten).

@nvelsen1975 2 years ago Recommended: A book about the Congo-Arab War (locals, Belgium and English vs Arabs with the prohibition of slavery at stake) is accessible online without copyright. It's called 'The Fall of the Congo Arabs' written by Sidney Langford Hinde who fought during that war. The Internet Archive, among others, has scanned it completely and made it accessible. The Congo Arab War is essential to understanding how the tribes felt about each other and why Belgium excluded certain tribes from higher positions (they were pro-slavery and had fought against Belgium).

Anyone read it? Thoughts about it? Worth the read?