Being Latin did not help Costa Rica today ... van Persie's blowing chance after chance did though ... those white Europeans just have no talent ...
Typical delusional US fans who use attitude over rationality. Thank God for them! If it wasn't for people like them, we'd still have a Union Jack on our flag!
Well, if I were the coach and started guaranteeing WC spots for players to switch, I bet I'd be a good recruiter, too.
We hardly have the trademark on that. Most fans overestimate their own team and underestimate others, whether at an international or club level. Except England, where they're just pessimistic about everything.
Beautiful! And, no slight at Green by saying this, but the more times I watch it the more I'm stunned by how little credit Bradley's been getting for the ball he sent in. Especially with this camera angle.
"Pinto, with fewer players, less money, less resources, has done what Klinsmann has utterly failed to do -- he has produced a team of Costa Ricans, 14 of them playing for foreign clubs (not major clubs -- and there are no German-Costa Ricans on this side) that has played attractive, coherent, intelligent soccer. Watching the USA, one is often left wondering whether Klinsmann has even tried to do this." Oh, for babyjesus sake, you can say what you want about Klinsi but "attractive, coherent, intelligent soccer?" Seriously? Maybe the writer mistook Columbia for Costa Rica. You can say CR played effective soccer, gutsy soccer, even exciting soccer, but it was not attractive - certainly not against the big boys. That Netherlands game made the US-Bel matchup look like we were playing jogo bonito. CR parked the bus IN the goal - not in front of it. 4 yellow cards (3 for fouls on Robben, I think - there was a plan of PI with alternating player to avoid 2 yellows) 1 Corner to 11 for Ned half the passes attempted (400 to 800) Less than half the number of passes completed. 67% completion rate. 6 saves to Ned's 1 (Navas saved CR's ass as many times a Howard did our in this tourney, btw) Greece was very similar, funnily enough (and a much poorer team - of course, the CR being up much of the 2nd half changes some things, but not all) 7 saves for Navas. Less posssession for CR Way less shots. Less passes. Less passes completed More fouls. More yellow cards (6) CR did great. They played hard. They worked as a team. They should be proud. They punched well above their weight and have a couple of real players, but to suggest that is the style of footie we should aspire to if we are looking to play "attractive" soccer is a guy who does not know how to watch soccer - or just hates Klinsi "cause".
That's what CR has - v. Netherlands. Like CR, we are not, man for man, as good as Belgium or Germany. We played them as tight as we could - and got nearly as far. Costa Rica is not attractive soccer. Gardner did not watch those games or his idea of attractive is way different from mine.
The difference between us and other countries is we have no midfield. When you have guys like Bedoya, Zusi, Davis, etc. starting on the wings, you aren't going to have success. We were playing a CDM at CAM for god sakes. We also haven't developed any good strikers. Campbell would start easily at striker for us. We won't become a real threat until we develop good attacking players.
Hadn't seen this article at the time it was posted. I agree with everything in it and am a bit shocked. I vaguely remembered Paul Gardner being one of those "everything Euro is better" guys. I must have been wrong.
Close. Gardner is one of those "everything Latin is better" guys, and he's purely a one-note, one-message crank about it. Personally, whenever I find myself agreeing with Gardner, I take it as sign that I might have to re-think my position. In short, Gardner's basically criticizing Klinsmann for being European *cough* "sterile" *cough* and selecting the German guys over the Latin guys. Had he taken Torres and Orozco and Castillo etc. the tone of his article would've been very different and much more positive.
Really - you agree with his description of how CR played in Brazil? Ok. I really think I watched a different tournament.
Um... yes? I was thinking all that and more while the tournament was playing out. While everyone was fellating Klinsmann for going no further than his predecessors, while playing ugly, scared soccer, I was wondering why we can't have things like Jorge Luis Pinto.
Wow - ok. The US can, and does, often play like CR did in the tournament (although not as dirty - I think we could be better at directed fouling like CR was.) I'll say it again: CR did not play pretty soccer. The US is fully capable of playing that brand of soccer. It's cynical and effective bunker and counter. It was, in fact, a very "US-like" performance: organized, brave, sometimes heroic defending on the back of a huge tournament for the keeper. It was fun, exciting, but not "pretty" in the sense of "attractive, flowing" or even "2-way" soccer. It was all defend and counter. 1 goal scored in 375 minutes of play (the equivalent of 4 full games). 1 goal given up in 420 minutes of play. Italy v. CR (their best game after Uruguay) 33Dangerous attacks31 10Total attempts10 6Deliveries in Penalty area7 12Clearances16 522Passes Completed304 Ball possession 58% v 42 CR v. England 15Dangerous attacks32 4Total attempts8 4Deliveries in Penalty area8 6Clearances4 333Passes Completed404 Ball possession 47% v 53% CR v Greece 28Dangerous attacks60 6Total attempts24 8Deliveries in Penalty area16 23Clearances11 334Passes Completed502 Ball possession 43% v 57% (Navas with 7 saves to 0 for Greece) Neth - CR 69Dangerous attacks33 20Total attempts6 18Deliveries in Penalty area5 10Clearances24 671Passes Completed306 Ball possession 64% v 36%
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/17/us-soccer-usa-klinsmann-idUSKCN0I603620141017 “I simply try to help the players understand where they are right now and where they could be, and let them know if I see them taking a step backwards a little bit. I just try to wake them up and say ‘you need to go in the other direction’.”
We already have several VERY active threads talking about Klinsmann and they are covering the topics being addressed here.