What ever happened to the US Cup? I think it was sponsored by Nike. It was competed for by four teams. I remember at one time Italy, Brazil, and England competed. I would like to see it return, if for no other reason than to add a little more excitement to friendly type games. I would love to see it played this year with some of the teams that were upsets in the World Cup. Something like the US, Turkey, South Korea, and Senegal would be cool.
Surely this is the reason it disappeared, and was pointless the first time around. It was just four meaningless friendlies with a meaningless "trophy" at the end, wasn't it? I remember it, and it wasn't very exciting at all, at least in the competitive sense of the word. We can all (if we want to) bemoan the fact that the World Cup only comes around every four years (although the European Championship does fine for us at filling in the gap) and that thus there are not enough really competitive games (for some) but trying to invent tournaments has never really worked. Either something is worth winning (the World Cup, European Championship, etc.), or it's not. Sad, perhaps, but surely true? Incidentally, this is why international football will never mean as much to most people as club football. It's the icing on the cake, but the cake itself is what you live on.
Re: Re: What ever happened to.... Didn't we beat you guys 2-0 the only time you participated? Perhaps this is why you felt it was so meaningless.
The US Cup was and is a set of slightly glorified friendlies. I don't believe that it has "disappeared" it has simply been unnecessary over the past couple of years due to qualifying and the World Cup, which have kept the Nats plenty busy. Surely it will return whenever the Bruce wants to schedule some decent opponents during a lull time in the US calendar.
Re: Re: Re: What ever happened to.... Oh come on. This sort of thing really renders the Euro-snob arguments as little more than hypocrisy. What is the point of someone trying to make reasonable comments if they get "mine is bigger than yours" by way of a response? I stand by my comments, and if you have no better response than to fall back on that sort of drivel, then good luck to you. Find a conversation with someone else.
quote from sydtheeagle: --------------------------------------------------"Either something is worth winning (the World Cup, European Championship, etc.), or it's not. Sad, perhaps, but surely true?" -------------------------------------------------- that's why copa america should include all of the "americas" - north and south, and be played during the same (club) off days that euro championship games are played on. there will be some kind of symmetry to the world footballing calendar then. but i guess it's too much to ask for conmebol and tfc (concacaf) to come together on such a thing.
Re: Re: Re: What ever happened to.... Ok, if it's only us that feels the US Cup was meaningless due to our loss, then what's happened to that great tournament that everyone cared so much for? http://www.rdasilva.demon.co.uk/minor.html#uscup It lasted from 1992-2000. Notice how the participants steadily got less impressive as the years rolled on, ending up with surprisingly Mexico being an ever-present. It was created to help the US public come to terms with the game that in two years they would be seeing a hell of a lot of. As the necessity to give the team decent opposition to play decreased, so did the necessity of paying the bigger teams to come over and play in a tournament that most of the players didn't want to participate. The need for the US cup disappeared, so the cup followed suit. That's why it was essentially a meaningless cup.
Its much more then that....never that simple. There is a LARGE difference when you are asking European players to make a flight that takes a couple hours then to when you are asking European based players who belong to a country in the Americas to make a pair of back-to-back flights across that little ocean. Remember its not as if they get a lot of time off for those ECC qualifiers. Well, that and the fact that CONCACAF and the South American bretheren hate each other. This is largely due to CONCACAF's idiocy....just look at the Gold Cup...it isn't about advancing the game, it is about making a quick buck. But back to the original topic, a more realistic idea would be to extend the winter break to the English leagues (which there has been a push for anyways) and hold most of the qualifiers over this break. But its all dreaming anyways....CONCACAF is horrible, everyone knows it, nothing anyone can do about it.
Re: Re: Re: Re: What ever happened to.... Sweet response. I wouldn't have been able to resist sniping in response.