Have you guys figured out what make the team like Portugal, the team w/ all kind of fancy players lost to The USA during last WC, I still couldn't believe it up to this time.
Have you figured out how to use the English Language as a tool for communication? Your post doesn't make a lot of sense.
The same thing that made the US basketball team get kicked out of the medal round at the World's; Arrogance and building an all-star team in stead of a real team. Real teams have role players, those that do a lot of the dirty work, get no glory but always are on teams that win.
You are crazy, right? You think the US Basketball team, with absolutely none of the best US players is comparable to the Portugal WC team, with not just the best players of this time, but the best players in the history of the country? You are certifiably nuts, right?
I don't think he is comparing the teams. He is comparing the loses. When you under estimate a team you sometimes get beat. Portugal under estimated the US as did the US basketball team. Even if the US basketball team didn't have the biggest stars they should beat pretty much any team in the world and they didn't.
That is why games are played. No games are ever won on paper. Ask France. Ask Argentina. As for the US game (if we have to re-hash this for the umpteenth time), Portugal could never fully rebound from the 3-0 deficit. The US attacked Portugal where it was vulnerable, and took full advantage of its traditional slow start. The Jorge Costa own goal on made matters worse. Las Soccer Vegas, Portugal was hurt by not having its two key players (Figo, Rui Costa) full up to par, and losing a potentially dangerous sub (Simao) to injury. Give the US credit. Arena devised a strong game play, and it players executed. Meanwhile, former Portugal coach Antonio Oliveira was not prepped for the speed of the US (Landon Donovan, Beasley) on the wings.
Not true.......... That is typical Eurotrash thinking. Was the US team "arrogant" in losing to Argentina? And Yugo? No, they were simply beaten by better teams. Everyone here admits that, and thinks that it is actually, in the long run, is a good thing for Basketball. Now you read all kinds of sports article how basketball is played all over the world, how it is becoming the "world's game", how the recent NBA draft was rife with foreigners, blah blah blah. The US beat Portugal at WC, because THE US WAS A BETTER TEAM. But I read was how the Ports took the US lightly. Then, how so many Euro sides took so many other teams lightly. If it wasn't for Germany the recent WC would have been a Euro debacle. You want arrogance, you want hubris? I looked them up in the dictionary and I saw pictures of Euro football fans. 'nuff said.
Re: Whats the problem You cannot structure your phrases at a level above a grade two student. That is the problem.
ON JUNE 5TH!!! NOW THERE IS A EUROTRASH POINT OF VIEW! Hell, it was just another day in June, the 5th to be exact, and for reasons no one can explain, the National Team of Portugal and the National Team of the USA met in a football match, in Korea, of all places, just for gits and shiggles. Nothing else to it. And after the extremely lucky US side won, which had to be the biggest fluke of all time, they went on to win and tie more football matches, in Korea of all places, against other national teams, only to lose against a team from Germany, in something called the Quarterfinals, where, supposedly, the 8 best, but in reality, the LUCKIEST, teams in the world played leading up to....I don't know what. Why were all those teams in Asia this summer? Can anyone explain it to me? I am sure, that it had nothing to do with deciding who is the best football team in the world. That would be impossible without Portugal, and France, and Italy, and Spain being in the quarterfinals, and because THAT did not happen, then in no way could it have actually have been the, dare I say it? The World Cup? The FIFA World Cup? Without Portugal,AND Italy, AND France AND Spain in the quarterfinals? Oh, then it couldn't be the World Cup, so it had to just be some matches played in June, 2002, for no other reason than to give some underachievers like, Japan, and Korea, and Turkey, and Senegal AND the USA the uncomfortable feeling that they really do belong with the elite European teams like Portugal, Spain, France, and Holland. Yeah, Holldand too, who for some weird reason were somewhere else that whole month.
First of all give the guy a brake, he went to my school for English classes. About the USA, nothing wrong they were the best team that day, and time after time I will say congratulations. But there is no team in the World that can play Portugal twomorrow and say its going to be a easy game. Portugal today prove they going to be a force at home in the Euro Cup, the changes the interim coach made were the correct one's.
Counterattack, My sympathies for your accute inferiority complex. You have to be the most sensitive poster I have ever seen. Explain to me how you can have such an Amerisnob attitude when it comes to basketball, and yet be so darn offended by what you perceive as Eurosnobbery attitudes. I am as big a US fan as the next guy on these boards, but I realize that the US will enter most games against the better teams of Europe as underdogs. Similarly, I realize that the US basketball team, 4x100 relay team, etc., etc. will enter competitions against most teams as prohibitive favorites. This does not make me a snob, it makes me a realist. And when the underdog prevails, you tip your hat to them, as we Americans were forced to do twice this week at the hoop world championships. There will be days when the better team 'on paper' does not win. Those days are not flukes; it's just on those days the better team on that day won. (See NE-Rams in the Super Bowl for an example). So, how can you call Euro fans Eurosnobs when their teams enter matches as favorites, and then sit back and make excuses for the US basketball team against Argentina? Nobody is saying that the US, Senegal, et. al., do not belong, we are just saying that the US-Portugal was a major upset. Will you not concede that, or are you too much of a mypoic -- yet proud -- American to say that there are other countries with teams better than ours? And comfort in one thing -- I spent a couple of weeks this summer in Portugal, and I work in a global corporation with many foreign colleagues, most educated soccer fans know the US is legit and will be a force to be reckoned with.
You wish.did you ever see the portugal brazil game.? That was the real portugeuse team PORTUGAL SHOWED BRAZIL how to play soccer. scoring the first goal then hitting a couple of posts.60% of then posesion. Only a penalty shot tied the game. But Portugal dominated. If they played like that against the USA it would have been 3 4 nothjing easy. But they didnt, the coach made stupid decisioins...........the players played bad............and the US played there best. Even ask the USA fans and players that were there. They all knew portugal was better.and they coudnt beleive they were beating portugal 3-0...........and in the end it was 3-2 give another 10 minutes maybe portugal could have tied the game.
if was me I would have a red card. Cappellari did the samething I did and he already lost is yellow. Why always me?
It always helps to read the entire thread. If you bothered, you would have seen that I related how the losses of the USA Basketball teams were not only deserved, but seemed to have spured those like Tony Kornheiser to fantasize that Basketball is now the World's Sport, replacing soccer. My point is that I never heard anyone say that the US Basketball team that lost to Argentina or Yugoslavia were incredibly unlucky. No one. Everyone agrees they lost to superior teams. And why not? Not one of the members of that Basketball team could play on a NBA all-star team. It simply was a team made up of players who are not the best this nation has to offer. HOWEVER!!! HOWEVER!!!HOWEVER!! The football team Portugal sent to WC 2002, was not only the best team of pro soccer players that Portugal has now, IT WAS RIGHTFULLY CONSIDERED THE BEST FOOTBALL TEAM IN PORTUGAL'S HISTORY. A history, which someone else pointed out, includes teaching the Brazilians the game of soccer. THAT is the team that the USA beat on 5th of June, 2002 at the World Cup 2002. And what I object to the jaundiced, cynical, negative, denial that Europeans so often retreat to, when faced with the prospect that others, in strange places, play soccer better than they do.
You forgot that PORTUGAL played the ***************S against the USA..........see, they played good against Brazil...............but they played their baddest against USA............ THE USA beat a portugeuse team playing that was playing BAD BAD AND MORE BAD.........that doesnt mean that the USA is better ........
In saying that the team Portugal sent to Korea was the best in its history, are you intentionally forgetting the team that placed third in the 1966 World Cup, or did you just not realize that this occured? On paper, Portugal's team was as good as any team in its history (with the exception of '66), but we all know games are not played on paper. And, with Figo and Costa less than 100%, Portugal was far less powerful than its roster would have suggested. Finally, if we still had access to the BS database during the WC, you would be able to see that regular posters on the Portugal forum were gracious and almost unanimously gave full credit to the US for its deserved victory. But, I guess in making blanket Eurosnob comments you just forget small details like that.
Read in a bola that next year will be a tournament in Portugal, stage with the best teams in the World,a preview for the European Cup, in the month of November 03, I believe its going to be 8 of the powerful nations in the World, I hope the portuguese federation will invite the USA.