Why do we only play real competition every 4 years?

Discussion in 'USA Men' started by Allamerican74, Apr 18, 2006.

  1. purojogo

    purojogo Member

    Sep 23, 2001
    US/Peru home
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    i still prefer Copa America.... far more realistic...And btw...the competition is in Venezuela this time....which is as close geographically as it can get to a SA nation from the US, am i right? (not counting the non-Conmebol members in SA)

    AS to the political concerns...well, we just had the baseball classic and Venezuela was here.... no doubt same stuff can be done over there, one would think.....
     
  2. AGF Aarhus

    AGF Aarhus Member

    Union Berlin
    Apr 7, 2001
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Personal opinion: a WC every two years would be overkill and cheapen the tournament. It would also kill off great competitions like the Euros and African Cup of Nations. The Asian tourny is actually starting to develop well, too. I'd rather see the western hemisphere step it up with a quality tourny with intense qualifying of its own than do a WC every two years.

    As for the US hosting a big tourny during the Euros. Hate the idea. You'll get the same B teams showing up that always show up to these sorts of things. You'll also get zero exposure for it because, well, you're up against the Euros. It would be the Confederations Cup except even more pointless. I can tell you right now which one I'd be watching.
     
  3. MikeLastort2

    MikeLastort2 Member

    Mar 28, 2002
    Takoma Park, MD
    Q: Why do we only play real competition every 4 years?
    A: Because the only real tournament occurs every 4 years.
     
  4. OCKlinsmann

    OCKlinsmann Member

    Feb 6, 2006
    Newport Beach, Ca
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They hold the Olympics franchise every two years (winter / summer combo) and it seems to do fine. The argument that the tourney would be cheapened is an obvious one. They could easily do the Euro Championship and African Cup on off years. I think we miss a lot of key influential players to injury in their prime in a 4 year spread....2 years gives the uber-talented individuals and teams a chance to show their dominance....1 time every 4 ears is just not often enough..for me that is.

    As for the US tourney as an alternative under the current system during European Championship years.......having Asia and South America and N America and Oceania and Africa in a knockout tourney as previously described would be fine. The Confed Cup is a joke and merits no further comment. NCAA style knockout Torneys generate their own buz... Give it two tries and it's a lock....Get the best 64 ranked non-euro teams and let them have at it.....would be good for tv and tourism too...and would give teams that seldom play a chance to meet and also knockout tourneys have a high "upset" factor...which is always good for any sport.
     
  5. ussoccerFan12358

    Mar 11, 2006
    Central NY
    Someone earlier said that we have a GC next year, and 2 screw copa america or something like that, well we only have the GC every 4 years.
     
  6. shinzui

    shinzui New Member

    Dec 2, 2005
    Gulf Shores
    Yeah, because American fans would really turn out in droves to see Ecuador vs. Guinea.
     
  7. AGF Aarhus

    AGF Aarhus Member

    Union Berlin
    Apr 7, 2001
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    The Gold Cup is not held every four years. The Gold Cup is held whenever somebody feels like holding it, which happens to be next year.

    Amen to that. He admits that the Confed Cup is a joke, and them proposes creating nother meaningless tourney. Neither the teams nor the fans would take it seriously, especially if it's up against the European Championship (and no, you can't move the Euros to off years and have the WC every two years. Qualifying for both takes an entire two years. I doesn't add up).

    There are two, and only two, titles that matter in international soccer: World Cup and Continental Champion. Nobody gives two sh!ts about anything else. Let's play to the those strengths, not diminish them.
     
  8. dna77054

    dna77054 Member+

    Jun 28, 2003
    houston
    Now that the Confed Cup is one year before the WC, giving the WC host its only competive games in quite some time. I think it is a much better tournament. Last years Confed Cup in Germany was anything but glorified friendlies. Everybody brought at worst thier A- teams and really put out a maximum effort. Did you see the Mex-Arg game, or even the third place Ger-Mex game. Those teams were going for it. It like the idea of having a meaningful cross confederation games more that once every 4 years.
     
  9. The Wanderer2

    The Wanderer2 New Member

    Jan 15, 2005
    We must start to play in Copa America. Last time we went we got third, didn't we? Who cares if Argentina and Brazil only send B teams? Argentina and Brazil B are damn near as good as their first teams.
     
  10. KLECKO73

    KLECKO73 New Member

    Jan 5, 2002
    GARDEN STATE
    And what makes you think that we would even make the finals if we did play against their so called B teams? We struggled in our own gold cup and if anyone was honest, we should have and deserved to lose to Honduras. Argentina and Brazil are bitter rivals that played in the last final. They gave it their all even though both squads were not their A lineups. Does the US go all out with effort and lineup in our gold cup? I doubt we could have beaten either team with our A team in S. America. And we have the arrogance to take shots at their tournament when ours is the biggest joke on the planet. The Copa America is a step up for us and we should be taking part. Case closed. No more gay excuses. No more pointless friendlies against the usual Mexico, Colombia, and Polish teams.
     
  11. dsp87260

    dsp87260 New Member

    Mar 19, 2005
    No, we did lose in the semifinals to Brazil 1-0 (after beating Argentina 3-0 to advance out of our group...and then Mexico on PKs in the next round) and then lost to Colombia 4-1 in the 3rd place match to finish 4th.

    As stated above, we did defeat Argentina down in S. America last time we played in the Copa America (1995).

    I would love to see us play in the tournament just because it would be more games for us to watch.....nevermind the preparation aspect of it.

    Everybody's always asking why we play such poor teams and forgetting that it takes both sides to agree to schedule a match. I'm sure that the USSF would love to schedule some of the bigger names that everyone talks about, but they have to agree to play us too.....we can't just say "let's play (insert team of your choice here)" and then automatically get that game. Doesn't it occur to anybody that the reason we don't get the bigger teams isn't because we don't want to play them, but rather that maybe they don't want to play us? [Not a statement that they're scared or anything (although there's not much upside for them as if they win, well they're "supposed to"....and if they lose then they're laughingstocks and embarrassments), but there are other teams they would rather schedule than us too.]
     
  12. KLECKO73

    KLECKO73 New Member

    Jan 5, 2002
    GARDEN STATE
    Horse crap! The USSF has trouble finding an opponent. Perhaps if we agreed to actually play away more often, we would have better time finding opponents.
     
  13. AGF Aarhus

    AGF Aarhus Member

    Union Berlin
    Apr 7, 2001
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I hate the idea that Concacaf has to invite South Korea, Brazil or anyone else to add legitimacy to the Gold Cup (I'd argue that it has the opposite effect). The flipside of this this is also hating the idea of being invited to the Copa America.

    Either every nation is a full participant and it's a meaningful competition for all involved, or its Mickey Mouse.
     
  14. shinzui

    shinzui New Member

    Dec 2, 2005
    Gulf Shores
    We tend to only look at it how it effects the U.S., but I think CONCACAF does a real injustice to developing soccer in the Caribbean both by the limited World Cup qualifying process and the way the Gold Cup is run. Nations like Grenada and Barbados are really getting very little opportunity to improve themselves against quality competition the same as say Liechtenstein, Foroyar or Azerbaijan are in UEFA. The only way teams improve is through playing together as a team often against quality opponents and CONCACAF hasn't done a very good job of allowing its smaller nations that opportunity. If the 2007 Caribbean Cup becomes a more meaningful competition that might help, but the Gold Cup should be a true confederation cup.
     

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