Icardi & Maxi Lopez would have heated things up in camp at least! In Argentina è la festa dell'amicizia… Icardi e Maxi Lopez ...
Yes you make a good point. I played with a lot of Mexican, Central and South Americans and they all said the same thing. Having no professional league from 1984-1996 and even up until the year 2000, didn't help matters either. That was a time when a lot foreign and domestic soccer fans living stateside gathered at local British Pubs and looked and followed a lot of EPL and Euro matches as well as Latin leagues on cable, via satelite and then the the internet. Things are changing though. Thankfully.
TBH I myself have nothing against the MLS and Team USA. I hope the MLS continues to grow so that Americans can stop with the ''soccer is for Euro p*ussies and dirty latinos'' crap that I have heard over the years. It's annoying. I remember when the US tied Portugal. Some American wrote a comment saying that if the US were to send their best athletes to the World Cup they would dominate easily. That it would be a true display of how superior ''America'' is to everyone else. It's that kind of crap why I can't root for their team. I find the players to be refreshingly humble unlike the rest of American athletes. Their NBA team is the worst in terms of sportsmanship. I actually like Howard. Guy is humble and hardworking. I just can't stand their annoying fans. Their team is making progress, but there's no need to chirp so much. They still haven't accomplished much at the international level yet they have the nerve to demand the same level of respect a traditional power like Italy gets. Not all of their fans are like this, but unfortunately the majority I have met are idiots. Their attitude sours USA football for me. Hopefully the MLS continues to grow so that my hometown of Las Vegas gets a team. We need pro sports out here badly.
I was thinking about what Falvo said about the MLS growing and he's right, it has grown. No longer is the league only attracting former stars at the end of their careers, mostly, but some that can still compete at a fairly high level. I'm just not sure it will ever grow to the same level as some of the top leagues in Europe for one reason. The Champions League. It's arguably the top level tournament league for soccer in the world. Every legitimate talent from any country in the world rightfully wants to compete in it, and possibly for that reason alone we will continue to see the siphoning off of talent. The cream of the crop will continue migrating to Europe's top leagues and teams. We've already seen the result with many of the South American clubs who used to be able to compete with the top teams in Europe. 6 of the last 7 trophies went to the CL winner and both last year and in 2010 a non SA club team made the final. With players from South America leaving earlier for Europe the trend doesn't seem likely to slow down either. So while nurturing US born talent to better skill sets may be a direct result of a more competitive league, I still think the MLS is going to continue taking a back seat to leagues from around the world, even after 18 more years pass by. I'll be close to 60 then The upside is that if it's capable of attracting more top talent before this talent is truly on its last leg, the quality should continue to improve. It will probably be a very slow growth all the same.
http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...next-nt-manager.2007142/page-30#post-30775202 why was ihatwating4years post quoted and brought over from the manager thread to this thread being answered here instead of being answered on the manager thread where it was originally posted?...just curious? http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...next-nt-manager.2007142/page-30#post-30775202
The NFL is the reason why football will never become #1 in the us. I think eventually our football will become #2 in the us, but it will never beat the nfl. It is still the sport of choice for kids. The mls is growing very fast though. The us has the money to build the best training academies and hire the best instructors. If they ever get serious about development and pump some serious cash into it then they can reach the level of an England or Portugal within 25 to 30 years. They did ok at the recent World Cup but it was through rather un impressive fashion. Bunkering will get you results but won't help you actually develop skilled players. This is why Greece has never progresses onto the elite stage. They bunkered to a fluke euro title in 2004, and never advanced past that stage. The us should scrap away the bunker tactics and try to play the right way even if it means losing for a while.
Because the posts of the thread were swaying away from the initial subject of the next Italian team manager and for at least 2 pages as we were talking about MLS/US Soccer and the US men's national team....so I figured it belonged here. Soccer in the US may be able to compete with hockey or NHL or even the NBA but I don't see it overtaking NFL or MLB . Things are changing though and if the next 20 years are anything like the last 18-20, there is no telling what the game can turn into in America.
MLB is dying off.... The attendances have been down everywhere I've seen on TV... Now I don't see soccer ever passing NFL in this country but I can foresee a time where it passes the MLB
Yeah but it will be a long while. Until all the older pundits who know nothing about the sport and who "hate soccer" die off, I don't see MLS surpassing MLB. Hopefully, when people like Jim Rome and Ann Coulter who wrote this below article start shutting up, MLB fans might start to sway over the MLS. I don't see it happening any time soon or in the next 10-15 years though. If the USA does well in the World Cup possibly making it to the semifinals and final , then hopefully things will change. The SF Giants game for example that started at 1 PM in the Pacific was at the same time the WC Final began and they had a packed sold out house at AT & T Park in San Francisco. I'm not sure if they even acknowledged the final score to the fans in the stands as they do with other sports. Probably out of fear that it will take away from their sport. I've been waiting for that for soccer to be king in the USA for 40 years. Ann Coulter's real soccer nightmare: How the World Cup ...
Red Sox and Giants sell a lot most of the time. Yankees not anymore. The seats at new Yankee Stadium are so expensive that it's common now to see empty all over the ballpark. A real shame that the Yankees have priced out the true fans. A regular guy from the Bronx or Brooklyn can't afford to take his kid to a Yankees game anymore. The economics of baseball are why it's not my favorite sport. I'll still watch it sometimes and root for my favorite team, but my heart is not in it. Same thing with club football. I can't get into it when some teams are so much richer than others. It's not fair that Real Madrid/New York Yankees can spend 3 times as much money as Fiorentina/Milwaukee Brewers.
Lew Wolff owner of the Oakland A's also owns the Earthquakes. He had elected Billy Beane to help run the Quakes and he really wanted to as he was into soccer and a Tottenham Spurs fan. I heard the powers that be ended up kicking him out of the front office as he was arguing with the president and GM and they told him to concentrate on baseball as he doesn't know anything about soccer. I don't know if its true or not but I could see that happening.
bunkering is the demand of the manager, the manager decides on the player selections/scheme/tactics. greece doesn't progress to SFs of the euro/QFs of the WC because they don't produce top-class attackers. greece has no national academy for footballers or even coaches. the coaching is poor and greece's immediate hope is that classier leagues (serie a/bundesliga) develope their footballers; especially the attackers. the younger they leave greece, the better. given that, greece always produces good defenders; especially the past 15 years or so. man-marking doesn't require exceptional tactical skills for individual players nor as a unit. greek footballers can not play zonal to save their lives (1st colombia goal/CR goal). 2004 saw rehaggel play to the team's strengths; including using 3 CBs, which seems to be back in vogue now; enough anyways to compel talk about 3-5-2/5-3-2. i have followed italian football from antognoni to giannini to baggio to del piero to totti and right now, i would rate the greek CBs; individually and as a unit, as one of the top of europe. this is where italy is nowhere the same italy of yesteryear; it's CBs are nowhere near the talent of a benetti, a gentile, a scirea, bergomi/baresi, even a collovati. who is the new cabrini or maldini?
Oh yeah it all depends on the manager. Our old style isn't that far off from bunkering either. The manager makes or break the team. We could hire Ancelotti and play one way or we could hire someone like Lippi and play another. Klinnsman was smart to use bunker tactics. He knew that his team lacked talent and couldn't compete with the world's best while playing an open game. He did the smart thing and got his team to the round of 16. Playing like that will get you wins, but it won't help advance your game. Greece every now and then makes it to past the group stages, but nothing about their style changes. It looks like they don't care about it either. Their league is weak, they have no academies to train players and coaches, and like you said they are completely reliant on foreign leagues developing their attackers. It's no wonder why their football is so ugly. Sure they are exceptionally gifted when it comes to defense. Kudos to them for that. There are very few defenses I would take over Greece's. However, they won't ever come close to winning the world cup as long as they continue down their current path. They should take a step back, invest some money in academies, hire someone that can properly develop attackers, and just learn. Even if it means losing for a while, it's still a better option for Greece's footballing future. Their uber-defensive tactics can only take them so far.
well, greece does have some decent attackers...it's not as though they are the fiji islands. the last 2 NT managers concentrated on defense and played ultra-defensive. at the WC, the decent attackers sat on the bench, while the garbage played. greece's best match was against IC and we saw 2 goals, 3 bars/posts and other scoring chances. that match saw 2/3 of the CM and 2/3 of the FWDs changed from the 1st match. what team could make such dramatic changes and qualify for a R16 match? the 'b' team was better than the 'a' team. that's the manager. the talent is there, it was ignored in favor of defensive garbage. ranieri is taking over and i do expect the team to get even better with it's serie a footballers being used. as far as the talent, at ages 17-22, it's usually all the same. what separates domestic italian from domestic greek players is the coaching at club level; especially the tactical and physical apsects. no comparison what so ever. competant coaches, video teaching, good facilities. at u-19, greece and italy...toss a coin. when the same players meet 7 years later at full intl. level, put your money on italy. the italians have progressed as footballers, the greeks have not. this is why it's important for our footballers to leave greece; the younger the better. tactical issues are the last issues for a footballer to polish/become competant. as far as winning a WC, greece is a snall nation with some 11 million people with poor football infrastructure. i don't think greeks are expecting to ever win a WC. what is aggravating, is the federation. one of the wealthiest in europe..and they don't spend anything to nurture/grow football...to go from strength to strength.
Like you said, the talent is there but it is being poorly coached. Santos made very poor choices and it cost Greece. The one time he abandoned the ultra defensive tactics, Greece looked pretty good. What style do you Ranieri wants Greece to play? Why does the federation refuse to spend money? Why not invest in just one academy in Athens? It seems like the federation is happy with letting other countries develop Greek players. Greece is not going to take the next step until they get serious about developing their own players and not having to rely on Serie A or Bundesliga, or La Liga, etc. I know that there are economic problems in Greece, but that federaiton has been pocketing money for a long time now. The time has come for them to spend that cash. You guys managed to win the Euro with defensive tactics and a cheap federation. Imagine what you could do if the football infrastructure improved? The population of the Netherlands is around 10 million yet they are always contenders. Portugal has a small population yet they manage to contend for championships every now and then. Uruguay has just 3 million people and they are 2 time champions. No reason why Greece can't at least become a team that consistently makes it to the round of 16 or Quarter-Finals at the World Cup. There is enough talent for Greece to be a contender at the Euros most of the time.
Greece has improved since their Euro in 2004 which IMO wasn't a fluke at all. They defended well and had Zagorakis as a talisman and Charisteas scoring big goals for them. They beat Portugal the host nation twice, France and the Czechs no PK needed. Since then they've consistently made tournaments, getting out of the group the past 2 tournaments despite slow starts. Like many teams Greece can't go all out and attack but I thought they were creating plenty of chances in this WC vs Colombia, IC and CR. You can't totally blame Santos he went with a defensive side vs Colombia but a poor early goal undid his plans and vs Japan they went down to 10 men fairly early.
I must say, I'm having a little after WC blues. When all else fails however, I enjoy club ball much better.
The period after the World Cup is the worst. A month of nothing. Baseball is nice to watch sometimes, but it doesn't have the excitement of football. It's only the 25th, we still got a long way to go
We have MLS here but my team is crap. Can't really get into all the meaningless preseason games (I.E. Man United -LA Galaxy 7-0) either......