Congrats to the USA who have officially been eliminated from the World Cup today

[Himu]

Group G   
Germany
Portugal
Ghana
USA

rofl

[DCharlieJP]

USA aren't a push over - that group is pretty horrific for all involved.

England though - lol - gooooodbyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[Himu]

Yeah G is going to be amazing.

Haha Charlie, Uruguay AND Italy.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

Portugal aint that good.

[TakingBackSunday]

dayum

[Mandark]

France has been having everything go their way recently.  Sheesh.

Really hope Altidore can keep his form up and that he doesn't wind up riding the bench in Sunderland or something.

[Human Snorenado]

England should just treat this WC like being Ringo in the Beatles- be happy to be there!

[MyNameIsMethodis]

France has been having everything go their way recently.  Sheesh.

Really hope Altidore can keep his form up and that he doesn't wind up riding the bench in Sunderland or something.

"Keeps his form up"
>has only scored once in like 23 games

[Mandark]

I could have included "with the national team" but why be wordy?  I'm sure nobody will deliberately misunderstand what I'm saying!

[Big Barry Jazz]

Portugal aint that good.

Yeah, I'd say USA has a slim chance here.

England though 

[Fifstar]

Well, Im'm pretty happy with that group, but yeah like Methodis said, Portugal ain't that good, you guys can advance in that group.

[CajoleJuice]

I'm sure nobody will deliberately misunderstand what I'm saying!

The internet in a nutshell. I called Cajole out for this on Twitter yesterday.

I was being a dick because I was bitter about that entire book being paraphrased well when I read the whole unedited rambling thing.

[Himu]

Ronaldo is great, Wrath

[Mandark]

Yeah.  Portugal's not a great team, but Ronaldo's a great player.  7 goals in 8 Euro qualifiers, 3 goals in 5 games in the Euro Cup, 8 goals in 10 WC qualifiers.

Basically he had a really rough stretch for the 2010 World Cup cycle, and outside of that he's been very productive on the national team.

[Himu]

http://messivsronaldo.net/

[Akala]

US has an outside shot I think...Germany should be a lock. Portugal is beatable if they (pretty much Ronaldo) isn't gelling, but zero idea of current Ghana squad...internet says they are pretty weak.

Bring on the cup!

[Phoenix Dark]

It's a tough group but if they play like a team and leave their egos at the door, I think they can make it.

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I don't know shit about this

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[Himu]

What book?

[pilonv1]

Our group sucks too

[headwalk]

USA aren't a push over - that group is pretty horrific for all involved.

England though - lol - gooooodbyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

ehhhh, uruguay had a shocking qualifying campaign and only just scraped through after losing to garbage teams like ecuador and bolivia. all it takes is for suarez to take an unfortunate bump in the PL and they're toast. they aren't the team from 2010.

italy vs. england is the opening match and taking part a 2000 mile flight from rio in a damn swamp. expect two nervous as fuck european teams stumbling around in unbreathable conditions trying their hardest for a 0 - 0.

costa rica are a wild card but shouldn't be an issue.

so england only have to be completely average to have a decent shot at getting through, which is fortunate cause y'know.

USA however are double-fucked with extra olives.

[ToxicAdam]

That's too bad. Klinsmann deserves better.

This group feels like its been booked by the NFL scheduling committee. The biggest soccer star to be introduced to the casual soccer fan (in the US) and one of the biggest soccer stars in German history to coach against his old team.

[Momo]

lol goodbye mericah

[Fifstar]

Ronaldo is great, Wrath

Maybe I'm a bit biased due to being a huge fan of the "original" Ronaldo, or the fact that I grew up around Christiano groupies all my life. The fact is he is great, but has never played with a team that wasn't fantastic for a prolonged period of time for me to be convinced that he can win his team the World Cup. Messi I feel like he can if he steps up internationally, Ronaldo not so much. He's a bit too selfish, Portugal needs another great player who is a playmaker for that to happen.

You're right that Cristiano Ronaldo fans are annyoing as fuck, but your other points are bullshit, sorry. Messi needs a great team around him just as much as Ronaldo does. Argentina is both individually and tactically a better team than Portugal, so yes they have a better chance to win the world cup (I don't think anybody is really talking about Portugal to win it), but not because he is too selfish. He is selfish, won't deny that, but his qualities warrant that. Also regarding him/Portugal needing a great playmaker, isn't Moutinho exactly that? Made two brilliant passes for Ronaldo in the decisive game against Sweden after all...

[CajoleJuice]

I was being a dick because I was bitter about that entire book being paraphrased well when I read the whole unedited rambling thing.

Is it not good? I've got it on my Amazon wishlist right now.

It's worth the read, it's just a bit of a slog sometimes. I assume you will have no problem with him being arrogant as hell.

[Phoenix Dark]

I'm naming my hypothetical son Lionel and my wife is okay with it!

never give your kid a name you can easily come up with school playground taunts for. In this case poor Lionel will probably be called Bionel, as in "bi" (ie he goes both ways). Your son is screwed.

[Shadow Mod]

I'm naming my hypothetical son Lionel and my wife is okay with it!

never give your kid a name you can easily come up with school playground taunts for. In this case poor Lionel will probably be called Bionel, as in "bi" (ie he goes both ways). Your son is screwed.

o_O

[Joe Molotov]

Just name your kid "Cocklicker" so he'll grow up tuff.

[Yeti]

I'm naming my hypothetical son Lionel and my wife is okay with it!

never give your kid a name you can easily come up with school playground taunts for. In this case poor Lionel will probably be called Bionel, as in "bi" (ie he goes both ways). Your son is screwed.

What was your nickname? Whore-ice?

[Himu]

I didn't know what bisexual was until I was in middle school

[Human Snorenado]

I'm naming my hypothetical son Lionel and my wife is okay with it!

never give your kid a name you can easily come up with school playground taunts for. In this case poor Lionel will probably be called Bionel, as in "bi" (ie he goes both ways). Your son is screwed.

What was your nickname? Whore-ice?

More like "Bitch-elle"

[Phoenix Dark]

 

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Re Re 

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[Polari]

By that logic they were eliminated the day they qualified - it's not like they were ever going to win the thing anyway.

[Momo]

I just pictured how insufferable Americans would be if they actually, by some miracle won the world cup. Worse than hitler.

[Momo]

You underestimate Americans, much like modern Chelsea fans, the second the team does well there will suddenly be millions of them. The English are insufferable 24/7/365 anyway so nothing new there.

[Himu]

America winning the cup would do wonders for football here.Maybe they'd broadcast Dynamo games on TV again and I wouldn't have to watch every game via some crappy SD video on a streaming site with a choppy frame rate!

The country that hardly respects football wouldnt gain anything to winning the cup and I don't want them to win because I don't know, I don't want to deal with human beings! Maybe I should lock myself in my room, cut off the air supply to my body while jacking off to hentai!!!

I mean, it isn't like the women's national team haven't already won the women's world cup! Americans were totally insufferable pricks rather than proud people happy for their players when that happened! Those assholes!

[Momo]

I have no idea what you are trying to convey there Himu.

[brawndolicious]

I realized that since it's in Brazil, it's actually pretty easy for people in America to watch it. I can definitely see a lot of new American soccer fans sprouting up if US gets past the first round, especially as it is in the summer so lots of kids are home all day.

And really, soccer has the most obnoxious fans of any sport, so pretending that adding Americans into it will make it worse is ridonculous. But as a person who doesn't really care for sports, it actually makes me pretty happy thinking that the rest of the fans will get pissed off.

[Himu]

Seriously. Day time games.

[Human Snorenado]

I love the olympics, but I'm strongly beginning to suspect that I like boring shit in general.  I actually like it better when it's in a different time zone, because I keep weird fucking hours.

World Cup is always fun too, I'll cheer on the US in the opening round and the Netherlands after that.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

Soccer is extremely close to overtaking the NBA in popularity in the USA believe it or not.


Just not the MLS though. The EPL and La Liga are.

[Himu]

MLS has a long way to go.

And I'd like to read those stats on soccer overtaking nba.

[Mandark]

Using average attendance to argue a sport is more popular, when it has 11 fewer teams, 48 fewer games per team, and plays outdoors.  Sheesh.

[Mandark]

Yeah, I love soccer and saw the second-ever MLS Cup live at RFK Stadium, but it's not that popular in the US.  There's certainly an audience and a market that wasn't there before, which is helped by high level European club soccer being available on cable.

But it's not close to the NBA's popularity, and is probably still behind the NHL.  Also, it's not the EPL and La Liga that people follow as much as the Champion's League and the select clubs that regularly qualify for it.  You see lots of Man U, Arsenal, Barca, and Madrid kits but not so much Stoke and Osasuna.  The CL is becoming more and more a default top league for Europe, and it'll be interesting to see whether it becomes more and more autonomous as time goes on.

[Mandark]

Nope!

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Though I wouldn't answer a question that specific on a public forum anyways.

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