I am not sure what to think, it is fairly common in the EPL.....but he does a bit more of it on the national team. The US's defense is not nearly as organized as it should be and Gooch is not even close to healthy..... So, that is one big worry to me....I think we will score in this WC, but I am not sure we can defend. DD
He opened his mouth about the coach so he left him out, not really a big deal, his form wasn't the greatest, there were other players on France playing better than him. The coach however is an idiot, I think everyone agrees on that.
I agree about the coach. I also agree with your assessment that they should play better as a team than they actually do, as the individual players are rather good. They are sort of the opposite of Germany in that respect, who tend to play better as a team than the quality of the individual players might suggest.
No doubt they are a good team but I feel like Anelka and Henry (while still incredibly talented) are on the downslope of their careers and Gourcuff's just not quite there yet. I also didn't think they were going to do much in the '06 cup though so there's a good chance I just don't know what I'm talking about. No mention of Hugo Lloris though? I thought he was going to be the starting keeper for the WC.
I think you guys in the States tend to overestimate England, possibly because you see more of them. I mean, I predicted that they'd make the semi-finals this time, but I noticed that you seem to think the EPL is so much better than the Bundesliga, for instance, which is simply not true.
As an Arsenal fan, I'm not surprised. If I had a nickel for every time Walcott pushed the ball up the wing and just blindly made a pass into no man's land... it's like he plays with his brain turned off or something. All he knows how to do is run. He rarely ever makes an intelligent assist or setup pass despite his physical tools. Maybe after this he will take the game seriously and start studying how to play intelligently.
There's is no way he would start for any of those teams AroundTheWorld mentioned, in fact I don't think he would even be a first team choice. Don't get me wrong, Donovan is very very good striker, the best player the U.S. has. That being said. He's still not even close to any of the strikers on those teams. E'to, Rooney, Messi, Zlatan, Villa, Berbatov, Cruz, Owen, Ronaldo, Welbeck, Higuain, Benzema, Raul, Klose, Mario Gomez, Olic, Bojan. Nope. Would he strive under those systems? Maybe, but it certainly wouldn't be enough for him to play on a top tier team, let alone start.
Attacking midfeilder/Forward. Same thing. What is that going to give him a better chance? Lmao. If anything it's worse.
Since 2000 - the entire Bundesliga has 3 champions league final appearances and 1 trophy over the last 10 years - a far worse showing than the La Liga, Serie A, or EPL. hell Portugal nearly has as much to brag about.
UEFA 5-year league coefficient The league coefficient is used to rank the leagues of Europe, and thus determine the number of clubs from a league that will participate in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The UEFA ranking determines the number of teams competing in the season after the next, not in the first season after the publication of the ranking. Thus, the 2010 ranking determines the proportion in 2011–12, not 2010–11. This coefficient is determined by the results of the clubs of the leagues in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League games over the past five seasons. The number of points awarded each season (two for each win by a club from that league, one for a draw) is divided by the number of teams that participated for that nation in that season. This number is then truncated after three decimal places (e.g. 2 2/3 will be truncated to 2.666). For the league coefficient the season's league coefficients for the last five seasons must be added up. In the preliminary rounds of both the Champions League and Europa League, the awarded points are halved. Bonus points are allocated for: Qualifying for the Champions League group phase. (4 bonus points) Reaching the second round of the Champions League. (5 bonus points) Reaching the quarter, semi and final of both Champions League and Europa League. (1 bonus point) The bonus points are added to the number of points scored in a season. Current ranking The rankings determine the proportion in 2011–12 competitions. The rankings are as follows: Rank 2010 Rank 2009 Mvmt League 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 Coeff. CL places EL places Total 1 1 — England 14.428 16.625 17.875 15.000 17.928 81.856 4 3 7 2 2 — Spain 15.642 19.000 13.875 13.312 17.928 79.757 3 3 — Italy 15.357 11.928 10.250 11.375 15.428 64.338 4 4 — Germany 10.437 9.500 13.500 12.687 18.083 64.207 3 6 5 5 — France 10.812 10.000 6.928 11.000 15.000 53.740 6 6 — Russia 10.000 6.625 11.250 9.750 6.166 43.791 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient It is true that England, Spain and Italy are still ahead of Germany (marginally in Italy's case), looking at the past, but that has to do with several factors. One is that the teams in those countries receive a lot more TV money, the other is that many of the teams in these countries are either hopelessly in debt or got bought by rich moguls which is somewhat problematic in itself. On average, the teams in Germany are much "healthier" from a financial standpoint. With the looming introduction of financial fair play rules in Europe, things will change. I had a recent meeting with the GM of Juventus in which he stressed to me that Bayern is a role model for them.
You are asking WHY about something that you're just speculating and hasn't even happened? Y'all have kicked this WORLD CUP 2010 South Africa thread off the rails. Please go discuss Bundesliga vs. EPL vs. La Liga vs. MLS vs. El Salvador's soccer in another thread, gentlemen.
You need to distinguish between the few top teams and the rest of the league. Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal are the ones who got all the points for the EPL. The rest of the EPL isn't really any better than any team 4-18 in the German or Spanish or Italian league, and significantly wors than a team like Bayern. The reason the EPL is at the top is that they had significant infusions of money in the recent past (e.g., Chelsea was historically never that good before Abramovich). The way I see it right now is that the top four leagues are all close and then it drops off. In fact, I think the Italian league will drop off somewhat, Inter's CL victory this year is somewhat of an aberration (Mourinho had a lot to do with that). They have empty stadiums and a lot of issues to solve. I also think that the Bundesliga (and the Bundesliga teams) have done a comparably terrible job until now in marketing itself and themselves abroad.
Alright, back on topic, there is absolutely no way that Mexico or the US go any further than the quarterfinals .
