World Cup - This might be more interesting for some of you

[sonic_emperor]

well....i gues aussies arent really that talented by default...ha ha
anyways,if you hear this from some of them this is how you can understand what he said
croatian swearing - attention not for the civilised people

along with the italian,peoples of balkan swear the most

[sonic_emperor]

Dabogda ozenio stonogu pa cijeli zivot radio za cipele!
-May God make you marry a centipede, so you have to work for shoes all your life!

[blutach]

Harry Kewell has a Croation mother?

Came back from a terrible start to get the draw we needed. Onto the next round. Sympathy for sonic.

Regards

[foragerst]

IMO the US played horrible today. Yes that PK should not of been but they played horrible. The main problem I think in this tournament was how heavily Bruce Arena relied on the Veteran players. Donavan,Beesly(sp) and a few others from 2002 played pretty poorly most of the tournament. Mcbride was a heck of alot better than the other vets.


It was just a dissapointing tournament all the way around for the US.

[Chewy]

give it some more time, youth leagues are just getting going good, our problem is the best athletes go for the college scholarships in baseball, track,
football(usa) and basketball. If there's no support on the college level, how can we expect pro level athletes, rest of world breath a big sigh of relief!

[soup]

IMHO the problem is the same as here. If you do not have a fully operational top notch professional league, the kids have nowhere to aspire to. Just look around at the number of kids in the USA & Canada playing soccer but apart from senior recreational leagues, most of them are done when they finish playing minor soccer. Said it for years.

[blutach]

That's not entirely true fellas. Soccer would be seen as the 3rd code here but is growing rapidly from its ethnic roots. The top class players find their way to Europe and get into teams where they hone their skills. That's the only way to match the glamour and pay of the other codes.

But chewy is right - you need to start at grass roots with the kids. Many parents here see soccer as a safer alternative to our other codes, where you can get your head kicked in. More and more kids are taking it up - my own youngster included - and more young people would see it as their football code of choice - my eldest (25 yo) included.

It does take time though and effort and money to pump into the sport. For us, we coveted getting into the finals after battling for so long, and are overjoyed to have advanced. Perhaps this "embarrassment" to the US is exactly what it needs for soccer to advance there.

Regards

[jamoskeag3]

On the national news tonight in USA, the reporter annnounced that USA had lost, and then said that half the peolple didn't know, and the other half did not care.
As Chewy said, the good USA athletes go for the big bucks in other sports.

And Chewy, you forgot to mention hockey. Bet we could take Ghana in that sport.

In any event, i know someone in west Africa. They said you cant believe how huge it was there when Ghana beat the Check republic. And now they got US, and on to next round.

[foragerst]

I think someone else mentioned it early but IT will be a long long while before soccer is as big here as it is in other parts of the world, if it ever will be. I dont think it will be ever be as big of a sport as it is in other countries, here in the states. EX. in Europe some of the matches go down to hardcore religion. In the state none of our sports really go as deep as soccer is for most of the world.

Like Chewy said you have to start young. Its starting to build up with the U17
national team and the other youth national teams but more needs to be done.
If I remember right most of the other countries soccer teams have been nationalized and thats a big leap that we need to take as a country if we want to really compete.

I can not wait till the day comes when the US wins the world cup. When that day comes just wait and see how much soccer explodes onto the national screen.

[lfcrule1972]

Football - it's not about life or death, it's more important that that ! (Bill Shankly - Past Liverpool Manager)

Here in England there is a lot of truth in that, hence why some players get between £40,000 to £125,000 per week !! If the US decided to match that kinda money for its professional players surely the interest would grow ?

[blutach]

They do - and more - for Gridiron, Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Tiddlewinks - anything but soccer.

Regards

[lfcrule1972]

Must just be sour grapes cos they are crap at it then !!! lol

[Chewy]

298,444,215

with that population to draw from, are you sure you would want us to get serious about soccer?

we could easy suck up all the talent in the western hemisphere also

[blutach]

Aren't you glad you can't get negative rep for that last post of yours, Scouser?

Regards

[lfcrule1972]

Ha ha - well take advantage of the system eh blu ?

Chewy - I think it's a shame that the US aren't better represented, it would be nice to have a team to challenge the Argentinians, Brazilians etc....