OT: Soccer in the US

The talent is there ... FIFA rated the US 5th in the world prior to the World Cup ... What was not there today was any hunger ... They played like a bunch of spoiled kids ... with no sense of urgency or desire ... Look how great our BASEBALL team did in that last tournament ... our national pastime ... taking it easy ...

But one came from the recognized body ... and the other was just a fart blown out ...

Fifa does have a sophisticated computerized way to get these ratings ... makes the BCS computer look like flipping a coin ... So I'm not impressed with them either ... We were even rated 4th the previous month .... To show some credibility though Czech Republic was rated 2nd behind Brazil ... SO today 2 beat 5 ...

We do have the talent ... we just don't seem to have the attitude nor desire ... today anyway ... 3-0 against Italy and Ghana ... and I'll change my opinion ...

Do you really think the european leagues would want many of the Americans?

I never said it was boring. I just said American men are not competitive with the rest of the world. I've been known to watch bowling, golf, and an occassional car race on TV, so I sure can't judge what people find boring.

That wasn't always the case. I had season tickets to the Raiders when they were in LA. The stadium 'looked' empty, but there was normally 70,000 or so in attendance.

I'll agree 100 % about the exciting 0-0 games ... Soccer and Hockey are two sports where there are 1000 battles fought and won ... none of which won the war ... But I do differ with you on boring high scoring games ... a 9-0 is definitely boring ... but I've never seen a 4-4 game that was ...

100 % agreement there a low scoring BB game is either due to poor shooting or extensive time wasted setting up the shot ... which is why the shot clock was put in ... that said ... a ball possession game in soccer is also very boring ... Brazilian players have made some of the most beautiful creative plays in the game ... highlight reels galore ... but 90 % of the time ... they make you yawn ...

A newspaper account said they had no spark ... I thought they showed no desire or heart ...

My comments ... we have many world class players ... The talent is there ... but we played like spoiled pampered rich kids ... no hunger ... maybe they feel too sure in their being on the team ... where other countries have several eager youngsters breathing down the necks of the national team roster pushing to get a spot ...

I've been hearing this argument for over 20 years now.

The fundamental problem is that our best athletes don't play soccer, while in almost every other country of the world the opposite is true. Until that changes we can toss all the rhetoric around we want, but we shouldn't compete.

Imagine Lebron James, Michael Vick and Derek Jeter as soccer players. That's what Brazil has.

yeah but we do have a very large population from which to pick. And we do have a talented team on paper. All of the players on this team would be playing proffesional soccer even if MLS didn't exist.

They did well 4 years ago and this team supposed to be better. It's just other teams actually do take them as a serious opponent now and prepare. And even though FIFA ranking is inflated in the favor of the teams not playing in Europe or South America and USA #5 ranking is laughable. The Chezch's #2 ranking is not since they do play in the toughest conference.