Confederations Cup 2009 (Soccer)

[Alvinho]

Another fellow Brasilero? :O

Yes!

And IMO, "Soccer" isn't popular in the US because Americans, in general, just aren't into it. There's not a lot of physical contact, and relatively low scores, when compared to sports such as Basketball or Football to draw enough attention to it.

The US National team still needs tons of work. People talking about how they can reach finals/win 2010 are going in way over their heads. The squad looks very disciplined, and has above average defense, but here, defense does not win games.

I know nothing about Bob Bradley, nor have I ever heard of him, and yet, he coaches the national team, making sure his son is on the squad (never heard of him either!). I'm not sure what qualifications he has, but I'm sure there are tons of better coaches out there, but I think the US tries to keep it all "100% American", even though a lot of the players were either born somewhere else then naturalized, or birthed from immigrant parents. Time to bring in a coach with more experience, to maybe change things a little.

Only a handful of players play in a league outside the MLS, and only a handful out of those play in a team with any sort of expression. Even so, none of those players have any sort of expression to be actually taken seriously, except maybe Tim Howard, and him being the goalie, that's not exactly a great thing. Donovan is a joke. Beasley is a joke. Dempsey is a joke. Davis/Adu/Altidore are jokes. Also, let's face it, the MLS is a big joke.

US players need more experience against real teams, with real players, and the MLS could do something about their foreign players limitations. Perhaps more experienced players would want to play there, if that were the case. It would kick up the league's level of competitiveness (is this even a word?) a notch, making for more entertaining matches. Also, shoot-outs need to GTFO, if they haven't already (who follows that, really?).

Sorry for the long post. tl;dr: US needs to stop trying to keep all their shit in-house if they ever plan to be competitive/win/be taken seriously at the international level.

[Plow]

Wait, ads during stoppage of play? How would that work?

Every time the ball is out of touch for say a throw-in, goal-kick, or foul they'd run a 4 second ad?

Goal kick = commercial break, etc.

It was an interesting idea, it didn't really screw with the flow as much as you might think, but it turned off enough of the traditionalists, and potential players/relationships with foreign teams that they scrapped it.


Kinda like MISL indoor soccer, it attempted to make the game more T.V. friendly, but just didn't catch on.

[EvilSid]

I think ESPN getting the rights to broadcast 46 (somewhere in the 40's can't remember exact) EPL games will have a positive impact.

When I first started following Football (I knew the game before and watched international tournaments), it was because I went to a game in Barca v RM, and then watched Ronaldo eat up England in 06. The fact the english channels Fox soccernet only showed shitty EPL games like middlesborough, AV, Blackburn etc made it not fun to watch. Meanwhile, ESPN deportes was showing Barca, RM and the top La Liga matches, and that turned the tides to watching La Liga over EPL.

Of course ESPN deportes was in Spanish, so that isn't going to draw a huge English speaking American crowd, but maybe top EPL games with teams people have heard of will generate excitement.

I guess you know the most important club league all over the world is UEFA Champion's League?

You can see the best games and the best players of this sport. This year the finals were disputed in Rome between Barça and Manchester United and it was a great game.

I hope your networks have the rights to broadcast this league, because I think with no doubts it's the highest expression of clubs' soccer, followed by Copa Libertadores (they're not even comparable btw).

[510Meeze]

I guess you know the most important club league all over the world is UEFA Champion's League?

You can see the best games and the best players of this sport. This year the finals were disputed in Rome between Barça and Manchester United and it was a great game.

I hope your networks have the rights to broadcast this league, because I think with no doubts it's the highest expression of clubs' soccer, followed by Copa Libertadores (they're not even comparable btw).

Being a salesman I get Tuesdays and/or Wednesday off, so I get to catch most CL games on ESPN. It definitely is the best league, because thats where the richest clubs show off the money they've spent on a fairly level playing field.

I was actually in Rome for the game, it was great, me and 60 Man U fans, brilliant.

[Plow]

CL is plainly superior even to world cup play in terms of quality of matches and skill level. It really sucks that we're lucky to get anything prior to quarterfinals, let alone outside 3am.

[EvilSid]

CL is plainly superior even to world cup play in terms of quality of matches and skill level.

Yes of course you cannot compare national teams which play just once in several months with club teams which do two games in a week and whose players train together every day.

[Plow]

I would put the level of play in World Cup semis at least, possibly quarters, above anything outside CL.

It takes the very best of the club teams to fuck with teams where there are no salary issues, competing just to sign players, etc. Add in the fact that it's pretty much the realization of the "premier" lifelong dream of pretty much every single player/coach/etc. involved, national pride, etc., and yeah.