The Official RFF FIFA World Cup 2010 Thread

Gregoryniss said:
bummer that USA is out, but congrats to ghana for being the first african team to be in the quarter finals!
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That was a close call!

The match could have gone either way. I wonder what this does for soccer in USA. A win would have been a great boost for soccer 'over there'. Or?
 
I don't think either way, win or lose, the path of soccer will change here. We already have every town field occupied with soccer leagues in the spring and fall, it is the largest youth sport already. As our younger generations grow, there will be increased interest, and with time we have so many kids playing we gotta develop some great talent.

A few very interesting points I have heard while listening to the coverage on the radio (XM Radio has a channel dedicated to the cup and is broadcasting every game),

1) TV coverage... as this interested kids grow they can't watch games on TV... no breaks during play, to commercials to pay for the broadcast, no games on TV. Corporate greed, that will change a little as I think ESPN will be broadcasting Premier League games soon.

2) No top quality leagues in the US. That is just the way it is, the MLS simply isn't as good as the Euro leagues. Great statement was that other than the top leagues in England, Spain, Germany and Italy, every other league in the world is a feeder league for talent. What is wrong with that? Just like the NFL, NBA, MLB in the US are the top leagues in their sports around the world, best players, highest salaries.... what is wrong with the MLS being a feeder league for the Euro teams and not the best in the world in soccer? We simply have to sell that and create interest in your teams.

3) Is our development system through our colleges working? The opinion is no. Unlike most of the world where soccer is a game for everyone, as our kids grow, soccer has become a game of the YUPPIE kids. School and town athletic budgets are stretched, field times are limited, only the more fiscally sound towns and school systems can support additional sports. When I was growing up in the 1970s I played in the first year of my town's first youth soccer program. I played in middle school, but the high school I went to didn't have a soccer program. End of my career. That happens still to a number of children. For those who continue in the sport, our lifestyle funnels kids from high school sports, to the college system and we turn out well educated fines athletes at age 22ish. in other nations, by time a talented player is 22 he has years of national team experience and is playing in his second world cup championship. Perhaps our system is wonderful for the students, but short changes the sport. We need to find a way to keep the ball on more kids' feet to allow them to continue to develop, and as they advance in skill, we need to find a way to keep them playing against better talent so they don't stall in their development and fall behind their peers from around the world.

Just some of the discussions I have been hearing and I thought were interesting.
 
rover said:
I don't think either way, win or lose, the path of soccer will change here. We already have every town field occupied with soccer leagues in the spring and fall, it is the largest youth sport already. As our younger generations grow, there will be increased interest, and with time we have so many kids playing we gotta develop some great talent.

A few very interesting points I have heard while listening to the coverage on the radio (XM Radio has a channel dedicated to the cup and is broadcasting every game),

1) TV coverage... as this interested kids grow they can't watch games on TV... no breaks during play, to commercials to pay for the broadcast, no games on TV. Corporate greed, that will change a little as I think ESPN will be broadcasting Premier League games soon.

2) No top quality leagues in the US. That is just the way it is, the MLS simply isn't as good as the Euro leagues. Great statement was that other than the top leagues in England, Spain, Germany and Italy, every other league in the world is a feeder league for talent. What is wrong with that? Just like the NFL, NBA, MLB in the US are the top leagues in their sports around the world, best players, highest salaries.... what is wrong with the MLS being a feeder league for the Euro teams and not the best in the world in soccer? We simply have to sell that and create interest in your teams.

3) Is our development system through our colleges working? The opinion is no. Unlike most of the world where soccer is a game for everyone, as our kids grow, soccer has become a game of the YUPPIE kids. School and town athletic budgets are stretched, field times are limited, only the more fiscally sound towns and school systems can support additional sports. When I was growing up in the 1970s I played in the first year of my town's first youth soccer program. I played in middle school, but the high school I went to didn't have a soccer program. End of my career. That happens still to a number of children. For those who continue in the sport, our lifestyle funnels kids from high school sports, to the college system and we turn out well educated fines athletes at age 22ish. in other nations, by time a talented player is 22 he has years of national team experience and is playing in his second world cup championship. Perhaps our system is wonderful for the students, but short changes the sport. We need to find a way to keep the ball on more kids' feet to allow them to continue to develop, and as they advance in skill, we need to find a way to keep them playing against better talent so they don't stall in their development and fall behind their peers from around the world.

Just some of the discussions I have been hearing and I thought were interesting.
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very interesting indeed!
I really liked the US team this year, but I'm even happier Ghana made it through.:)
 
Olsen said:
That was a close call!

The match could have gone either way. I wonder what this does for soccer in USA. A win would have been a great boost for soccer 'over there'. Or?
Click to expand...

I woke up this morning thinking about that same thing. Perhaps being so close to moving on to the next level will spur more interest. In many sports here in the US we jokingly say things like "maybe next year" (see Chicago cubs), or "we'll get em next time".

But yes, a win yesterday with that sense of immediate success would have been as we say here "HUGE" for the sport.
 
Thardy said:
...a win yesterday with that sense of immediate success would have been as we say here "HUGE" for the sport.
Click to expand...

I agree... US soccer has been getting better and better for 20 years... All sports TV shows people were talking about it yesterday here in Spain: one or two more wins would have been a magical boost all around the USA... Yet I think they could have been the winners yesterday: Ghana was lucky to show strength and 2 goals, but the US team could have easily gotten 2 or 3 goals too... World cups are this tough... I'm nervous about Argentina today, because any team can lose any game...

Cheers,

Juan
 
rover said:
I don't think either way, win or lose, the path of soccer will change here. We already have every town field occupied with soccer leagues in the spring and fall, it is the largest youth sport already. As our younger generations grow, there will be increased interest, and with time we have so many kids playing we gotta develop some great talent.

A few very interesting points I have heard while listening to the coverage on the radio (XM Radio has a channel dedicated to the cup and is broadcasting every game),

1) TV coverage... as this interested kids grow they can't watch games on TV... no breaks during play, to commercials to pay for the broadcast, no games on TV. Corporate greed, that will change a little as I think ESPN will be broadcasting Premier League games soon.

2) No top quality leagues in the US. That is just the way it is, the MLS simply isn't as good as the Euro leagues. Great statement was that other than the top leagues in England, Spain, Germany and Italy, every other league in the world is a feeder league for talent. What is wrong with that? Just like the NFL, NBA, MLB in the US are the top leagues in their sports around the world, best players, highest salaries.... what is wrong with the MLS being a feeder league for the Euro teams and not the best in the world in soccer? We simply have to sell that and create interest in your teams.

3) Is our development system through our colleges working? The opinion is no. Unlike most of the world where soccer is a game for everyone, as our kids grow, soccer has become a game of the YUPPIE kids. School and town athletic budgets are stretched, field times are limited, only the more fiscally sound towns and school systems can support additional sports. When I was growing up in the 1970s I played in the first year of my town's first youth soccer program. I played in middle school, but the high school I went to didn't have a soccer program. End of my career. That happens still to a number of children. For those who continue in the sport, our lifestyle funnels kids from high school sports, to the college system and we turn out well educated fines athletes at age 22ish. in other nations, by time a talented player is 22 he has years of national team experience and is playing in his second world cup championship. Perhaps our system is wonderful for the students, but short changes the sport. We need to find a way to keep the ball on more kids' feet to allow them to continue to develop, and as they advance in skill, we need to find a way to keep them playing against better talent so they don't stall in their development and fall behind their peers from around the world.

Just some of the discussions I have been hearing and I thought were interesting.
Click to expand...

Interesting!

80% of my TV watching is public TV (like Norwegian NRK or Swedish STV) - without any commercials at all. - I simply can't stand all the shampoo commercials interrupting all the time on these commercial channels. But the football World Championship is shown on a commercial channel here in Norway, but commercial slots are highly regulated. They are not allowed to interrupt the programs, like a football match, just to show commercials.

Over here football is a working class sport. Oslo's best team 'Vålerenga' is representing the eastern and poorest part of the city. The part of the city where the 'sailors & longshoremen' were living, traditionally. It is a part of the city with a strong working class identity and character. Even though some of Norway's richest men can trace their family tracks to Vålerenga. Like the guy who owns the club: John Fredriksen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fredriksen
 
absolutely 2:2, very very sad for England! the Germans gave too much space to the English after the 2:0 and suddenly they woke up!
let's hope for a strong second half!
 
this is one of the few open games so far, where both teams actuall play football. germans still seemed a bit nervous after the break.
referees don't really convince me though, not only with the not-given-goal.
 
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Unlike Italy and France who were not supposed to have teams able to win the Cup, but who grossly underachieved, Germany who also is supposed to be "down" compared to prior squads is still.... Germany. And they do look like they can win the whole thing.
 
am I the only one to really really not like Capello?
I mean Löw is not the most charismatic of all coaches either, but...

I also think that a british coach would meet the needs of the english team better...

edit: he (Capello) IS a gentleman though.
 
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Germany, which showed excellence already in the first match (see my first post here) in this championship, is the best team of the two. It is always best for the championship that the best team goes on.
 
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