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US GAF: Support your national soccer team

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xbhaskarx

Member
Pre said:
NFL receiver Chad Johnson (or Ochocinco if you prefer :lol) also grew up playing soccer and said he'll try his hand at pro soccer in the event of an NFL lockout.

I love American football but I am now rooting for an NFL lockout.

Edit: I just thought of something, soccer jersey numbers don't go up to 85, right? Maybe he would shorten his name to Chad Ocho. :lol
 

Pre

Member
xbhaskarx said:
I love American football but I am now rooting for an NFL lockout.

Edit: I just thought of something, soccer jersey numbers don't go up to 85, right? Maybe he would shorten his name to Chad Ocho. :lol

:lol :lol

That would be interesting to see. As much as I love my Bears, it might be worth not seeing them for a while just to see this.
 
Woo!

I haven't really been able to get into MLS, but I was nuts about the World Cup last time around. Looking forward to this getting rolling.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
 

NoRéN

Member
scorcho said:
from what i've read that seems to be the idea.
Man, all the more reason I'm pissed at Bradley. if he was gonna waste that spot on the 30 man squad, should have at least given Davies a chance to proof that he was indeed fit enough for South Africa. It wasn't about a feel good story and nothin would have been set in stone. Davies deserved at least a chance to show how far he's come.
So, it looks like Altidore and Buddle to start. Gomez as a sub. If any are unavailable, I'm sure Bradley would push Dempsey and/or Donovan up front before playing Findley.
 
NoRéN said:
Man, all the more reason I'm pissed at Bradley. if he was gonna waste that spot on the 30 man squad, should have at least given Davies a chance to proof that he was indeed fit enough for South Africa. It wasn't about a feel good story and nothin would have been set in stone. Davies deserved at least a chance to show how far he's come.
So, it looks like Altidore and Buddle to start. Gomez as a sub. If any are unavailable, I'm sure Bradley would push Dempsey and/or Donovan up front before playing Findley.

Evidently, Davies didn't have medical clearance from his club. Not too much Bradley could have done anyways. Sucks, though. I had high hopes for him this summer.
 

NoRéN

Member
Pre said:
I used to hate soccer before the 2006 World Cup, when my brother started watching matches and convinced me to watch with him. We naturally rooted for the Yanks out of patriotic duty and I've been hooked on soccer ever since.
:lol that's awesome. My lady, when i met her, was a die-hard Dodgers Fan. Baseball, baseball, baseball. Then, I finally decided, enough of this crap. Bought tickets to the Gold CUP group matches in L.A. for '07. Took her to the games and she never looked back.
I thought she would have hated the experience. Some douchbag Salvadorians stuck around after theri team was handled by Guatemala. They were heckling and booing. Even yelling obsenities at families with kids that were rooting for US. The Yanks did the business and I got the section to cheer the hecklers right out of HDC. Turns out, that was the most fun she had ever had at a sporting event. :D
 

Pre

Member
NoRéN said:
:lol that's awesome. My lady, when i met her, was a die-hard Dodgers Fan. Baseball, baseball, baseball. Then, I finally decided, enough of this crap. Bought tickets to the Gold CUP group matches in L.A. for '07. Took her to the games and she never looked back.
I thought she would have hated the experience. Some douchbag Salvadorians stuck around after theri team was handled by Guatemala. They were heckling and booing. Even yelling obsenities at families with kids that were rooting for US. The Yanks did the business and I got the section to cheer the hecklers right out of HDC. Turns out, that was the most fun she had ever had at a sporting event. :D

Nice! :lol

I had a girlfriend for a while that played soccer in high school and was a fan, so that worked out pretty well as far as interests go. There were other problems so things eventually went sour, but it was fun being able to get away with watching soccer on TV all the time. :lol
 

Atlagev

Member
xbhaskarx said:
I love American football but I am now rooting for an NFL lockout.

Edit: I just thought of something, soccer jersey numbers don't go up to 85, right? Maybe he would shorten his name to Chad Ocho. :lol

For national teams I think FIFA has a rule about this, but, for club teams, I've seen all kinds of crazy numbers. For example, Ronaldinho wears #80 for AC Milan, Jaime Moreno wears #99 for DC United, and I've seen some high numbers in the Greek League and others.
 
So, which battle are we calling June 12 the second of: Yorktown or New Orleans? I like Yorktown because we won the Revolution with it, but New Orleans has a song about killing British in it, which pisses the English off in two ways.
 

xbhaskarx

Member
ConfusingJazz said:
So, which battle are we calling June 12 the second of: Yorktown or New Orleans? I like Yorktown because we won the Revolution with it, but New Orleans has a song about killing British in it, which pisses the English off in two ways.

Yorktown.
 

Atlagev

Member
Pre said:
I used to hate soccer before the 2006 World Cup, when my brother started watching matches and convinced me to watch with him. We naturally rooted for the Yanks out of patriotic duty and I've been hooked on soccer ever since.

I was 10 during the '86 World Cup, and I remember it came on one Sunday(?) afternoon. I had seriously gotten into sports during 1985 and had started following the 49ers, Giants, Warriors, etc. I also loved the '84 Olympics in LA. I loved watching sports, and would basically watch whatever sport came on TV. So, when the World Cup started, I remember being completely and utterly mesmerized by what I saw on TV.

The entire field was covered in streamers, it looked like. The fans in the stands looked nothing like what I saw in any of the sports I followed. It was an absolutely alien experience to me, but I liked it! I remember Pele doing an interview during halftime or something and saying that he wanted to bring the World Cup to the US. :)

So anyway, sometime during the match, my dad came in, looked at what I was watching, and said, "You must be really desperate to be watching soccer!" "It's the World Cup!" I explained, parroting what the TV had told me. "No, turn it off. You're not watching that." he said, flatly. It was bizarre, because my dad was usually so enthusiastic about my sports viewing habits. Confused, I turned off the TV. I wonder how many Americans just hate on soccer because their parents do. I know my dad -- perhaps inadvertently -- taught me to hate it that day.

So, I never did try to watch soccer after that, and became your traditional "soccer hater" sports fan. It wasn't until the '94 Cup here in the States that I got interested in soccer again. I *loved* the tourney, and then when I found out that national teams played games *outside* of the WC and WC qualification, I was excited, and started watching those games, too. First tourney I think I watched was the '95 U.S. Cup. Been an obsessed fan ever since. :) I've been to almost all the games the USMNT has played in the Bay Area since then, and even traveled to Mexico City in 2001 to see the U.S. play Mexico in Azteca Stadium in a WCQ match. *That* was an experience!

Also, I started watching the English Premier League highlights show they had on SportsChannel at the time. I started following during the '95 - '96 season, and it taught me a lot about the game. I learned to love Arsenal (okay, a lot of it had to do with their name, which I thought was awesome ;-) , but Dennis Bergkamp didn't hurt, either. He's probably my favortite soccer player of all time) and hate Manchester United, Eric Cantona, and Peter Schmeichel, but it was sort of a love-hate relationship. I hated the team, but damn, I sure respected their abilities.

Also, the highlights show was narrated by none other than Peter Brackley of PES fame, so I get kind of nostalgic when I hear his voice. :)

Does anyone else remember this show?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcPymVRVOus

Anyone else have any conversion stories?
 

xbhaskarx

Member
Nice story, I first got into soccer with the '94 World Cup, stopped paying attention a few years later, and then got back into it for good with the 2002 World Cup.

The problem was that until a few years ago aside from World Cups it was really hard to follow soccer in the United States, as there was little coverage compared to domestic sports leagues. The internet has really helped Americans keep up with soccer.
 

NoRéN

Member
Atlagev said:
[awesome Story]

Anyone else have any conversion stories?
Aside from converting my girlfriend(mentioned above), I have to thank my dad for my love of football. 1994 world cup. He saved up money and spent so much in order for us to attend some of the games held at the Rose Bowl. Saw the US pull that upset over Colombia. My dad was an admirer of Bati-Gol so we went to see the Argentina Game in the round of 16. They lost. When th Semis rolled around, i was hooked! Nothing like sexy Brazilian booty all around you to cement your fate as a football fan. :D Brazil went through and set up the final v. italy. By the final I had picked Italy as my team to win. The Baggio brothers were simply superb. My dad went for Brazil. Up to that point in my short life, i had never experienced anything like that. The sheer pressure was felt by the players and fans alike. Nothing like 90,000 people giving a sigh of relief/desperation all at once. Then...penalty kicks. Roberto Baggio steps up...all eyes on him. People are whispering, "Tafarel ALWAYS dives"...Baggio kicks...and the ball sails over the crossbar and to the stands to the right of us. You couldn't hear yourself think after that. I had never cried so hard in public in my life.
But, I wanted more of that! That, and Lalas and Balboa really made an impression on me.
 

woodchuck

Member
I was 6 in 1994. My uncle had managed to get tickets to Brazil-Netherlands QF match at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. It was fucking awesome, and I've been hooked since. I had no idea about club teams so I only knew about international teams. I'm ashamed to admit, but I was a bandwagoner as a kid. I supported Brazil immensely since they were the first team I really watched. It doesn't hurt that they were the best team.

I didn't support the USMNT until the 2002 qualifying campaign when I realized I have no affiliation with Brazil and bandwagoning sucks. It doesn't hurt that's when ESPN started hyping the next generation of players (Donovan and Beasley).

I started supporting Arsenal in 2005 since they were the team I always used in Winning Eleven (North London). That's also when I was finally able to watch matches online. If only I could have started supporting them a couple years earlier.
 

xbhaskarx

Member
Bob Bradley quotes:

On his decision to take Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez:
"Plain and simple, Edson and Herculez have had real good stretches, scored a lot of goals. Brian has been such an important player but it’s tough when you have an injury at an inopportune time."

On Alejandro Bedoya:
"Alejandro continues to move himself along. This was an important year in his career, he’s worked his way into the national team pool and we believe he has a really bright future.”

On Brian Ching’s exclusion:
"It was extremely hard with the respect that we all have for Brian. As a person, for the way he plays on the field, his commitment to the team—it’s always hard whenever you make these types of decisions, but it’s particularly difficult when it’s a player that has contributed so much to the national team over the years.”

On any players who cemented their spot in the game against the Czech Republic:
"I think if you were going to name one player who fits into that category, you’d probably point to Herculez Gomez. He continues to take advantage of his opportunities, and we really feel he’s worked hard to get to this point.”

On how he made the decision on Robbie Findley:
“Robbie was a player that we discussed late last night. We made the decision that we needed to see the other players, and we only had six subs last night. We felt that we had a good feel for where Robbie was after the earlier games this year, including most recently Holland. So, that’s how we handled that part of it.”
 

NoRéN

Member
xbhaskarx said:
Gooch was going, regardless of performance. How did Findley earn his spot without playing on Tuesday?
So:
30 players -11 starters = 19 players left to view for a chance to go to SA.
The GK all go because it's smart to have a back up and a back up to the back up. So that would leave 17 players left to earn a spot. 11 starters for Tuesday + 6 subs on the bench.

I really wish coaches would not play favorites. :(
 

Clydefrog

Member
xbhaskarx said:

On Jonathan Bornstein:
“Johnny Bornstein has played in some big matches for us, he’s a very good competitor. Athletically he matches up well with some of the quick, fast players that you see at the international level out wide. He’s a player that can also give us something going forward, so his contributions along the way have helped us for sure.”

:lol :lol
 

NoRéN

Member
The only thing Bornstein does consistently is gift the opposition scoring chances.

...but, I guess that's what we have to live with when our LB options are practically non-existent.
 

Get'sMad

Member
xbhaskarx said:
The problem was that until a few years ago aside from World Cups it was really hard to follow soccer in the United States, as there was little coverage compared to domestic sports leagues. The internet has really helped Americans keep up with soccer.

Internet + cable/satellite tv have helped a ton. I remember just being ecstatic when ESPN first started showing Champions League games and now they broadcast Premier League and La Liga games regularly during the season (in addition to MLS). And, of course, the wonderful Fox Soccer Channel (which my cable company just added in HD :) ).
 

NoRéN

Member
modernkicks said:
Internet + cable/satellite tv have helped a ton. I remember just being ecstatic when ESPN first started showing Champions League games and now they broadcast Premier League and La Liga games regularly during the season (in addition to MLS). And, of course, the wonderful Fox Soccer Channel (which my cable company just added in HD :) ).
Yeah, cable has really stepped it up here in US. Then, Directv went and got those exclusive channels for Europa League. that was great. Add to that, GolTV.
Too bad Setanta disappeared.
 

Clydefrog

Member
modernkicks said:
Internet + cable/satellite tv have helped a ton. I remember just being ecstatic when ESPN first started showing Champions League games and now they broadcast Premier League and La Liga games regularly during the season (in addition to MLS). And, of course, the wonderful Fox Soccer Channel (which my cable company just added in HD :) ).

What cable company do you have? I'm waiting for Time Warner to jump on the FSC HD bandwagon. But I guess I won't need it anytime soon since the world cup will be on ESPNHD
 

shoplifter

Member
NoRéN said:
Yeah, cable has really stepped it up here in US. Then, Directv went and got those exclusive channels for Europa League. that was great. Add to that, GolTV.
Too bad Setanta disappeared.

I'm playing wait & see with FS+. Right now $15 a month over what I currently pay for the sports pack (which I'm paying for just to get FSC/GolTV/FSE) is a little difficult to swallow for what amounts to some extra Premiership and Serie A matches. If there were more Ligue 1/Championship I could be swayed.

Honestly, what I'm hoping for is a soccer only package with FSC/FS+/GolTV/FSE for $15. I'd have no issue paying for that.
 

NoRéN

Member
shoplifter said:
I'm playing wait & see with FS+. Right now $15 a month over what I currently pay for the sports pack (which I'm paying for just to get FSC/GolTV/FSE) is a little difficult to swallow for what amounts to some extra Premiership and Serie A matches. If there was more Ligue 1/Championship I could be swayed.

Honestly, what I'm hoping for is a soccer only package with FSC/FS+/GolTV/FSE for $15. I'd have no issue paying for that.
Clydefrog, I'm guessing it's Directv cuz that's what I have and they recently made the jump to HD.

Yeah, FS+ used to be Setanta. I was paying the $15/month until I realized that i did not need to have it through Directv. I suscribed to Setanta online and got a better deal. Basically, it was all the same as on TV but with video on demand, games on demand in case you missed it, all games airing on setanta would be available as opposed to have to stick to one, for $15/month. And if you paid the yearly suscription, it onyl cost $150 and got all the PPV games free. So, 2 free months, video on demand and PPV(FA cup used to be a PPV). Don't know if FS+ has anything rivaling this.
 

Raydeen

Member
ConfusingJazz said:

2508cxx.jpg
 

Slizz

Member
Where is everybody going to watch? Staying at home? Or trying to find a bar?

I'm gonna try and plant my ass at some pub and be super loud lol.....
 
Slizz said:
Where is everybody going to watch? Staying at home? Or trying to find a bar?

I'm gonna try and plant my ass at some pub and be super loud lol.....

Either at home or at Buffalo Wild Wings, since it's near my house.
 
NoRéN said:
The only thing Bornstein does consistently is gift the opposition scoring chances.

...but, I guess that's what we have to live with when our LB options are practically non-existent.

Bornstein > Pierce

you can't argue that shit
 

Slizz

Member
I didn't even think of BWW for the game actually.....might not be a bad idea since they usually have daily deals on drinks.

One negative though about BWW is the bar area is always so fucking bright lol, its supposed to be dimly lit in a bar/bar area.
 

Atlagev

Member
Slizz said:
Where is everybody going to watch? Staying at home? Or trying to find a bar?

I'm gonna try and plant my ass at some pub and be super loud lol.....

Oh, bar, no doubt. Already got plans to go with my bro and his friend, and one of my friends wants to go, too (he's a casual soccer fan, but loves the World Cup). Maybe at Danny Coyle's in SF? I watched the Honduras - US WCQ match there (the only place in the Bay Area you *could* watch it), and that place was a *mad house* the whole game! Anyone else have any bar suggestions for the Bay? The louder, the better!
 

DominoKid

Member
Slizz said:
Where is everybody going to watch? Staying at home? Or trying to find a bar?

I'm gonna try and plant my ass at some pub and be super loud lol.....

At home watching my 42" :D

I feel weird acting a fool in public
 

woodchuck

Member
If anyone's in Dallas, there's going to be a watching party at Victory Park.


But chances are it's going to be fucking hot outside so I'll probably watch it at pub.
 

xbhaskarx

Member
^ Where is that?

NoRéN said:
The only thing Bornstein does consistently is gift the opposition scoring chances.

...but, I guess that's what we have to live with when our LB options are practically non-existent.

Right, the entire defense is a mess, but Bornstein still scares me the most.
 
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