US SOCCER

[CAA Flagship]

Only the ECB and IMF.

(Finance joke )

Explain Greece making through then

They lost that bet.

[tribe_pride]

Korea is not good. Belgium just scored with 10 men so we will be playing them. Korea refuses to shoot when they have the chance. They have been trying to set up the perfect shot and it just won't happen.

Asia (which includes Australia) with 4 teams and 12 games played will have no wins. 0-9-3 (3 points). That is pathetic. They should lose at least 1/2 a qualifier in the next round from 4 1/2 to 4 or 3 1/2

[∞∞∞]

Assuming scores hold for the next ten minutes, here's the bracket. The top half is brutal, but we're still in a tough fourth of the bracket (but hey, this is the knockout stage of the WC).

BRAZIL
CHILE

COLOMBIA
URUGUAY

FRANCE
NIGERIA

GERMANY
ALGERIA
------------
NETHERLANDS
MEXICO

COSTA RICA
GREECE

ARGENTINA
SWITZERLAND

BELGIUM
UNITED STATES

[Seahawks08]

US/Mexico and Germany/Brazil would be one sick final 4!

[∞∞∞]

So which teams do y'all think will make the finals? I'm going with:

vs.

[tribe_pride]

According to this site https://www.sportsbook.ag/livesports/worldcup" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , here is the order of favorites

Brazil
Argentina and Germany
Netherlands
France
Belgium
Columbia
Mexico
Chile
Uruguay
USA and Costa Rica
Switzerland and Greece
Algeria and Nigeria

[Grizalltheway]

Germany-Argentina
3-1

[dal4018]

Ghana blew its chances of getting into the sweet 16 losing to Uncle Sam in the opening match.Back to the drawing board.

[dal4018]

Win vs. Ghana. Tie vs. Portugal. Lose vs. Germany.

Pretty much what everyone thought we needed to advance. Great job Team USA!

ps. Two World Cups in a row where the US makes the knockout stage and Italy doesn't.

Again Ghana blew its chances of advancement into the sweet 16 had too many opportunities to score vs USA in first match and Germany.I hated that they needed help to get in.

[Seahawks08]

Ghana blew its chances of getting into the sweet 16 losing to Uncle Sam in the opening match.Back to the drawing board.

Pretty sure they blew it today. All they had to do was win 2-1 and they would have advanced.

[Grizalltheway]

Poooooooooor Ghana

[dal4018]

True about wrong answer for Flaggy. Though more people do watch soccer than swimming outside of that time in the US. Premier League got 440,000 viewers per game and MLS gets 150,000 or so (I think was the number) on NBCSN.

For Gannon, the soccer league viewership is still less than hockey so it is below all 4.

I disagree with Flaggy that the money is there to get enough good players. The top soccer leagues have payrolls of $100 million on the low end teams payrolls and up to $300 million on the high end and this is before paying transfer fees which can be huge. At $6.6 million (including his bonus), Clint Dempsey is making more than the entire payroll of 15 of the 19 MLS teams. Donovan at $4.4 million is making more than the entire payroll of 12 of the 19 MLS teams. The entire league barely has a $100,000,000 payroll (I think) and that would pay for a horrible team in the Premier League with 5 or 6 guys getting 25-30% of all salaries and none making anywhere close to what it would take to get a big name guy to be here.

The best players (in their top forms) will not come over until the money is there. The money won't be there until the players are here which will attract more of an audience. Chicken or the Egg argument

Just for clarification, I said the money CAN be there, not IS there. It comes down to wether or not it can be marketed properly. There is so much entertainment spending in the US. Soccer can get a much bigger piece of the pie than it does now with ESPN type marketing. NASCAR blew up in about a ten year period well after having races like Daytona and Talledega on Wide World of Sports in the 70's. ESPN led the charge. ESPN saved hockey. ESPN also is responsible for the popularity of men's and women's college basketball. It's not just airing the games that matters. It's SportsCenter highlights, pregame buildups, and personalities like Dick Vitale and Barry Melrose that are part of the formula.

Hey Tribe I can guarantee you in '18 America wil be watching the WC it will be in Moscow imagine this as a final USA vs USSR the cold war all over again???

[dal4018]

Ghana blew its chances of getting into the sweet 16 losing to Uncle Sam in the opening match.Back to the drawing board.

Pretty sure they blew it today. All they had to do was win 2-1 and they would have advanced.

Also they had to depend on Germany beating USA I hated that.

[Skjellyfetti]

See. Dumb headline.

Drawing with Portugal had no bearing on us advancing or finishing 1st or 2nd in the group.

[dbackjon]

Korea is not good. Belgium just scored with 10 men so we will be playing them. Korea refuses to shoot when they have the chance. They have been trying to set up the perfect shot and it just won't happen.

Asia (which includes Australia) with 4 teams and 12 games played will have no wins. 0-9-3 (3 points). That is pathetic. They should lose at least 1/2 a qualifier in the next round from 4 1/2 to 4 or 3 1/2

CAF wasn't good - they got two through -Nigeria because of bad calls, and Algeria because of a weak group.

CONCACAF and CONMEBOL did best percentage wise.


If there is any justice to FIFA then CONCACAF should gain one full spot, Africa needs to lose one, as does Asia

[Seahawks08]

Goal of the day:

http://gfycat.com/SadVariableArgentineruddyduck

Spoiler: show

[DSUrocks07]

Assuming scores hold for the next ten minutes, here's the bracket. The top half is brutal, but we're still in a tough fourth of the bracket (but hey, this is the knockout stage of the WC).

BRAZIL
CHILE

COLOMBIA
URUGUAY

FRANCE
NIGERIA

GERMANY
ALGERIA
------------
NETHERLANDS
MEXICO

COSTA RICA
GREECE

ARGENTINA
SWITZERLAND

BELGIUM
UNITED STATES

A rematch of the 2009 Confed Cup Final. Revenge best served cold.

[tribe_pride]

Pretty sure they blew it today. All they had to do was win 2-1 and they would have advanced.

Also they had to depend on Germany beating USA I hated that.

And they got greedy as anything after 2 games (neither of which they won) and threatened to boycott the 3rd unless the country of Ghana paid them a total of about $3 million before the game.

As for the US game, Ghana may have had a lot of shots but for the 4-5 minutes that the game was tied, the US controlled the game. Then when they took the lead, they played relaxed. There was never a real concern that Ghana would win that game.

[Grizalltheway]

Goal of the day:

http://gfycat.com/SadVariableArgentineruddyduck

Spoiler: show

Goal of the day? That goes to Mueller, easily.

[tribe_pride]

Europe finished up strong and finished up with more points per game than CONCACAF

After 3 games for each team:
CONCACAF is 5-4-3
Africa is 3-9-3
Asia is 0-9-3
Europe is 18-14-7 (13-9-7 against non-Europe)
South America is 13-3-2

Points per game (3 for win and 1 for tie):
South America: 2.28
Europe: 1.56 (1.59 in non-Europe games)
CONCACAF: 1.50
Africa: .80
Asia .25

Teams in knockout rounds and % of total teams from region
Europe: 6 of 13 qualify 46%
South America: 5 of 6 qualify 83%
CONCACAF: 3 of 4 qualify 75%
Africa: 2 of 5 qualify 40%
Asia: 0 of 4 qualify - 0%

[Skjellyfetti]

Goal of the day:

http://gfycat.com/SadVariableArgentineruddyduck

Spoiler: show

just turrible job by ghana's gk. hey look! ronaldo is all alone! let me gently tap it straight to him.

[Ibanez]

Cool story bro.

Why do you hate 'Murica?

Really, there are a lot of Germans in Munich? Tell us more.

Btw, it's "Krauts".

English Gardens to Champs Sports Bar at our hotel to some other restaurant in the Schwabing part of Munich back to Champs. Krouts. Krauts. Whatever. 10 + pints of strong beer. I am happy.

So you think you can make up words and it's cool? That's so fraudlacent.

[93henfan]

Brazil over upstart Mexico

[Seahawks08]

Goal of the day:

http://gfycat.com/SadVariableArgentineruddyduck

Spoiler: show

Goal of the day? That goes to Mueller, easily.

I agree. I was referring to the situation and how he nonchalantly kicked it and then walked back like nothing happened.

[CitadelGrad]

See. Dumb headline.

Drawing with Portugal had no bearing on us advancing or finishing 1st or 2nd in the group.

And that has no bearing on the headline.