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Friday, February 01, 2013
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There's a chance, because Klinsmann almost always puts a player out of position, and it's usually a midfielder.
Oh ####### kill me now. I really don't like Gus Johnson. I'll trust DA's viewpoint and hopefully I'll be proven wrong but I'd rather Joe Buck than Gus Johnson but (obviously) I'm a fan of the less is more style of broadcaster.
Well Joe Buck is certainly less. I am not sure there has ever been an announcer with more less than Joe Buck.
I really don't want Joe Buck polluting a third sport. Of course if a broadcast is in 5.1 you can just mute your center speaker and virtually eliminate announcers anyway.
What's wrong with singing Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur? I actually have the MP3 on my Ipod!
Anyway, I think on the football hipster scale I'm probably a 6.5 out of 10. I'll go to 7 when I get around to subscribing to The Blizzard. Spurs are the biggest club I support, I only wear vintage, advertising-free shirts memorializing teams that were great before I was even born and, worst of all, I read a book about the history of Spartak.
The bigger question is, is there such a thing as a baseball hipster? If there is, I'm probably a 9 on that scale.
Stoke have been pretty bad since I said all those nice things about them after their Liverpool win. It's my fault. The thing about Stoke...I'm always amazed by how much more money they spend on players than Spurs. It's kind of nutty!
The Brooklyn Cyclones had a Hipster Night last season.
Does Direct TV have NBC Sports Network, Fox Soccer and BeIN? I presume they do. If so, you should be good to go for now and into next season.
You should know though that BeIN's coverage is terrible. The announcers are as bad as Gol TV's and the feed looks like something from the early 90s. It's quite shocking to switch from Fox Soccer HD to BeIN HD.
He's the closest an American could possibly get to the Simpsons' latino announcer.
"Holds it. Holds it! HOLDS IT!!!"
Like most announcers, Gus Johnson was fine until his schtick became popular. Now, he's overly excited about everything. Pretty annoying actually.
That was the main thrust of Cox's column, whereas Tweedale's was more traditional in that he focused more on their dreadful style and lack of ambition in road games. I think the two go hand-in-hand, which is what Cox was getting at: what Stoke has done over the last five years would perhaps be more understandable, even admirable, if they really were doing it on a shoestring. As it is, what they've actually done is just spunk an obscene amount of money on, for the most part, technically-limited mediocrities who are big and strong so Tony Pulis can be two or three deep at every position with exactly the same type of player.
Stoke is like the poor man's Manchester City in the early days of the nouveau riche era; buying overpriced players, letting them perform more or less as expected for about one season, and then replacing them with the next shiny bauble that catches the manager's eye. The only difference is that the shiny baubles that catch Pulis's eye are Kenwyne Jones and Steven N'Zonzi instead of Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri. No players ever improve upon arriving there for a big fee; either they just do what they've more or less always done or they stagnate. And it doesn't even really matter which path the player takes, because the manager will start agitating for the next shiny bauble the following summer, regardless.
The main team (Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen) are from GolTV, right?
FSC will have the Champions League for another few years, I think FSC is supposed to be getting changed to FXX or something, so they might move the soccer stuff to the Fox Sports channel that is being made out of the Speed channel. (I think fewer provider packages have FSC than Speed, so it's fairly safe to say if you have FSC, you also have Speed.)
NBCSports has EPL next season and Formula1 (which Speed lost) starting with the 2013 season.
Your nightly wet dream consists of Joao Moutinho in a Tottenham shirt, but you are slowly allowing Lewis Holtby to sneak in.
What, not Leandro Damião?
We should make a site that tracks the destinations of sport's leagues broadcast rights. It used to be so simple!
Also, no one notices because Stoke spread out the spending and they buy players that don't really make a ripple on the news wire. Sunderland have also spent a lot of money for questionable returns.
What, not Leandro Damião?
He is dead to us! I'm not sure who the Spurs white whale will be in the summer. Willian, Moutinho and Damiao are old news now. Eventually AVB is going to sign a lusophone player, right?
I'll take it over Joe Buck, who usually sounds like he doesn't want to be there.
Ideally you get both channels. I only get BeIN Spanish. Because of that I had the annoyance of getting to watch the critical US qualifier game against Antigua & Barbuda on tape delay. If I had the English language channel, I could have watched it live.
Looking at the tv schedule:
Tonight: Ligue 1 (English) instead of La Liga
Tomorrow: La Liga instead of Serie A
Thursday: International replays ... Spain v Uruguay then Honduras v USA instead of Iran v Japan then Spain v Uruguay.
Are they really sending him to Madrid? That's a pretty big step. I could almost swear that Fox Soccer would call MLS games from the studio.
Does anyone know if Al Gore selling out to Al Jazeera helps with distribution of BeIn?
Is one of the steps recognizing one of the club's youth goalkeepers by sight in a photo above a headline on the Beeb's website that doesn't mention his name? Here's the link to the full story, but the headline on the main Football page was just "Wycombe goalkeeper attacked by supporter".
P.S. - I am glad Jordan Archer appears to have come off relatively unscathed.
Attack is probably not quite the right word, but it's still good that Archer wasn't hurt. Getting cheap shotted like that from behind could easily have messed up his back or a knee if his foot had caught in the turf or something.
That's a high jump up in price from the next tier down. When I went to over-the-air a year ago, DirecTv offered an upgrade to the top tier for pretty close to free, because I was a sports channel cash cow. Maybe that'll still be on the table.
Now if I can only figure out how to watch my DVR online I will be set.
GolTV is on the Spanish packages on Comcast.
The english and spanish language language channels differ only a bit. Both channels show all the Barcelona and Real Madrid games. The English language channel has the occasional Ligue 1 and Championship game (beIN doesn't have the spanish-language rights for Ligue 1). The Spanish channel will often show more La Liga games-sometimes all of them.
You can look at the schedules on their online tv-guide, though usually they don't update the weekend schedule until later in the week.
Yeah, the US doesn't have much depth when it comes to 1st rate players. So I have tended to find it a bit much when people would complain about the US not making the quarterfinals of World Cup's.
But they should be good enough to qualify out of CONCACAF.
Frequent outages and crap internet put the lie to that.
This team should, barring a "group of death" draw, make it out of the group stage. After that it really is about the matchup. No shame in losing to Spain or Germany in the first round.
But first they have to get there, and their form in 2012 indicates it's going to be a struggle this year.
EDIT: Eight, sixteen, what's the difference?
Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, England, France, Portugal, Russia, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Cote D'Ivoire
I'd guess the US stands in the range of 20th to 30th in international football.
Well the top 2 from each group make it, so it's "top 16." But that's a bad gauge because the top 32 teams in the world don't make it to the World Cup. The top 20 or so do, and the rest are teams like New Zealand, North Korea, and Algeria and sometimes the home team (though that won't be the case in 2014) that qualify but aren't better than say, Sweden, Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia that don't. The US will probably be the 2nd best team in their group, clearly better than one team and fairly evenly matched with the third. I'll take their chances in a group like that every time.
I definitely don't think that a team that is overall under 50/50 (or even a little over 50/50 if you want to be optimistic) to make the knockouts "should" make the knockouts. They just don't have the talent to have that expectation. Maybe they will, but it wouldn't be surprise or a real failure to fall short.
For me, the real failure is in talent development.
I agree all these teams are better. But here's the thing: UEFA gets 9 teams, plus 4 that go after a home and away playoff. There is no guarantee that all of those 9 teams go. Would anybody be surprised if say, Belgium, Russia and France had to go to a playoff? In 2010 France, Portugal and Russia did, and Russia lost to Slovenia, who are inferior to the US. And what if two of those teams faced each other? Then one is guaranteed not to go, and an inferior team "takes their place" and there's one less team better than the US in the World Cup.
EDIT: I disagree that England is better. I think they are even. England is overrated because they are England.
It seems we actually agree much more than we disagree on the objective question. So it's really about the language you use to talk about possible outcomes. In which case I don't want to belabor the point.
Agreed, we're just choosing different words to say essentially the same thing. And of course A) they have to qualify and B) we need to see what their group looks like.
And now I'm off to bed, so we can't come happily to agreement just yet. Hopefully we will!
They play a friendly tomorrow against Brazil with a first choice lineup. They can shut me up for a little while with a good performance there. (I'll note now that a good performance does not have to be a win.)
I think we can agree that this is amazing.
There's some selection bias in there. Fulham, Newcastle, Reading and Wigan have only a handful of English players. About half of QPR, Aston Villa and Sunderland's rosters are foreigners. When you only have 3 English players, odds are they aren't on the national team. There's a chicken and the egg thing at work with most of those teams not being good, but not having many English players hasn't hurt Arsenal, Manchester City or Chelsea.
The only thing I don't like about that is the pattern. He looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Rene Higuita's hair and the Japanese flames are excellent.
I don't understand your point. Those teams are mostly terrible, so them having, or not, English players doesn't really matter.
The point was that England's 23 is composed mostly of players who play for good or very good teams in a very good league. Very few US players fit that description.
One of Arsenal's best players this year is English. Chelsea's best player over the past decade (ever?) is English. Cole is getting a bit old, but is still a very good left back. John Terry has been overrated for years, but has nevertheless been the heart of the defense for a team that just won the Champions League. Cahill is English. Joe Hart is English. Barry has started for both City and England a fair amount. Rodwell, Wilshere, Micah Richards.
And if you turn to Man U: Rio, Evans, Phil Jones, Smalling, Carrick, Young, Cleverly.
If you include Spurs in this group of the top English teams, you get Dempsey. I'll give you Bradley. And I guess Donovan could be at Everton with Howard if he had wanted. I love what Jozy has been up to recently, but he also washed out at a team that got relegated. Who else on the USMNT could even make the bench for the Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Everton, Liverpool?
I say this with an unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality...it's fabulous.
You are not alone; this must be the most common thing written about US Soccer.
That's the point. If you took some of them and put them on other teams, the teams would still stink (although they would be better), but the players would still be international caliber players. What team they play for is largely irrelevant. They play for the top EPL teams because they are internationals, they are not internationals because they play for those teams. Donovan is a great example: he was a difference maker at Everton. That he plays in a lesser league didn't matter.
I still don't understand what you're saying. If you took the bad players from my team (Reading) and put them on Manchester City...that wouldn't happen. Because Manchester City has piles of cash and doesn't need journeymen. While Reading is poor and not very good. I just don't understand why Reading or Wigan or whoever has anything to do with what we're talking about here. There is not a single player on Reading who is particularly CLOSE to the class of a Cleverly or Walcott or Wilshere. Much less a Rooney. When bottom-tier clubs have guys who are that good, they get sold to better clubs.
Football is a competitive market with a lot of money. If there were US players who could be sold up the ladder, they would be sold. Instead, almost all of the US players play for mediocre teams. Our (second?) best player is a sometimes-contributor to one of the six/seven top teams in England. We have three other guys who could reasonably make those teams.
Meanwhile, England players ALL play for good teams, and are important contributors to those teams. Sure, they tend to be overvalued. But even with that, when your whole squad is made up of guys who routinely play for excellent teams who have no interest in signing Americans...that's a pretty compelling piece of evidence.
I mean, I agree with the consensus that the US should be able to play competitively with anyone for a game or two - and there are only 10/15 countries in the world I would consider *clearly* better than us. But I don't see any particular reason to think that we're at the top of the next tier. We could just as easily be #35 as #16 in the world. Our record in the World Cup since 2002 has been better than I'd expect - not by a massive degree or anything, but still better than I'd expect.
I'm glad they don't own my team. The racial stuff is bad enough, but the remarks about girls considering Silvio's history is just gross.
Clean and simple.
What a bunch of a**holes those Berlusconis are. I feel horrible for all of the black players (especially Boateng), as now they know that ownership thinks that they actually own their black players like chattel. Pisses me off that in this day and age people still have to deal with this bs. I hope the UEFA just crushes them, but who knows with their crap sense of justice.
Words escape me.
Just to conclusively demonstrate the type of people who support the PDL.
The early 90s were just a bad time style wise. You either had the grunge thing going or the over the top colors on the other end of the spectrum. "Happy medium" was not really a term used much in those years. Thank god I was in college and didn't have the money to try and spend to keep up with fashion.
I don't think the last 3 are that bad. The Everton seems to be there solely on the basis of 'ewww pink'.
2 of the last 3 aren't from the 90's, of course.
England may be overrated, but there is no way the US is even close to England in terms of talent. England's second stringers would all be massive improvements compared to the US roster, almost across the board.
GK - Butland is extremely talented but not yet proven at international level. EDGE: USA
RB - Whoever's considered the second stringer, Walker or Johnson, is better than Cherundolo. EDGE: England
LB - Leighton Baines is better than Chandler or whoever Klinsmann might choose to play there. EDGE: England
CB - Anyone who's played here for England in recent years would waltz into the US team, easily. Lescott, Jagielka, Cahill, Smalling, Jones, Dawson, or the aging Rio and Terry. All better than the best American center backs. EDGE: England
CM - You could make a case for Bradley and pre-injury Stu Holden being better than some of the English second string midfielders, but England wins this by a mile on depth. Further, the US doesn't have anyone who's as good in possession as Carrick or Wilshere or even Osman. Donovan is close to Osman, but he's not really in the picture any more. EDGE: Even (at best)? Probably slight edge to England on depth and versatility.
LM/RM - Lennon, Milner, Young, and Ox (and Walcott if you consider him a winger still) are better than whatever the US could dredge up to play there, pretty much by default. They're also very good players. If you consider Dempsey a wide midfielder, he's probably about level with Milner. EDGE: England
FW - Jozy has blossomed for AZ this season, but I'd still rate him below the likes of Welbeck and Sturridge. Who would be Jozy's equal in England? Danny Graham? EDGE: England
I wonder if games being more widely distributed on tv had something to with it, too. As in, "Hey, look at us!" Also, San Jose Sharks gear was a phenomenon in the early 1990's--I sold Starter and New Era stuff at a JC Penney then while I was in junior college and we couldn't keep the stuff on the shelves--and I think "sports consultants" might have pushed teams to "differentiate" their brands for marketing purposes to hilarious effect. It's kind of forgotten now, but the Sharks really changed the way sports teams marketed themselves as a fashion brand.
Very much yes to this. Hell, I ran a soccer club for 15 years and am still on the Board, and the whole system is fracked.
Nate Silver's rankings have us 38th.
Also, Croatia is knocking the crap out of South Korea. Jelavic scored which may be good news for you Evertonians. Maybe that's the confidence boost he needed.
Apparently there's a movement afoot to celebrate "Bielsa Day" on March 3rd.
Because 3-3-13.
Were they the ones who chose the color on the basis that it was colorful enough to appeal to women, but not so colorful that men would not buy it?
Yes. They were the first to do intensive focus grouping and all that kind of crap that we've all come to loathe.
Apparently there's a movement afoot to celebrate "Bielsa Day" on March 3rd.
Because 3-3-13.
But we'll be watching the NLD which is so mainstream and played out.
Was it the Sharks' jerseys that started the fashion trend where every rap/hip-hop artist wore hockey jerseys?
Oregon's status as Nike's experimental lab monkeys got things rolling. Then Under Armour and its ugly crap. Yesterday I watched my alma mater play in this.
I would imagine its only a matter of time before it starts hitting soccer jerseys. I guess its still better than the 90s.
The whole "gotta get 'em all" kit buying ethos has never taken off on the continent to anything like the degree it has in the UK, which is part of the reason why continental kits tended not to as atrocious during the same period (though there certainly were some shockers, particularly among "big" clubs).
Well, we could pretend to be watching it ironically.
Do you think we'll be able to find some obscure Argentinian beer with which to toast our hero?
Of course. And that's why what team a player plays for doesn't matter. They're still the same player if they're on Chelsea or if they are on QPR. The top teams in the EPL have the best English players because they're the top teams, they're not the top teams because they have the best English players.
It's an 11 am start so Kinsale's is probably a viable option, too.
Also, just a reminder, the Shooty 2013 World Tour will be at the Football Factory this afternoon for the Honduras-USA fun. It's on W. 33rd street between 5th and 6th avenue.
James Milner is a good example of how England gets overrated by being England. Milner is a nice player but nothing special. Dempsey is well above him. Dempsey has carried entire teams on his back, Milner hasn't. In 7 World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 games, he was taken off in 5 off them by the 60th or so minute (in the 31st against the US after beating beaten up and down the field by Cherundolo). That would never happen to Dempsey unless he was hurt.
Yeah but the point was that the big teams want those players, to a degree they don't want the American ones. They are starting for top teams on merit, and Americans are not able to crack those teams.
I might come down to the USA game, but that depends how long it takes the plumbers currently destroying my bathroom to put it back together.
I'm more interested in Ghost Cat.
Everything seems to be driven by a "17 year olds like black and shiny things" aesthetic and a "if we wear bizarre things people will show/talk about us" rather than a primary desire to sell replica merchandise.
Argentina and the Netherlands are better than England (and obviously the US), yet only a handful of Argentinians and Dutch nationals are on EPL teams. Why is that? Why is there only one player on Mexico in the EPL? They are clearly ahead of the US yet the US has more players there. Colombia has none. Why don't they have any?
And they don't want the best American players because they are all crap.
And that USMNT jersey above looks like a hockey crest.
Everyone gives the US credit for having Michael Bradley as a major contributor on Roma. But he, Dempsey, and Howard are the only Americans contributing to winning clubs in top leagues.
Woe is them. All their players play for crap teams.
As for the Netherlands being better than England, after their ###-show last Euros, I am not entirely convinced. Their 'golden generation' is old and basically done. They are still far better represented among top clubs than the US is.
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