What was that? Team USA was anemic. They looked completely at half pace. There was no cohesive attack plan, and no energy. Eddie Johnson was the best thing about the whole team. 3 shots on goal that actually looked like they could get to the back of the net. We need to show a better game. The feeble offense we showed will not work against Italy. Beasly needs to be taken out. And what is going on in the backfield? Keller did as well as can be expected since he was taking about 12 shots on goal per half. But defense means you stop them from making so many attacks on the goalkeeper. How about we actually go after the ball instead of just standing there watching the ball.
Games like this are why we are not respected in the World Cup. And will the announcers stop mentioning the FIFA rankings. Everyone knows they are completely meaningless. And the performance of these ‘world class’ entertainers is abysmal. I didn’t expect a win, few honestly did. I did expect a score, or at the very least an attempt at showing competition. We need to seriously win a game and get a draw. We need goals. In all honesty we are not the best in the world, in the only sport that is a world event, but we are far better than this showing. Our players have played in European leagues and in the U.S. and have been in the World Cup before. It’s time to step up and earn some respect. Landon and Arena need to whip the team, create a strategy and inject some energy.
I wish that all this coverage being spent on the U.S. match was equalled a bit by coverage of other games. ABC and ESPN seem to be in a massive rush (except for today), on any other game, to get to an NBA commercial or Golf or anything but Cup coverage. It feels like they just pop in with enough time to say when the next U.S. match will be and how good we are, and then instantly to the match at hand, then immediately afterwards another word about the U.S. and off to anything else. Give the American sports fans a chance to get into this sport. Put some effort into the coverage and providing some intelligent knowledge of this well documented and historied game, people will get into it. They do across the world. They stop wars and presidential elections and if more saw the game I think they’d understand why. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about our home team, or that they shouldn’t be our emphasis. But give soccer a chance to gain fans, which will then give it support and better players in the future. With that you can get a team that will seriously compete and win. And America loves to win. And I would really enjoy seeing a match were America has an honest chance to win a Cup.
The World Series is really the American series. The Stanley Cup is Canadian, the Super Bowl is super even though it’s just American. The Olympics are nice, but this is the sport that is a world sport, that kids in the poorest and richest nations all understand. America can stand out, given time, but we can’t buy our players (like in other sports) we need to build them. If that isn’t national pride I don’t know what is. This is world entertainment and we deserve to be on that stage. Let’s support our team and its future and join the rest of the world in this game.
1 comment:
Great insight and I whole heartedly agree.... and especially on the commentating.
The coverage of the WC has been disgraceful to say the least. They even don't show the one proud moment for every football fan around the world - the playing of one's country's national anthem. Oh except when the US plays and then they cut to commercial when it is the opposing team's turn. ESPN and ABC are not helping this sports development one bit.
Being European born but of African decent the only sport flowing in my veins is football. I can barely watch the games broadcasted on espn and abc cause i get so pissed off, so I watch a spanish station (Telemondo) who broadcast it the way it should be. I don't understand spanish but trust me it is way better than having to put up with espn commentating.
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