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World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

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Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

5th largest population in the world playing one sport and one sport only does tend to equate dominance.

It's a genetically diverse country and the football style is also very diverse.

They've never had goalkeeping as a strength, and their defense is suspect. The only reason the USA lost was because Bradley had the team bunker.

China is first in population and their country doesn't focus on any one sport. India is second and focuses on cricket. The USA is third but doesn't focus on soccer and the country's best athletes play basketball and football. If the USA could convince even 5% of the top athletes that play football to play soccer it would represent a seismic shift in soccer power.

Indonesia is fourth but who knows what the hell is wrong with that country sports wise.

Then we come to Brazil and they concentrate on soccer exclusively.
 
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Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

Terrierbyassociation said:
5th largest population in the world playing one sport and one sport only does tend to equate dominance.

It's a genetically diverse country and the football style is also very diverse.

They've never had goalkeeping as a strength, and their defense is suspect. The only reason the USA lost was because Bradley had the team bunker.
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So you agree that Brazil should be considered the favorites for 2010 then?
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

Fighting Sioux 23 said:
Agreed.
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I think in general other teams and their managers are also scared of Brazil: it's akin to the intimidation Tiger Woods places on the opposition.

I'd even say the refs in general are also intimidated by the past glory of Brazil. Since 2006 Brazil has played an extraordinarily physical style but instead of being penalized for it refs seem to living in the samba football past.

Brazil no longer plays the beautiful game so beautifully, yet they have not improved defensively. Teams continue to play Brazil soft and back off: if you attack them consistently you will stand a chance. You can never bunker against them even though everyone tries.

Bunkering against Brazil is like trying to win a land war in Asia.
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

Terrierbyassociation said:
They've never had goalkeeping as a strength, and their defense is suspect. The only reason the USA lost was because Bradley had the team bunker.
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Let's not overstate this; the USA also lost because Brazil had a ton of talent on the field. In that situation against most teams in the world, the USA probably holds that lead.
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

jmh said:
Let's not overstate this; the USA also lost because Brazil had a ton of talent on the field. In that situation against most teams in the world, the USA probably holds that lead.
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I'm honestly not sure the USA could have held that lead against most teams. Brazil didn't even play all that well in the second half, the USA just played terribly.
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

Terrierbyassociation said:
I'm honestly not sure the USA could have held that lead against most teams. Brazil didn't even play all that well in the second half, the USA just played terribly.
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Exactly. The US under Bradley seemingly wants to hide in our own net when we have a lead. On top of that, Brazil scored a goal that was not counted. It very well should have been a 4-2 outcome.

Until the United States develops a killer instinct that nearly every other major country on the world stage has, we will never go far in the World Cup.
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

Terrierbyassociation said:
I'm honestly not sure the USA could have held that lead against most teams. Brazil didn't even play all that well in the second half, the USA just played terribly.
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The U.S. did the same thing they did against Spain. The difference is, Brazil has some athletic freaks up front, so they had a much easier time of breaking down our bunker than Spain did.

We simply don't have the number and quality of possession players needed to hold possession against Brazil.
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

Craig P. said:
The U.S. did the same thing they did against Spain. The difference is, Brazil has some athletic freaks up front, so they had a much easier time of breaking down our bunker than Spain did.

We simply don't have the number and quality of possession players needed to hold possession against Brazil.
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That's not even remotely true, Craig. The USA did much better at passing out from the back 4 and containing the ball within the middle third of the pitch against Spain. Even with the lead they occasionally were able to foray into the final third of Spain's half.

The USA against Brazil was much much worse, they could not make any passes out of the final third and the game was contained there. Partially due to Brazil's pressing but also due to the USA's complete incompetence with possessing the ball. Every time they got the ball it was a weak clearance right back to Brazil. Couldn't even competently hoof the ball forward.
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

Fighting Sioux 23 said:
Until the United States develops a killer instinct that nearly every other major country on the world stage has, we will never go far in the World Cup.
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Oh please, this is terrible MSM bull****. Does Holland lack "killer instinct" too? They've never won the World Cup either, and it's been longer since they won an elimination match than it has since the USA did so. Does England? They haven't won anything in over 40 years. What about Mexico? They reliably (each time they've participated since they hosted in 1986) advance out of group and then crash and burn. Paraphrasing David Wright, killer instinct is going out there and getting a few wins, and then all of a sudden you don't have to worry about anyone talking about killer instinct anymore.
 
Re: World Soccer X: Duh, duh, duh, duh...The Champions!

jmh said:
Oh please, this is terrible MSM bull****. Does Holland lack "killer instinct" too? They've never won the World Cup either, and it's been longer since they won an elimination match than it has since the USA did so. Does England? They haven't won anything in over 40 years. What about Mexico? They reliably (each time they've participated since they hosted in 1986) advance out of group and then crash and burn. Paraphrasing David Wright, killer instinct is going out there and getting a few wins, and then all of a sudden you don't have to worry about anyone talking about killer instinct anymore.
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As for the US, let's look at our last few meaningful games...

We play sloppy and barely hold on against T&T.
We have to come from behind to beat El Salvador after falling behind early, and then turtle the last 15-20 minutes to barely hold on.

Both of those two games were against inferior competition that we should have handled easily.

In the games before that...

We come out strong against Mexico and are up 1-0 in a stadium we've only scored like 3 or 4 goals ever in, and then we turtle and get beat 2-1.

We start strong against Brazil and are up 2-0 at half, and then we turtle and get pounded in the 2nd half against a Brazilian side that wasn't even playing its best football.

If we had a killer instinct, we would have beaten Brazil and at least managed a draw against Mexico. However, we don't. When it comes to the World Cup and we're always playing competition that is at our level or better, we can't afford to turtle when we have leads. If we do, we'll fail to advance past the group stage. I sometimes wonder if the victory against Spain gave Bradley too much confidence in his strategies for having a lead.

Also, I never said anything about winning the World Cup. I said if we don't develop a killer instinct we won't go far.
 
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