Official FIFA South Africa World Cup Thread

[Sizzle]

US looking tired. England more aggressive right now. 15 more minutes or so. Gotta hold on.

[MarkGrace]

Good showing.

[MarkGrace]

Wow, what a dismantling performance by Argentina, one of the favorites in the tournament. They totally kicked Nigeria's ass. It's not every day you can win running away in soccer, but Argentina just did that in a 1-0 thrashing. What on offensive explosion.

My favorite tidbit of the game came from a stat flashing across the screen from Argentina's dominating performance back during the 2006 World Cup. In five games they scored three goals. Argentina, world soccer power, scored three goals in five games and made it to the quarterfinals in the process. Five games= 450 minutes. Argentina scored a single goal every 2 and a half hours. That's really all you need to know about soccer.

lol

[wuapinmon]

World Cup soccer in HD is awesome!

[SCcoug]

World Cup soccer in HD is awesome!

Those blaring horns from the crowd are not so awesome.

[LiveCoug]

That was a fun game to watch. Very exciting. US has a very good shot at getting out of group play. Pumped for next week!

[OrangeUte]

US is not a good ball handling team. their passing was sloppy and they don't have many players who look comfortable dribbling the ball one on one against defenders. also, they looked like they were playing a bend-don't-break defense instead of an aggressive man on man style defense like england.

i know next to nothing about soccer, but those are my observations. i think that the us was lucky to tie. then again, the ball that hit off the goal post could have been a goal. that was the best possession of the game for the US and it almost won them the game.

i hope aleksi lamas is right and the US takes a lot from this game in terms of encouragement and confidence.

US goalie is a stud. i think he plays for manchester united. he won the game for us.

[LiveCoug]

Tim Howard plays for Everton.

US defense isn't the best, but they can be physical. They were definitely bunkering down to try and preserve the tie. It was more important for the US to tie than for England. They did a decent job. They will look much better overall against Slovenia and Algeria (teams not in the top 10 in the world)

[jay santos]

That was a fun game. USA didn't look too bad other than a couple early mixups on D. Altidore seems legit. Pretty aggressive marketing by the MTN getting World Cup spots.

[Hot Lunch]

Tim Howard is freaking awesome. Where was Landon Donavon? Did he play in today's match?

[BoylenOver]

Tim Howard is freaking awesome. Where was Landon Donavon? Did he play in today's match?

England keyed on Donovan and neutralized him effectively, much like we did with Rooney.

I expect a lot more from Donovan against Slovenia, who are far less talented in the midfield, but still a very organized defensive team.

[MarkGrace]

Tim Howard is freaking awesome.

I'm definitely not one who pays much attention to this stuff, but it seems like the US is always able to come up with a great keeper. Seems to be one of the strong points on every team I've watched in the WC.

[MarkGrace]

Those blaring horns from the crowd are not so awesome.

Man those were obnoxious.

[Surfah]

Man those were obnoxious.

It sounds like a giant mosquito.

[BoylenOver]

I'm definitely not one who pays much attention to this stuff, but it seems like the US is always able to come up with a great keeper. Seems to be one of the strong points on every team I've watched in the WC.

That's a good observation. Two of the three keepers on the roster play in the English Premier League, and Brad Friedel, the '02 hero who didn't make the roster, also plays in that league.

Howard is a huge strength. I'm not sure why the US has such great success grooming keepers.