Coincidentally, also the last time England has ever been referred to as a "glorious" country.

#ThingsTimHowardCouldSave

A very good and often overlooked point.

They're more obese as a nation than even USA#1 so that probably has a lot to do with it. Youth programs filled with chubby kids who can't run a lick. Mexico peaked long ago.

by his measure, they've won the last 6 since getting out of the group stage with the refs hating is basically ~winning

well done.

I'll give them surviving the german firebombing campaign too, but your point stands.

this has potential.

Tim Howard could save Mexico, por ejemplo.

I think they've won it many more times in his mind, as everyone plays against Mexico AND ONLY AGAINST MEXICO like it's the WC Finals. So every time they win a game it's like taking down the WC with refs rigging

Why r the african American guys playing this when they could play nfl?

Australia.

He already had his own thread:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/46...-sucks-377926/

The rustling ITT, lol

And that's coming from a Swiss, so i guess it says a lot right now

I agree, they've been on a sharp decline since the Mayans

Australian Rules Football should probably be the most popular sport in the world, they need better marketing

It's not all about population. Infrastructure, economy etc are all huge factors. Look at Russia's population. I don't hear them getting called underachievers much. it is mostly frozen and you can't play outdoors in winter but still. Also USA has the biggest population every WC that China doesn't qualify for (so nearly all) and soccer is a huge youth sport there, so just because its 5th or 6th sport doesn't mean USA are "underachieving" really. I'd say they are on a par with Mexico in achievement level all factors considered given the size of their population and overall interest in the sport.

Nigeria are clearly the world biggest underachievers in football but that's all because there is no infrastructure there. As I said if I was a billionaire and got some billionaire friends to help out I reckon Nigeria would be contenders within the next 20 years, genuinely.

LOL'd

Hurling though. Dunno why it didn't catch on in the USA when they were selling out yankee stadium for exhibition games.

maybe I'm showing my olds, but Australian Football was on ESPN all the time when I was a kid. Every single time somebody kicked a field goal in our backyard football games we'd pretend to be those officials with the white coats and hats.

Create a World Cup of Aussie Football for 2016 and then play every 4 years. Teach other countries how to play. Just do it.

+1 - spinoff benefit - you'ld be creating lots of cricket grounds worldwide .. so people could eventually end up playing the GOAT sport

We are actually recruiting athletes from the US to play the game. They really suck tho

I can only speak for myself but it really wasn't that painful of a loss to me because Belgium looked a lot better and I didn't even expect the team to make it out of the group. If we lost the way that Mexico did I'd be far more upset. The loss to Portugal bothered me a lot more.

I can imagine Cruizin rooting really hard against the US just so he could start this thread.

Nice. Now that's really good trolling.

They are actually really bad at the game. They will play lower league but prob never touch AFL level. Most clubs are trying to tap the market.

Its prob the 2nd best game in the world. it really is amazing.

He's not trolling. They have been recruiting college athletes who weren't good enough to go pro in their main sports for a couple of years.

It's too late, though. They are just athletes and have no chance of becoming good at Aussie Rules picking it up so late.

If they could somehow convince a heap of 9-10 year old American's to start playing it then they'd produce some truly elite players but that will never happen.

I'm a euro who grew up with football and basketball and I can confirm that australian football is just ridic awesome to watch even if you have no idea about the rules.

The rules aren't that hard to figure out, imo. I think I've got the basics down pretty good from watching one game. You have to know what a Mark is, and how scoring works.

Obviously there are finer details than that, and figuring out those would take more time. But it's really easy to get into this sport.

A bit like European football, really. I mean how much do you really have to know about the rules to enjoy a match of Euro football?

Not much until an offside is called, then the newbies go out of their minds. Ever try to explain it to a "soccer mom"? Brutal.

It sure seemed like ESPN had about 12+ hours of daily AF action. I never did figure out what the rules were. The officials definitely had style though.