US Men's National Soccer Team Thread: USA #1 - Page 553 - Sporting Events and Fantasy Sports

If there was a proper International season, yes. However when there are only a handful of games every year, they have a little bit more merit than pre-season basketball games. Not a ton, but a little bit more.

I'm not going to pretend to know how much weight they have in the standings. Hopefully it's about the same as the current rosters stance should have.

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10-22-2013 , 09:01 AM

#13803

ClarkNasty

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Victor Cruz

So you wouldn't laugh if someone told you to include preseason basketball games in your rankings? Kinda explains some things.

This is a great example of you just trying way too hard to argue. They are obviously in-between regular/preseason NBA games in terms of importance. Claiming anything else is being intentionally obtuse or argumentative just for the sale of getting a response.

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10-22-2013 , 09:06 AM

#13804

Victor Cruz

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 4,110

Quote:

Originally Posted by MediaPA

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Originally Posted by ClarkNasty

It's not obvious at all. Nobody has explained why. The only reason it's obvious to the USA homers is because it makes them look better and they want it to be. Nobody else in the world cares about friendlies, including even lolmexico. It embarrasses all of you to cite them.

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10-22-2013 , 09:09 AM

#13805

mutigers

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not a lot of data points but some sort of study in to how much predictive value friendlies actually have in soccer would be really really interesting

i'm kind of on the side that thinks they have more predictive value than like nba preseason games but i def concede i don't know what i'm talking about and could very well be wrong

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10-22-2013 , 09:09 AM

#13806

fanerio

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Victor Cruz

Just because there's no good information to satisfy this forum's sortlust doesn't mean you should plug in horrible, meaningless data that leads to conclusions like "USA isn't that much worse than Argentina."

It's not obvious at all. Nobody has explained why. The only reason it's obvious to the USA homers is because it makes them look better and they want it to be. Nobody else in the world cares about friendlies, including even lolmexico. It embarrasses all of you to cite them.

football countries with inferiority complexes care about lolfriendlies

australia just sacked their coach off the back of lolpozzed 6-0 twice by brazil and france

the only goal of intl friendlies is to not get embarrassed and to not get hurt, caring and trying super hard is massively lol and a sign of lolinferiority complexes

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10-22-2013 , 10:26 AM

#13807

O.A.F.K.1.1

Ted Patrick

Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 27,952

This is exactly how the goal posts have moved.

At the start it was yea we deserve no12 because our players are teh good, when it was pointed out no so much relative to other teams, then it was all about the lolfriendlies.

Last edited by O.A.F.K.1.1; 10-22-2013 at 10:37 AM.

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10-22-2013 , 10:33 AM

#13808

Ray Horton

banned

Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 26,879

As an American, reading this thread is like reliving Abu Gharaib.

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10-22-2013 , 12:07 PM

#13809

Krayz

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http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2...-on-nbc-sports

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10-22-2013 , 12:48 PM

#13810

domer2

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pretty cool, but is anyone even able to watch nbc sports?

i have mid-tier directv with sports package and i still don't get that damn channel

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10-22-2013 , 12:49 PM

#13811

nutshot2

Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 48,742

Ya bro

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10-22-2013 , 12:49 PM

#13812

Liverpool

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Quote:

Originally Posted by domer2

pretty cool, but is anyone even able to watch nbc sports?

i have mid-tier directv with sports package and i still don't get that damn channel

Channel 220. If you get the sports package you should get nbcsports.

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10-22-2013 , 12:50 PM

#13813

Das Boot

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As of August 2013, NBC Sports Network is available to approximately 77,746,000 pay television households (68.08% of households with television) in the United States.

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10-22-2013 , 12:55 PM

#13814

Noze

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Yeah it's on pretty much any major cable sports package as well

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10-22-2013 , 02:48 PM

#13815

BobboFitos

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Victor Cruz

So you wouldn't laugh if someone told you to include preseason basketball games in your rankings? Kinda explains some things.

No, someone else covered this, but a friendly is not = preseason.

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10-22-2013 , 03:34 PM

#13816

OGKUSH88

veteran

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 3,188

Usatards getting pwned hard.

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10-22-2013 , 03:50 PM

#13817

sethypooh21

Make or Miss League

Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 47,037

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAIDS

yea a sethy style post-crushing loss tilt ban spree is inevitable

Lol if you think that ever happened. The fact that you're still here to post sort of disproves that it did.

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Originally Posted by BobboFitos

Friendly FYI: Algeria is Africa's 4th best team or so

No. Be right one time about one thing in this discussion so I know you're not just outright trolling.

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Originally Posted by BobboFitos

I'll do a blind bet with you where I have TEAM USA and you have TEAM CAF for our WC draw. Evens. Seems like you think you'd have an edge there, I think not.

How is this remotely the same bet if you lop off the COMNEBOL teams?

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Originally Posted by Bobito

This is a reasonable question. A poker player should understand the answer. The sample size is very small. When it's the Spanish league, and the difference in talent between the top two and the rest is just enormous, well then maybe they always win, b. Football is not a game where the better team always wins, or even wins oftenut when it's WC level competition and the difference in talent between #6 and #30 isn't so pronounced, then it's harder to say who's better based on 6 matches.

Historically three nations stand out for having won multiple WCs and otherwise repeatedly performed at a high level in major international competitions - Germany, Brazil and Italy. With Spain having won the last 2 Euro cups and last World cup, maybe it can be added to the list, but its prior history was not so different from that of Mexico - perennial failure to live up to expectations and get out of the group stage.

There are a whole bunch of teams - Greece and Russia and the USA seem typical in this regard - that regularly are difficult to play against and always seem to have the possibility to make a run in a big tournament (with a bit of luck). There are teams like Mexico and Nigeria that always seem to underperform relative to what one thinks is their talent level. Maybe this reflects a bad assessment of their talent level - maybe it is just some combination of bad luck and organizational problems.

Teams, particularly in places like Africa, can be loaded with talent but play terribly. Many countries have unstable coaching situations, corrupt national federations, and inadequate training facilities. How is Mali going to hire a top tier coach? This is why retreads like Javier Clemente wind up coaching in places like Serbia, Cameroon and Libya (all places that field talented teams). You have this poor country with these rockstar players who earn millions and live abroad (let's not kid ourselves) who come home often more because they have to than because they want to (someone like Eto'o or Keita lived in Europe since he was a young adolescent, and in some ways is as much a European as he is anything). A worst case is - in 2010 Togo's team bus was hijacked on its way to an African Cup match and people were killed. Adebayor quit for a while. Nations like the US or England have a completely different situation. They can hire the best coaches, they have great training facilities, they can have a stable developmental situation if they want, they have developmental facilities (in Africa development means - go play for a European club's youth side), etc. Given the same talent level they ought to do better, on average, than teams like Ghana.

When I look at the US side, I see a solid team with a lot of decent players and no stand outs, that consistently is a difficult team to beat and consistently threatens to advance in major competitions. That's a hell of a lot better than it was 20 years ago. With the increasing popularity of soccer in the US, one expects the US to win a WC sometime in the not so distant future, but at the present the invidual technical ability still seems to be a limiting factor. I can't think of a great team that wasn't lead by a great player or two - Maradona, Zidane, Baggio, Xavi/Iniesta, Romario, Ronaldo, Cruyff, Garrincha, Beckenbauer, etc. - and the US simply does not have players like this. That should temper expectations. What happens to those who watch a lot of European club football is they see all these great players - right now it is Messi, Iniesta, Ronaldo, Ribery, Falcao, etc. - and they don't see anybody like that coming out of the US. So the US could make a run, like Greece in the Euro cup, but it's hard to imagine them beating two of Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Spain, plus some hot team like themsleves, and that's what has to be done to win a WC, if you manage to get out of group stage, which even some real good teams don't manage to do.

We know from friendlies that the US can beat teams like Spain and Germany. That's not true for some countries. Whether the US can do it in a major competition with Ozils on the field remains to be seen. So far they have not.

This is a good post.

Last edited by sethypooh21; 10-22-2013 at 03:56 PM.

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10-22-2013 , 03:52 PM

#13818

SirGaribaldi

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Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 4,941

you banned me for saying "yes that was no red card for nani, but manU shouldnt stop playing just because they got a ref decision against them"

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10-22-2013 , 03:58 PM

#13819

sethypooh21

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Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 47,037

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirGaribaldi

you banned me for saying "yes that was no red card for nani, but manU shouldnt stop playing just because they got a ref decision against them"

I banned you because you suck at posting. I just happened to pick a time of peak annoyance to pull the trigger.

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10-22-2013 , 04:06 PM

#13820

ikestoys

banned

Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 94,424

Quote:

Originally Posted by domer2

pretty cool, but is anyone even able to watch nbc sports?

i have mid-tier directv with sports package and i still don't get that damn channel

Well I have the same setup and get nbcsports

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10-22-2013 , 04:07 PM

#13821

SirGaribaldi

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Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 4,941

which was exactly 1 minute after your favorite team lost.

yup, makes perfect sense and has nothing to do with the mentioned "loss tilt ban spree"

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10-22-2013 , 04:11 PM

#13822

nutshot2

Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 48,742

sir g / ogkush / oafk / etc

i will be banning anyone who trolls in this thread from this point forward. if you think it's unfair and biased, well, you got 1 out of 2 right. you can lol at the usa all you want in your national team thread, but not in this one. this is a place for actual usa fans to discuss the team, not for you to spew your anti-american hate. consider this a warning to you all. USA #1

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