Grunch.

The euro argument that lolfriendlies = preseason games is legit ******ed. Reasons why...

1) The whole point of a preseason game is that it prepares players coming out of their sport's off-season who very likely are nowhere near 100% fitness level. Now it's true that this could be the case depending on the time of year a friendly is played, but not necessarily. In other words, you're not going to see players in international friendlies who have been doing nothing but sitting on the couch for the past 6 months like you would in NFL, MLB, etc.

2) While we all agree that beating Germany's B-team in a friendly is nowhere near the same thing as beating their A-team in the WC, the result is not trivial like those of preseason games where 1st-string players play for all of 10 minutes and then it is a complete scrub-fest...

Taking the U.S win over Germany earlier this year, it was not quite their A-team but it was certainly not a team of their scrubs either. Sure, there was no Oezil, Lahm, Mueller, or Schweinsteiger. However, Klose, Poldolski, Mertesacker... guys who have a ton of caps for Germany played for the majority of the match, and were not out there ****ing around. I will concede that they were not playing with the same intensity that they would at a WC, but no one who competes on that level steps out onto the pitch and just completely phones it in. Your kidding yourself if you think that.

^ No

Players do not play 100% in friendlies.

Reading comprehension. How does it work?

Re-read the next to last sentence brah.

Equating friendlies to NFL preseason games are a flawed but pretty accurate summary. However, it's going to be the vast majority of data when comparing interconfederational games. There's not much more to use.

Costa Rica is 30 mins away from knocking out Team Mexico from the Champions League !

Klose is 35 years old, Podolski doesn't even start for his club and Mert played a half.

Here are 2 more German teams made up of players who were not in the squad that day that are both a huge amount better than the one you played against:

------------- Gomez ------------
------ Muller -- Ozil -- Reus ------
----- Kheidra --- Schweinsteiger ---
Schmelzer - Boateng - Hummels - Lahm
------------ Neuer ----------------

------------ Kiessling ------------
--- Gotze -- Kroos -- Castro ------
-------- Kehl -- Gundogan -------
Schafer - Badstuber - Huth - Riether
------------ Weidenfeller ----------

A team of scrubs is pretty much exactly what it was. Was basically their C team.

yeah i've never even heard of a few of the guys who played for Germany that day, but whatever, people should just gtfo and let the US Americans homer it up itt

let's go talk **** about how they suck in the WC thread

No it's not accurate whatsoever

yeah... it is. friendlies are just not important.

so today mexico national team/america lost 0-1 vs a club from costa rica. someone is very happy in NZ

don't really care if it matters and can't believe you think i'm being serious.

while i'm here i will say lolnutshot for your threats to ban for sweet FA tho.

good job

Lol not exactly. CF America != "team Mexico", but close enough. Good to see piojo losing in international tournaments at the azteca. Good prep for next month imo

Cruizn made a post like a week or two a go saying the Mex NT should just be Club America I believe, which is what he is referencing.

haha i knew someone would bring this up. i didnt watch the match, but taking a look at the team sheets, it was clearly America's A team. this is pretty concerning imo. Piojo called up 10 America players (even some of his bench players) and to see them lose at home in a must win vs some club from CR is pretty alarming. i'm going to have faith in Piojo to get this done, but i think he went overboard with calling up so many America players. idk we'll see how they do vs Finland.




looks like chicharito has infected the America players.

You're making it sound like Poldolski doesn't play because he sucks which is lol. He got injured, before which he did start some matches for Arsenal this year as well as saw the pitch a decent bit for Germany in WCQs.


I'm not saying there were no scrubs out there at all (the GK certainly was), just that it wasn't their entire team.

Just the name "friendly" conjures up fierce competitiveness.

Come on Krayz, in most of the friendlies you're trying to get us to take seriously the opposition used 3+ subs at HT, if they are playing anything close to their best XI to start.

Podolski doesn't play much for Arsenal because he is behind Cazorla and likely Oxlaide-Chamberlain on the depth chart. He's a very useful squad player who will score goals, but he's not going to start many games this year when everyone is healthy.

If Ter Stegen was American he would end up with 50+ caps minimum over the next 15 yeas. He might not be the #1 for a few years, but probably would be for a decade.

Yeah and USA pro sports preseason is 100x worse. Friendlies >>>> club preseason right?

You've been warned about trolling Americans in the American thread.

I hope our patriotic mod overlords look into your recent posting.

The euro hate is strong in this thread. Embrace that USA will be top tier in ten to fifteen years.

who is this HATER?!?

lol sort by depth chart be WC expert

zoltan bringing the aids that buccobaseball left behind

Ter Stegen is better then Howard/Guzan right now. Even if you somehow think otherwise, he's 8/13 years younger.

It's been reported he will join Barcelona at the end of the season, so when he replaces Valdes, will you still think it's trolling that a 22 yr old GK starting for Barcelona would get 50+ caps for the US?

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Serious question: I feel like American football is going to slowly die for youth and high schools due to concussions and liability issues. Do you think youth will flock to soccer or just go to basketball/baseball? I'm guessing a lot depends on the current system set up and how it will be improved going forward.

Seeing RG3, Megatron, and Wes Welker types playing soccer would be pretty sweet.