Less Attitude, More Gratitude

Not sure we can lay all of this at Bruce’s feet.

If Reyna’s shot goes in against the Czechs; if Pope doesn’t get that 2nd card against Italy; if the PK is not called for Ghana; if McBride’s header goes in; if Donovan or DMB came to play at all and actually shot the ball in any of gthe 3 games: we’d all be talking about our game against Brazil tomorrow (or our win against Australia today if more than one of these occured). You need luck to advance in the world cup, and the U.S. squad had NONE. (personally, I blame all the bad Karma on Bush - we’ll be paying on the international stage for his mistakes for decades, I’m afraid)

I do agree it’s time to bring in some new blood, but let’s give the man his due - getting a U.S. team in 2002 farther than they had any business of going.

Not sure if anyone saw this on ESPN late Monday night, but Bruce Arena basically told Eric Wynalda that he isn’t going to be crapped on, and the 1998 team he inherited was garbage.

Wynalda’s face was priceless. Hope somebody can put this on Youtube.

Blizzak:

Let me reiterate: the US had a 5 minute World Cup. A slight improvement from their ‘98 performance.

Posted from  Mexico

arcturus-

did you score against Togo/Angola?

mexico’s world cup was successful only due to an Iranian defender’s mistake.

you guys were in a shitty group, and struggled to get out.

how did the game against the second string Portugal side go? What is the US’s record against Portugal?

hey, when was the last time you made it to the quarterfinals?

face: Mexico is a pretender. They have one good player Marquez and a bunch of has beens and teenagers.

Posted from  Dominican Republic

I too think its time that Bruce hit the highway, His decision making in the WC seemed a bit off the beaten path even for himself. I still think even in my anger over the U.S. performance that he did elevate the the worlds view of U.S. soccer to some degree even if it was shortlived.I would also like to put down my placards for the diving competition this year, hey maybe if we made the divers sit the sideline minute for minute that they lay on the ground and force the team to play shortsided and add the same minutes to the match clock, maybe we could get them off the field or up in the game.

Posted from  United States

Big Lead-

fantastic message! If you find that clip online you have to tell me!

I absolutely love Bruce, and while his tactics may not have been so solid this time around, the US did decent in a group of death.

I can’t stand Wynalda: he is the all time leading scorer because of goals against Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and other Concacaf minnows. He really should not be on the air.

Bruce’s best decision in his year career was droppin Wynalda from the national team.

Posted from  Dominican Republic

Good find Big Lead. I would love to see Wynalda’s face after that comment.

Thowing wine bottles at the coaches suite? My goodness. I can only presume that they had already drunk the wine?

Once again, can people stop talking about Gus Hiddink? He is coaching the Russian National Team in 2010.

Look, the US Team is simply not good enough to hang with the giants of football. 2002 was a total fluke, and 2006 was the reality check that was needed.

People who cry about the refs (they are terrible across the board, get used to it) and then say “but, but…we could have been playing Brazil!”…..man, I’m sure that would have been a massacre.

Maybe in 30 years the US Team will have figured it out and will be able to compete. Maybe.

Posted from  United States

2002 wasn’t a fluke, but there certainly was luck involved (as in all sports).

The first two goals against Portugal were flukey, but the winner was good work off a setpiece.

The Mexico game definitely had the ref miss a handball on JOB. However we won by 2 goals.

Also, the Germany game ref also missed a handball.

the US CAN COMPETE, but we are not good enough to survive another group of death.

Posted from  Dominican Republic

Well, the way I see it, if you have to pray for a “weak” group, then you aren’t ready to play at that next level.

I still want the US to put their egos aside and start playing like they are underdogs who are hungry to improve…instead of being arrogant, primadonovans.

This squad & their coach were an absolute disgrace.

Posted from  United States

Flynn-

Argentina couldn’t get out of a tough group in 2002, and they are 2 times World Champs!

Who is at this next level? Brazil? What other countries compete at this level?

I really think all 32 teams should be ranked and there should be no lottery….but that’s just my American reformer attitude.

Posted from  Dominican Republic

It was until 1978 that Argentina was able to take the cup. A team that showed better quality than most teams. How many decades is that? You count them. There are also great teams that have been trying to reach the final and have failed time and time again. Becoming a football powerhouse is very hard. Teams with established quality such as Spain, Holland and Portugal have always failed. Second tier teams such as Czech Republic, Turkey, Mexico and Colombia have also failed. Still, US fans want to believe that after one decade of slightly above average performances they have come to the point of being contenders? The World Cup is the Holy Grail in sports. It takes teams decades of whole-hearted development to reach it. England, once…France, once…Holland, never…Spain, never….and those are true world powers. The shock that the US team received in this Cup is something that Mexico has experienced many times before. Now, as I write, teams such as Holland, Spain and Mexico have been eliminated in merely the second round. Now these great teams have wait yet another four years to compete.

Posted from  Mexico

Good comments arcturus. If you look at some of the really big footballing nations, i.e. Brazil and Argentina, you discover that they live and breathe football. They actually define much of their cultural and national identity through football. As I understand it, football is very much a minority sport in the US. When (and if) it really becomes popular, I mean as big as baseball and American football, then you may have a platform from which you can become contenders.

In England we play a range of sports but Football is by far the biggest. We have only won the World Cup once in 1966, since then we have had 40 years of disappointment, sometimes not even qualifying for the finals at all.

I think considering the low profile of football in the US, your national team has done well. The key to future success is raising the profile of the sport within the US, which could take decades or may never happen at all.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Very good point arcturus. Too many US fans bought into the Nike commercial hype (Jogo Bonito) and thought the US had turned into a power overnight.

I was happy with a point going into the last game, and then playing a close game against Ghana.

People forget that soccer is a cruel sport, and if either of those two shots that hit the posts (Reyna and McBride) had gone in, we might have reached the round of 16.

Some years they go in, some years your keeper guesses right and saves a penalty, and sometimes they don’t.

Posted from  Dominican Republic

dont feed the trolls.

Posted from  Dominican Republic

mason,
understand my message not as fact-driven but as a provocation to the arrogant postings of ETucker and others. Yes, Ghana had not made the game versus Brazil at that time. Now it dit: 0:3. And they played well.

dietmar,
my name was chosen exactly for that purpose: to give low-brainers the chance to make a reply to me, even if they have no arguments ;-). It always works.

Posted from  United States

England for the Cup:
“In England … we have only won the World Cup once in 1966″

you didn’t won - it was a gift from the russian referee

“since then we have had 40 years of disappointment”

but that 5:1 against Germany in Munich was great! so?

And don’t forget: each and every year England wins the contest for the best football-song, that’s a good thing.

Hope to see you in the final and see if we can correct Munich… cheers

Posted from  United States

Oh, Jim! That’s a bit naughty to say England never won the cup! Still, it is a problem in such a low scoring game as football, that a few refereeing decisions can significantly effect the outcome of a match. The real advantage that England had was that it was the host nation. Look at how well Germany is doing in the current competition despite having a team considered by most to be very average.

Your right, that 5:1 against Germany was great. You’ve got to enjoy winning the odd battle along the way, even if you can’t win the war (metaphorically speaking of course!).

Cheers!

Posted from  United Kingdom

Arcturus, England for the cup, Etucker:

You guys keep getting it all wrong about US Soccer fans expectations for the US team at the world cup. I guess it’s not surprising since none of you are here.

No one would suggest for a minute that Americans are immune from being suckered by hype, but it’s only the non Soccer fans here that had their expectations set by Nike commercials. Fans here don’t think we’re going to be a soccer power overnight. We know that (like Mexico) we’re a second-ten team.

But we also know that conditions are vastly different then they were when our current team was in it’s formative years. With improvements in coaching from youth to the pros and the best of world football on TV every day, the US can only improve. People say our best athletes need to be lured to football, but talent is a non-issue. There are millions upon millions of youth players in the US today and we’ll have no trouble finding the talent in the years to come.

Will we win the world cup in 2010? Of course not, a return to the quarterfinals would be pnenomenal. But come 2022, where do you honestly think our program will be? Not where you hope it will be guys — we all know it would just kill you to see the big bad US take on a world power role in your sport — but where do you think we’ll actually be?

You’re kidding yourself if you think we’ll still be languishing in the second ten. But hey, whatever makes you happy, right?

Posted from  United States

England for the Cup,

just joking. Yes, England is the true World Cup Winner 1966 and should have won much often since then!

Germany won the World Cup 1974 against Netherlands in a shameful way, Holzenbein made the worst diving in World Cup history.

I am sorry, that England can’t play with his world class strikers Rooney and Owen at the present World Cup, only with their shadows after this serious injuries. I feel somewhat betrayed that I can’t see the true England.

The present German team is a dream. But I can’t believe it and I am prepared to a once-in-a-lifetime-experience. So, England, let us share our sorrows when Germany looses against Argentine hehe

Posted from  United States

bossimo,

you are right when saying that people likes to see the US looses in the world’s most favourite sport, football. So it is fun to see the US-team at world cups.

It’s not only a political thing, you know, the “last remaining world superpower”-stuff (with 30 % functionally illiterate). Furthermore, it is the idiocy that this sport is named “soccer” in the US and that the “real” football seems to be the game where nobody uses his foot to play.

See it as an opposition to US-sports where players need the shape of a fridge, to be successful, while in Football the most genious players are even under average in heigth, like Maradona.

It is pro art, contra business.

So, the opposition against the present US-team is value-driven in a good way. The US should learn from that opposition.

bossimo, you have all my sympathy. If only more people would think like you, the US would play a better and more respected role in the world of football. Take the sport out of the hands of marketing strategists of sportswear-industries and give it to the real fans. Don’t try to sell t-shirts first and hope to create a good national team and league, make it the other way round: create players, that will buy t-shirts.

Posted from  United States

bossimo,

When I added my comments at this site I gave my honest opinions, these could of course, easily be wrong. I never said, or even implied, that I didn’t want to see the US succeed as a footballing nation. Please don’t suggest that I have racist, anti-American motives just because my opinions may differ from your own. I thought Americans upheld freedom of speech as a core value?

Come 2022, where do I honestly think your program will be? I really don’t know. But good luck with it anyway.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Bruce Arena, has done all He can for US Soccer but now we need a world class coach, like Argentinian coach Pekerman, or a Brasilian coach, but we need a leader that will not choke in a difficult game and one who knows when to make substitutions and what to do, to inspire his players.
Arena must sdmit, He is not up to par for the next world cup. Maybe we need a guy like Klinsman to create an exciting new team without the old broken busted legs like Reyna,Owiguchi,Pope and other players who do not contribute a thing to the team.
Thank you Mr. Arena but your era has

Posted from  United States

The US was placed in a difficult group and the team WAS NOT ready.

America almost beat Italy and would have- if the second goal was not offsides.

Steven:
Don’t forget the Italian Pk- one of their best dives and one of the worst calls of the cup.

Posted from  United States