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^^ Ugh.... Keller had no chance on either Koller's or Rosicky's goal and he's got to be asking himself where the help is. Czech's are just content to let the US pass the ball between their back four..... absolutely pathetic start by the US.

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Does not look good for the USA so far. Rosicky's goal was fantastic though. We saw a lot of Dream goals already in this tournament. :o:

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^^ that was a brilliant goal but for god's sake someone, ANYONE has to pick up the midfielder!

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the czechs are looking very solid today. the us never had a chance. nedved, poborsky, rosicky, ujvalusi, damn

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Rosicky with another, just a beautiful finish... US completely outclassed. Frankly I'm embarrassed.

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MEN v boys... the US was completely outclassed

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[quote=Steve Graham]MEN v boys... the US was completely outclassed[/quote] Imo the cup is over for the US. Man, the mental blow they got today... Completely burried under the grass.

Btw, what's the deal with Donovan? Isn't he supposed to be the US wonderboy? I think it's rather I wonder what the fuck I'm doing in Germany -BOY :roll:

Compare that to Jan Koller...

[URL="http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00194/Jan_Koller_194790c.jpg"][IMG]http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00194/Jan_Koller_194790c.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [I]Donovan sucks thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!!![/I]

Looking forward what the Chechs are gonna do with Italy

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yeah, i have to agree the USA looked like they just got bullied all over the pitch.. feel sorry for Kasey Keller playing with a bunch of boys.. and next they have Italy..at least if they had Ghana next they might be able to get a result and a bit of confidence.. speaking of which the Aussies must be flying high after the Cahill heriocs this morning

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Didn't see Ghana play yet, but I heard they're pretty good too. Eitherway, the Squadra Azzura is gonna finish the US off mentally imo.

As for the Ausies, yeah, they must be having a collective hard on all day now. Damn, that was some kick ass Jap ownage :mrgreen:

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USA 0 / CZECH 3

[URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1915000/images/_1917530_brucearena150.jpg"][IMG]http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1915000/images/_1917530_brucearena150.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Bruce,

Please have the fucking Midfielders show up to the match against Italy and bench POPE as he is useless.

Thanks, All of America

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Right, Italy and Ghana are on. Me is off...

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[quote=algy]USA 0 / CZECH 3

[URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1915000/images/_1917530_brucearena150.jpg"][/URL][URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1915000/images/_1917530_brucearena150.jpg"][IMG]http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1915000/images/_1917530_brucearena150.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Bruce,

Please have the fucking Midfielders show up to the match against Italy and bench POPE as he is useless.

Thanks, All of America[/quote] double fucking ditto...... and as soon as i saw the US 4-4-2 i knew trouble was coming.

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Forza Italia!

what a game!

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Cup is getting better with each game (and I wasnt looking forward to it that much)

And did anyone REALY think the US would beat the czechs?

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Well they did kick some portugal butt last WC

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italy 2 - ghana 0

pirlo and iaquinta made the difference. ive just read it was a pretty good match... they didnt broadcasted on my cable system.

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Yes it was, Ghana did´nt deserve to loose by two goals though.

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Yeah well, swallowing only two goals from the squadra isn't something to be ashamed of...

Missed the match cuz I was looking at my girlfriend's worldcups on cam :Naughty:

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Italy v. Ghana was a great game. Both teams had tons of chances, it was a very nice flowing game. Toni had a ton of chances to score, hit the post once.

C. Ronaldo is a cry baby, and I hope he stays out of the game if he is gonna pull that shit again. Deco will play the next game, let's hope Pauleta can keep up the scoring.

Italy look great, and their bench is stacked with more talent. Totti may be injured though, as his leg that was injured before got stepped on.

I predict Czechs will finish 2nd to Italy, and Ghana over US, US going 0-3 and home. US looked really bad today. I was sick of talking to people here that think they knew anything about football and told me that the US will go far into the tournament because of all the speed they have. Then he tellms me that Ghana have no one except Essien. Even though that's not true (Ghana has a number of players playing in germany and italy), who the hell does the US have?? Donovan, who couldn't cut it in Europe?? The two times he got the ball and attempted running at a defender, he got easily shut down, big time. The US looked BAD. They had horrible touches, and Reina's shot off the post was covered by Peter Chech, IMO, since he hit is so slow. I'm glad they got to see some true class players. Maybe the media will stop going on about how this is the 'group of death' vs the argentina group, which is much better.

England and Germany have ridiculously easy draws, IMO, and don't deserve to be seeded. They should have put Ivory Coast and Serbia, or Netherlands somewherei their own group. Mexico too have it way too easy. I can't even watch them play a game, it's so boring.

Can't wait to watch brazil play tomorrow!! oh and france. Then spain Wed, and germany again!! This is the greatest time ever!!! I don't even know what I 'm going to do when the world cup is over!! Every day better than the last!

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oh and don't even get me started on the commentators for the English speaking games in the US. Horrible. Maddening!!! I mean, Jesus Christ. First of all, they filter out all the crowd noise and pump up their voices, so you can't get any feeling for the atmosphere at the stadia. Then, they clearly have a little fact sheet with 3 'fun facts' about each player. And they fucking re-read them ad complete nasium. How many times do I need to hear about some Paraguay player calling David Beckham (or Michael Beckham, god) a coward? 1? No, I don't care about it. 2? Ok heard you the first time. 3? God, enough already. Then they put up a little 'country facts' thing about paraguay, with some useless info. Why didn't they put it up about England? I don't know their population either, neither does anyone in the US... But for some reason Americans won't know a thing about Paraguay so they need these 4 little facts? I doubt most people in America even know the population of THEIR OWN COUNTRY. Then, to top that off, the announcers read EXACTLY WHAT THEY JUST SHOWED ON THE SCREEN.. word for word!!

Then, they relate every last thing to the US, when the US isn't even playing!!! "Well, this world cup, for you fans at home, is in Germany"

"good point, and Monday we'll get to see the US star Landon Donovan play who played in Germany too"

"oh he's just great isn't he?" - NO he ISN'T! He's a little bitch who couldn't even cut it in the german league, because he didn't want to work for it!

Then all the analogies to basketball, football... baseball even!!! "They're posting him up, just like SHAQ would DO!! In the NBA! Shaq!"

And finally, information thatis just incorrect, or incomplete. Come on. "The Netherlands have Giovanni Von Bronkhorst, who played with Barcelona when they defeated Chelsea to win the Champions league" WTF??? I missed that game. Also, why not mention the other Barca player Von Bommel?? Or the fact that Van Persie played for Arsenal, the other team.... oh wait they already fucked that up... They could have at least said "and of course their teammate Robben plays for that chelsea team...

I'm sticking to the mexican station. I speak limited spanish, and the announcer busts a nut every time the ball gets within 25 yards of the goal, but at least I can get into the game.

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i dont think the USA got outworked..they simply didnt show up... it was like the Czechs were playing against pilons... the USA played an embarrasing and at points dirty game.. no enthusiasm, no passing, no shots, no oportunities..very poor showing.

whats hard to believe is that they are supposed to be ranked 5 in the world..that cant be true

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I just finished watching a repeat of the US game right now and all I can say is...wow...they sucked bad. I´ve watched all the games so far (though not all of them complete), and that was the poorest performance by a team so far.

Slack defense, a midfield with no agressiveness in recovering the ball or class and talent to make the game flow, resulting in a striker with no service. The Czechs didn´t even break a sweat (throughout his entire carer Poborsky has never been capable of playing more that 70/80 minutes, and today, at 34 years old, he left with 10 minutes to go still looking fresh!).

I´m somewhats surprised with Aussie´s result, but I´m really happy for them, an old-fashioned display of faith and courage to put straight the unbelieveble error by the referee that gave Japan their goal.

I only saw the 1st half of Italy´s game, but it was petty good, Ghana have very good attacking football, but are naive in defense, they´re your typical old-school african team, thay can do magic with the ball on their feet, but seem lost when they don´t have the ball. Italy, as always, very effective and to me they seemed, by far, the best amongst the serious contenders for the Cup that I´ve seen playing until now.

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[quote=remoh] whats hard to believe is that they are supposed to be ranked 5 in the world..that cant be true[/quote]

Those FIFA rankings are a joke and the fact that so many americans take that seriously is even more laughable. I mean, if I have a team that plays 20 games against squads like Honduras, Canada, El Salvador, Panama, etc. and I win them all, of course my team?s ranking will be awesome...according to FIFA, that is, because in the real world that doesn?t mean shit.

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shit i forgot about that number 5 ranking.. that will take a nose dive after this world cup.. as lazy and unintersted as they looked after Boller blasted that header past keller, they coldnt do shit. and the arse Wynalda and Lalas before the match squawking about keller being the best in the world if he didnt play for the US.. guess not. I wanted to see the US do well, but come on, as soon as that draw came out and they got put in with Italy and Czech Rep., who didnt see they were the 3rd best team in that group before the kick off.. and now by the way Ghana looked, they will be lucky to score a goal let alone get a point out of any of their matches.

The commentating is atrocious, john harkes, jp dellacamara, Tommy Smyth (who is so anti English it isnt funny), Shep Messing? come the fuck on, thats the best ABC can do... they need to make cable TV so that you can bloke out the talking and just listen to the crowd, or pick commentators from over the world. Thanks, I know Dave Beckham is married to Posh Spice.. wow, that added a whole lot of insight to this match!

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[quote=geoffgulley]Rosicky with another, just a beautiful finish... US completely outclassed. Frankly I'm embarrassed.[/quote]

1st off the US domintated most of the 1st half but can't fuckn score a God damn goal. They had their chances but fuck, they don't know what to fuckn do. A bigger part of this lose was coaching. Why was Beasley in this game? He was so lost and responsible for a lot of the missed chances they had. Its a shame that it was a 3-0 game. The difference in the game was the fact that Czech's knew how to score and 2 of the goals were amazing (1st and 2nd goal). Knowing how to score equals a winning team. A shame that the US lost so bad. I hope they can figure out some way to score a goal. If not, it will be a short end for them. I still don't understand why the US chooses some of the player they have. You figure with a country our size, we would have some better players out there. :roll:

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as for the 5th ranked team, well, that didn't make any sense. I like the US, but there are far better teams out there.

Vamos, Vamos, Argentina!!!!!!

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[quote=speciale]1st off the US domintated most of the 1st half but can't fuckn score a God damn goal. They had their chances but fuck, they don't know what to fuckn do. A bigger part of this lose was coaching. Why was Beasley in this game? He was so lost and responsible for a lot of the missed chances they had. Its a shame that it was a 3-0 game. The difference in the game was the fact that Czech's knew how to score and 2 of the goals were amazing (1st and 2nd goal). Knowing how to score equals a winning team. A shame that the US lost so bad. I hope they can figure out some way to score a goal. If not, it will be a short end for them. I still don't understand why the US chooses some of the player they have. You figure with a country our size, we would have some better players out there. :roll:[/quote]

you r being so generous... "the us dominated ost of the first half" ..wow ...what game were you watching.. "they had their chances" they barely had two opportunities to score, the shot that hit the post and the cross that the goalie scooped towards the end of the second half...

its ok to be disapointed and to call it like it is.. they sucked... if they dont pick it up in the next couple of games, then they deserve all the bashing we've been giving them

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[quote=remoh]you r being so generous... "the us dominated ost of the first half" ..wow ...what game were you watching.. "they had their chances" they barely had two opportunities to score, the shot that hit the post and the cross that the goalie scooped towards the end of the second half...

its ok to be disapointed and to call it like it is.. they sucked... if they dont pick it up in the next couple of games, then they deserve all the bashing we've been giving them[/quote]

re-watch the 1st half. Most of the game is on the Czeh's side of the field. However,the 2nd half was horrible (on both sides, boring). The US sucked real bad in the 2nd half, but it wasn't like the Czech's were out there doing magic. How many opps did the Czechs have? About 6 and they scored 3 of them. That is fuckn outstanding too. 2 of them again were real nice. The biggest problem with the US is the same as most of the African teams. They [B]can't[/B] perfect the basics like trapping the ball with the foot and they can't score. I thought Ivory Coast played a tough game, but they couldn't score either. Thank God since Argentina is the team I am routing for.

Anyway, flame me, :Tomato t: I dont really care, but the comment of being outclassed is not valid. Italy did outclass Ghana hands down. Ghana played dirty as shit but the Italians mostly just played soccer which was classier than the other team.

[B][SIZE=5]Instead of responding to my message, all of you answer this question. In your opinion, who is the best team so far?[/SIZE][/B]

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[quote=Steve Graham]shit i forgot about that number 5 ranking.. that will take a nose dive after this world cup.. as lazy and unintersted as they looked after Koller blasted that header past keller, they coldnt do shit. and the arse Wynalda and Lalas before the match squawking about keller being the best in the world if he didnt play for the US.. guess not. I wanted to see the US do well, but come on, as soon as that draw came out and they got put in with Italy and Czech Rep., who didnt see they were the 3rd best team in that group before the kick off.. and now by the way Ghana looked, they will be lucky to score a goal let alone get a point out of any of their matches.

The commentating is atrocious, john harkes, jp dellacamara, Tommy Smyth (who is so anti English it isnt funny), Shep Messing? come the fuck on, thats the best ABC can do... they need to make cable TV so that you can bloke out the talking and just listen to the crowd, or pick commentators from over the world. Thanks, I know Dave Beckham is married to Posh Spice.. wow, that added a whole lot of insight to this match![/quote]

what did you expect for an announcer out of the US :lol: . They all suck. They need Marv Albert to do a soccer game. YES!!!

I could never watch a game on ABC or ESPN. Too boring. Spanish (Univision) is the way to go. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :RockOn:

As for the US, they are fooked. They have no chance on Italy and Ghana will be too tough for them to beat. Ghana is much more physical and I don't think the US can match. A shame that a team like Brazil is in such an easy division for the 2nd world cup, but thats the way the chips fall. If you are the best, you will beat any team.

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[quote=groffhibbitz]oh and don't even get me started on the commentators for the English speaking games in the US. Horrible. [/quote]

Who can't agree with you?

Here is an interesting piece of rumor I heard today after the game. If USA does not make it out of their group and on to the second round, ESPN is going to drop coverage and FOX is going to pick it up. Anyone else hear this?

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[quote=algy]Who can't agree with you?

Here is an interesting piece of rumor I heard today after the game. If USA does not make it out of their group and on to the second round, ESPN is going to drop coverage and FOX is going to pick it up. Anyone else hear this?[/quote]

is that true? wow, it might be better on Fox. I still wont watch it in on an English station, but they have to have better announcers that ESPN and ABC.

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[quote=algy]Here is an interesting piece of rumor I heard today after the game. If USA does not make it out of their group and on to the second round, ESPN is going to drop coverage and FOX is going to pick it up. Anyone else hear this?[/quote] Uh, no..... No network on earth would do that and especially since abc bought the rights for the 2010/2014 mens and womens world cup for 100 million dollars.. That and it's just logistically/contractually impossible. Where did you hear/read about this rumor?

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[quote=groffhibbitz]oh and don't even get me started on the commentators for the English speaking games in the US. Horrible. Maddening!!! I mean, Jesus Christ. First of all, they filter out all the crowd noise and pump up their voices, so you can't get any feeling for the atmosphere at the stadia. Then, they clearly have a little fact sheet with 3 'fun facts' about each player. And they fucking re-read them ad complete nasium. How many times do I need to hear about some Paraguay player calling David Beckham (or Michael Beckham, god) a coward? 1? No, I don't care about it. 2? Ok heard you the first time. 3? God, enough already. Then they put up a little 'country facts' thing about paraguay, with some useless info. Why didn't they put it up about England? I don't know their population either, neither does anyone in the US... But for some reason Americans won't know a thing about Paraguay so they need these 4 little facts? I doubt most people in America even know the population of THEIR OWN COUNTRY. Then, to top that off, the announcers read EXACTLY WHAT THEY JUST SHOWED ON THE SCREEN.. word for word!!

Then, they relate every last thing to the US, when the US isn't even playing!!! "Well, this world cup, for you fans at home, is in Germany"

"good point, and Monday we'll get to see the US star Landon Donovan play who played in Germany too"

"oh he's just great isn't he?" - NO he ISN'T! He's a little bitch who couldn't even cut it in the german league, because he didn't want to work for it!

Then all the analogies to basketball, football... baseball even!!! "They're posting him up, just like SHAQ would DO!! In the NBA! Shaq!"

And finally, information thatis just incorrect, or incomplete. Come on. "The Netherlands have Giovanni Von Bronkhorst, who played with Barcelona when they defeated Chelsea to win the Champions league" WTF??? I missed that game. Also, why not mention the other Barca player Von Bommel?? Or the fact that Van Persie played for Arsenal, the other team.... oh wait they already fucked that up... They could have at least said "and of course their teammate Robben plays for that chelsea team...

I'm sticking to the mexican station. I speak limited spanish, and the announcer busts a nut every time the ball gets within 25 yards of the goal, but at least I can get into the game.[/quote]

LOL @ that rant :lol:

I was already wondering how US commentators pulled it off when I saw the talent of the team...

"Hello viewers and welcome to the game of the... ermmm... blue team against the white... And we're off... ermmm number five passes the ball to number eight and... oh, hold on... what's this? A player in a yellow shirt stops the game... he must've realised he's wearing the wrong shirt and is bound to change clothes... Yes, I guess he did: he's holding up a yellow piece of paper to confirm his fashion fuck up..."

Can someone tell me how the US even MADE it to the world cup???

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^^lol

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[quote=KinKyJ]

Can someone tell me how the US even MADE it to the world cup???[/quote]

most likey via Airplane :roll:

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[quote=speciale][B][SIZE=5]Instead of responding to my message, all of you answer this question. In your opinion, who is the best team so far?[/SIZE][/B][/quote]

Italy...easily. As much as I hate to say it.

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I'm loving these rants. My wife's been laughing her ass off cause every match I watch I spend more time yelling at the announcers to just stfu than I do screaming about the game..oh and she's really enjoyed the maniacal laugh of the kid in the adidas commercial (you know the commercial shown every single god damn commercial break during their coverage) when the second kid picks Beckenbauer. :lol:

They spend every pregame, halftime and postgame discussing the US and spend absolutely zero time talking about the actual match they're showing. How the hell is a US audience supposed to become more knowledgeable about the game if the announcers don't spend any time discussing the tactics involved?! The US gets a number 5 ranking cause of shit opponents and the rest of the world who actually play tough competitive opponents are supposed to take that seriously?!

Well enough about the coverage...I mean really what can you expect from a country with athletes and sports fans that need to take a break every two minutes (if that long)?! Oh and I'm thoroughly convinced that the ESPN/ABC announcers don't get paid unless they mention the US at least once every two minutes. ;) :lol:

So far, the only teams that have made a strong showing in their first matches, imo, are Germany, Argentina and Italy. Not many surprises there. The Czech Republic and Mexico, both looked good, but need some serious competition to see what they're really made of. As for England and Portugal, they both did enough to win, but not by much by any stretch.

So, [QUOTE=speciale][B][SIZE=5]Instead of responding to my message, all of you answer this question. In your opinion, who is the best team so far?[/SIZE][/B][/QUOTE] Argentina seem to be the team with both the flair and determination to actually take it all, but obviously Brazil has yet to play. Do they play like a cogent team or as a bunch of talented individuals? We'll have to see what they do this afternoon.

P.S. Please refrain from any more negative comments about Lalas. He was a good friend back in college when he took Rutgers to two final fours and one final (granted the competition is lacking) and a hell of a guy. I'll remember him til the day I die as the kool kat who'd hang in a corner strumming his guitar at our parties. ;)

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South Corea just scored a goal..now it is 1:1 against Togo.

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[quote=KinKyJ]

Can someone tell me how the US even MADE it to the world cup???[/quote]

by way of the easiest qualifying region and more than half of the teams in the final group make it through.. ridiculous, but thats the rules.

the US squad isnt really THAT bad, they just seemed, for the most part, dwarfed by the the size and experience of the Czechs.. i'm sorry to say it will be worse against Italy unless they do a lot of maturing over the next few days.

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They hardly have a chance at this stage no matter who they play against in this Cup. I don't blame them for that...I am sure they could have played better than they did in the opening Game but if you compare the European/South American intensity of training and camps with all the medics, professors and physiotherapists with decades of experience and the whole Infrastructure and level of Professionalism around it, they are way behind and have a long way to go but this is extra motivation and not something to be ashamed of in my opinion.

2:1 for South Korea btw ;)