World Cup Soccer Pool:

[Mrjiggles]

Argentina wins it all i hope

[TheEconomist]

Oh noes. America isn't teh suck at Soccer. What are teh world going to do when the Americans take over ANOTHER sport and dominate for all eternity, amen?

[Hammy]

Oh noes. America isn't teh suck at Soccer. What are teh world going to do when the Americans take over ANOTHER sport and dominate for all eternity, amen?

Look at the world championships/cups for team sports and you won't see the US dominating any of them (set aside american football, but whatever, the world cares as much about that as you care about the pétanque world championship). So I dunno what you're talking about.
You might say the world basketball championship is very different from the NBA, and that's true, but you'll only think that's an argument because you don't understand that the world cup is very different from league games. Of course the world cup is taken much more seriously than the basketball world championship, but that's because the sport is so popular.

Basically: not gonna happen. If it did, that would be cool for the US... but they're out now anyways.

[TargetBlue]

I could debate both baseball and basketball, however. I prefer being all-rounders than just good at one sport. Now if only MLS can up its game a notch or two.

[Hammy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIBA_World_Championship Hardly domination. They're first though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_World_Cup Boggles my mind.

[Maxa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIBA_World_Championship Hardly domination. They're first though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_World_Cup Boggles my mind.

Unlike Cuba, the US never sends its best players (i.e. major league players) to the Baseball World Cup (or the Olympics, for that matter). I suspect that the majority of baseball fans are unaware that a "Baseball World Cup" even exists. You'd be better off discussing the World Baseball Classic at this point, though even there the US has had a much harder time getting its best players to participate than other countries. That said, I suspect that Latin countries like the Dominican Republic could easily hold their own if a true world tournament were ever arranged.

The case for US domination of basketball is much stronger, though. I would be surprised if anyone who actually followed basketball regularly disputed this.

Meanwhile, I'm not confident this year's World Cup will produce any sustained American interest in the sport. Millions of people were fascinated by athletes like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt during the '08 Olympics, but they obviously didn't continue to follow swimming and track sports afterward. It wouldn't surprise me if the American attitude toward the World Cup is similar.

[TargetBlue]

Could not have said it better maxa. Another point, many of the national teams work together for months, even years. For the Americans their stars are spread out in different teams and are abruptly required to work together in a fraction of the time compared to the others. Not to mention in the case of baseball it takes place during spring, when our best are near ice cold and just getting into fine tuning themselves for another season. I prefer it at that time though as opposed to during the season or even after when everyone is exhausted from both the season and playoffs.

[Hammy]

Yes Maxa, but it's still apples and oranges. The US dream teams don't always perform that well because a team needs some cohesion. That's part of why France was so pathetic this world cup despite having some very high profile players in their matches.

I'm not denying that many of the best basketball/baseball teams and players are playing in the US, but since we're talking about the soccer world cup, it should be compared to other world championships, or else US soccer would have to be compared to the Champions League, or the J-League or something.
If the US wanted to win the basket and baseball world championships, I'm sure they could do better. It's all about the money, not the sports, but in the meantime the golds are going to other countries.

In the end I was just responding to Tychus' uninformed, irrelevant and unintelligent comment... (which was probably what he was going for).

@TargetBlue: lol, don't you think all of the good national soccer teams recruit their players from very high ranked clubs? In soccer it's probably the exact opposite that's happening with US team (compared to what happens in basketball and baseball).

[Norfindel]

I would had never thought that we were going to play like this in the world cup. The games before the world cup leaved something to be desired.

Even Maradona is acting like a human being. This surprises me greatly.

[TargetBlue]

Yes Maxa, but it's still apples and oranges. The US dream teams don't always perform that well because a team needs some cohesion. That's part of why France was so pathetic this world cup despite having some very high profile players in their matches.

I'm not denying that many of the best basketball/baseball teams and players are playing in the US, but since we're talking about the soccer world cup, it should be compared to other world championships, or else US soccer would have to be compared to the Champions League, or the J-League or something.
If the US wanted to win the basket and baseball world championships, I'm sure they could do better. It's all about the money, not the sports, but in the meantime the golds are going to other countries.

In the end I was just responding to Tychus' uninformed, irrelevant and unintelligent comment... (which was probably what he was going for).
@TargetBlue: lol, don't you think all of the good national soccer teams recruit their players from very high ranked clubs? In soccer it's probably the exact opposite that's happening with US team (compared to what happens in basketball and baseball).

Well our goalie played with Everton for a tad if I remember correctly and I found that to be quite refreshing since I prefer our boys to go overseas and play in the european leagues, to beat em you gotta play with em. MLS is irrelevant, its a B league, I sitll wonder why Beckham came here, perhaps the money. I wouldn't hold on to those rankings as a strong argument. The world could not field a better team than the US in basketball if it was that big of a priority for US which goes back to your point, winning the NBA finals is just a bigger priority for some than winning gold hence the lack of cohesion and once again national teams are with each other much longer than the US players since they spent most of their time in different teams. Kinda hard to ask for such a turnaround in such a short amount of time. Same for baseball.