WWC19 | Final: USA v Netherlands

Suedesi said:
And what WC players do England have? Just curious...
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Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling are both world class attacking players, or at least in that bracket.

Aside from that TAA is getting there and Sancho is going to be a star. And then we have plenty of players who play at the top level of English/European football and are very good footballers.
 
FootballHQ said:
I think a problem in past is too many of their big players just prefer the comfort of MLS rather than fully testing themselves in europe. Donovan came to Leverkusen and quickly scurried back. When he came to Everton in his late 20s he was actually alright. Bradley Jr was doing fine in Italy and then just went back to play for the Canadian MLS team. That has a knock on effect for NT when you get to knock out rounds of World cups imo.
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So true. This is why I've got high hopes for Pulisic who doesn't seem as weak mentality-wise as say Donovan. Willing to test himself against the best.
 
SquishyMcSquish said:
Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling are both world class attacking players, or at least in that bracket.

Aside from that TAA is getting there and Sancho is going to be a star. And then we have plenty of players who play at the top level of English/European football and are very good footballers.
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Harry Kane and Sterling are world class and yet you have the audacity to laugh at my post about Pulisic?
 
I actually feel like US soccer is stagnated even though the sport has grown almost by 500% in popularity in past decade or so.

And the US women's soccer has always been dominant, but the gap is actually closing because there are professional leagues now around the globe. In 10-15 years they probably will have as good as chance as 3 or 4 other teams.
 
edcunited1878 said:
Not only the comfort but guaranteed money from year to year. Donovan, Bradley, Altidore, etc. weren't good enough to challenge at a higher European level consistently to have any financial stability combined with good competition. They are now/were amongst the highest paid players in MLS.

Just never really know what type of team US will put out every four years for qualification and WC Finals.
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Surely Bradley would've been on a good amount at Roma, top 4 Serie A club and he was a starter for them for pretty much a season (after excelling at Chievo).

Landon Donovan was a fantastic player for US, always stepped up for them in major tournaments so don't see a big difference with say Tim Cahill who played 10 years at Everton.

If he'd come to Everton earlier he could've also got transfer to club higher up the chain as guys like Pienaar, Arteta, Lescott and of course Fellaini all got from that era.

Just feel with those two it was lack of ambition as they certainly had the ability to be good players for teams in european competition.
 
FootballHQ said:
Their 2002 team was superb. Friedel in goal, quite a tight and athletic back line and young guns like Dempsey and Donovan upfront having breakthrough tournaments. That game against Germany they should never have lost with Lahm penalty not given and other misses so that's their what if historical game like a few of the England ones. Would've been a semi final v South Korea aswell which would've been winnable.

2010 I thought they had a decent team aswell. That tournament they were let down by Bob Bradley mediocre tactics and rigidly sticking to 4-4-2 when imo 4-3-3 would've been a better fit (could've played Donovan and Dempsey as wide forwards and had Bradley Jr more licence to get in the box). Could've got them to the quarters, last 16 didn't feel enough.

2014 they did well to get out of the group but were battered by Belgium so that was their limit.

I think a problem in past is too many of their big players just prefer the comfort of MLS rather than fully testing themselves in europe. Donovan came to Leverkusen and quickly scurried back. When he came to Everton in his late 20s he was actually alright. Bradley Jr was doing fine in Italy and then just went back to play for the Canadian MLS team. That has a knock on effect for NT when you get to knock out rounds of World cups imo.
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Agreee with all of this.

Though we had ALMOST BEAT Belgium

Also I really like the crop of players coming through at the moment.
 
Florida Man said:
Harry Kane and Sterling are world class and yet you have the audacity to laugh at my post about Pulisic?
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Harry Kane is a multiple time golden boot winner, has banged in 40 goals in a single season, and is considered (widely) one of the best strikers in the game. Sterling two seasons in a row has reached double figures for both goals and assists and is a star man for one of the most dominant club sides in premier league history.

Pulisic at his most prolific managed 4 goals 5 assists for Dortmund. The fact you even think he's comparable to those two is fecking bonkers.
 
Can we keep the US men’s national team discussion out of this thread and move it to the US soccer thread?
 
No shame in going out of the Varball Penalty Cup at the semi final stage.

The best team at getting up the other end & falling over after any tiny sliver of contact will deserve to win it.

Only if they can score from the spot though, obviously.
 
FootballHQ said:
Their 2002 team was superb. Friedel in goal, quite a tight and athletic back line and young guns like Dempsey and Donovan upfront having breakthrough tournaments. That game against Germany they should never have lost with Lahm penalty not given and other misses so that's their what if historical game like a few of the England ones. Would've been a semi final v South Korea aswell which would've been winnable.

2010 I thought they had a decent team aswell. That tournament they were let down by Bob Bradley mediocre tactics and rigidly sticking to 4-4-2 when imo 4-3-3 would've been a better fit (could've played Donovan and Dempsey as wide forwards and had Bradley Jr more licence to get in the box). Could've got them to the quarters, last 16 didn't feel enough.

2014 they did well to get out of the group but were battered by Belgium so that was their limit.

I think a problem in past is too many of their big players just prefer the comfort of MLS rather than fully testing themselves in europe. Donovan came to Leverkusen and quickly scurried back. When he came to Everton in his late 20s he was actually alright. Bradley Jr was doing fine in Italy and then just went back to play for the Canadian MLS team. That has a knock on effect for NT when you get to knock out rounds of World cups imo.
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It's quite mad when you think that Donovan & Dempsey were over 10 years ago and there's been nothing since then (Ok Pulisic) for such a big country.

Bob Bradley as manager says it all. They really don't care do they.
 
SportingCP96 said:
Did you choose to ignore the 4 others I mentioned? :lol:

Boxing-America
Basketball-America
Atheltics- America
American Football- America (The reason it is mentioned is because it is one of the nuggets in the world the Super Bowl is watched by millions.
Fecking Golf-Merica
Swimming-Merica
War-Merica back to back world war champs.
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I would argue you aren't currently the best at boxing at the moment, but that's just me.
 
SportingCP96 said:
The best boxers of all time are American.
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Because all the money and investment in the sport came from America. Now the sport is far more balanced and a lot of other countries have that infrastructure, they've caught up.

America is amazing in sports where they have a HUGE advantage and take it far more seriously than any other nation. Otherwise, they're just another nation who take part, not some unbeatable juggernaut. They produce great talents as you'd expect for a country of their size/wealth, but they're not some enigma.

So yeah - American Football, Basketball, baseball etc .. they dominate, because the top leagues etc are almost all exclusively played in America and all the money is there. Not because they're 'born winners' or any of that shit.
 
SquishyMcSquish said:
Harry Kane is a multiple time golden boot winner, has banged in 40 goals in a single season, and is considered (widely) one of the best strikers in the game. Sterling two seasons in a row has reached double figures for both goals and assists and is a star man for one of the most dominant club sides in premier league history.

Pulisic at his most prolific managed 4 goals 5 assists for Dortmund. The fact you even think he's comparable to those two is fecking bonkers.
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Big fecking deal. Kane only has that many because only scores against cannon fodder. Sterling's goals have been nothing but tap ins, and otherwises couldn't hit a barn door. Pulisic's goals were more difficult to score and more difficult in general because of the defensive setup.
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
You think outside of America Basketball is the 2nd most watched sport?
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Yes, it is. Football, basketball and cricket(thanks to India) are the 3 most followed sports in the world

American football not so much. It's still very much a niche sport outside the US

Baseball is huge in the carribeans, venezuela and japan, but pretty much nobody cares about it outside those areas

Ice hockey is a niche sport in the USA but is Canada's sport and has a big following in Russia and the scandinavia/finland
 
Summit said:
I would argue you aren't currently the best at boxing at the moment, but that's just me.
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I agree in fact I am a Anthony Joshua fan. In general though the best boxers ever are all American.
 
From a market share gain and market penetration perspective the NFL in Europe and the NBA are the clear leaders. In the the US, the fastest growing markets are NASCAR followed by... the English Premier League. You guys are chatting about shit...
 
Florida Man said:
Big fecking deal. Kane only has that many because only scores against cannon fodder. Sterling's goals have been nothing but tap ins, and otherwises couldn't hit a barn door. Pulisic's goals were more difficult to score and more difficult in general because of the defensive setup.
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State of this post.

The defensive setup of what? Dortmund? The fecking Bundesliga, where Reiss Nelson managed more goals?!
 
SportingCP96 said:
Never once have I heard anyone say.

"guys I gotta go home to watch that cricket game".
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Because you're Portuguese/American/whatever.

I'm English and I can safely say I've never heard 'guys I gotta go home to watch american football/basketball/etc' because those sports mean feck all over here.

Crickets shit but shock horror, it's popular here so I can confirm people do watch it.
 
SportingCP96 said:
The thing is NO ONE as far as I have read have said that the USA is anywhere NEAR England. They aren't not at all. The funny thing is the overall hate it seems English have over the US. They seem "scared" of the idea of USA overtaking them in there sport in the distant future. So then you have USA fans maybe trolling? because England fans get so mad at the crazy idea that one of the biggest and best Country in the world can go and begin to produce top level talent and grow as they have been in the future.

Points made:
1.USA is not better than England.
2.USA has gown A LOT
3. USA will still grow A LOT
4. USA is better then Ireland (random)
5. English fans hate USA (?)
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I don't think there's anything in it that England as a whole have anything against USA. The opposite actually.

It's just some fans being defensive in reaction to USA fans gloating over the victory. Nothing to be taken seriously.

I wish they would take football seriously though. A competitive USA would be exciting to see.
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
Who cares about basketball outside of America?

You referencing Womens football there?

I'm just saying I can't think of many team sports you're the best at other than the sports nobody else really cares about.
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Basketball is huge in Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, ex-Yugoslavia, certain countries from the ex-USSR just in Europe alone.

Real Madrid, Barcelona have hugely followed basketball teams, I'm amazed you don't know this shit.

The basketball Euroleague has been functioning and competitive for decades since the FIBA era, teams like RM, Barcelona, MAccabi, Olympiacos, Split, Zagreb, Crvena Zvezda, Zalgiris, Bologna are pretty legendary.

The ignorance is baffling.
 
Majima said:
It's quite mad when you think that Donovan & Dempsey were over 10 years ago and there's been nothing since then (Ok Pulisic) for such a big country.

Bob Bradley as manager says it all. They really don't care do they.
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I'm surprised they never try to get a foreign manager in to push their levels up a bit. I know they had Klinsmann but he was living in America so was pretty much part of the system. Guy like Gus Hiddink a decade ago could've push their mentality up a bit like he did with S. Korea and Australia.

Didn't they go for Van Gaal? Past it at club level but they might've been a good appointment given his vast experience and them having a young squad now.
 
SportingCP96 said:
Exaggeration obviously

Roy jones jr
Floyd Mayweather
mike Tyson
sugar ray leanard
sugar ray Robinson
Ali
Joe Frazer
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Again, because for ages ALL the money and infrastructure was in the US. The sport simply wasn't big enough in other countries so of course the USA dominated it, just like they dominate basketball now.

Now there's a more level playing field and other countries have caught up, shock horror other countries (like the U.K) compete at the same level as the U.S in boxing. It's not because the U.S can just turn and dominate whatever they want, they wouldn't have some unholy advantage if they wanted to dominate football because the money/infrastructure is already there in Europe, it's already a huge sport.
 
Well this thread is now a mess. On topic: who will earn the honour of losing to USA in the final? It should be close but I'm expecting it to be the Netherlands. I haven't been impressed by them in the games I've watched, whereas Sweden did well in their match against Germany, but I just feel that the Netherlands are the stronger team. I also think England can beat whoever we face out of those two teams in the 3rd place match.
 
Suedesi said:
I have never claimed Pulisic is WC - I was curious to see who the WC English players are.
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No one had mentioned England having any world class players. One of your lot mentioned the US having "tons" though, of which Pulisic was the only example given
 
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