[Yontsey]

They have a guy on the goal line. They're forgetting about him.

[kieran]

Yeah, I saw that as well, but I read something earlier about how it's still offsides. I'll post if I can find it again.

Edit: Nevermind, figured it out. The opposing team has to have two defenders between himself and the goal. Usually, the GK is the second, but this time, he moved forwards, so there was only the defender on the goal line.

[Maciej]

He looks offside to me.

The rule says the player is offside if he is closer [to the opponents goal] than the "next to last opponent." So yeah, kieran is right about the offside call.

[Yontsey]

Right I know the offsides rule, I was just question the defender that was on the goal line. I didn't know he had a special exemption because if he didn't he wasn't even close to offsides. Even the announcer at the time said that was one of the worst calls he ever saw, that's why I was confused and thought my initial thought was correct.

[curiousuburb]

Brilliant opening goal! [won't spoil who or the final score on the suspicion that you Yanks watching delayed?]... and all in all... a good match to start the tournament.

Now to watch Uruguay beat France (by a Handball for double irony points).

Come on Ireland!

[Chinney]

The Guardian has a live blog of France-Uruguay:

Patrice Evra picks up the first booking of the match for a tug on the shirt of Diego Perez just inside the France half. Perez went down with his arms thrown to the side Platoon style, with added triple-axel plus pike, but it was a foul nonetheless.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...ay-france-live

[adamb]

Ok the horns aren't as bad this game, but still damn annoying. If this continues I think the mute button on my TV will be getting a fair bit of use.

[Chinney]

Two low-scoring draws. Not an auspicious beginning in terms of results. That said, I was not able to see either actual game, so they may have been entertaining soccer just the same.

[Yontsey]

France shouldn't even be in the Cup this year. Ireland should've made it.

[AWR]

Japanese ref lost dishing out two yellows completely undeserved in 10 minutes of Fr-Ur. In a big game, those calls would be a big deal.

Both teams here showing that they won't be around for long.

[Matsu]

I'm starting to think that Italy might figure prominently this time. They stunk in the warm-up tourney (Confederations?) here last year. However...

They qualified well. They have good young players who have been slightly under-rated relative to the senior (champion) stars of their country, and they still play the best defensive "system" in the world. People who don't like low scoring games can fvck themselves, that's their attitude, and it probably doesn't earn them many friends, but it's an effective recipe. Their coach says things like "beauty doesn't matter, it's winning that counts." It takes them some time to warm up; if they don't take their relatively easy group for granted, their toughest game may be a quarter or semi final, by which time all of the other contenders will have been eliminated... They have to play 7 games to win, but for Italy the path to a repeat may be as short as two big games...

It's a bit of a cop out to put one of the winningest teams, and the defending champ in the dark-horse category, but it's a sound pick.

[Frank777]

So who do I cheer for today: the Americans or the British?

[Hassan i Sabbah]

Originally Posted by Chinney Two low-scoring draws. Not an auspicious beginning in terms of results. That said, I was not able to see either actual game, so they may have been entertaining soccer just the same.

Well... South Africa vs Mexico was really great. The drama of Mexico running the first half and then Tshabalala scoring a spectacular goal to put the South Africans ahead... only for Mexico to equalise and then for another South African to strike the post with minutes to go... drama! Oh yes.

France vs Uruguay was shite. Forlan's one of the best strikers in the world, but his team ain't all that. France on the other hand are all excellent, excellent players, every single one... but oh my dear God, their team play was shocking.

(Edit: just read that Domenech apparently bases his team selection on astrology, believing that Leos make bad defenders, and that Malouda had to be restrained from punching him by Gallas a couple of days ago, so... er... trouble at t'mill.)

ENGURLAND! vs USA later... ho ho. And the Argentina vs Nigeria game is absolutely guaranteed to be entertaining. Most insane manager (Maradonna) and most extravagantly talented player on the planet (Messi) vs. Nigeria, an utterly insane country managed by a very sane Swede. There will be goals, and bad defending (Argentina) and crazy skills.

Oh, I love the World Cup. Did I say.

Even with Danish commentary.

[Hassan i Sabbah]

Originally Posted by Frank777 So who do I cheer for today: the Americans or the British?

ENGER-LAND! ENGER-LAND! ENGER-LAND!

Nein?

[AWR]

You're goin down, goin down, goin down...

[Chinney]

Hassan and AWR, check your PM's

[tomoe]

Ugh, fuck the vuvuzela.

[curiousuburb]

Woohoo!

[Alex London]

Insert them into Robert Green, one by one.

[curiousuburb]

Result!

[Dorian Gray]

Green made the worst mistake but hardly a man on the pitch didn't make a mess of something. Poor, poor football, for the most part.

It's not worth winning anyway.

[Elysium]

Based on the game play a draw would have been the only reasonable result.

US had poor marking on the backend for most of the game, and easily got burned on the 1st strike. Bocanegra looked slow and out of place for most of the match.

Much will be made of Green's gaffe as giving the US a much needed sop of a draw. However, the soccer gods bailed out the English with Altidore's bounce off the post.

Even stevens.

[Moogs]

I learned two things today: those stupid horns FIFA gives to fans should be banned. During the Korea game I couldn't hear anything but horns, presumably because there are so few people there from S. Korea (i.e. all the other fans in the stadium), but either way I don't want to hear electronic bumble bee sounds when someone scores a goal; I want to hear the damn crowd roar!!

2. The United States is still 10-20 years away from making noise in this tournament, if ever. I thought back in 94 that we'd be stocked with legit talent by now but boy was I wrong. We're still bush league IMO. And so are many other teams, is what I never realized. The difference between the top 8 teams and the 3 or 4 teams in the 2nd tier and the tier the US is in, is night and day. QMJHL vs. NHL... AA vs. MLB. England isn't much better. Should've been 4-0 England with all teh chances they had. Our D sucks and evidently our coach sucks too.

Also, can someone inform FIFA the balls are inflated about 10 psi too high?

[Elysium]

Originally Posted by Moogs 2. The United States is still 20 years away from making noise in this tournament. I thought back in 94 that we'd be stocked with legit talent by now but boy was I wrong. England isn't much better. Should've been 4-0 England with all teh chances they had. Our D sucks.

I don't think it's that bad. The youth soccer pipeline is building in the US, remember it did take US hockey about 25 years to be really relevant after the 1980 Miracle. Players are now being picked up by bigger clubs in the EPL and Bundesliga and are playing against some of the top talent in the world. We are getting there.

I'd suspect that by the next World Cup the US is really set to make some noise.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Moogs 2. The United States is still 10-20 years away from making noise in this tournament, if ever. I thought back in 94 that we'd be stocked with legit talent by now but boy was I wrong. We're still bush league IMO. And so are many other teams, is what I never realized. The difference between the top 8 teams and the 3 or 4 teams in the 2nd tier and the tier the US is in, is night and day. QMJHL vs. NHL... AA vs. MLB. England isn't much better. Should've been 4-0 England with all teh chances they had. Our D sucks and evidently our coach sucks too.

2-3 players per generation won't make a respectable national team ever. There's not enough interest in USA soccer, and nothing's going to change that. We don't grow up on the sport...we've got basketball, football and baseball as the big three spectator sports.

As for the USA v England game. Our defense is ass...England got so many breaks while our fullbacks and halfbacks just stood around bunched up rather than covering man to man. We're fortunate that Tim Howard is a respectable goalkeeper otherwise that game would have gotten out of hand.

[Moogs]

I fear Eugene may be right. Despite our development programs getting somewhat better, the reality is kids are not taught the right skills or tactics at the right ages.

So many youth soccer programs in this country are a sad joke, with "coaches" who don't have the faintest idea how to teach the game (because they never played it at a high level), never able to get kids to think beyond hustling and the first pass.

By the time the kids in other parts of the world reach 15 or 16 (the kids who are going places professionally), their skills are superb and their knowledge of strategy and tactics very solid. By the time American kids reach 15 or 16, they play like European and South American 12 year olds and never get much beyond that unless they're good enough to play college soccer (which is no guarantee of professional success by any means). Career over by age 18, and the ones that go further, still have subpar coaches teaching them at the next level.

Basically, we get what we've had the last few cups... 2 or 3 guys who are 2nd tier players in Europe... leading a bunch of 3rd tier players. Cracks me up that Donovan is still around. He should be retired, and on most competitive World Cup teams, probably would be. 28 is pretty old for World Cup soccer, believe it or not. Remember Freddy Ado? x 10. They talked about him like he was the second coming of Pele. He disappeared before he ever played. The media and everyone else involved with soccer in this country are still in the dark in some ways. We are to soccer what other semi-competitive countries are to basketball. Sure they create some good players but get to the Olympics or worlds, and it's all over most years. You just can't compare the talent level and creativity of the teams as a whole or the smarts of the coaches.

[lightning_bug]

Twenty-eight isn't the ideal age for a professional footballer, but to suggest that Donovan should be retired or that he wouldn't be on any other competitive national team is just plain wrong. Landon was able to transition into the English Premier League this spring with a good club in Everton, and he was arguably their best player during the 10 weeks he was at the club on loan. Perhaps he wouldn't be the top player on other national teams, but he would certainly be able to make an impact.

This is Donovan's last best chance at glory on an international stage, though - he'll likely be a substitute in 2014.

[tomoe]

Nevermind the fact that Heskey is 32...

[Chinney]

I missed England-USA and it looks as though I was lucky that I did. I did catch the Argentina-Nigeria match. Entertaining. Both of those teams looked dangerous. Argentina had the clear upper hand and the Nigerian keeper was very sharp to keep the Nigerians in the match. But I see what Hassan means about the sloppy Argentinian defence. They fell asleep - completely asleep - a few times and the Nigerians showed that they would be quite happy to act very quickly on any chances they were given.

I wish that I had ranked that Argentineans even higher. They looked ready to explode at any time, and the commentator indicated (and I agree) that they were not even out of second gear yet. If they can stay even semi-alive on defence, their offence should be able to do the job at the other end.

I also maybe should have ranked Nigeria to get out of the Group round. But maybe not, after Korea's solid performance. This could be a fun Group to watch - three out of four teams look interesting.

[Chinney]

Hassan and AWR - check your fricken PMs. You've got to fix up your picks.