U.S. Mens National Team (World Cup)

[Carolina_Bull]

Watching the final tune-up against Australia.

Our defense still hasn't come around.  Which is a shame since our schemes up top give us a serious shot to make some noise at the international level.

We'll need no less than three goals to have a shot against England.

[cmhatter]

i thought they looked good...

cant wait for june 12

[Carolina_Bull]

But for two open misses (by Findley, who I still love in the line-up) and not marking up Australia's best player on a CK (inexplicable), we would have beat the #20 team in the world 5-0.

I still think we need a lineup that makes England play back some (Findley up top?) to protect our suspect D, but we definitely have a shot. 

I love getting England out of the gate.  But if we lose and they beat Algeria (they will BTW beat Algeria), they'll run a half-assed 2nd string line-up against Slovenia in the third game (if Slovenia has a shot to advance, they'll run over the England second team).

[Paisa el Toro]

U.S. Defense looked a little suspect during the first half of the game against Turkey. I really hope they step it up because England is going to be a tough, tough opener this Saturday.

[Economics_Nerd82]

Tomorrow can't come soon enough. MacDinton's will be PACKED!

[smazza]

NOT MANY seem to care here on this board

[Economics_Nerd82]

P.S. Go Rowdies!

[Don Toro]

Wow, what a game. We were robbed but that was just incredible. It sucks that people won't give soccer a chance here, this game is awesome. Action all the time, crazy crowds, and no commercial interruptions every few minutes.

[cmhatter]

jobbed by the ref

[Carolina_Bull]

When you consider the issues soccer has with match fixing (google Italy's Serie A scandal a few years ago) and you acknowledge that even a basketball ref making six figures to work 6 months a years like Tim Donaghy could get tangled up with gamblers, it becomes easy to assume that some 3rd world PoS ref (who looks like Starvin' Marvin from South Park) would be on the take to big time bettors and criminal syndicates.

The following link is must watch for those that can believe this match was fixed.  Thank god ESPN parted ways with Eric Wynalda since ESPN is going way to easy on their business partner FIFA:

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/video/ssworldcup-19013964/wynalda-fifa-needs-to-investigate-20404462