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The 2012-2013 Football Thread

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Netherlands 3 Estland 0

No real problems after a disappointing first half. The only point of note was that Louis van Gaal tried a completely new and young defence based on players from the eredivise team Feyenoord.

Now Tuesday night against Romania.
 
USA 1-0 Costa Rica

In many ways the USA-Costa Rica match looked like a typical WC qualifier for these teams at this stage: a tight, physical contest decided by a narrow margin with contentious calls thrown in for good measure. But the snow definitely made it interesting. As Tilpots and pachyderm said, even the yellow ball was invisible. I'll add my voice to the calls for an orange ball. It probably should have been 2-0 USA since Dempsey clearly got tripped on the box and it wasn't called.

This is a big result for USA and Klinsmann (especially given the way the other results in the group went), but not an outstanding performance, and the worst is yet to come. Now we have to go to Azteca and play much better than we did against Costa Rica if we hope to even get a draw against the Mexicans (we won't, I can pretty much guarantee we'll lose).

After the almost inevitable loss to Mexico, we will need to go into every subsequent game looking for three points. And When Mexico come to Columbus in September for the return fixture, we will have to take some points off them.
 
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I think the US could lose to Mexico twice and still easily qualify, they only have to finish in the top 3 (out of 6). Even if they finish 4th they should have a relatively easy play-off match against New Zealand (most probably).
 
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Gloves?! The tart. :D
 
Lord Blackadder said:
USA 1-0 Costa Rica

In many ways the USA-Costa Rica match looked like a typical WC qualifier for these teams at this stage: a tight, physical contest decided by a narrow margin with contentious calls thrown in for good measure. But the snow definitely made it interesting. As Tilpots and pachyderm said, even the yellow ball was invisible. I'll add my voice to the calls for an orange ball. It probably should have been 2-0 USA since Dempsey clearly got tripped on the box and it wasn't called.

This is a big result for USA and Klinsmann (especially given the way the other results in the group went), but not an outstanding performance, and the worst is yet to come. Now we have to go to Azteca and play much better than we did against Costa Rica if we hope to even get a draw against the Mexicans (we won't, I can pretty much guarantee we'll lose).

After the almost inevitable loss to Mexico, we will need to go into every subsequent game looking for three points. And When Mexico come to Columbus in September for the return fixture, we will have to take some points off them.
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swiftaw said:
I think the US could lose to Mexico twice and still easily qualify, they only have to finish in the top 3 (out of 6). Even if they finish 4th they should have a relatively easy play-off match against New Zealand (most probably).
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i think we will beat mexico. this was a much better performance than the one vs honduras.


i still don't think klinsman is the answer though.
 
It's tough to judge the team on the game last night. Those guys were having a hard time standing, let alone linking a few passes. Tuesday will be a much better measuring stick.
 
Tilpots said:
It's tough to judge the team on the game last night. Those guys were having a hard time standing, let alone linking a few passes. Tuesday will be a much better measuring stick.
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but still we did link a few in horrible conditions. imma glass half full guy on this one...


;)
 
Personally, I think Klinsmann should be given another full World Cup cycle after this one. I am not a member of the Roman Abramovich school of knee-jerk firing of managers.

Klinsmann does not strike me as a master tactician by any stretch, and I'm not sure how good he is at handling prima donna players, but the US has few of those and is generally a professional, hard-working squad. Klinsmann is a big-picture guy and by the end of this WC cycle we are going to be in rebuilding mode since some of our stalwarts like Bocanegra, Cherundolo, (probably) Donovan and Dempsey are likely to retire. I'd prefer that Klinsmann stick around and continue working with the younger players he's brought in.

I'm also not worried about the "German clique' issues, and I think ex-USA (and current LA Galaxy) manager Bruce Arena was way out of line when he criticized Klinsmann for bringing in foreign-born players.

Meanwhile, in MLS....DC 1-2 Columbus.

Another away win for the Crew and we are now 2-1-1, a decent start. Our Stoke-like back line is probably performing better than Stoke's at the moment, and we got both our goals off free kicks, with our big men dominating the opposition box. The DC goal was a bit flukey, coming from confusion in our back line due to Chad Marshall being treated for knock on the sidelines. A good performance from the boys in black & gold.

RE: the Mexico games, I think we'll lose in Azteca and win in Columbus. It's true that we could afford to lose both and qualify, but I don't want to be going into the last couple games needing wins. Plus it give the squad a big boost to win the tough games against Honduras and Mexico.
 
pachyderm said:
but still we did link a few in horrible conditions. imma glass half full guy on this one...


;)
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Me too. I think a win like that was really good for the boys. One of those team building experiences. I'm a fan of Klinsman, too. He's a taking the team in a direction and I like where they're headed. We can beat Mexico again on their turf.
 
Tilpots said:
Me too. I think a win like that was really good for the boys. One of those team building experiences. I'm a fan of Klinsman, too. He's a taking the team in a direction and I like where they're headed. We can beat Mexico again on their turf.
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it just seems to be such a round about way though...

:p ;)
 
It's going to be a long season for the Chicago Fire. Losing today 4-1 and the play on the field has not improved.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
I'm surprised at just how bad things have gotten over there. Klopas is really struggling. At this rate I can't see him lasting the season. The funny thing is, ever since we won our opening game against Chivas they have improved markedly. They no longer look like the worst team in MLS - though their attendances are still dismal.



Finally, a peg to hang that poor hat on! ;)
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I don't know if Klopas is so much the issue as ownership not caring. It almost seems like they are following the Kraft model of using the loss of revenue as a tax write off for their holdings company.
 
Fizzoid said:
towie!
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Essex is previously unchartered territory for the hat hurling head honcho, as I think it's the only part of the country where he's not tried for a job previously.

A quick Google search (I know how to spend my lunch hour!) tells me that since leaving Preston in December 2011, Brown's publicly expressed an interest in managerial vacancies at the following clubs...

  • Aberdeen
  • Blackburn Rovers
  • Blackburn Rovers (again!)
  • Bury
  • Coventry City
  • Gillingham
  • Hartlepool United
  • Hearts
  • Hull City (never go back!)
  • Limerick
  • Lincoln City
  • Notts County
  • Oldham Athletic
  • Partick Thistle
  • Plymouth Argyle

That's a hell of a lot of CVs. :eek:
 
Away from the big names and money of football the crisis really is starting to hurt.

This afternoon SC Veendam a team out the Jupiler League was declared bankrupt. Veendam have been a part of football here since 1894, in 1989 they demoted from the Eredivise to the Jupiler league. They have been having major financial problems since 2010. On the pitch they had more success they were 10th, they are the second team this season to go bankrupt. AGOVV was earlier this season bankrupt.

With the crisis it is a lot harder to get sponsors, the area where the club is situated has been hit very hard, East Groningen.

Note the Jupiler league is the second tire of professional football here with 16 teams.


It looks as if Louis van Gaal will keep the same team that played against Estland for tomorrow nights game against Romania. Rafael van der Vaart will replace Wesley Sneijder who is injured, and back in Turkey.
 
2020mike said:
I don't know if Klopas is so much the issue as ownership not caring. It almost seems like they are following the Kraft model of using the loss of revenue as a tax write off for their holdings company.
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Crew fans know how that feels. We are owned by the same family that owns Dallas, and while the Hunt family was responsible for getting our stadium built (the first of its kind on the US), they have long since seemed to favor Dallas over us. I think we are still a fairly well-run club in the grand scheme of things, but that could change overnight.

Jaffa Cake said:
That's a hell of a lot of CVs. :eek:
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Being in the market for a new job myself, I feel his pain. My hat is starting to look a bit battered too. And I never gave a team talk on the pitch or saved a woman from jumping off a bridge, so my CV looks much weaker. ;)
 
Tito Villanova back in BCN! Hope he's back for good.

And because I just happended to notice it, not following the WC campaign too eagerly, todays game France - Spain should be a serious keeper.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Crew fans know how that feels. We are owned by the same family that owns Dallas, and while the Hunt family was responsible for getting our stadium built (the first of its kind on the US), they have long since seemed to favor Dallas over us. I think we are still a fairly well-run club in the grand scheme of things, but that could change overnight.



Being in the market for a new job myself, I feel his pain. My hat is starting to look a bit battered too. And I never gave a team talk on the pitch or saved a woman from jumping off a bridge, so my CV looks much weaker. ;)
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At least when Chicago was the little brother to LA in the AEG days they still managed to throw Chicago a bone and spent some money on them. The current group seems that they could care less. The stands looked very empty Sunday to boot.
 
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