Any REAL football fans here? (Page 53)

To me..he seems disinterested...floats in and out of games and lacks motivation. It may be his demeanour and I am reading it wrong..but he just does not impress me. Against higher level defenders he disappears for large parts of the game...even on a National level...

Just my 0.02c

Fair enough.  I see something different, but it is probably a bias. 

Then again, some of those goals are against some fairly good squads.  And if you look at his numbers, a lion's share of those goals are in the last 3 years so he is actually kind of coming into his own.

I guess we shall see what happens in the transfer market. 

All that being said, he is, by far, one of the most effective football players to come out of the US.

But thats a pretty shallow pool....

I'd put him behind McBride, Harkes - Howard/Keller/Freidal ( although GK's)...

WOW!

7 of 12 MLS teams were knocked out of the US Open Cup yesterday by lower league teams. 

http://thecup.us/2012-us-open-cup-third-round-preview-and-live-blog-630-p-m-et/

Pretty pathetic.  I'm not happy with my boys in Red.

Of course!...got to love the advances in technology since the 2008 tournament..its available on Ipad, Iphone etc...good stuff..

Liked the Italians and the Russians so far...but will probably come down to Spain/Germany...

Yeap....Good games so far, currently watching Eng. vs Fra. in between emails, not very impressed with England without Rooney. 

I was pleasantly surprise with the way the Azzurri played on Sunday, i didnt know what to expect from them this cup.  I dont want to get my hopes up but i like their chances.

I dont know if it can be possible bracket wise but i'm calling a Netherland vs Italia final.  The dutch will figure it out, they have too many players not to, and well i dont have to explain myself why i pick Italia

Was able to catch the Neth/Den match on Saturday and the Irl/Cro match yesterday.  Not surprised that Ireland lost, just how bad they looked doing it.

Followed the Eng/Fra match today.  Looks like the second half wasn't nearly as exciting as the first.

Germany definitely is the favorite.  I'm not convinced with Spain.  They don't appear to have what they used to.  Either that or teams are playing them differently, which is highly likely.

I too am leaning to Germany in the final.  Just not convinced who they will play yet.

I played a little bit with the brackets and with the teams that in my opinion will make it to the quarterfinals and this is how I think things will play out

Group A

I have Russia and Greece coming out of this group in that particular order.  Not a very strong group and I don’t see either of these teams getting past the quarterfinals.

Group B

I think Germany will win the group and Netherland will also make it through despite their defeat.  Portugal always finds a way to come up small in this type of competition  and Denmark won’t win another game

Group C

I have a Spain winning the group on goal differential and Italia second

Group D

I think France will win the Group and England will barely make it as the second team out of the group.

Quarters

1A (Russia) vs 2B (Netherland)  If they make it out of their group as I think they will they would have hit their stride and won’t have a problem dispatching Russia

1B (Germany) vs 2A (Greece) Germany, no need for more explanation

1C (Spain) vs 2D (England)  Spain finds a way to crack the English defense who will have Rooney isolated at the front.

1D (France) vs 2c (Italy)  Rematch of the 2006 WC.  Italy advances after beating france 2-1.  France controls the ball 57% of the time but can’t  crack Italia’s defense and the Azurri hit the French in the counterattack

Semifinals

Neth vs Spain  This is where Spain really misses David Villa and Netherland kicks them out of the tournaments

Germany vs Italia  The Azurri play the match of their life and despite of being outshot they beat the germans 1-0

Italy defeats Netherland in a surprisingly high score game 4-3 and uplifts the country and those homeless in the north after the earthquake.

Ukraine is making it interesting.

They have adopted the Chelsea method since it was successful in the champions league...defend, defend, defend and counter..or score from a set piece...pretty dismal - a result orientated performance.

Ukraine - Sheva scores twice..always been a fan even through the lean Chelsea years...form is temporary class is permanent..

He looked very good.

X3. To me, that was the most entertaining match of the tournamant so far. Was great to see the co-host team to pull off the comeback.

It was interesting to hear the exchange betwee Ballack and Lalas after the  England/France game. Ballack was clearly unimpressed with England's style of play--"That's not football". Lalas defended it, basically saying they gotta do what they gotta do.

England has no world class players - so they have to play a style that relies on containment and is opportunistic to score goals - last time they tried to be open and play they got spanked by Ze Germans 4-1 in the WC

Until we develop some Center midfield players who have pace and skill to beat players and good vision for penetrating passes the best route for success is bunker down and hope for the best..oh and a forward with some guile and clinical finishing would be nice too

SNERK!

That's why it was in sarc font.

Yeah, I know what you mean though.

Yes it will be.

BTW, I'm not convinced Italy will be on top.  Nice sentiment, but they have a lot to do to get there and I really don't think they have the talent.  Then again, I've been wrong before. 

I agree with you, i dont think they will make it all the way to the finals, that pick was more sentimental than logical ...I liked Netherland to win it all at the start of the cup but i'm unsure now after the way they played against denmark, i still think they can pull it off....Otherwise is back to my theory that the team with the least amount of important players in the EPL will win.

Greece made a valiant effort.

On another note, I'm really worried about the Russia v Poland match.  Not the actual match, but the fans.  There have already been some fairly significant clashes between the fans on the way to the match. This might be the first real test of the security at the grounds.