**Official USA vs Portugal World Cup Game Thread**

[|Zach|]

USA vs PORTUGAL | 5 PM KICK OFF | ESPN
Arena Amazonia | Manaus, Brazil

United States moves on to the knockout stage of the 2014 World Cup with a win. A tie or loss leaves a lot of other scenarios but lets just win this.

US faces a talented team that is having a bit of a crisis of confidence. They feature the best player (arguably) in the world in Cristiano Renaldo. If we can contain CR7 the rest of the team probably does not have what it takes to give us trouble.

Huge ****ing day for US Soccer.

[aturnis]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Welll since I've now watched a complete soccer game I'm the veteran in some parts of the sports world.

If the world or USA soccer wants to expand from a niche sport in the USA and get up to the level of baseball/basketball/football its going to have to make some slight changes. You may think these are major changes but to us outsiders they seem minor.

Let teams and fans know how long the game will be played. Stoppage time is BS. Just stop the damn clock if someone is hurt.

How about rewarding a win? Penalizing a tie. Americans hate ties. They want a winner.

I know its the worlds game and not ours. I'm just speaking to what is needed to get the American sports fan involved in soccer at the big 3 level.

I disagree.

The sport is growing in America mostly b/c a good majority of young adults played it. Youth soccer programs are growing, and even the smallest hijacks in Iowa are getting hijack teams. Soon the smallest will have middle school programs as well. The kids who play it, love it, and they will share that love with their children and so on.

Soccer is something most people older than myself(30) don't quite understand. In my opinion, you have to have played it competitively to appreciate it.

To put it simply, I've played EVERY sport available to the average student athlete, and it's soccer by a mile. There is something about it. Never felt the same way about basketball, football, wrestling or baseball.

That something will continue to live in the American people who have played the game, and it will grow. It already has.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

When the US tinkered with the game and went away from universal FIFA rules it was an absolute failure. It can't continue to grow in the world and not be a part of the world world game. If that leaves a few people in Florida from watching then fine.

The only thing soccer in the US needs is time to be honest. We are taking about a league that started more recently than the Chiefs have a playoff win. Their trajectory is more than fine it's incredible. Changing things now would not only take them out of compliance with the governing body but it would be stupid and would lose support of all who have helped build it.

I'm not lost on your points, and I think you're right about how we have to stay in lock-step with the rest of the planet, but it's sad that the rest of the world can't afford a clock that counts down, or has the ability to be stopped at the official's discretion.

And I still hate the offsides rule, and have since:

[NewChief]

Judging by my own ecosystem (which admittedly is limited), soccer is about to take off. We now have a chapter of American Outlaws here in Fayetteville. We have over 200+ people showing up to World Cup games with the chapter at a local bar. We have multiple other bars around town showing the World Cup. Social media presence is at an all time high. I think the time is right for soccer in the USA. Critical Mass has been reached, imo.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Judging by my own ecosystem (which admittedly is limited), soccer is about to take off. We now have a chapter of American Outlaws here in Fayetteville. We have over 200+ people showing up to World Cup games with the chapter at a local bar. We have multiple other bars around town showing the World Cup. Social media presence is at an all time high. I think the time is right for soccer in the USA. Critical Mass has been reached, imo.

It probably wont ever pass the NFL or MLB in popularity, but who knows?

Ive written this before, but 40-50 years ago, the most popular sports in the US were Horse Racing, Boxing and MLB. So tastes definitely do change over time.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Welll since I've now watched a complete soccer game I'm the veteran in some parts of the sports world.

If the world or USA soccer wants to expand from a niche sport in the USA and get up to the level of baseball/basketball/football its going to have to make some slight changes. You may think these are major changes but to us outsiders they seem minor.

Let teams and fans know how long the game will be played. Stoppage time is BS. Just stop the damn clock if someone is hurt.

How about rewarding a win? Penalizing a tie. Americans hate ties. They want a winner.

I know its the worlds game and not ours. I'm just speaking to what is needed to get the American sports fan involved in soccer at the big 3 level.

Well, if it's a matter of being a niche sport with some ridiculousness or focusing on catering to the casual fan and making as much money as humanely possible, I'd rather watch some ridiculousness.

No fan should want their sport to become that popular.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Uh yeah, no breaks.

Offsides from goal line to goal line and having the defense dictate (in certain circumstances) when they have to defend the area closest to the net is ridiculous though... doesn't matter if someone's watched 5 games or 5000, and anything coming down to "it's the way they've always done it" is probably worth questioning. Of course, they don't need to change it, they don't need my approval.

Imagine the outrage when hockey started allowing forward passes... then boom, 80 years go by and you can't imagine hockey without it.

First off, it's only from the midfield line into the respective offensive sides.
Second, a player can be behind defenders if he's also behind the ball.
Third, he only need be even with the second farthest back opposing player when the ball is last touched by a teammate
Fourth, an offending player can avoid offside by not getting involved in the play, whether by pursuing the ball or drawing defenders.

This rule is about so much more than 'the defense playing a game with the strikers.' It encourages defenders to overlap and go forward to get involved in offensive pressure, knowing that someone back there at least one teammate is always at least even with the counterstrike threat. It keeps the game from turning into two phalanxes around the respective goal areas, with a striker or two kicking into a sea of shins from the outside. It evens the competition by assuring that on fast breaks you only have to be as fast as the person breaking away, not enough faster to make up ground on cherry pickers.

I could go on and on, but offside is more than a relic, it is the linchpin to the very fairness of soccer itself.

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

It probably wont ever pass the NFL or MLB in popularity, but who knows?

Ive written this before, but 40-50 years ago, the most popular sports in the US were Horse Racing, Boxing and MLB. So tastes definitely do change over time.

MLB I think it will in time.

NFL is interesting. Not anywhere soon but I wonder if between the head injury stuff and saturation and over reach if you see the NFL start trending downward at some point.

[Reaper16]

Various research already suggests that MLB has become a sport of only regional popularity. Its national day in the sun has been setting for a while.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

NFL is interesting. Not anywhere soon but I wonder if between the head injury stuff and saturation and over reach if you see the NFL start trending downward at some point.

yea, ive heard that theory thrown out there over the past few weeks.

I dont know though.....football provides way too many opportunities for young kids. especially ones from poor homes. Too much money invested in football at all levels in the US.

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

yea, ive heard that theory thrown out there over the past few weeks.

I dont know though.....football provides way too many opportunities for young kids. especially ones from poor homes. Too much money invested in football at all levels in the US.

Apparently less and less kids are playing the game. But...I see no downward trend in NCAA FB so who knows.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Various research already suggests that MLB has become a sport of only regional popularity. Its national day in the sun has been setting for a while.

Yea, i agree with this. Very little interest in MLB if your local team is not in the playoffs.

It didnt used to be this way. The World Series used to capture the attention of the entire nation......now its like one big "meh" for most of the country. Nowhere near the buzz level like this World Cup has become.

[TribalElder]

I could see soccer getting bigger than the nfl with the way the refs and goodell are ****ing the game up

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Well, if it's a matter of being a niche sport with some ridiculousness or focusing on catering to the casual fan and making as much money as humanely possible, I'd rather watch some ridiculousness.

No fan should want their sport to become that popular.

You do realize that catering to the public is exactly why the NFL is a juggernaut, correct? How do you think they made it from a bottom feeder sport to #1? You still watch the NFL, correct?

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Silock

Rewarding a win? They are already rewarded.

A tie is fine because the season is so long. There are no ties when the difference can't be made up, such as tournaments or MLS playoffs. This isn't like baseball. These guys are already running around for like 7-9 miles per game in about 90 minutes. You don't want them to continually run around until they're exhausted. 1) It's not fun to watch tired soccer players play, so if you already feel the sport is too slow, it's going to make it even worse. 2) You'll tire the players out unnecessarily for the following game, leading to the second part of #1. 3) You have a chance to make up the points in a round robin part of the tournament. There are no ties when it's single-elimination.

I really don't see the problem.

I'm just saying what people have been saying about soccer since Pele was going to turn the USA onto soccer. It's just an American uninformed beer gut football and baseball fan. So WTF do I know anyway about the worlds game?

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

You do realize that catering to the public is exactly why the NFL is a juggernaut, correct? How do you think they made it from a bottom feeder sport to #1? You still watch the NFL, correct?

That is a pretty good point. Imagine if NFL teams still passed 7 times a game and ran it 50 times? I wonder if the sport would have grown?