The confederations cup.

[missing in action? 0]

ghana, senegal, ivory coast, nigeria, morocco, south africa, egyptetc are all good african teams.who do usa face usually?

[In Dubious Battle 0]

I just don''t see USA/Mexico/Korea or whoever else getting significantly better than they already are there is not enough interest generated in those countries. I would stake a fairly large sum of money on an African team being the first to break the European/South American dominance of the world cup. Regarding those annoying horns, i would recommend turning the volume down, as an added bonus you don''t need to listen to the moronic commentary. 

[Syteanric 1]

who wants to see USA vs Iraq in the 2nd round????

FIIIIIGGGGHHHHHTTTTTT!!!!!

not only that, England, the USA, North Korea and Iraq at the world cup in the same group would be great entertainment too.

jas :)

[Penfold 0]

USA v Brazil, 20 mins gone and Brazil lead 2-0 already. The US are completely out of their depth. Hot knife and butter springs to mind...

[Big Slob 0]

Yes USA are crap, but those horns, oh my god, so so annoying. If it''s like that next summer it will drive me mad.

[Penfold 0]

Complain about the vuvuzela noise to: motd@bbc.co.uk. If enough of us do they may do something about it.

[CHIRPING CANARY 0]

HI Im in south africa at the moment on holiday and visiting my in laws. I have tickets for sundays game. Brazil v Italy Cant wait. But dont worry that noise wont be at the world cup. Fifa have put a ban on it next year. just to let you know most people over hear cant stand it either. OTBC

 

[Penfold 0]

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1863/world-cup-2010confederations-cup/2009/06/18/1332455/fifa-will-not-ban-vuvuzela-horn-at-world-cup-finals-blatter

[CHIRPING CANARY 0]

Well its on all tv and radio stations that it has been banned. By the way the tickets are so cheap 7 pounds only. But that is alot for south africans.

[Houston Canary 0]

                     ghana, senegal, ivory coast, nigeria, morocco, south africa, egypt

etc are all good african teams.

who do usa face usually?

 

 

USA 3 - Egypt 0.

USA in the 2nd round, Italy and Egypt going home early. AAAAAAWWWWWWWwwwww!

[hardley 0]

Horns heard downunder from South Africa. Horrendous. Sound turned down will mean advertisers will loose some loose some of their product value. Might just be the impetuous to getting horns banned

[Houston Canary 0]

If FIFA didn''t want a 3rd World atmosphere for their showcase, they would not have selected S AF to host.  It is disrespectful and mean spirited to expect locals to act differently than they normally do so the wealthy Euros can watch the games on TV in comfort.

Whomever said Mexico is not all that into soccer (at the top of this page) is an idiot or in denial.  My guess is you know Mexico is die hard for soccer, but since the US has been beating them regularly, you tell yourself that lie so you can feel less threatened by the inevitable rise of US soccer to world class level.  Sure we got hammered by Brazil, but we had 10 men because of a mild tackle.  We only lost to Italy because we played with 10 men because of a yellow card the ref decided to make red much to everyone''s surprise for 70 minutes, and their 3rd goal was in garbage time when we had been pushing hard for an equalizer but got caught short handed on defense.

Those of you saying Brazil are now crap must be in denial, too.  They hammered the full-strength azuris 3-0.  So after all is said and done, it is the USA and Brazil advancing, and the mighty Italians and Egyptians going home.  As long as we have a ref who doesn''t think this is women''s soccer, we will be okay vs Spain.  God knows our boys will not be intimidated lke they were vs Brazil after that solid game vs Egypt.

[Wembley_Canary 0]

[quote user="Houston Canary"]

If FIFA didn''t want a 3rd World atmosphere for their showcase, they would not have selected S AF to host.  It is disrespectful and mean spirited to expect locals to act differently than they normally do so the wealthy Euros can watch the games on TV in comfort.

Whomever said Mexico is not all that into soccer (at the top of this page) is an idiot or in denial.  My guess is you know Mexico is die hard for soccer, but since the US has been beating them regularly, you tell yourself that lie so you can feel less threatened by the inevitable rise of US soccer to world class level.  Sure we got hammered by Brazil, but we had 10 men because of a mild tackle.  We only lost to Italy because we played with 10 men because of a yellow card the ref decided to make red much to everyone''s surprise for 70 minutes, and their 3rd goal was in garbage time when we had been pushing hard for an equalizer but got caught short handed on defense.

Those of you saying Brazil are now crap must be in denial, too.  They hammered the full-strength azuris 3-0.  So after all is said and done, it is the USA and Brazil advancing, and the mighty Italians and Egyptians going home.  As long as we have a ref who doesn''t think this is women''s soccer, we will be okay vs Spain.  God knows our boys will not be intimidated lke they were vs Brazil after that solid game vs Egypt.

[/quote]

I agree with you on your point about Mexico, I know that they love their football over their, and have an average league attendances to rival the top leagues in Europe, and could become a strong force in world football in the future. However I don''t agee with your point on the "inevitable rise of US soccer to world class level". People have been saying for years now that football in the USA is set to take off, but as of yet it has yet to do so, even with the much published move of David Beckham to La Galaxy to try and help the cause. In this case it looks like a leopard can''t change its spots, I don''t ever see the US competeing with Europe or South America as a footballing nation. As it stands football AKA soccer is probably the 4th, 5th or maybe even 6th most popular sport in the USA, I don''t see that changeing.

Gratz on making it through to the next round of the FFC, you deserved it Italy didn''t, they were awful.

[Houston Canary 0]

Thanks, W_L_C.  I threw in the "inevitable rise" comment more as a jab at the people who were trashing the US.  Popularity-wise, it will be a long time before soccer rises above the 4 big league sports, but talent-wise, we have come a long way in the last 20 years.  We have a few players who can play with anybody, guys like Landon Donavan, Oguchi Onoyi, Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard.  We are developing players much better than ever as soccer is played by schools and colleges offer scholarships for players. 

Idiotic moves like bringing Beckham to LA are the kind of thing that hurts the game.  MLS has a core of real afficonados who bring their kids to the games and know how to chant and get racous they way soccer fans should do.  If they focussed on those people, the game would gain popularity more quickly than it would by bringing in Beckham so each team can sell out 1 game and people can see he is just a guy, not anything super human.  Beckham fans in the US are not soccer fans. 

Houston Dynamo have 2 hard core groups of fans, Texian Army and some other group.  They take opposing end zones and chant, rant, cheer, shot streamers, and have a blast.  These are rhe one who MLS needs to focus on to show the rest of the people what fun it can be at a soccer game.

[Evil Monkey 52]

[quote user="Houston Canary"]Houston Dynamo have 2 hard core groups of fans, Texian Army and some other group.  They take opposing end zones and chant, rant, cheer, shot streamers, and have a blast.  These are rhe one who MLS needs to focus on to show the rest of the people what fun it can be at a soccer game. [/quote]But I bet they don''t stand with their arms folded on a grey, windy afternoon, munching on a pie and grumbling that, in their day, players used to have balls!?That''s a real fan....

[Houston Canary 0]

We don''t get game conditions like that in Houston, but Chicago, Columbus, New England and others sure do.  MLS isn''t old enough for that sort of "in MY day" kind of talk, but I am sure you can hear it at baseball games if you can bother to go to one (I can''t).

Thanks for your comment on the other thread about at least having some sense in criticism of me.  I have asked that of my attackers over and over again, EM.  [Y]

[Houston Canary 0]

I could not resist bringing this thread back too, now the US is into the final after shutting down Spain.  Our defense was solid, and Tim Howard was nails in goal when he had to be. We were getting hammered for the 25 minutes ater half time, but stood our ground and turned the play back to control much of the game after that.  We finished the last 4 minutes plus injury time a man short, too, having gotten another weak red card for what looked very mild.  No problem, Bennie Feilhaber can start in midfield instead of the coach''s son.  3 red cards in 4 games is very curious. It''s like NCFC in the first half of the season, the only difference being that the USA is in the finals!

The game was very well managed, too.  Good choice of subs, great starting line up, excellent strategy, and played with confidence from start to finish.  

Kudos to the Spaniards for not resorting to continual dives and screaming fits.

[JuanVelasco 27]

[quote user="Houston Canary"]

I could not resist bringing this thread back too, now the US is into the final after shutting down Spain.  Our defense was solid, and Tim Howard was nails in goal when he had to be. We were getting hammered for the 25 minutes ater half time, but stood our ground and turned the play back to control much of the game after that.  We finished the last 4 minutes plus injury time a man short, too, having gotten another weak red card for what looked very mild.  No problem, Bennie Feilhaber can start in midfield instead of the coach''s son.  3 red cards in 4 games is very curious. It''s like NCFC in the first half of the season, the only difference being that the USA is in the finals!

The game was very well managed, too.  Good choice of subs, great starting line up, excellent strategy, and played with confidence from start to finish.  

Kudos to the Spaniards for not resorting to continual dives and screaming fits.

[/quote]

I hope that you get drawn against them in the world cup.

[Houston Canary 0]

So do I.  Thanks!  Apparently, according to you, they will be wiped out from their regular league season and ripe for another thrashing. Having not taken this cup seriously, they will also risk being poorly motivated, and their tradition of collapsing in the World Cup is also in our favor.

[Big Slob 0]

I have to admit it was a very good win for USA. Shame it was in the confederations cup and not the world cup! Oh and it''s defence not defense.

[Houston Canary 0]

You had me scrambling there for a minute, Big Bob, but according to my Concise Oxford Dictionary, defense and defence are interchangeable.