Exit stage

So, here we are again. The United States making an early exit at the World Cup. For a while there, it seemed like team USA had a great opportunity to make the semis. USA is better than Ghana. USA would compete with Uruguay. Problem is, we go out and lose to Ghana. A team playing without its best player. A team who did not score an actual goal in the group stage. A team who's striker was heavily criticized by Ghanian media, yet sliced through our defense like OJ through Nicole.

How does that happen? I think we all know the answer to that........


Lets look at Bradley's chain of behvaior....
1) Start Ricardo Clark at CM against England and Frank Lampard. By the way, just FYI:

is better than

2) Stare blankly as Ricardo Clark watches Stevie G run right past him.
3) Bench Ricardo Clark for Jose Torres. Watch team implode in first half. Insert Maurice Edu instead of Clark. Watch team make brilliant comeback.
4) Bench Ricardo Clark against Algeria. Watch team win a must-win game.
5) Start Ricardo Clark. Watch Ricardo Clark take on two defenders in own half. Watch Ricardo Clark lose ball. Watch Ghana score. Watch Ricardo Clark pick up yellow card. Bench Ricardo Clark.
6) Watch team force extra time.

Does anyone else see a pattern here?
United States with Ricardo Clark =



United States with Maurice Edu =


Time for a new coach. Who should it be?

Worst weekend of my life

One of the most fun couple days in recent memory..... followed by a soul destroying weekend.

USA 1 Ghana 2

England 1 Germany 4

(Sounders 1 Philly 3)

Donovan, Lampard - its been fun.

Welcome to Amerrrrica

Fucking Ref

Lets just take a moment to think about that horrible call that cost the US the comeback of the century. Its such an obvious decision for the ref.

USA/Slovenia - Continued

Props to whoever vandalized the refs Wikipedia page. I couldn't have said it better my self. (Thats as big as I could make the screen shot - click to enlarge.)

USA/Slovenia

Just thought I would throw this picture

up...It makes me feel better about the

officiating today. I don't think its possible for

us to get a fair ref.

In both '06 (Ghana), '02 (Germany) and now 2010

we've had game changing calls go against us...

its becoming more and more clear that we should

just start expecting this.

Luis Suarez: profile of a cheater

Given their recent performances one might have thought Daniele De Rossi & Cristiano Ronaldo where going to have a one-two finish for biggest cheater/pussy at this years world cup.

But out of nowhere a dark horse has entered the race! Hailing from Uruguay (no surprise there) Luis Suarez has staked a firm claim for himself with a ridiculous overreaction to Itumeleng Khune’s goalmouth challenge in yesterday’s game. With the slightest of contact Suarez threw himself to the ground leading to a penalty and a red card for the South African. I spent the rest of the day trying to decide if I was angrier with the referee or Suarez.

This was hardly an isolated incident. Suarez spent as much of the game tripping on imaginary tackles as he did playing the game. Granted South Africa probably would have lost anyway but its times like these you wish soccer gods were real and they could exact some sort of revenge (murder).

Final score

Fair play: 0 Cheaters: 3

A draw is not an option

Lets get one thing clear about Friday's game-A draw would be a huge letdown. Tying Slovenia is so 1994. This is 20fucking10. It's all well and good to tie England. But Slovenia is shit. And we must beat them. What is the point of advancing if we can't beat a team like Slovenia? Have we improved at all in 16 years if we are going to be satisfied with a draw? Hell no.

It's not all about the end result, how you get there matters. Losing a close game to Germany after beating Slovenia and Algeria one thing. Getting blown out by Germany and advancing out of our group based on goal-differential is a totally different, and much crappier thing.

Beating Slovenia and pounding Algeria like Mr. Garrison pounds Mr. Slave's tight ass would prove we have made some strides. A little consistency goes a long way. I expect the Yanks to win 2-0, and so should you.

And Utah makes 12?

Do we really want Utah in our conference? I don't and its not because of the mormon thing. That isn't really a reflection of the University of Utah anyways. Here's 3 reasons to keep Utah out of the Pac-10.

1: Divisions

If Utah joins the Pac-10, that makes 12 teams. Undoubtedly, they'd break it up into 6-team divisions. The problem is- how do you make those divisions? If we do north-south, then UW is rarely playing USC or UCLA, which means less exposure and less excitement for fans. I'm sorry but a Cal-Stanford-Oregon-OSU-WSU-UW division is not nearly as fun as the current set-up.

2: We don't need 12 teams.

I would be fine with adding Colorado (and the Denver market that comes with it), and sticking with 11 teams. The Big-10 did it with 11 teams without any problems. Then we would still get to play most of the schools each year, and we don't have to start watering down our conference.

3: Utah will suck

It's a popular idea that schools like Boise State, TCU, Utah are screwed over by the current system, and deserve a shot at national title games, etc. Bullshit. Here are the schools boise state played last year after beating Oregon at home in the first game of the year...

Miami of Ohio, Fresno St, Bowling Green, UC Davis, Tulsa, Hawaii, San Jose St, Louisiana Tech, Idaho, Utah st, Nevada, New Mexico st, TCU (who also plays shit teams).

Basically these midmajor schools can go all out for 1-2 games a year, and then beat up on nobodies. UW would have won every one of those games. USC could have beaten them with their walk-ons.

Hopefully Utah spending a couple years getting destroyed in the Pac-10 will end the myth that midmajors "deserve" anything.

Public enemy number one

Thoughts about De Rossi's dive in the first half against Paraguay?....I went from contentedly watching the game to enraged in the space of five seconds. Strong contender for dive of the tournament I'd say. Its disappointing to see such cheaters rewarded with world cup wins.

In Mariners' baseball news...

Lol, just kidding Mariner fans. No one cares.

Actually, just an FYI that it sounds like this blog will be weekdays only. That is, until the cries from our fans for 24/7/365 coverage are too strong to overcome.

Yanks win 1-1

Don't cry, Robert Green. We are big fans of your work!

Props to the people who predicted the 1-1 score. Bigger props to Colin for having it published beforehand. Thoughts on the game:

-Onyewu didn't play like he was nursing an injury. He had a misread on the Gerrard goal, and should have been tighter on his man, but that looked like a mental mistake. Happy to see him looking fit going forward.

-Dempsey had one of his typical games. He didn't keep possession much and didn't track back well (especially first half). Still though, he created a goal out of nothing.

-Clark absolutely can not lose his man like that. If Clint Dempsey does it, it's forgivable because he's making plays. Clark gives nothing offensively, and cost us a goal. Terrible.

-Howard played really well (obviously). Watching the replay of Heskey sliding into him made it that much better of a performance in my mind. Heskey came in cleats up at full speed, and nailed him in the chest. Howard played through the pain. Hopefully his leadership rubs off on other guys.

-Bradley's decision to start Findley took guts. The guy hasn't done much in MLS this year, or for the national team, but his speed is huge. He and Altidore were applying tons of pressure on England's backline. Special recognition to Fabio Capello for inserting Carragher (AKA the slowest defender on a World Cup roster) into the game. Almost gave us the victory when Altidore hit the post.

-There is no reason to wait so long to sub our forwards. They really aren't that much better than the backups, and were looking tired. Not to mention Altidore has been criticized for not being in gameshape. I would love to see Gomez/Buddle come in together around the 60-65 mark for both forwards.

Time to score more goals than Slovenians.

Sports Illustrated's Top 10 WC goals all time

Nelinho's goal at #5 is incredible. How do you even think of taking that shot??


http://http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/soccer/world-cup-2010/writers/rob_smyth/06/11/top.10.world.cup.goals/index.html?eref=sihp

Prediction Time

1950 World Cup

United States- 1
England- 0

Will we shock the world again?
Leave a comment with
your prediction and reasoning.
However biased it might be.

An awesome calendar

Click on the image to play with it! Its interactive

Does Jake Locker know the legal age of consent?

Breaking News: U$C ruling to be announced Thursday

PosseUpSports is reporting that U$C will receive a 2 year bowl ban as part of the penalty for the Reggie Bush case. They will also lose up to 20 scholarships, and forfeit wins from their national title season.

A 1 year bowl ban would not have hurt SC's recruiting that much. With 2 years though, now kids will have to decide whether they want to go to a program that cant really accomplish anything for 2 of their 4 years. How about guys that are the big-time superstar recruits- guys that might leave after their junior seasons? Doubt they are going to be okay sitting out 2/3 of their postseasons.

The scholarship loss is just as big. Teams take about 22 players a year on scholarship. If the loss of 20 scholarships is going to be those same 2 years as the postseason ban, $C is screwed. That's basically half of 2 recruiting classes.

Forfeiting wins probably won't impact their future recruiting as much, but having a national title taken away is a huge black eye. Also, worth wondering if Bush will have to forfeit his Heisman.

With UW seemingly on their way back, the timing of all of this couldn't be better.

Update: ESPN has spoken with PosseUpSports and is now reporting on the story as well:

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5267933

Just for kicks, here's Bush's crazy highschool highlight video:

Vancouver Whitecaps FC New Logo

The Vancouver Whitecaps FC released their new logo for their MLS team yesterday. It looks pretty cool in my opinion. It's way better than their last logo, but I can't wait to beat the shit out of those socialist hippies up north.

Portland will release theirs during the USA-England game on Saturday (Lame!) and I'm sure it will be as shitty as their team. They have released "clues" about their crest on their website.

http://www.portlandmls2011.com/

Golden Tate is hungry

From the Seattle times article:
"Seahawks rookie Golden Tate was a little late for National Doughnut Day, which was last Friday.

And he arrived a little too early for Top Pot Doughnuts cafe in Bellevue. It doesn't open until 7 a.m. on Saturdays.

So when Tate and a friend found their way into the cafe at about 3 a.m. on Saturday, timing became a problem and precipitated a visit from the Bellevue Police officers and a warning for trespassing.

So what prompted all the trouble? Maple bars. Freshly baked.

"They're irresistible," Tate said. "It was kind of a foolish mistake that won't happen again."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2012061824_hawk09.html

10 most slappable part 2: WC countries

10. Japan: Is it too late to take back Pikachu and friends?

9. Greece: Less thinking, more doing.

8. Ivory Coast: For making everyone try and pronounce "Cote d'Ivoire"

7. England: No taxation without representation!

6. Switzerland: Pick a side Dammit!

5. Germany: This one is fairly self-explanatory.

4. Italy: The only country I hate because of the way they play soccer.

3. Mexico: You invite us to your resorts... and then take our money. Boooooo!

2. North Korea: Tried to sneak in a forward to their team as a GK. Big surprise.

1. France: Pussies.

Best XI

One question, two rules.

What is the best starting XI?

Rule 1: Their team has to be playing in the world cup.
Rule 2: You can only choose one player from each country.

Let the debate begin...

Top 10 most slappable players @ WC 2010

1. Cahill- Sometimes you wish the corner flag would hit back..

2. Busquets - Surprised I was able to find a picture of him where he is not faking an injury

3. Van Persie - This one hurts because I love the dutch, but look how smug he is... unbelievably slappable!

4. Klose - He looks like he is plotting something to me, I don't like that.

5. Materazzi - Look at his face and tell me I'm wrong

6. Henry - Just shameful

7. Milito - Looks so much like Rocky I'm sure if he did get hit it wouldn't faze him.

8. De Rossi - All around D-bag, could use a firm tap to the jaw.

9. Should be self explanatory

10. Dear Lucio I hate you

If I've forgotten any feel free to add to the list...

Golden Boot odds

Top-10 favorites for the Golden Boot as of this morning: (Taken from the average of different betting sites)

David Villa- 8/1
Lionel Messi- 9.5/1
Wayne Rooney- 9.5/1
Fabiano- 10/1
Robin van Persie- 12/1
Fernando Torres- 13/1
Cristiano Ronaldo- 17/1
Higuain- 18/1
Diedo Milito- 25/1
Peter Crouch- 36/1

Colin- Donovan is at 100/1 if you're feeling lucky.

Here is the link.

http://www.bookies.com/football/world-cup-2010/top-goalscorer/

PAC 16

Preston was talking about a possible PAC 16 a few days ago, and it's looking like a real possibility. Here's the guy who runs the PAC 10 blog on ESPN's take on things.

Ted Miller on expansion

Bringing in Texas would be amazing.

Starting XI

Who should our starting XI be against England? I've got it:

Howard- GK
Cherundolo- RB
DeMerit- CB
Onyewu- CB
Bocanegra- LB
Donovan- RM
Bradley- CM
Holden- CM
Dempsey- LM
Findley- F
Altidore- S

Findley plays the Davies position, starting in front of Altidore, and making runs behind. Both of our forward's leashes should be short. If either isn't getting it done, Buddle could play forward or striker, but I prefer Findley's superior speed to start with. Gomez is the super-sub.

Leave a comment.

Obligatory Steven Gerrard post

Hey, if you are a member of the posse I'll try and make you a moderator or whatever so that you can make posts. Basically I just wanted a site so we can debate all the stuff we normally debate. First topic: the one and only Steven Gerrard. Lots of rumors on The Spoiler say he follows Mourinho to Real Madrid. I think if Torres stays at Liverpool (a possibility), and Liverpool hire a decent manager that he'll stay. What say you?