World Cup Thread

[DudyDawg]

Switzerland has their goalie on the other end of the field. lol. I'm guessing he can't use hands outside of the box?

Correct. He's just another player

[DudyDawg]

Dangerous free kick for the Swiss. And the wall blocks it for the last kick of the game!! Argentina escapes 1-0

[TheRef]

End of Extra Time: 1-0 Argentina

Argentina will face the winner of the USA v. Belgium match

[Pioneer Dawg]

Switzerland has their goalie on the other end of the field. lol. I'm guessing he can't use hands outside of the box?

Yeah I wonder why we haven't seen the play where the goalie carries the ball all the way down the field and dives into the goal all World Cup**

[DawgHouseUnited]

Yeah I wonder why we haven't seen the play where the goalie carries the ball all the way down the field and dives into the goal all World Cup**

Went to a soccer camp as a kid where the coaches played vs the kids on the last day. They did a trick play where the goalie stuffed the ball into another coach's shirt & he jogged up the field into the goal...

[Pioneer Dawg]

Does anyone else wish Wright Thompson would just go away.

[hacker]

Does anyone else wish Wright Thompson would just go away.

no

[DudyDawg]

Yeah I wonder why we haven't seen the play where the goalie carries the ball all the way down the field and dives into the goal all World Cup**

Hahahaha nice

[TheRef]

After the United States loss to Belgium in Extra Time, here is your World Cup Bracket:



Next matches will be on July 4th

[TheRef]

Current ESPN Bracket Challenge Standings:

1. TheRef 44 pts

2. crc166 41 pts

3. ToddHinman 40 pts

4. jumbo 39 pts
WJ/ Pioneer Dawg
Jack

7. Brad Stevens 37 pts
Rayburn8

9. Charlie_Sheen420 35 pts
DawgHouseUnited
DanglyGiant

12. skb124 32 pts

13. WeWonItAll(Most) 31 pts
It_Could_Happen

15. DudyDawg 30 pts

16. CD 29 pts

17. BulldogBear 25 pts

[CadaverDawg]

Clint Dempsey will be back in 4 years, correct?

So who all will we lose? Jermaine Jones and Tim Howard? Is that it?

[TheRef]

Clint Dempsey will be back in 4 years, correct?

So who all will we lose? Jermaine Jones and Tim Howard? Is that it?

He's 31....I could see him coming back at 35

[DudyDawg]

Clint Dempsey will be back in 4 years, correct?

So who all will we lose? Jermaine Jones and Tim Howard? Is that it?

I doubt it. Maybe he could, as a sub, but with Johannson, Altidore, and other young guys who weren't even there this time, I highly doubt we need him. Its hard to be worth the roster spot at that age unless you are a really great player and a guy who doesn't rely on athleticism to score. So no, I would bet on him not being back.

[DudyDawg]

Here are the names we will definitely lose due to age.
Howard, Jones, Beckerman, Beasley, Dempsey, Davis, Wondolowski. Now, one or two MAY try to make the team and eventually get cut, but I suspect most of them are moving on.

I won't say anything about who I think will or won't make it, those are just the ones that I think are done from WC play. Maybe they could play in the Gold cup, but not the WC in four

[smootness]

That is a heck of a quarterfinal. All of these matches have the potential to be classics.

In regard to the 2018 roster, it doesn't really work that way. It's not just about who will be too old, the roster will likely look drastically different from this one because that's generally the way it works. No one could have ever predicted 4 years ago that Beckerman, Cameron, Wondolowski, Fabian Johnson, etc. would have been on this team. Guys will emerge that no one knows about, and there will be a bunch of young guys.

The only current players I'm confident will still be around are Bradley, Altidore, Green, and Yedlin. Fabian Johnson will probably still hang on as well. But even Yedlin could develop slowly while someone else emerges at that spot.

I think we'll be a lot younger in 2018. We were actually one of the older rosters this year.

[DudyDawg]

Yeah, this year we seemed to have a lot of guys 24 and under and a lot of them 29 and up. Next time the WC rolls around the young guys will be in their primes and then we will have some younger ones, but we won't have as many 30+ guys.

And yeah, wasn't trying to say that those guys that are young will all make it, just that the ones I listed will not due to age alone. Its really hard to predict this stuff, especially four years away. Hell, four months ago we didn't predict Julian Green to be on the team

[smootness]

Yeah, this year we seemed to have a lot of guys 24 and under and a lot of them 29 and up. Next time the WC rolls around the young guys will be in their primes and then we will have some younger ones, but we won't have as many 30+ guys.

And yeah, wasn't trying to say that those guys that are young will all make it, just that the ones I listed will not due to age alone. Its really hard to predict this stuff, especially four years away. Hell, four months ago we didn't predict Julian Green to be on the team

Yep. We'll have more guys with dual nationalities come over as well. Last World Cup, Fabian Johnson, Arron Johansson, John Brooks, Timmy Chandler, and obviously Julian Green weren't even in the US pool.

I'm hoping Zelalem switches over pretty soon, once his dad becomes a citizen. If that happens, our potential becomes much greater. That would be two guys not yet 20 already on elite teams who would contend to become starters for those teams by the next WC. If we had an Arsenal #10 and a Bayern Munich winger, that would be an amazing thing for the growth of the national team and the growth of the sport as a whole.

[DudyDawg]

Yup, and the fact that Zelalem dropped off Germany right before a tournament, the u-21 championships I believe, gives me hope that he wants to play for us.

[DudyDawg]

So, after a day off, the World Cup is back with Germany and France playing in the Maracana

[DudyDawg]

GOALLLLL GERMANY!!! Mats Hummels makes it 1-0 early