Football (not American)

Remove all ads!

Well Aldeth, actually many of the American players who play in the MLS are really good and would take a place in all but the top teams in Europe. I think that league has potential.

I was under the impression that everything anyone might want was available somewhere or other on American television, seems I was wrong. However I remember that when I was over I watched some English pre-season game on Fox world or something. Seeing as Murdoch has a big interest in the Premiership you might catch a few premiership games on Fox world or whatsitcalled.

 

Depends on your cable campany ... do you have fox sport Aldeth? i believe fox sport does show some english premier league matches, big ones. English premier league matches are usually fast pace end to end, more attractive sounded for audiences. Italian and Spanish matches are more slow paced with more mid field showdown. Italian matches are more boring than Spanish because of a plague of "1-0" mindset spreaded around Italian coaches.

And i think espn or one of its baby channels show championship league, live or at least delayed. i remember watching '03 championship league final on espn during summer.

 

Aldeth, as far as i can tell, ESPN has football, or soccer if you wish, in it's package. MLS as well as the European leagues. I have a buddy in Detroit who likes watching football, and he's always up to date on the latest European developments THANKS to ESPN. Dunno if you have acces to that channel though.

And i don't think the level of American players is that bad, especially since more and more are moving overseas to compete in European leagues. Overhere, Ajax had a young and promising defender named John O'Brien, haven't seen him in a while though, i think he's seriously injured or something like that. And PSV recently contracted a guy named Beasly, who's maken a serious impact with that team. I think he played for Chicago in the MLS, very talented young man.

 

I took a look at the FIFA rankings and the US are currently number 10 - which is suprisingly high. There is a young player in the US league that some are touting as the best young player in the world. He signed a million dollar deal with Nike at 14 - I think he is only 15 now. He's called Freddy Adu - he looked pretty talented when I saw a few clips of him. I think he plays for DC United. Its unheard of, having a player that young playing alongside adult professionals.

 

I had written up a long respone to TDO but it was deleted at posting so here comes a watered-down version:

NFW that USA is at rank 10. NFW that USA is better than BOTH Italy and Sweden. NFW that Adu, and yes, I've seen him play, is the best youth player in the world. There is a small, a very small, chance that he once will be the best, but I don't think so.

 

Dont diss Adu man, the boy got mad skills. Also I dont find it surprising at all that the US is ranked 10. They have performed very well lately, which cant be said for example Italy. One should also keep in mind that the US plays their qualifying games against generally weaker opponents and thus gets some free ranking points there. Ranking aside I would say that the US is a second tier football nation together with countries like Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, England and Japan. No Brazil, Germany or France but could beat them on a good day.

 

@ joacqin

Please rephrase, you obviously don't know where your talking about...

and I also think that there is a very slight change that Adu will ever be the best..!

[ Let's be polite please. ] - Beren
[ ok. ]

[ October 18, 2004, 12:09: Message edited by: Nightal ]

 

ANY footballteam can beat ANY opponent on any given day, even amateurs can beat pros, look at Andorra. So there's no need to give examples, but sharing Germany in the same category as Brazil shows you don't know much about football.

And the FIFA ranking is one of the weirdest tables i've ever seen. Granted, Brazil is probably 90% of the time on first place, which is quite understandable, but sometimes you see nations in the top 10 of which i completely forgot the existance, they got that high because they were lucky to run into "San Marino caliber teams" several times in one year, but never truly wom a major event.

 

@ Pac man

couldn't say it better

 

Considering Germany's football history I do think Germany should be mentioned in the same breath as Brazil. They may not be all that good right now but keep in mind that they were in the final in the last World Cup. Just to ease your vitriol I do count the Netherlands among the first tier nations as well. Heck, I might as well list them all: Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and France. Theoritically Spain should be there but they *never* deliver.

Pac Man, the FIFA ranking is weird but a win against San Marino isnt worth nearly as much as a win against Brazil. I dont know exactly how it works but the higher the team you beat is on the FIFA ranking the more points the win is worth.

 

I know, but you must also keep in mind that Asian teams play much more games per year than European. I've read about Iranian or Saudi internationals with more than 200 caps behind their names. That's impossible for European internationals, unless they keep playing until they are old moldy fossiles. For Germany, Lothar Mattaeus has more than 100 caps if i'm not mistaken, but feats like that are very rare in this part of the world. Lothar must have had very few injuries and must have been available for every meaningless friendly game to reach that total.

So if a country like that has a lot of victories in one year, against opponents from their own region, they easily march into the top 10, while overhere in Europe, people are like "who the hell are they ?"

 

Well, I dont think they play all that many more games. The player who has the most caps in the world is Sweden's former goalie Ravelli, atleast this was the case a few years ago. There was one Saudi I think who was claimed to have more but it wasnt sufficently documented to be counted as a record. Either way so are players like Mattheus and Ravelli pretty much as rare in Asia as they are here in Europe.

Also, what Asian teams are on the top ten? I dont even think South Korea or Japan is there and they are the absolutely best teams there. Oh, and for you non-footballfreaks, in the world of football the middle east is counted as Asia, except for Israel and Turkey who are counted as Europe. Confusing?

 

South Korea was in the top 10, based upon their results in the 2002 WC. Mind you, we're talking about a nation here that has never won jack, but got on one lucky streak, and mostly thanks to their hometurf advantage and some very doubtful referee decisions. I'm not sure if they are still ranked that high, but they are probably still among the top 20. I don't keep track of the FIFA ranking system though, because it's total and utter crap. I have a feeling that that list only exists to keep some people happy or something.

Kuwait was way up there too one time, also because of some lucky games in one tournament, the rest of their points were gathered in their own weak region, so apparently is does sort some effect.

I wonder where Greece stands now. After their succesfull Euro campaign they are well on their way to NOT qualifying for Germany 2006, just like i expected. They can't even get passed Albania anymore.

 

If I'm not mistaken, we are number 16 or 17. As for WC 2006, don't be so sure that we will not be there. There are more than 10 games remaining and we are starting to recover. As for our defeat by Albania, we have never won there, so our defeat has not been a surpise. Also just check how many teams have beaten Albanians in their home the last years.

 

Well, if a team eliminated France, the Czech Republic and Portugal, among others, and can't beat one of Europe's weakest teams barely a few months later, that's quite a turnaround, wouldn'you say so ?

I think that result hit the Greek footballfans like a bomb, after so many successses. Albania isn't exactly one of the teams to be reckoned with in that group, there are other, more talented opponents to worry about for Greece, Turkey for instance, or the Ukraine and Denmark.

 

The fact that we have eliminated France, Portugal and Checz Republic doesn't makes a football superpower, which crushes every opponent in its way. The defeat by Albania was a shock here but mostly for nationalistic and not football reasons. Just think how you feel when you are defeated by Germans. Also, don't understimate the Albanians when they play in their home.During the last two years they have been defeated only by England, while they have managed to win teams like Russia and Sweden.

 

Well, losing to Germany isn't exactly something to be ashamed of, maybe to this particular team, but in the past they beat us more than the other way around, and i think that goes for every other European nation as well. Albania isn't exactly the same caliber as Germany.

But that's not the issue here, what i meant was that if Greece fails to beat Albania, they have their work cut out for themselves against the real big guns in your group.

 

Let's go back to Freddy Adu,

1 - i cannot believe his is as young as he said to be (born 1989). There is a certain nature governing our body growth which in turn will restrict one's body capability and ability to compete in the fearsome sport like football among bodies that are few years better in development and built than this person.

2 - i cannot agree, too, starting a career in such a young age. Kids and fame are always not a good combination and i don't need to list out the laudary list of "famous kid yesteraday, crappy drug addict nobody today" to fully convince you. For the love of nature, come on, let him study a few years high school and college first. At least if his football career is not as glamourous as expected he still has a college degree with him.

 

When it comes to football this tends to not be that big of an issue. Players like Totti and Raul played for Roma and Real at very young ages and got huge contracts when barely in their teens and they managed to not let it go to tehir heads. Football clubs deal with many youngsters and thus tends to know what to do to keep them ont he ground.

As for Adu's age it is a shady topic but I say lets give the boy the benefit of the doubt.

Greece losing to Albania was not really a shocker to me, Greece as a team is unable to lead games. To play against inferior teams, they cant dominate thus they can win against Portugal with a rock steady defence but not against a defending Albania. Sweden had a similar problem in the past.

 

Pac Man, you've missed my point. Ofcourse losing to Germany isn't something to be ashamed of from a football point of view but I bet that it is a major blow for the dutch nationalistic pride. And Greece isn't the same caliber as Holland. Also, what Joacqin wrote is very true. Our biggest advantage is the "guerilla warfare" style of football and not the creating style.