He surely did but you still shake the guy’s hand. Now it’s an issue. The ref sucked and didn’t shake the captain’s hand, people are talking about it. Self-destructiveness abounds.
Copa America 2024 thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
I think the issue with this generation of guys is that a lot of them got off to really strong starts early in their careers, but have sort of leveled out and/or not developed at the rate that you'd hope. 3-4 years ago, we were a super young team that had guys playing at many of the top clubs in the world. Now, you've got guys like Reyna fighting for minutes and trying to figure out the next move in his career, Tyler Adams not being able to play enough and trying to figure out his club situation, every one of our GKs either sitting the bench at a good club, or playing at a lower-tier club, and someone like Konrad who 4 years ago was seeing some time for Barcelona, and now gets his minutes in the 2nd tier of Spain (not to mention some of our attackers like Sarge who landed in the Championship, Pepi who had to go back to Holland to find minutes, Aaronson in the Championship, etc).
We're basically a top 15ish team in the world on paper, and we're playing like a top 15ish team. Some of our prior teams were able to get more out of it than the sum of our parts, but this group is getting about what should be expected from the player pool we have at our disposal.
Really need guys to work out their club situations in the next 24 months and be playing and developing heading into 2026. There is enough talent there to make some noise (especially at home), but also need to recognize that to do so, we need to stay healthy, get some breaks, and have guys continuing to develop.
Last edited:
This.
I have been to Brazil on a number of occasions with family. We will drive through the city, on some random Tuesday at 11:30 p.m. and the local park (if you want to call it that, it's really a semi-paved lot that had some fencing put up with lights) is packed with kids. Some have shoes, some don't. Some come from money, some don't. No coach, no league, no one separated by age or talent; just the local kids going at it for hours, day after day.
Now, no one in the USA will let little Timmy, day after day and on school nights, play until midnight with the local kids at the park. They just won't, and for good reason. But if you want to know why a bunch of privately coached guys can't hang and this country can't produce talent that makes us the envy of the world, that's why; it isn't in our cultural makeup, at least for this men's sport.
My brother and I had the good fortune to spend a couple of years as kids ( 10 to 12 ) living in Buenos Aires. We watched it, we lived it, we experienced it. When I return to Argentina or any south or Central American country for travel, I still see it to this day. The lucky ones get identified, signed and developed if they can handle all that entails as well ( moving from family at an early age, it’s not day camp )
The Adam Sandler movie “ Hustle” while about basketball is a pretty solid depiction of how it really is out there in the world.
Maybe not. Hmm…
Why U.S. Soccer needs to move Berhalter on after Copa América failure
The stagnation of one of the best crops of USMNT talent was there for all to see as Gregg Berhalter's team meekly bowed out of the Copa América on Monday.
www.espn.com
Pulisic 'can't accept' referee as U.S. exits Copa
United States captain Christian Pulisic was clear in stating that he did not believe the officiating was to blame for his team's group-stage exit at Copa América.
www.espn.com
I've watched a number of the Euro matches and I'm dumbfounded by VAR calling offsides when the feet are even but an arm or shoulder happens to be ahead of the last defender. I'm not a soccer maven at all so my vision of offsides is skewed because of hockey but ok, if that's the rule, fine. And then I see this play last night and it looks pretty damn obvious and yet after 5 minutes, they uphold the call.
that one is pretty easy to explain.
it's illegal for a player to use their arm to play the ball. The definition of what is the arm has evolved in soccer. The current interpretation of the arm is you draw a line from the armpit up (thus including the shoulder), and then to the bottom of the fingers.
Since it's illegal to play the ball with the arm (including the shoulder), those part of the body can be past the 2nd to last defender, and the offensive player is still considered onside.
Years ago, if any part of the body (including the arm) was past the 2nd to last defender, then the offensive player was considered offside. About 10 years ago (+ or - a few years), the Rules of the Game were changed so that only the parts of the offensive player that could play the ball were included for evaluations of offside.
The ruling by VAR in last night's USA match is a tough one. Unlike at the EUROs, or the Premier league, there are not cameras set at the 18 in Copa America to be used for offside. So the lines shown in the VAR post above (or on TV) are extrapolated lines. I still feel that the Uruguayan player's knee is offside, even with the extrapolated lines, but it's close.
Last edited:
I know nothing about soccer and have no desire to learn because, next to golf, I consider it the most boring sport on earth. Simply put, I just don't care, even though Elisabeth Shue loves the sport and was a talented player in high school. Hmmm. Maybe I should call her.
Anyway, I realize millions of Americans, and lots of posters here, do care. The problem is, most elite athletes in this country don't care, and so they play football, basketball, and baseball. Until that changes, if it ever does, the USA will be an also-ran in the world of soccer. Now, where did I put Elisabeth's number???
Last edited:
It's like Burma/MyanmarFor f*ck’s sake, can’t we just say “Turkey”?
Agree with this. “BTW, Refereeing at this level or any level in soccer is almost always atrocious, everyone knows this. Score first and force the game.”
and they did against Panama and sh@t bed. Should be able to play D, but GGG is no inept.
We lived in Germany and Switzerland, they kids played on the pavement at lunch, destroyed many balls. I did not know I was responsible for supplying balls for my son’s class. LOL
Europe is invested in technology especially in Germany, not so much in Spain which had controversial VAR calls. It gets worse as you move east in Europe. CONCACAF invested $0 in VAR, so they can play shenanigans with teams. And agree call was clear.
Well, I can now go back to not paying attention to soccer for 2 more years
I believe it.
If you reverse things, come down to south florida and see the tons of Europeans as well as south and central Americans living here and having kids. It's the same result, none of these kids turn into anything special when you hand them a soccer ball.
I get that there’s no need to pee on a thread on a topic you’re not interested in, but I do feel the parallel between USMNT and PSU football at times: you can get excited at your own risk.
I enjoy soccer soccer very much; ever since the U.S. hosted the World Cup in the '90's, I've been hooked. However, watching the Copa and Euros this summer, it's almost become unwatchable with the poor officiating and the nonsense flopping. I mean, you'd think some of these guys have had their legs separated from their bodies the way they flail around on the ground; only to get up a few minutes later and run around as if it were nothing.
There are some components to this (the "flopping"):
1. Unless you've played soccer for years, it's hard to comprehend how much it can hurt to get struck in the leg -- most of the the time when you're not expecting it and/or getting fouled. Additionally, these guys wear the smallest, thinnest shin guards you can imagine (not at all like what is worn in youth soccer) -- they do so to increase their touch/control of the ball -- so they're far less protected than one might imagine. It hurts like he$$ when you're struck in the back of the leg, in the ankle, stepped on by a cleated opponent, etc. And while most players go down when hit as such, and feel a lot of pain at the instant of being struck, within a minute or so they usually are fine
2. A lot of the "flops" are, if you look carefully at the play, the result of being struck in a way (even if slightly) that causes the player with the ball to stumble and fall -- again, mostly unexpectedly. Experienced refs get pretty good (as long as they are not unexpectedly shielded) at not watching the ball, but watching if or where the contact is, and making calls accordingly. Only on slo-mo replay do most fans see this contact
3. The players have learned/been instructed to emphasize when getting fouled, as it makes it more likely they'll get a call in their favor, and possibly their opponent will receive a card. The extent to which this works depends on the quality of the ref. Fans of the player enhancing things feel for sure a call should be made in their team's favor, and fans of the opposing team feel for sure that a call should not be made against their team. It doesn't make things easy for the ref.
4. Lastly, there are players that simply dive to the ground as if they were fouled, even when that didn't take place. The fans typically react as mentioned in the above #3. The ref, with training, should be able to recognize this, and not award a foul. The simplest action of the ref is to wave them to get up/verbally call out "nothing," and "get up." The Laws of the Game state that a yellow card can be given for embellishment, and there have been incidents where refs have given such cards in the Euros. (Possibly at Copa America as well, but I can't remember one off the top of my head.) This situation does cause problems for soccer, as casual fans are turned off by it. Unfortunately, players embellishing a non-foul against them can look very much like those in the above #1 and #2, so unless you're trained to evaluate all of these different situations, it can end up looking as though all of these situations are flopping, and unwarranted.
Last edited:
USA soccer player ratings vs. Uruguay: Matt Turner doesn't do enough on goal; USMNT attack does little
Which USMNT players played the best in the 1-0 loss?
www.cbssports.com
this is a more detailed explanation of the technology (or lack thereof) that was used in the VAR review of the Uruguay goal that was ruled as not offside.
www.espn.co.uk
VAR Review: Why Uruguay's goal vs. United States wasn't ruled out for offside
The United States is out of the Copa América after Mathías Olivera's winner for Uruguay was allowed to stand by the VAR. Why wasn't he given offside?
www.espn.co.uk
Pretty sure most of talent in base
Brazil have no midfielders, no #10, they rely on Vinny and forwards to create, they lose this round, Columbia crushed Panama again, Columbia v URU will be great game. Toss up. ARG is beating ECU, but not bc of Messi, they have so many good young players, VEN beats Canada, ARG V Columbia final, Columbia wins close one.
And her brother Andrew actually was good enough to play for the LA Galaxy back in the day....