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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 26, 2014 20:00:36 GMT -5
And this is somehow different than an 8-8 NFL team making the playoffs? Seriously, when it comes to "everyone gets a ribbon" U.S. professional sports has no room to crow.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2014 20:06:06 GMT -5
Many Americans, who only learned about soccer this week, are confused that the US team lost, yet still went on to the next round. If you get stuck with an American of this type, DO NOT ENGAGE! They think their anti-soccer commentary is very clever. (And if all they are interested in is being amusing to people who like Duck Dynasty and Rush Limbaugh, then they have succeeded ... for what that's worth.) It can get very tedious very quickly and you might lose your hope for humanity. But that type of American seems to be shrinking a bit, and a lot of Americans are excited about US chances in the World Cup. USA! USA! Sorry Hoosier,but lets call it for what it is-The U.S. didn't win one single game in this weird tourney and yet they still advance.Zip,nada,zilch.but they're getting rewarded as much as an undefeated team.The mind boggles.I'm getting a headache and need a half hour time out Then where did they get that crucial 4 points from? You deserve a red card and a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs for libellous claims  They beat Ghana 2-1 first game, drew the next game, then lost the last game, which did not hurt their statistics in the first round of matches which reduces 32 teams to 16. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 26, 2014 20:13:25 GMT -5
They beat Ghana, and Ghana beat US in the last two World Cups.
They played #4-ranked Portual to a draw.
They kept #2-ranked Germany to a single goal.
And I don't know why Americans act like this is so weird. Does the World Series champ get to the final game without losing a game? Uh, no, they don't. The playoffs are all series, and the World Series is best of seven. So you can lose three games in the series and still be the World Series champ.
So I don't know why the soccer-haters are acting like this is so confusing.
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Post by Jasoomian on Jun 26, 2014 20:21:42 GMT -5
The College World Series playoff format -- heartbreaking loss for The University last night -- is similar to the world-soccer playoff format.
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Post by Action Ace on Jun 26, 2014 20:41:25 GMT -5
Hoosier-X if you ever wanted to transform into The Hulk... Press HereI take no responsibility whatsoever for the damage Hoosier X causes.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2014 20:42:59 GMT -5
And I don't know why Americans act like this is so weird. Weird and somewhat stupid, but as you said, I'm not engaging.... |
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Post by Action Ace on Jun 26, 2014 20:44:23 GMT -5
The NHL has never been topped for this. At one point 16 out of the 21 teams made the playoffs.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2014 21:56:22 GMT -5
The USA will now face the winner of Group H, either Algeria or Belgium in its second round showdown.
Many of the ignoramuses who are dissing soccer probably don't even know where Algeria is.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 26, 2014 22:05:57 GMT -5
Hoosier-X if you ever wanted to transform into The Hulk... Press HereI take no responsibility whatsoever for the damage Hoosier X causes. The link's not working but I thought I saw "Ann Coulter" before it crashed. I saw that already. It's probably not the stupidest thing she said that day. |
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Post by berkley on Jun 26, 2014 23:21:25 GMT -5
Mid-'70s, actually, succeeding the Oakland A's, who won the World Series in '72, '73 & '74 & in turn succeeded the Baltimore Orioles (who were also in three straight series, though they lost in '69 & '71) as the preeminent team. Which was then followed by The NY Yankees who went to 4 World Series between 1976 to 1981 and winning 2 of them in 1977 and 1978. I think I do remember the Oakland A's as a dominant team now you mention it, though no specific players come to mind right now. I definitely don't remember the Orioles' run. But even with hockey, I don't remember much before 1970. I didn't start to get interested in sports until a couple years later than I did comics or other things. The Reggie Jackson Yankees era doesn't seem all that long ago to me, and it feels weird to be informed that it came right after the Cincinnati run, which feels like a different time - a sign of how time flows so much more slowly the younger you are, I suppose. As a relative outsider to the sport, I'd probably say that Reggie Jackson seems like the most famous baseball player from the time I first remember seeing it on tv as a kid up to now. Or maybe Hank Aaron, I remember how huge a thing it was in the media when he broke Babe Ruth's record. |
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Post by berkley on Jun 26, 2014 23:58:26 GMT -5
The NHL has never been topped for this. At one point 16 out of the 21 teams made the playoffs. This is true. Even now, the regular season doesn't mean all that much in the NHL. No one ever remembers who finished first overall in any given year, just who won the Cup that year. I'd like to see them take a page from something like English Premiership football/soccer, where it's a really big thing to finish top of the table and the tournaments like the Champions' League are a separate thing, equally important in its own way, but not detracting from winning the premiership. The NHL regular season is so long, there be more credit to coming out on top of that long slog. |
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Jun 27, 2014 1:16:14 GMT -5
I think the real issue for new soccer fans in America watching the World Cup is simply that we don't really have any round robin type playoff systems in any of our major sports. It's the format that is confusing some people, not the results.
If the U.S. had played these exact same games, with the same exact result, but they had been in reverse order, everyone in America would understand it perfectly, as it would end with the U.S. winning a match to go through.
The simplest way for American viewers not familiar with this system to understand it, I think, is to think of the group stage like it's the regular season. In baseball terms, Germany won the division and the U.S. won the wild card. That's it. Nothing really confusing about it at all.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 27, 2014 5:25:24 GMT -5
Congrats to the USA soccer team for advancing to Round 2 of The World Cup...this is the knockout stage. I was amazed by how good the US team is. Their game against Portugal was a thing of beauty! |
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Post by DubipR on Jun 27, 2014 7:56:49 GMT -5
A great pitching duel last night at Dodger Stadium where Josh Beckett squared off against Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals. Both teams were scoreless until the 8th where Justin Turner drives in the only run for the Dodgers to win 1-0. What's even nicer is that the Giants lost, making the Dodgers only 2 games behind the idiotic Giants.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2014 8:24:15 GMT -5
I'm actually a rather mild Giants fan, thanks purely to the fact that a 2nd cousin, or 1st cousin twice removed, or something like that (his grandmother was my great-grandfather's sister ... I think), Travis Jackson, played shorstop* for the NY Giants from '22-'36. Nice guy -- he lived in an even smaller town than mine about 15 miles away, & I met him a few times as a kid. A signed sepia-toned 1925 5x7 he gave me hanging in my hallway.
He eventually made the Hall of Fame, though he's often cited as a sterling example of players who don't really deserve enshrinement. *sigh*
*one of 3 positions, as it happens, that I never played in little league; the other 2 were pitcher & catcher
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