We made it out of the Group of Death, a group that few gave our squad a chance to get out of, without starting forward for 90% of the stage and with our best field player playing at a poor level. Well done, boys. Keep on marching on.

USA USA USA!

1979bear;842328277 said:

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You could add that the French chucked in immediately to the Germans, and that their WWI hero Petain turned traitor. That the French were "awarded" a zone in Germany after the war was preposterous. Better that the US and the Brits split up France into "zones."

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As mentioned above, the Brits also chucked it in ate the beginning of WWII. Luckily for them the English Channel stood between England and the advancing German army. Otherwise England would have fallen as quickly as France and Poland et al.
Don't give their national character credit for something attributable to geography.

GivemTheAxe;842328289 said:

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As mentioned above, the Brits also chucked it in ate the beginning of WWII. Luckily for them the English Channel stood between England and the advancing German army. Otherwise England would have fallen as quickly as France and Poland et al.
Don't give their national character credit for something attributable to geography.

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Their air force had a lot to do with it as well. I'd say they used their geography rather than "chucking it in" as you suggest. Memories of the extreme losses from WWI were still very fresh at that time.

KoreAmBear;842328270 said:

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Yup the USMNT has come very far, and that's even without relying on Landon. I'm eating crow with the decision Klinsi made to leave him off the team. Klinsi has been pushing all the right buttons (Brooks, Yedlin, Zusi last match, Gonzalez) and he has really turned the program into something with more upside. Beating Italy on their turf for the first time ever, best 12 month USMNT period, beating Ghana and taking it to Portugal, etc. -- this is all positive.

That all said, it's concerning to me how timid Bradley is still playing. The first touches are quite bad, he seems late to the ball, and while he had more through balls and volleys today, he still was not making enough plays. Anyone feel the same way? We need a sharp Bradley to give ourselves a chance v. Belgium.

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Couldn't agree more. He looked so good in the friendlies leading up to the Cup, but his touch just look off right now. We really need him to regain his form to go any further in this, he still is the key for us progressing any further i believe. Still hoping it will happen, I actually like his play very much, but he sure hasn't been up to par so far in the WC.

KoreAmBear;842328270 said:

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Yup the USMNT has come very far, and that's even without relying on Landon. I'm eating crow with the decision Klinsi made to leave him off the team. Klinsi has been pushing all the right buttons (Brooks, Yedlin, Zusi last match, Gonzalez) and he has really turned the program into something with more upside. Beating Italy on their turf for the first time ever, best 12 month USMNT period, beating Ghana and taking it to Portugal, etc. -- this is all positive.

That all said, it's concerning to me how timid Bradley is still playing. The first touches are quite bad, he seems late to the ball, and while he had more through balls and volleys today, he still was not making enough plays. Anyone feel the same way? We need a sharp Bradley to give ourselves a chance v. Belgium.

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Ditto on all counts for me. Also eating crow on Klinsi's decision to leave Landon off the team. And I think Klinsi's outcoached the competition too--I think our 3 opponents were more athletic/skilled than us. And I think Bradley has looked pretty bad. I thought Howard played extremely well today.

sycasey;842328184 said:

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I know Ann Coulter is a moron and all, but she's not the only one I've seen express similar sentiments.

I have to say that I just don't get it. If you are a true patriot, wouldn't you want your country to do as well as possible in every sport? I don't understand how people obsessed with being "Real 'Muricans" would want the USA to again become bad at soccer.

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Agreed. Coulter, good lord. Well, 7 of my 8 "greats" were born in the US and I'm watching. Kinda reminds me of people in the '60s that refused to believe there was a real change occurring in societal attitudes- guess what folks, this sport is gaining traction in the US and will continue to do so. Yes, partly because of demographics, but also because significant numbers of young people in the US now DO care and do watch soccer now. Get over it and stop using the same old trite criticisms that have prevailed for decades in this country, the times are changin'.

calumnus;842328268 said:

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Yes, sometime after we realized the French and everyone else knew that Sadam had no connection to 911, that he had no WMDs, thousands of Americans would die in a war that would lead to a Shiite-lead government with ties to Iran and no stable country and it would cost trillions of dollars, balloon our dept and wreck our economy in the process.

Since our founding the Americans and the French have always fought on the same side (unlike any other country).

However, good friends are the ones who don't go along with and try to stop you from doing colossally stupid things, even if you make fun of them and call them names for not joining in your folly.

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Not to pick nits, but we did fight the (Vichy) French in WWII briefly when we landed in Operation Torch until they capitulated.

goldenokiebear;842328301 said:

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Agreed. Coulter, good lord. Well, 7 of my 8 "greats" were born in the US and I'm watching. Kinda reminds me of people in the '60s that refused to believe there was a real change occurring in societal attitudes- guess what folks, this sport is gaining traction in the US and will continue to do so. Yes, partly because of demographics, but also because significant numbers of young people in the US now DO care and do watch soccer now. Get over it and stop using the same old trite criticisms that have prevailed for decades in this country, the times are changin'.

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I did find one thing in her piece I agreed with:

Quote:

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Despite being subjected to Chinese-style brainwashing in the public schools to use centimeters and Celsius, ask any American for the temperature, and he'll say something like "70 degrees."

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Fahrenheit is superior to Celsius for describing weather temperatures among "regular people." Why? Perhaps it lacks logic, but in a very practical sense, 0 degrees is about as cold as it gets (and as cold as you want to be) in places where people usually live. Any below-zero temperatures emphasize just how cold it is. 100 degrees is similar: it's about as hot as it gets, and as hot as you want to be. Sure, Fahrenheit could be tweaked (e.g., to make 100 degrees the exact human core body temperature), but the current scale works well enough for casual use.

Kelvin makes sense for science, with 0 indicating absolute zero.

I actually don't think Celsius makes sense for much of anything. Maybe cooking?

But, but, but...my GGF was born here (and several other generations before him) and I'm watching. Coulter is an interesting piece of work. Not many of us can make a handsome living by offending half (or more) of the people in this country and almost all of those elsewhere in the world.

CalAlumnus13;842328309 said:

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I did find one thing in her piece I agreed with:


Fahrenheit is superior to Celsius for describing weather temperatures among "regular people." Why? Perhaps it lacks logic, but in a very practical sense, 0 degrees is about as cold as it gets (and as cold as you want to be) in places where people usually live. Any below-zero temperatures emphasize just how cold it is. 100 degrees is similar: it's about as hot as it gets, and as hot as you want to be. Sure, Fahrenheit could be tweaked (e.g., to make 100 degrees the exact human core body temperature), but the current scale works well enough for casual use.

Kelvin makes sense for science, with 0 indicating absolute zero.

I actually don't think Celsius makes sense for much of anything. Maybe cooking?

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0C when water freezes, 100C when water boils. Room temperature is 20C. Makes a lot of sense in science. Who wants to remember that water freezes at 32F, room temperature is 68F, and water boils at 212F?

Vandalus;842328308 said:

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Not to pick nits, but we did fight the (Vichy) French in WWII briefly when we landed in Operation Torch until they capitulated.

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The Vichy were clearly not the real French. That is why we fought the Germans in France (aided by the French people who saw us as liberators) and in North Africa (Operation Torch) we fought the Germans (Rommel).

CalAlumnus13;842328309 said:

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I did find one thing in her piece I agreed with:


Fahrenheit is superior to Celsius for describing weather temperatures among "regular people." Why? Perhaps it lacks logic, but in a very practical sense, 0 degrees is about as cold as it gets (and as cold as you want to be) in places where people usually live. Any below-zero temperatures emphasize just how cold it is. 100 degrees is similar: it's about as hot as it gets, and as hot as you want to be. Sure, Fahrenheit could be tweaked (e.g., to make 100 degrees the exact human core body temperature), but the current scale works well enough for casual use.

Kelvin makes sense for science, with 0 indicating absolute zero.

I actually don't think Celsius makes sense for much of anything. Maybe cooking?

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Of all the metric units I agree that temperature is the most arbitrary. Like anything else, however, it only seems non-sensical to you because you're not used to it. I dove into it a couple of years ago in order to prep myself for extensive international travel and found that it works for the gradations of temperature we care about. <0 is "freezing", <10 is "cold", 15 is "cool", 20 is "pleasantly cool", 25 is "pleasantly warm", 30 is "warm", 35 is "hot", 40 is "really hot", and 45 is "unbearably hot" (think Phoenix).

However, no one will ever convince me that other metric units are un-American or communist or whatever. Imperial weights, lengths, volumes, etc. are just plain idiotic. Why should I have to remember the relationship between a fluid oz, a pint, and a gallon? Or how many yards in a mile? God help you if you need to convert acres to square miles (or cubic feet to gallons). The metric equivalents are self-descriptive (e.g. deciliter vs. centiliter vs. liter) and the relationships between different parameters are easy to remember (e.g. a cubic meter equals 1000 liters; one cubic centimeter equals a milliliter). Oh how I wish we were on the metric system.

EDIT: Also, only three countries in the entire world are not primarily on the metric system: Liberia, Myanmar (aka Burma), and the USA, although apparently Liberia and Myanmar are on the road to conversion. That's really some stellar company

sycasey;842328274 said:

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I think Bradley has taken more flack than he deserves, but yeah, he hasn't looked great. I wonder if the loss of Altidore is affecting him here? He's playing in a new system (for him) and our whole offensive plan basically had to be scrapped with one hamstring injury.

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I think that's the issue. The loss of Jozy means Dempsey is playing farther up. Bradley's responsibility in the middle of the field has expanded considerably and it seems that he can just barely handle the new load.

Nobody can say that he isn't busting his ass, that's for sure, although I agree that his quality has really suffered.

From the Men in Blazers blog . . .

BerlinerBaer;842328562 said:

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I think that's the issue. The loss of Jozy means Dempsey is playing farther up. Bradley's responsibility in the middle of the field has expanded considerably and it seems that he can just barely handle the new load.

Nobody can say that he isn't busting his ass, that's for sure, although I agree that his quality has really suffered.

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Yes Bradley certainly is working hard, but it looks like his touch and/or confidence has deserted him. Maybe time to scrap the diamond?

Going to work right after the Germany game, I had to already be in business attire (yes, even for Hawaii). Then I realized I neither had a red tie, or a blue tie without gold in it (I wanted to at least show the patriotic colors by tie). Tuesday's game is at 10am local time -- I need to buy either a red/blue tie, or just put a jersey over my dress shirt/aloha shirt. Dilemma.

goldenokiebear;842328298 said:

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Their air force had a lot to do with it as well. I'd say they used their geography rather than "chucking it in" as you suggest. Memories of the extreme losses from WWI were still very fresh at that time.

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But without the English Channel no way could The RAF have stopped Germany.

KoreAmBear;842328762 said:

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Going to work right after the Germany game, I had to already be in business attire (yes, even for Hawaii). Then I realized I neither had a red tie, or a blue tie without gold in it (I wanted to at least show the patriotic colors by tie). Tuesday's game is at 10am local time -- I need to buy either a red/blue tie, or just put a jersey over my dress shirt/aloha shirt. Dilemma.

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What the hell is a dress shirt/aloha shirt? Is there such a thing even in Hawaii?

sycasey;842328184 said:

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I know Ann Coulter is a moron and all, but she's not the only one I've seen express similar sentiments.

I have to say that I just don't get it. If you are a true patriot, wouldn't you want your country to do as well as possible in every sport? I don't understand how people obsessed with being "Real 'Muricans" would want the USA to again become bad at soccer.

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When the Cultural Revolution was going on in China, they pretty much banned all Western literature, Western music, Western art, and of course Western sports. Anyone caught enjoying any Western stuff is deemed a traitor.
This is the same mentality. Soccer isn't a pure American sport.

Ann Coulter is right. My sister in law plays soccer. Soccer is the boring, foreign game. It is played by effeminate scum who bite each other and trip each other. Interest in soccer is a sign of the pussification of the American male. Fortunately it will die soon.

MugsVanSant;842329220 said:

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Ann Coulter is right. My sister in law plays soccer. Soccer is the boring, foreign game. It is played by effeminate scum who bite each other and trip each other. Interest in soccer is a sign of the pussification of the American male. Fortunately it will die soon.

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I got money on you dying first.

MugsVanSant;842329220 said:

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Ann Coulter is right. My sister in law plays soccer. Soccer is the boring, foreign game. It is played by effeminate scum who bite each other and trip each other. Interest in soccer is a sign of the pussification of the American male. Fortunately it will die soon.

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Okay, now I'm SURE you are an intentional spoof.

MugsVanSant;842329220 said:

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Ann Coulter is right. My sister in law plays soccer. Soccer is the boring, foreign game. It is played by effeminate scum who bite each other and trip each other. Interest in soccer is a sign of the pussification of the American male. Fortunately it will die soon.

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That's cute...

Transparent, but cute

MugsVanSant;842329220 said:

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Ann Coulter is right. My sister in law plays soccer. Soccer is the boring, foreign game. It is played by effeminate scum who bite each other and trip each other. Interest in soccer is a sign of the pussification of the American male. Fortunately it will die soon.

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That last sentence is a giveaway that you're being facetious.

Ann Coulter is the Al Sharpton of the right. The more outrageous you can be, the more money you can make. It's a business model.

If you want to know what the ladies really think of the World Cup, check this :
https://www.facebook.com/momastery/posts/10152464309379710

1500 comments, many of them hilarious.

I'm surprised no one's started a World Cup Hotties thread, so here's a start:

http://izismile.com/2010/06/14/the_best_looking_world_cup_fans_ever_82_pics.html

Well my first thought was, wow, a lot of those are rooting for the wrong team. Then I realized I was.