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Official Soccer Thread

Group A:

Russia
Uruguay
Egypt
Saudi-Arabia


Group B:

Portugal
Spain
Iran
Morocco


Group C:

France
Peru
Denmark
Australia


Group D:

Argentina
Croatia
Iceland
Nigeria


Group E:

Brazil
Switzerland
Costa Rica
Serbia


Group F:

Germany
Mexico
Sweden
South-Korea


Group G:

Belgium
England
Tunesia
Panama


Group H:

Poland
Colombia
Senegal
Japan
 
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Groups C, F, & G have my full attention. It really feels like any teams in those groups will get through to the 16.

All the other groups feel like the top 2 seeds are kinda predetermined, baring some astounding upset.

Predictions:

Group A: Russia, Uruguay
Group B: Portugal, Spain
Group C: Absolute toss-up, but I’ll say France, Peru
Group D: Argentina, Iceland
Group E: Brazil, Costa Rica (who got a lucky draw)
Group F: Germany should easily get the top seed. I’ll go on a limb and say Sweden.
Group G: Another toss-up. England, Panama?
Group H: Columbia, Japan
 
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It's reassuring to know the US is out along with Scotland. We should hold our own tournament.


No pressure. Now we can watch the matches and enjoy the tournament.........and my editorial comment on Russia's easy draw....I expected that. FIFA is not exactly known for being an honest upright organization. FIFA and corruption go together like peanut butter & jelly.
 
Just edited the names to be in English, copied and pasted from a Belgian news side.

Tough group for Iceland.

My predictions:

A: Uruguay - Russia
B: Spain - Portugal
C: France - Peru
D: Argentina - Nigeria
E: Brazil - Costa Rica
F: Germany - South Korea
G: Belgium - England
H: Colombia - Japan
 
No pressure. Now we can watch the matches and enjoy the tournament.........and my editorial comment on Russia's easy draw....I expected that. FIFA is not exactly known for being an honest upright organization. FIFA and corruption go together like peanut butter & jelly.

The Scottish way. That and supporting anyone but England. No offence, Mark.


Just edited the names to be in English, copied and pasted from a Belgian news side.

Tough group for Iceland.

My predictions:

A: Uruguay - Russia
B: Spain - Portugal
C: France - Peru
D: Argentina - Nigeria
E: Brazil - Costa Rica
F: Germany - South Korea
G: Belgium - England
H: Colombia - Japan

I'd switch Portugal and Spain around but that would be my guess as well.
 
The Scottish way. That and supporting anyone but England. No offence, Mark.

I'd switch Portugal and Spain around but that would be my guess as well.

Portugal and Spain give me the greatest uncertainty, so I could see it your way as well. Spain is more attack minded than it use to be though, which is why I think they stand the better chance.

Lol on England; I love the Premier League and am a big fan of Manchester City, yet in general I never like England on the national team level.



I remember, maybe ten years ago or so (Bradley was still coach), the US played in the Conmebol Cup but brought a B-team, the excuse being that the Gold Cup was their cup. That really says enough. Not that Concacaf is to be underestimated, but face it, Conmebol is more prestigious and gives much better experience points.

Regular league soccer in the US leaves much to be desired as well, only seen it a few times, but face it, when you are use to watching Premier League etc., quality of US leagues leaves much to be desired. The lack of a proper structure with promotion and relegation is bad as well, they need to stop running soccer like they run other sports.
 
Regular league soccer in the US leaves much to be desired as well, only seen it a few times, but face it, when you are use to watching Premier League etc., quality of US leagues leaves much to be desired. The lack of a proper structure with promotion and relegation is bad as well, they need to stop running soccer like they run other sports.
Oh, I do not disagree with this by any stretch of the imagination. USSF still seems to be operating with the mindset that their purpose to get Americans interested in soccer as a sport (and then monetize it) versus developing players to the highest level possible.

Legitimately, the only reason I care about American soccer is because Orlando got a team. I grew up going to the original Orlando Lions games (back in the early nineties). There's a lot of nostalgia in play for me, and the 2014 World Cup (with Orlando City) got my wife really into soccer.

But for over a decade, I didn't care about soccer at all. And the only time I ever actually cheered for the USMNT was in '94 because I was 10 years old and thought they was the best thing ever. Then I started paying attention and realized the only soccer the US knew how to play was a long ball over the top and running real fast. Technically, we're trash, and strategically we're basically non-existent.

The women are great though, and Jill Ellis is a fantastic coach. I'd be thrilled for her to take over the USMNT.
 
Spain's been playing fantastically under Lopetegui, I'd definitely put them first in the group. Portugal haven't really looked convincing in a while, but of course they won the Euros playing God-awful. Regardless I'd agree with both going through. I don't see Morocco or Iran being able to do enough to get out of the group.

I'm biased though :lol:
 
Portugal and Spain give me the greatest uncertainty, so I could see it your way as well. Spain is more attack minded than it use to be though, which is why I think they stand the better chance.

Lol on England; I love the Premier League and am a big fan of Manchester City, yet in general I never like England on the national team level.




I remember, maybe ten years ago or so (Bradley was still coach), the US played in the Conmebol Cup but brought a B-team, the excuse being that the Gold Cup was their cup. That really says enough. Not that Concacaf is to be underestimated, but face it, Conmebol is more prestigious and gives much better experience points.

Regular league soccer in the US leaves much to be desired as well, only seen it a few times, but face it, when you are use to watching Premier League etc., quality of US leagues leaves much to be desired. The lack of a proper structure with promotion and relegation is bad as well, they need to stop running soccer like they run other sports.

The weird thing is, I like England as a country, I like the people, I like the team for the most part, it's the media I can't take. I'd actually support England winning the world cup if I didn't have to listen to it for the next 50 years.
 
From someone who has been closely involved with the USSF on a local & state level for over thirty five years, the organization is comprised of a large number of people from the local and national levels that are only concerned with lining their pockets. It all starts with the youth Club level that charges families large amounts of money to participate and routinely pays many Club coaches six figure salaries. And on the adult level, they often diverted our team fees to pay for National team administrator's inflated salaries & expense accounts.... Instead of recruiting and training youth players according to their abilities, players are advanced on the ability of their families to pay their way through the system. Therefore, the players reaching National team status are often not elite athletes, thus their losses over the years to poor small nations. I founded, coached, and played for an Adult Club organization that had fielded five adult teams at one point in time. I never made a cent, played for the spirit and love of the game. Most of my fellow Adult Club founders and coaches were of the same ilk. But the national,state, & local youth organization, which should be the feeder system for a National team, and the National USSF administrators, operate on the "let's make a good buck for ourselves" system. Until that is fixed, US soccer will never achieve the status they should.
 
From someone who has been closely involved with the USSF on a local & state level for over thirty five years, the organization is comprised of a large number of people from the local and national levels that are only concerned with lining their pockets. It all starts with the youth Club level that charges families large amounts of money to participate and routinely pays many Club coaches six figure salaries. And on the adult level, they often diverted our team fees to pay for National team administrator's inflated salaries & expense accounts.... Instead of recruiting and training youth players according to their abilities, players are advanced on the ability of their families to pay their way through the system. Therefore, the players reaching National team status are often not elite athletes, thus their losses over the years to poor small nations. I founded, coached, and played for an Adult Club organization that had five fielded adult teams at one point in time. I never made a cent, played for the spirit and love of the game. Most of my fellow Adult Club founders and coaches were of the same ilk. But the national,state, & local youth organization, which should be the feeder system for a National team, and the National USSF administrators, operate on the "let's make a good buck for ourselves" system. Until that is fixed, US soccer will never achieve the status they should.

This seriously can’t be stated enough. It’s shocking how much it costs to play football in the US. I’m in awe every time I speak to an American about it. When I was younger, I paid £3 a week and that was just to cover the pitch rental for training and games and a strip every season. When I moved to amateur, I think it was a £40 registration fee and that was it. Everybody involved was doing it for the love of the game.

You need to sow the seeds and let the players develop and reap the benefits later.
 
#GulatiOut

I feel like this thread is going to take off.

I like to think I was a pretty talented soccer player growing up. I made a few national select teams and played a few international tourneys in Europe (even won the Pondus Cup in Denmark one year). But basically got priced out when I hit my teens.

There are so many cost issues with how the US manages their federation (Class A coaching licenses, pay-to-play, single entity leagues). It's borderline barbaric. Hopefully the Federation elects a new president who is able to enact some change on this stuff.
 
This seriously can’t be stated enough. It’s shocking how much it costs to play football in the US. I’m in awe every time I speak to an American about it. When I was younger, I paid £3 a week and that was just to cover the pitch rental for training and games and a strip every season. When I moved to amateur, I think it was a £40 registration fee and that was it. Everybody involved was doing it for the love of the game.

You need to sow the seeds and let the players develop and reap the benefits later.
Yes, and that's the way we do it on the adult level. In the past fees were usually around $50 a person. They've now doubled to apx. $100 since officials and field fees have gone up a lot. Contrast that to the thousands of dollars Youth teams charge players on a yearly basis. And the closer they get to college eligibility, then the fees really explode. It's all a con. The elite Clubs sell the "you'll get a soccer scholarship" to college. In reality, there's not many of those to go around and generally they pay very little. I always tell the better players families' that they'd be way better off putting those elite Club fees in a college bank account and let their kid play pick up soccer for fun. Besides, if you look at most college's soccer team rosters, you'll find that the bulk of players are foreign players brought in on special student visa programs. The college sell is a fraud. It's all so sad.
 
When I played, many moons ago now lol, from under 12 on I’d actually get paid to play. Paid my registration fee for the league but would get money for each game I played in.
On another note I can honestly say I support two teams, Wales and whoever is playing England
 
The Scottish way. That and supporting anyone but England. No offence, Mark.




I'd switch Portugal and Spain around but that would be my guess as well.

None taken, after all the English will always have the last laugh when it come to football and Scotland ;):lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:.

Good group for England, shouldn't be any problems getting through to the knockout stages, then again they shouldn't have lost to Iceland in the Euros.
 
So... BPL is basically foregone at this point (Congrats, Man City) and the World Cup isn't for six months.

MLS off-season insanity for the win!

What I'm finding insane is that Celtic should be dominating the SPL way more than Man City is and I can't tell if this shows how good Man City have been this season or how bad Celtic have been.
 
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