Honestly I had no specific match in mind; just a general feeling, cultivated and strengthend during many, many WC/EC matches.

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"Homo Homini Lupus"
Thomas Hobbes

I can concur with some of that.

Looking at the way that they went out to Spain in 08, they defended well the whole match, it went to Penalties and they lost. They even messed up th spot kicks by not giving one to Del Piero to take...and they didn't give Aqualani freedom in the middle to move the ball round between him and Pirlo. It was too cramped.

Spain had lost penalty shoot outs on that day (June 22th i think) 4 times in 3 decades previously, and yet they still won.

Donadoni was wrong in his tactics and the tournament was his to win that day.

But that being said, a lot of the times the reason for folks thinking Italy plays so defensively is because their defense is so good. Look at some of the defeners from the last few years, Nesta, Maldini, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, and on and on. Even their keepers, like Toldo, Peruzzi, Buffon etc. They are all at some point or another, the best in the world at what they do, and that is why sometimes the Italians get a bottom heavy focus on their team.

Also the domestic Italian game can be very painful to watch, to the point it can make your eyes bleed, and that adds to the stereotype.

Its very stop start, a lot of theatrics, diving, foggy/flare-ridden stadiums, poor quality of players, and sometimes they go through weeks without goals in certain teams. It is very bad at times. But that's not always what Italian football is about.

I know i would rather have the 4 WC's and all the other trophies with their style of play than what we have in the US, which is nothing...

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The George W Bush Store:

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The fact that the Italian soccer team always jumb over the fence where it is lowest is bad enough in itself, but the worst thing about them is that they have the potential to actually play absolute world class and higly watchable soccer, but they choose not to.

Im just sick and tired of watching these two teams ending up with the WC trofee 2 outta 3 times...

I admire Germany for their discipline of never giving up no matter how much they are behind, and I admire the special skilled Samba soccer of the Brazilllian team, but for the same reason I get pretty pissed when the brazillians are filming to get free kicks or a penalty. They are just too good for that childish stuff, just like the Italian team.

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January the 20th 2009. The day I started to respect America!

I would just like to say fuck those lazy Nazi assholes on the danish soccer team!

So the danish team have played all their qualification matches without loosing a single one, except for the one today, where the idiots just lost to fucking Hungary at home. Its bad enough that they threw the opportunity of having played all qualification matches without loosing down the toilet, but they have clearly showed us all today, that they just dont have the self-discipline it takes to go all the way in a tournament. Like always - they win a few important matches, and automatically think they can walk on water. Then they get hit by the famous sledgehammer of fake confidence...

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January the 20th 2009. The day I started to respect America!

Well if the Danes had self-discipline, they would be Germans. and wouldn't be our inferior Nordish neighbours with a language sounding like trying to talk with a giant, hot potato in their mouths.

Anyway Walleroo, aren't you a bit too harsh on "your" team; what is one fucked up match?

I haven't realised before, which other nations you Danes left behind, so a bit of pride and happiness is surely well earned.

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"Homo Homini Lupus"
Thomas Hobbes

Boy that aint no shit. On behalf of denmark I envy germans self-discipline of actually not throwing garbage everywhere on city streets whenever their national team wins an important match. Danes throw garbage everywhere already when they go out, but you wont believe the pigsti my city looked like after the danish team beat sweden 1-0 saturday. Do you know of any other people in the world behaving like such pigs whenever they go out?
Not when you consider that the danish team have not lost a WC qualification match at home since 1982, and especially since this match could have been the last nail in the coughin of being undefeated. Its just not good enough for me!

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January the 20th 2009. The day I started to respect America!

This is a setback for the US team for the upcoming World Cup, but thankfully he will survive:



(bolding added)

U.S. striker Davies injured in car accident - U.S. Soccer - ESPN Soccernet

Sadly, a female passenger did die in the accident, the wreck of which is this:



When I see cars looking like that after an accident, it frequently amazes me how any people ever get out of accidents like that alive. RIP to the female passenger and I hope he recovers to play again, or alternatively to a good enough condition as predicted where he can have an unimpaired life.

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Now Onyewu is hurt too! I don't know if they'd said for certain, but I've read either ACL or torn patella tendon...not looking good for our boys Hopefully they surprise me. At least the youngsters will get some experience. I think it'll come in handy for 2014! Instead of "there's always next year" I've gotten in the habit of "there's always four years from now" lol

Yeah, I was at the match and saw that. But he'll be back. Davies on the other hand, no. The team seemed very off their game for the first half given the tragic news they got about Davies that day, but they finally pulled it together late in the match with 2 goals to draw the match. That last goal in the last few seconds was solid and put a nice ending cap on the US winning the entire CONCACAF division.

YouTube - USA vs Costa Rica - Jonathan Bornstein's Header - World Cup Qualifying

Eventually, it's going to win a cup, and in every tournament, including this one, each team can win on any given day so I wouldn't count them out for its fair chance at the trophy like any other team. The US was a bad call away (referee missing the German defender blocking a tying goal with his hand) from possibly making the semifinals in 2002 for example. It won the CONCACAF, outdoing regular powerhouse and finals qualifier Mexico.

It's been quite an impressive rise by the US, though, from a backwater to a power. It's now qualified for its sixth straight finals (1990 through 2010), a feat few teams have done.

It's been 28 years since Honduras qualified for the finals for example, and I was very happy for them last night. By beating El Salvador and the US pulling off the last second equaliser against Costa Rica, they also qualified for the finals (Costa Rica must now win a playoff with Uruguay to qualify). Given the many domestic problems they have been having, it must be a real upper for them, as seen in this clip:

YouTube - Honduras Qualifies To The 2010 World Cup

and as you can see, it was obviously a great night to be an American there too as they showed their appreciation for the helping hand (at 1:43).

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All very good points...I'll check out the videos in a bit. I hear what you're saying about the U.S.'s improvement. I did find it frustrating the way we were stymied against some of the lower competition in CONCACAF, but there have been certain moments of brilliance as well. I never would have thought us capable of taking a 2-0 lead against Brazil, ever, and the fact that there were some young contributors on that CC team makes the future look even better. In my opinion there is no reason with our resources that any CONCACAF game besides Mexico should be a challenge.

If population and resources were the only standard, there wouldn't be such a barrier to being a top if not the top seed in the CONCACAF or even a regular global powerhouse. But the sport was unplayed in the US until very recently, the ultimate handicap in any sports competition. The first generation of noticable players grew up in the 70s and 80s with parents who had no experience and their parents basically had to let their children learn how in children's leagues without the benefit of domestic and international trainers and sophisticated organisations, established domestic pro leagues, etc. It's been rising quickly ever since, and going above expectations insofar as international competition.

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What's wrong with the Netherlands? We play good looking football and even though we're always in the race we've never actually managed to win the damned cup.