Group D: United States, Australia, Paraguay, Türkiye

[Super_horns]

48 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

Get that ref from El Salvador on every game left on the tournament, absolute box office sending Almiron off

 

NUMBER TEN, HE COVER HIS MOUTH — DECISION RED CARD

As per the rules so good on him .

 

Probably won’t get applied here .

[Deeg67]

36 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

 

This again, unfortunately. 

No one - least of all here - should feel comfortable if we're judging an entire country's population based on the behavior of its most obnoxious asswipes.

[21st Century Fox]

58 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

Get that ref from El Salvador on every game left on the tournament, absolute box office sending Almiron off

 

NUMBER TEN, HE COVER HIS MOUTH — DECISION RED CARD

This has been my World Cup highlight so far. I want that guy permanently mic’ed up giving a stream of consciousness throughout the match.

[Ian Nacho]

Pound for pound Turkey must be the one of the worst countries in the world. Massive country in terms of size and population. Football mad. The last Euros was the only time in my memory where they haven't stunk up the tournament. 

[Deeg67]

2 minutes ago, Ian Nacho said:

Pound for pound Turkey must be the one of the worst countries in the world. Massive country in terms of size and population. Football mad. The last Euros was the only time in my memory where they haven't stunk up the tournament. 

What's truly amazing is they had 72% and 78% possession and eclipsed 30 shots both games, and still couldn't score.

[Ian Nacho]

1 minute ago, Deeg67 said:

What's truly amazing is they had 72% and 78% possession and eclipsed 30 shots both games, and still couldn't score.

International Middlesbrough. 

[Footballwipe]

That game. The jeopardy + 2 emotional teams + emotional ref.

 

Absolute box office. 

[Beliall]

20 minutes ago, Deeg67 said:

What's truly amazing is they had 72% and 78% possession and eclipsed 30 shots both games, and still couldn't score.

and they say football manager isnt realisitc

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, Deeg67 said:

No one - least of all here - should feel comfortable if we're judging an entire country's population based on the behavior of its most obnoxious asswipes.

I unreservedly agree, but the problem is that in this case, the obnoxious asswipes are in charge and making it the direct or indirect problem of almost every other human being on the surface of this Earth.  

 

Believe me, I've spent time in the US, and some of the people I've met there have been the most genuinely lovely and brilliant people I've had the pleasure of meeting, but rightly or wrongly, in the current climate, blowback and generalisations are going to be made across all areas of international interaction, including sport. 

 

All of this being said, this US team is going to take a big name (possibly Spain in a QF?) to put them in jeopardy, I think. Poch has them playing well.

Edited 20 hours ago by leicsmac

[Kitchandro]

Why are they calling them TurkiyUh, again?

[Deeg67]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

I unreservedly agree, but the problem is that in this case, the obnoxious asswipes are in charge and making it the direct or indirect problem of almost every other human being on the surface of this Earth.  

 

Believe me, I've spent time in the US, and some of the people I've met there have been the most genuinely lovely and brilliant people I've had the pleasure of meeting, but rightly or wrongly, in the current climate, blowback and generalisations are going to be made across all areas of international interaction, including sport. 

 

All of this being said, this US team is going to take a big name (possibly Spain in a QF?) to put them in jeopardy, I think. Poch has them playing well.

Do we really want to go there? Liz Truss and BoJo send their regards, never mind that we're talking about a country where Nigel Farage is starting to struggle because he's not racist enough for his core voters. People getting elected by minorities of voters - never mind the population at-large - are not representative of a country as a whole. Sorry, the "I hate Yanks" posts peppering this thread say a lot more about the home country of the people making them than they do the people being targeted.

 

But yes, the rest is football. I've been following the USMNT for decades and believe me, they've never had a squad of this quality playing this way. I've been saying for years (including here) that this was as close to a golden generation as the U.S. has ever had. MLS is now independently ranked in the top 10 leagues in the world, and climbing. Americans under 30 rank soccer behind only basketball, ahead of MLB and the NFL. All the jibes and smarmy put-downs here are well past their expiration date. America is a footballing nation now, and it's only going to escalate.

 

As for this tournament, the first two matches could hardly have gone better. Paraguay is better than they've looked here, and Australia is no pushover. But the test comes when the Americans have to face a squad that's got the ability to take the match to them (which may not come until the quarters, certainly not before the 16's). Poch is a clear step above any coach the USMNT ever had tactically, and he's always been a strong man-manager. Whenever we got to a big tournament we would always park the bus and try and pip a goal on the counter. Poch has a squad full of first-team players in top divisions and he has them playing like a team that expects to create chances and control the game. Anything less than the final 8 would be a disappointment at this point, anything more would still be an upset.

Edited 18 hours ago by Deeg67

[Jordan]

Turkey has one of the weirdest World Cup histories of any country. One group stage knockout (in 1954, which used one of the oddest formats in WC history), one third place finish, and another group stage elimination.

 

Imagine being Turkish in 2002 and someone tells you after what you just watched your national team do, that this team won’t be back in the World Cup for 24 years and when they do return, they get eliminated in the group stage with one game to spare by Australia and Paraguay in a tournament where 8/12 third place teams move on to the next round. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Jordan

[purpleronnie]

As far as the yanks and the atmosphere.  I have a little skin in the game when it comes to that.

 

The americans are always loud, you could have a tiddlywinks world cup and they turn up and be noisy.

 

Even in 94 when they never had a Pro league they did just that.  Of course now that soccer is much more popular and the leagues successful its going help.

 

The difference with the rest of the world is americans like to make noise and chant but not sing...it does happen in the MLS but tends to be club specific that hasn't travelled (yet) to the national side.

 

You also have the club versus country aspect, you'll see high numbers of hispanic/latino's at MLS games who might not necessarily support the national side over their families lineage.

 

And yes there will be plenty of Americans that believe they will win the WC, but my guess is these won't be necessarily 'soccer fans' more just supporting their national side as they would for all sports.  There's also a difference between americans and most nations, their confidence.  Some would say arrogance but not in my experiance its a mixture of positivity, confidence and enthusiasm, and a distant lack of what's ripe in the UK...cynicism.

[leicsmac]

8 minutes ago, Deeg67 said:

Do we really want to go there? Liz Truss and BoJo send their regards, never mind that we're talking about a country where Nigel Farage is starting to struggle because he's not racist enough for his core voters. People getting elected by minorities of voters - never mind the population at-large - are not representative of a country as a whole. Sorry, the "I hate Yanks" posts peppering this thread say a lot more about the home country of the people making them than they do the people being targeted.

 

But yes, the rest is football. I've been following the USMNT for decades and believe me, they've never had a squad of this quality playing this way. I've been saying for years (including here) that this was as close to a golden generation as the U.S. has ever had. MLS is now independently ranked in the top 10 leagues in the world, and climbing. Americans under 30 rank soccer behind only basketball, ahead of MLB and the NFL. All the jibes and smarmy put-downs here are well past their expiration date. America is a footballing nation now, and it's only going to escalate.

 

As for this tournament, the first two matches could hardly have gone better. Paraguay is better than they've looked here, and Australia is no pushover. But the test comes when the Americans have to face a squad that's got the ability to take the match to them (which may not come until the quarters, certainly not before the 16's). Poch is a clear step above any coach the USMNT ever had tactically, and he's always been a strong man-manager. Whenever we got to a big tournament we would always park the bus and try and pip a goal on the counter. Poch has a squad full of first-team players in top divisions and he has them playing like a team that expects to create chances and control the game. Anything less than the final 8 would be a disappointment at this point, anything more would still be an upset.

Again, I agree about the calibre (or lack thereof) of those people mentioned, but thankfully they haven't been able to make their attitude the problem of nearly so many people as the leading US lights right now. Degrees of power matter, sadly. It is unfair about the generalisations being made, I agree there too, but I also understand exactly why they are being made.

 

The US team in general certainly look good and as you say, they appear to be taking football seriously and with the resources they have it is clearly beginning to bear fruit. I think a QF against a truly top team will be as far as it goes, though.

[Super_horns]

I presume the results last night mean the USA are guaranteed to top the group now ?

 

Because they have beaten both Paraguay and Australia.

Edited 17 hours ago by Super_horns

[Jordan]

27 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

I presume the results last night mean the USA are guaranteed to top the group now ?

 

Because they have beaten both Paraguay and Australia.

Guaranteed, indeed. ✅🇺🇸 

[StanSP]

2 hours ago, Kitchandro said:

Why are they calling them TurkiyUh, again?

That's their official name since 2022.

 

 

[Deeg67]

1 hour ago, Super_horns said:

I presume the results last night mean the USA are guaranteed to top the group now ?

 

Because they have beaten both Paraguay and Australia.

Yup, very likely Bosnia or Qatar in the knockout round. And let's be honest, on paper those are weaker teams than the two they've already beaten.

[Kitchandro]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

That's their official name since 2022.

 

 

Deutschland? Italia? The correct pronunciation of Mexico?

 

They did this with Czechia a couple of years ago but we’ve reverted back to Czech Republic now.

[StanSP]

3 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

Deutschland? Italia? The correct pronunciation of Mexico?

 

They did this with Czechia a couple of years ago but we’ve reverted back to Czech Republic now.

Czechia informally, Czech Republic formally. 

 

Italy and Germany are their anglicised names.

 

 

[DJW1]

Almirón covers his mouth and says something (in Spanish, probably, so a Turk almost certainly wouldn't understand) and gets sent off.

What would happen if one player told another to **** off in, say, Czech, without covering his mouth? Nothing?

[Dan]

Same old Turkey.

[OntarioFox]

7 hours ago, Deeg67 said:

What's truly amazing is they had 72% and 78% possession and eclipsed 30 shots both games, and still couldn't score.

Anyone have Russell Martin's number to pass them so they can tap him up before our season starts? 

[OntarioFox]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

Czechia informally, Czech Republic formally. 

 

Italy and Germany are their anglicised names.

 

 

Czechia was implemented by the government 2016 and jumped on by a bunch of western companies without question (primarily Google), but a large chunk of the Czech population still calls it Česká Republika, or just Česko, which was the short-form name they chose after the split with Slovakia in the 90s. I only know one Czech guy personally, but when he's speaking English and can't be arsed to say the full title, he just calls his country Czech, lol.

Old article but relevant to the time it was introduced. Czechia is a completely artificial name cooked up by politicians which nobody in the country actually uses as, well, it isn't actually a Czech word. It's the answer to a question nobody asked. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/25/nobody-calls-it-czechia-czech-republic-new-fails-catch-on

Edited 13 hours ago by OntarioFox

[Kitchandro]

1 hour ago, OntarioFox said:

Czechia was implemented by the government 2016 and jumped on by a bunch of western companies without question (primarily Google), but a large chunk of the Czech population still calls it Česká Republika, or just Česko, which was the short-form name they chose after the split with Slovakia in the 90s. I only know one Czech guy personally, but when he's speaking English and can't be arsed to say the full title, he just calls his country Czech, lol.

Old article but relevant to the time it was introduced. Czechia is a completely artificial name cooked up by politicians which nobody in the country actually uses as, well, it isn't actually a Czech word. It's the answer to a question nobody asked. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/25/nobody-calls-it-czechia-czech-republic-new-fails-catch-on

Interesting.

 

From what I’m reading, it’s the Turkish government who have asked for it to be called ‘Türkiye’ as well, as a branding exercise.
 

So make of that what you will, but as far as I’m concerned we have anglicised names for most countries and Turkey is just one of them.