DISQUS

make papers easy

" If he wants big money then the EPL is his only option. "

No, he can go to Spain or Italy

" He’s American, and we all know American players have the tendency to-if the get they ball at midfield-run and dribble all the way down to the 18-yard box only to trip and stumble over the ball and lose it to the nearest defender."

True. But he's more technically skilled than the other guys we've had. The truth most Americans are awful with their first touch and have absolutely no tactical sense. I think having both of those things is why Donovan is head and shoulders above our other field players.

" He’s not that good."

I hope you are wrong because if he's not that good but yet is twice the player of any other active American, we aren't even sniffing World Cup qualification this time.

" He’s 5?8? (listed) and 140lbs soaking wet. He will get manhandled by center halfs in England."

He's more technical than most of the players in England, so while size may be a slight issue, he's not like Freddy Adu, Clint Dempsey or DaMarcus Beasley who can just be shoved off the ball and then are so scared to keep the ball at their feet they totally disappear. Landon is a mature 26, not an immature 19 like Freddy or an over his head 25 like Dempsey or Beasley.

Thank you for telling Crew Man what I was trying to be nice about. Hadn't everyone figured out that the Crew was putting no effort out in order to West Ham some practice. How many people attended the game anyway.

I do need to talk with you about American history and WW2, save it to say that America's role in WW2 is larger then you give it credit for, although even being Captain America, I must admit that the USSR broke the German backs in the war. England stood alone and the world owes them still to this day for doing so. The Pacific war was an American war and no other nation did and could of fought two major wars at one time. The major achievement of the war was America fighting in both oceans at one time and supporting the effort of England and Russia with vast materials.

Lets talk about the War for Independence later, but enough to say that the Crown had to hire Germans and still couldn't keep us down! Ok, and the French did help.

FSC has Miami FC vs PR Islanders tonight: USL action. I'm thinking of heading down to the field myself, but maybe I'll just watch it, since it is so rare Miami FC is on TV.

MLS tonight on HDNet, and nothing on FSC. Pathetic.

I kiss Football, your opinion is valid but I disagree strongly.

Paul's match previews have actually been thorough and some of the best stuff on the web for the Euros. Some of you jump on him for his picks, but try making picks openly and honestly for every Euro match as he does and we'll compare scores, aye?

Dave the fact that you cite that 2007 Gold Cup match that I was at shows how little you follow CONCACAF.

In that tournament T&T fielded an entire side of "B" players not one of which was on the squad for the two legs of WC qualifiers. Why? A dispute with Jack Warner about pay disputes after WC 2006.

The US did not beat Guatemala fairly handily. 1-0. Was at that game also and the Guatemalans effectively employed a bracket of players around Donovan to stifle his service.

In all likelyhood the US will qualify. But if FIFA's officials had drawn the US ball instead of Mexico's in Group B, the US would in all likelyhood be done after this round. Crazy? A much better US team that ended up getting to the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2002 needed to beat Barbados in its last match to get out of the first group stage and then finished in third seven points behind leader Costa Rica in the last group stage. CONCACAF isn't the pushover you Eurosnobs think it is.

I think Romania gets the job done today and advances.

I have to fault ESPN for not showing scores of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers that don't involve the US but affect the US.

I watched Mexico yesterday and they got too gift calls late in the second half to get their two goals one off a FK one off a PK.

Second choice Sven as I call him has his work cut out for him. I'm not sure about all my comments about how much better the US is Mexico. Belize is ranked 172nd, 51 spots BELOW Barbados and they almost ended up in a nill nill draw with them. The US will still struggle to qualify but Mexico is going to flat out miss the World Cup unless Sven works wonders.

Typical of Sky Sports.

They have the UK US Open rights, correct?

They would have spent the whole show on Lee Westwood had he made that birdie putt on 18 to get into the playoff.

Frei's injury really changed the tournament no doubt. I just think the Swiss would have been strong if they had had him.

Ranking the top 10 footballing nations in terms of national team talent right now:

1- Argentina
2- England
3- France
4- Spain
5- Germany
6- Holland
7- Brazil
8- Italy
9- Mexico
10- Portugal

Subjective rankings based on technical skill and talent. Obviously controversial, but my point is that three of what I consider the top nine sides are OUTSIDE Europe and do play in Copa America. Thus neither competition has the overall top level talent that the World Cup has, but the Copa matches I prefer as they are artistic and wide open. Five of the top six sides are in Europe.

The World Cup does have minnows like some of the lesser African qualifiers, the US, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia and Japan who more often than not disgrace the competition and give the seeded teams more glory than they may deserve. So on that level the Euros are more competitive.

Copa in 2007 was the best tournament recently I can recall. Copa in 2001 was pretty darn good as well as Amado Guevara dominated the event.

Mexico made the quarters in the 1986 World Cup and is far far far superior to the US in talent and skill level. Simply losing to a team as Mexico does to the US doesn't mean in any way shape or form the US is better.

Consider this:

Since 2003 Mexico has beaten Brazil three times. The US has been outscored by Brazil 7-3 in meetings during the same period.

Mexico has advanced out of the group stage at EVERY single Copa America they have been invited to. 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2007. The US only advanced out once, in 1995 and as we know turned down the invitation to the event repeatedly.

Mexico has advanced out of the World Cup group stage seven times since 1950. The US just twice.

Mexico can actually put its top players on top clubs in Europe.

Even other CONCACAF nations such as Honduras (David Suazo), Costa Rica and Trinidad have had recent success putting their field players on top European clubs, but the US has not.

We may continue to beat them in cash grab friendlies on American soil but in the real footballing universe, Mexico is a galaxy away and ahead of the US.

I disagree with Lou though as he and I have already discussed. "Second Choice Sven" as I call him could well ruin that. He knows nothing of Mexico's culture of football, its tactics, its domestic league. Hiring a foreign manager at this stage is risky. He's an accomplished club manager who more or less failed with England and runs the risk of failing with Mexico.

The argument can be made. First off 16 of the 19 strongest teams in the world it can be argued are at the Euros: only Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are missing. In addition, weak sisters incapable of advancing very far like Saudi Arabia, the US and Japan don't get a virtual "bye" due to their zonal qualifying are not included.

However, I happen to believe the Copa America in many ways produces better football and better atmospheres than the World Cup. Sadly the club game is ruining all of these events whether you are partial to the World Cup, Euros or Copa. Guys come down run down or in the case of Kaka and Seedorf skip the events entirely leaving second choice players as go to guys, and now second choice managers such as Sven leading teams since some first choice coaches like Aguirre (who turned down Mexico) and Scolari have ditched int'l football for the club game.

In the US the club game will never have the appeal of the international game so the changes in worldwide viewing and priorities threatens the ability of the game to continue its steady growth here in the states. That and the strong possibility that the US will not qualify for the next World Cup. We caught a break though with "Second Choice Sven" going to Mexico instead of Aguirre.

It's easy to be a front runner.

Personally Barack Obama rooting for West Ham is to me much more impressive than someone choosing Chelsea, Man U, or Barcelona.

Agreed. Great piece Gaffer. Engelar has thus far been the revelation of this tournament and is apparently headed to Schalke in July! I'm thrilled to see the Bundesliga sign this incredibly gifted late bloomer.

NOTE TO THE USSF: THIS IS WHY YOU CAN ALLOW GUYS WHO BLOOM LATE AND DON'T PARTICIPATE IN THE U-17, U-20 AND U-23 SETUPS TO PLAY FOR THE FULL NATIONAL SIDE WHEN THEY REACH 28 OR 29. AMERICA IS THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO THE BEAUTIFUL GAME. (ALTHOUGH TONY SANNEH IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF AN ENGELAR TYPE LATE BLOOMER FROM THE US, BUT WE'VE GOTTEN AWAY FROM THAT. EDDIE ROBINSON SHOULD BE IN THE US TEAM!)

True but at the time he was a 28 year old winger that was at the peak of his powers at Arsenal.

" Isn’t Domenech’s philosophy mainly base on Astrology?"

Yup, sick isn't it. Pires too was a victim of this, and hasn't been capped I believe since early in Dommenech's tenure.

Very true Tampa Soccer. The Germans have for years been overly dismissive of teams from the Balkans and E. Europe. They got theirs today to say the least!

The same can be said for Americans and Mexicans who don't respect the Central Americans. Trust me being in touch with the CONCACAF scene. The day for Honduras, Guatemala, Panama etc. is coming and in the case of Mexico they've already been humbled a few times by the nations I named. The US is getting ours next.

I don't buy atrocious. Yes Hudsonland has a point, but the rest of you, looking poor in victory doesn't define atrocious. Try being in my position as a US fan, supporting a truly atrocious national team by any definition (a team who had a similar 0-0 against FYR Macedonia not long ago BTW).

I don't think a team that makes the 1/4 finals of 3 straight major competitions can be defined as atrocious simply because you don't like the style they play.

What exactly does atrocious mean Tampa Soccer? Reaching the 1/4 finals of the last three major competitions. So has Argentina been atrocious since they didn't get out of group play in the 2002 WC. Spain, atrocious when they got eliminated in the round of 16? Brazil atrocious when they lost 3-0 to Mexico in Copa America? Mexico atrocious when they lose to the USA time and time again.

England may have under performed but calling them atrocious is a major major stretch.

England had a rough time in qualifying no doubt. But so did Spain, Turkey, Russia, Portugal, etc. England's draw against FYR Macedonia (concession to our Greek friends) is far from the only poor result a power nation had in the Euros.

So why obsess over England's poor results and not focus on Spain's or Portugal's? Perhaps because everyone in the US pays more attention to England's results which just proves my point.

The football being better is my opinion. I saw England in person at Wembley and then saw the same US team perform significantly better against Spain and Argentina who are allegedly or at least according to the sham rankings FIFA keep two of the top teams in the world. So based on my most recent experience comparing the opposition to the national team I know best, England plays some good football while Spain and Argentina are stale and somewhat disorganized.

RE Infrastructure in the US:

Yes it is crumbling. Even in my recent travels to India I found the main roads despite the pollution and filth to be actually smoother than many roads in the US. Bridges are near collapse in the US. Take the Pulaski Skyway in Newark or the Bay Bridge in SF/Oakland which are both undergoing long overdue renovations.

The airports here are similarly poor in big cities. But I would qualify your statement based on a few things:

1- Infrastructure repair and development is not evenly distributed nationally largely because of pork projects and the way Congress works. I've seen this first hand. I'm sure the roads, bridges and airports in West Virginia and Alaska are all aye-okay.

2- Many of our airports are confined by the cities they are in. Unlike European cities which were either rebuilt in large part after WWII or we simply not that big like Zurich, our major cities had their airports right in residential neighborhoods. Boston's Logan, Chicago's Midway, NY Laguardia, Washington National, Houston Hobby and even the massive LAX itself are confined by the cities around them. We didn't have the luxury or perhaps the foresight to build a whole new airport on the periphery of the city as the French did with DeGaulle in Paris or even as the French did with LaDefense outside of Paris which has taken critical business outside the city centre and allowed the historic portions of paris to be unaffected by rapid business growth.

3- The US has to spend on military, although I would agree the current levels are far too much. It's our obligations to keep the world a safer place, and to project the ideals which America has always stood for and works to promote. Now has the current administration misused American soft and hard power? Of course they have but soon a better day will come where the projection of American power and ideals is done in a more responsible manner. By spending on the military we allowed Western Europe to redevelop itself after WWII. In the near future American ideals will once again shine a light on the world, as they did in the not so distant past. A simply change of administrations at 1600 Penn Ave. will help accomplish that!

The ratings would be much higher if England had been in the tournament and quite frankly the football would be better.

While england faced trouble in qualifying thanks to Russia's plastic pitch, from what I have seen England coming into a tournament without the inflated expectations created by a jingositic media could have won this thing, or at least gotten to their first tournament final since 1966.

England is arguably the second most popular national team in the US behind Mexico and ahead of the US itself. If ESPN had thought England may miss the Euros, I hate to tell all of you but they never would have bid on the rights and we'd be stuck with PPV yet again.

It's really a pity because substitute out Croatia and put in England and you'd have had a 3-0 or 4-0 exciting win over the hosts and more interest here in the US.

Without the Three Lions the tournament is destined to have subpar ratings and "I told you so" from the snobbish elite soccer hating crowd that dominates the American media especially in the northeast.

Actually based on watching the national team I know the best the last three matches, England right now is miles ahead of both Spain and Argentina.

England looked dominant and very tactical against an outclassed, inferior side.

Against Spain we had the better of the play in the first half and quite honestly Spain only had two good chances to score all match whereas England had about 10. We had three good chances against Spain and only one against England.

Then Argentina allegedly the best team in the world hit American soil last week and after thrashing Sven's soon to be boys, they really crashed an burned against us. They outplayed us in the first half but in the 2nd half we owned them creating more chances in a ten minute period than we did the entire match at Wembley.

Qualifying began two years ago and England dug themselves a hole. But based on what I have seen in the last few weeks if they were in the Euros they'd be a threat to advance out of the group stage.