Posted on 03/26/2012 9:04:07 PM PDT by 38special
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Jaime Alas scored in stoppage time and El Salvador ousted the United States from Olympic qualifying Monday night with a 3-3 tie.
The Americans had to win to reach Saturday's semifinals in Kansas City, Kan., and they led 3-2 on Joe Corona's goal in the 68th minute.
But Alas scored his goal off the hands off keeper Sean Johnson to stun the Americans, who missed the Olympics for the second time since 1976.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
Well, there’s always synchronized swimming.
We are only good at the sports we don’t let anyone else play.
I don’t get it; the US soccer fans I know insist we’re about to win the World Cup. They don’t let facts stand in the way of their dreams...
I like watching the World Cup games, but outside of them the sport is just too boring.
They lost to frickin’ Canada, what a disgrace....heads should roll.
Can’t believe that either. I can understand hockey but this is soccer.
Alas.
The New York Post headline writer is gonna be all over that.
If there’s the World Cup, what’s the point of the Olympics? Honestly?????
I have never in my life watched a soccer game. I’ve seen them as I run through the channels on my remote, but I can’t watch soccer for more than 5 minutes.
I find that watching paint dry is more stimulating.
IMHO Soccer is un-American.
Olympic men’s soccer is nothing like the World Cup.
It’s an afterthought, and most of the players have to be under 23 years old to play in the Olympics.
This was supposed to be Freddy Adu’s chance to finally shine....looks like he failed, again.
As a soccer parent (and coach) for many years, I'm pretty sick of soccer.
The game has some good elements, but the defense if far too heavily favored, and the pitch (field) is too large, so the adult game (as opposed to the kids version) always becomes a gigantic game of "keepaway", with the occasional Hail Mary long shot, and some Crazy Ivan attacks, hoping for a random goal.
I have seen some exquisite play, and some phenomenal shots, and some impossible saves, all of which I enjoyed. But the tedium in between the excitement is a time bandit, and the "game-within-the-game" nonsense is a total myth. (It's just a big game of "keep away", and that's that.)
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NHL rules.
Unbelievable. I thought we wuz getting bettah. It must be the racial unrest that upset our players, I dunno.
You need to watch more EPL or La Liga games.....watching Messi and Barcelona is like watching poetry.
(Front teeth are highly over-rated, eh?)
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I'm sure that it is true, and to be fair, soccer players are (or can be) fantastic artist/athletes.
That said, the defense is too heavily favored under the "laws", and much of the "poetry" you (correctly) describe, is de-coupleted 10 yards past the halfway line.
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Good points; I think they would improve the game by removing a couple of players from each team, and by fixing zones for offsides (like the lines in hockey). The problem isn’t just that it is too hard to score a goal; the problem is that it is too hard to even set up a scoring opportunity.
Soccer’s popularity in the US was doomed when we hosted the World Cup in 1994, and a lot of people unfamiliar with the sport watched the final only to be treated to a 0-0 tie after 2 hours. Italy played an 11 man defense, and it was boring as hell.
We oughta just disband the men’s team. It’s a waste of money and we’ll never win anything with it. Let’s concentrate on things we’re actually good at.
Start with 5 minutes of free kicks, then play the rest of this ridiculous...game.
“I find that watching paint dry is more stimulating.
IMHO Soccer is un-American.”
I’m with you. BLEEEEEECCCCCCCH!
Maybe the illegal aliens in your neighborhood........
It’s socialism in the form of a sport.
I’ll watch golf (muted) before I’d ever watch soccer.
The real problem in America is that they took dodge ball out of public schools and gave them soccer instead. That’s the thinking shift that took over with the people in charge of teaching most of the kids here.
I suppose that a sport in which you can have children running around in circles for three hours without ever scoring a point is a good way to teach children the futility of competition.
If nobody scores, then everyone wins!
What would the sport equivalent of capitalism and free enterprise be?
If only that was the reason why they did it.
(Well maybe in the aftermath of it....)
Singles tennis.
So true. Luckily I get to see live national and international play rugby here. I’m going to my international 7s event from 9am-5pm on Sunday. 25 short games with only 7 players per side - should be a blast. Rugby really is amazing as far as true sport goes.
I’m not talking about the rioting fans in the stands, I’m talking about the players. :-)
LOL! Touche!
US Soccer fans are in denial. We are nowhere near as good as most Latin American or European teams. I love World Cup, I always halfheartedly hope the U.S. won’t get destroyed, but I do my main rooting for Argentina.
Wrestling.
Thanks for having a sense of humor. Sometimes it’s absent around here.
Huge crowd at the stadium parallels USA’s love affair with “football”. All 7800 of them
A common assertion, but as a non-american, I think a tad unfair. You are very good at the combats sports - especially boxing, and individual sports generally, like tennis.
How can a sport be un-american? You make it sound like some kind of international marxist conspiracy to undermine the US!
My favorite sport is men’s gymnastics, where things are fairly capitalistic in that your unbelievable effort get you points, and you can go small as in one shop where you sell expensive things, meaning you don’t have too many tricks but each move is perfection, or you can go big like McDonald’s and throw a lot of cheap stuff at the judges and collect points that way.
But even football can be seen as capitalist competition, where your best efforts earn you points, but another can take them from you so you have t fight and be creative and strong.
I was about to mention EPL. There’s soccer, then there’s SOCCER. Now, the Mexican game can put me to sleep.
Actually, we produce some pretty decent goal keepers, too. It’s that whole eye-hand coordination since youth thing.
However, absolutely never, not even once, have I watched a soccer game from the Olympics. Seriously, nobody cares about them. Most countries only send a bunch of amateur squads there. Don’t know why, but that’s the way it is.
Like the metric system, the left has been trying to jam soccer down our throats since the 70’s.. and the more they try, the more we reject it.
I think the only chance for US soccer internationally is make the Americas one group, so we have to qualify against Argentina/Brazil/Uruguay/etc. Either they’ll rise to the occasion, or admit they’re outclassed and focus on baseball.
This nonsense where we slap Haiti around in a group designed to allow the US and Mexico to qualify for each World Cup is silly.
“Bush’s” fault!
(-:
Soccer is for Euroweenies and 3rd worlders...so enjoy.
Baseball was taken away from the Olympics....because the one worlders do not like the idea of American exceptionalism.
as far as a national pastime?
“Shooting is our national pastime. Always has been, always will be”. Cole Younger (Cliff Robertson) “The Great Northfield Minnestoa Raid”
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