Terrier

Hard to beat the umps. >

Brazil: Yes. That's all they do there. Futbol & Carnivale. But I think you hugely understimate the worldwide popularity of sports like Rugby and Cricket along with the rising popularity of basketball and baseball. Check out any NBA roster or any MLB line up. Are those guys not some of "the best athletes" from those countries? Imagine how good the German soccer team would be with Dirk up front heading in crosses. Or how good could Argentina be with Ginobli in the midfield. Who's we first of all? Those were not tears of complacency from Clint Dempsey. Are we a bunch of losers because we didn't beat Brazil? NO. I think most USMNT fans are happy with the result of the tournament but not the final game. Check out the US News & Analysis forum on BigSoccer. The mods on there are even threatening to ban people who hi-jack threads with "Fire Bradley Now" posts. : The Miracle on Ice... Villanova over Georgetown... Buster Douglas... Shall I go on? There is a reason why games are not played on paper. I think a major factor in the loss was fatigue. Brazil used every field player on their 23 man roster over the course of the previous four games. On the other hand, in addition to playing almost 90 minutes with 10 men, the US only used 16. Brazil is notorious for sending their B-Team to tournaments...and winning. The Brazillian bench is better than the US. (I can't believe I just typed that. ) And don't forget that Ronaldino didn't even go. Our legs were spent and it showed. I think you have only reinforced my points. I have a hard time believing that if we had guys with NFL speed (4.2-4.4 40 yard dash),strength and size that we wouldn't do better. I wasn't saying the team is a bunch of losers. The point is the prevailing attitude is not expecting to win. But happy with playing well. And I guess with the last point you are saying the only way we can beat the top teams is with a miracle. If our guys were tired than that's a coaching problem or the coach knows he doesn't have enough talent to use his whole bench.

Another thing that I think holding us back is the attitude about winning. We seem to be happy with these "moral victories". Like yesterday. I heard the commentators say we should feel good about winning the first half against a team like Brazil. We had a 2-0 lead and completely collapsed in the second half. Do you think the Brazilians would be saying that if it were reversed? I bet they would be calling for somebody's head.

No, I did not play soccer. But I don't think you have to have played to see that Brazil's team was more athletic than ours. You will probably always disagree with me on that. But the one thing that is indisputable is that our best athletes do not play soccer. We can argue whether or not that makes a difference. I believe it does. The more athletically gifted you are gives you a better chance at playing at an elite level no matter your sport of choice. How many of those guys you listed American born?

The advantage in skill that Brazil had was apparent. But their advantage in speed was too. There were multiple times during the game where a Brazilian player ran by one of our defenders that was trying to stay with them one on one and couldn't. Almost every time the ball was in the air one of the players from Brazil out jumped one of our guys for the ball. That is an advantage in athleticism. But that's the problem with soccer fans they can't objectively look at it and admit that we are at a disadvantage athletically. The best athletes from these other countries play soccer. That is not the case in the USA. Our best athletes play American football and basketball. You are also seeing a slow erosion of our advantage in baseball too because our best athletes are not playing that sport either.

It is about the quality of the athletes on the field. Almost every ball that was contested on the field yesterday was won by Brazil. The whole second half of that match was played on the US side of the field. When Brazil decided to take over that game they did. And it was because they had bigger, faster, stronger guys. Imagine if our players had NFL size and speed along with soccer skills that they learned growing up with the game. We would not be overmatched physically like we are now against the elite teams like Brazil. The win over Spain was great. But if we played them 10 times in a row how many would we win?

No offense taken. I didn't mean third rate or that they are not good athletes. The point is they are not the best athletes in the USA. I am not a soccer fan. But I watched that match today and it was obvious to me that the Brazilians were stronger and faster than our guys. If our strongest and fastest athletes grew up playing soccer like the rest of the world we would dominate the sport.

That was a huge collapse. Brazil controlled the ball the whole second half and we were helpless to do anything about it. We have our third tier athletes competing against the best from the other countries. All our best athletes play in the NFL or NBA. If guys like Lebron, Adrian Peterson, Troy Polamalu, Larry Fitzgerald played soccer we would kick their butts. Until that happens we will never be truly competitive with the rest of the World.

Which is the same every year in every selection process. No matter who is selected or who does the selecting, there will be people that will feel that some wrong people got in. That is the nature of the beast. That is why I always say, congratulations to those that made it and good try for those that didn't. The effort is what counts. I agree with most of what you said. But there is one position that everybody can see that is blatantly wrong. And that just makes a farce of the whole thing in my opinion.

Ditto. It happens every year. But this year there are some really questionable oversights.

It is going to be a tough series. Magnolia has a very left handed heavy line up. That should be an advantage for Nederland when Bellow is on the mound. Magnolia has several good left handed pitchers. I don't think they even have a righty that pitches much. Magnolia likes to steal when they get on. They will steal 2nd and 3rd. Lots of speed at the top of their line up.

Their CF singled to center with one out. He stole second on a splitter that was low and inside on the left handed batter that was at the plate. He advanced to third when the batter grounded out to first. There was two outs when the next guy just punched a single to right and game over. Good luck to Nederland. It should be a good series.

It always ends up a little bit of a popularity contest. Some get it because of name recognition or based on previous years performance. That's just the way it is.

You are right this flu so far has not been as deadly as the regular flu. But public health officials are between a rock and a hard place. If they do nothing and it turns deadly then people are mad that they didn't close down schools and athletic events. Now people are mad because they are acting prematurely. I would rather see them err on the side of caution. I am sure these decisions are not made lightly. They are trying to do what is in the publics best interest.

Matt Woods from PNG should get some recognition. He has mainly filled a closers role for PNG. He has faced 92 batters and has a 0.28 ERA with 30 K's. Jacob Lynch is having the best season of all the PNG outfielders. Austin Sangster is the best defensive catcher in the district. I have seen just about all the PNG games and nothing gets past him. I can't recall seeing one past ball. Just my 2 cents ;D