btw...
i kept espn on after 'world cup live' to hear a the guys from 'around the horn" keep the level of discourse and understanding of soccer/football amongst the 'diehard' sports fans in the u.s. who watch it as low as possible...
one dude said the u.s. is a quarter-final expected team, and acted mad with the result...he claimed we are a top 8 team...
lol...
what???
not one of them seemed to have the knowledge to chime in and correct the man...
they also said that argentina looked like a weak team...at times.
so did the lakers. god they are such drama queens on talk radio type of programming. i've heard oodles of silly comments on 1050 espn radio too.
it's like hearing mike francessa...who admits to not watching the nba...being seen as some kind of "expert."
generally, i don't care too much, but it seems to affect people's perception of the u.s. team, which is not going to win titles at this point...
i guess we can also thank alexi lalas for acting like the u.s. was that much better than everyone except england in group a.
i'm just saying, folks need to temper their expectations of the team.
the goal for the team from my pov was to get to the round of 16.
mission accomplished.
i suspect the u.s. team has impressed some outside observers a little...at least showing that there are some players with some quality who can perform at the highest level.
the team is getting better, yes, and it was great win today...deserved. rarely do most teams blow away their competition in such events. this isn't a 7 game playoff where the better team is likely to win...
anyway...
if we beat ghana...great...but that doesn't mean we're a top 8 team if you make the quarter finals.
in 2002, the u.s., turkey and senegal made it.
none were considered top 8 teams because they made the quarter finals.
Forum Po Po and #33 for a reason...