Maybe Americans shouldn't be watching soccer.

I am equally puzzled and amused by this topic, tbh.

What is wrong about people cheering wildly even if the situation on the field in purely objective terms doesn't call for it? I mean, it's great they are enjoying the atmosphere and create a positive vibe of their own.

In my country(The Netherlands) the match Belgium - USA has been called the most exciting match in these... what do you call them? semi-quarter finals or something? We just call them eights finals.

Part of the reason the Belgium team got so many shots on the goal was the very offensive playing style of the USA. They were playing to win. As a result, you get a match with a lot of rushing, a lot of turnovers, a lot of scoring attempts. In short, a game that is exciting to watch, even for people who understand little of what is actually going on.

So let them cheer. Let them take a good feeling of a team USA home, and if it helps your youngsters to become more enthusiastic about soccer and play it more and more in highschool and college, big things may happen in the future.

As an opposite (and something that bothers me a lot) example, there is a very substantial and vocal part of dutch soccer aficionados who are clearly displeased with our team. They say they left the 'dutch school' behind, and are playing all the poorer for it. One person went so far as to claim on public radio he would rather see the Netherlands leave the world championship with three lost games where they played beautiful soccer, as opposed to playing like they are now and winning the world cup (which of course, is far from a certainty anyway). So where you are effectively criticizing the american spectators for cheering and chanting at inopportune moments due to lack of understanding of the game, I am criticizing the dutch critical and lackluster attitude of aficionados, where the team is being criticized and judged, despite winning. Perhaps we could each round up our respective group of miscreants, and ship them over to our respective countries? Would that in effect solve both of our problems? ;P

Good post!

Like a lot of Brits, I immediately changed my allegiance over to Holland, once our lot were dumped out.

I think RVP and Robben are pretty much unstoppable when they both get good service from the rest. I hope they go all the way.

Me too. Holland deserve to win the cup after making the final umpteen times.

Whenever I've been to Holland I've always been treated very well.

This is just silly. The US was clearly outplayed. Belgium got lots of shots on goal, 27 in fact. The US did not get very many shots on goal (that would be 9). If your argument had any merit than more than one side would have had a significant offensive attack. The US was anemic at best (with the obvious exception of Tim Howard).

There are two issues here.

The first is the fact that the US was outplayed by a clearly better team. This really isn't a question to anyone with even a basic understanding of football.

The second issue is whether American fans screaming "USA! USA!" in a nationalistic fervor is appropriate in spite of what is actually happening on the field.

Americans can go crazy and scream with blind patriotism in any occasion. I just found it a little annoying for this blind fanaticism that was completely at odds with the reality of the game they were supposedly cheering.

The US-team was outplayed nearly the whole game ... until they scored in extra time. (But if it wasn't for Howard, Belgium would have won by at least 3 goals.)

It's not silly. I am not saying the USA played their game well, I am saying that they went into the game with a plan and gave it their all. In my opinion, no matter how critical and analytical the result may be examined afterwards, the USA went into the game - where they had been clearly labelled the underdog - with a plan, and they did their best to execute it.

I for one (I know a bit about soccer, but I am by no means, and never will claim to be, an expert) think that it was one of the only ways they would have been able to beat Belgium. Belgium has an excellent team, but their qualifying duels were not exactly the stuff of legend. They hardly seemed to be able to stand up to the pressure on being in the world championship. So if the team makes a fragile impression, it's not a bad idea to apply offensive pressure for the get go, and try to make your opponent succumb.

That plan didn't work out as it should, I guess. If anything, Belgium managed to find their pace despite of the pressure, and grew in the match. But in the end, they still had to go into overtime to finally win.

I think the USA deserves lots of credit for even making it through their pool, with Germany and Portugal and Ghana a very tough one. I was pleasantly surprised. And I was not disappointed by the way the USA played in the match against Belgium. In fact, I enjoyed it immensely.

And I find no fault with supporters of any country, be they at home or be they in the stadium, chanting for their team.

@Lordy, Izzy - Thanks! I wish my country all the best, and I think we can go very far. I'll be sure to be cheering tons come Saturday and our match agaist Costa Rica!

Agreed.

Btw, I think most English people will be cheering for Holland, I've yet to meet a rude Dutchman. Holland is one of my favourite holiday destinations.

I will be rooting for Costa Rica. I generally root for the American team over the European one,

As will I. I'm incontinent in this regard.

Fair enough, and if Costa Rica go on to win, England will be the only team they've not beaten.

This reminds me - I have twenty four hours left before putting in order my choices for the five best quarter final strikers, because points gather depending on the order of preference. This is for the a2k fantasy world cup thread.

As many here know from reading any of the other current soccer/football threads, I'm an american who has been learning the sport slowly, slow mostly because I haven't had a tv for years and have an old computer that won't let me access you tube videos - but with knowledge increasing anyway because I read a lot.

Max is welcome to his distaste for those americans who have been soccer ignorant at some point but are still interested enough to go to a bar that is showing the matches, but I think his distaste is silly, which is why I haven't answered the thread before this.

I'd include Lionel Messi and Arjen Robben in that 5.

Yeh, me too. Actually, I'm wandering between seven names at this point. Have to develop my hunches not only on which teams will win in the quarterfinals, but how.
'Course, all the fantasy players have to do that. It's a good thread...

Congratulations, you were just exposed to sarcasm.

Finn, I hate to disappoint , but I do not go to bars to watch anything. I'm happy for you, you probably watch with friends and I'm big on friendship. But since riots have broken out on campus, when Maryland or the Tarheels lose in March Madnes, I'll watch at home. Since neither of us are big beer drinkers, don't watch a game any other way but sober. Philly fans are pretty intense at hockey games here, you don't want to sit near them. So, since Maryland is fairly easy to get to from surrounding sports teams from out of state, it can get ugly.

Even at Raven (boo) games and the O's, they serve beer in plastic bottles. So if the drunks watching the games and throw their bottles, it doesn't cause serious injury. I don't hate beer, but when I drink it, it has to come from a proper dark amber hued glass bottles.

Yeah, of course that's it. It was sarcasm!

That is a brilliant observation. It is ingenious really.

The game I'm really looking forward to is Brazil v Colombia. I think Colombia are a real dark horse.

Rodriguez may be first on my eventual list of five..

Forgot to mention, the fantasy game is still open - and winable by newcomers.
http://able2know.org/topic/246449-1

(choices must be posted before the first match starts tomorrow)

I've been a fan of Dutch soccer since Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens and Totaalvoetbal.



In 1972 I worked as Receiving Clerk for a company that distributed travel brochures for national tourist boards, airlines and the like, two clients were the Netherlands Tourist Board and KLM. Back then one of them published something like a magazine, and it often featured Ajax and Johan Cruyff. For some reason the articles piqued my interest.

It was impossible finding soccer matches on US television back then, but I could follow Dutch football to a limited extent in this tourist news "magazine" and articles in Sports Illustrated and Sport Magazine (I think it's now out of business). I left that company before the 1974 World Cup but the final was televised by CBS ,with British announcers, and I watched it. By then I had come to know something of Franz Beckenbauer; the West German team was my second favorite, and I appreciated the hype of Cruyff vs Beckenbauer. I remember really enjoying the game and Cruyff's play, but also the disappointment of the Dutch losing. Beckenbauer said Cruyff was the better player, but he had won the Cup.

I didn't watch Hollands match in 1974 against Sweden, but have seen a multitude of clips of the famous Cruyff Turn. Obviously its a move a lot of players now employ so fans looking back on it may not be all that impressed, but I'm sure the same can be said of clip of the first basketball dunk. or the first bicycle kick (which still impresses the hell out of me today)



(Beckenbauer later, in his relative dotage, joined the NY Cosmos playing at least one year (and as many as two or three) with Pele, Carlos Alberto, and Giorgio Chinaglia and American goalie Shep Messing and making the Cosmos, the most successful team in the doomed NASL. I followed them from 1974 until the early 80s. Thanks to the the NASL I got to watch Cruyff play for the LA Aztecs and Washington Diplomats. The Cosmos had a big bank account and there was talk about signing Cruyff, but, for whatever reason, it didn't materialize. I was heartbroken.)

During this time I watched the 1978 World Cup FInals, disappointed that Cruyff didn't play and that the Netherlands lost, but after the demise of the Cosmos, I lost interest in soccer, and didn't watch another World Cup until 2006 (when many of the matches were available on TV) In 2010, of course, when the US team's performance drew a lot of attention in America, Holland lost to Spain.

From the early 90's on I 've had opportunities to visit the Netherlands on business, and I love the place and the people, so along with watching Dutch speed skating in successive winter Olympics, the bond has strengthened over the years.

Now that the US is out, I'm back to rooting for my old favorite. I'm really not familiar with any of the current players, but I'll have an opportunity to get to know them in the upcoming match against Costa Rica. I hoping for a Holland/Germany final. Can't say I appreciate all of the nuance of the game, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

Veel succes!

PS: Also love the Dutch fans: