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#81
05-20-2006, 01:07 AM
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Re: USA 5th in latest FIFA rankings
I think the final four gets outsider teams often enough. Turkey, Korea, Croatia and Bulgaria have all made the final four of recent tournaments. I think Germany were not in the top 6 teams of the most recent World Cup. Bah, you guys aren't getting my point. I'm not arguing the US is going to win, I'm not even arguing that they're favorites to advance. I'm just saying to give them a fair shake, because if you look at roster construction alone you're missing a huge part of the big picture. 
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#84
05-20-2006, 01:37 AM
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Re: USA 5th in latest FIFA rankings
[ QUOTE ]
And, again, it ain't just about talent. If it were, Brazil would never have lost the World Cup. [/ QUOTE ] This isn't true at all. Brazil are often the most talented in terms of attacking midfielders and forwards but are traditionally very weak in defense. That is still their biggest weak point now. In past world cups they have not always had the most talented teams. In France for example, you could argue that the French were more talented given that they were much stronger in defence than the Brazilians and the edge the attacking players had for Brazil were smaller. Again, the point I'm making is that the US is still not among the top teams. Sure, any given day the team can pull out a win (and any given tournament the US can go deep) but Spain, a team not considered among the top group, is still better at every position, and in many cases much better. It's not just about a talent gap, it's about a gap so large that there is likely no US player that could make the Spanish national team (again unless they played for Real Madrid because the RFEF is [censored] up). The US simply does not come close to belonging in the top 5 or even top 10 in the world. If you thought about it like the NCAA basketball tournament, it's like we're claiming that a team should be a 4 or 5 seed while you think they should be a 2. Sure in the NCAA tournament some low seeded teams go deep and sometimes a 3 or 4 seed wins it all. Similarly the US could go deep in this tournament (not likely given the unfortunate draw) and is a huge longshot at winning the whole thing, though stranger things have happened.
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#85
05-20-2006, 01:59 AM
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Re: USA 5th in latest FIFA rankings
FWIW, I never advocated the US being #5.
It's pretty short sighted to say that Onyewu, Donovan or Beasley would not make the Spanish team. Call me crazy, but I think Cherundolo is a world class right back. But yes, four players. And call me a homer, but I'd still take US over Spain in a quarterfinal match, but that's more because Spain always chokes.
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#86
05-20-2006, 02:20 AM
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Re: USA 5th in latest FIFA rankings
[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I never advocated the US being #5. It's pretty short sighted to say that Onyewu, Donovan or Beasley would not make the Spanish team. Call me crazy, but I think Cherundolo is a world class right back. But yes, four players. And call me a homer, but I'd still take US over Spain in a quarterfinal match, but that's more because Spain always chokes. [/ QUOTE ] a) I'd put my roll on Spain b) None of those players would make the spanish team, in fact as we were discussing earlier Spain left better players out of their team.
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#88
05-20-2006, 03:05 PM
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Re: USA 5th in latest FIFA rankings
[ QUOTE ]
It's such a joke to have Raul in the spanish team this year. Specially since one of my favourite players worldwide (Fernando Torres) isn't on the starting 11. [/ QUOTE ] Couldn't agree more ...
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#89
05-21-2006, 06:24 PM
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Re: USA 5th in latest FIFA rankings
[ QUOTE ]
Croatia and Bulgaria had well known players at the time. Korea just get there because of refereeing decisions. Turkey > USA [/ QUOTE ] well, bulgaria had really only one well known player, but, Stoichkov may be one of the greatest ever, so he alone can count for like 3 known players
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