Soccer post - Good story on the 1990 WC squad

[msubullie4life]

link

I'm not sure if this has been discussed here - the playoff pairings for the two-legged Euro qualifiers (Nov 14 & 18) are out.

France-Ireland
Portugal-Bosnia
Russia-Slovenia
Greece-Ukraine

Who do y'all got in these matchups? I think Ireland, Portugal, Russia and Ukraine make it to the World Cup. But seeing Portugal and Christiano Ronaldo miss the World Cup spot would totally make my day on a slow sports Wednesday, Nov. 18.

 

[gtowndawg]

Arena, who served as national-team coach for eight years, noted that the U.S. program still had room to improve. "I think that after the next two cycles, we'll be right there in terms of being contenders for the World Cup, one of the teams seen as a threat," he said.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

</p>

 

[patdog]

And I agree with Arena. Youth programs are much better now than they were 10 years ago. As those players mature, they'll be better national team players.

 

[JohnDawg]

stars were for you wbc40.

Soccer has absolutely exploded in popularity in the past 20 years. Great article.</p>

 

[msubullie4life]

Thanks, JohnDawg!

 

[Liverdawg]

We are not as far removed from those days as the article insinuates. That is what is sad to me. The way US soccer is run is very similar to 1990. We still have this "every body is against us, underdog mentality". You still see stories about how we are going into a "very hostile" Costa Rican stadium and we should be happy to tie. This mentality is what is keeping the US team from being on par with the rest of the world. We should be dominating CONCACAF. Any of those teams that are in the EURO-qualifiers would deal with our team easily. And it isn't because we have less talent. At this point, you have to let Bradley take his team to South Africa, but I hope US soccer gets serious for the next World Cup.

 

[patdog]

starting with Sunil Gulati. They're more concerned with what's best for MLS than they are with what's best for the national team which is completly opposite of the way it should be. However, we're not nearly as bad as you say. We'd beat any of the 4 unseeded teams in the European playoffs next month.

 

[wbc40]

Bunch of elitists.