Who said that Americans know crap about soccer ;-) ?

Question

The Washington Post, more than a month before, got it right ;-)

From The Washington Post - World Cup 2006 special edition, Wednesday, June 7, 2006:

"Despite the distraction of the scandal enveloping Italian soccer and obsessive concerns about playmaker Francesco Totti's recovery from a broken leg, the Azzurri appear to be Europe's best threat to unseat Brazil as world champion. The classically firm back line supports the central midfield tandem of Andrea Pirlo (a free kick master) and Gennaro Gattuso (a nasty enforcer), all of which leads to an attack instigated by Totti and topped by 6-foot-4 Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino.
Best-Case Scenario: Playing Brazil in the July 9 final.
Worst-Case Scenario: Finish second in the group and play Brazil in the round of 16."

They were wrong about Brazil though. But then again, the whole world was...

Answer 1

Here's my prediction from a month ago:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiCxdR.1wBh85CJ5ahKNyDnsy6IX?qid=20060607150916AA8moOb

The only thing I would take back is my comment that Brazil played well as a team and would have won if the cup were being held in the americas. I overestimated them, yet I knew they weren't going to win. I also completely underestimated the French who may (or may not) have been better than Germany.

So yeah, some Americans have a clue apparently.

Answer 2

Yes I've been saying that for years. I'm a Romanian who came to America at 6 years old. I loved soccer all my life. In Romania/Europe futbol is the main sport. When I came here I saw that Americans sucked at soccer. Thats why they played those so called sports called football and baseball where they run 10 seconds and get tired. So yes American soccer sucks. The clubs suk. The US International suk. And the players suck. No wonder Beckham came here.

Answer 3

Perhaps the American fans who are too unaware, i.e. ignorant, to realize the "success" of their team are the only ones saying that they're the "best" at soccer. You can't really call anyone "the best". There's always another factor - luck. Honestly, if Zidane didn't come to rescue the French national team, they wouldn't make it past the preliminaries if they tried. But with their star player, they made it to the finals. They don't even have a lot of team work, they just depend on a select few football superstars on their so-called "team".

Americans spend more of their time playing sports such American football, baseball, and occasionally hockey (which is more of a Canadian sport, but anyways...). They don't really even care about football/soccer much, so they can't really be the best team when they don't have much focus. Notice how the past winners of the World Cup are all football-crazed countries?

Answer 4

...sorry, but this is not what I'd call an expert prediction. If you saw any of the games you probably realized Totti wasn't a very big threat to any of the opponents, and he basically did squat besides shoot that beautiful (yes, beautiful) penalty against Australia. Luca Toni played very hard in the matches nearing the finals but he was often deadlocked by opponent defences being the only forward on the field. We didn't see much from Gilardino (sadly, not at all in the final), and Pirlo has always seemed to me a bit over-credited. I love the Italian team but their favourites have all surprised me with performing so averagely, with perhaps the exception of Cannavaro and Buffon.

And of course it was France who once again beat Brazil at their own game. So the Washington Post might have been right about the champions but they definitely didn't have the whole story.

Answer 5

It's a world full of surprises..

about the americans not knowing crap, well, some of them I mean, I think it's because they have their own games and matches that interest them more..

Answer 6

people in USA know nothing of soccer(as u call it.....its football for rest of da world) americans have their own games which other countries don even bother to play....they don have football in their blood ......and that passage is in the news paper just because usa played in the world cup and they sucked

Answer 7

USA doesn't get the beauty of soccer, I mean football

Answer 8

everyone said and knows that...in football its always about luck...look how france got that far! they couldnt have gone past portugal without that unfair penalty...then they got another unfair penalty in the match with italy...wow...and that is just one example...thats life...your lucky USA got that far in this world cup..sorry, i know my answer is not that relevant to your question...i guess i read it the wrong way...i was talking about USA's performance in this world cup

Answer 9

america is the best at soccer forget the brazil USA USA USA USA USA USA USA thats how i roll yeah i had to say that so now you know

Answer 10

jajaja its funny how citizens of the united states call themselves americans. americans for your information are not only you, but all the people of these countrys : argentina,mexico,brazil,uruguay,chile,colombia,canada,cuba etc etc. ect., it's time for you to find an original name for you. who do you think you are losers.