Lies, Lies, Lies, And Bull Puckey
This is an entry I posted both on myspace.com and my LiveJournal. It's not actual news, it's just a fit of anger I've been having for a time...
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THE BIGGEST LIES YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD BRITISH PUNDIT HAS TOLD YOU
Lie #1 : It's called football all over the world and soccer only in the United States.
TRUTH: Besides the obvious Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand (basically any country that has a second dominant football code besides Association Football), in Italy it's "calcio" which translated to kick and not football. In Swahili it's "soka" which requires not much translation. And in most Eastern European nations it translates to "kick ball." Mind you when these countries say it in English, they say "football" but from their own languages this is not the correct translation.
Lie #2: The United States are ranked #5 in the world because they play in CONCACAF.
TRUTH: While the FIFA rankings are flawed to the point where they're unusable, it's not playing against St. Kitts or Grenada that has the United States so high up the rankings, it's playing Mexico (so this is a half truth) over and over and over. The way the FIFA rankings actually work is the higher ranked the teams you play the more points you gain. As the United States regularly end up playing Mexico as the only two teams in CONCACAF that are close to world class. This creates a giant circle jerk where Mexico pushes the United States up the ranking and vice-versa. If Holland and England played as much as Mexico and the United States play each other, they would both be ahead of Brazil according to the FIFA methodology despite the results.
Lie #3: The United States has never won on European soil and ducks European competition away from the United States.
TRUTH: Another half truth. The United States has never beat a big five team (England, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain) on European soil. The United States has also never won a World Cup match in Europe. However in 2004 the United States did a three match tour of Europe, beating Denmark and Poland and losing to Holland 1-0. While this does not prove they would be a second place type team in a UEFA qualifying group it does mean they can beat second place type teams in UEFA qualifying groups.
Lie #4: England is the second best team in the world.
TRUTH: England has, possibly, the second most talented group of players in the world but are hit-and-miss as far as showing up. They are the biggest bunch of underachievers in sports. If you gave England's talent to, I don't know, Poland, they would dominate world footcer because they actually know how to play as a team. England is basically the United States men's basketball team of world footcer. Secondly since all but two of England's players are in the Premiership, there's really no way to judge them on a week-in, week-out basis against many of the other team's stars who play in Spain or Italy (and a couple even in Germany).
Lie #5: The United States sucks (or are just "not very good").
TRUTH: Sure this is a matter of opinion but nothing bears this out except for a really bad match against the Czech Republic. Sucks is a term that should be used for teams who are absolutely terrible like Zaire or The Bahamas. Even Angola does not suck. They're just not one of the best teams on Earth. Frankly a new classification needs to be created for teams that are in the #15 to #50 in the world type. I call them "second tier" but not "not very good."
Lie #6: Freddy Adu is the future of footcer in the United States.
Freddy Adu isn't even our best U-23 player right now. He's one of our best ball control players already but he's got absolutely no idea how to act in the final third. Plus he still gets shoved around and intimidated by larger players (as was seen at last year's youth championships, let alone in MLS). Freddy Adu will make the national team squad but he's not on the path right now to be our star player by any means. And don't even get me started on the bigger lie that he should have been named this World Cup. Not ever coach has a Theo Walcott mentality.
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I also posted a big emo screed when Poland got eliminated but that's another story. Let's stick to the anger.
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TRUTH: Besides the obvious Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand (basically any country that has a second dominant football code besides Association Football), in Italy it's "calcio" which translated to kick and not football. In Swahili it's "soka" which requires not much translation. And in most Eastern European nations it translates to "kick ball." Mind you when these countries say it in English, they say "football" but from their own languages this is not the correct translation.
TRUTH: While the FIFA rankings are flawed to the point where they're unusable, it's not playing against St. Kitts or Grenada that has the United States so high up the rankings, it's playing Mexico (so this is a half truth) over and over and over. The way the FIFA rankings actually work is the higher ranked the teams you play the more points you gain. As the United States regularly end up playing Mexico as the only two teams in CONCACAF that are close to world class. This creates a giant circle jerk where Mexico pushes the United States up the ranking and vice-versa. If Holland and England played as much as Mexico and the United States play each other, they would both be ahead of Brazil according to the FIFA methodology despite the results.
TRUTH: Another half truth. The United States has never beat a big five team (England, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain) on European soil. The United States has also never won a World Cup match in Europe. However in 2004 the United States did a three match tour of Europe, beating Denmark and Poland and losing to Holland 1-0. While this does not prove they would be a second place type team in a UEFA qualifying group it does mean they can beat second place type teams in UEFA qualifying groups.
TRUTH: England has, possibly, the second most talented group of players in the world but are hit-and-miss as far as showing up. They are the biggest bunch of underachievers in sports. If you gave England's talent to, I don't know, Poland, they would dominate world footcer because they actually know how to play as a team. England is basically the United States men's basketball team of world footcer. Secondly since all but two of England's players are in the Premiership, there's really no way to judge them on a week-in, week-out basis against many of the other team's stars who play in Spain or Italy (and a couple even in Germany).
TRUTH: Sure this is a matter of opinion but nothing bears this out except for a really bad match against the Czech Republic. Sucks is a term that should be used for teams who are absolutely terrible like Zaire or The Bahamas. Even Angola does not suck. They're just not one of the best teams on Earth. Frankly a new classification needs to be created for teams that are in the #15 to #50 in the world type. I call them "second tier" but not "not very good."
Freddy Adu isn't even our best U-23 player right now. He's one of our best ball control players already but he's got absolutely no idea how to act in the final third. Plus he still gets shoved around and intimidated by larger players (as was seen at last year's youth championships, let alone in MLS). Freddy Adu will make the national team squad but he's not on the path right now to be our star player by any means. And don't even get me started on the bigger lie that he should have been named this World Cup. Not ever coach has a Theo Walcott mentality.
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I also posted a big emo screed when Poland got eliminated but that's another story. Let's stick to the anger.
posted by incendiarymind at 6:48 AM
13 Comments:
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This is very very interesting to go throughout the entire post. Good effort.
While the FIFA rankings are flawed to the point where they're unusable, it's not playing against St. Kitts or Grenada that has the United States so high up the rankings..
FIFA ranking of any team described their skill of playing.But here this is presented very briefly.
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This creates a giant circle jerk where Mexico pushes the United States up the ranking and vice-versa.
In Swahili it's "soka" which requires not much translation. And in most Eastern European nations it translates to "kick ball."
Your FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD BRITISH PUNDIT can makes you to stick in jail
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