verreauxi

Isn't that an oxymoron, just like "English cooking"

At this level it is always up to the losing team to adjust their strategy, never for the winning team to hold back. Not sure what Cannavaro is trying to do here.

American Billionaire "Howdy Bill, my name is Chuck Randolph the 3rd from alabama.... now listen here, I see T How pretty much single handedly keep out those darn Belgian boys, no what you say you let me buy your mighty fine club for £250m, I will give you guys a stadium to dream about, give your mighty fine manager £100m to buy the very best.... now whatta you say to that partner?! - i've got billions that I can't spend and i'm not getting any younger"
 
Bill:- "you've got the wrong number"

I couldn't believe Chile's coach when I saw him...WTF! Why is Agassi coaching Chile I thought.
 
Then there is this: Croatia's coach and Joseph Gordon Levitt
 

I couldn't believe Chile's coach when I saw him...WTF! Why is Agassi coaching Chile I thought.
 
Then there is this: Croatia's coach and Joseph Gordon Levitt
 

One thing for sure, his widely-watched performance yesterday is gonna make more than a few Americans take a look at Everton as a team to support.

Belgian players appear to be good sportsmen; Kompany has tweeted "respect" to Tim Howard, and De Bruyne didn't need to manifest such concern after kicking the ball inadvertantly in Jones's broken nose, but he did. He coulda kept playing.

And Lukaku just wrote this:
 
What a result! What a game!!! So happy for our country! It feels good to be in this position... Shoutout the us team! They're real good competitors and will definetly be a stronger team in the upcoming years also @timhow1 you're one the best teammates i ever had! You're right up there! Today you showed why as always why u are one of the best in goalkeeping. Thanks for your shirt god bless you all!

And Lukaku just wrote this:
 
What a result! What a game!!! So happy for our country! It feels good to be in this position... Shoutout the us team! They're real good competitors and will definetly be a stronger team in the upcoming years also @timhow1 you're one the best teammates i ever had! You're right up there! Today you showed why as always why u are one of the best in goalkeeping. Thanks for your shirt god bless you all!

And Lukaku just wrote this:
 
What a result! What a game!!! So happy for our country! It feels good to be in this position... Shoutout the us team! They're real good competitors and will definetly be a stronger team in the upcoming years also @timhow1 you're one the best teammates i ever had! You're right up there! Today you showed why as always why u are one of the best in goalkeeping. Thanks for your shirt god bless you all!

Belgian players appear to be good sportsmen; Kompany has tweeted "respect" to Tim Howard, and De Bruyne didn't need to manifest such concern after kicking the ball inadvertantly in Jones's broken nose, but he did. He coulda kept playing.

And Lukaku just wrote this:
 
What a result! What a game!!! So happy for our country! It feels good to be in this position... Shoutout the us team! They're real good competitors and will definetly be a stronger team in the upcoming years also @timhow1 you're one the best teammates i ever had! You're right up there! Today you showed why as always why u are one of the best in goalkeeping. Thanks for your shirt god bless you all!

And Lukaku just wrote this:
 
What a result! What a game!!! So happy for our country! It feels good to be in this position... Shoutout the us team! They're real good competitors and will definetly be a stronger team in the upcoming years also @timhow1 you're one the best teammates i ever had! You're right up there! Today you showed why as always why u are one of the best in goalkeeping. Thanks for your shirt god bless you all!

This is gonna be a tough round. The Belgium-Argentina game is a coin-toss and when it's a coin-toss, history shows that we should go with the tried and true...Argentina. Same for France-Germany. Where are my tea-leaves, or chicken-entrails, or magic 8-ball, or Thai Bookies, or Ghanaian witch doctor, or that one jerk-off--John Edward--who claims to speak to the dead?

And Lukaku just wrote this:
 
What a result! What a game!!! So happy for our country! It feels good to be in this position... Shoutout the us team! They're real good competitors and will definetly be a stronger team in the upcoming years also @timhow1 you're one the best teammates i ever had! You're right up there! Today you showed why as always why u are one of the best in goalkeeping. Thanks for your shirt god bless you all!

Belgian players appear to be good sportsmen; Kompany has tweeted "respect" to Tim Howard, and De Bruyne didn't need to manifest such concern after kicking the ball inadvertantly in Jones's broken nose, but he did. He coulda kept playing.

And Lukaku just wrote this:
 
What a result! What a game!!! So happy for our country! It feels good to be in this position... Shoutout the us team! They're real good competitors and will definetly be a stronger team in the upcoming years also @timhow1 you're one the best teammates i ever had! You're right up there! Today you showed why as always why u are one of the best in goalkeeping. Thanks for your shirt god bless you all!

Belgian players appear to be good sportsmen; Kompany has tweeted "respect" to Tim Howard, and De Bruyne didn't need to manifest such concern after kicking the ball inadvertantly in Jones's broken nose, but he did. He coulda kept playing.

I think they should have retroactive penalties, using replays. If a player fakes an injury by emitting childish histrionics while holding a body part that replays show wasn't touched, then the fucker should be banned or fined. Get a jury to decide. Of course the Uruguayans will claim human rights abuses...
 
 
And the game will be around in 50 years, and perhaps if India gets its act together and their tiny football association can get 0.00003% the budget that they give to cricket, then maybe we'll see a rising tiger. There's only a billion of them after all. India used to be good and qualified for the 1950 world cup but they decided not to attend when they learned they had to wear shoes in the tournament. (I think I read that in The Economist).

Love the kit and love the socks. Good stuff all around in my opinion.

It is time for all Uruguayans to shut the fuck up. "human rights abuse" blah blah blah. Go fuck off: your star player has biten other players 3 times.

It is time for all Uruguayans to shut the fuck up. "human rights abuse" blah blah blah. Go fuck off: your star player has biten other players 3 times.

It is time for all Uruguayans to shut the fuck up. "human rights abuse" blah blah blah. Go fuck off: your star player has biten other players 3 times.

Which are the most popular EPL teams in USA (Or Canada for that matter)?
 
For some reason I answered this w/MLS (American) teams. As others have chimed in, probably Chelsea, MU, and the gunners.

I got into soccer somewhat by luck, since my mom took me and my two brothers to Mexico when I was 6 years old. It was supposed to be a 3 week vacation in the summer but when we arrived in the little town we were staying (San Miguel de Allende), she fell in love and did some re-arranging of the schedule and we stayed for the whole year. And over the next 9 years, I alternated going back and forth between Mexico and the USA. My first professional sports match was in the mexican professional leagues (PUMAS of UNAM...and still one of my favorite teams). At that time, late 70s/early 80s soccer was on one of its many "resurgences" in the US, and the NASL professional league was in full swing (recall that Pele and Beckenbauer played for the NY Cosmos) and along with this was a huge establishment of youth soccer leagues all over urban/suburban areas. All my friends growing up played soccer in the fall/spring and youth league baseball in the summer and basketball in the winter. Many were multisport athletes (which is perhaps why the USA produces fine goalkeepers). I wasn't. I sucked at American football, baseball, and basketball. I played a little youth hockey but that's Canada's sport and the youth hockey leagues were few and far between and largely restricted to Northern states.
 
I don't watch too many American sports, but I support any team from Chicago, my home city...I will dutifully watch the superbowl and playoff (American) football but the actual ratio of action to stopped play is abysmal and I get impatient with it. I find baseball very boring but will watch a game or two when and if the Chicago Cubs are doing well.
 
I actually enjoy watching basketball and this is due to Michael Jordan joining the Chicago Bulls and winning 6 championships. I recall getting a call from my friend back when we were in college. Both of us grew up playing soccer, but he's like "dude, you gotta see this guy Michael Jordan...he's fucking amazing..." and we checked out a game at the Chicago Stadium and I was hooked. So I still watch basketball, largely due to the inertia of Jordan's influence on me. The atheleticism in that sport is ridiculously high. And I will watch any hockey game, as that is also a wicked cool sport.
 
I don't follow the MLS as much as I should but the big teams are basically the ones with the stars: LA Galaxy and more recently the NY Red Bulls. The best supported teams are Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Sporting KC, with frenzied fans that give me lots of hope for the league.
 
Soccer is certainly on the up-and-up in the USA, but the country is large enough both spatially and demographically that it will continue to expand but not at the expense of other sports. But we have seen other resurgences (mid-70s/early 80s; then again in the early 90s when we hosted the WC...only for it to wane a bit). I don't see pro soccer replacing pro football or baseball ever, but given the concussion syndrome in pro football, I do see some parents pushing their kids into soccer over american football. But the vast majority of these kids will play soccer + baseball + other sports, in my view. We will never be a unified soccer-crazed nation the way we are with baseball or football (my opinion of course). And in some ways, this will never happen because some folks will always view soccer as "un-American"--that trite shibboleth that is trotted out far too often without a substantive thought behind it.
 
(Subsequently, my GF is the manager of the USA women's national team in rugby, and according to her, rugby is one of the fastest growing youth sports in the USA...I need to snopes that one).