zequist

US epitaph, from American soccer writer Elliott Almond:
 
"It survived the Group of Death and had a chance, albeit slim, to advance to the quarterfinals. But here’s the bottom line:
Gritty as they were … as well coached as they were … the fightin’ Klinsmanns were outplayed by a substantial margin by Ghana, Germany and Belgium (for 90+ minutes).
The USMNT simply wasn’t good enough in the midfield. Whether that’s because Michael Bradley played poorly, or because Michael Bradley was playing out of position and played poorly, or because there is only one world class player on the roster — Howard — it doesn’t really matter.
What matters now is finding answers in the midfield before the summer of 2018."
 
I fully agree with this assessment. The continual inability to obtain and sustain possession outside of the Portugal game was a real killer.

Of all the games for Lukaku to show up in this WC, it had to be this one. TV commentators were giving Wilmots credit for pissing him off by benching him to start the game. Roberto, take notes if he's back again next year....
 
Oh well, still proud of the effort at least, but it would've been so nice to tot up another USA QF appearance, and the chances were there. If those Bundesliga-based players like Green and Johnson keep developing, there's some real potential there.

US epitaph, from American soccer writer Elliott Almond:
 
"It survived the Group of Death and had a chance, albeit slim, to advance to the quarterfinals. But here’s the bottom line:
Gritty as they were … as well coached as they were … the fightin’ Klinsmanns were outplayed by a substantial margin by Ghana, Germany and Belgium (for 90+ minutes).
The USMNT simply wasn’t good enough in the midfield. Whether that’s because Michael Bradley played poorly, or because Michael Bradley was playing out of position and played poorly, or because there is only one world class player on the roster — Howard — it doesn’t really matter.
What matters now is finding answers in the midfield before the summer of 2018."
 
I fully agree with this assessment. The continual inability to obtain and sustain possession outside of the Portugal game was a real killer.

Africa's problem is that none of their countries have been able to establish sustained World Cup success - they get to the second round or the quarterfinal at one World Cup, and then flame out at the next one; there's no consistent run of form. Nigeria (1994, 1998, 2014) and Ghana (2006, 2010) are actually the only African countries that have ever qualified for the knockouts more than once. Cameroon had that Cinderella quarterfinal run in 1990, and do you know what their record is in the five World Cups they've qualified for since? 1 win, 4 draws, and 10 losses! And those three countries (along with Algeria) have been the continent's most successful World Cup sides over the last 32 years (Senegal had that one good quarterfinal run, but they haven't qualified for another World Cup before or since). Contrast that with CONCACAF, which admittedly doesn't have much depth but its top teams come to play at just about every World Cup. Since 1986, Mexico is 7-for-7 in reaching the knockouts, the USA is 4-for-6, and Costa Rica is 2-for-4 (and one of the times they missed was in 2002 when they tied for second in a group that produced TWO semifinalists that year - champs Brazil and Turkey - but got eliminated on goal differential).
 
There was one small bit of progress this year, however - this is actually the first-ever World Cup that's seen Africa put two teams in the second round.

Or less than barely grazed. Joel Campbell left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths in the last US-Costa Rica WC qualifying match when he drew a yellow on Matt Besler by basically walking up behind him and throwing himself on the ground - Besler never even saw him and wasn't quite sure what was going on until the ref waved the card in his face. That one was so ridiculous that even FIFA stepped in and disciplined Campbell for it,but if an American player ever tried a stunt like that, he'd get completely ripped to shreds by American fans and the national media on ESPN and other outlets, and lose a ton of respect in everyone's eyes.
 
Incidentally, just like MLS, the NBA also recently started levying retroactive fines on players who flop during basketball games because fans complained that there was too much of it going on.

Or less than barely grazed. Joel Campbell left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths in the last US-Costa Rica WC qualifying match when he drew a yellow on Matt Besler by basically walking up behind him and throwing himself on the ground - Besler never even saw him and wasn't quite sure what was going on until the ref waved the card in his face. That one was so ridiculous that even FIFA stepped in and disciplined Campbell for it,but if an American player ever tried a stunt like that, he'd get completely ripped to shreds by American fans and the national media on ESPN and other outlets, and lose a ton of respect in everyone's eyes.
 
Incidentally, just like MLS, the NBA also recently started levying retroactive fines on players who flop during basketball games because fans complained that there was too much of it going on.

Or less than barely grazed. Joel Campbell left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths in the last US-Costa Rica WC qualifying match when he drew a yellow on Matt Besler by basically walking up behind him and throwing himself on the ground - Besler never even saw him and wasn't quite sure what was going on until the ref waved the card in his face. That one was so ridiculous that even FIFA stepped in and disciplined Campbell for it,but if an American player ever tried a stunt like that, he'd get completely ripped to shreds by American fans and the national media on ESPN and other outlets, and lose a ton of respect in everyone's eyes.
 
Incidentally, just like MLS, the NBA also recently started levying retroactive fines on players who flop during basketball games because fans complained that there was too much of it going on.

To quote one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." The US deserved three points against Portugal and didn't get it. Ecuador deserved at least a point against Switzerland and didn't get it. Iran deserved a point against Argentina and didn't get it. Australia probably deserved a point from at least one of their two matches and got nothing. Brazil probably deserved three points against Mexico, but at the same time Mexico clearly deserved the point they got just for Ochoa's heroics alone. Frankly, if teams got exactly what they deserved from every match then Portugal should have been penalized three points for their horrid display against Germany.
 
Fortunately this is football, not figure skating.

To quote one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." The US deserved three points against Portugal and didn't get it. Ecuador deserved at least a point against Switzerland and didn't get it. Iran deserved a point against Argentina and didn't get it. Australia probably deserved a point from at least one of their two matches and got nothing. Brazil probably deserved three points against Mexico, but at the same time Mexico clearly deserved the point they got just for Ochoa's heroics alone. Frankly, if teams got exactly what they deserved from every match then Portugal should have been penalized three points for their horrid display against Germany.
 
Fortunately this is football, not figure skating.

Puts a bit of a different spin on how hard Belgium had to work to get past the Foxes.
 
Africa's coming back strong after a slow start to this tournament. Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Algeria will all be in strong positions to advance heading into the last fixtures of the group stage, and even Ghana's not out of it yet. Between them and the CONCACAF sides, there's been a lot to like in this tournament if you're a "root for the underdog" person like me.

The essence of Moneyball is about exploiting soft spots in the market - finding players with specific, valuable skills who cost less money because other teams are spending all their money on skills that come at a higher price. A great real-life example is the holding midfielder role - Makelele's skill set was not highly valued by most clubs at the time, certainly not in England and not even by the front office at Real Madrid where he was playing at the time, so Chelsea was able to get him for somewhat less money than his actual talent and value should have demanded (RM prez Florentino Perez infamously said he was an average technique player lacking speed and skill who would not be missed). He still didn't come cheap-cheap at 16 mil, but to put that in perspective Chelsea paid similar or greater prices for Adrian Mutu, Hernan Crespo, Juan Sebastian Veron, and Damian Duff that same summer, most of whom ended up being complete wastes of money for them.
 
The other part of Moneyball is about keeping ahead of the curve, so that when other teams cotton on to your strategy and also start buying in and driving up the cost of the skills you've been targeting, you've already moved ahead to another strategy. Continuing the above example, there's no discount value in targeting the Makelele-type anymore because everybody saw what he could do and wants a player like that now.
 
BTW, the Oakland A's, who codified the Moneyball strategy and also happen to be my lifelong baseball team (been a devoted fan since '83) are sort of the Everton of American baseball - old club with a proud history, popularly perceived by the public and media as a "smaller" club despite winning more championships over the years than all but 2 or 3 other clubs, stuck sharing their local market with a much wealthier and more glamorous neighbor club, stuck in an old, undesirable stadium that limits their revenue potential and been trying and failing to get a new one for years, and develop lots of great young talent that eventually leaves for huge paydays with other clubs that Oakland can't afford.

Well assuming Falcao doesn't scupper this Traore deal, we have two players in with him and McGeady - that's a net +1 with Jelly out. We're feeling pinched because the injuries are really piling up at the moment with seven guys on the shelf, and the timing is about the worst possible with the Liverpool and Tottenham fixtures both scheduled for this stretch when we're hurting so badly. But beyond that, almost all of our walking wounded (apart from Gibson and Kone) are expected back within the next 2-3 weeks, and when we have our full squad or close to it, our squad size is fine. Could we use another CM/DM type of player? Sure, but only if the right deal is out there at the right value - signing someone just for the sake of signing someone is pointless, unless you're Tottenham or City and don't care about having 200 players in your first team squad.
 
 
You need to make him want to leave. Kick his arse in private chats, fine him two weeks wages every chance you get, bad mouth him to the press, and generally make his life a living hell, until he gets angry enough that he's finally willing to discuss a buyout just to be shot of you.

Little late to the party replying to this, but...
 
There is one signficant issue that Canada would have to deal with if they're going to bid - they don't have an independent domestic pro league. A few clubs in MLS and a few scattered semipro clubs, but that's it. FIFA's made it clear in the past that they want nations hosting the World Cup to have either a viable domestic league or at least a plan in place for one (that's a big part of how MLS got started in the first place - part of the package that the US presented in their WC '94 bid was a pledge to get a new pro league up and running), and I don't think Canada's minor participation in MLS would be enough for them. I don't think weather will be an issue there, though. With the exception of Edmonton, pretty much all of Canada's largest cities are within about 150 miles of the US border, and they all have average June temperatures that are generally between 18-24 degrees celsius during the day, dropping down to around 10-14 degrees celsius at night (that's about 65-75 in the day and low to mid-50s at night, if you prefer Fahrenheit temperatures).
 
As for Australia, don't forget that seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, so if they're hosting a World Cup at the usual time (June-July) it would be late fall/winter for them and heat won't be a factor.
 
Oceania won't be hosting any World Cups for a long, long time, if ever. Their only realistic chance to do it was when Australia was still in the federation - New Zealand doesn't have the infrastructure (again, like Canada, they have no independent, fully professional domestic league) or. probably. the money to do it by themselves, and I don't know if they'd even be allowed to pursue a joint bid with Australia anymore since they're in two different federations. The idea of anyone else in Oceania trying to host one of these tournaments is a complete non-starter, unless France suddenly got the urge to fully underwrite a World Cup in Tahiti or something (hey, I'd go!).
 
In general, I think we're going to start seeing more and more of these joint World Cup bids in the future. Like the Olympics, it's starting to get so enormous and so expensive that there are only a handful of countries in the world who'll have the financial resources to host the thing solo without bankrupting themselves (and half of them are places like China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia that you probably wouldn't want hosting a World Cup anyway). Besides, why put 100% of the tax burden for it on your own citizens if you can find a willing partner to split the cost with?

Wow, what an amazing listen.
 
One of the things that really stuck with me was when he talked about Barkley playing like he was afraid to make a mistake at the beginning of the year, and how he tried to get him out of that mindset.
 
I've always believed, in sports and in life, that fortune generally favors the bold, and that's as true in the BPL as anywhere else. Too many coaches, especially coaches of second and third-tier teams, have a "damage limitation" mentality, where they don't always make the smartest substitutions or tactical decisions because they're too concerned with preserving their jobs and reputations to take a gamble that might backfire and leave them open to criticism or second-guessing. They'd rather settle for a draw or a 1-0 loss than go chasing a win and possibly end up losing 3-0 or 4-0. I know what some of you are thinking, but I'm not singling out any particular manager when I say that simply because 90% of them are guilty of that negative/conservative strategizing, regardless of whether they're managing in the BPL or Serie B or some part-time league in Outer Mongolia. How often have we complained this year about teams like Cardiff and Palace packing ten behind the ball against us and spending more energy frustrating our attack than trying to score? I'm extremely thankful that Martinez is in the other 10%, because that 10% are the managers who are winning games and winning trophies while their peers are too busy trying not to get fired.
 
Circling my point back to Barkley though, players aren't any more fond of losing their jobs than managers are, and a player who gets the message from past experience that he has to play safe and avoid mistakes if he wants to stay in the starting lineup is a player who's hamstrung; he starts thinking too much instead of being able to just play his natural game. By coaching to win, Martinez gives Ross and the other players the freedom to play to win, and not be afraid of making an occasional mistake. For instance, even after their farcical two-man comedy act against Sunderland, Howard and Osman were both back on the pitch the next time they were eligible to play. And that's what we're seeing with Ross - someone who has the backing of his manager and the confidence to try different things on the pitch, and as a result of stretching himself like that, he is finding out just how good he can be at this level, which is only going to make him even more confident.

Wow, what an amazing listen.
 
One of the things that really stuck with me was when he talked about Barkley playing like he was afraid to make a mistake at the beginning of the year, and how he tried to get him out of that mindset.
 
I've always believed, in sports and in life, that fortune generally favors the bold, and that's as true in the BPL as anywhere else. Too many coaches, especially coaches of second and third-tier teams, have a "damage limitation" mentality, where they don't always make the smartest substitutions or tactical decisions because they're too concerned with preserving their jobs and reputations to take a gamble that might backfire and leave them open to criticism or second-guessing. They'd rather settle for a draw or a 1-0 loss than go chasing a win and possibly end up losing 3-0 or 4-0. I know what some of you are thinking, but I'm not singling out any particular manager when I say that simply because 90% of them are guilty of that negative/conservative strategizing, regardless of whether they're managing in the BPL or Serie B or some part-time league in Outer Mongolia. How often have we complained this year about teams like Cardiff and Palace packing ten behind the ball against us and spending more energy frustrating our attack than trying to score? I'm extremely thankful that Martinez is in the other 10%, because that 10% are the managers who are winning games and winning trophies while their peers are too busy trying not to get fired.
 
Circling my point back to Barkley though, players aren't any more fond of losing their jobs than managers are, and a player who gets the message from past experience that he has to play safe and avoid mistakes if he wants to stay in the starting lineup is a player who's hamstrung; he starts thinking too much instead of being able to just play his natural game. By coaching to win, Martinez gives Ross and the other players the freedom to play to win, and not be afraid of making an occasional mistake. For instance, even after their farcical two-man comedy act against Sunderland, Howard and Osman were both back on the pitch the next time they were eligible to play. And that's what we're seeing with Ross - someone who has the backing of his manager and the confidence to try different things on the pitch, and as a result of stretching himself like that, he is finding out just how good he can be at this level, which is only going to make him even more confident.

Wow, what an amazing listen.
 
One of the things that really stuck with me was when he talked about Barkley playing like he was afraid to make a mistake at the beginning of the year, and how he tried to get him out of that mindset.
 
I've always believed, in sports and in life, that fortune generally favors the bold, and that's as true in the BPL as anywhere else. Too many coaches, especially coaches of second and third-tier teams, have a "damage limitation" mentality, where they don't always make the smartest substitutions or tactical decisions because they're too concerned with preserving their jobs and reputations to take a gamble that might backfire and leave them open to criticism or second-guessing. They'd rather settle for a draw or a 1-0 loss than go chasing a win and possibly end up losing 3-0 or 4-0. I know what some of you are thinking, but I'm not singling out any particular manager when I say that simply because 90% of them are guilty of that negative/conservative strategizing, regardless of whether they're managing in the BPL or Serie B or some part-time league in Outer Mongolia. How often have we complained this year about teams like Cardiff and Palace packing ten behind the ball against us and spending more energy frustrating our attack than trying to score? I'm extremely thankful that Martinez is in the other 10%, because that 10% are the managers who are winning games and winning trophies while their peers are too busy trying not to get fired.
 
Circling my point back to Barkley though, players aren't any more fond of losing their jobs than managers are, and a player who gets the message from past experience that he has to play safe and avoid mistakes if he wants to stay in the starting lineup is a player who's hamstrung; he starts thinking too much instead of being able to just play his natural game. By coaching to win, Martinez gives Ross and the other players the freedom to play to win, and not be afraid of making an occasional mistake. For instance, even after their farcical two-man comedy act against Sunderland, Howard and Osman were both back on the pitch the next time they were eligible to play. And that's what we're seeing with Ross - someone who has the backing of his manager and the confidence to try different things on the pitch, and as a result of stretching himself like that, he is finding out just how good he can be at this level, which is only going to make him even more confident.

If they got a 100m offer in the summer when Roberto can use it to sign three or four or five quality replacements, that's one thing. But in the middle of this season, no. Ross is far too important to their Champions' League push. I think Roberto is basically saying the same thing - he did have that "in January" qualifier in his statement.
 
Frankly though, even if they did get a Bale-sized offer for Ross in June, they'd better do some hard number-crunching before they pull the trigger, especially if it's from someone they'd be directly competing with for CL places (i.e. Man City, as opposed to RM or PSG or some other foreign club). I say that because a club will put itself in a far better financial position over the long term by making the CL than they will from giving in to the temptation of selling their top players for one-time cash infusions. That's a losing strategy in the long term. Tottenham earned over 30 million Euros (somewhere around 25 million pounds) from their lone CL appearance two years ago, despite getting knocked out in the Quarterfinals, or just about the same amount of money as what Everton got for giving up Rooney (and look at how many times over ManU has made up that fee from all the CL victories he has earned them). And that CL prize money doesn't even include the ancillary financial benefits that come with CL football like increased visibility and merchandise sales and being able to sign better sponsorship deals because your club becomes a more attractive property.

I found...
 
Everton Head-to-Head Lookup
 
And according to that database, they've never played a competitive match against Yeovil, league or Cup. So unless friendlies count in Rubecula's mate's world, I think we have our winner, and props to Marco for calling it.

If they got a 100m offer in the summer when Roberto can use it to sign three or four or five quality replacements, that's one thing. But in the middle of this season, no. Ross is far too important to their Champions' League push. I think Roberto is basically saying the same thing - he did have that "in January" qualifier in his statement.
 
Frankly though, even if they did get a Bale-sized offer for Ross in June, they'd better do some hard number-crunching before they pull the trigger, especially if it's from someone they'd be directly competing with for CL places (i.e. Man City, as opposed to RM or PSG or some other foreign club). I say that because a club will put itself in a far better financial position over the long term by making the CL than they will from giving in to the temptation of selling their top players for one-time cash infusions. That's a losing strategy in the long term. Tottenham earned over 30 million Euros (somewhere around 25 million pounds) from their lone CL appearance two years ago, despite getting knocked out in the Quarterfinals, or just about the same amount of money as what Everton got for giving up Rooney (and look at how many times over ManU has made up that fee from all the CL victories he has earned them). And that CL prize money doesn't even include the ancillary financial benefits that come with CL football like increased visibility and merchandise sales and being able to sign better sponsorship deals because your club becomes a more attractive property.