World Cup Master Thread

@Goalline posted:

That would be amazing, but nowhere near the equivalent of free throws. Free throws are unchallenged. Penalty kicks have a big, athletic man between the posts hellbent on stopping anything you throw at them. It requires skill, guts and strategy to beat them.

Thanks for making these points. I don't know much about soccer at all. I think the only soccer game I watched on TV when I was growing up was Pele's last game for the New York soccer team where he switched jerseys and played for the Brazilian national team after halftime.

I was thinking about comparing it to FTs more from the relative percentage of succcessful attempts.

You watched Pele’s last game? That is awesome!

I got to see Pele play, but it wasn't his last game. At the time, I was too naive to appreciate who I was watching... 

I don’t have a ton of “I was there” stories (Al Harris overtime vs Seattle an exception) but I did get to see Pele and the Cosmos play the Chicago Sting in person in ‘76 or ‘77.

Last game at the old Met Stadium where the old North Stars played... ticket stub to prove it!

Warren Spahn’s 300th win.

That’s it for me.

Yount’s 3000th for me too…we’re kinda twinsies.

I was there when my kids were conceived.🤷

Or so you were told.

@Blair Kiel posted:

Yount’s 3000th for me too…we’re kinda twinsies.

I was at Robins debut game in 74, my memory is a bit hazy but that was in the age of streaking and yup, there was a naked guy running thru the outfield.  That also was my Haight Ashbury period, thus the hazy memory.

You know what? If his first game was a home opener, I was there too. From around ‘72-‘78 it was quite the tradition to skip school and take the 15 bus downtown to Water Street and Wisconsin Ave. and then catch the “Stadium Flyer”to old County Stadium and freeze our asses off. Good times. No dope (yet).

@Blair Kiel posted:

You know what? If his first game was a home opener, I was there too. From around ‘72-‘78 it was quite the tradition to skip school and take the 15 bus downtown to Water Street and Wisconsin Ave. and then catch the “Stadium Flyer”to old County Stadium and freeze our asses off. Good times. No dope (yet).

Were you the streaker?

I actually remember that. Didn’t he leave his jacket on?

@Pikes Peak posted:

I was at Robins debut game in 74, my memory is a bit hazy but that was in the age of streaking and yup, there was a naked guy running thru the outfield.  That also was my Haight Ashbury period, thus the hazy memory.

I was too.

@YATittle posted:

I was too.

Skipping school a long time  tradition?

@Goalline posted:

You watched Pele’s last game? That is awesome!

On TV. It was a special presentation of ABC Wide World of Sports. I was 7 years old and asked my Dad if I could delay doing my chores in the barn that afternoon to watch it. I didn't know anything beyond the basic rules, but ABC had hyped it so much as a once in a lifetime event that I wanted to watch it.

Pele playing in the US was supposed to vault soccer into the level of the NFL, NBA, and MLB. Obviously that didn't happen. I never watched another soccer game until the World Cup in 1994. I still don't watch anything other than the World Cup Finals even though the high school my kids went to in Michigan has one of the best soccer programs (boys and girls) in the Midwest (multiple state titles mainly due to a large Bosnian immigrant population). Even though some of my kids close friends played on those teams (my kids were in track and cross country with many of those kids), I just can't get into it.

https://www.espn.com/classic/biography/s/Pele.html

In 1975 Pele signed a $2.8-million, three-year contract with the Cosmos. His presence in the NASL helped boost average attendance by almost 80 percent from 1975 (7,597) to 1977 (13,584).

After leading the Cosmos to the league championship in 1977, Pele played his final game. On a somber day at Giants Stadium, Pele, who played one half for the Cosmos and the other half for Santos, scored his final goal. A Brazilian newspaper noted about the atmosphere of the rainy day, "Even the Sky Was Crying."

@Blair Kiel posted:

I actually remember that. Didn’t he leave his jacket on?

That’s lost to time for me.

@MichiganPacker posted:

On TV. It was a special presentation of ABC Wide World of Sports. I was 7 years old and asked my Dad if I could delay doing my chores in the barn that afternoon to watch it. I didn't know anything beyond the basic rules, but ABC had hyped it so much as a once in a lifetime event that I wanted to watch it.

Pele playing in the US was supposed to vault soccer into the level of the NFL, NBA, and MLB. Obviously that didn't happen. I never watched another soccer game until the World Cup in 1994. I still don't watch anything other than the World Cup Finals even though the high school my kids went to in Michigan has one of the best soccer programs (boys and girls) in the Midwest (multiple state titles mainly due to a large Bosnian immigrant population). Even though some of my kids close friends played on those teams (my kids were in track and cross country with many of those kids), I just can't get into it.

https://www.espn.com/classic/biography/s/Pele.html

In 1975 Pele signed a $2.8-million, three-year contract with the Cosmos. His presence in the NASL helped boost average attendance by almost 80 percent from 1975 (7,597) to 1977 (13,584).

After leading the Cosmos to the league championship in 1977, Pele played his final game. On a somber day at Giants Stadium, Pele, who played one half for the Cosmos and the other half for Santos, scored his final goal. A Brazilian newspaper noted about the atmosphere of the rainy day, "Even the Sky Was Crying."

I remember when Pepe played in North America. For those outside of America it made no sense. This is a guy who had stayed loyal to Santos all those years despite overtures from the big Euro clubs. Well, money speaks. The formula remains to this day. Players toward the end of their careers sign with American clubs for one last payday. Rumors abound that Messi is going to sign for Real Miami in the next couple of years.

Soccer is the sport of the future and always will be.

Maybe now we can get rid of Berhalter?

The Berhalter story gets messier and messier as it's come out that Reyna's family, his mom, has been blackmailing Berhalter since the WC. It's the way parents are these days: my darling kid isn't playing, so I'm going to do something against the coach. Granted, Berhalter was horribly wrong to not give Reyna another quality chance, but to have your mom try to blackmail your coach? That's a whole 'nother level of "parent involvement" by a soccer mom.

Shameful. USA Soccer is a hot mess on so many levels.

Berhalter wasn't coming back before this bullshit surfaced.

The coach they really covet, and who they should have hired in the first place, Jesse Marsch, is currently at Leeds doing very well...on the heels of doing really well at RB Salzburg. He is going to have a shot at a top German or English club soon I think.

My guess is USMNT will step on their dicks and hire some turd from MLS, again...instead of ponying up $2M a year and getting a real coach. Fuck, these idiots pay Turdhalter $1.2M...spend another 2 million and get Mourinho.

Zidane says “NON!’ to USMNT

https://www.espn.com/soccer/un...pproach-to-coach-usa

WTF…who’s next on their list? Pep Guardiola? FFS…

Ah well, they took their shot.

Did he headbutt the USSF board too?

With the US' love of foreign accents yet MLS coaches, please do not hire Adrian Heath of MLS' MN United. That guy cannot coach his way out of a wet paper bag yet MNU keeps handing him contract extensions. 

They likely won't hire anyone for a couple years anyway and let interims run the friendlies. You really only need a new coach 18 months out from WC...the preceding 30 months are just thumb twiddling essentially.

Whoever they hire can't be hung up on their "system," and force players to adapt. That is what Turdhalter does and it has had poor results. Get the coach smart enough to tailor the system to the talent available.

@Chongo posted:

They likely won't hire anyone for a couple years anyway and let interims run the friendlies. You really only need a new coach 18 months out from WC...the preceding 30 months are just thumb twiddling essentially.

Whoever they hire can't be hung up on their "system," and force players to adapt. That is what Turdhalter does and it has had poor results. Get the coach smart enough to tailor the system to the talent available.

That's the essence of a great coach. Too many coaches are egotistically stuck on running "their system" and the results show.