This is the last blog regarding the World Cup 2014 unless something extremely crazy happens. At this point, any one of the final four winning the Cup would not be shocking. I will still go with Brazil to win it all even though they won't have Neymar and Thiago Silva. On paper Germany is now a slight favorite but I think this may actually be advantage to Brazil. There is still great pressure but instead of being heavy favorite they are a slight underdog. They may play with a chip on their shoulder instead of a heavy burden. And teams like Colombia, Costa Rica and France have lost top players and have played well. Given the depth of the Brazilian team, they should be able to weathered the losses better than those teams. So I will go with Brazil but as I said before, all four remaining teams can win it all.
There seems to be a lot more parity in this World Cup with the CONCACAF and African teams doing better than expected. But I don't agree with those who think that the U.S. are close to winning the cup. The U.S. has the best goalie in the world and we always produce great goalies. We have speed and athleticism. But our skill level are nowhere near the top teams. We lost in possession in every game and the discrepancy in possession and shots in the Belgium game only points to our lack of world class skills. The gap will not be closed completely in 4 or even 8 years. Only Bradley and Dempsey can start on most teams in the world. We have 5 Germans on the team and except for Green, Germany have no interest in them. So unless we get athletes like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant to play soccer and we get a grass root system like they have in European countries, we have a long way to go before we can win the cup. Sure, we can beat one of final four team on a given day, but to win four knockout round against the best teams, we can't do it in the near future.
My prediction of Roger Federer winiing Wimbledon almost came true. He played a great tournament but unfortunately father time wins again. I think this is his last chance to win another major. I expect that Nadal will pass him in major titles. Is he the greatest ever? Given that he has a losing record against Nadal, even though Nadal was rising as Federer started to decline, it is hard to say that Federer is better than Nadal. But I think Federer is still the best all around player, being in the top 3 of all time on clay, grass and hard courts. This is something I don't think any other player can claim.
Sunday, July 06, 2014
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You are probably correct about U.S. soccer, though I think the gap is closing ever so slowly.
ReplyDeleteShould I be concerned that Howard will be too old by the time the next world cup comes around? Plus, I doubt that the audience will be as great next time because of the time difference.
I don't think we are a nation that will stay up at 2 and 4 in the morning to watch soccer games. Though I do know someone who did that while they were in Hawaii!
I actually think we have enough kids playing soccer and playing in the highest levels here. The problem is that the level of competition is not so great, so there is a ceiling for players here.
Maybe we need to import players and coaches that can up the level. Until then, we will only have a handful of world class players.
I can't think of anyone that has been as good as Federer. I am a big Nadal fan, but he doesn't do well on grass. What about Sampras? I don't remember him being very good on clay but he seemed to dominate the sport during his prime.
I really like Djokovic too. I didn't realize that this was only his 2nd Wimbledon title. I can see him and Murray having a good Wimbledon rivalry in the coming years.
What happened on the women's side? I was shocked that none of the top players made it very far. Gotta wonder how much longer Serena will last at the top.
So, I've been waiting for a blog on your thoughts of the "Hobby Lobby" ruling. Any thoughts?
I have a few, but will wait for you to write. What I will say is that there seems to be a lot of mis-information out there.
-LBOAYM
Howard may not be around in 4 years but the U.S. always come up with good goalies. Keller and Friedel before Howard were Premier league goalies. So I am not too worried about it. And the old saying that bad team create great goalies is usually true. Howard would not be so great if his defense didn't allow so many shots. If the U.S. is going to be a contender, we will have to rely less on the goalie.
ReplyDeleteOf course, before today I would have said that the U.S. will win the Cup before Brazil loses by 6 goals at home! So maybe we can win the Cup next time! Given today's score, I am more proud of the effort of the U.S. team. Not because they held Germany to 1-0 but because they never gave up, unlike the Brazil team. Today's game was over at 2-0 and there was still 65 minutes left. The U.S. was down by 2 with less than 15 minutes left and they fought back hard. They did not pack it in and actually scored to make it interesting. So kudos to the American team!
So after all the game blogs, will get back to serious business soon. Will have something to say about Hobby Lobby but I must read the 750 pages of Supreme Court ruling first!