I think South Korea’s weak defense is in for a long 90 minutes.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
There is no right way to do the wrong thing.
Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?
Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.
They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.
Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!
One way or another, he’s a liar.
Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.
🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.
Innocent people do not delay justice.
Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?
I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
Fuck these fucking interesting times.
“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”
“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly
You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.
Mr. White
When did Dear Leader start guest writing on this blog?
New Yorker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbn3rOPmR9w
I’m sure everyone has seen the above by now.
Didn’t the unhinged right, led by Glenn Beck, tell us how the World Cup is un-American and an attempt to subvert America by the rest of the world? Someone needs to tell all the people in Real America (Nebraska, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas) that appear in this video that they’re not supposed to like soccer.
Also, I’m confused by all the cheering and “USA! USA!” chanting done by people in Fake America locales like New York, LA, Boston, etc. I thought we just burn the flag and root for terrorists…..
Hmm, it couldn’t be that the far right is once again completely full of shit, could it?
P.S.: I hate to bring politics into sports (for example, I’d root for George W. Bush’s own Texas Rangers any day of the week over blue state teams like the Yankees or Red Sox), but Glenn Beck started it, not me.
Miss Kitka's Comrade Wayne
And so it begins.
Randinho
Nice ball watching by South Korea. Too bad they forgot about watching the player.
burnspbesq
Uruguay is fortunate that that goal wasn’t an equalizer, as SK had earlier hit the post.
Randinho
@burnspbesq: Agreed. Muslera was beaten, but Suarez was completely unmarked. One’s an example of skill, the other a mistake.
J.W. Hamner
Diego Forlán is quite good. I don’t imagine I’m the first to notice this… who does he play for? Does he demonstrate this ability at the club level?
Randinho
@J.W. Hamner: He plays for Atletico Madrid in Spain. In the 2009-09 season he led the league in goals scored.
burnspbesq
Oh lovely – our cable signal has gone down. Guess I’ll be heading over to the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney to watch USA – Ghana with all the tourists.
Randinho
South Korea got away with a hand ball in the area.
Bootlegger
South Korea looks the brighter of the two sides.
OMG, did anyone else just see George Washington charging the Redcoats in a muscle car?
Bootlegger
@New Yorker: Soccer is actually quite popular here in Kentucky. Lots of club teams and a very active youth program. It will never compete with basketball and baseball, not ever in Big Blue country, but now that I’ve coached both baseball and soccer here I can say that at the youth level the interest in just as strong. I also had a well-attended BBQ at my home for the US/England game. Leave Kentucky out of the teabagger flogging when it comes to world football.
J.W. Hamner
Uruguay’s D is kind of unreal.
cmorenc
@Randinho
Not merely a “deliberate handling” foul, but a red card for DOGSO (denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity) That ball was plausibly enough on-frame when the SK’s aerial chicken-wing act with his arm put his elbow/forearm squarely in the path of the ball.
burnspbesq
Scott Murray, the Guardian’s live-blogger, is a bloody comic genius. He should be up for a spot on the next Queen’s Birthday Honors List.
Randinho
@Bootlegger: I don’t believe that he was doing that. I think that he was observing that throughout several red states in that video (Nebraska, Arkansas, Kentucky) that people were celebrating the sport.
Randinho
@cmorenc: Agreed.
J.W. Hamner
I seem to have jinxed them.
Bootlegger
@Randinho: Aye, and voicing surprise that people in Red States are soccer fans, implying a bandwagon effort. The snide implication that we are Beck thralls and wet as teabags is, frankly, a bit absurd.
J.W. Hamner
Granted, all I know about soccer I learned from FM2010, but it seems to me Uruguay is turtling too much to mount an effective counter.
Bootlegger
@Randinho: +2
cmorenc
The SKs look to be quite capable of successfully poking dangerous holes through Uruguay’s defense, and often. They’re struggling to successfully finish one though, and the question is whether they’ll put one through first or else give up a second goal to a quick counterattack off one of their near-misses.
Bootlegger
@J.W. Hamner: All you need is one ball over the top to a running forward to mount an effective counter. But they have pulled their three forward formation back and isolated a lone striker.
Bootlegger
@cmorenc: I agree, they are finding some holes between the German-Incans two defensive lines but so far can’t get that last ball. It may have to come from a set piece.
The ESPN announcer just laid some wisdom on us soccer novices: “defense wins championships”. No, really?
Bootlegger
Well there it is.
Bootlegger
From a set piece too.
J.W. Hamner
Well that will open up things I imagine.
Onkel Fritze
It would be interesting to see Uruguay play against a good team (sorry, Mexico), but SK just scored so that might not happen.
Randinho
@Bootlegger: Sorry, but I didn’t get that at all. Look at his next sentence:
He’s attacking both sets of stereotypes.
Full disclosure: I live in New York, but come from Ukrainian Jewish immigrant on my father’s side and Scots-Irish-English-Dutch-French Alabama hillbillies on my mother’s side and lived in Alabama for several years. My family has long been liberal (my mom has a cousin born after the Scopes Trial whose first and middle name are Charles Darwin and his uncle was chased out of towns for union organizing). I share your annoyance at stereotyping southerners, but the target in his comment was clearly Glenn Beck.
Randinho
The Uruguayan defenders made an error that should be ended at the AYSO level: everyone went for the ball.
J.W. Hamner
I don’t understand why the Uruguayans didn’t play this way the whole time… of course I do understand… but they’ve got such a talented attack, you’d think the best defense is offense for them. I mean, they’ve got the back line that can cover it, right?
Bootlegger
@Randinho: I really don’t care to beat this dead horse, but this seems clear enough:
While the sentence you quote is just more of the stereotypes that people in my part of the country are suppose to have of you East Coasters.
I’m just pointing out that even in the heart of Red America soccer is popular, teabaggers or no.
Randinho
@Bootlegger: Sarcasm as it was with the next sentence.
Bootlegger
@Randinho: At the U8 level if the coaching is any good.
J.W. Hamner
Oh, what a goal!
Bootlegger
Nice goal. The German-Incans won’t cross midfield with more than three players the rest of the match.
burnspbesq
Golazo!
Randinho
Uruguay scores: Suarez put it as they say in Brazil “Onde a coruja dorme” (where the owl sleeps).
Bootlegger
@Randinho: We’ll have to respectfully disagree then because I see ordinary East Coaster hillbilly bashing, intended or not.
Randinho
@Bootlegger: And I see it for sarcasm.
burnspbesq
I don’t know who these guys on Univision are, but they are definitely making me miss Andres y Norby (may he rest in peace).
Bootlegger
@Randinho: As I said.
fbihop
Golaaaaaaazoooooooo!
Bootlegger
How did that not go in?
wengler
Uruguay would certainly be an interesting team to see make it to the semis.
burnspbesq
Ay yi yi – nearly a Greenian howler by the Uruguayan keeper.
Bootlegger
@wengler: They have to get through US first.
fbihop
@wengler:
Too bad they are losing to the USA in the quarters.
Randinho
Bootlegger: Because South Korea had no one trailing the play to follow up and Uruguay did. Think about how Donovan trailed the play in the Algeria game.
Bootlegger
Anyone else see all the empty seats?
That is why the US will get either the ’18 or ’22 Cup. We sold out every game in ’94 in stadiums twice that size.
Randinho
@Bootlegger: Don’t discount the weather right now. It’s pouring.
fbihop
@Bootlegger:
It’s also a pouring rain in the winter in South Africa, so that may be one reason why people don’t want to go watch a South Korea-Uruguay game.
Bootlegger
@Randinho: To be fair Dempsey’s rebound came OUT to Donovan as opposed to rolling slowly toward the goal and the running defenders.
True enough, we were running hard in the 91st minute and created that 4 on 2. That is one of the USA’s strengths, conditioning. I’ve read several foreign commentaries that the US picks up the tempo in the final 30 when the other team is tiring. It will be true today as well.
Bootlegger
@fbihop: Perhaps, but its been well publicized that FIFA had trouble selling tickets. To their credit they were giving away tickets to local schools (in the cheap seats), but those empty seats we saw were the prime seats.
fbihop
@Bootlegger:
I heard a stat that the USA had twice as many goals in the final thirty minutes of qualifiers as any other team.
Bootlegger
I’m going to go nuts waiting for the next 2.5 hours, I’m so totally fucking geeked right now.
Bootlegger
@fbihop: Yep. Bradley is a fitness freak and you can see it in his team. I’m normally not a Bradley fan at all, but he certainly does insist on team fitness. Altidore was bitching about it when they were in camp with two weeks to go before the England game. Of course his Hull City coaches noted his lack of work ethic too.
fbihop
@Bootlegger:
True. But let’s be honest. South Korea-Uruguay isn’t exactly a prime game to watch. If it was a pouring rain in the winter, would you want to go watch two teams that you (probably) hadn’t heard of play soccer?
Bootlegger
@fbihop: If I’d paid $75 for that seat, you’re damn straight I’d be there. Would I walk up and pay it? Probably not. But my point is that those tickets were not sold ahead of time. The rain certainly dampened the walk-up gate (pardon the pun).
Jim in Chicago
@Randinho:
Actually, the U10 Girls team I coached this year learned very well how to have one girl go for the ball and the next closest girl back her up. ;)
Nat
@fbihop
Hm, Uruguay won the world cup four times. Just saying.
Jim in Chicago
@Bootlegger:
But Chicago won’t get any games thanks to #$%^@ing Mayor Daley who withdrew our bid! (Apparently, if he couldn’t have his prized Olympics, he didn’t want to have the World Cup either, even though he knew what a boon it was in 1994.)
sven
I think S. Korea was a pretty good proxy for what a USA v. Uruguay match might look like. There are obvious differences between the Koreans and the US but they are much more similar than any team Uruguay saw in group play.
Randinho
@Jim in Chicago: Precisely my point: it was an elementary error.
Bootlegger
Just found this gem at the Guardian.
I have to go do something else or I’ll go nuts. See y’all at 2.
sven
On a totally unrelated (and
probablynone of my business) note, Randinho have you seen a spike in traffic at your website since you started posting on BJ? I’ve started visiting and there is some interesting stuff beyond the footie…Bootlegger
@Jim in Chicago: That’s lame. That was one city I could park at with family and go to games. Dickhead Daly strikes again.
Randinho
@sven: A bit of one, thanks for asking. I’ve been a bit swamped and brought in some additional interested posters, but thanks for asking and thanks for the kind words.
Leeds man
@Bootlegger:
If you have any Valium left after the Ghana-USA game, let me know. I’ll need it tomorrow morning.
The Gimp
I’m a lot less worried about Uruguay (should we get past Ghana) than I was, before. They looked horrible for much of the second half, showing holes in their ‘awesome defense’ that a faster team like us will exploit. Also, we’ll be much tougher in the air than Korea were.
PanAmerican
Uruguay has had a nice run but from here on out if they make those types of gaffes they’ll get chainsawed. They also benefited from the weather and lousy pitch.
Ghana is a trap game for the US.
dee
No, the korean goalkeeper is retarded fuck! did u ever get a glimpse of how dat fucker fail 2 secure the 1st goal?? the korean side should in a way fire him! revoke his football license! wat a fucking moron!! the korean team really deserve a praise by the way they worked as a team! Fire the goalkeeper!! send himout of korea! bloody bastard! Korea should havew won if not because of him!! Fuck you korean goalkeeper!!