~Soccer Thread~

[utee94]

I don't think so.  I think FIFA used to hand pick the groups to ensure good TV viewership for group play, but I believe this is the first time it's totally random within the pots.

The problem is that there were 9 UEFA teams in the tournament so 3 groups had 2 and 3 groups had 1.  Groups A, B and D had 2, and a UEFA team came in first in all three, and came in 1-2 in A and B.  Groups C, E, and F had one, with the UEFA team winning C and E, and coming in second (Sweden) in F.

So the 8 UEFA teams to advance were all distributed, but all came in 1st or 2nd in their Group, meaning they were totally pre-selected.

I would think the only argument would be that you only use Group play to determine the 16 to advance, then you reseed 1-16 based on the seeding you used to split to pods.

Then you'd get...

#1 USA vs. #46 Cameroon
#8 Japan vs. #9 Sweden
#5 Canada vs. #13 Norway
#4 England vs. #15 China
#3 France vs. #16 Italy
#6 Australia vs. #12 Spain
#7 Netherlands vs. #10 Brazil
#2 Germany vs. #39 Nigeria

OK, this is what I expected, so I guess I'm a little confused about what Ala's complaint is above?

I mean, in a perfect world I'd always like to see the teams re-seeded through the multiple stages of a tournament, but in reality, not many tournaments bother to do that.

[SFBadger96]

I don't know Rapinoe's protest (but can guess) 

You've probably already googled it, but she (1) doesn't sing; and (2) doesn't put her hand on her heart. The National Team requires that the athletes stand, and she does. So basically, she does what about 90% of every sports crowd does.

As I said above, milquetoast at worst. Proof is that outside of certain information agencies, it gets nary a mention, which makes it an awfully ineffective protest. The whole point of protest is to draw attention to yourself, and thus have the opportunity to get attention for the issue you care about. The lack of attention Rapinoe gets for failing to sing (yawn) shows how ineffective it is. Her hair is a much bolder statement.

[rolltidefan]

i very much disagree with reseeding in tournaments. i don't want to see the top seeds get the easiest path, nor the bottom the hardest.

that's all assuming the initial seeding is good.

the gold cup is a fustercluck of tournament format, btw.

[rolltidefan]

You've probably already googled it, but she (1) doesn't sing; and (2) doesn't put her hand on her heart. The National Team requires that the athletes stand, and she does. So basically, she does what about 90% of every sports crowd does.

As I said above, milquetoast at worst. Proof is that outside of certain information agencies, it gets nary a mention, which makes it an awfully ineffective protest. The whole point of protest is to draw attention to yourself, and thus have the opportunity to get attention for the issue you care about. The lack of attention Rapinoe gets for failing to sing (yawn) shows how ineffective it is. Her hair is a much bolder statement.

this is my biggest gripe about it. i don't like her protest, but that's beside the point and i'll defend her right to do it.

but, imo, her chosen form of protest doesn't accomplish anything she wants. case in point is i'm not 100% sure what she's protesting. i can probably guess, but it's not bringing me any closer to her point she's trying to make. it's also so weak i'm not concerned with looking up why she's doing it. the only thing people are discussing is if she should be required to stand/salute/sing for the anthem. not the topic of the protest.

a few years back there was a woman that turned down a cap with the uswnt due to her religious beliefs concerning the pride jerseys. agree or disagree, that protest was strong and sparked discourse over the topic of the protest, not the protesting act itself. it wasn't that far reaching cause she wasn't as well know as someone like rapinoe, but it was at least on topic.

protests should either be directly relatable to the topic or so strong people look up why they're doing what they're doing. otherwise it's folly. jmo

[bayareabadger]

You've probably already googled it, but she (1) doesn't sing; and (2) doesn't put her hand on her heart. The National Team requires that the athletes stand, and she does. So basically, she does what about 90% of every sports crowd does.

As I said above, milquetoast at worst. Proof is that outside of certain information agencies, it gets nary a mention, which makes it an awfully ineffective protest. The whole point of protest is to draw attention to yourself, and thus have the opportunity to get attention for the issue you care about. The lack of attention Rapinoe gets for failing to sing (yawn) shows how ineffective it is. Her hair is a much bolder statement.

You don't think protest can be personal in nature? A small thing you do for whatever reason? 

[bayareabadger]

this is my biggest gripe about it. i don't like her protest, but that's beside the point and i'll defend her right to do it.

but, imo, her chosen form of protest doesn't accomplish anything she wants. case in point is i'm not 100% sure what she's protesting. i can probably guess, but it's not bringing me any closer to her point she's trying to make. it's also so weak i'm not concerned with looking up why she's doing it. the only thing people are discussing is if she should be required to stand/salute/sing for the anthem. not the topic of the protest.

a few years back there was a woman that turned down a cap with the uswnt due to her religious beliefs concerning the pride jerseys. agree or disagree, that protest was strong and sparked discourse over the topic of the protest, not the protesting act itself. it wasn't that far reaching cause she wasn't as well know as someone like rapinoe, but it was at least on topic.

protests should either be directly relatable to the topic or so strong people look up why they're doing what they're doing. otherwise it's folly. jmo

This seems to be sparking something, some strong feelings? But as you said, the downside of anthem protests is they always end up back at some folks calling for some kind of adverse consequences for violating a PC code of conduct. 

[SFBadger96]

You don't think protest can be personal in nature? A small thing you do for whatever reason?

Actually, no. The nature of protest is that it is public expression. A small thing done without the goal of attracting attention--something intended as a personal rather than a public affirmation--isn't a protest. It's just that, a personal affirmation.

[rolltidefan]

jozy's goal was nice, though he did good.

miazga was pretty good, morris and cannon were ok, the rest were not great to bad, imo. good thing panama was worse.

people seems to hate donovan now, but i think his take was pretty spot on. yes, it's good to see a win, but we haven't seen our best(ish, minus injured players) team vs another good side. wish we didn't have to wait until knockout rounds before we did, but that's concacaf gold cup group stages for you.

[utee94]

Alright. I'm preparing myself for "USA-France: The Foulening."

I don't know if France will try to hack us all night like Spain did, that's not really their game.  But I do know that the refs are not likely to call the home team for much, if the first part of this tournament is any indication.  Our women are going to have to play a focused game and avoid frustration.  Hopefully Morgan is a little more healed up than she was on Monday.  

Anyway, here we go!

[MaximumSam]

Rapinoe has dominated the first twenty minutes

[MaximumSam]

Pretty strong effort to take down the frenchies. Next stop England

[utee94]

Rapinoe es en fuego, I love it.

I think overall France outplayed us, but not by a huge margin, and it certainly could have been 3-1, plenty of calls like that go the other way.    After a super-physical game against Spain and with less rest than France, I thought we played pretty well overall.  France is good.  This game probably could have been a semi if things break differently in the pools.

I was a little surprised they were just letting France literally knock over our players in the last 5 minutes of gametime and the final 5 minutes (ahem!) of stoppage.  But home cookin' gonna home cook.

Anyway, on to England.  Another team with one more day of rest than we'll get. 

[ELA]

Took the kids to a USL game last night, which is the level below MLS.  They had a blast.  Our oldest is looking like soccer is his sport, and he had an absolute blast, wants to get season tickets.  So I think I might be there more frequently going forward

[ALA2262]

If the Ref in the Jamaica-Panama Gold Cup Semifinal doesn't find his yellow and red cards, he is going to be in serious trouble.