28
Mar

Tartan Army answers call before World Cup qualifier

Image via Dailymail

Serbia got by with a little help from their Scottish friends. Despite a heavy snowfall at Karadjordje Stadium, the FIFA World Cup qualifier between Serbia and Scotland was able to be played. Thanks to the efforts of the Tartan Army, fans of Scotland’s national team, the pitch was cleared of snow in time for inspection and the qualifier was given the green light to commence.

Perhaps the fans should have left the snow on the field as Croatia went on to defeats the Scots 2-0 thanks to a double from Filip Djuricic.

28
Mar

Exercise in Futility: Soccer Player Grades

By Leander Schaerlaeckens

On the press bus to the Estadio Azteca on Tuesday, a half-dozen or so American soccer writers had a lively discussion about postgame player grades. Also partaking was US Soccer’s Senior Manager of Communications Neil Buethe, who pointed out that the grades were typically all over the map. This underscored once more the senselessness of the entire exercise.

Mercifully, when I joined FOX Soccer, I was no longer required to do them, because as my editor Jamie Trecker puts it: “Player ratings are the bane of the soccer world. They are the rhetorical equivalent of giving every kid who shows up a trophy.”

Well said.

While I understand the utility of grades – they drive traffic, fill comment sections and give you a tool to superimpose a quasi-box score on a fluid sport – they remain highly unscientific and, to my belief, are prone to erode a writer’s credibility.

My issues with it:

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27
Mar

Luis Suarez is public enemy number one in many people’s book and the Liverpool striker could be in trouble again judging by these pictures from Uruguay’s 2-0 defeat by Chile in a CONMEBOL World Cup qualifier. But does anyone out there have the tiniest bit of sympathy when a defender is tugging your shirt so hard he’s almost inside it? We thought so…

22
Mar

USA shows heart in clutch win over Costa Rica

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By Jorge Andres Mondaca

Commerce City, Colo.

The snow fell by the bucket-load. But a sellout crowd, slowly getting coated in frosty white layer, cheered and chanted unperturbed. Their team needed a win, after all.

Still think there’s no passion in the USA for the beautiful game?

Catch a replay of USA’s 1-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Costa Rica and you will see.

There is this long-held belief throughout the world that Americans simply don’t care about this sport. To be fair, it’s been earned through the years – we call it soccer, the rest of the world calls it football (even though the English, the creators of the game, at one time called it soccer themselves). The best athletes in other countries play this sport, in ours they play in the NFL or the NBA, or whatever else will lead to quicker glory and riches than soccer. Our professional league pales in quality and star power when compared to the likes of England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and others.

Simply put, we haven’t devoted ourselves to this sport the way people in other countries have.

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22
Mar

You would be forgiven if you didn’t catch New Zealand’s World Cup qualifier against New Caledonia, but you have to see this: the All Whites’ Shane Smeltz was kicked in the face while looking to get in position for the potential game-winning goal. It was a grizzly injury, and no question a high studs-up challenge. Amazingly, no foul (and penalty) was given!!!


Double ouch!