Holland First

[ClownLurch]

Yeah. It wasn’t a very good game but I would’ve preferred a few non European or South American teams to make the last eight.
Still 60+ mins to go and Brazil are there already. Shame as I’ve long thought Paolo Bento deserves more recognition as a coach.

 

[Maingano]

A shame Japan lost the game of Croatia

Now Brazil is destroying South korea... seems like the end of the Asian rise

 

[DoubleDutch]

Adios Spain !!!!!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

This was a fun thread to read, for someone who knows and cares little about soccer. In the USA, soccer has drastically risen in popularity the past few years, even here in backwoods Wyoming. Watch for great things from team USA in the next ten years or so as all these soccer kids start to grow up.

One time one of my classes wrote a song called The Everlasting Argument about, among other topics, soccer vs. (American) football. I've forgotten much of it, but it included this nice, rhyming couplet:
Football players get to bring the pain.
Soccer players actually have a brain.

 

[GaryE]

Ah Spain. Boring team.

Football players get to bring the pain.
Soccer players actually have a brain.

Of course, they concuss the heck out of that brain heading the ball.

I have 2 good friends who played pro or semi-pro in Europe, and where they hurt as older men is the hips. And ankles. The fitness soccer needs is impressive but there are repetitive use injuries there. I like the idea of it becoming more popular, as it is doing, because even the ordinary players will run, or not play. I like watching sports now, but playing is the key, and the more people play and stay fit, the more people will live healthier lives for longer.

I love it when kids learn sports they can continue playing into their fifties or beyond.

 

[Back in the fold]

Soccer ? We called it kickball when we played it in third grade. Later the stronger kids played football.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Soccer ? We called it kickball when we played it in third grade. Later the stronger kids played football.

And the smart ones ?

 

[Back in the fold]

And the smart ones ?

They had aquariums.

 

[DoubleDutch]

They had aquariums.

Hahahaha.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Just received the terrible news American sportsjournalist Grant Wahl passed just after our game against Argentina.

So sorry. Our thoughts are with his family.