As one of only 467 soccer fans in the U.S. I have a couple of comments.
Every year the U.S. gets no love and with the exception of ‘98’ they have overachieved.
All of my friends in England are in a tizzy over Jenas and Theo Walcott.
Once again the U.S. is stuck in the Group of Death while Mexico, who we placed over in CONCAF qualies gets a easier road.
My 2 cents
I played with Edgar Davis. He started playing in the youth ranks at age 5, I joined when I was 8. But he was a year and half older than me or something like that. Patrick Kluivert is another but he did not join till later. He was the same age as me. I left when I was about 14 but we still frequented the same places. Davids cousin was a DJ at this club called Timeless in Amsterdam and we would all hang out. Things changed a lot when these guys turned 17/18 and signed contract. I think Kluivert was signed by Barcelona when he was like 15 or 16. And I left to come here when I was 18. Dont get me wrong they were great players but they started to be convinced they were better then the game itself.
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Wow. Who did you play alongside at Ajax? I have a team for every country and they’re my Dutch team.[/quote]
[quote]UtahLama wrote:
As one of only 467 soccer fans in the U.S. I have a couple of comments.
Every year the U.S. gets no love and with the exception of ‘98’ they have overachieved.
All of my friends in England are in a tizzy over Jenas and Theo Walcott.
Once again the U.S. is stuck in the Group of Death while Mexico, who we placed over in CONCAF qualies gets a easier road.
My 2 cents [/quote]
lol at fan number 467. When I was in Chicago I think I met numbers 465 and 466.
The US did brilliantly last WC and I thought it was a real shame they didn’t get the respect and treatment they deserved from the US media and general public. I guess there’s a general feeling amongst non-football (can’t use the S****r word. sorry) fans that if you didn’t win it, you failed at it.
If there’s one thing the US is good at, it’s producing top class athletes.
Now add to that ever-improving coaching abilities and I guess it’s only a matter of time before you guys win it. Some time after us, obviously 
Edgar Davids that is. Another funny example is that his mom used to cook for all of us. I was home four years ago and bumped into him and some his family. They all recognized me were real cool but he acted like I did not even really know who I was or just didnt care. I guess fame changes you like they say.
Then last year I was hanging out at this other club where his cousin now DJ’s and I was 90 pounds heavier and now all of a sudden Davids wanted to be all buddy buddy, haha, sad really.
I guess that type of attitude of being better than others is what plagued the Dutch national team for a long time. I mean these guys would say they had these minor injuries so they could not fulfill there country’s team obligations during qualifying but a week later they are playing for Barcelona or whatever. What kind of BS is that?
[quote]Amsterdam Animal wrote:
I played with Edgar Davis. He started playing in the youth ranks at age 5, I joined when I was 8. But he was a year and half older than me or something like that. Patrick Kluivert is another but he did not join till later. He was the same age as me. I left when I was about 14 but we still frequented the same places. Davids cousin was a DJ at this club called Timeless in Amsterdam and we would all hang out. Things changed a lot when these guys turned 17/18 and signed contract. I think Kluivert was signed by Barcelona when he was like 15 or 16. And I left to come here when I was 18. Dont get me wrong they were great players but they started to be convinced they were better then the game itself.
1-packlondoner wrote:
Wow. Who did you play alongside at Ajax? I have a team for every country and they’re my Dutch team.
[/quote]
[quote]Amsterdam Animal wrote:
I played with Edgar Davis. He started playing in the youth ranks at age 5, I joined when I was 8. But he was a year and half older than me or something like that. Patrick Kluivert is another but he did not join till later. He was the same age as me. I left when I was about 14 but we still frequented the same places. Davids cousin was a DJ at this club called Timeless in Amsterdam and we would all hang out. Things changed a lot when these guys turned 17/18 and signed contract. I think Kluivert was signed by Barcelona when he was like 15 or 16. And I left to come here when I was 18. Dont get me wrong they were great players but they started to be convinced they were better then the game itself.
[/quote]
I’m impressed.
I’ve always loved Davids even if he now plays for the enemy (Tottenham). I know he nearly came to Arsenal a couple of times when he was a little younger. Him and Viera together in their prime would have been awesome.
Plus, and I don’t mean to stereotype a Dutchman, but he always looked like he enjoyed a good smoke! lol
Kluivert was amazing when he was younger but seemed to live off his reputation after about age 25. Always seemed to have a nasty streak about him as well. Actually thinking about it, I think that’s true of a lot of the Dutch strikers of the past decade or so - Kluivert, Van Hoijdonk, Ruud, Hasselbaink (although I love his ‘scary eyes’ look when someone doesn’t pass to him) etc.
Strange… I’d never thought about that before. With England it’s always our midfielders that get into trouble.
[quote]Amsterdam Animal wrote:
Edgar Davids that is. Another funny example is that his mom used to cook for all of us. I was home four years ago and bumped into him and some his family. They all recognized me were real cool but he acted like I did not even really know who I was or just didnt care. I guess fame changes you like they say.
Then last year I was hanging out at this other club where his cousin now DJ’s and I was 90 pounds heavier and now all of a sudden Davids wanted to be all buddy buddy, haha, sad really.
I guess that type of attitude of being better than others is what plagued the Dutch national team for a long time. I mean these guys would say they had these minor injuries so they could not fulfill there country’s team obligations during qualifying but a week later they are playing for Barcelona or whatever. What kind of BS is that?
[/quote]
Maybe now his star has fallen he needs to at least be the big fish in a little pond again.
I work in the media so have spent a lot of time working with people who suddenley think they’re more important than they actually are, just because there is a spotlight on them.
As an Ajax man I thought you’d appreciate this - I am currently wearing this T-shirt right now, and am always having to translate it for people in London.
Don’t know if the text will show in this pic from the site I ordered it - but it reads:
Bergkamp
Waarom vliegen? als je over water kunt lopen
Why fly? When you can walk on water.
[quote]UtahLama wrote:
As one of only 467 soccer fans in the U.S. I have a couple of comments.
Every year the U.S. gets no love and with the exception of ‘98’ they have overachieved.
All of my friends in England are in a tizzy over Jenas and Theo Walcott.
Once again the U.S. is stuck in the Group of Death while Mexico, who we placed over in CONCAF qualies gets a easier road.
My 2 cents [/quote]
Agree about Mexico. Most overrated squad each year in the WC. The year they should have goe the furthest (in Mexico) they disappointed. They’re tough, as long as you’re playing them in Azteca.
As for the U.S., we have a great squad and the results of the friendlies shouldn’t be casue for too much concern. That was mainly MLS players waiting for the Premiership and Euro players to get back to the squad. The MLS is torture to watch. I prefer my daughter’s U-12 games.
We should be dangerous with speed and aggressive play. I do worry that our defense tends to get confused easily and allows to many entries to the box. With the group of death draw, we’ll be fortunate to get to the 2nd round.
Otherwise; Up England!
Thats awesome. I love Bergkamp. My dad was telling me that the match before he retired they had asked all the supporters to wear Orange in his honor and a lot of them did!
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
As an Ajax man I thought you’d appreciate this - I am currently wearing this T-shirt right now, and am always having to translate it for people in London.
Don’t know if the text will show in this pic from the site I ordered it - but it reads:
Bergkamp
Waarom vliegen? als je over water kunt lopen
Why fly? When you can walk on water.
[/quote]
Yes your observation is correct. I think Kluivert was the worst of them all if you ask me. Its one thing to play with a chip on your shoulder and have great confidence - a must for any good striker IMO - but its another to walk around acting like a complete jackass.
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Amsterdam Animal wrote:
I played with Edgar Davis. He started playing in the youth ranks at age 5, I joined when I was 8. But he was a year and half older than me or something like that. Patrick Kluivert is another but he did not join till later. He was the same age as me. I left when I was about 14 but we still frequented the same places. Davids cousin was a DJ at this club called Timeless in Amsterdam and we would all hang out. Things changed a lot when these guys turned 17/18 and signed contract. I think Kluivert was signed by Barcelona when he was like 15 or 16. And I left to come here when I was 18. Dont get me wrong they were great players but they started to be convinced they were better then the game itself.
I’m impressed.
I’ve always loved Davids even if he now plays for the enemy (Tottenham). I know he nearly came to Arsenal a couple of times when he was a little younger. Him and Viera together in their prime would have been awesome.
Plus, and I don’t mean to stereotype a Dutchman, but he always looked like he enjoyed a good smoke! lol
Kluivert was amazing when he was younger but seemed to live off his reputation after about age 25. Always seemed to have a nasty streak about him as well. Actually thinking about it, I think that’s true of a lot of the Dutch strikers of the past decade or so - Kluivert, Van Hoijdonk, Ruud, Hasselbaink (although I love his ‘scary eyes’ look when someone doesn’t pass to him) etc.
Strange… I’d never thought about that before. With England it’s always our midfielders that get into trouble.
[/quote]
I would love for Holland to take it all but if not, I would really prefer a European team to win - except Germany of course. The Europeans need to re-establish their dominance, especially on their home turf!!
[quote]rbnlaw wrote:
UtahLama wrote:
As one of only 467 soccer fans in the U.S. I have a couple of comments.
Every year the U.S. gets no love and with the exception of ‘98’ they have overachieved.
All of my friends in England are in a tizzy over Jenas and Theo Walcott.
Once again the U.S. is stuck in the Group of Death while Mexico, who we placed over in CONCAF qualies gets a easier road.
My 2 cents
Agree about Mexico. Most overrated squad each year in the WC. The year they should have goe the furthest (in Mexico) they disappointed. They’re tough, as long as you’re playing them in Azteca.
As for the U.S., we have a great squad and the results of the friendlies shouldn’t be casue for too much concern. That was mainly MLS players waiting for the Premiership and Euro players to get back to the squad. The MLS is torture to watch. I prefer my daughter’s U-12 games.
We should be dangerous with speed and aggressive play. I do worry that our defense tends to get confused easily and allows to many entries to the box. With the group of death draw, we’ll be fortunate to get to the 2nd round.
Otherwise; Up England![/quote]
[quote]Amsterdam Animal wrote:
Thats awesome. I love Bergkamp. My dad was telling me that the match before he retired they had asked all the supporters to wear Orange in his honor and a lot of them did!
[/quote]
It was beautiful .Almost the entire stadium was orange.
Still, that was his last game at Highbury. He still has to win us the Champion’s League tomorrow night before he retires!
Yeah good luck man, should be a good game. Too bad I wont get to see it.
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Amsterdam Animal wrote:
Thats awesome. I love Bergkamp. My dad was telling me that the match before he retired they had asked all the supporters to wear Orange in his honor and a lot of them did!
It was beautiful .Almost the entire stadium was orange.
Still, that was his last game at Highbury. He still has to win us the Champion’s League tomorrow night before he retires![/quote]
[quote]rbnlaw wrote:
UtahLama wrote:
As one of only 467 soccer fans in the U.S. I have a couple of comments.
Every year the U.S. gets no love and with the exception of ‘98’ they have overachieved.
All of my friends in England are in a tizzy over Jenas and Theo Walcott.
Once again the U.S. is stuck in the Group of Death while Mexico, who we placed over in CONCAF qualies gets a easier road.
My 2 cents
Agree about Mexico. Most overrated squad each year in the WC. The year they should have goe the furthest (in Mexico) they disappointed. They’re tough, as long as you’re playing them in Azteca.
As for the U.S., we have a great squad and the results of the friendlies shouldn’t be casue for too much concern. That was mainly MLS players waiting for the Premiership and Euro players to get back to the squad. The MLS is torture to watch. I prefer my daughter’s U-12 games.
We should be dangerous with speed and aggressive play. I do worry that our defense tends to get confused easily and allows to many entries to the box. With the group of death draw, we’ll be fortunate to get to the 2nd round.
Otherwise; Up England![/quote]
Good to hear opinions from US fans. I don’t get the chance to hear many American fans’ views on the state of the game and their national team. IMO you have the athleticism and mentality and no-one is going to out-muscle you but one failing is that you’re (and by that I mean the US team) are still just a little tactically naive. You have creativity and flair in the side as well as a strong work-ethic…
It’s just that one thing that lets you down. Still, the more players go abroad and experience other playing styles, the better this will get.
[quote]Amsterdam Animal wrote:
Yeah good luck man, should be a good game. Too bad I wont get to see it.
1-packlondoner wrote:
Amsterdam Animal wrote:
Thats awesome. I love Bergkamp. My dad was telling me that the match before he retired they had asked all the supporters to wear Orange in his honor and a lot of them did!
It was beautiful .Almost the entire stadium was orange.
Still, that was his last game at Highbury. He still has to win us the Champion’s League tomorrow night before he retires!
[/quote]
Cheers fella.
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
balljack8 wrote:
That recent Argentina-England friendly was brilliant. Not because we won but because both teams seemed to want it so badly and we saw great play on both sides.
WC-wise. I could be wrong but if I remember correctly you played us last in the group and Beckham scored the penalty that knocked you out.
Maybe I’m wrong, but after the match I remember all the shots of Veron (who I hate) and Batistuta (was is one of my heroes) crying. Anyway, it felt like we’d made up for Simeone/Beckham incident and the disallowed Campbell goal in '98.
Sad to see Batigol bow out of international football after that. Amazing player.[/quote]
Ofcourse it can looked at that way too, but the way i see it is it wasn`t a semifinal where the looser goes home and the winner moves ahead, this was one of the four(i think…)matches.
Had we scored more points at the previous matches things would have been diffrent.
Sure loosing to England was bitter no doubd about it, but crying is not such a big deal in a emotionally rich latin culture, it`s not thought as a something to be shamed at all like it is in most northern European countrys.
One country that no one has mentioned yet is Sweden, i believe they will go far.
With Larsson,Ljunberg and Zlatan they will do some serious damage.
Dude, I was crying when we did not make the world cup 4 years ago and when we lost in the semis of the European cup 2 years ago, as were a lot of the fans, players etc. I was also crying tears of joy when we beat Germany 2-1 in 1998 (dahum I had to reach back for that one!!).
Sweden? I thought they barely made it in…
A
[quote]balljack8 wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
balljack8 wrote:
That recent Argentina-England friendly was brilliant. Not because we won but because both teams seemed to want it so badly and we saw great play on both sides.
WC-wise. I could be wrong but if I remember correctly you played us last in the group and Beckham scored the penalty that knocked you out.
Maybe I’m wrong, but after the match I remember all the shots of Veron (who I hate) and Batistuta (was is one of my heroes) crying. Anyway, it felt like we’d made up for Simeone/Beckham incident and the disallowed Campbell goal in '98.
Sad to see Batigol bow out of international football after that. Amazing player.
Ofcourse it can looked at that way too, but the way i see it is it wasn`t a semifinal where the looser goes home and the winner moves ahead, this was one of the four(i think…)matches.
Had we scored more points at the previous matches things would have been diffrent.
Sure loosing to England was bitter no doubd about it, but crying is not such a big deal in a emotionally rich latin culture, it`s not thought as a something to be shamed at all like it is in most northern European countrys.
One country that no one has mentioned yet is Sweden, i believe they will go far.
With Larsson,Ljunberg and Zlatan they will do some serious damage.
[/quote]
[quote]rbnlaw wrote:
UtahLama wrote:
As one of only 467 soccer fans in the U.S. I have a couple of comments.
Every year the U.S. gets no love and with the exception of ‘98’ they have overachieved.
All of my friends in England are in a tizzy over Jenas and Theo Walcott.
Once again the U.S. is stuck in the Group of Death while Mexico, who we placed over in CONCAF qualies gets a easier road.
My 2 cents
Agree about Mexico. Most overrated squad each year in the WC. The year they should have goe the furthest (in Mexico) they disappointed. They’re tough, as long as you’re playing them in Azteca.
As for the U.S., we have a great squad and the results of the friendlies shouldn’t be casue for too much concern. That was mainly MLS players waiting for the Premiership and Euro players to get back to the squad. The MLS is torture to watch. I prefer my daughter’s U-12 games.
We should be dangerous with speed and aggressive play. I do worry that our defense tends to get confused easily and allows to many entries to the box. With the group of death draw, we’ll be fortunate to get to the 2nd round.
Otherwise; Up England![/quote]
Never underestimate U.S. Soccer. We play in front of Hostile fans even in home qualifiers (ever seen us play a Latino team in the continental U.S.?)
So our guys are used to the heat.
Second there are virtually no expectations from the home fans, the mainstream media could give two shits! Whereas the English media could tell you what Wayne Rooney had for breakfast.
Last… it all comes down to Goalkeeping, if Kasey Keller gets hot we can advance farther than 02.
[quote]balljack8 wrote:
Ofcourse it can looked at that way too, but the way i see it is it wasn`t a semifinal where the looser goes home and the winner moves ahead, this was one of the four(i think…)matches.
Had we scored more points at the previous matches things would have been diffrent.
Sure loosing to England was bitter no doubd about it, but crying is not such a big deal in a emotionally rich latin culture, it`s not thought as a something to be shamed at all like it is in most northern European countrys.
One country that no one has mentioned yet is Sweden, i believe they will go far.
With Larsson,Ljunberg and Zlatan they will do some serious damage.
[/quote]
I agree with you completely. It was very petty but we England took so much pleasure from it - It was almost embarrassing.
Sweden are either excellent or awful - Larsson is about 100 years old and Freddie L is having to have fluid drained from his foot after every match so is not on top form. We shall see.
Agreed, but come on dude, these latest FIFA rankings are a joke. I think I saw the US at like 4 or something? US soccer has come a long way but I just dont see that.
[quote]UtahLama wrote:
rbnlaw wrote:
UtahLama wrote:
As one of only 467 soccer fans in the U.S. I have a couple of comments.
Every year the U.S. gets no love and with the exception of ‘98’ they have overachieved.
All of my friends in England are in a tizzy over Jenas and Theo Walcott.
Once again the U.S. is stuck in the Group of Death while Mexico, who we placed over in CONCAF qualies gets a easier road.
My 2 cents
Agree about Mexico. Most overrated squad each year in the WC. The year they should have goe the furthest (in Mexico) they disappointed. They’re tough, as long as you’re playing them in Azteca.
As for the U.S., we have a great squad and the results of the friendlies shouldn’t be casue for too much concern. That was mainly MLS players waiting for the Premiership and Euro players to get back to the squad. The MLS is torture to watch. I prefer my daughter’s U-12 games.
We should be dangerous with speed and aggressive play. I do worry that our defense tends to get confused easily and allows to many entries to the box. With the group of death draw, we’ll be fortunate to get to the 2nd round.
Otherwise; Up England!
Never underestimate U.S. Soccer. We play in front of Hostile fans even in home qualifiers (ever seen us play a Latino team in the continental U.S.?)
So our guys are used to the heat.
Second there are virtually no expectations from the home fans, the mainstream media could give two shits! Whereas the English media could tell you what Wayne Rooney had for breakfast.
Last… it all comes down to Goalkeeping, if Kasey Keller gets hot we can advance farther than 02.
[/quote]