Japan Wins the World Cup!

[Soontir C'boath]

Congratulations, indeed! The game was fantastic to watch.

[Flagg]

I was hoping the USA would win, but good on Japan. Fuck knows they deserve some good news this year.

[erik_t]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

[Crown]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

I quite like them myself. The moment of truth. What is the alternative? Keep playing until players collapse of exhaustion?

Having said that; Brazil! Trollololol! And I so wanted them to continue to make the Argies head explode*, so we can set up a Team Suarez v Team Lucas final, but OMG. That pitch was shockingly bad, but not 1 Brazil player had the sense to change their spot kick strategies.


*I have nothing against Argentina, but the fact that their press/public give Lionel Messi so much stick because he hasn't done with Argentina what he's done with Barcelona, and hold Tevez up as the 'people's player' and all that, it just made it so sweet they went out due to Tevez.

Oh, and I'm referring to the Copa America for those that didn't catch on. GO Uruguay!

[erik_t]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

I quite like them myself. The moment of truth. What is the alternative? Keep playing until players collapse of exhaustion?

Um, yes? Keep adding subs with more OTs, if you like. Anything is better than a damned shootout. Let's decide the champion by making goalies decide whether to jump right or jump left!

[Flagg]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

I quite like them myself. The moment of truth. What is the alternative? Keep playing until players collapse of exhaustion?

Um, yes? Keep adding subs with more OTs, if you like. Anything is better than a damned shootout. Let's decide the champion by making goalies decide whether to jump right or jump left!

Just have sudden death OT like football (real football, not fucking soccer).

[erik_t]

I'm not a huge sudden death fan. Whoever is in the lead at the end of any given OT period is fine with me.

[Crown]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

I quite like them myself. The moment of truth. What is the alternative? Keep playing until players collapse of exhaustion?

Um, yes? Keep adding subs with more OTs, if you like. Anything is better than a damned shootout. Let's decide the champion by making goalies decide whether to jump right or jump left!

Nope, I don't like. So penalties stay, cheers.

Just have sudden death OT like football (real football, not fucking soccer).

The world, in literally a multitude of languages calls one game football. It involves a ball, that is moved almost exclusively around a pitch with a players foot. Get over it.

[Serafina]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

While Hope Solos injury certainly did not help, it was very clear that the american players were exhausted and not concentrated. Bad concentration and focus pretty much cost them the game - they got more than a dozen good shots at the goal and only managed to hit twice, mostly because they rushed it too much.

That being said, they still played very well, with lot's of enthusiasm and energy. They'd certainly have deserved to win - if they had won. Japan deserved it just as much for executing a coolheaded, calm game.

You can't really compare womens and mens football all that much. Physical performance is obviously dissimilar, and tactics have to be executed which takes physical fitness not everyone has. However, one part you can judge equally well regardless of gender is how consequently and calmly the tactics are executed, and the japanese women were extremely good there.


At any rate, i really enjoyed the game.

[Flagg]

Just have sudden death OT like football (real football, not fucking soccer).

The world, in literally a multitude of languages calls one game football. It involves a ball, that is moved almost exclusively around a pitch with a players foot. Get over it.

**Puts on Ugly American Hat**

Fuck the rest of the world.

**Takes off Ugly American Hat**

Obviously I was differentiating between football and soccer seeing as how I realize the rest of the world calls soccer football. However in America, where I'm from and currently reside, we call football football, and have no other name for it.

[Big Phil]

I disagree... the US women did not deserve to win. They had something like 20 shots, and put only a handful on goal. O'Reilly and Lloyd booted something like 10 shots over the top or wide of net between them... shameful. Any team that blows that many prime scoring opportunities deserves to lose... the Japanese, on the flipside, made the most of their few chances.

Americans (both men and women) frustrate me in the way they play soccer sometimes... it's like they think it's basketball and they'll keep getting opportunities to score. You don't have that many chances to score, so when you get one, you NEED to put it in the back of the net. With that in mind, Alex Morgan's goal was a thing of beauty... it's too bad her teammates couldn't perform as well under pressure. Hammarstrom's goal yesterday against France was, likewise, a thing of beauty.

[aerius]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

I quite like them myself. The moment of truth. What is the alternative? Keep playing until players collapse of exhaustion?

It works for hockey, in the playoffs they keep adding 20 minute periods until someone manages to score and end the game. A normal game is three 20 minute periods, there's been a lot of games that have gone into triple overtime and there were games in the past 5 years where they had 4 overtime periods.

[Big Phil]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

I quite like them myself. The moment of truth. What is the alternative? Keep playing until players collapse of exhaustion?

It works for hockey, in the playoffs they keep adding 20 minute periods until someone manages to score and end the game. A normal game is three 20 minute periods, there's been a lot of games that have gone into triple overtime and there were games in the past 5 years where they had 4 overtime periods.

Fighting also works for hockey... that doesn't mean it should be encouraged it other sports.

[Crown]

PKs are a fucking retarded way to decide a game, and watching a game decided by injury pisses me right the hell off.

I quite like them myself. The moment of truth. What is the alternative? Keep playing until players collapse of exhaustion?

It works for hockey, in the playoffs they keep adding 20 minute periods until someone manages to score and end the game. A normal game is three 20 minute periods, there's been a lot of games that have gone into triple overtime and there were games in the past 5 years where they had 4 overtime periods.

Hockey isn't football, and the sudden death goal (originally golden goal), then the silver goal existed/exist in football. But there is literally a limit to a player's endurance. After 120mins, you have people with severe leg cramps and exhaustion, depending of the tempo of a game players can run upwards of more than 12km in a 90min match (close to a quarter marathon). It would simply not be possible to continue them playing - or if they do you lose any semblance of any kind of professional football match.

So from an aesthetic stand point you have players moving like their mired in mud, passes failing to meet their targets, an almost static affair, or you have this;



Can't you feel it? The drama, the tension? La passion!

[Norade]

So soccer players are pussies then? Which is harder, jogging a few kilometers and then standing around waiting for a pass, or skating so hard that you're done after a shift that might be less than a minute, how about running flatout and then getting crushed by a massive linebacker? Do soccer players block seventy mile an hour plus pucks of vulcanized rubber? Do they get tackled so hard they can get broken necks? I mean, fuck, aside from baseball they play the one of the pansies major sports around. Even basketball has a higher risk of injury than soccer does.

Yet these precious little twats can't jog a few extra minutes to decide a game.

[Big Phil]

Wonderful... my sport is better than your sport chest beating. Even better that the Guy doing it is almost certainly a pussy who's never actually played soccer or football.

[Crown]

So soccer players are pussies then? Which is harder, jogging a few kilometers and then standing around waiting for a pass, or skating so hard that you're done after a shift that might be less than a minute, how about running flatout and then getting crushed by a massive linebacker? Do soccer players block seventy mile an hour plus pucks of vulcanized rubber? Do they get tackled so hard they can get broken necks? I mean, fuck, aside from baseball they play the one of the pansies major sports around. Even basketball has a higher risk of injury than soccer does.

Yet these precious little twats can't jog a few extra minutes to decide a game.

First of all you literally listed off more than one sport, so if you want me to actually respond to any of that .

Instead, I will point out that in your average 6 hour marathon match of your epic national passtime of rugby with shoulder pads there's less than 10mins of actual 'action' so LOL at your attempt to make out football players as been 'pussies' for not having the endurance of your wrapped in crash helmet and riot gear heroes who can't be assed to exert more than 10mins of actual action.

Although to be fair to you, you might have a problem reading and comprehending the above as it is written in one continuous moment with no breaks for a word from our sponsors. DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?

[Agent Sorchus]

Norade, please do shut the fuck up. There are far easier sports around and injuries are major more often than not, and though you can't get broken necks that has nothing to do with exhaustion. Neither does the speed the hockey players skate at since it is easier to build up speed on ice anyway. (Also don't hockey players have an easy way to make substitutions? Not that I am that aware of hockey, but they have enough distinctions that any attempt to compare the two is just bullshit.)

Also the biggest reason to cut after two hours is referee burnout, not player burnout. You can only watch the field oh so diligently for so long and few other sports come even close to have the officials watching the field for such a long stretch of activity. (American Football doesn't count since the refs don't actually have to watch that much play time and there are I *believe* more referees for American Football on the field anyway.)

[Norade]

Wonderful... my sport is better than your sport chest beating. Even better that the Guy doing it is almost certainly a pussy who's never actually played soccer or football.

Played soccer when I was younger, then was part of the track team in middle school, before trying my hand at hockey when I was sixteen. So please, do try and pick on somebody who actually meets your expectations.

So soccer players are pussies then? Which is harder, jogging a few kilometers and then standing around waiting for a pass, or skating so hard that you're done after a shift that might be less than a minute, how about running flatout and then getting crushed by a massive linebacker? Do soccer players block seventy mile an hour plus pucks of vulcanized rubber? Do they get tackled so hard they can get broken necks? I mean, fuck, aside from baseball they play the one of the pansies major sports around. Even basketball has a higher risk of injury than soccer does.

Yet these precious little twats can't jog a few extra minutes to decide a game.

First of all you literally listed off more than one sport, so if you want me to actually respond to any of that .

Instead, I will point out that in your average 6 hour marathon match of your epic national passtime of rugby with shoulder pads there's less than 10mins of actual 'action' so LOL at your attempt to make out football players as been 'pussies' for not having the endurance of your wrapped in crash helmet and riot gear heroes who can't be assed to exert more than 10mins of actual action.

Although to be fair to you, you might have a problem reading and comprehending the above as it is written in one continuous moment with no breaks for a word from our sponsors. DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?

All those sports still have extra time instead of going straight to a shootout and in hockey games can run over double the normal length in the playoffs. The same goes for baseball. You're also a moron, for thinking that I'm American when it clearly says where I'm from in my location tag. Odd that you didn't even try to for cheap shot at hockey, where players come back after taking shots that cost them teeth, or need stitches, where you play with dislocated shoulders and herniated backs. When was the last time a little footie player played most of a season with an injury that needs major surgery? How often are they screaming in pain from cortisone shots between sections of a game because they have broken ribs and are still throwing body checks?

Norade, please do shut the fuck up. There are far easier sports around and injuries are major more often than not, and though you can't get broken necks that has nothing to do with exhaustion. Neither does the speed the hockey players skate at since it is easier to build up speed on ice anyway. (Also don't hockey players have an easy way to make substitutions? Not that I am that aware of hockey, but they have enough distinctions that any attempt to compare the two is just bullshit.)

Also the biggest reason to cut after two hours is referee burnout, not player burnout. You can only watch the field oh so diligently for so long and few other sports come even close to have the officials watching the field for such a long stretch of activity. (American Football doesn't count since the refs don't actually have to watch that much play time and there are I *believe* more referees for American Football on the field anyway.)

Says the person who only knows one sport.

Yes, hockey players do change swiftly, but they need to because if you aren't gassed and gasping from a full sprint of a shift you don't play in the NHL. Soccer players don't play at full speed all game long. Try learning about other sports as well, I know more about soccer that you do about hockey. Not hard though when your an elitist prick about sports.

Also, sub the fucking refs or hire people that have an actual attention span. Not that poor reffing and diving don't plague soccer worse than most sports already. I mean it doesn't take much to make a call when people go down like they have a life threatening injury every few minutes. The only other real calls they need to make are hand passes and those are equally easy to call.

[Thanas]

So soccer players are pussies then? Which is harder, jogging a few kilometers and then standing around waiting for a pass, or skating so hard that you're done after a shift that might be less than a minute, how about running flatout and then getting crushed by a massive linebacker? Do soccer players block seventy mile an hour plus pucks of vulcanized rubber? Do they get tackled so hard they can get broken necks? I mean, fuck, aside from baseball they play the one of the pansies major sports around. Even basketball has a higher risk of injury than soccer does.

Yet these precious little twats can't jog a few extra minutes to decide a game.

Norade, shut the heck up. I played both football and soccer myself and yes, soccer was on average more exhausting simply due to a thing called the timeout not existing in soccer.

And lol at the pansy ass comment. You obviously have not seen much of European soccer, or any soccer at all.

Just take your ignorance and go stand in a corner.

[thejester]

Dude are you fucking retarded? I love hockey but the reality is the fact they're gassed after three minutes shifts demonstrably shows they don't have the same aerobic capacity as soccer players. That's not a slight on them, it's just a reflection of the fact they play on a small playing where rotations are easy and bulk is more important than endurance. Even gun players are lucky to play more than what, 20 min TOI a game? They might got flat out for that time but they're still only going flat out for TWENTY MINUTES, less than a quarter of the time most football players are on the field.

[Big Phil]

You should pay some attention to what professional athletes themselves say about other sports. Hockey players don't spend their time calling soccer players pussies. Soccer players don't spend their time calling American football players fatties. Football players don't rip on tennis players for not being able to take a hit from a 300 lb. lineman.

If you had any fucking sense whatsoever you'd understand that the skills and physical gifts required to be good at each sport are different. American football and hockey players need to be bigger and stronger than soccer players. Basketball players need to be tall and quick, but don't need to run a 4.4 40 yard dash. Tennis players don't need to weight 230 lbs. None of these athletes are pussies... except in the minds of short-dick pussies like you.

Maybe you'll decide to call John McEnroe a pussy... after all, he couldn't take a body check from even Wayne Gretzky. Or maybe sumo wrestlers are pussies because they can't run for two hours without dying.

[Thanas]

^I'll just assume these two are directed at Norade.

[xthetenth]

Dude are you fucking retarded? I love hockey but the reality is the fact they're gassed after three minutes shifts demonstrably shows they don't have the same aerobic capacity as soccer players. That's not a slight on them, it's just a reflection of the fact they play on a small playing where rotations are easy and bulk is more important than endurance. Even gun players are lucky to play more than what, 20 min TOI a game? They might got flat out for that time but they're still only going flat out for TWENTY MINUTES, less than a quarter of the time most football players are on the field.

Skating is very different from jogging or running. The closest equivalent I can think of is less biking and more doing squats as aerobic exercise. I've played hockey and football (but not O
our whacked out 'football'), and hockey, and they're just very different beasts and both utterly brutal for endurance. Football has tons of running, but most is at least aerobic. Hockey is sprinting all out with few short breaks until your muscles can't push hard enough. You'd better believe you have to be in great muscular and aerobic shape to keep that up a whole game. Short version is that yeah they're done in a minute and a half or so, but it's a much harder activity than even sprinting for that long.

[Big Phil]

Dude are you fucking retarded? I love hockey but the reality is the fact they're gassed after three minutes shifts demonstrably shows they don't have the same aerobic capacity as soccer players. That's not a slight on them, it's just a reflection of the fact they play on a small playing where rotations are easy and bulk is more important than endurance. Even gun players are lucky to play more than what, 20 min TOI a game? They might got flat out for that time but they're still only going flat out for TWENTY MINUTES, less than a quarter of the time most football players are on the field.

Skating is very different from jogging or running. The closest equivalent I can think of is less biking and more doing squats as aerobic exercise. I've played hockey and football (but not O
our whacked out 'football'), and hockey, and they're just very different beasts and both utterly brutal for endurance. Football has tons of running, but most is at least aerobic. Hockey is sprinting all out with few short breaks until your muscles can't push hard enough. You'd better believe you have to be in great muscular and aerobic shape to keep that up a whole game. Short version is that yeah they're done in a minute and a half or so, but it's a much harder activity than even sprinting for that long.

What is your point? Are you agreeing that hockey is different from soccer, or are you trying to argue that soccer players are pussies because they alternate between walking, sprinting and jogging for 90 minutes instead of sprinting for 2-3 minutes and then resting?