Ole Ole Ooooole Ole

[Number Cruncher]

World Cup Soccer coming to a stadium near you.

Pretty sure Krafty will be putting some grass down for the event.

CAN NOT WAIT.

 

[Jaric]

Can't wait to root for the good old U...oh wait.

 

[bideau]

I remember the '94 Cup. The area around old Foxboro Stadium was crazy during the games that were played there. Gillette is much more capable of handling it now.

 

[Darth Despot]

By 2026 maybe we'll have stopped losing to T & T.

It'll be exciting for sure but the pressure will be on, IMO anything less than a semi when playing at home has to be considered a disappointment. We aren't the novices we were in 96 anymore.

 

[O.Z.O.]

By 2026 maybe we'll have stopped losing to T & T.

It'll be exciting for sure but the pressure will be on, IMO anything less than a semi when playing at home has to be considered a disappointment. We aren't the novices we were in 96 anymore.

Until the best athletes in this country start playing soccer as their primary sport I wouldn't count on it. All you have to do is look at our national team in comparison to the European and South American teams. All of our guys are 5'9" and a buck sixty. The Euros are all 6'2" and two bills. When guys like Mike Trout and Von Miller make playing the sport a priority we will be able to compete at that level...not until.

 

[TommyD420]

Until the best athletes in this country start playing soccer as their primary sport I wouldn't count on it. All you have to do is look at our national team in comparison to the European and South American teams. All of our guys are 5'9" and a buck sixty. The Euros are all 6'2" and two bills. When guys like Mike Trout and Von Miller make playing the sport a priority we will be able to compete at that level...not until.

It's this, or until we have enough athletes so that our sixth-tier can compete with the rest of the worlds' first tier.

Our best soccer players are akin to College D-II football/basketball starters and backups.

 

[Hawg73]

I remember the '94 Cup. The area around old Foxboro Stadium was crazy during the games that were played there. Gillette is much more capable of handling it now.

I went to a game at the old joint that was just a friendly, but it was US vs. England and a hard-fought contest. It was raining a little and my wife and I brought an umbrella which had to be added to the stack of 10,000 not allowed in, lest everbody go all The Penguin on each other. People weren't use to intense security at that time. I always wondered what happened to all of those umbrellas.

I couldn't believe so many of the English fans traveled overseas for what was basically an exhibition game, which the US won on a goal by Alexi Lalas.

It turned out to be quite an event. We loved it.

I love it if Patriots fans could come up with a song that we could sing during the games the way the soccer folks do to drive everybody apeshit. It sounds awesome when everybody goes nuts with it.

Suggestions?

 

[O.Z.O.]

It's this, or until we have enough athletes so that our sixth-tier can compete with the rest of the worlds' first tier.

Our best soccer players are akin to College D-II football/basketball starters and backups.

I was thinking more along the lines of a cross country team.

 

[Darth Despot]

Sorry guys, I've been around various levels of youth soccer for more than a decade and a half and if you think good athletes are not playing soccer at the highest developmental level you're wrong.

If our best athletes played the sport we'd be on the top 3-4 soccer nations in the world, that I agree, but with the athletes we have we're more than capable of dominating CONCAGAF and going deep into a World Cup, we've just FUBARed the development system of the last 5-10 years.

 

[O.Z.O.]

Sorry guys, I've been around various levels of youth soccer for more than a decade and a half and if you think good athletes are not playing soccer at the highest developmental level you're wrong.

If our best athletes played the sport we'd be on the top 3-4 soccer nations in the world, that I agree, but with the athletes we have we're more than capable of dominating CONCAGAF and going deep into a World Cup, we've just FUBARed the development system of the last 5-10 years.

didn't say good athletes weren't playing the game...said elite athletes weren't. The proof is on the field. Our national team looks like kids playing against grown men in the international game. When our BEST athletes take up the game as their primary sport we will see the results on the field. The development system, be what it may be, only has so much to work with. The best development system isn't going to be able to make a guy who's 5'8', 170 pounds out perform a guy who's 6'4", 225 pounds and has not only played the game since he could walk but comes from a culture where it means as much as breathing. Despite what we've been told for the last 40+ years, soccer just isn't as popular in this country as it's supporters like to think it is. Put Mookie Betts next to Giancarlo Stanton...that's what our guys look like against these European teams. I've been watching the World Cup religiously since '94...it just is what it is.

 

[DeflateThis]

I love it if Patriots fans could come up with a song that we could sing during the games the way the soccer folks do to drive everybody apeshit. It sounds awesome when everybody goes nuts with it.

Suggestions?

Your post put me back to this one that went wiral during the 2016 Euros: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyzvwBR1FmM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2aASfNLi8U

FYI Will Griggs is a nobody striker who played in the English League One (level 3). He was in the Northern Irish squad, but I don't think he even played in the Euros.

You should hope either Northern Ireland or Ireland qualify for a game in Boston. Their fans are unbelievable, on and off the pitch.

 

[Number Cruncher]

One of my favorite Irish songs, The Fields of Athenry.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fZmYv6kDutw" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Number Cruncher]

On the topic of fans acting in unison, one of my favorites...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YH65jS-EseQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>