John Adams

I was impressed with him on Thursday. Also liked Davis's play while he was in there. Seemed to settle down Bradley a bit and have a good idea of how to play for possession. Not sold on Davis but at least he was mentally doing the right things. Johnson has been a bright spot for the US and I wouldn't tamper with him. I don't think we'll see Altidore unless there's about 5 minutes remaining and the US is down by a goal. No way you recover from a "gunshot" hamstring pull that fast and the only reason he should see the field is in desperation. Gonzalez is a bit slow but he earned a cap last game, and Cameron has been dreadful.

You're optimistic. There was no good answer. Not thrilled with withdrawal but prefer it to pouring more blood and money into a useless cause. What happens next in Iraq will be ugly. What was going on before we arrived was ugly. What happened in the middle cost the US lives and tons of money.

Full credit to CR for that effort after going down to 10. They played their asses off and earned that PK win. Greece's inability to play offense killed them. Good to see CR, a constant and unreleneting thorn in the side of the US, doing so well. Makes our struggles with them look more credible.

So do you think the US should have stayed there indefinitely? Because that is the only way Iraq would be anything like stable. The moment the US entered and destabilized the region, people here were talking about how the the region would never be stable when the US left.

Right call on the PK. Oh well.

The 4th Chilean PK guy had no style. Upper right corner flawlessly scored. Did it count for more or less than Neymar's stutterstepping delivery? Not to mention, PKs are not that hard to score. A guy like Neymar should score 90% of the time on them and that's just a baseline--it's doesn't make him a star. Neymar is crazy talented but in the second half and extra time, he was a non-factor. Chile was the better team after the first half. It was a physical match. Neymar was not the victim of much of the contact and certainly did nothing to overcome it. Plus the average Chilean player is 5'4" tall--how much "mugging" could they be doing? Don't get me wrong: I love watching Neymar play and he's the best player on the team. Just didn't really do much yesterday after the first half when they needed him most.

Brazil is totally beatable. Neymar was a zero when it mattered and Brazil is a crossbar away from watching from home. Very lucky.

Marking the day that you're citing "Human Events: Powerful Conservative Voices" as a source.

I don't know who you are but hate whiners and attention whores. Bye.

They excluded injuries where guys had to get subbed so Altidore's would not have counted. Baseball hasn't been our national pastime in a long long time. He's not miserable. He's just Anne Coultering (successfully I might add since so many engage him on this topic). There are other people in the soccer threads who are miserable because they are being left out of the party. Great accomplishment to get out of the hardest group. 2 top 5 teams in the world and Germany playing better than anyone by far right now. And Ghana showed everyone their class as well--they deserve a lot of credit for their performances. The US may lose to Belgium but I have more confidence in our ability to beat them than I did any of the first 3 teams.

Ann Coulter is as much my enemy as the Peter Pan guy. She's annoying but only when you pay attention to her.

Good, good. Let the hate flow through you.

The odds of me clicking on an Ann Coulter link in a soccer thread are nil. The odds of me clicking on an Ann Coulter link in any thread are nil. She's just a LAMP specialist. I assume this is a "Look soccer's popular...I need to say something about it to see if its popularity will rub off on me."

It's not February 29th so you won't see a positive thought from him.

Brazil is the favorite but no doubt Germany is playing the best of any team. US will play the winner of another group TBD. Belgium is in the lead in that group and are due to play a lousy South Korean team so you'd have to think it will be Belgium. Belgium is a good team but honestly, I'm less afraid of them than Portugal, Germany, or Ghana.

I'll take it. Germany look to be the team of the tournament so no shame in losing to them. Next up Belgium. The US can beat them.

Typical US possession. Typical German possession.

Come on Portugal. Play for pride you bastards.

Germany the better team at the half of course but US counter looks threatening. Just don't have the soft feet to get it to goal. One US goal and they advance. Plus Portugal is going to win 2-0 and advance us.

Way to go Portugal. KEep it up.

H2H

World Cup flop rankings. http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-world-rankings-of-flopping-1403660175

Actually, that's only been true this year. The TV audiences for this World Cup have been stunning. Not surprising since TV ratings have been on the rise for soccer for years and the in-game attendance is higher on average than hockey and the NBA.

You watch enough soccer to know that's not true. The defender stepped into his shooting leg and made no attempt on the ball. It's a penalty that some refs might not call but anyone who saw it would call it. The guy had a clear scoring chance and was tripped as he was about to deliver the shot. Not a case of just getting tangled up.

Indoor soccer is like Arena Football, Indoor Lacrosse. It's an amusing distraction but not the real game.