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re: International teams you enjoyed watching
Posted on 6/4/12 at 7:11 pm to ohiovol
Posted on 6/4/12 at 7:11 pm to ohiovol
1) Turkey in 2002. I loved the 2002 summer. I worked on an academic project for the first 6 weeks, which was when the Cup games were being played, so I basically watched every game by keeping ridiculous hours. Then I went on a road trip before the start of my senior year of high school. The only bad part was getting my wisdom teeth out right before school started, lol.
That Turkish team was awesome. Rustu had the tournament of a lifetime, and the talent on that squad was awesome, especially in midfield with the great passing of Tugay, an energetic Emre who hadn't yet gained excess weight, a healthy Basturk, and a mentally stable Hasan Sas. Fatih Akyel was still a decent right back and Alpay was just crazy enough that no one fricked with the smaller guys on the team. Also Ilhan Mansiz was world-class for a 9 month period, which included the World Cup.
If only Hakan Sukur didn't suck, Turkey could have won the whole thing. Or if Senol Gunes didn't start him every game and only put Ilhan Mansiz in the final 30 minutes.
2) US in 2002. Landon Donovan was the best young player in that tournament bar none. The fact that he didn't get a 15 million dollar transfer after 2002 is proof if anyone wants to argue that European clubs weren't biased against American position players until recently.
Beasley was great up the left flank, and Friedel was the best goalie in the tournament not named Rustu or Kahn.
In defense, Sanneh was a boss and Eddie Pope was consistently good as always. Also, I thought John O'Brien was a really solid player as well. Mathis wasn't anything special outside of his goal against South Korea, and that's one reason why we couldn't go further. Also, we got screwed against the Germans.
3) Brazil in 2002. Outside of Rivaldo's bitch arse faking a head injury against Turkey in the opening game, this team was so much fun to watch. Rivaldo, young cocaine-free Ronaldinho, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Kleberson before his marriage to a 13-year old, and of course, pre-smoking around pregnant women, pre-tranny hooker subsidizing, pre-40 pound weight gain in his early 30s Ronaldo scoring 8 goals in 7 games. The most dominant tourney performance I have ever seen.
4) Spain in Euro 2008. That was a really great squad, and the keep away style wasn't as common so it was a lot more tolerable to watch.
5) Turkey in Euro 2008. Not as good as the 2002 squad or even the 2000 Euro team, but they had some really exciting finishes against Switzerland, the Czechs, Croatia, and Germany.
6) Portugal in Euro 2000. Still probably the best tournament I have ever seen. If anyone was at the International House at LSU, they probably saw me watching some games there
Great atmosphere for those games. And Portugal was great, with Rui Costa, Figo, Nuno Gomes, and company playing some beautiful soccer utnil they got knocked out in the Semis.
7) Germany in WC 2010. Such a young and talented team, probably benefiting from the injury to Ballack. I am looking forward to this team getting even better for this Euro, not to mention the WC in Brazil.
Honorable mention: USA 2010, USA 2009 Confederations Cup team, Bulgaria in 1994, the Dutch in 1998 and 2000.
That Turkish team was awesome. Rustu had the tournament of a lifetime, and the talent on that squad was awesome, especially in midfield with the great passing of Tugay, an energetic Emre who hadn't yet gained excess weight, a healthy Basturk, and a mentally stable Hasan Sas. Fatih Akyel was still a decent right back and Alpay was just crazy enough that no one fricked with the smaller guys on the team. Also Ilhan Mansiz was world-class for a 9 month period, which included the World Cup.
If only Hakan Sukur didn't suck, Turkey could have won the whole thing. Or if Senol Gunes didn't start him every game and only put Ilhan Mansiz in the final 30 minutes.
2) US in 2002. Landon Donovan was the best young player in that tournament bar none. The fact that he didn't get a 15 million dollar transfer after 2002 is proof if anyone wants to argue that European clubs weren't biased against American position players until recently.
Beasley was great up the left flank, and Friedel was the best goalie in the tournament not named Rustu or Kahn.
In defense, Sanneh was a boss and Eddie Pope was consistently good as always. Also, I thought John O'Brien was a really solid player as well. Mathis wasn't anything special outside of his goal against South Korea, and that's one reason why we couldn't go further. Also, we got screwed against the Germans.
3) Brazil in 2002. Outside of Rivaldo's bitch arse faking a head injury against Turkey in the opening game, this team was so much fun to watch. Rivaldo, young cocaine-free Ronaldinho, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Kleberson before his marriage to a 13-year old, and of course, pre-smoking around pregnant women, pre-tranny hooker subsidizing, pre-40 pound weight gain in his early 30s Ronaldo scoring 8 goals in 7 games. The most dominant tourney performance I have ever seen.
4) Spain in Euro 2008. That was a really great squad, and the keep away style wasn't as common so it was a lot more tolerable to watch.
5) Turkey in Euro 2008. Not as good as the 2002 squad or even the 2000 Euro team, but they had some really exciting finishes against Switzerland, the Czechs, Croatia, and Germany.
6) Portugal in Euro 2000. Still probably the best tournament I have ever seen. If anyone was at the International House at LSU, they probably saw me watching some games there
Great atmosphere for those games. And Portugal was great, with Rui Costa, Figo, Nuno Gomes, and company playing some beautiful soccer utnil they got knocked out in the Semis. 7) Germany in WC 2010. Such a young and talented team, probably benefiting from the injury to Ballack. I am looking forward to this team getting even better for this Euro, not to mention the WC in Brazil.
Honorable mention: USA 2010, USA 2009 Confederations Cup team, Bulgaria in 1994, the Dutch in 1998 and 2000.
0
Posted on 6/4/12 at 7:15 pm to wm72
Posted on 6/4/12 at 7:27 pm to wm72
quote:
Yeah, there were 4-5 disallowed that were bad offsides calls but at least somewhat excusable as just bad calls. Just odd that it kept happening to Italy match after match.
There were a couple though like the GK slipping with no Italian player within 3 yards of him and a foul being called and the goal disallowed that it's hard to defend against conspiracy theorists.
Couple that with the heroin smuggler giving Totti a red card when a South Korea player fouled the shite out of him in the box and that WC was an embarrassment for South Korea.
Spain also scored two goals against South Korea that were disallowed. The South Korean keeper (Lee Woo-Jae?) also came off his line on the stop he made against Joaquin in the shootout. To be honest, I was glad when Germany sent them home and I was actually bitter about their run for a while. To be honest, I was pretty happy they lost in the first round of the 2006 World Cup.
As far as Totti's red card, at least Italy got revenge against Hiddink in 2006. How sweet was it that Totti got to take his penalty, albeit 4 years late?
This post was edited on 6/4/12 at 7:35 pm
Posted on 6/4/12 at 7:34 pm to ohiovol
Looking at my list again, I would probably replace Turkey at Euro 2008 with Germany at the 2010 World Cup (although that would give me all World Cup teams).
Posted on 6/4/12 at 7:40 pm to ohiovol
quote:
To be honest, I was glad when Germany sent them home and I was actually bitter about their run for a while. To be honest, I was pretty happy they lost in the first round of the 2006 World Cup.
Yeah, I remembered the Spain match being marred by extremely bad calls as well.
That South Korea advanced on a wave of questionable to down right inexcusable calls turned what could have been a cinderella into just an outright sham.
I've never rooted for Germany so hard either.
Posted on 6/4/12 at 8:22 pm to wm72
quote:
I've never rooted for Germany so hard either.
Agreed. And that's with me being extremely bitter about the USA losing to Germany. I was very happy to see Brazil win the tournament.
Do you think it was a coincidence, or that the hosts got some additional unfair advantage?
This post was edited on 6/4/12 at 8:24 pm
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:09 pm to ohiovol
quote:
or that the hosts got some additional unfair advantage?
They got the calls due to home field advantage.
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:17 pm to Vicks Kennel Club
quote:
They got the calls due to home field advantage.
That's what I would assume. The calls against Spain could easily be attributed to simple errors (although I don't remember the first disallowed goal). The Italy game really stands out.
Here's an bit about those games from an ESPN article.
quote:
Just because you are paranoid does not mean they aren't out to get you. When host South Korea bounced Italy from the 2002 tournament, Italian manager Giovanni Trapattoni cried conspiracy. The referee, Byron Moreno of Ecuador, seemed hell-bent on ensuring the Koreans progressed, disallowing a perfectly fine Italian goal and controversially sending off their star, Francesco Totti, for diving to draw a foul.
The Spanish newspapers belittled the Italian claims, but when Spain lost to Korea in the next round, the Spanish newspapers changed their tune, with Marca's headline screaming "Italy was right!" Referee Gamal Ghandour disallowed two legal Spanish goals and his linesmen -- one Ugandan, the other Trinidadian -- judged one Spanish attack after another to be offside. Moreno returned to a hero's welcome in Ecuador but was out of the game within a year after receiving two domestic bans for crooked refereeing. Ghandour retired shortly after Spanish newspapers accused him of accepting a Hyundai car as a "gift" on behalf of the Korean Football Association.
LINK
This post was edited on 6/4/12 at 9:23 pm
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:27 pm to ohiovol
FIFA is a fricking joke.
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:38 pm to ohiovol
Great list, let's not forget turkey in the 2002 cup. Prob the second best team there.
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:39 pm to ohiovol
I know FIFA is corrupt as shite and all, but I don't the refs were paid off or anything. I think they simply just sided with South Korea more often than not.
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:42 pm to Vicks Kennel Club
quote:
I know FIFA is corrupt as shite and all, but I don't the refs were paid off or anything. I think they simply just sided with South Korea more often than not.
Probably true, but if the USA was on the wrong end of as many calls in a World Cup as Italy was in 2002, I would probably lead some sort of revolt against FIFA.
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:43 pm to Vicks Kennel Club
quote:
They got the calls due to home field advantage.
It was a lot worse than that.
There's really no way to describe unless you were watching the matches just how one sided the officiating continued to be.
It's also more than slightly suspicious that Moreno (official in South Korea/Italy fiasco) was found guilty of crooked refereeing in his domestic league within the a year and out of football.
I believe he's currently in prison for smuggling heroin into the US.
It was seriously a lot more than a few calls here and there due to home field advantage.
Posted on 6/4/12 at 9:48 pm to Vicks Kennel Club
quote:
I know FIFA is corrupt as shite and all, but I don't the refs were paid off or anything.
I think Moreno was paid off. Not saying it was a FIFA conspiracy but Moreno individually.
That he was kicked out of football later the same year of taking money for calls in Ecuador seems to make the "coincidence" theory the less likely one.
That he moved on to drug smuggling doesn't say much for his integrity.
It's hard to see any reason to think he wasn't paid off the more I think about it.
This post was edited on 6/4/12 at 9:54 pm
Posted on 6/4/12 at 10:30 pm to wm72
quote:
There's really no way to describe unless you were watching the matches just how one sided the officiating continued to be.
Italy vs South Korea - WC 2002 Round of 16, Full Game
Spain vs South Korea - WC 2002 Quarterfinal, Full Game
I didn't watch the Spain game, but the Italy one was horrible. Japan got some favorable calls in that tournament too.
This post was edited on 6/4/12 at 10:31 pm
Posted on 6/4/12 at 10:39 pm to ohiovol
The Netherlands in the 2010 WC 
Brazil 2002 WC I <3 Ronaldo
Honduras 2001 Copa America gotta rep for my homeland
Brazil 2002 WC I <3 Ronaldo
Honduras 2001 Copa America
gotta rep for my homeland 
Posted on 6/4/12 at 10:50 pm to Bottom9
Argentina
Uruguay
Chile
Uruguay
Chile
Posted on 6/4/12 at 10:55 pm to TIGERVATO
quote:
Chile
Yeah, I loved watching Chile with Bielsa.
I was thinking it strange they weren't mentioned more before I derailed the thread bitching about the 2002 WC.
Posted on 6/5/12 at 8:34 am to wm72
quote:
I was thinking it strange they weren't mentioned more before I derailed the thread bitching about the 2002 WC.
I share some responsibility for this.
I started playing soccer when I was 5, and I've been following professional soccer closely since I was 6 (although I've started lagging a bit). The vast majority of soccer discussion I have is with people who started watching around 2006, but I have vivid memories of the 2002 World Cup, so I love talking about it whenever I get the chance.
I even like discussing France '98 (I remember a surprising amount for a 7 year old), but I always grimace at the thought of our performance.
This post was edited on 6/5/12 at 8:40 am
Posted on 6/5/12 at 12:13 pm to ohiovol
quote:
The vast majority of soccer discussion I have is with people who started watching around 2006, but I have vivid memories of the 2002 World Cup, so I love talking about it whenever I get the chance.
I do too. I'm 35 and started watching at an early age too though honestly it wasn't until I moved to Italy in 1998 that I really started watching a lot on TV simply because as a kid and college student in the US there wasn't so much available without cable packages I didn't have.
Since I moved to NY, I have a few European friends around my age that remember the good ol' days but. just like on this board, the majority of people I know who follow closely are early to mid 20s. Which is actually a pretty cool thing in looking at the growth of the sport in the states.
One thing I notice most is how much the Champions League cartel has centralized not only money but younger fans into such a small handful of larger clubs. Of course, the bigger clubs were always more successful but I still remember the days when a mid-sized clubs like, say, Sampdoria, could still win Europe. Somehow my parents managed to find me a Sampdoria Roberto Mancini jersey for my birthday when I was 16.
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