Get in there my boys…!!!
Ireland equalise.
Leave it until the last seconds why doncha???
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D (Irish fans)
Gp
1 min to go and we score a egualizer. YES YES YES 1-1 at full time WOHOO
Oh. My. GOD!!!
Fran, goal meaning it’s 1-all?
If so: WOOHOO!
If not: BUGGER!
GO IRELAND!
WHOO HOO USA!
Jesus, I’ve never seen Dublin like this: my office is on the main north-south route out of the city, and 5 minutes there were NO cars on it at all. Total silence, all I could hear was birds singing - then about 2 minutes ago I started to hear car and lorry (truck) horns being sounded everywhere… Madness, and all that just for a draw!
Here’s a news story about nothing happening: Nothing happens.
Ha! That picture looks like downtown Toronto during the USA-Canada olympic hockey final.
Great game BTW, good for Keane.
Where was this thread when I needed it last night. Iw as driving myself nuts!
Great game by the US. I’m watching the replay now and we played better than I remembered us playing. Probably becaues I was so nervous last night… I kept expecting us to blow it at any minute. The 2nd half I don’t think we played worse or “hung on” I think we held pretty much all our guys back to make it harder to score. Would have worked too if Agoos didn’t decide he needed a goal.
A few thoughts–
A> Donovon/Beasley/Wolff/Mathis-- I"m liking the future of USA soccer. Beasley and Donovon played an outstanding game. A few more games like this and you guys in Europe will be the ones who get to appreciate their regular club play and not us. 
B> Our defense played well… they broke free on a few, but even then we made it difficult for them to get a good shot. This is Portugal after all. They have some of the best attackers in the world.
C> I have heard Keller will start the next game, but I was really impressed by Friedel. Boy can really boot the ball. He doesn’t look like anybody you’d want to meet in a dark alley. He just has a great look for a goalie. I’ve often wondered-- are our two best players our keepers because they’ve traditionally taken so many shots?
Man… I had so much to say last night… now I’m just exhausted. Such a fun game. This was a great game to get people into soccer. Back and forth… fast… a lot of tension… 5 goals. Bring on S. Korea!!!
Portugal, Croatia, Poland and France.
I’m getting the feeling Europeon teams don’t travel well
Gotta love the prospect of McBride going up for headers against the Koreans.
Now I just need Ireland to put up a nine-goal win over the Saudis to cash in on a bet I made before Roy the idiot got sent home :rolleyes:
Allow me to use the two games this morning (USA - Portugal and Germany - Ireland) to illustrate an imporatant point: packing it back to hold a lead is dangerous, and usually punished at this level.
The US team was brilliant while attacking. Once they decided that a three goal lead was enough, they had a lot of trouble. Portugal failed to manage a third only because the US came out of its shell after the own goal by Agoos and started moving forward again.
From my perspective, Germany packed back almost as soon as it scored its first goal. Consistently, the Irish were collecting balls for possession at the half-line, rather than being pushed deep.
Here’s hoping that all teams that try to protect a lead get punished! 
I just woke up after staying up to party all night after the game. My throat is raw from all of the yelling. There were a lot more Americans than Portugese fans at the game but a large majority of Koreans were cheering for Portugal, probably because of their more famous teams and players, ie, Figo. We were ecstatic after the first goal, incredulous after the second, and cocky after the third. The first retaliatory strike by Portugal came courtesy of a fairly lame clearance, I think it was Mr. O’Brien.
Then in the second half we began to live in fear of Agoos. First he crossed to an uncovered Portugal attacker, then later netted a brilliant shot past our own keeper. With the talent we’re now seeing up front, I am a bit shocked we can produce better on the back line. This was made even more sweet, and shocking, since we were missing Reyna and Armas in the midfield and neither Wolff nor Mathis saw action in the game.
Right now I am hoping for a draw against South Korea and a win against Poland, hopefully should be enough to win the group. A win would put us against Mexico (I think) in the next round, which means a chance to go through further. Yes, I know, afterglow of a big victory here, but at this point you’ve just got to dream. And I agree with Mr. Young that one shouldn’t just sit back and try to defend a lead. Especially if your defense isn’t that strong.
I think I’ll need to have some Soju for dinner!
A strange aside: I am wearing my white US team jersey right now, and a Korean woman pulled up next to me in her car and asked me if she could take me for a drink somewhere, “just to talk”. How weird is that? This is a sleazy part of Seoul, but I really think the shirt had something to do with it. Despite my curiousity of what was going on in her head I had to decline.
Don’t worry about the woman – it’s the World Cup, reality changes for a while…normal rules don’t apply !
Glad you enjoyed it. I also thought Agoos was a bit shaky. I can imagine, if he were one of mine, crossing my fingers every time the ball went near him. But towards the end, I thought he was solid.
Have to like the look of Beasley, in particular. Classy, assured, skilful…if he represents the future of US football, things are looking good.
The problem now, IMHO, is that the US won’t be taken as lightly by South Korea and Poland. I still think you have a lot of work to do for the extra points you need to go through. Good luck though !
Well, we’ve played Korea twice in the past year, 1-0 and 0-1 was the result, each time the homeside won. A fellow I sat to at last night’s game was at the previous match in Chongjou (sp?) and said it was quite a scene. I’ve never even heard of the USA keeper who started that match, probably a lot of other lightly used players so you can’t go by much other than there is a bit of familiarity. The Koreans have been incredibly fun, friendly, warm people so I couldn’t totally begrudge them a win, hurt as it would. I could start a whole thread just on my strange trip back from Suwon to Itaewon last night. This has really been more than I expected, I’d recommend it to anyone. Germany will have a lot to live up to in 2006, although the logistics should be much simpler.
I’m atill jumping up & down after that win over Portugal!
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
I love this sport!
My sleeping patterns are all screwed up this past week.
We beat Portugal!
Some European teams don’t even have to travel at all! 
So, Japan get a draw with Belgium, S. Korea beat Poland, the US beat Portugal, Brazil win thanks to a penalty. I know there’s Germany/ Saudi Arabia to consider, but are we seeing the unseating of the traditional footballing centres of Europe and S. America?
Fabulous effort by Ireland, and no more than they deserved. I do think it’s funny though, everyone interviewed about the game said “we’re not even thinking about Roy Keane” (or words to that effect).
Having said that, more on my mind is Argentina vs. England tomorrow. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to it or not!
It still hasn’t sunk in. I still have to keep reminding myself: Holy shit, we beat Portugal. I’ll never get over the sight of Tony fecking Sanneh with Figo in his pocket! My God.
I am just about the least patriotic person you’ll ever meet in your life, but football is football and yesterday - for the first time I can recall - I was proud to be an American. My one good American friend here has no time whatsoever for the US national team (although she does follow the sport). Her attitude - which basically boils down to “they can’t really play football so why should I support them?” - has always sort of annoyed me but yesterday I just felt pity for her. She’ll never know the euphoria her snobbery made her miss out on.
I hope the boys can keep it up. But, before this tournament started all I said was I wanted us to do better than we did in '98. Clearly, we already have. So the rest I can just sit back and enjoy.
Shibb, you have no idea how much I hate you
ShibbOleth, you are one lucky person!!!
I swore I wouldn’t miss France, '98 in person, having gotten hooked by being at the games played at Stanford Stadium in '94 (including, I might add, one wonderful July day! ). But an ill-timed divorce filing by my ex- nixed that one. Then I swore I would be in Korea this year, but an ill-timed promotion made that impossible. There is NOTHING that will keep me from Germany, '06!!!