Elsydeon

Any team that loses its star or stars is going to look like a lesser team. Hell, you take Davis and Holiday away from the Pelicans, and they kind of suck, too.

I am laughing my ass off at the players and managers whining about condensed holiday schedules. No sympathy from me for those overpaid primadonnas. They get millions a year to play and cushy travel. Just suck it up and play the damn game.

Yes, it is. Even though the US has never lost to Australia, the Matildas are going to be a scary team to face first. With so many of them playing in the US for the last two years, they've gotten to learn many of our players' strengths and weaknesses, and they can match us physically and mentally. Add in a coach who has been successful at developing young players into international-caliber players, and this could get messy for the US. I smell a rat at all the seeded teams being assigned their groups rather than being done by random draw. I get putting the host in Group A, but has there ever been a WC where the other seeds weren't randomly drawn? And the rather convenient result of Germany getting a easy group and the US getting the hardest group? It reeks of bullshit.

In case anyone's not been paying attention, the draw for next year's WC was held today, and the US women fared about as well as the US men did in their draw. The groups for next year, and the ranking of each team: Group A: Canada- 8 China- 14 Netherlands- 15 New Zealand- 19 Group B: Germany- 2 Norway- 9 Thailand- 30 Ivory Coast- 64 Group C: Japan- 3 Switzerland- 18 Ecuador- 49 Cameroon- 51 Group D: USA- 1 Sweden- 5 Australia- 10 Nigeria- 35 Group E: Brazil- 6 Spain- 16 South Korea- 17 Costa Rica- 40 Group F: France- 4 England- 7 Mexico- 25 Colombia- 31

I must be one of the only people who hated Zell in VIII. My first impression of him was that he was a total poser, and nothing that happened after changed my opinion of him in any way. You know that Offspring song "Pretty Fly for a White Guy"? That's Zell.​​

BattleToads is EVIL. I could never get past that accursed third level. On the subject of EarthBound/Mother 3:

Oh, I'd never feel icky about that.

They would have wrecked the Steelers were it not for that cheap shot. And if anyone says it wasn't intentional, they're lying.

Which is the real Dortmund? The one who continues to suck domestically, or the one who runs over their CL opposition like it's nothing?

I'm not really a RB fan, but I can't stand DCU, so y'all have my full support in this round. Hopefully it'll be your Red Bulls against my Crew in the next round.

I think any game that came out before the PS3/Wii/360 era would be considered retro.

In all fairness, those were some awful PK's from T and T. I would have liked to have seen them get at least one, though. But Costa Rica took all of their kicks so well. And I was very impressed with Costa Rica the entire match. This is definitely a much improved side from previous tournaments. After tonight, I am officially sold on keeping Wambach on the bench. The team was playing some of its best soccer until she came in. I could have done with fewer turnovers in the midfield, but that's a small complaint. Once Wambach entered, the US attack went straight to long balls to no one. That might work against overmatched minnows, but against the top teams like Germany, France, and Japan, it's not effective. In my humble opinion, there is no player in the US better in big games and big moments than Carli Lloyd. There have been so many times over the last decade when the team needed a goal or a play to spark a goal, and she has delivered more than anyone else. Tonight was just another one of those moments. Knock on wood that she stays healthy and productive through next summer.

Haiti's problem's with regards to their team are nothing new. Hell, every team in CONCACAF with the exception of the US and more recently Canada are ignored, then given the bare bones when it's tournament time. A lot of that is the machismo attitude in the countries, but the federations just don't have the resources that the US has. Jamaica wouldn't have even played in this tournament were it not for Bob Marley's daughter helping them out. But while the funding isn't there right now for Haiti, it sounds like Shek Borkowski has a long term plan in place for them, and I'll be interested in seeing what progress they've made in the next WC qualification. There's definitely potential in a couple of those players. Even taking into consideration the strength of the opposition, and the fitness factor of the two sides, the US played their best match of the tournament so far. It took way too long for them to get going, but once this team gets going, they're hard to beat. The finishes by Lloyd and Klingenberg were world class. Great chest trap and volley by Lloyd, and Kling with a rocket that no keeper would have saved. Houston is lucky to have those two. I cringed when I found out DiCicco was going to be doing commentary, but he did pretty well, aside from finding any reason to remind the viewers that he was the one who brought in players to his various teams. I guess my annoyance with him comes from the two NWSL game he did last year. He spent both matches kissing SkyBlue's ass even when they were getting outplayed the entire time. I wish these qualifying tournaments weren't in such a short time. Fitness is going to be a huge factor in the semifinals, and the US has an overwhelming edge in that department. They probably have a bigger budget for ice baths than most of these countries have in one year, and I'm not kidding.

Morgan will be out 4-6 weeks. So she's done for qualification, but she should be back for the tournament in Brazil in December. At least there wasn't any further damage other than a sprain. I would hate for the nightmare 7 months she went through to happen again.

FIFA doesn't give a shit, as long as they are raking in the cash. The costs of installing grass has been estimated at anywhere between 3 and 6 million. That's a tiny fraction of the profit they made at the men's WC this year. FIFA says that's too expensive, but they had no problem with shelling out 27 million to make a self promoting film about themselves that was a total flop. I have the perfect idea of what to do with that money- use it to get better refs. The one that was foisted on team USA tonight was so horribly biased against them. Guatemala had the freedom of Chicago to hack US players and not even get called for it, but the US would barely breathe on them and the whistle instantly came out.

The bounce of the ball on turf is too unpredictable, the injury risk is much higher, the fast play of the pitch favors teams with speed over technical play, recovery is slower. [sarcasm]That sounds wonderful[/sarcasm] Now I get that grass is not feasible in every part of the world. Countries with cold or hot climates can't sustain grass for long. In those situations, or if you're a brand new league trying to survive and turf fields are the only fields available, then I am less opposed to it. But when we're talking about the biggest sporting event for these ladies, it's unacceptable.

Oh, it's awful. Have you seen some of the turf burns that the plaintiffs are using in the turf lawsuit? We'd never see that shit on grass.

Most of the players play regularly on turf. It's awful to watch at times.

Now that the men's WC has passed, the US ladies begin qualification for their WC tonight. Expect them to breeze through the tournament, with none of the drama that was present in 2010.

I didn't even watch the Worlds on TV, because the online coverage was so much better. I don't ever remember the US streaming podium training before this year. I guess someone was listening to the complaints and did something about it.

I think the Japan men were robbed. They should have won. China was overscored on high bar. I'm not even going to bother with watching them on TV, since they really only show the US routines anyway, and I can see them on YouTube without the pointless commentary.

Bob is the exception since he won quite a few individual challenges, and was lucky to be on Kota.

So many classics to talk about and so little time to do so. PS III gets way too much hate from PS fans IMO. It is my least favorite game of the 4, the battle system is kind of clunky and takes a bit to get used to, and the characters aren't developed much, if at all, but it's not horrible. PS IV, on the other hand, is not only my favorite game of the series, it's also my all-time favorite game period. There's just so much to love about it. The only other game that came close to dethroning PS IV was Legend of Dragoon.

I'm adding my name to the list of those that hate RI, both the season and the concept. It just feels wrong that someone who their tribe decided was to go gets a second chance, even if they have to earn it by winning challenges. Having said that, as much as I hate it, it's not the worst concept the show has ever had. Nothing for me will ever be worse than "Haves vs. Have-Nots" from Fiji. When one tribe is basically given all the food they need right at their camp, and the other tribe is resorting to sucking leaves just to get a few tiny drops of water because they don't have the means or the energy to do anything else, that's not fun to watch at all.

FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association have been taken to court over the use of artificial turf in next year's WWC: http://www.nbcsports.com/soccer/players-officially-file-lawsuit-against-fifa-csa-over-artificial-turf-world-cup I'm sad that it's come to this point. The men would never be forced to play on that shitty turf, so why should the women?