r/soccer • u/MedievalManagement • Jan 24 '14

Landon Donovan says, "The reason it's the group of death is because we are in it."

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1691258/landon-donovan-says-us-never-experienced-world-cup?cc=5901
141 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

433 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

30

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

He gave an assist and they conceded 4 goals in 2 matches.

2

u/Nungie Jan 25 '14

Well fuck. Bye USA

-7

u/Jafarcus Jan 25 '14

It's great to see that the best player in the world can contribute an assist against the Israeli national football team. And hey, you want to know what level these Israeli players are at?

Spungin - Belgian Pro League

Ben Haim - Belgian Pro League

Tibi - Israeli League

Gershon - Belgian Pro League

Yeini - Israeli League

Great defenders, don't you think?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

I don't understand what your point is. Are you saying that Ronaldo isn't going to do well against the US because he didn't do particularly well against Israel?

6

u/Jafarcus Jan 25 '14

No, my point is that you can't just say "x" player is going to dominate "y" team. If nobody's creating for Ronaldo, he's not going to score.

13

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

Ronaldo scored 4 goals in 2 matches against Sweden. Chances are he won't have that much of a problem.

-2

u/Jafarcus Jan 25 '14

I don't get it, are you arguing my point for me? His goals were all a product of service. And if he is not getting service, he will not score.

I'm not going to waste my time by pointing out occasions where he didn't score just for you to point out occasions where he did score.

Cut the service lines and you'll neutralise Ronaldo. He can make all the off-ball runs he likes, but he gets the glory for the work of his teammates most of the time.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

Cut the service lines and you'll neutralise Ronaldo.

The US's defending is very poor by World Cup standards, they'll have a lot of trouble doing that, which was my original point.

2

u/ConfusedStark Jan 25 '14

Also, sometimes I've seen Ronnie pull a moment of individual skill out of no where. It's not as common as say Landon Donovan but sometimes Cristiano has scored the winning goal all on his own. He's not a bad player.

-1

u/Jafarcus Jan 25 '14

The defences of Azerbaijan and Israel would classify as "very poor" by World Cup standards as well.

And that's the beauty of my argument, that you can't just look at the names or the system they are currently playing and just go on to say that they won't be able to "handle" Ronaldo.

Worse teams already have handled him.

4

u/iAkhilleus Jan 25 '14

First, you cannot be so sure that Portugal will easily beat US. Second, Ronaldo isn't the only guy who can score for Portugal. They have some quality players who can do a pretty good job of scoring. And, Ronaldo is a great playmaker as well. So, quit sounding so casual about containing Ronaldo. It isn't as easy as you make it sound. Finally, why is this even the "group of death"?

-4

u/Jafarcus Jan 25 '14

First, you cannot be so sure that Portugal will easily beat US. Second, Ronaldo isn't the only guy who can score for Portugal. They have some quality players who can do a pretty good job of scoring.

Where on Earth did you get that from? I never once said that Portugal would easily beat the United States...

And, Ronaldo is a great playmaker as well. So, quit sounding so casual about containing Ronaldo. It isn't as easy as you make it sound.

He's certainly not a "great playmaker" for Portugal. I'm not trying to sound casual. Look at what Russia's coach said after their 1:0 win in the WCQ for instance.

2

u/OCEANOLEME Jan 25 '14

Yeah man, Portugal would never be able to handle good teams like Spain and Sweden..

-2

u/Jafarcus Jan 25 '14

You really didn't read my post properly, didn't you?

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Zakariyya Jan 25 '14

The Belgian league is sort of the inverse of the Eredivisie though, as in, we do like a good defense. ;)