On The Subject Of American Football In France

Livid American fans. Do you realize that only 5 countries have won the World Cup in the last 30 years?

Italy (2), Brazil (2), Germany, Argentina and France.

All power houses of varying degrees.

It’s an extremely hard tournament to win. In 1982 and 1986 the United States didn’t even qualify for the World Cup tournament. In 1990, it was just a “thanks for being here” appearance.

Now we have a team that can legitimately threaten anyone at any time. The advances are being made in the American game. But no, we won’t win 8 World Cups in a row just because we want to.Nobody will. The competition is too deep.

Getting to the round of 16 is damn good. Lots of nations who are much more passionate about football would trade places with the USA in a heart beat this World Cup.

Relax baby. Relax.
Some of you get it, but some of you, honestly, are some of the dumbest people I’ve met on Yahoo Answers.

I’m beginning to understand why football fans around the world hate us. If I had to talk to some of you all of the time, I’d probably hate us to.
Seems the majority here get it though, so that’s great.

It’ll help THE game of the world grow in the United States by having intelligent fans.

I’m very confident that a south american nation will win the world cup, what are your thoughts?

We’ve already seen France, England and Greece, and as expected, europeans don’t play well when the world cup doesn’t take place in Europe… NEVER a European team has won the world cup outside of their continent….. today we saw Argentina, and man , Argentina played such beautiful football…… yesterday we saw Uruguay, and Uruguay played a very good match, unfortunately the referee didn’t do a good job …….. we still haven’t seen Paraguay, Chile , trust me, those two teams are very strong….. and the other south american team in this world cup is Brazil…. you all know how powerful Brazil is………. so, what do you think? do you think Europe has any chance of winning the world cup?

French on Algeria’s Football team?

In the world cup; game last year, one of the announcers stated that most of the players on Algeria’s team are from France, but either one or both of their parents were Algerian and elected to represent Algeria. He even said most previously played for the French U20 and U17 squads. How should Algerians feel about this? Now if all the players hold residences in Algeria then that’s another thing. But if they are born in France live in France? Now I don’t know if that is a case. Maybe all hold residences in Algeria, maybe none. As an American I understand this a little. Jermaine Jones was born in Germany to a German mother and a American father (African American). At first he played for Germany, but had problems with the coaching staff so he switched to USA. I really don’t know how I feel about it. I guess I just kind of look the other way. But maybe this is a problem in world soccer. What do you think?
I recently read that some on the team couldn’t speak fluent Arabic (the language of Algeria). They were given an ipod with the national anthem translated to French, so they could understand it and learn it better in Arabic.

How about an AM football question?

If AM follows the great advice I gave him (see link below), will he come back from his vacation in one piece? Explain why or why not.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlXQJ7a5z6QjKn7ReoBMzozty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071130194930AAlbL3P&show=7#profile-info-7RWqpQ9aaa

If he does follow my advice, then what will be the result of his actions, particularly how will his actions affect America’s relationship with France? Now you can say that he can pose as an Italian only, but they will no doubt discover his American passport.

this is going to sound harsh but I dont think France/Ireland should be replayed?

Lets start by reminding ourselves that Football is a SPORT, cheating as much as we hate it, will occur from time to time. Should Ireland get a replay, its only fair they do, but then what about all the other countries who felt hard done by at these WC qualifiers (I CAN ALREADY PICTURE THE TONES OF FAXES FIFA WILL BE RECEIVING FROM THE SOUTH AMERICAN AND AFRICAN ZONES). Should Thierry be punished? Why not? He cheated didn’t he? Impulse or not, sure lets punish Henry, he is a star! Perfect way to make an example! Lets make him the sacrificial lamb!, what about others who have cheated?, some in frequent bases (we all know who they are) why not punish them too?

The referee did not see the handball, how professional would he be to act based on opposing players’ reactions rather than what he saw. We often forget that referees like players can have a bad game unfortunately referees mistakes are not forgotten once they have a great game, I don’t think was a bad game was entirely the case yesterday, how many referees would have surcumed to the pressure of giving Anelka a penalty last night? Many.

Fifa should use this opportunity to once and for all do something!, I believe using referees behind the goals would have decreased the chances of yesterdays event occurring, tech would slow the game down and somehow I don’t see it being implemented in certain countries which cant even afford to water their pitches on daily basis, what good is it having something put in place if it only applies to the more privileged?

I don’t agree with the comments of the FAI chief executive John Delaney that Ireland were robbed of a place at the world cup. What Ireland were robbed of was a fair game, no one knows what would have happened if the game had continued, what is certain is that had it stayed the same taking away Gallas’ goal then Ireland would not automatically have qualified, there would have been a penalty shoot out. He didn’t do his cause justice in the way he presented it to the media, pointing out that one game is more important then the other therefore privileges should be afforded to one over the other is not the way to go if you want the game replayed.