Iraq 11 - US 0

[alva]

Another good team.

[Mr. President]

Yeah, Turkey is pretty good. But I do think African football in general is a bit overrated - Senegal was good at the World Cup, but after that it thins out a little.

"I predict that an African team will win the World Cup before the 21st century." -- Pele, c. 1980

[Pekka]

Cameroon is not that bad. Turkey IS good. They're not the best, but they're still near the top and can take out anyone in a good day, and you can't win them if you don't have a good day yourself.

American soccer is not very hot, but it's not THAT bad either. I wouldn't place them as top teams even when they had good tournament in WC last time. But they're catching on, and have some good players too. It's only a matter of time when they have a really good team that can challenge anyone. But the culture is really lacking or close to non-existent, so it will take time. They'd have material already, but lack of interest will keep them down for some time to come.
In women they are very very good though. Professional league there, and good players.

So what if they were soldiers? THe other guys weren't exactly Brazilian dream team either with great training conditions. I don't care if it's disabled kids vs. world champs, but 11-0 is a HUGE loss. Like 25-0 in hockey. And you don't have to know how to skate in soccer. Just kick the ball.

[Mr. President]

11-0 would be a respectable result for disabled kids vs. the world champions.

I agree that hockey is hard, but soccer is NOT easy. Go to a field some time, and have a friend cross the ball to you in front of an empty goal, and try and kick it into the net. You'll find it's not as easy as it looks, even without a goalkeeper or defenders.

As for training conditions, the Iraqi team still had some training conditions. Football now isn't like it was in the 1800s - the professionals get very rigorous training. They even get specialized dietary advice.

[Pekka]

Mr President, I have played soccer . Ok, it's not THAT easy, but it's not THAT hard either. I figure soldiers are in good shape, and some of them have kicked a soccer ball before. Why are you defending them, they obviously sucked so bad that.... it's just not justifiable!

[Pekka]

but if it makes you feel better, I admit that if they had the US national team there, they would have whipper the Iraqi team with the same numbers.

[alva]

It's not that bad, even in today top leagues there is always at least one 8-0 a year.

[Ben Kenobi]

Yeah, we've seen how Canadians do against Minnesotans when it comes to hockey.

And we've all seen how minnesotans do against southern Californians.

[Guest]

In another movie there was a very moving scene like that...
I believe it is in Sleepers were these young kids from Hell's Kitchen get beaten up in this correction center.
When they play against the guards, they know that if they perform well, they will get beaten up very bad, but it is their only chance every year to do something, and so they do. They hit hard, get hit back, and so on.. Not sure if they win, i think its not even important in the movie, just that this one time they could fight back...
Of course they get beaten up very hard afterwards but it is one of their only good memory from that place...

[Pekka]

Originally posted by LulThyme
In another movie there was a very moving scene like that...
I believe it is in Sleepers were these young kids from Hell's Kitchen get beaten up in this correction center.

Yes, that was a moving scene.

[Sikander]

I played on the losing side of an 17-1 score once. I had one assist. I was on the Presidio of Monterey team where I was stationed when I was in the army. At that time there were about 3500 people at the PoM, from all services. Most of our team for some reason came from the Army contingent, and most of that from Bravo Company. We had a game against the team from nearby Fort Ord, which had about 20,000 troops. We were good players, but not all that confident of our chances against a team with such a large group behind it. On the day of the game Bravo company were suddenly called to duty. We lost 6 of our starters, including our Captain and our Goalkeeper. I had to quickly round up some inexperienced guys at the last minute from the barracks to round out the team. They scored 11 goals on us in the first half and only 6 in the second, so I guess my little lesson on "how to defend" during halftime payed some small dividend. Our only goal came on a very long (at least 70 meters) prayer of a pass that I managed to get to one of our forwards, who neatly settled it and shot quickly. We were so uniformly pissed by the end of the game that I think that there is no other group that I have been nominally charged with that I would rather have taken into combat.