Board 8 > Freakin ITALY didn't qualify for the World Cup?!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mama mia =(
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well at least there are worse failures than the us
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Is this an excuse not to fire our coach?

Cause I really think we should still fire our coach...

It's going to be a weird World Cup
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Yeah it's pretty fucking great
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Suck it @DpObliVion
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Tom Bombadil posted...

well at least there are worse failures than the us

No. Italy is in a tough set . Concacaf is a fucking joke.
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In fairness, yeah

It's a badly-managed Italy team that were unfortunately (for them) stuck in a qualifying group with Spain

Spain beat them so they finished second and had to go into a playoff.

Should still have beaten Sweden though
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Qualifying in Europe is hard. Italy was stuck in the same group as Spain so already one of those teams had to go through the play-off and at that point anything can happen.

With that said being unable to score against Sweden in 180 minutes is bad, nothing against Sweden, but a team like Italy has the offensive capabilities to score.
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Yeah. They were clearly the better team yesterday, but if you can't score, you lose. It's that simple.
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Manager left Insigne on the bench

It's pretty crazy
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Also

I saw a point earlier about how with Italy and Ireland also failing to qualify, American interest in this WC is going to be the lowest for a long time.

I mean I'm not sure how true it is, but I at least know of a few American b8 users that support Italy because of ancestry (or another reason, I admittedly don't know specifics).
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XIII_rocks posted...

Yeah it's pretty fucking great

woo go my portugal
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woah i'm just now learning today that the USA didn't qualify

lol

guess i'm all-in on england for the wifey!
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XIII_rocks posted...

Also

I saw a point earlier about how with Italy and Ireland also failing to qualify, American interest in this WC is going to be the lowest for a long time.

I mean I'm not sure how true it is, but I at least know of a few American b8 users that support Italy because of ancestry (or another reason, I admittedly don't know specifics).

Mexico qualified though
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Anyone who's been following this Italy team over the last couple years knows the team was being run by incompetent morons and the team was playing awfully. This result is not surprising in the least bit. The draw is just an excuse. They absolutely didn't deserve to qualify. Very disappointing though, especially for Gianluigi Buffon. Greatest of all time, and this World Cup was supposed to be his swan song.

And yeah, with Italy and US out, it's going to be very hard for me to care about this WC.
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XIII_rocks posted...

Also

I saw a point earlier about how with Italy and Ireland also failing to qualify, American interest in this WC is going to be the lowest for a long time.

I mean I'm not sure how true it is, but I at least know of a few American b8 users that support Italy because of ancestry (or another reason, I admittedly don't know specifics).

spain still in no problemo for me
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XIII_rocks posted...

Also

I saw a point earlier about how with Italy and Ireland also failing to qualify, American interest in this WC is going to be the lowest for a long time.

I mean I'm not sure how true it is, but I at least know of a few American b8 users that support Italy because of ancestry (or another reason, I admittedly don't know specifics).

japan still in no problemo for me
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charmander6000 posted...

Qualifying in Europe is hard.

Most confederations require you to go through multiple rounds against numerous rivals roughly your equal. South American qualification is a murderer's row. Europe, with its 13 spots, is relatively easy by comparison. A bad draw for a team like Italy equates to a chance of facing one European power in their group, and if they mess that up they still get a second chance at the end against a team that likely isn't close to them. The entire process is built to ensure the European powers go through.
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South America and Africa are definitely the hardest, after that it's Europe, Asia, and then US and Mexico friendlies and Australia friendlies.
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The US and Italy are my two favorite teams on a "significant" international scale (I mean I guess Iraq is my #1 since I was born there, but they've only ever made one WC). I'm probably all in on the African and Asian underdogs for this Cup.
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I'm totally on the Iceland bandwagon.
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Oh yeah, Iceland is my Euro squad. Sorry, German family!
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That what they get when they won't let us finish our anthem!

Got to love this team we have now. First we get both France and Netherland in the qualify group and then we play against freaking Italy of all teams in the play off. And somehow we will be in World Cup when our team have never had such a weak team. Can you guys even name one swedish player except Lindelf?
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SSJBKK20Vegito posted...

Is this an excuse not to fire our coach?

Cause I really think we should still fire our coach...

Uh
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neonreaper posted...

SSJBKK20Vegito posted...

Is this an excuse not to fire our coach?

Cause I really think we should still fire our coach...

Uh

What???

It looks like Bruce Arena, the coach at the time we failed to qualify, resigned a month ago. There's an interim coach in his stead, but apparently, the search is still on for the next coach.
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

It looks like Bruce Arena, the coach at the time we failed to qualify, resigned a month ago. There's an interim coach in his stead, but apparently, the search is still on for the next coach.

Great.

Its not really Arena or Klinsmanns fault overall. Xiii might remember talking last decade with me about how th US doesnt develop our talents appropriately. Arena wasnt like the long term solution anyway.
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Yeah, Arena wasn't even the coach for a year, and it looks like he was brought in to salvage the USMNT's World Cup qualification efforts after a bad start under Klinsmann (dunno how accurate that is; just my inference after browsing the wiki).

I dunno about our immediate prospects, but I imagine the state of men's soccer in the US will improve in the coming generation after more parents pull their kids out of football. They gotta play something.
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The US relied too much on their golden generation and never really developed their young players as well as other nations.

The US also fared poorly when playing away in CONCACAF and often relied on winning their home games which is fine when your only main opponent was Mexico, but with the rise of Costa Rica's golden generation mistakes by the US became harder to cover up.
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Italy not being in is weird, but I have to appreciate the unsual high Scandinavian presence, with both Sweden and my own s***ty soccer country winning their play off matches and Iceland continuing to surpise. Cheering for Iceland was the best thing about Uefa Euro two years ago, gonna continue doing that.
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neonreaper posted...

Its not really Arena or Klinsmanns fault overall. Xiii might remember talking last decade with me about how th US doesnt develop our talents appropriately. Arena wasnt like the long term solution anyway.

Oh yeah. I do remember that

Freddy Adu lol

Pulisic looks legitimately really good though. Played amazingly against Spurs a month ago. Was very impressed.

US needs like 4 or 5 more of him
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ctesjbuvf posted...

Italy not being in is weird, but I have to appreciate the unsual high Scandinavian presence, with both Sweden and my own s***ty soccer country winning their play off matches and Iceland continuing to surpise. Cheering for Iceland was the best thing about Uefa Euro two years ago, gonna continue doing that.

If you have Eriksen you are not shitty
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Klinsmann was a master at recruiting players with more than one eligibility when it came to international loyalty. It's the whole reason Pulisic even plays for us. He could've decided to play for the Croatian team instead. But he's not the best game manager, so when he started 0-2 in the final round robin, they booted him out for Arena, who is a better game manager, but also kind of an idiot and absolutely a national bigot, who thinks of MLS as the cream of the crop when it comes to soccer talent at his disposal.

Neither of them were wonderful options, but I was very sad to see someone thought Arena was a better answer than Klinsmann. And holy fuck am I glad that Arena is gone now.
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Also, my family is originally from Iceland, and I vacationed there for a week right after their magical Euro run where they beat England in the knockout stages. They treat those guys like gods, it's pretty incredible. They had billboards and endorsements everywhere. I'd been following their World Cup qualifying campaign even more than I'd been following the US's. I'm super excited to watch them compete on the grandest of stages.
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Yeah the US not making it is still the most embarrassing miss this cycle - them and Mexico should always, always make it from CONCACAF, it's so easy. UEFA is way harder. Italy got a rough draw but it's still a shock they couldn't emerge from the playoff, and it was almost as big a shock that Netherlands missed out, and couldn't even make the playoff. Chile was a strange miss as well, as they had just gotten runner-up at the Confederations Cup, plus won the last two Copa Americas.

Since Sweden stole their spot, I'm hoping Ibrahimovic comes back for one more Cup as a super-sub. I'll be all-in for England, since I have family there, and was there for the start of the 2006 Cup, the first one I really got into while it was unfolding. Iceland is a very cool story, though, and I do have an Iceland Football t-shirt, so I'll pull for them if they're not playing England. I also like Poland - I have a Polish jersey and family there - Australia, and, if they make it, New Zealand.
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