Why is this team so offensive minded? Dempsey played like trash in the first two games, Felipe Melo was amazing and in your 4-3-3 set-up he would come back. Melo was consistent throughout the tourny and is pure class
I'm split about the Vuvuzelas as well. They do make it impossible to hear the crowd, which sucks but then again you can't just ban a South African footballing culture.
I don't think that FIFA will ban the instruments or else a LOT of South Africans will get angry. I just wish there was a way so that you can only use those horns when an African team is playing or something
Nice post, As a USA fan I completely agree, this was a great result in this tournament although I would not jump to the conclusion that we'll make noise at the world cup. I think getting out of the group stage would be a positive result for this team
Brighty is shocking, the reason he doesn't shut up though is because he used to have a show on the radio and dead air is not a good thing on the radio(the worst thing is I think he did the radio show ian "the patriot" wright). I'm irish and I love listenin to bill, eamon, gilesy and souness(when he's on), but the rest of rte's product is s**t, for the confed cup they had ray(scottish)houghton and ronnie whelan doing analysis where they pilloried Iraq for playing defensively. Those two played the same tactics with ireland under jack charlton only we had better quality players than Iraq. And don't get me started on kenny "monotone" cunningham, seriously the next time kenny is analysing a game be careful you don't get hypnotized by his eyebrows
I do agree that Maicon is great but I feel Dani Alves did better in this confederations cup, so he deserves the right back spot.
And how the hell not did any of Spain's player get in to the squad? Villa or Torres deserves the RF spot more than Rossi does. Capdevilla is way better than Masiela at left back spot so he deserves the spot.
Just my two cents worth. Good job for the round up as well.
The best XI is based on their overall Confederations Cup performances, some players disappointed while others shone. For instance, I think Alves is a better right-back than Maicon but Maicon played far longer than Alves and put in better performances. Alves scored a cracking free-kick but for most of the tournament, he was surplus to requirements.
Capdevilla gave solid performances yet made a couple of mistakes. He was dreadful in the match vs the USA and was responsible for Jozy Altidore's first goal, he was easily turned by the inexperienced center forward. I didn't include either Spanish forward in the team because they were never really tested, they had one testing game and it was against the USA and where was Villa or Torres? They had fairly poor games and in my opinion, not great tournaments.
(Writing this in a Runcorn Travel Inn after no sleep....)
Well, not a lot of tourists were at these games, at least compared to what the world cup will bring, regardless if someone loves or hate the horns, I think the level will decrease greatly because most of the outsiders, which will be a great part, will probably not use them. I might be dead wrong on that, but still. I don't mind them merely for the concept of accepting other cultures and their unique identities, it would be the same as if they told us to not play drums and chant the whole game in Brazil come 2014, I'd say go to hell
Actually, I often get just as annoyed by the 'England Band' drums at games, hearing h-a-p-p-y over and over again does my tits in. We should just leave it to the Brazilians...
I support banning the horns. If it's part of a country's culture to scratch a chalkboard into a loudspeaker for 90+, should that not be banned? I know it's a sarcastic and exaggerated approach, but I mean no offense to SA culture. It's not that the horns sound like scratched chalkboard, but the fact that the sound is distracting to the players and fans for the FULL 90+. Even while watching the games on tv, the only two things I hear are 1, the horns, and 2, the commentator(s), in that order. Maybe they should just limit the size of the horns to taper the sound?
I'm pretty sure Fifa won't have to give away tickets at the world cup which is something that happened during the Confed cup - I heard there were buses to bring in fans from local towns for a tenner.... What does this mean for the WC? - Less South African locals in every stadium and hpoefully less killer insect noise...
The vuvuzelas make a racket but we should be careful about banning people from celebrating football in their own cultural way. If you let the authorities make rules about that sort of thing they might try and use them to ban other things like chanting. They might try to stop people singing non-politically correct songs like the 'Park Ji Sung.... You eat dogs' chant (my favourite chant ever, so funny) because it's offensive to South Koreans. But it's just for fun! The atmosphere at games is already being sterilised by stewards and cops telling us to sit down and shut up all the time. Let the fans blow their horns, it's just their culture! LOVE footy!
I for one agree with Darius! You do a professional job and should get your reward.... Think about starting your own site.... I would subscribe to it.
Btw I was thinking about the horns the other day.... I kind of dig 'em.... It truly is a World Wide event and should take on the cultural flavor of the host country.... And that is as it should be.... However I do miss the massive roar when a goal is scored.... The horns are so constant that when something incredible happens it just gets drowned out and that takes away from the flow of the moment.... Other than that it kind of has it's own buzz (sorry)
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after no sleep....) 
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