Originally posted by Time-Immemorial
The only person here is trolling is you. I mixed a name up, big deal?
Hey, at least that "joke" was actually funny.
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Poor Wales. England get two scrappy goals and now they'll be talking like they're gonna win the thing.
At least Hodgson realised how shit Sterling is atm.
Originally posted by Omega Vision
In what sense would it be damaging in the short-term? Do you mean for the South American teams?
Originally posted by Slay
No, but the USA have been lucky in the draw. The only team that was a test until now was Colombia and they failed that. Getting to the semis now might lead to even more self-aggrandizement and overestimation of the team's abilities which might lead to unrealistic expectations and increased pressure on the team. Overall it's probably good in the long run as it'll probably increase popularity of the sport in the country.
I don't think there's much danger of the team or the fans getting ahead of themselves unless we beat Argentina and win the final. If you read the comments of any news article/blogpost about the USMNT you'll find a combination of rampant pessimism and cautious optimism, and that's after victories like last night. After defeats you'll hear calls for Klinnsmann to get deported and lamentations about how the USA hasn't improved at all since the 90s. US fans might indulge in some unrealistic hopes when it comes to young American players (we've had so many false positives) but in terms of expectations for things like tournaments we generally set the bar at hoping to get out of the group stage, and anything beyond that is a bonus.
It will take a long time and a lot of big victories before Americans are as delusional as say, England fans, or worse, Mexicans, who talk as if El Tri has won 3 World Cups, or even made it to the semis once...