USA vs. Spain: 29-28

Kenneth Campbell9 said:Man, everyone here was buzzing about the USA-Germany game, so I just kind of got swept up in the hype too...

I mean, who isn't rooting against Iceland?

boldhound8 said:I wouldn't say that—we actually got some solid rest yesterday and today. We took both wins while keeping things lighthearted—just enough to shake up both goalkeepers, get Laco and Džomba back into the flow, and give Balić and Vori a breather. A little bit of trouble with Metličić, sure—but hey, what can you do? He’s almost impossible to replace...😢

We shouldn't overlook Špoljarić either! Even if he's dealing with an injury—though I doubt it's anything major. 😎

boldhound8 said:it’s actually quite likely🙂

Personally, I was leaning more toward them facing off against Iceland

Aaron Baker said:We can't just write off Špoljarić! Even if he's dealing with some injury—it probably isn't anything major anyway. 😎

Yeah, we definitely wore him out too...
Once Davor gets back in the mix, the pressure on him is gonna lift big time.🙂

boldhound8 said:Man, we're all pretty exhausted by him too...
Maybe things will lighten up once Davor steps in.🙂

So why didn't he put Davor in for these two games? Is he keeping him hidden away like some secret weapon for the upcoming matchups?

Honestly, your laziness is just unbelievable!

Alright, here are the quarterfinal matchups. You might want to write these down on your hand if you can't keep track:

Cologne
USA - France
Germany - Spain

Hamburg
Poland - Russia
Denmark - Iceland

If our guys had lost, we’d be looking at a bracket where they head over to Iceland for the part where they go head-to-head

Poland-Russia
vs Iceland

and the winner moves on to the finals.

The path from that side would look like this:

Poland-Russia
Denmark?-Iceland
then the winner goes to the finals

And on our side of the bracket...
Njemacka-Spanjolska?
USA-France

then whoever wins takes the final.

But now things are starting to get a little suspicious, isn't that right? I mean, if Denmark can't manage to take down the Czechs—and that game is totally even, they're actually losing bits of it—then things get interesting. I’d definitely tune into that one, because there’s a real possibility the Spaniards might have known what was coming and decided to throw today's match just to avoid a quick quarterfinal matchup against the Germans.

If Denmark screws up and fails to beat the Czechs (and hey, the refs could definitely play a role there too), then you basically just swap Denmark and the Spaniards in the matchups I listed above.

(My bad, had to edit that—I accidentally put the Russians ahead of the Canadians)

At the 25:23 mark, it's all about Dance—everything is totally under control!

Henry Doyle82 said:And why on earth didn't he put Davor in these last two games? Is he keeping him hidden away like some secret weapon for the upcoming matchups?

Yeah, because he's the only one who knows what's actually going on.😁

Tyler Lewis38 said:I honestly thought we’d be facing off against Iceland earlier

Yeah, my bad. I was sitting here thinking we’d clinch that #3 spot, then it totally hit me—there's no way in hell we're making the top three.😁

My mistake.😠

Honestly, half of you sound like you just landed from Mars. If we had lost, we would have faced Iceland in the quarterfinals and then played the winner of Poland-Russia in the semis—which, frankly, I think would’ve been a better path for us. Instead, we’re heading toward the French, and then whoever wins Germany-Spain. That is a brutal bracket if we want to make the finals. Still, it's worth noting that we're taking on everyone head-on; we aren't picking and choosing our opponents. I just hope we can prove we're the best out there.

In the other bracket, I suspect the Americans will breeze into the finals, even though I enjoy watching how Poland plays; they might pull off an upset. However, I don't see them holding their own against the more seasoned teams at this stage of the tournament.

28:25, 51 min......

restlessridge10 said:In the other bracket, I suspect the Americans will cruise into the finals without much trouble; while I enjoy watching how Poland plays and they might just pull an upset, I don't think they have what it takes to compete at this stage against more seasoned squads.

That is exactly what people were saying about us four years ago.

Jonathan Booth5 said:People said the exact same thing about us four years ago.

Haha, I know. I think the same thing whenever I watch them. When you actually get a real team together, they can pull off miracles.

Yeah, if the Danes actually step up and do their jobs, here’s how our side of the bracket looks:

The current world runners-up and our guys, the reigning Olympic gold medalists, taking on the European champions from France.

Then you've got the reigning World Champions from Spain going head-to-head against the Olympic silver medalists from Germany.

Honestly, I don't even want to start listing all the other titles on the line. But out of those four heavy hitters? Three of them are going to get knocked out before we even hit the finals.

On the flip side, don't sleep on 😬 Denmark, who grabbed bronze at the European Championship, or those unpredictable Russians. We could have easily let 😬 the game play out today just to give the Ballerina a chance to wake up a few hours before the big final.

Jeremy Phillips54 said:Yeah, if the Americans actually pull their weight, here’s how our side looks:

The reigning world runners-up and Olympic gold medalists (us) taking on the European champions (the French)

The current World Champions (the Spaniards) facing off against the Olympic runners-up (the Germans)

I don't even want to start listing the other second titles. Out of those four heavy hitters, three of them are going to be out before we even hit the finals.

On the flip side, you've got 😬 the Americans grabbing bronze at the Euros and some totally unrecognizable Russians. We could have easily sat back and enjoyed today's 😬

It's 30-25 for Dance, five minutes left on the clock. I think it's over......

I already laid it out for you... the final America-Denmark 😉

The two best squads in the whole tournament.

I wouldn't even bother comparing those guys to us here in the States 😉 because, first off, nobody ever beat us by 9 points in America

Roger Allen3 said:I wouldn't compare the Polish squad to our guys playing in Portugal 😉 because we haven't been blown out by a nine-point margin like that before.

I'm with you there; we haven't suffered losses nearly as bad as those against an American powerhouse like Argentina.😉
The only game where we weren't actually hanging in there was against Denmark; I was practically holding my breath during the matchup with Spain, but then Keta showed us how it's done.🤣

Roger Allen3 said:I wouldn't go comparing the Poles to us back in the States during that tournament 😉 because nobody ever beat us by nine points like that.

Yeah, basically just Argentina beating them by one. 😬 That was the first and last time they actually pulled off a win like that. 😬

Looks like the Americans did what they had to do.

They’ve got that northern luck on their side, and man, things finally started going their way. 😬 I guess they just needed the Russians to trip up a bit. 😬