WTF are they playing for?

[samikeyp]

Diego...if Argentina loses (personally I think they can still win this thing) will you feel it was because the team that beat them was better or because Argentina was weaker?

[zeleni]

So you are fine with pulling a "I told you we wouldn't win" after the fact by making sure your prediction of failure is on the record. Some might call that weak fandom. At least the saddle on your high horse is shiny.

I have to agree with diego on this one. To be a fan of a team and notice a team cannot achieve the optimum reserved for a championship is an educated fandom.
A person who is capable to explain in great detail why his team is not capable of winning the le is as big of a fan then who is screaming Go!Go! without knowing the rules of the game.
Weakest is a fan who doesn't look, doesn't care, but can bet on the events and pull up a flag, if by chance his side wins. That would be like a mechanic in San Antonio who never goes out of his garage and on the day of the Riverwalk puts out a sign: YEAH! GO SPURS GO! and drinks a beer to celebrate that sign. (I'm using the Spurs case, since the sign would be used almost annualy)

[samikeyp]

To me...a true fan stays with his or her team despite the cir stances. As a Spurs fan I have lived through the highs (three les) and the lows (the days after Ice and before DRob) and I have never waivered and I know there are a lot of people here that are the same.

[diego]

I will always hope the team wins, now or in 10 years, and a part of me expects them to- this generation of players has earned a lot of faith, to the point where anything but 1st would be a disappointment. but i feel that the loss of certain vets and more importantly the new coach has subtracted some quality from argentina, and the compe ion has always been close. Im worried about Spain because we havent beaten them in over a decade and they have been in good form for a while now. The US is always tough but Im not too worried about this version of the team because i dont feel they have enough bigs to exploit argentinas biggest weakness, and they are very young. It still wont be easy to defeat them, for us or anyone else. As talented as Argentina is right now, we wont ever be close to the US in terms of skill level. but that still doesnt mean we cant play better ball.

I never said I expect Argentina to lose. But in these compe ions it just takes one bad game to go out and Hernandez is nowhere near Magnano in terms of making a game plan and adjusting in game. That is why I have reservations, and it wouldnt surprise me if we were eliminated by spain before even reaching the final.

So it would depend on how we lost whether Ill attribute it to the other team being better or us not playing well. For ex: USA beat arg in the olympic qualifier by outplaying us; Yugoslavia beat us in 02 without our best player and with a horrible non-call in the last 10 sec.

In any case Im not going to stop watching basketball and rooting for my teams just because Arg or the Spurs get overcome by younger teams.

My club team in soccer is a disaster, in over 100 years of league play we have never won anything, and on several occasions we have lost the le on the last day of compe ion (Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata for my fellow argentines). I still wear their jersey and follow their games regardless of where I am.

[tlongII]

I will always hope the team wins, now or in 10 years, and a part of me expects them to- this generation of players has earned a lot of faith, to the point where anything but 1st would be a disappointment. but i feel that the loss of certain vets and more importantly the new coach has subtracted some quality from argentina, and the compe ion has always been close. Im worried about Spain because we havent beaten them in over a decade and they have been in good form for a while now. The US is always tough but Im not too worried about this version of the team because i dont feel they have enough bigs to exploit argentinas biggest weakness, and they are very young. It still wont be easy to defeat them, for us or anyone else. As talented as Argentina is right now, we wont ever be close to the US in terms of skill level. but that still doesnt mean we cant play better ball.

I never said I expect Argentina to lose. But in these compe ions it just takes one bad game to go out and Hernandez is nowhere near Magnano in terms of making a game plan and adjusting in game. That is why I have reservations, and it wouldnt surprise me if we were eliminated by spain before even reaching the final.

So it would depend on how we lost whether Ill attribute it to the other team being better or us not playing well. For ex: USA beat arg in the olympic qualifier by outplaying us; Yugoslavia beat us in 02 without our best player and with a horrible non-call in the last 10 sec.

In any case Im not going to stop watching basketball and rooting for my teams just because Arg or the Spurs get overcome by younger teams.

My club team in soccer is a disaster, in over 100 years of league play we have never won anything, and on several occasions we have lost the le on the last day of compe ion (Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata for my fellow argentines). I still wear their jersey and follow their games regardless of where I am.

Dude, the USA is going to spank everybody in the WC's! I have already predicted that no team will get within 6 points of us. Look out cause we are going to PARTY!

[v2freak]

Although I probably would have gone about saying it in a different way, I do believe the US will finish first. That's not to say that they won't get a fight from other countries however.