Big Stories to Take from the 2010 World Cup

1) Ratings Success. This is the most important American story from the 2010 World Cup. With the time difference in South Africa the same as 2006 in Germany, it allowed us to have an equal comparison between the ratings. The results: ESPN - up 31%, and Univision - up 15%. Those are huge increases, and they only should get higher in 2014, when the games are on later in the day. 2) Mainstream breakthrough. Part of the reason for ESPN's ratings increase had to be due to their relentless promotion. It was very hard to not know that it was going on, sports fan or not. Commercials were running non-stop, far more than any previous tournament. John Skipper, ESPN's Vice President for Content, has to get a ton of credit. He wanted to move the needle, and they did it. Skipper may currently be the most important person in American soccer. But it wasn't just ESPN, how about Coca Cola putting the World Cup on their cans? That was a huge sign of mainstream acceptance. How about the vuvuzela? For better or worse, everybody is now familiar with it. The 2010 World Cup was a mainstream event. 3) Meeting expectations. It's wrong to call the US heroes for beating Algeria and advancing to the round of 16. However, it's also unfair to call them a disappointment. With the draw we had, anything less than advancement would've rightfully been called a failure. But despite the easier than normal path to the semifinals, a country with the soccer history that we have simply can't expect a better result than the round of 16. There are only 8 places in the quarterfinals, and we aren't one of the top 8 teams in the world. We met expectations, nothing more and nothing less. It's perhaps a lost opportunity with Ghana not being a world beater, but I'm not too upset.

USMNT: Records By Cycle

All matches GP W L D Pts PPG GF GA GD GFA GAA GDA 1990 44 16 21 7 55 1.25 45 53 -8 1.02 1.20 -0.18 1994 100 32 36 32 128 1.28 120 110 10 1.20 1.10 0.10 1998 68 27 25 16 97 1.43 90 77 13 1.32 1.13 0.19 2002 65 33 18 14 113 1.74 99 54 45 1.52 0.83 0.69 2006 65 38 12 15 129 1.98 111 45 66 1.71 0.69 1.02 2010 66 38 20 8 122 1.85 120 80 40 1.82 1.21 0.61 Competitive matches only GP W L D Pts PPG GF GA GD GFA GAA GDA 1990 13 5 4 4 19 1.46 13 12 1 1.00 0.92 0.08 1994 21 11 6 4 37 1.76 30 25 5 1.43 1.19 0.24 1998 33 16 10 7 55 1.67 48 31 17 1.45 0.94 0.52 2002 31 17 8 6 57 1.84 47 22 25 1.52 0.71 0.81 2006 35 20 7 8 68 1.94 62 27 35 1.77 0.77 1.00 2010 42 26 11 5 83 1.98 82 49 33 1.95 1.17 0.79 Friendly tournaments like the US Cup are not included, while 1994 includes the 1991 North American Nations Cup. However, the previous version isn't included under 1990 because the USA sent a b-team, and the matches aren't considered part of the official USMNT history (for competitive games or just in general). I wonder...technically, shouldn't they be counted? It's a similar situation to Brazil sending a U-23 team to the 2003 Gold Cup - that was an official competition, so the matches still count as full ones for Brazil regardless of how seriously they took them. I know very little about the NA tournament, though. Teams defeated and lost to by cycle (includes all matches) 1990 Won Lost Bermuda (2) Austria Costa Rica (2) Chile (2) El Salvador Colombia (3) Finland Costa Rica (2) Guatemala (2) Czechoslovakia Iceland East Germany Jamaica Ecuador (2) Liechtenstein Egypt Malta Guatemala Peru Hungary Poland Italy Thailand Poland Trinidad & Tobago South Korea (2) Soviet Union Switzerland 1994 Won Lost Armenia Argentina Canada (2) Australia Cayman Islands Bermuda China Brazil (4) CIS Chile Colombia CIS Costa Rica (2) Colombia (2) El Salvador East Germany England Ecuador Estonia El Salvador Guatemala Germany (2) Honduras Honduras Iceland Iceland Ireland Ireland Ivory Coast Japan Jamaica (3) Mexico Mexico (2) Morocco Moldova North Korea Norway Norway Panama Portugal Poland Romania (2) Portugal Russia Romania Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Scotland Trinidad & Tobago (2) Spain Uruguay Sweden Switzerland Ukraine (2) Uruguay 1998 Won Lost Argentina Belgium (2) Austria Bolivia (2) Brazil Brazil (2) Canada (2) China Chile Colombia Costa Rica (3) Costa Rica (3) Cuba Denmark El Salvador (3) Ecuador Guatemala (2) England Ireland Germany Israel Iran Jamaica Mexico (2) Kuwait Netherlands Mexico Peru (2) Nigeria Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Sweden Scotland Trinidad & Tobago Sweden Yugoslavia Trinidad & Tobago (3) 2002 Won Lost Argentina Brazil (2) Barbados (2) Colombia Chile (2) Costa Rica (2) China Germany (2) Costa Rica (2) Honduras Cuba Ireland Ecuador Italy El Salvador Mexico (3) Germany (2) Morocco Guatemala (2) Netherlands Haiti Poland Honduras (2) Russia Jamaica (2) South Korea Mexico (5) New Zealand Peru Portugal Saudi Arabia South Africa South Korea Trinidad & Tobago Uruguay 2006 Won Lost Canada (2) Argentina Colombia Brazil (2) Costa Rica (2) Costa Rica Cuba (2) Czech Republic El Salvador (4) England Grenada (2) Germany Guatemala (2) Ghana Honduras (3) Mexico Jamaica (2) Morocco Japan Netherlands Latvia Turkey Martinique Mexico (2) New Zealand Norway Panama (3) Paraguay Poland (2) Trinidad & Tobago (2) Venezuela (2) Wales 2010 Won Lost Algeria Argentina Australia Brazil (3) Barbados (2) Colombia Canada Costa Rica China Czech Republic Cuba (2) Denmark Denmark England Ecuador Ghana Egypt Honduras El Salvador (3) Italy Grenada Mexico (2) Guatemala (3) Netherlands Honduras (4) Paraguay Mexico (3) Slovakia Panama (2) Spain Poland Sweden South Africa Trinidad & Tobago Spain Sweden (2) Switzerland Trinidad & Tobago (4) Turkey

World Cup 1998-2010: Fewest Minutes Leading in the Group Stage & Still Advanced

EDIT: The USA's next opponent, Ghana, joins the list after only leading for 5 minutes. For the group stages in the 1998-2010 World Cups (with the current format, where only two teams advanced from each group rather than three). Stoppage time is counted as one minute, so each team has 270 minutes to work with. 1 2006 Australia 1 1 2006 Sweden 1 1 2010 United States 1 4 2010 Ghana 5 5 1998 Mexico 16 6 1998 Norway 21 7 2006 Mexico 22 8 2010 Mexico 26 9 1998 Paraguay 41 10 2002 Sweden 56 Due to not knowing the exact times in the matches, and also the ease of counting each match as 90 minutes, I've listed the US as tied for first. However, the goals in the other matches (Australia-Japan and Sweden-Paraguay) were both in the 89th minute. Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria was in stoppage time. Depending on the amount in each of the games, they could actually be first. On the flip side, Algeria only trailed for 12 minutes in their three matches (1 vs USA, 11 vs Slovenia) and still didn't advance. The only country that can better that is 1998 Belgium, which drew three straight times and never trailed. So close to being the USA's fate this time around... Algeria also spent 258 minutes tied, which is the most from this time period. Also, how about Mexico listed three times? They certainly get the job done every four years.

USMNT: Number of Caps for World Cup Openers (1990-2010)

Looking at the opening games of the World Cup for the USA in each of the past six tournaments, here's how many caps the entire team had at that moment: Caps Avg Median 1990 297 27.00 29 1994 549 49.91 46 1998 548 49.82 49 2002 539 49.00 41 2006 730 66.36 71 2010 562 51.09 52 2006 stands out, while it's interesting to see how similar 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2010 are. I wouldn't have expected the 2010 lineup to be the second most experienced. Here's the individual lineups with cap totals (as of those matches): 1990 vs Czechoslovakia Mike Windischmann 43 Bruce Murray 39 Paul Caligiuri 34 John Harkes 30 Steve Trittschuh 30 John Stollmeyer 29 Tab Ramos 24 Peter Vermes 21 Tony Meola 18 Desmond Armstrong 15 Eric Wynalda 14 1994 vs Switzerland Marcelo Balboa 88 Tony Meola 84 Paul Caligiuri 80 Eric Wynalda 53 Tab Ramos 47 John Harkes 46 Alexi Lalas 45 Thomas Dooley 40 Mike Sorber 37 Earnie Stewart 17 Cle Kooiman 12 1998 vs Germany Cobi Jones 108 Eric Wynalda 100 Thomas Dooley 78 Mike Burns 74 Claudio Reyna 60 Earnie Stewart 49 Kasey Keller 33 Eddie Pope 24 Chad Deering 11 Brian Maisonneuve 8 David Regis 3 2002 vs Portugal Jeff Agoos 131 Earnie Stewart 81 Brad Friedel 77 Brian McBride 61 Eddie Pope 51 Frankie Hejduk 41 Tony Sanneh 33 Landon Donovan 24 John O'Brien 16 DaMarcus Beasley 13 Pablo Mastroeni 11 2006 vs Czech Republic Claudio Reyna 110 Kasey Keller 94 Brian McBride 93 Landon Donovan 82 Eddie Pope 81 Eddie Lewis 71 DaMarcus Beasley 59 Pablo Mastroeni 49 Bobby Convey 40 Steve Cherundolo 36 Oguchi Onyewu 15 2010 vs England Landon Donovan 124 Carlos Bocanegra 80 Clint Dempsey 63 Steve Cherundolo 61 Oguchi Onyewu 55 Tim Howard 52 Michael Bradley 44 Ricardo Clark 30 Jozy Altidore 26 Jay DeMerit 20 Robbie Findley 7 The ten most capped players: 1 2002 Jeff Agoos 131 2 2010 Landon Donovan 124 3 2006 Claudio Reyna 110 4 1998 Cobi Jones 108 5 1998 Eric Wynalda 100 6 2006 Kasey Keller 94 7 2006 Brian McBride 93 8 1994 Marcelo Balboa 88 9 1994 Tony Meola 84 10 2006 Landon Donovan 82 The ten least capped players: 1 1998 David Regis 3 2 2010 Robbie Findley 7 3 1998 Brian Maisonneuve 8 4 1998 Chad Deering 11 4 2002 Pablo Mastroeni 11 6 1994 Cle Kooiman 12 7 2002 DaMarcus Beasley 13 8 1990 Eric Wynalda 14 9 1990 Desmond Armstrong 15 9 2006 Oguchi Onyewu 15

USMNT Stuff

Been focused on that recently. Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm trying to figure out a definitive list of USMNT lineups, which is hard when the Hall of Fame and RSSSF don't agree in several instances. Also, I was kind of burnt out from spending so much time on the plus/minus research. Besides that, my goal was to make a list of which cap came in which game. So for example, if I wanted to know which game Claudio Reyna's 47th cap came in, I could easily look that up (March 16, 1997 - the 3:0 home WCQ win over Canada). I have that done for every single game now, I just want to make sure it's completely accurate before I post it here. See this Bigsoccer thread for more discussion.