I am old and feel it. I will be 74 by the time the 2026 WC arrives. I just hope that the TV viewing rights are not that expensive.
Mixed feelings for me. Naturally it will be awesome to go to the WC in person, but I'm not a fan of how these events (and I lump in the Olympics as well) have had an effect on their host nations / cities in recent years. Having said that, in 8 years who knows how things will look?
isn't that typically due to the need to build infrastructure though? At the same time, I despise FIFA. I'm already planning to boycott 2022. Toyed with this one but as I gleefully started putting the dates in my phone's calendar, I realized that wasn't going to happen. There's no way they can justify that thing being in Qatar though. I do have mixed feelings about the US/Canada/Mexico bid though, for reasons that won't be popular on this forum: soccer is nowhere near as ingrained in the sporting culture here or in Canada, compared to many many other places around the world and Mexico have already hosted twice in my lifetime. In that same time, England have never hosted. Now it's not that I'm not happy for the World Cup to be played here, for both selfish and non-selfish reasons. I'm also pleased for the people on his forum who will go full "girl at 60s Beatles concert" for the tournament. However, there are nations (like England) where it will be a wall-to-wall party. Should the US ever WIN the World Cup, I will of course be delighted but I would also fully expect to have the surreal experience, of a colleague moseying up to me and with casual enthusiasm say "So the US won the World cup, huh? How about that...?". This is again, in contrast to the 14 day nationwide booze-up that would happen elsewhere.
Hey I clearly like this group that's why I stuck around! We have a smallish community here that is great for discussion. I also post on https://www.reddit.com/r/LAGalaxy/ not sure if any one else here crosses over to there.
I'm a mod on there, and I quite like it. Things are little more lenient on reddit like cursing, but then we get some Ibra fan boys constantly asking how he is doing which really pisses me off.
So we are past the world cup, and we still don't have a long term coach. I thought the plan was to sign someone after the world cup? Rumors that we tried to get Van Gaal, but he rejected. Also apparently we want Berhalter badly. Whoever we get, we hopefully can get them soon. Gold cup is in the summer, and I don't want to see us with Sarachan for that.
They gave Sarachan a contract up through the end of the year (i found it on SI) to give Earnie Stewart a little more room to find a coach.
True, but Dave knows he is a placeholder. If Ernie finds the "right guy" before year's end, they can work some buy-out deal with Dave. It wouldn't come as a surprise to him.
Can we start caring about the national team again? Lletget gets called up, but isn't even considered a starter in our team when everyone is fit. Not sure if that shows the state of US soccer, or how bad Sigi is at recognizing talent. Well anyway, apparently we have yet to interview anyone for the US job. Sarachan will likely be the manager going into 2019. He is doing a great job with the youth, but I don't think he should be the national team manager.
I'm looking forward to the next NT game, and glad for Lletget. I am not worried about Sarachan. I think Ernie will hire a manager from MLS when the season is over. Probably "someone" (Berhalter, my bet) will come on board in January. Sarachan will plan the January camp and there will be a transition period. Depending on the coach, Sarachan may even stay on as assistant.
I am also glad that Lletget is getting called up, but please remember that its a more or less meaningless friendly. Being called up doesn't mean he will even make the 18. IMO Seb has to show that he belongs on the NT post injury. Furthermore, at 26, he has a very short window as he would be 30 by the next WC. As far as Sigi is concerned, are you suggesting that that he would have gotten selected over Jona or Allesandrini (had they been USMNT eligible)?
Looks like he won't be playing in the friendlies against Brazil or Mexico after all, sent home due to a lingering abdominal injury...doesn't sound too serious so hopefully he will be fit for the game against Toronto.
I'm looking forward to this this game. And even though he is no longer a member of our team, I hope Gyasi bags a hat trick. I hope he freakin' shines. I know the game means nothing, but I don't care.
That was a pretty poor game by us. Brazil never looked challenged at all. They comfortably controlled the game. We are still so far off being able to compete with the better nations.
Well, we did tie the WC champs before the tournament. Not sure what you could expect. This was more or less Brazil's WC squad, which means they are one of the best NTs in the world AND they have lots of experience playing together, whereas most of our guys have a handful of caps between them and little experience together. Not a bad performance under the circumstances, IMO. I was impressed with Adams, Miazga, Brooks and Trapp. Sorta underwhelmed by Arriola, Meh to the others.
The always classy Mexican fans with their traditional homophobic cheer on goal kicks. Is there any theoretical effort to get this crap out of the international game?
No one reay confronts this issue. Doubt someone will now. Green Adams Robinson and Miazga showed well. 11 v 11 US probably doesn't win. Miazga holding Lainez off was good. Him holding up his on him wound up being the play of the game. Changed the game. Riled everyone up. Moments later Mexico striker goes to the ground dangerously. US finally had possession. This is the concerning part. We couldn't keep the ball and moved too slow in the attack to counter. Sarachan has not shown well as coach. He could have shown something exciting to land him a good job. I'm tired of loading the lineup with defensive mindided midfielders. Like the build up to the goal. Zardes has really learned the near post run
Lainez is an amazing talent and he scares the shit out of me. Good thing he doesn't scare Matt Miazga, although I thought the height thing was petty. We all saw you towering over him, Matt, no need to taunt publicly over and over.