News: Uruguay's AUF lashes againts Copa America and USA's futbol.

It's rarely that crazy. But yeah... welcome to life in a big country, Uruguay.

 

Well, one would not expect the cross country blues to show up in the opening match . . .

 

Bahahaha, shows you exactly how big a fan I am for teams 2-5.

 

True. Maybe those are just pre-excuses for when they crash out.

 

me too

 

All this combined with the fact they've had some amazing players over the years, Francescoli, Forlan, Suarez.

 

They are without doubt the most annoying country in the region. They are just impossible when they lose. Always over the top. There's also no doubt that they bring it on the field.

 

Oh, they bring it.

 

Clint coulda broke that record against Slovenia

 

When the rumor was that the USA wouldn't be hosting, it was the Ecuador federation that proposed to host instead. The Uruguayan federation was the one to jump in the Ecuador bandwagon immediately.

I feel they were the last ones to get convinced of having this tournament in the USA. Brazil and Argentina are full of traditionalists (I'm sort of one, to a point), but Uruguay is full of real fanatics.

 

If Galeano were alive, he'd get to the bottom of it all. Instead, his ashes are spinning.

 

Ps: Is it just me, or does that not look a bit like Brad Guzan there?

 

Oh, Uruguay federation complaining about something and showing no class? This is the same outfit that bitched about the Suarez biting punishment and also home to the Suarez handball on line, to name just a few. So sad to disappoint Uruguay. If would be a shame if we mistakenly played the Chilean anthem again in their next match.

 

Uruguay is totally irrelevant. Some good soccer played there, but this country is not driving any money decisions.

 

Well, they start off the tournament with the bumbling Americans playing the Chilean national anthem instead of theirs. This probably could not have been funnier to have happened to another country in the tournament. A country with an over blown sense of self importance in global soccer based on a distant history of success getting their anthem screwed up by a country with a rich history of having a lack of soccer sophistication with and a lingering stereotype of having a lack of geographical sophistication.

Followed by the boorish behavior of Mexican fans in their game including bottles thrown on field at their players and assault of their fans in the stands.

 

Uruguay can be infuriating to watch because of their poor loser/chip on shoulder style. But for a nation of three million people, with little money, surrounded by the powerhouses (Both in soccer and economically) of their region; they have always manged to punch above their weight, and with some historically great players to boot. They are actually the Country in South America that reminds me of the US the most soccerwise. They dont, and never have possessed the ball well, and have always been an excellent counter attacking team, and they play with a lot of intensity and physicality. Their antics are frustrating, but they are the little kid on the block in their region and have that chip on their shoulder. The US could learn something from their intensity, especially when playing big teams. They have no fear of playing on the big stage, sometimes to their own detriment.

 

The time zones add something to it, but Uruguay will actually log fewer air miles through four matches than the USMNT did in Brazil, because of the north-south distances in Brazil. The USMNT flew 10,188 miles, Uruguay will fly just over 7,000 miles.

 

Uruguay, their people, are one notch below the Argies in how serious they take themselves. So when it comes to their National Football Team, well, the rest of us get statements from their AUF like this. Shocking.

Correct.
And for Mundial two leg playoffs with a New Zealand as well. New Zealand, at home, is a tremendous task to sell tickets to. But boy howdy did the Mexicans pull that one off!

 

To be fair--and I've said this for a long time--, there could be a better way to schedule regional matches for groups.

I mean, the USMNT does fly from Santa Clara to Chicago to Philadelphia... that's not short on air miles.

Why can't we figure out how to schedule matches for groups that are in regional pods? That way, teams and fans can plan better and travel less.

 

The US has an incentive for Mexico and the rest of CCAF to do well when facing other CONFED teams. More so in the WC, but the better we do as a region helps our Confed score in calculating the FIFA ranking.

If we do well as a region in the 2018 WC then our Confed score could go up which in turn helps the US (and all other CCAF teams) in every game we play.

We owe a big thanks to CR for doing so well in 2014 for this very reason.

 

Great. Don't care. A pox on my biggest rivals.

 

All I could think about when I saw this

 

But that's the thing. If they had all the USA group games out on the West Coast, us Easterners would complain that the games were too far away. The same would be true for West Coast people if all the games were in the Eastern time zone. And if they had all the games in the Central Time zone, EVERYBODY but Chicagoans would complain. The way they worked it, everybody gets a chance to see the team. Is it fair to the players to do it this way? Who cares? They're big boys.

 

Well like...have four different pods: West, Midwest, Northeast, South (I'm biased as I live in Atlanta). Groups play in two different regions, then match their knockout round match in another region.

So...USA could have played in Santa Clara, Seattle and Orlando, then a knockout in Houston or Chicago. Keep two group matches in a row closer together. Does that make sense?