“He whom is dead to me” tonight was the rare substitute who plays badly enough to get subbed out himself. Very enjoyable. So proud of this USMNT. Our C team goes out and wins the Gold Cup. I think 2 or 3 of them might have played their way onto the A team. We’ll see.
The Futbol America's podcast is pretty confident that Mexico won't have a single WCQ home game in front of fans. I won't believe it until I see it. Especially since the 4th game is a meaningful one for Mexico as they host Costa Rica. The other three (see below) aren't the big games of the gameday. Mexico's first three home qualifiers are against Jamaica (9/2) Canada (10/7) and Honduras (10/10). For relevance: the US game at Mexico is 3/24 while the US hosts Mexico on 11/12. Mexico got the weirdest scheduling for the qualifiers, btw. The US never has two games in a row on the road or at home. It is very balanced. Whereas Mexico has a stretch of 4 games (over three windows) where they are on the road. But they also have a string of 3 games at home towards the end and finish with 4 of their last 5 at home.
Last night the El Tri fans were doing the P*** chant at our GK. Nothing will be done. But this blind eye isn’t just a CONCACAF thing. Are stadiums at full capacity in Mexico? Admittedly, I’m not sure how their Futbol Federation and Governments are currently responding to the pandemic in this regard.
I chatted with a Mexican fan over the weekend about all this stuff. He first went on to explain that p*** by itself is not a homophobic slur, but it can be with the right context. I've heard that before. He thinks it can go away but it won't be overnight. He says it will take a whole string of these sanctions. Like, no fans for a few home games, then it will happen again, so then no fans again and he believes it will diminish little by little after each sanction until it's relatively gone. We'll see.
Its bullshit that the fans can now essentially go to that chant in an effort to stall the game should the opposing team gain momentum. Canada should have beat them in the semi's and yet the fans went to the chant and undid Canada's momentum while also garnering additional stoppage time. I get why the powers that be went with this approach initially, but without going to any of the steps beyond "lets stop the game for a few mins" it is now a tactic the fans can use to further "dark arts" the game.
Maybe it's revisionist history, but I'm not sure we have too many wingers better than him. Pretty sure I'd rather take a chance on Bofo getting better than Meram finally finding his form from several years ago. Anyone know what actually happened with his departure? RSL didn't offer? Bofo wanted out of MLS?
Could not disagree more. Bofo's are a dime a dozen in MLS. Also, I seem to remember listening to him in an interview mention how if he had to do it all over he would actually like practice and work hard instead of what he did at RSL. Something along those lines. Wish him the best but I don't see him ever really being a player you miss when he's gone or don't ever want to leave when he's on your team. He's probably going to be a solid professional but there's lots of those around if you know where to look. You know who would be a really good player for RSL this season? Kelyn Rowe.
Purely from a spectator's perspective without any knowledge of the inner workings, I think moving to Mexico was the best thing for Bofo. Got him away from home / being sheltered within the club. Maybe served as a wake up call, as you allude to with his "working harder" comments. Which, speaks both to the professionalism that Bofo had and to the club's inability to figure out the pipeline from academy to first team at the level of a FC Dallas.
I just meant it's better to give minutes to a younger player than Meram at this point. Rowe would be nice, but he was a FA and chose SEA.
Good point and totally agree. I don't blame Rowe for leaving. I don't think he got a very fair shot here last season. Kind of funny he gets reunited with Freddy in Seattle. Kelyn replacing either Everton or Besler would be a big improvement in the midfield for RSL but he's probably in a better situation. And RSL please give young players more time. Especially early in the season. If I'm a guy like Illoski I'm looking for any and all exits from RSL. Also, dead on with Meram getting time. Solid professional but getting way to long in the tooth. His minutes given to a younger player/s all season would benefit in the long run and in a playoff run much more than not having him would hurt RSL.
Called up for tonight's USA-Costa Rica match: one Alvaro Saborio, still kicking it with San Carlos of the Costa Rican Premier League at age 39. A spate of injuries to other forwards left them needing the help from Sabo.
You may recall that Corey Baird was traded away from LAFC after seeing his playing time wane through the summer. He's been with Houston since late July - his first game was against us on the 31st - but even as Houston has struggled, he has appeared in only seven games (four starts) and has neither a goal nor an assist for them. He is now injured.
I remember how excited we were for his future during his rookie year performances. I hope that he can turn it around.
something happened to him the year after that on a personal level that concerns me as a human. He went from the player that worked his tail off and seemed to be fairly humble, to one of the most arrogant and flat out annoying players on the pitch. Did it all go to his head? Did something happen at home? It was such a sharp change of player
I wonder if he just wasn't able to handle the success? Rookie of the year and National Team call ups and he just wasn't ready or probably the player that everyone thought he was. I think it's personality/psychology driven and that he could turn it around and be a very good MLS player. It's just up to him.
I didn’t realize Collen Warner was playing for the Rapids until I watched highlights from their game against LAFC, where he scored a goal off the opposing keeper. Really quite the [emoji848] roster our mountain foes are working with.
If Bruce Arena doesn't take a collection of good players and make them play to the league's best point total, Fraser is the easiest COTY candidate. But you can't give it to anyone but Bruce for what he's done in NE
Guiseppe Rossi signed with SPAL of Italy's Serie B. Came on as a substitute in a game this past weekend. Coincidentally, SPAL is where we got Everton Luiz from, when it was in Serie A.
SPAL was a decent side when Everton was there. They didn’t do great in Serie A, but they had some talent. I don’t think Rossi can be effective in Serie B.