What entity in the US was responsible for the screw jobs? People should metaphorically "hang" for that kind of insanity. We're trying to build bridges with Conmebol, not burn the, <expletive> idiots. Just unbelievable. Almost feels like karma that a year later we miss the world cup in no small part due to the incompetence of the people running soccer in this country over the years.
Nations League doesn't replace Confederations Cup, which was a summer tournament for 8 teams every 4 years. It replaces friendlies in the normal international windows. FIFA doesn't get any more money from this than it would get from anything else CONCACAF or UEFA would choose to do. The replacement for Confederations Cup is the 6-team inter-confederation playoff tournament for the last two WC slots, which will be introduced for 2026.
yes, each feds champion as a dry run for the world cup, nothing to do with qualification. nl is a fifa event, not some event every fed coincidentally decided to forsake friendlies to. but ok, i guess theres not a lot more to say.
Yes, the Confed Cup had nothing to do with qualification. The new inter-confederation tournament will be for qualifying while also serving as a dry-run event in the absence of the Confed Cup. What? That's not true at all. They are UEFA and CONCACAF tournaments. They exist because UEFA and CONCACAF want to have them.
Yeah, as a noted complainer I found the complaining about this odd. Saudi had 3 non wins in qualifying when they direct qualified by winning their group. Draws to China and Australia away and a road loss to Japan, beyond that they won everything. Meanwhile Japan is generally the flagship side of the region, playing both of them is grabbing two of the best 3-4 AFC sides, nothing bad about that and just about the best we could do. Nice job of scheduling in my view.
And actually, someone pointed out that the African nations are tied up in Sept as well with African Cup of Nations. So, our only choices are: 1) Asian squads (Japan, S. Korea, KSA) 2) Australia 3) Ecuador 4) CONCACAF (Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada)
Were there any non-qualified sides that are interesting from conmebol? That being said, my pull since the rumors first came out was that we got my #1 ranked, and #4 ranked squad of potentially available squads for the window. I don't know how to describe that other than fantastic by our fed, and normally I'm inclined to ---- all over them. They did a great job with our non-NL matches: Uruguay: Defensively stout attacking team: top 10/15 side in the world, UEFA unavailable. Morocco: Defensively stout attacking team, top 20-30 side in the world, UEFA not available. Japan: Flagship side of the AFC, top 20 world side, attacking flair, and reasonable defensive organization. Saudi Arabia: 1st place in a qualifying group with Japan, and Australia, did make the Asian Cup final 6 times in 7 appearances between 1984 and 2007, winning it 3 times (and never as host) before crashing out in group stage in '11 and '15, and then losing to Japan 0-1 in the R16's in '19. I get people think and may be right that Saudi Arabia sucks, they haven't looked good in anything save AFC Qualifying and Asian Cups since USA '94, but they did a great job this cycle and of the available squads, they were one of the 3 or 4 best left and who knows, maybe they match a bit what we might see vs Iran (tend to doubt it, but who knows?). At the end of the day, this is going to be a tournament all about being healthy, cohesive, and flexible, I think we developed a great deal of that w/the chaos we've faced since Couva, rebuilding a team twice from scratch in late '17 and '19, and then rounding it into form starting in the winter of '20-'21 post the worst of Covid. W/basically a week between league shut downs and our first game, we need to hit the ground running, I'd like to think we can do it. Happily for us, we also have depth, having won major tournaments with both our A squad, and our B/C squad in '01. Can't help but wish England had this melt down in November rather than June though, but then again, they don't usually do pressure and anxiety well, so ----ing the bed this past month at least helps in that sense.
To be fair, this is also leaving off Qatar as well as Brazil and Argentina. One of the later two South American sides would have been ideal to face as one of our two Sept opponents (with Japan/Saudi Arabia the other) but part of the issue might have been the timing since Argentina and Brazil are playing each other on Sept 22 as a makeup for the cancelled WCQ match and that's planned to be in Brazil. So its possible that neither would want to play a friendly in Europe in that window (unless that Brazil/Argentina game gets moved to a neutral site in Europe which seems possible). There was some rumors about us scheduling Argentina so its possible or even likely we tried to do that but it fell through. It's hard to imagine US scheduling much better friendlies than they got considering the options. Sure, we can quibble but they have a reasonable cross section of WC qualified teams.
OFFICIAL: Japan's Samurai Blue to face @USMNT in Europe on Sept. 23.This will be the teams' third overall meeting and first since 2006. pic.twitter.com/NXesDwL7h4— Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) June 21, 2022
The games against Japan (Sept 23) and Saudi Arabia (Sept 27) are both official. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...PVwCuyV3T8nNc6hmWy1BVJqcZy47VxjBkUqNiOcFFy7sg
Also sounds like the Japan game will be in Germany and the Saudi Arabia game will be in Murcia, Spain
Steven Goff, who's usually right about these sort of things: Both USMNT friendlies in Sept are set. Japan game will be in Germany, venue tba. (European teams aren’t available as opponents because of their Nations League calendar.) https://t.co/eIzlpeUQuz— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) June 21, 2022
I remember going to the U.S.-Italy match in Kaiserslautern. That would be a good venue. It is near a big military base and they could get a good crowd.
FWIW a guy on Reddit who announced the locations for the June matches and Saudi Arabia matches long before The USSF did said Dresden for The Japan game
I watched the friendly between Japan and Brazil and it wasn't pretty. Japan's strategy seem to be bunkering and fouling. And by fouling they mean tackle from behind, sliding with stud up etc. I just hope Pulisic and co will be able to leave that game relatively unscathed.
Jesus Christ, why??? "Hey, let's go have a game in a city we notoriously firebombed the f*ck out of in WWII, killing 25,000 civilians, against a team of the country that we dropped the only nukes in history on. If we apologize, we can kill two birds with one stone, no pun intended!"
It is sorta funny how that worked out. But I think that's probably much ado about nothing, IMO. I think you'd find most people couldn't pick out Dresden from any of the other German cities we pasted, and WW2 is increasingly less meaningful as the decades roll on. Nowadays, I have to imagine the relationship between the US/Germany and the US/Japan (and their people) is shaped moreso by interactions with Russia and China respectively, not by an almost 80-year-old conflict.
... And the fact that Americans, Germans and Japanese buy shitloads of very expensive products from each other.
I know, it just seems ominous. There are people that remember these things still and will make the connection. I'm sure when my mom finds out she'll make the same comment.
I think it is also a nice way to honor Kellyn Acosta's Japanese grandmother and the German contribution to the gene pool of US national team.
Or I suppose the Germans could recall the millions of people they killed and the holocaust and the Japanese could recall their sneak attack of Pearl Harbor and how they are the reason the US got involved in the war when they did. Frankly, I highly doubt any of what happened in WWII will affect a single iota of this game and i'm kind of surprised anyone even thinks it would. Not to mention the US and Japan are extremely strong allies now and the US and Germany are as well.
Interestingly Mexico appears to be playing Columbia and Peru in California in September. It's not clear at all what exactly Canada has planned though as there's been no hint of who they're playing other than they'd like to play in Europe.