Which made the qualifiers consistently being held at night in most places advantageous, even if we only took some points out of El Salvador, Jamaica, Honduras and Mexico away. Very odd. I guess tv made them, but if I'm any of those countries, I'd 100% hold the games between 1 and 2pm to maximize north american misery levels. Just recall how thoroughly Honduras worked us in '17 in those conditions (and then inexplicably could not put the game away).
I think you're right that the decision was taken away from them because of TV. Not really surprising as very people could watch a day game. Think of it as payback for depending on the US so much for Gold Cup etc that the US TV viewership took away a big time scheduling advantage. BTW, they used to do this and was a reason I never felt bad for Costa Rica having to play in the snow.
Yep, there's something truly odd about requiring teams to play in a gazillion degree heat and mega humidity at like 1-2pm, and then complaining about the reverse when we use climate to our own advantage. Not sympathetic, at all. Though I'd agree w/the argument of some that we probably don't need to go to the extremes of the ocho, however, after the arrogance of '17 (directing games to sites with no consideration of how it might aide our opponents, simply interest in revenue) something had to be done to give us back the homefield advantage we'd simply given away.
Greenland has applied to join CONCACAF 🇬🇱 Greenland has officially applied for membership of CONCACAF.A letter on the Greenland Football Association's Facebook page confirms the historic application has been made.Greenland's path to UEFA is blocked by current rules but CONCACAF is theoretically an open route. pic.twitter.com/NRLbM5LCQd— The Sweeper (@SweeperPod) May 28, 2024 And people thought playing a qualifier in Minnesota in February was cold.
If Trump comes to power and we go ahead and buy Greenland, we can play Mexico and Costa Rica in Thule
My updated Top 150 Ranking. Feel free to check it out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g9VCtXZ3hOePWaLo-UQe2CRbQk_qwYxDFhTpl50rsPE/edit?usp=sharing
Two pre-Copa friendlies tonight, obvious scouting opportunities: Mexico v Bolivia (Soldier Field, Chicago) @ 9:30 PM [ET] Costa Rica v Uruguay (in Costa Rica, of all places) @ 10:00 PM [ET]
I know the Mexico game will be on TUDN and/or Univision. Is there any TV that could be accessible for the Costa Rica game?
Couldn't find anything for the Costa Rica game, but thought it would be worth noting that in addition to airing en Español on TUDN, the Mexico game tonight can also be viewed in English on Fox Deportes.
This is apparently actually a U23 team for Mexico Here is a promo for tonight’s Mexico game vs Bolivia in Chicago. 45K tickets already sold. The only problem is the players pictured; Antuna, Edson, Gallardo, Henry Martin, & Santi Giménez won’t be there. It’s not even the SENIOR National Team that will face Bolivia. 🫠 pic.twitter.com/nL9ePJR550— herculez gomez (@herculezg) May 31, 2024
Let's be real, though. Mexican-American El Tri fans are so blindly loyal that you could find 11 random Mexicans, dress them in green, dub them "La Selección Mexicana", and have them play Liechtenstein, and they would still sell at least 40,000 tickets. It's honestly insane how many people show up to moleros even when it's clear they'll be seeing a B team and/or playing a minnow.
Ended 1-0 via a goal by Efrain Alvarez We know it was Mexico's U23, but does anyone know what the strength of Bolivia's squad was?
It was a big squad with a ton of young players but the XI seemed to be pretty close to full strength. Their goalkeeper from last night will start for them in The Copa America CB pairing appeared to be a strong one. Their LCB is usually left back for them but he can play centrally while they pulled a left back from their midfield. Not sure if that's a plan for the tournament or just a friendly experiment. Other CB and Right Back appeared to first choice. One of their Midfield paring is their captain so he's presumably gonna be a starter, and then the other guy only hadn't been called into 3 straight camps before this one, so he may not be first choice. Winger pairing featured a national team starter on the left and on the right a dude only earning his 2nd cap. The two players up top were what appears to be their new starting striker and then a guy who's a regular callup but usually doesn't start. The subs were where it seemed like they were handing out first caps to guys who won't play in The Copa America (or may not make the team outright). So that's my long way of saying, there was some normal friendly tinkering here but what looked pretty damn close to their first choice lineup lost to a Mexican U23 team last night. I'm not saying it needs to be 5-0, but we should handle Bolivia at home without a ton of stress
ESPN put out their annual list of top 100 players today https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...ppe-cristiano-ronaldo-best-men-soccer-players Notably there’s one American on the list. Germany has the most players with 14, followed by France with 13, England with 12, Brazil with 7, and Portugal with 7 In terms of other Copa America teams, Argentina has 6, Uruguay 2, Canada 1, and Columbia 1.
Mexico got dominated by Uruguay last night 4-0 Mexico gets dominated by Uruguay and Marcelo Bielsa analysis. #FutbolAmericas pic.twitter.com/LPgzACjGug— herculez gomez (@herculezg) June 6, 2024 Mexico didn’t quite start all their starters (but some did play like Edson Alvarez), but it was definitely not their U23 team.
El Tri blows, we all know this. They suck, not starting the best of their crap pool probably made this worse, but if Uruguay was gonna try in the friendly, they were always gonna kick Mexico's ---. Uruguay, as I've said elsewhere, is playing the best soccer in Conmebol along with Argentina. They're fantastic. This is the worst El Tri I've ever seen, the past three years, so not surprising at all.
Uruguay only fielded 5 of the players who had started in the last competitive match against a decent team, Argentina in WCQing.
Yeah it wasn’t the full starting squad for either team but you also had guys like Nunez and Alvarez playing for both sides.