Yeah, I don't know if it is the uniforms making it look that way or not, but I've thought Costa Rica has seemed bigger and faster all game.
There were so many empty seats in Costa Rica for their own match. Just a mini barometer for how serious our region of the world takes this competition, unfortunately.
Also quite a few Nicaraguans living in CR, plus whatever randos from the other two teams happen to live there
Group C tonight, and the first matches featuring sides of any relevance to us until the final (I still think this bracket setup is weird). This is where we find out if we'll be pressured at all in the knockout rounds.
That's probably the most interesting group in the tournament. Honduras and Jamaica seem like the 2 best teams, but Curacao and El Salvador are good enough to beat them. Curacao are the defending Caribbean Champs, and El Salvador beat Jamaica to qualify for this tournament. I also don't imagine Honduras is happy about having to open this tournament on the road while everyone else gets to play Jamaica on a neutral field. If they lose at The Office tonight, which I think there's a high possibility of, they're going to have a ton of pressure on them to close out the group. Their last game is El Salvador in LA, and LA has far more Salvadorans than Hondurans
Yeah, I get that they're trying to spread games around, but it seems weird and unfair to have some other teams host some games. I'd say Honduras and Jamaica are pretty even on a neutral field, but if Jamaica is hosting, they have a decided advantage.
i have a hard time seeing the usa dealing with the toughness and directness of honduras. i think they would beat us up and wear our defenders down mentally. pretty sad realization
I tuned in just after Jamaica scored their first goal. I'd say Honduras had a little better of the play on average, but they're still down 0-2 at the half. The field is very bumpy as usual in Jamaica, so it's hard to comment on the technical quality of each team, but both look fast, physical, and well organized...which is enough to cause real trouble for the US if we play hesitantly and without conviction in physical challenges.
Good entertainment value for sure. Jamaica's Turkish league forward has a brace, hopefully a good omen for Boyd.
With Egg's cupcake roster and strange formations, I think that it is very possible the US does not make it to the Hex in WCQ. Several teams have improved.
Both this teams look better than us when you consider our back four and our toilet paper DM's. And Pulisic will get the shit hacked out of him. We have nothing to counter.
We will see facsimiles to Jamaica/Honduras in Trinidad/Panama. I'm willing to wait to see what WM/CP can do to drive this clunker.
Panama might be the team we see twice. Possible we avoid one of these two teams. (also possible by losing, that too) but on paper, Panama is better than both of them.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cs.html Costa Rica is a popular regional immigration destination because of its job opportunities and social programs. Almost 9% of the population is foreign-born, with Nicaraguans comprising nearly three-quarters of the foreign population. Many Nicaraguans who perform unskilled seasonal labor enter Costa Rica illegally or overstay their visas, which continues to be a source of tension. Less than 3% of Costa Rica's population lives abroad. The overwhelming majority of expatriates have settled in the United States after completing a university degree or in order to work in a highly skilled field.
Lighten up. It was sarcasm, partially. btw, my best friend is CR. Maybe the inside joke missed the mark.
The Ticos are the one Central American team (well, other than Belize) we can play anywhere in the US without have to worry about it turning into a road game...
Only because it didn't snow. Seriously, we've really spread them around in WCQ...Portland, Kansas City, Salt Lake, Denver, Harrison, Columbus (semi-final round)...
Sadly I don't think we're getting another qualifier in Chicago until we get Fire SSS #2 after the awful showing in 2008 against Trinidad.
I was at that one! "There's no snow on your island...so why are you called a Tobagan?" Was the Honduras match at Soldier Field before or after that one? (yeah, I was at that one too...a lone red shirt in a sea of blue)
I think that was after, actually, but I wasn't living here at the time. Kinda makes the "oh, there were ~20% Costa Rica fans in Harrison a lame excuse. Though I just watched highlights of that Costa Rica match in Harrison. Navas stood on his head, but what total disasters by Ream and Cameron on both goals. I'd forgotten about Cameron's fckup. And he wonders why he got benched.
Eh. We're talking about situations where the crowd is maybe only 70% USA fans. Unless we're playing Mexico in Texas or southern California, the stadium will still be a technical majority of home fans. Maybe our fans might not be as vocal, but that's usually the case when the home crowd includes a high proportion of casual fans, and the visitors are either diehards who travel or local ex-pats getting to watch their team in person for the only time in years. And really, I feel this is a lame excuse for any weak home performances. I've always said that the USMNT shouldn't be afraid to play anyone anywhere at home, whether its Mexico in Texas or Ireland in Massachusetts. There are home game benefits that aren't related to the spectators that remain as advantages. And if our guys can't handle the crowd being a somewhat larger percentage of away fans than usual, then maybe this is a different problem of the team being too mentally fragile. If they feel pressured because only 65% of the fans are in red, white, and blue in a home game, then how will they respond in an actual away game? That might go towards explaining how they failed to win a single match on the road in the last Hex.