I'll be darned - you're right, tks for the correction. They are so dead set on a Mexico/USA final that they made up a poor format rather than follow the WC format where 1st and second place teams in group are sent to opposite sides of the bracket for ko rounds. Here is a handy reference for scheduling - just scroll down: https://www.soundersfc.com/post/201...tates-draws-trinidad-and-tobago-panama-guyana p.s. - plus there's a great picture there for Morris haters
If JK was allowed to bring in a guy scoring goals at the college level, can GB be allowed to call in Gianluca Busio?
Complicated. At some point a decade or two ago this used to be set rosters like the pendulum is swinging back to now. In theory it might encourage teams to roster better players up front. But in practice my memory was a lot of teams used to not bring their full A roster. With a group stage substitution you can make a deal with busy Euro based on their break that they will see 3 games max in the knockouts, after a group stage/beginning of summer rest. That actually IMO increased star participation. If you have to commit for the whole thing then some stars may begin to bail. At least that was my memory of how it would often work before, is a 6 game GC (plus camp plus friendlies) commitment led to less than first choice rosters.
it's hard to say how it will come out. guyana should be easy but played TnT to a draw. but our problems with TnT were away and not home. the rest should all pose a solid test and then a serious final. in theory home field should help but it didn't help that much in 2011 or 2015, and the roster will be a wild card. you put a young athletic 2018 type team out there (but in Berhalter's formation) and I think we are good to the final. you put that March team out there and I anticipate some 2011 type surprises or at best a 2015 scenario. i will be watching the selection closely to see if it seems more like a perseverating throwback to 2017 or like we are moving forward and going young again. i anticipate some players will be drafted away for the May/June U20 world cup, for summer U23 friendlies, for september U23 friendlies, and for U23 qualifying in October, even while the senior team does GC and begins LoN. I've previously lobbed around the theory that players who can't play in october may nonetheless be optimistically tasked to U23 friendlies this March and summer. there will also be implications for a tournament where we cannot fix selection weaknesses after the group stage, something we have routinely done to correct the oft-struggling trajectory of group stage outfits. IMO we have often gone experimental or underestimated the group stage, had to work to advance, and then reinforced at the knockout round. if you mis-calculate to Bradley 2011 group stage levels you will be a sitting duck for the knockouts. running out a March friendly type team would be such a miscalculation.
Usually is an overstatement. The only team on our side of the bracket that worries me from a fan perspective is a potential quarterfinal against El Salvador in Philly. I don't think El Salvador will get out of the group stage though so I'm not too worried about that. We should have the crowd on our side until the final
El Salvador fans had a great turnout in 2017 for the quarterfinal against the U.S. (and if I remember correctly that one was on a weeknight). Passed a good number of cars on the way from DC to Philly with their flags flying.
So is "3 to 1". IMO, we get the most benefit from fields that are consistently good and conditions that are always comfortable. No fireworks all night, no egging of the bus, no batteries/bags of unidentifiable liquids. No waterlogged cricket pitches, nor sweltering humidity. The fans will be plenty loud enough to be heard, whether it's 50/50, 60/40, or 40/60.
This is a good point. The theatrics may not be nearly as important as playing on bad fields that US players aren't used to. Waterlogged, patchy, rocky, fake turf all make it hard to play ball control soccer. Mexico also has a hard time in those places and are also used to nice fields.
Seriously, this tournament is such a farce with regards to the preference shown to Mex and the US. Maybe schedule them for opposite sides if they both win their groups, but beyond that, let the chips fall where they may.
That's the next thing for the US to protest to FIFA (after Concacaf officiating): fields that are clearly not up to standards for any World Cup qualifiers hosted upon them.
FIFA should require that if those associations receive any substantial amount of money from FIFA. of course they won't just like the officiating will never be fixed. US has a unique problem of qualifying in a lot of high heat, high humidity countries that have very poor fields (on purpose) and poor officiating that allows a style of play that isn't allowed at the WC itself. It's almost literally two teams needed - one to qualify and one once qualified. Some players fit in both while others are there for the sort of thankless task of going to hard places to play knowing they probably won't make the WC roster.
Mexico gets punked too. Just so many tiny nations with equal votes. CONCACAF and FIFA need their versions of the senate to balance out the house. Or do I have that backwards?
Last hex we dropped points in Columbus, Harrison NJ, at the Azteca, and at Costa Rica’s new national stadium. The field was fine in all of those places. We also dropped points in Panama and Honduras. I’m not sure, but I bet those fields were passable. It’s really just in Couva where the field was clearly substandard. I don’t think crappy fields (annoying as they are) are a primary concern.
I think now that Costa Rica isn't playing on that crappy carpet it isn't as bad as it was. Part of the problem is more the weather where it's already summer conditions in C. America and the Caribbean while it's still winter in the US and Europe. That could require the coach to play lesser players in the first game of qualifying that are seasoned to the weather and play the first choice in the next game. Not sure there are enough players that are good enough and ready for that kind of weather.