Speaking of Lambeau Field, I don't think that stadium's field can be widened for soccer at all, which is a shame. It'd be the perfect place to play the Central American teams on in driving snow in the dead of winter.
No, it cannot sadly. Lambeau will be hosting a friendly between Bayern and Man City next month, but that's pretty much all it can do soccer wise. Club friendlies are good to go, but FIFA-regulated competitions are a no-go.
The Twin Cities are a few degrees colder than Green Bay in winter. So St Paul will have to be the go to for very cold US stadium that is FIFA approved.
Fine by me. The various host countries south of the border crafted this cruel playbook. After decades of tolerating their gamesmanship, and that’s putting their various antics kindly, it is far preferable to dish back than protest. The abused has become the abuser. Just so happens that our revenge is being served frostbite-cold.
They drew first blood. Years of playing on artificial turf on hot and humid afternoon games. I'd make a deal with other teams if they're interested. Pick a spot and time that's not ridiculous and we will reciprocate.
they do the tray over the lower levels like in Dallas and I think LA will do but it makes no sense for just one game. At least they have the excuse of being very old o soccer wasn't a consideration. Can't imagine why any stadium in the last twenty years wasn't design for football and soccer. I bet they spend more with the temporary measures than they would have making them ten yards wider when built. Could always have had a row or two of semi-non permanent seats in the first few rows in football configuration.
Ghana has recruited Tariq Lamptey from England. They have already recruited Inaki Williams from Spain, and word is Eddie Nketiah is going to switch as well. They are also going after Callum Hudson-Odoi but are apparently not optimistic. Either way, that's a lot of talent, and some of it young. Ghana qualified without these guys, and are adding them. England has lost Lamptey and Nketiah, it looks like, as well as Musah, of course, and Musiala to Germany. Lot of talent is likely to go as the England team seems young, talented and pretty entrenched.
This was the same issue with Michigan Stadium and why they decided not to bid to host World Cup games. They've hosted friendlies there but it's just way to narrow. I feel like this is more of an issue with college stadiums just because so many are older and most new NFL stadiums (with the exception of SoFi) were built with soccer in mind.
If Jamaica could have qualified there's a number of dual nationals they could have probably also poached from England. Guys like Ivan Toney, Max Aarons, etc. I imagine Hudson-Odoi won't switch yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did eventually. It's also extremely likely that Balogun will at some point. It's just too bad that poaching Trent Alexander Arnold was just never a realistic possibility. England doesn't play him as often as they should (though they are also fairly stacked at the right back position).
As far as I'm aware, Ghana basically got a bogus penalty at home against South Africa to knock them out in the group stage on total goals scored tie breaker (they tied on points, and on GD, but Ghana scored 1 more goal) and advance to the final round where they supposedly again, got a flukey goal to shock the hell out of Nigeria on the away goal rule, sandwiched around that was a crash out in the R16s of the Cup of Nations tournament in '19 followed by a DEAD LAST group stage exit in January of '22. They freaking lost to Comoros 3-2, they tied Gabon 1-1, and lost to Morocco 0-1. I don't say this to trash them because over the years, except when we play them, Ghana's carried on the tradition for me that Cameroon and Nigeria started in the 90's and Ivory Coast probably would've carried too if they hadn't earned group of death draws in '06 and '10, but this Ghana basically looks like dog ---- compared to the Ghana of 2005-2014. They missed WC '18 entirely finishing 3rd in their group behind Egypt and Uganda, as previously mentioned, were mediocre at the Cup of Nations in '19 (good in group stage, then crashed out against Tunisia), scraped by to qualify for the WC thanks to inept play from Nigeria in the final stage, and according to everything I heard, a totally bogus PK that sent them through instead of South Africa and then they prat falled horrendously at Cup of Nations '22. So what are we going to see exactly at the World Cup? And they're going to integrate guys in w/no time left to do so in the first place? How? The one positive I have heard is that they're supposedly rolling in with some legit coaching staff, so maybe they can get it done, but Ghana is for me, one of those mystery mashem toys. What's in there? I have no idea AND they drew a tough, very balanced group which on the one hand, does lack a true powerhouse side like say Brazil, Argentina, or France, but on the other hand doesn't have any genuinely weak sides. It's got a dark horse Portugal side taking Ronaldo to his last World Cup, it's got Uruguay taking Suarez and Cavani to their last trip as well, and a Uruguay side that's infused a lot of youth from some great youth World Cup squads in recent years, and then perennial solid group stage team South Korea? They just sound like a 4th place team to me that will need to have EVERYTHING nailed down. It will be interesting. everything's probably going to end up riding on them beating South Korea on matchday 2. It will be interesting.
I'm not saying there aren't ways to do it, but they continue to build new football stadiums that way because there is more ticket money in the premium permanent football seating every game than there ever will be from occasional soccer games. So they will continue to build them like that.
Hmmm… I personally hate those field-level seats, along wit the first 10 rows or so. Along with the outrageous prices, you really don’t get a very good look at the action or the movement of the players. And that holds true for American football and real football.
Something that concerns us: Iran just fired manager Dragan Skočić. A few candidates which have been named by the press for the job include Branko Ivanović who managed Iran in the 2006 WC and currently manages Oman, as well as Ali Daei and Javad Nekounam, according to the18.com
What was the reason for his dismissal? You usually don't fire a manager with a 15-1-2 record just a few months before the World Cup.
No idea, honestly. I don't know this source and how reliable they are, but according to this source, Skočić and the president of the Iranian fed had a long shouting match about getting paid on time. But there had been talk that he's been on the outs for a while. I honestly don't know where any of that comes from, or why that is. https://iranwire.com/en/sports/104996-five-months-before-the-world-cup-is-it-game-over-for-dragan-skočić
I'm digging around and I can't really find anything from the articles today explaining it. But I did find this article from last month: https://iranwire.com/en/sports/104996-five-months-before-the-world-cup-is-it-game-over-for-dragan-skočić Dragan Skočić, the manager of Iran’s national football team, and Mirshad Majedi, acting president of the Iranian Football Federation, reportedly had a shouting match last week that lasted for more than 90 minutes.... The alleged shouting match between Skočić and Majedi was reported by Tabnak News Agency. Majedi recently replaced Shahaboddin Azizi Khadem as head of the Federation and, according to Tabnak, Skočić had gone to the federation [to] ask Majedi about outstanding sums of money owed to him. Majedi reportedly told Skočić that he...had not expected criticism by members of the team themselves, and Skočić had shouted back that he had expected to be paid on time. That would suggest this had something to do with a payment dispute.
Yeah, I came across the same thing, but the couple of times I've heard Iranian pundits (usually a Scottish Youtuber of Iranian ancestry, to be honest, I don't speak Persian so I don't have a lot of knowledge of the Iranian soccer press) talk Iranian soccer, he's seemed to hint that the team/fed wasn't sold on Skočić and some wanted Quieroz back and blah blah blah. I honestly do not know where that's coming from or why.
It's strange how much of world soccer is filled with scumbags trying to get away w/not paying what they owe one another (and I say this w/some evidence that even we pulled the ---- b.s. with conmebol for the centenario). I'm just used to sports and contracts being absurd, but also fundamentally legit, in all of our sports (beyond the funny money involved with NFL contracts (the only #'s that ever matter w/them are the 1st year salary, signing bonus, and dead cap money hits you can read on spotrac).
It seems to happen to at least one team every World Cup. Speaking of scumbags, the big local example I can remember was the owner of your football team taking advantage of poor LaVar Arrington. Wiki tells it this way ... "After four seasons with the Racialslurs, Arrington signed an eight-year, $68 million contract extension. His agent Carl Poston was accused of neglecting to inspect the final revision of the contract, in which $6.5 million worth of bonuses contained in earlier drafts were missing. Poston was eventually suspended for two years by the National Football League Players' Association (NFLPA) over the mishandling of Arrington's contract; Arrington did not support the NFLPA's decision." I remember this episode as sleazy in the extreme, pulling the agreed-on bonus out at the last moment, a real flim-flam. Clearly, Arrington's agent should have checked, but ... ... back to our football, soccer, it's a pretty regular feature around the world that a player or coach or team isn't properly paid. MLS is likely well-regarded in that sense - contracts are honored and the checks cash - especially by players from places where that is not always the case.
Happens with payroll too. If the company is late by two days paying the workers, let's say the amount is $40 million total, and each day that money makes 0.06% interest, in those two days the company has made $50K 'extra' just by being late.
https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/07/11/iran-fires-manager-dragan-skocic-world-cup-usmnt Yelling at your boss is not a good strategy. The password is: obsequious.
The older one gets the more one realizes that the world is mostly scumbags and sociopaths. I generally keep this "secret" to myself, but I act accordingly. Be careful out there!