doubt it. Freese didn't get a whole lot of chances the first two games so it makes sense to keep him in. I suspect there will be several new starters against Turkey and Freese will get quite a work out. Even though they are out, Turkey has a lot to prove. 2-0 Turkey
Watching CR7 score twice in first half today, and dreaming about the Revs signing him. Yes, I know it will never happen, but the Revs already broadcast on Portuguese radio, and he would fill Gillette every game and pay for himself. This team with a world-class striker could go far in MLS Cup playoffs. OK, back to reality.
2026 FIFA World Cup Group I Recaps: Mbappe and Haaland Set Up Epic France-Norway Finale Try as they might, Senegal and Iraq could not deny the two superstars a chance at a head-to-head showdown for the top spot in the group. Jun 23, 2026 by Jake Catanese theblazingmusket.com
Been out on the other coast the last couple of weeks, and it's been so fun to watch the games end and still have time to go out. Tomorrow's game will end at 9 here. That's one huge plus of being on the WC.
I've been working the World Cup games at Gille, uh...Boston Stadium, and here are a few random takeaways: Scotland fans are amazing! You've surely seen all the coverage of them taking over the city. Everyone's hoping they'll come back for the round of 32 vs. Germany. It's not all that likely, but theoretically possible. Scotland-Haiti was a lot of fun. Bagpipes, and everyone clapping long. Even the Haitian fans joined in the dancing. England had a much different type of crowd. Mostly "Prawn Sandwich" types, and a lot of Americans in England gear. There were still a number of supporter-types, but I was disappointed that there wasn't a whole lot of singing, chants, etc. that we usually associate with England fans. Overall, the England fans are lightweights compared to the Scots. English fans started trickling in to the Harp bar, overlooking the stadium around noon for a 4:00 kickoff. For Scotland-Morocco (6:00 pm start), I got there at 11 am and they Scots had completely taken over the deck and were in full force drinking and singing. NO SCOTLAND NO PARTY! France-Norway Friday should be a great game!
Also the traffic cones are lovely. If you're going to be disorderly in public, you could pick a worse way
I've gone to two games... 1.) Iraq - Norway 2.) Germany - Paraguay I did a video log of my Norway-Iraq experience I consider myself very lucky.... The Norway/Iraq game had 5 total goals, and two of them scored by Haaland. The Germany/Paraguay game had knockout energy and PK excitement.
Fantastic video, you even got 3 of the 5 goals! Overall, I've had a great experience at the games. Norway-Iraq was a good game, and seeing the Big Man score twice was something special. There were 2 stumbling-drunk Iraq fans who were liked out of the stadium 15 minutes before kickoff, so it sucked for them, considering how much their tickets must have cost. There were quite a few Americans dressed in Iraq gear, but maybe some had served over there or had connections with those who did. Nice to see both sides well represented in all of the games. Germany-Paraguay as awesome too. Some fans tried to teach me how to say "Let's go Paraguay" in the indigenous language, Guarani, "Jajapyhy, Paraguay!" Amazing energy from both sides throughout the game, although I have to say Germany got robbed by the disallowed goal in extra time. But if it means the fat cats at FIFA end up losing money since one of the marquee teams with affluent fans go home early, I'm OK with that! Still, I felt bad for the German fans. One guy gave me his flag because he wasn't going to need it anymore
Using an inheritance I was not otherwise going to spend, I bought a package including all seven games. Having six games in seventeen days was exhausting, but what fun! Scotland-Haiti was the loudest game; Germany-Paraguay was the most intense, but I enjoyed France-Norway the most. Watching Olise, Mbappe and Dembele up close was awe inspiring. I've seen him on TV plenty, but I never understood Mbappe's ungodly quickness until I watched him show up--from seemingly the other side of the field--to run onto little lob passes near the goal. Just one more game to go. I have going to games in Foxboro since the very first Revs game, and I am not going anywhere, but I know that the first game back is going to feel weirdly quiet and empty.
I remember 1994, when I went to all the Foxboro games, which was fantastic, but I can't describe the letdown once it was over. Yeah, there was occasional soccer on TV, but this huge empty void, knowing that the absolutes best case would be that the US might play a friendly here in another year. Yeah, nothing can compare to the World Cup, but it's not fair to measure our own 30-year-old domestic league by that standard. As much of a drop in play and atmosphere that is, I can't be anything but optimistic.
Lots of newly minted pundits all over social media today pontificating about the state of US Men's soccer and the sports future. Lots of MLS trashing too. But I hope that some of them will see the benefit of checking out their domestic soccer league, head out to the stadiums and help grow the game vs complaining that our 'best athletes don't play soccer'. Some really, really stupid takes on where we're headed - but nonetheless I'm looking forward to getting back out to see the Revs, fake turf and all.
In the "State of US Soccer" category, I just watched Rob Stone, BA, Egg, and Bob B. discussing that. The point I'm focusing on was their more or less unanimous thought that MLS needs to develop more Americans. BA said the league is about 70% internationals. Quotas were mentioned... I don't like quotas and I'm against overly constraining teams. The only (seed of an) idea I can think of would be to make allocation money worth more if spent on an american player. Each GAM dollar becomes worth $1.50 if spent on an American, for instance. I haven't had time to "game theory" out all the ways this idea would be corrupted... I certainly would like to see MLS develop more Americans.
Quotas is how you end up with Jackson Yueill on $1.1M. Talented domestic (US/CA) players are scarce, so adding more rules to force teams to have them will.drive up the value of marginally talented players. League quality wont change much, if anything itll get worse, but who gets paid will
I don't disagree, but not giving US players opportunity to play above the USL level also isn't going to create MLS level US players.
Everyone, but me, knew this: I guess Liga MX has a 9/roster 7/fielded quota? I was trying to avoid quotas while incentivizing the signing of US/CA players. Assuming all things equal (foreign players being considered have US/CA players of equivalent talent availabe), the edge would go to the homegrowns. I hope. And, when those US/CA players are going to non-top 5 leagues in Europe, I find myself thinking (can’t prove) they’d get more playing time in MLS in a substantial number of cases. IDK how to compare MLS coaching to non-top 5 league coaching… At any rate, I think the AI query I posed revealed a 10-15% lower percentage of forgeing players in Liga MX
With apologies to Bachmann-Turner-Overdrive, any soccer is good soccer, so I take what I can get. In other words, I watch the Canadian Premier League on FS2 whenever I can. I couldn't tell you if they have foreigner quotes as such, but they do have a rule that incentivizes giving young, Canada eligible players field time. Since single entity is still in place, why couldn't MLS so something like that?
I like the idea. We're going to this match after a youth 4v4 tourney that my son is playing in during the day. I think I probably wouldn't qualify for the promo anyway since they have my name in their marketing system.