January 24 and 27- Paraguay and Chile

Love that.

Have a great weekend!

 

I'll correct myself here as that applies to someone who is "taking on a new citizenship" (usually meaning someone who is naturalizing or taking on a citizenship they weren't eligible for at birth). Technically, countries that grant citizenship based on long-ago heritage continue to be eligible as long as they aren't the 7 countries that have more than one FIFA federation (US, UK, China, etc.)

 

Now I am curious : what's the exact list of the 7 countries? I suppose China is in there because they don't recognize Chinese Taipei as a country. But I thought FIFA did: instead do they see China as an only country with two federations?

 

US
UK
China (Hong Kong & Macau)
Denmark
Netherlands
New Zealand (Cook Islands)
France

FIFA eligibility rules - Wikipedia

 

The US includes who: US and PR?

 

US, PR, Guam, USVI, American Samoa.

Under FIFA rules, you can't represent one of the "conjoined" feds unless you have a direct tie to that particular territory.

Before this rule, the Puerto Rican men's team went on strike and the PRFA took a bunch of mainlanders with no connection to PR and played them in a friendly.

 

And what about Denmark? Do now famous Greenland have a federation?

 

The Faroe Islands; they're a member of UEFA.

Greenland actually does have a national football team, but they're not recognized by FIFA as a member association. Greenland has been in the process of being recognized by FIFA for awhile. They actually submitted an official application to become a part of CONCACAF in 2024, but it was rejected in June 2025 with no reasons given (one may assume it could have something to do with appeasing Trump). Greenland tried earlier with UEFA, but UEFA had changed its rules in 2016 requiring new members to be recognized by the UN as fully independent despite previously accepting federations like the Faroe Islands and Gibraltar.

 

Good stuff, but Tiernan is still uncapped. And did not get called to this camp. 2027 is a ways away, and certainly the pool can include players that are called but not capped, or even considered but not called.....

But I think it is pretty premature to be discussing uncapped players who did not even make this camp with players who were 2nd on the team in goals last year. Even ones who are a touch advanced in age and currently pregnant

 

I consider “the pool” to be us- eligibles.

 

Technically true, but I use it more restrictively. Players Hayes has actually called and capped at a Senior level.

 

Ayo Oke called-up to replace ill Avery Patterson. Oke played for U-23s last Nov/Dec

 

Bummer, I was hoping to read some tea leaves based on which side Patterson played on.

 

USWNT's Hayes: Returning Rodman ready to take 'next steps' - ESPN

She is now fit enough to return to the USWNT, though Hayes said it will take time and effort for Rodman to get back to her best for the long term.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed I still have power, cable and internet for the upcoming match (s). >mutters something about ice storm, snow storm, super cold crap<

 

The USWNT will play its first match of 2026 on January 24th versus Paraguay at Dignity Health Sport Park in Carson, CA at 2:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm MT / 4:30 pm CT / 5:30 pm ET.

The match will be streamed on TNT, truTV and HBO Max in English, on Universo and Peacock in Spanish (radio will be on Westwood One in English and on Futbol de Primera radio in Spanish)

Match Hub links:
USA vs. Paraguay (Jan 24, 2026) Live Score - ESPN
USWNT vs. Paraguay - Tickets, Live Score & Lineups | Carson, CA | U.S. Soccer Official Website

The second match will be on January 27th versus Chile. Details to follow.

 

I just noticed that the winter storm warning for my area (SE TN) is predicting a LOT less rain/snow/ice than it was just 10 hours ago. That probably means that I will see an inch of ice on the street topped by 20 inches of snow. I think the level of true science in weather forecasting is exceeded by the true science in all the Harry Potter movies.

I expect that I will have outages over the weekend and that it will impact something important to me. To help me be able to see whatever I want, just not in real time, I am setting up web recordings for everything that I want to watch, except for the matches I want to watch that are carried by Paramount+ or Peacock or ESPN. The only recording I really need to set up is for the USWNT as that match is on TnT and they do not provide delayed playback.

My dog is acting like he thinks nothing, or very little, is coming. He usually becomes very "clingy" as much as 72-90 hours before the event happens when weather is coming but that is not happening. Who knows, the accuracy in weather forecasting is less than the accuracy in political polls.

 

I'm fairly sure that our U16YNT played Paraguay a few years ago in Turkey at some UEFA friendly tournament. Claudia was part of the line up. The game ended 0-0 and the US won in PKs.

 

Found it! Here is a link to the game.



At 4:18, there is a close up of the Paraguay U16 players. That is Claudia, number 11, right?

At the 1:26:30 minute mark (around 60:45 of the actual game), there is a great step by Cecil away from Martinez, or whoever that player is ;-)

Apologize in advance if I'm incorrect about this info!

 

My understanding is that weather forecasting is one of the best "forecasting" fields, but you have to look closely at the details of proper forecasts. Proper forecasts never say "it is going to rain," rather they give probabiities, as in the likelihood of what is going to happen somewhere within the forecast area.

 

Also, localized eco/topographical systems can make a big difference.

Long time ago now, I spent a decade as a radio disc jockey. For quite a bit of that time I had a weather forecast to read off the AP wire, provided by the NWS. It was supposed to come in at three for my three thirty read, and all went fine for quite some time. Then suddenly the NWS forecast would come in at three--without my location, the Upper Rio Grande Valley. It would come in later, saay 3:10 or 3:15. Then 3:20. Then 3:35, at which point I had to find the old one in the trash, adapt it with what I could see outside, and fake the thing by appending it with, that's what the NWS says, but it looks to me the clouds won't get here till the vally cools down a bit this evening; they aren't moving this way yet. This wet on for a couple of weeks, with the forecast gradually receding to 4 or even later.

Then one day the studio line rang about ten to three, and a guy asked "Say, what's the weather look like up there?" So I told him what I could see and what skies like that had tended to produce in the recent past. At three the forecast came in saying pretty much what I had told the caller. Same thing happened the next day, and the next, and my shifts got easier again.
And then it occurred to me-- whoever was doing the forecast had been calling me and in effect getting me to tell him what to write. In effect I was ripping the forecast I was reading from the machine after writing it myself...