PBP: MLS N&A Running USMNT and other International Games Thread {R}

A weak shot wide of the goal is the difference that has Canada in front so far.

 

and now a Canadian shot has been saved down the middle.

 

El Salvador fans booing their team in stoppage time for playing for the draw.

 

Suriname already qualified and not playing with much urgency at the end, Salvadoran fans chanting olé on their passes.

 

A weak Candian shot has been saved.

Mexico gets their win in Chapel Hill

 

Canada lose on penalties.

 

For your own sake, please touch grass

 

Judging by ticket sales, sounds like they might as well cancel it. Yikes. 20k sold for Messis first game.

 

The team doing terrible usually gets noticed much faster than when they're doing well. Maybe this is some creative promotion? Lol

 

Barring a massive and unexpected escalation in LA, where things are actually winding down somewhat, these posts are going to look pretty stupid in about 72 hours.

 

True, but if LA suddenly rose to 1992 LA Riots or 1999 Seattle WTO levels then I could see FIFA stepping in and moving games or the whole tournament. Short of that happening though, its clearly going on as planned.

 

The No Kings protest will be the big test. It's going to be huge and 99% peaceful, but the agitators will also be out in force. Though by the time it happens it will likely be too late to cancel any games anyway. So I was wrong.
<politics> So why do we have 4,700 troops in a county safe enough to host an international tournament in </politics>

 

The final stage of World Cup Qualifying draw is done for CONCACAF. Two matches for the remaining 12 teams in September, October, and November.

GROUP A
Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Suriname

GROUP B
Jamaica, Curacao, Trinidad & Tobago, Bermuda

GROUP C
Costa Rica, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua

The 3 group winners advance to the 2026 World Cup. The two best second-place teams advance to the International Playoffs in March to determine the remaining sides. CONCACAF will have a minimum of 6 teams in next year's World Cup with a possibility of getting 8 teams in.

 

If Guatemala, Curacao, and Haiti had all moved up a group (C->B->A->C) then we would have had a Southern Living group, a (different) Island-Hopping group, and a Border War group.

 

Literally a dream group for us. If we can't get through, we won't deserve it, and there will be an added bonus of seeing a Caribbean team in the world cup for the first time in nearly a generation regardless of the outcome. Great draw.

 

As we get into the Gold Cup I want to plug Jon Arnold's Getting CONCACAFed newsletter as the best coverage of the region.

https://getconcacafed.substack.com/p/how-well-get-concacafed-during-the

 

Gold Cup opener in Los Angeles has Mexico and Dominican Republic tied at zero in the 34th minute. Mexico putting pressure on the DR goal; DR has had a couple of nice counterattacks to make El Tri sweat a little.

 

Finally the return of proper footy. All these European journalists are going to come here to sneer at the club world cup while the finest tournament in the world takes place right under their noses.

 

Mexico finally scored.

 

Mexico didn't waste as much time in the second half.

 

O Mexico...