Honestly, who didn't see this coming... We were all hoping for a miracle, I get it, but reality is a different affair...
Grant Wahl is reporting that all the positives at Orlando so far are from arrival testing. There have been zero positives originating from the bubble itself. I don't see the tournament getting cancelled unless that starts happening, and even then it'll definitely take some kind of total player positive threshold being met for them to shut it down.
Yes, that's correct, remains the fact that you have already 10+ positive players just out of 3 teams, with a good number of teams yet to arrive, and some of them very reluctant to even leave. Then yes, OK, somehow the tournament will be played most likely, but I don't really expect it to go beyond that, I don't see how this could precede the continuation of a "regular (?) season". Not in the day where even NFL said "time is against us now"...
Once inside the bubble, the players should be OK. I give it about 90% chance of succeeding. But afterwards, going back to cities in Republican states which will still have high rates of infection and resultant hospitalizations and death, I think that will be the end of the season. Either those cities will be far past the worst, and rates very low, or the teams will have to provide their own bubbles, which is highly unlikely. A few teams might be OK: DC, NE, NY (both) and maybe even Philly, and of course Toronto, Montreal & Vancouver. But not Columbus, Colorado, Nashville, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake, etc. And even if games in home stadiums can occur, who's going to go to those games and try to be safe?
Aarhus here ... I have noticed that you are now able to watch a game a week (I believe) from the Superliga, which is quite tactical and with much focus on defense and details like set pieces, much like the Italian Serie A, so it's required taste, though it all loosen up a bit in the summer where we usually get lots of goals at the start of a season or at the end, when all is more or less settled and they are also able to put the next "generation" of players to the test. Regarding Covid-19, then as the first in the World, we put up "virtual stands" on one side of the pitch here in Aarhus, adding some real sound and showing real fans watching the match via Zoom in an effort to bring the games to life... as you can also see here : But now that Covid-19 is no longer a major problem, the game you watched was the first with this many spectators allowed.
Yeah, my son and I watched the Aarhus-Midtyjland game a week or so ago, then they allowed a few hundred socially distanced supporters into the stadium. I so miss my last summer in Italy, Europeans (except the Brits) understand how to deal with a pandemic. Maybe stupidity and English as a first language correlates.
Can I tell you something totally soccer non related? Italy was the first place hit in Europe, it caught everybody by surprise and it was a massacre; then our government did something extraordinary in my opinion, even if some people think they could have done better (of course, 4 months later you look back and see that maybe some things could have been handled differently). But when in Italy people were getting infected and dying left and right, almost all Europe was still wide open, as if Covid was an Italian problem. Only a few countries closed very quickly, and managed to contain well, Greece, Cyprus, Austria, most east European countries, but as a general concept places with a low population. Germany did well also if they had a lot of deceased people (but they also have the meaning to fight it properly), but France, Spain and especially the UK with the f@cking idiot BoJo were hit like from a tornado. Then, little by little, most countries - except the UK - managed to make things better. So, Europe got there eventually, but it wasn't like that from the very beginning, except for a handful of countries. But of course, nobody in Europe (except in the UK) feels like a f@cking bulltproof moron, and nobody thinks that your divinity will protect you, so I guess this is an advantage. End of non soccer parenthesis.
As @Theopisa notes, Goff reporting that Dallas FC is officially out of the "Perspiration Cup." 10 positive cases and unable to field a full team for the tournament. If -- a big if -- MLS pulls of this tournament, that is all the US based soccer we will see this year. Also in the Post, MLB is having problems just getting test results back in a timely manner. And these guys think they can fly around the country and play games? This type of thinking makes advocating injecting bleach or swallowing light bulbs seem almost prudential. Also note that the NHL and the players have reached agreement on the return to play. Looks like the games will held in Canada -- smart move.
Just read in the Athletic a report by Stejskal and Tenorio that Nashville has 5 confirmed positives and possibly 3 more. My guess is that they will, too, withdraw. Carlos Vela looking like a genius.
Disney has the facilities and the Florida numbers were artificially low. The talks had been going back as far as at least April. Now it's too out of control to pass off as pneumonia, use where the person is from instead of where they are as a location, etc..
https://www.tennessean.com/story/sp...-coronavirus-mls-is-back-covid-19/5366808002/ Nashville SC versus Chicago Fire cancelled. Nashville May have to pull out completely. The states where #Covid-19 has been badly mismanaged recently also have the most vulnerable teams. Dallas is already out, and I Houston isn’t far behind.
You have some inside knowledge on a bunch of Houston Dynamo players testing positive we don't know about?
I’m saying Texas and especially Houston is like an incubator. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29372448/rangers-staff-terrified-our-safety-amid-positive-virus-tests I wouldn’t be surprised if a 2nd & 3rd team has to withdraw. I wouldn’t be surprised if any of the three Canadian teams withdraw over concerns about the Orlando incubator conditions. The bubble is potentially great. But teams have to arrive all negative (they haven’t), and infrastructure staff always need to be tested regularly ( ???? ). And without Dallas, Group B is now at three teams. Who from a Group A joins Group B?
News articles about the city of Houston isn't inside information about a rash of positive tests that are about to pop for the Dynamo, which is what you're claiming is going to happen.
Teams (the individual players & coaches) will have a very difficult time having significantly lower rates of infection than the communities they live in. I use that as a fact. You may perceive that as a conclusion, but I perceive that as a fact.