Pretty much the ideal set of locations for the US teams matches. Relatively good temperatures for summer games and all in the same time zone. The main questions for both is the quality of the grass installed over turf and the size of the fields (more so for Sofi). The US is also likely to have friendly crowds.
LigaMX had the return leg of their final last night, I missed most of the game and got home in time for the PK's and boy what thrilling nerve racking series of kicks it was, they went 12 rounds till Toluca was finally able to put it away beating Tigres for back to back Championships
I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the Morocco - Senegal final situation. I've seen clips of the events but I'm not sure what the animosity is about, I'm assuming it's political and racial but not familiar with this specific history clips I've seen Moroccan press leaving when the Senegalese player arrives for the press conference Senegalese players falling sick right before the final ball boys attacking Senegal GKs and stealing towels laser's in eyes of the Senegal GK suspect PK call against Senegal, which prompted them to leave the pitch the royals refusing to present the trophy to the Senegalese players the royals suing CAF and FIFA over the match I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but from an outside perspective it looks like Morocco tried everything they could to cheat and steal the game away and to top it off the Moroccan team won the fair play award for this tournament, this is bonkers even for FIFA standards.
following up on my previous post. from what I have learned is that Morocco seems to hate, everyone in their region and the region hates them as well, the tournament was hosted in Morocco, so they went all out to make sure they won the tournament, even if they had to cheat and do other nefarious things. the match officials also seemed to be on the take as there was a dubious call against Tanzania earlier in the tournament that disallowed a goal against Morocco and other calls that favored Morocco throughout the tournament the press leaving was due to Senegal leaving the pitch after a Senegal goal was disallowed (another dubious call) and right after that Morocco was awarded a PK call (another dubious call) which was missed, which caused Senegal to walk off the pitch, which Morocco saw as unsportsmanlike. Senegal is suing CAF and FIFA for how they were treated and Morocco is suing CAF and FIFA for perceived slights against them during the tournament. an all around circus and typical Soccer Federation shenanigans
The scenes of Senegal’s backup keeper having to defend a towel left for the starting keeper from ballboys was pretty unreal. If I were the ref I might have considered halting the game myself until the ground staff sorted that out. That said I only watched highlights so I don’t really know the backstory there. But overall AFCON seems to operate on Concacaf’s playbook so some shenanigans should be expected.
welp, I didn't really believe until today that Spurs are a strong possibility to be relegated, and honestly, I don't see myself searching out Championship games on some pirate stream at 3am I may have to choose a new team to follow next year but it will not be the same as it was with your first. I just know for sure no Arse, ManU, Citeh, or 'pool
Seems all over but the shouting. Players look like they’ve accepted it already while Leeds, West Ham and Forest look up for a fight. As the sign said, I’m Tottenham til they kill me so I won’t so much as be watching to support, rather hate watching to hope some lose or maybe I’ll just save myself the $80 Peacock subscription and buy something I might actually enjoy.
Is it wrong of me that I have the Everton v Tottenham match circled knowing full well that the Toffees could be the team that relegate Tottenham???
This is both local and rest of the world. And what the holy heck!! Chivas - Atlas fan brawl at LAFC's BMO stadium before tonight's "friendly" A massive fight broke out at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles between Chivas fans and Atlas fans shortly before tonight’s friendly. 🤯🥊🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/XRZ37HECf9— All Fútbol MX 🇲🇽 (@AllFutbolMX) March 30, 2026
Italy misses their 3rd World Cup, crazy that a whole generation of Italians will have never played in a World Cup, I know I was very upset when the USMNT missed World Cups, so I can only imagine how gutted the Italians are as they care more about soccer as a whole, than the average american.
It makes me question the talk that US Players are playing at the highest level because they are in Europe.
I think it says the opposite. Europe WC qualifying is tough enough that even an established soccer rich country like Italy often can’t qualify.
the question I have is, are the US players even developing anymore in Europe, in the Dempsey/Donovan days I would say they needed to go to Europe to develop, now I'm of a mind that these players need playing time as they don't need to go to Europe to develop, training IMO has improved all over the World and going to Europe won't make a big difference like it used too. I don't follow the US players and prospective US players like I used to but from the sample size of players I've seen in Europe a lot of them do not get the playing time to be sharp and ready when the time comes to play Internationally and that is an issue. I recall a lot of the US Soccer snobs would belittle US MLS players and call the annual January camp "camp cupcake" because of it but now I wonder if the US players would benefit more if they stayed home. of course with my line of thinking, this would also mean that MLS would need to open up the purse strings and rules to entice players to stay home because as of right now, a US player can make more in the 3rd division in Belgium then they can in the top flight US league and that's a problem
Europe has 3 more slots as well to play with, so you'd figure they'd have a better shot. as of right now I'm in the middle of both talking points, it does feel like the quality overall in Europe has gone down as billionaire oil/private equity owners are looking for a way to squeeze more money out and don't invest in development or training as they used too, because that means spending money and not making it, so the quality goes down. however a lot billionaire oil/private equity owners are also paying top dollar for elite talents as the stakes are higher so the upper echelon of players do seem to be at a higher quality. as far as Italy is concerned I'm a bit baffled, yes other countries are catching up in quality, and Italy doesn't seem to be developing players the "Italian way" liked they used to. it seems to me that the old way of coaching is out the door and this generation of coaches now are more worried about being bombastic and news worthy then working with the federation to nurture the up and coming Italian players, and in my opinion, excluding the rare talents that are strictly focused on soccer, the ones just on the cusp never cross the line because they're too distracted by social media engagement to the detriment of being elite and I think this is also the biggest issue for the USMNT as well not focused enough when the time comes.