We scratched our itch. And we got to see on full display the dysfunction of that organization. That party isn’t gonna be welcome here for awhile I think and rightfully so. That was a logistical disaster by all standards. The idea is fun and cute, but now we know. Crazy for someone to make Concacaf look like a functional entity, but here we are. Soccer quality is better yes, literally everything else abominable though. we are fortunate this tournament didnt make headlines for all the wrong reasons (even more than now). We can let this weird dream die for a couple decades so the next generation of fans can complain about it. Let’s improve our own organization instead , which needs plenty of work
It won't matter until the 2030 cycle anyway. If FIFA insists on the Nations League it is difficult to get meaningful games. We need to play against better opponents.
It was a disaster but it’s still a necessity. We won’t ever improve if we consider playing Panama to be a legitimate contest.
right now Canada and Panama are legitimate competition unfortunately until proven otherwise. And Jamaica frankly speaking
Add: Gregg was able to hide his inadequacies as a coach by inflating his record by playing minnows. For years, this inflated record was the justification used by the Berhalter Brigade that he was a good enough coach, even though he mostly/always struggled against legitimate teams, besides Mexico. Personally, I don’t think there could be anything more disastrous than being stuck only playing teams from North America.
Playing Canada is probably equivalent to playing Austria right now. Good team. I’m not going to say that they’re absolutely nobody. But it’s still an inferior team, if you solely went off the player pool on paper. On the other hand, Panama is like what? Georgia? Bosnia? Albania? Northern Ireland? Uzbekistan? Macedonia? If you’re being very generous? That ain’t going to cut it. We’re still never testing ourselves and we continue to create an environment where it’s okay to play down to your competition. That’s a horrible mindset for us to get in. Because we might be a big fish in this little pond, but we have a long ways to go to catch up with South America, Europe, and even the best from Africa and Asia.
I think my primary gripe is the product off the field. If the product off the field sucks, we can’t really talk about a product on the field. I’d love playing good teams more refutation but if this is what we gotta put up with to do it, that’s not gonna here for at least a decade , maybe 2-3 decades
Yeah, as somebody who constantly touts the need for the US to play in the Copa America, the organization of this tournament was comically bad. No reason that USSF cannot coordinate in the future, as long as the waste that comprises CONMEBOL's executive leadership is willing to cede more control to people who want to run the Copa America as a prestigious competition. The CONCACAF Gold Cup is a smoothly managed machine compared to this year's Copa America.
I think therein lies the key……… conmebol needs to cede more control of things f they ever do want to do this again……. Especially in the security and logistics domain. No delegating things out like logistics or security……. No copa America in USA
Copa America was also much better organized in 2016. That was a SUM event. People can criticize SUM all they want, but they're the go-to when it comes to organizing soccer events in North America. This 2024 event had nothing to do with SUM or the USSF. CONMEBOL wanted to do their own thing, to maximize their profit, and they royally messed it up. They only have themselves to blame. If people say "stadium X" of "field Y" wasn't up to standards.......................that's on CONMEBOL. As far as we can tell, they didn't ask us. And yes, they came withing an inch of catastrophe last night.
oh lawyers are still going to get paid, and so are fans. What happened yesterday was the sort of things lawyers live for. The lawsuits alone are going to negate any profits Conmebol think they made for this party. Financially, it will be catastrophic for them. And they’re extremely fortunate to not have something criminally catastrophic on their hands
People need to remember how bad some of the field conditions were for the Women's Gold Cup Earlier this year. Not only that but the marketing for the event was pretty bad too. So both organizations have taken L's this year.
Never got behind the joining Conmebol idea in the first place. We have plenty of competition here when winning in Costa Rica remains an apparently impossible task, Panama has been clowning us, Canada has its moment's of clearly outperforming us, etc. We don’t even take enough advantage of the tournaments hosted on home soil.
I said this in another thread but ironically the CEO of the 2016 event was none other than Jay Berhalter.
It'd probably still be a net positive to be in CONMEBOL but obviously with serious reservations. We'd have more clout to push for reform as a full member, but also would feel the need for reform more acutely. It's not like lousy sod, fans barging in, and other Copa shenanigans suddenly address the issue of weak CONCACAF competition. Apples and oranges. One question I have -- would yesterday's scenes have been similar at Maracanã, River Plate, or Barranquilla? Were past editions (not counting 2016) somehow better managed?
Sources linked in the overall Copa Wikipedia article claim that the contract included 2028. I really hope we have some leverage to prevent another shitshow like this one or can renegotiate.
Here's my three point plan for the two federations: Continue to work together. We need the competition, you need the money. The only truly competent organization of Soccer in the Americas in terms of business seems to be MLS/SUM with maybe a dash of US Soccer. Let's let them run the business side. Profit.
In South America, the stadiums are designed with physical security as a main priority, especially for entry, with full mantrap turnstile gates that only allow a single person through at a time. And they have several security perimeters and actual riot police to hold back crowds. It becomes impractical to rush the gates, and people without tickets won’t get all that close to the actual entrances. What happened last night was an NFL stadium security force up against a South American soccer crowd. The CONMEBOL organizers should’ve known better.
Did everyone else see the Colombian federation president and his son were arrested in Miami last night for 3 counts of felony battery? WTF Who'd they get in a fight with?
Apparently, the Fed president and his son were fighting with security after the game because they were trying to get on the field. Any surprise that the fans basically broke into the stadium and then destroyed it if this is how their leadership acts?