Yeah. That's not strong enough from FIFA. Sweden, Czechia, and Poland have all said they won't play Russia. They should stand firm and force the issue with FIFA.
I found the IOC stuff ridiculous. Oh cheating? Well you're totally not Russia anymore but we'll let you compete all the same.
Sky Sports is reporting that Spartak Moscow is going to be removed from the Europa League. Hopefully this is the first big domino to fall that isolates Russian sports from the rest of the civilized world until Russian government wants to play nice with their neighbors (i.e. Putin is out of office). The IOC is also beginning to make noise that they will exclude Russia as well.
I'll believe that last one (IOC) when I see it. It's a complete and utter joke that they're allowed to compete in the Olympics in any capacity. The FIFA "ban" of name, song, and hosting is laughable if it wasn't so truly shameful.
yeah those competing Olympians are surely much more understanding when they lost to ROC rather than Russia
Yes, those Olympians were definitely comforted when that figure skater was identified as an ROC athlete and not Russian when they suffered zero consequences after being caught cheating *during the competition*.
Also fairly easy for the IOC to take a stand now when they really don't host any competitions for the next 28 months or so.
That Queretero/Atlas riot was terrible. The Queretero officials are saying 26 injured, but I saw several lifeless bodies in the vids floating around the net. Including one where a dead body was further kicked in the head about 20 times. Bodies and injured people were stripped of their clothing. Women and children included. The official report will not mention these things though. The early reports were 17 dead. That got quickly hushed up.
Absolutely ridiculous and insane. I don’t get that type of anger for sport even with my irrational “hatred” of Diego Chara. It’s only in the game and totally in jest. I’m sure he’s a great person. What happened in Mexico has to be about so much more than Futbol.
speculation is that the cartels have had money in the clubs down there for years. I don't have anything to prove one way or another - just providing context of what I've seen reported. The consequences of this have to be damning.
Pour one out for your homies that support Italy. It's wild that they went from winning the Euro Cup to not qualifying for the World Cup.
Two world cups in a row between not making the 2018 and 2022 world cup they not only won the Euros, but set an undefeated streak record.
Our most recent CONCACAF thread is dated 2015, so I’m choosing to post here instead. Under normal circumstances I would not want Seattle to be the first American/MLS side to win a modern CCL Championship. With Rusnak there I REALLY don’t want them to do it.
Abso-fricken-lutely! Even though it was the greatest futbol experience for me to date I am still not over that loss to Monterrey, so not only no, but hell no on Seattle winning the CCL.
Miracle 2-2 draw for Sounders at PUMAS today. Of the 4 goals, 3 were penalties. Our boy Saucedo committed a hand ball in the box to give SS their first penalty. SS’s other penalty came on the very last kick of the game.
LOL. I don’t watch a lot of tv. I turned it on this morning and the game was on. I had no idea it wasn’t live.
its CONCACAF and weirder things have happened I watched the game and found it... strange. The first half was in a complete downpour. Up there with our Cruz Azul monsoon game. Had the rain gone the whole game, it would have featured the keystone cop moments we had in ours. The first penalty, for Pumas, was a terrible call. How that wasn't asked to be reviewed by VAR still blows my mind. Frei subsequently saved the penalty, but came off his line early so it was retaken. Pumas scored. When Pumas went up 2-0 I honestly felt that same "MLS just can't do this" feeling I get every time I've watched an MLS team make the final. But Seattle did Seattle things. The first penalty for Seattle was an unfortunate handball for Bofo. I'm not sure what he's supposed to do with his arms on a slide tackle there, but those are the rules. There was a review of a potential foul by Seattle in the buildup - something I didn't realize could be reviewed on a penalty - that the ref didn't call. Felt like a balance out with the weak foul call for the Pumas penalty. The Pumas GK is a complete asshat. He was shit talking Lodeiro on both penalties and Lodeiro finished both. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. The second pk for Seattle was a truly strange play. Roldan was in the corner of the box and turns, gets kicked, and knocks the ball out for a goalkick. NOBODY thought it was a penalty in real time except Roldan. No Seattle players were yelling or going to the ref. Credit to Roldan, he sat there as if injured to make sure the play got reviewed. It did. The ref went and watched the VAR. I could see that one going either way, but the ref had set such a low bar with his first penalty that he had to call it in order to keep his badge, I imagine. All in all, it felt eerily similar to our draw against Monterrey. For stretches, both teams had the balance of play. Set pieces/penalties proved to be huge. Seattle is going home. Everyone is talking about how good the setup is for them to do this. It's exactly like us.... and until I see it happen, I'll expect what happened to us to happen to Seattle/MLS.
Seattle won with a 16 year old on the field. But, yeah, we totally shouldn't let those academy signings even make the gameday bench for a weekday MLS game...