U20s vs. Italy, Oct. 9, 2025 (Pre-/PBP/Post-Match Thread)

The kickoff is at 3:30 or so. They needed to move the start time for the knockouts to allow for room for extra time when there are double hitters.

 

Peacock is showing the game on their app. It is in Spanish so obviously from one of their partners. On the app when I chose sports it was the first thing that showed. It also said 2:30 (of course I'm in the central time zone).

 

Yep. I have verified that I just hope the commentators do not use the extreme rapid fire Spanish that they often do. It is hard for me to follow the fast delivery that many Spanish language commentators lapse into when they get excited. But commentary is the least important thing for me but it does help in identifying players and, at my age, I need all the help I can get.

At lest I will not understand, mostly, the commercials. That is an advantage of my lack of total mastery of Spanish.

 

I tend to think a lot of the stuff is scrambled because of the baseball playoffs, but I have no idea, some baseball stuff is carried by tbs, some by fox, and it seems like some of this tournament is covered by nbc Spanish language channels, and some is covered by fox, and I just end up utterly baffled. I just am assuming I cannot get it until tape delay which means its ruined because there aint no way I'm going to avoid seeing something pop up on twitter, or espn or this or that while I'm working.

I also dumped my peacock sub over the summer because there was largely nothing of interest whatsoever that I was getting through it. Frustrating.

 

Yesterday, France and South Africa looked competent but far from world beaters. France was just lucky. No other way to put it. It took a lot of shine off our result.

 

Yes and no, we were clearly better than France all game. I think the best way to think of it is that over the past year:
2-1 over France in Nov '24
3-0 over Mexico in Mar '25
1-1 tie with Japan in Mar '25
0-1 loss to Norway in June '25
1-0 win over Colombia in June '25
4-1 win over Morocco in Sept '25
0-0 draw with Morocco in Sept '25

That seems like the relevant stuff. New Caledonia is New Caledonia, the only info we have with this degraded French team is they were better than a meh South Africa that we outplayed but lost to with reserves, and that they escaped with a win over a Japan team we tied, despite clearly being the inferior side in the game last night.

I look at the results above, and we look pretty good, only the one loss, to a Norway side in the Quarters, and its interesting to note that our entire schedule pre-tournament involved teams that have made the QF's, other than Japan, which should have.

We should win today, but will we? I have no idea.

 

Brooklyn Raines supreme?​

 

I think it's fair to say that's the best XI we've seen so far. Maybe Soma over Raines would be preferable if, as I expect, the USA will see a lot of the ball. At the same time Raines should be able to snuff Italy attacks as they get started, and I liked his aggressive off ball movement against France.

 

When I saw at the US soccer website it was on Peacock and Universio I was going to skip it, because I didn't want to watch in Spanish, nor pay for Peacock.

Then I vaguely remembered I got Peacock through my cable subscription even though I never watch it.

Ironically, I don't see an English listing on Peacock either.

What year are we, 1980?

Between this bullshit and spoiling the result of the last game I tried to watch with the Fox scroll, the broadcasting of this tournament is a disaster.

 

Campbell better come good this game. Dude has been crap so far.

 

Most Spanish broadcasts do not have an English extra audio track and the do not even offer English subtitles. I think that has to do with the contracts for rights. do not agree with the policy but it is what it is.
TV rights and coverage has undergone great strides over the years but in language support we are about where we were in 1980.
At least the matches are available. Before the turn of the century finding a match like this to watch was almost impossible unless you were able to travel to it.

This is a problem but the choices are extensive. It is just that many people, like me, do not really like any choice we have.

 

Peacock doesn't have an English listing because it's NBC Universal which has the Spanish rights via Telemundo.

It really won't kill you to watch in Spanish.

 

anyone know why mitrovic didnt give beavers a startt in the group phase?

beaudry makes me nervous

 

I may have to do it, don't have to like it.

 

raines > soma

what have you been watching???

 

For Fox, this overlaps with England-Wales on FS2 and Scotland-Greece on Fox Soccer Plus. Both of those were scheduled before we knew the US team's knockout schedule. FS1 just has its regular daytime sports pundit shows, but those probably make more money than youth international tournaments. It's sad that they don't put overflow matches on Tubi.

 

It's only been 30 seconds but we look terrible.

 

very slow reaction and stupid foul by westfield to give up that free kick.....usa will only lose if they beat themselves.....and thats exactly the way to do it

 

Does anyone have a stream for this?

 

the "italian" okoro pushes westfield right in the back....cynical play that needs to be punished

 

Or on the FOX Sports app. They moved many other things to the app if the schedule did not allow the actual channels to cover the match.
In fact they moved at least one match to the app earlier.
But I do have to say that the announcers on Universo are better than the intellectual dwarfs we usually get from FOX, at least for the first5-6 minutes. It helps that I miss some of the drivel due to my weaker Spanish skills.

 

3 times Italy strike the box, they are testing Beaudry.

 

I’d put my scare quotes around that redhead…never seen a ginger Italian before

 

us playing with absolutely no edge whatsoever.....italy playing much more agressive...i dont like it

 

Either Italy is going to get less physical, or the ref will have to start pulling out cards