The Soccer Thread (Version 9)

England shitting the bed in the extra time of the the Nations League semi-final. It's not coming home, even for a new trophy.

 

LOL John Stones. Remember when he cost 48M pounds?

 

Went to Target today. There was a four-way with all sorts of US soccer stuff on it, so I thought about getting my kiddo a jersey. That’s when I saw they were all Mia Hamm jerseys.

She retired before my daughter was born. Not a single player currently on the USWNT was represented.

 

USA just abusing Thailand. 7-0 in the 60th and could have been worse.

 

It is getting worse.

 

Alex Morgan might score her sixth and seventh goals of the day on her way to the bus.

13-0, U.S.

 

That's fucking horrible.

 

If you are going to incentivize goal difference, not sure what you can do. Maybe a rule that anything above 6 goals is a plus 6 GD.

 

Maybe have a 16-team World Cup until you can field 24 decent teams?

 

So many nincompoops out there comparing USWNT's output today with the USMNT's output the last few seasons. This was like the Patriots playing a high school team.

 

It is like the progress of women's basketball in the US. Some of the countries in this World Cup probably didn't allow women to play soccer 15 years ago. Complete mismatches are the price of progress in international sports, men's or women's. See Dream Team v. Angola 1992.

 

Precisely what I compared it to today. Women's soccer is deeper than it's ever been internationally, but it's still probably only 8-10 teams deep when it comes to truly competitive sides.