The Soccer Thread (Version 13) — Winter World Cup Edition

Dang.

 

Steffen has been Berhalter’s guy, but the experts (the ones I follow at least) seemed heavily leaning toward Turner recently. Either Steffen doesn’t want to go at all if he’s not starting the first match, or Berhalter doesn’t want the possible distraction.

 

The Banshee, I think? (Had to look it up.) When I went to Boston in 2021, I watched the Euro 2020 final in that bar. Was a great game, and just so happens that it's also the official Boston Packers bar. I was among friends.

I mean, Fox will and should be pissed, but everyone loves a little work distraction. It'll be like the first two days of March Madness for a month.

Checking in from Minnesota here, and no thanks. It would be more like two months before you could stage a non-weather-affected home game in St. Paul, or Toronto, Montreal, Foxboro, Philly and a couple other places north of the 40th parallel.

 

Understood -- but the league gets completely buried as the playoffs come.

 

I believe that we will ... probably get out of the group.

 

There are some Veterans Stadium-tier seams in that turf. My pre-emptive condolences to fans' ACLs.

 

I'm mostly OK with this group. Steffen is the big omission, especially given his history with Berhalter. Pepi, Arriola, and Cannon can probably feel aggrieved, too, but have any of them done much in the chances they've had to make their exclusion truly surprising? One big question for me is how much Berhalter is going to ask the center backs to do in terms of playing high and/or playing the ball out of the back. They'll definitely be good on set pieces, but the relative lack of mobility could leave Adams having to put out a lot of fires.

 

I have some worries about the group. Iran will practically be the home team, and Wales is a wild card with their two stars, Bale and Ramsey, having not played much this year. But the U.S. always seems to have England's number, and two results should see them through to the knockout stage.

 

We need to beat Wales because England is almost certainly a loss. I loved Tim Ream when he played for RBNY but the fact that he is a starting CB for our national team at age 35 is not a good sign.

 

Surprised about how much attention was paid to the third-string goalkeeper spot. Unless, they have no clear-cut number 1 and they're hoping to find a "hot" goalie over the WC. How much impact does a GK3 have in any event? Unless there are injuries or other medical issues or potential distractions.

 

It looks like Long will start with Zimmerman, not Ream.