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

Sitting in my first period class watching ESPN's Gamecast and wishing really hard I didn't have to work today. Ecuador-Senegal looks like a fun match

 

Turner
Dest
Ream
Carter-Vickers
Robinson
Adams
McKennie
Musah
Weah
Sargent
Pulisic

Sargent back in. Carter-Vickers makes his WC debut.

 

We better hear after the tourney that Reyna's hamstring was torn or some shit if they go out. Fucking Berhalter.

 

Simliar story for me. Didn't give a crap about soccer until I got a hacked XBox that had FIFA 07 on it. I got good playing it and picked a team that sucked to make it harder, so chose from the bottom of the Premier table and landed on Wigan. Got to know the players and such and decided at the start of the 2009 season to start following them for real. After the won the FA Cup in 2013, I followed them around when they came to the US to play a warmup tour for the 2014 season and met a few Brits that lived in the US. I started a Facebook group to stay connected and have been running that ever since. Fun to see kids that were in high school that I met then are now married and we've met up for beers when I get to their part of the country. Planning on going to a match in the coming years when my wife and I get overseas.
New gaffer announced today! Up the Tics! After many awful years wallowing in League 1/2, they are in the Championship and taking their lumps ... hoping to see a push back to the Premier in a few years. Nice to have ESPN+and see some matches live again.

 

MLS -- Major League Soccer -- is perhaps the biggest misnomer in sports. It is unquestionably a minor league.

When the vast majority of your players aspire to play for more money on a bigger stage before a larger audience in a better league, that's pretty much the definition of minor league.

 

It’s weird how none of the soccer insiders and former players doing commentary are talking about him.

 

I picked this game to be a draw last week, but I think the US team has generally played better than its station in the last few years when their proverbial balls were to the wall. I'll go 3-1 US with Pulisic scoring twice early to loosen the game up, Iran picking one up late in the first half to make it nervous and an all-but empty-netter at the end.

 

CNN gives 15 minutes to the poliitcs of the game, including an Aunt Bea appearance. Yeah, they're gone, but bring back Hick and Nick!

 

And we have fans on teh Twitterez whining there are no MLS players in the lineup. Folks, the orange slices for everyone phase of the competition is long gone.

 

I'm very bad luck and will not be watching.

 

Having lived a long, long time, I'm studiously neutral on the number of ways the USMNT might find to lose a game like this.

Go team, etc.

 

The US appears to be the quicker and stronger team so I think they’ve got the edge. Only question is Iran playing not to lose.