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

That's why you do a "cup check" in freshman baseball.

 

Fertig to cheer on Deutschland morgen früh.

Wait, what? They have to beat the Ticos straight up to get clear.

Hansi is a good bloke but can he hold Jogi's jock?

 

Wait just another motherfucking cocksucking moment again.

Piers Morgan is on FOX commentating on US soccer?

 

In retrospect, I regret the use of this idiom.

 

Fun fact I saw during last night's post-game coverage. The team the US started against Iran was the fourth-youngest ever at a World Cup in US history. The three youngest? Bob Gansler's College All-Stars at Italia '90. Hell of a job by a bunch of guys who should be at least one cycle before their prime.

Re: Berhalter -- I'm another one of those 1994 World Cup converts. I've seen this team be very good at times and very bad at others over the course of decades. I also used to be a fervent Nebraska football fan, and the level of entitlement and self-regard I see from a very loud section of US "fans" after last night reminds me of the worst of #HuskerNation. The whistle had barely cooled upon leaving the ref's lips for the final time before people were stumbling over themselves to downplay what happened. Iran was terrible. Berhalter was terrible. MLS players were terrible. The US should've dominated. The US should've kept attacking all game. Gio Reyna should've started every game. The US should go back to running the option out of the I formation ... sorry, old habits.

This team is not perfect. This coach is not perfect. Both have more maturing and growing to do, and they have shortcomings that are frustrating to watch as a fan. That said, some people need to go touch grass, have a Coke, and smile. Few things are as reliable as US fans' penchant for self-flagellation and doom-mongering whenever their team fails to live up to whatever lofty standard they've cooked up in their heads this week. Did this team beat Mexico? Did they win trophies? Did they qualify for the World Cup? Did they advance out of their group? Did Berhalter play the young guns and give a wide range of players chances to prove themselves?

Acknowledge the evidence in front of your eyes and enjoy the damn moment. This team has done everything you could reasonably ask of it, and it's done so with vast swaths of its ostensible supporters taking every opportunity to go "yeah, but...". I don't know where this notion that the US should sashay to and through every World Cup came from -- probably a mix of American exceptionalism, marketing hype, and too many hours of FIFA -- but its tenacity and need to die are Kissingerian. This shit is hard and will remain so for the foreseeable future. There's wanting the team to do better, and then there's keeping your goalposts on wheels so you can stay perpetually mad. I see far too much of the latter masquerading as the former, and it serves no one save the speaker's fevered ego.

 

I'll take the contra here, and just say that we've been lowering our expectations of the men's program for fifty years and it gets us nowhere. In fact I'd argue it holds us back.

The idea that the richest nation on earth, the third largest by population, can't field a consistently competitive national team at this point is an insult to common sense.

The idea that we're plucky underdogs even moreso.

Courageous? Brave?

C'mon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/29/usa-round-of-16/

DOHA, Qatar — When this World Cup journey began, with a band of young charges and a measure of fresh ambition, the U.S. men’s national soccer team knew with high certainty its hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage would come down to a brave performance in the last group match.

 

My No. 2 is Senegal because of my Watford fandom. Was glad to see my guy Sarr knock home a penalty for country. Maybe it'll help him learn how to hit one for his club, because he's been abysmal at it.

 

You’d think so, but Mane can’t hit club PKs either.

 

It's been a struggle at the spot for Watford since Deeney left. The rest of his game had left him, but the dude was automatic on PKs.

 

Ronaldo to a Saudi team for $207M per year? He knows they won’t be in the Champions League, right?

 

LIV and let LIV

 

He lost a $5,000 bet to Kilmeade on England-USA
Kilmeade won with a win or tie
Half went to Wounded Warriors, half to Tunnel for Towers