Bad news for USA. Southgate thinks England needs to improve its focus for game against the USA. Should have won 6-0 over Iran.
I was wrong about our ability to control MF. Our MF was better than England. Adams yielded nothing to Rice despite Rice being much more highly regarded. McKennie was probably slightly better than Mount and Musah was better than Bellingham. Surprisingly, first sub was Henderson on in MF to get something different going. He made a little difference, but he certainly is no offensive threat.
Don’t know if we go Musah/Wright/Sargent mix we have had previously. If they park the bus, more inclined to go with Wright at 6’3" if we are lobbing crosses. Start Reyna right behind Pulisic. Might leave us a little vulnerable down that side on D though.
Sounded like a good plan 8 weeks ago.
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https://twitter.com/MenInBlazers/status/1597721195038003201
Looks like Pulisic’s injury won’t keep him out in the knockout stage
This American team may change things on how American soccer is perceived. Beyond the play on the field, the team has really conducted themselves at a level of maturity well beyond their years. Tyler Adams press conference before the Iran game was pure class. Then, following the game, Antonee Robinson consoling a number of Iranian players was beyond touching. I can only imagine what pressures that team faces going home. Our boys are really great representatives to how to play and how to act.
It may change for the folks that already follow the sport but my sense is that is a small percentage of Americans? At my gym in Canada, the World Cup games are all broadcast and Canada’s games outdrew NHL games. Here in Columbia the gym I have been using televised sports talk shows discussing the past week’s NFL and other other games instead: no sense that the WC is on many peoples’ radar. The university women’s basketball team is a much bigger story here.
That’s South Carolina. I don’t think that area is representative of the USA. I mean, how many Confederate flags have you seen flying or stuck on bigots’ trucks?
I’m gonna guess it’s a lot more than the average American region, which STILL has a frequency of > 0.
I’m hoping it is not representative of America as on my first day here I witnessed an ugly racial diatribe from a white guy in a truck directed towards a man of South Asian ancestry for no apparent reason. But I am digressing.
Due to USMNT advancing to the Knockout Rounds, the 2023 USWNT will receive more money than it did for winning in 2019.
So, making the USWNT is going to be a HUGE financial deal. So much that it might create those pesky economic incentives that are always of interest to Freakonomists.
Might also lessen the individual’s need to win the WWC, as that juicy roster spot might be enough.
I wouldn’t extend your Columbia experience to the rest of the US, but it is probably a fair representation of the soccer opinions of much of rural america. Here in the city and the suburbs there’s a fair amount of buzz about the world cup with games on in many spots, but if I drove an hour south it would probably be all SEC championship previews today despite that game being days away.
I’ve gone to restaurants to watch the other US games, but will probably watch Saturday at home given the early start.
typical. Men do all the work and the women are just there to take their paychecks.
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Hey!!
Don’t forget that some of those women are also birthin’ babies.
Some type of footwear is required, though.
Wonderin’ how good them sammishes are.
I just looked at the tv ratings for the first two US and Canadian matches and they were refreshingly good for soccer. US ratings were still nowhere near as high as NFL but Canadian ones were huge, only the Super Bowl had more viewers in 2022.
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For USA-ENG, it helped that it was on Black Friday, and that it was against ENG, who have a lot of fans in the USA (some not even from ENG).
This Saturday’s game might be seen by more, but it’s pretty early. Second game slot might have pulled more viewers.
This paragraph is pretty funny:
Such a big audience in the second game of the group stage in Qatar bodes well for Fox and U.S. Soccer, both of which need to make use of the World Cup spotlight. Capturing casual fans during the tournament is crucial to growing soccer, especially with the tournament coming to the United States in four years.
Um, the last WC we held in 1994 STILL holds the WC record for attendance, and had fewer matches. 69K per match. PER MATCH!
Should have it here every time.
Also, they’re “casual fans” for a reason. They will not convert from their other religions. WC is like Mardi Gras in NOLA. “Hey, let’s watch and get excited, but when we go back home we’ll atone for it all.”
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This describes me. I usually find any soccer mind numbingly boring but for some reason every 4 years I’m captivated by the World Cup for 3 or 4 weeks. Then promptly ignore soccer (or futbol) for the next 4 years.
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are you me? you’re me, aren’t you? I have a couple of buddies who are big futbol fans, and I’ll go watch a game with them every now and then, and I will stop for a few minutes if a team I recognize is on Hulu, but I really only want to watch a whole match during WC.
I think there will be more viewers because it will be finished before the first college football games on Saturday.
Man i keep thinking about how many strikers would have pulled out of that challenge for the ball that Pulisic scored on. That kid is special. He loves representing the US and for as meh as I am towards patriotism/nationalism it fires me up!
Think I’m gonna go to my buddy’s place (approx 2 hour drive) on Saturday as he’s got another friend who owns a greasy spoon diner that will be having breakfast party.