I thought I heard something about the Canadian squad getting to check out the Stanley Cup while they're in Vegas..
I think that's pretty cool, getting to get so close to a trophy and all..
especially one you haven't seen up close in aboot 30 years..
I thought I heard something about the Canadian squad getting to check out the Stanley Cup while they're in Vegas..
I think that's pretty cool, getting to get so close to a trophy and all..
especially one you haven't seen up close in aboot 30 years..
Fair play. We got embarrassed, the boys didn’t even get off the fucking bus…Originally Posted by Percussion
Damn Mexico fired their coach after only like 7 games
Seven games is abject silliness. Seven games of which he only lost once. That said they shouldn't have ever hired him to begin with.
Mexico are a dumpster fire organizationally right now. Combined with a continuously emptying talent cupboard and their future looks pretty grim.
US is hosting Copa America in 2024 and now announced to host FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 which will have 32 teams. Wonder how that is going to work.
I ended up not buying tickets to the Gold Cup double header yesterday. Worked out since I had a migraine. They announced they are coming back in September for a friendly and that it will be Berhalter's first game back as head coach. May try to catch that game.
On the bright side the Sept matches are during a fifa international break so you'll get to see the a-team squad. The downside is they're scheduled against Oman and Uzbekistan for whatever reason. Not exactly the kind of 'competition' that I feel like I'd wanna fork over the kinda cash the ussf completely unreasonably charges for tickets.
On the whole though seeing them live is dope as fuck.
I could have gotten cheap ass tickets for the gold cup. I saw some people selling tickets pretty cheap.
I have a game in mind to go to in Aug to see my first MLS game and then yeah I am going to target that USMNT game in Sept.
Well Canada, lol, you'll always have 2022 WCQ'ing..
You beat our second stringers.
With our 3rd and 4th stringers, yes..You beat our second stringers.
Should I eyeroll now to really nail it?
I was about to say neither team is playing their main people.
The US fans really seem so upset by a nation that hasn't made the World Cup in a generation revelling in suddenly topping World Cup qualifying that included victories over the two traditional powerhouses of the region.
Yeah we sucked at the World Cup itself, but that doesn't take away us legit qualifying when I imagine many of us believed the only World Cup we'd qualify for would be the automatic qualification for the next one.
At first glance I thought you were referring to twitter fans in so far as being 'really upset' at/by Canada (fans I assume), as that can certainly appear to be the case on that platform - but then I read on and realized you couldn't have been when saying Canadians were merely 'revelling' their run to the world cup, as they were certainly doing more so than that on that platform.
So just not sure now.
Surely can’t be referring to things like this.
Canada has come a long way and qualfying last time and topping the region at that was really cool. Nice to see other countries improve as we continue to improve as well. We still have a ways to go.
Just sucks that basically the powerhouses just phoned this tournament in because of the timing.
Concacaf really needs a cup people care about because right now neither the Gold Cup or the Nations League really capture the imagination.
Maybe the Gold Nations Cup League
Surely you and I must have vastly different definitions of 'really upset' if you were..
They probably need to revamp it and also maybe change the timing of it in order to make sure that teams are playing more of their A line ups. I don't really blame people being with their club teams over in Europe right now because of the timing.
I don't know how you revamp it while involving the same teams that are always going to be in your same confederation. I mean, we got who we got.
After this year though the gold cup and nation's league will no longer be in the same summer. Next nation's league will be 23-24 while gold cup will come around in 2025 and they'll rotate that way from here on out and so A-teams the rest of the way. The last couple editions were just put off schedule after covid wrecked every other schedule.
Mixing and mingling with conmebol is important. Having us be a part of Copa (like next year) and inviting their members to gold cup on some semi-regular basis would help.
As long as we send A teams and they send A teams. We have sent B teams to Copa and Brazil has sent u-21 or whatever teams to Gold Cup. I agree that we should invite them more for sure and I like it when we get invited to Copa.
No argument there whatsoever.
100% we're sending our very best to Copa next year.
I think we did last time we were in it when we hosted as well. Because one time we sent a B team and they pretty much not inviting us again if we do that.
OMG. I am ready to get out of my various St. Louis City facebook groups right now. Too much talk about Messi. And of course half the posts are making fun of all the posts about Messi. Jesus. He is not even playing in the game this week because he is making his debut at home in Miami and not on the road. The supporters section reminded people that no jerseys from other teams allowed in the section and said no Messi jerseys of any kind allowed this week.
And the other hot topic is standing at games after there was an opinion piece about how if you are not in the supporter section that you need to stop standing the whole game.
Prices keep going up. I have a game targeted to go to but it may involve buy tickets last minute after people drop prices
Said before but just one more time, super happy for the city of St. Louis to (finally) get the team they deserve.
My family is from there (Ferguson actually) by way of my grandmother and grandfather. My mom and her brother and sister grew up there. I was born here in Houston but my mom moved us back to St. Louis when I was a little over a year old, just to move back here when I was two. Heard tons of stories about the soccer scene there back then, the youth programs, the Billikens, etc. So I've always kind of understood just how much the people there were down for the game. Pretty dope how the club has managed to hit the ground running like they have.
Yeah we should have had a team a long time ago and I think had their been a solid ownership group we would have gotten it sooner. We deserved to have a team. This is a soccer town and has been since forever.
I love how well city has embraced this team. Amazing. Part of why the prices keep going up.
Never thought we would be doing so well out of the gate. Kudos to management for building this team. First place in the West at the break and 3rd in the Supporter Shield. I think second in goals scored. Might have the best goal differential. 2 All Stars. Amazing run. Wish I could watch more games but that is a rant for another day about the deal MLS made with Apple.
So I see the all star game is on Apple Tv. Ugh. I haven't watched it since they switched away from the conference vs conference format but was going to watch this year with St. Louis players in the game but yeah guess not. Oh well I will just watch Blood and Guts match on AEW Dynamite instead.
Guy gets off the bus for the first time, comes off the bench early in the 2nd, finally dons the shirt, and proceeds to simply do what he's being paid several boatloads to do..
..and a very many fans in Miami and across the league having a laugh at how fun this is.
Well that was just a plain shitty World Cup for the US women.
Those penalties were pretty funny..
Turner moved over to Forest from Arsenal. Should get some playing time finally.
Definitely happy to see Turner get steady minutes at a top level. He's earned it.
Whole bunch of other intriguing moves this window as well..
Pulisic and Musah to Milan.
Weah to Juventus.
Pepi and Tillman to PSV.
Aaronson to Union Berlin.
Adams appears on the verge of a move to Chelsea.
Balogun looking at either Monaco or Inter at the moment.
Dest has to go somewhere.
New USWNT coach coming. His record in major tournaments was awful for considerably consistently one of the best if not the best team in the world. Other countries are catching up for sure and we are in a bit of transition with some talent retiring and what not but yeah they should have done way better in the World Cup
So the worst team in the league managed to win the Leagues Cup thanks to Messi.
Second half of the season started. St. Louis winning big to get back on track after two disappointing losses in the Leagues Cup.
So with the window set to wrap up in just a few days, here's the (just about) final tally on the several US players on the move this summer..
Matt Turner to Nottingham Forest.
Tyler Adams to Bournemouth.
Auston Trusty to Sheffield.
Brenden Aaronson to Union Berlin.
Christian Pulisic to Milan.
Yunus Musah to Milan.
Tim Weah to Juve.
Folarin Balogun to Monaco.
Sergino Dest to PSV.
Ricardo Pepi to PSV.
Malik Tillman to PSV.
Gaga Slonina to Eupen.
Lots of other guys staying right were they were, but hardly any of them were really looking elsewhere.
Few still up in the air as the window closes, such as McKennie, Horvath, and Cannon.
And a several MLS guys who were thought to possibly go but may now be waiting till this winter as they wrap up their seasons here..
Ferreira, Vazquez, M Robinson, Tolkin, Cowell, etc.
On the whole I think this looks to have been a very productive period with several players finding homes much more suited to finding playing time or their level or just an overall better environment.
Also looks like I'll be watching a fair bit more Serie A, and apparently PSV, lol.
As this has kinda become the de facto all-things-CONCACAF thread I'll put this here..
John Herdman hired as new Toronto FC head coach
ouch.
Canada's Soccer program is an absolute shitshow I don't blame him for leaving.
Of course TFC also is a shitshow so...
Complete and utter disbelief, absolutely gutted.
I had hoped that he’d stick around through the 2026 World Cup, what with us being one of the host countries and having our most talented squad ever in the prime of their careers. I totally envisioned him leading the national men’s side to their first ever World Cup win, getting out of the group stage, maybe even winning an elimination game; THEN cashing in and trading up for that massive contract with the high profile job.
But to downgrade now, to a shitty MLS squad? What in the actual fuck? There has to be something more behind the scenes, beyond the financial shitshow. Did he lose the ears of the elite young players?
What the fuck now? FUCK!!!
Yeah seems like an odd move to make at this point and time.
I totally forgot the US team is doing a friendly here in St. Louis. Need to see how much tickets are going for.
I think he just saw the writing on the wall with the calamity that's the CSA at the moment. Their pipeline is drying up and their development system is gutted for lack of money. They had to take a loan from FIFA, and that's just for the sake of their 1st team to be able to stage friendlies. It's pretty dire and I'm not sure how far down the tunnel is before any light might be seen.
And as much as I might give them stick I'd much rather they remain competitive as it's just in everyone's best interests that the more competition there is in concacaf the better for everyone.
Hell, with their lack of funds I can't even imagine how they could begin to lure anyone in that's on par to replace Herdman, much less a possible step up. The one card they have up their sleeve is a guaranteed ticket punched to hosting a WC. But with that being 3 years away still and the unfortunate nature of their current state of affairs is it really that appealing to lead a WC squad that may look set for an awful result, and the remaining 3 struggling years to try and improve the situation? Idk..
So Messi takes worst team in MLS to a trophy to start off his tenure. He can add another trophy with the US Open Cup.
Do you think he can get them to the playoffs? They are not eliminated yet so I guess if they make it they always have a chance of winning the MLS Cup.
Crazy to think that he is making that big of a difference
Messi's been the driving force behind Miami's turnaround of late, no doubt. But I think it would be remiss to overlook his partners in crime who've come to MLS with him in Busquets and Alba.
When you can revamp almost 30% of your starting 11 with 3 greats who have fantastic chemistry together coming from the absolute top of the soccer mountain that's a pretty big leap in team functionality, and the rub to the carryover guys from before their arrival is pretty evident as well.
Can Miami make the playoffs? They're 8 points out of the final playoff spot as it stands. But they've also got 2 or 3 games in hand on each the teams ahead of them, which if they take care of business in those games is an immediate 6 to 9 point difference gained on those teams. Idk, it's a steep climb to get there but I certainly wouldn't put it past them if they continue on playing the way they have since Lio's arrival.
If they were to actually make the MLS Cup.. my word how big a story that would be.
Also, USMNT take on Uzbekistan tomorrow at 4:30 central time.
Who gives a rip about Uzbekistan of course, but it's a FIFA window during euro qualifiers so the pickings were slim. That said all the top end boys will be there and playing so it should still be a fun watch to see them show up and show out.
Better put up a ten-spot on them…
nvm
Last edited by Percussion; September 9th, 2023 at 3:21 PM.
St Louis clinches playoffs. May end up top team in the West. Crazy for an expansion team
And St. Louis ties record for most wins for an expansion team in their first season. Crazy to think how good they have been this season.
I think it was huge that they didn't just sign a bunch of guys in the window right before the start of their inaugural campaign and just throw them all out on the field together and hope they gel quickly as possible. Had to help to have more than a handful of contributors to you current roster sign in 2022 to spend time playing together in MLS Next for St. Louis' reserve squad.
Kind of takes a little away from their being a full on traditional expansion franchise, but hat's off to the foresight and planning to have so many key pieces in place to really hit the ground running. Great vision by the front office.
Yeah they were able to use a few people on City2 for a season after the delay in starting in MLS. I like they they also have some younger talent in the mix and I think the coach has done a great job and yeah amazing how well this team gelled. Yeah I would say the front office did a great job with this team.
I saw something this morning where a Inter Miami season ticket holder said they paid a little over $6K for their two tickets and to keep those tickets is going to cost a little over $30K. Insane
Man I love my team. St. Louis clinches top spot in the West which is a first for an expansion team. Best start for an expansion team. Most wins for an expansion team. First one to finish first in the conference and closing in on most points by an expansion team.
So MLS now has it's first ever active player to win the ballon d'or.
What a time..
lol
Same man is up for newcomer of the year and only played like 4 MLS games....
Reports that Inter Miami is signing Luis Suárez. Interesting
St. Louis stumbled first game of playoffs so hoping to come back on the road this weekend.
US vs Trinidad & Tobago tomorrow @ 8pm in the first of a two-legger in the Nations League quarter-finals.
But bigger picture is winning this matchup and advancing to the semi's of Nations League qualifies us for the 2024 Copa America. And that's the real showcase event between now and the 2026 World Cup.
Yeah be nice to compete in Copa again.
Wasn't able to catch the game. Glad we won but sounds like we still have some work to do.
Wasn't their best game certainly, but we got the result we needed and we're all but officially qualified for copa now.
Trinidad played an obnoxiously low block and without both Pulisic and Weah we struggled for a while to break through it. The younger boys found some opportunities in the first half but just missed capitalizing on an errant touch here or an errant pass there. Second half saw a lot more pressure and we wore through their bullshit (with the help of playing with a man advantage) to put three away back to back to back and essentially seal the series.
I'm not as disappointed as some, but it was rough sledding for a good while. Bad teams gotta do what bad teams gotta do and there were some lessons to learn in how to defeat that kind of play. Just glad we could turn it on when we needed to.
These vids just keep getting better..
sigh
glad we qualified for Copa but geez we should have won that game and Dest should have not done that dumb move to get the red card
So the 2024 Copa America draw was earlier this evening, and I ain't mad at it.
We're now set to face Bolivia, Panama, and Uruguay.. in that order.
Bolivia are the weakest possible South American side we could face, so cool there. Panama are the weakest concacaf side aside from the remaining play-off teams still trying to qualify, so again cool. And then there's Uruguay, the toughest draw of the tournament. They're fuckin nails from end to end and killing it right now in conmebol World Cup qualifying. Well fuck it, let's go.
But I mentioned the order part because I think that's important. If we really believe in where we're headed as a program then we should absolutely believe in coming out of the first 2 matches with 6 points. Which would send us through to the knockout rounds in 2nd place at worst heading into the Uruguay match and could see us going toe to toe with them for top of the group.
So ya, on the whole a legit path to the knockouts with a stern test to see what we're really made of. I can dig it.
Yeah I like the draw for us. Plus a game in KC. So wonder if @Mazer has room on his couch for me...
Absolutely.
But bring your own pillow
So MLS won't send teams to US Open Cup. They are going to have teams send MLS Next Pro teams.
So I get that between the Open Cup and other tournaments some teams play a lot of games but so do a lot of teams in other countries especially Europe. Also some teams were already using mostly reserves in the early rounds of the tournament as it was but still I hate this. Like one of the oldest tournaments around and we are not going to have top MLS teams in it.
It sucks. Our only domestic level history in the sport and our top league is just saying fuck it.
I understand they basically chose between the US Open and the Leagues cup in terms of schedule congestion, and the latter makes them substantially more money. Also the presentation for the Open is pretty awful which is out of mls' hands. I think they also want to undermine the usl by bowing out, just my own cynical view.
Whatever the reason(s) this is lame. As of now this is only a 1 year experiment to have mls next teams play in their place. Fingers crossed the douchebags in charge can figure this out the right way. I'm not holding my breath.
US Soccer told MLS to suck it with that request to use MLS NEXT Pro teams.
It makes me laugh. But I'm not sure it was the right move for US Soccer.US Soccer told MLS to suck it with that request to use MLS NEXT Pro teams.
I mean other leagues around the world deal with schedule congestion. MLS and the Mexican league adding the Leagues Cup added to congestion even with taking a break from regular season games to it. Just dumb to try to remove the top league from the domestic tournament.
MLS teams will continue to sending back ups in the first couple rounds they join. Top league teams do that in a lot of tournaments and then bring on the first team guys at the end. I am okay with that.
I read your original post wrong. I had to go look.
I read it more as US telling MLS to fuck off over the proposal.
Seemed......aggressive.
What can I say. Been a long day already.
So these guys are still fighting over this and the 2024 edition of the cup was in jeopardy. They have seemed to have worked out an agreement but not all MLS teams will compete this year so we can have a tournament. They are working on an agreement for future years. Details have not been announced yet.
MLS complaining about scheduling but part of that is their own fault by adding the Leagues Cup. I understand Leagues Cup brings in more revenue that the US Open Cup probably but if there are issues with revenue and sponsorships and fans interest in the US Open Cup then figure something out instead of just saying fuck it we are not sending our teams you can have our MLS NEXT Pro teams instead. Part of the problem with fans losing some interest is because your teams send mostly reserve sides in the first couple rounds that you play once MLS sides join in. You would think a team that may not be able to get into the CONCACAF Champions Cup via placement on how they place in MLS would want to be able to send a good team to the US Open Cup to try to get in that way.
Speaking of Champions Cup. St. Louis City plays today in the first game of two against Houston. Kind of wish I would have gotten a ticket for today. Maybe if they advance out of this round I will catch a game.
You could swing by KC to catch US vs. Uruguay in July.
Oh yeah totally forgot about that Copa America game. Wonder what tickets are going for?
So only like 8 MLS teams in this year's Open Cup. Basically teams not doing CONCACAF Champions Cup. So no US Open Cup for St. Louis and they already crashed out of the Champions Cup.
Looks like $85 is cheapest tickets for that US vs Uruguay game in KC
That's about what I've seen as well.
The cheapest for kc vs Miami, low 100s
Tickets sky rocketed for our home game against them last season despite the fact that everyone knew they were not going to have him debut with the team on the road. Crazy how much tickets went after he joined the team
Like to take just a sec to say.. FUCK MEXICO
Fuck their soccer team..
Fuck their fans..
Fuck their government..
Fuck their cartel bullshit..
Fuck their corny music..
Fuck their stupid cheesedick novelas..
I'd love to say fuck their food while I'm at it but it's goddamn dope, so that's cool..
And to be fair it's crazy how well you can get dental treatment there at such an affordable price, but I'm sure there's still a risk involved you have to take, but I digress..
But mostly ya, fuck their team and their third-world fans..
Dos a cero is fuckin poetry at this point. USA Kings of CONCACAF.. on to Copa now.
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