****OFFICIAL SOCCER THREAD****

[LacesOut]

Got a goal!!! USA!!

Lots of time left though.

[LacesOut]

Got another!!!!!!!!!

2 - 0. USA leading.

[Green_Guinness]

Dos a cero!  Dos a cero!

[Green_Guinness]

F!  Miles Robinson picks up his 2nd yellow and is sent off and will miss the next match along with McKennie.

 

[LacesOut]

WOW!!!!!

Thats 3 straight wins vs. Mexico.

DAAAYYYUUUUMMM. 

[Green_Guinness]

First time either team has beat the other 3 times in one calendar year since 1937.  US average age was about 22-23.  Mexico was closer to 30.  Watch out, little brother is ready primed to overtake you. 

Tough group, though, with Canada and Panama still picking up points.  We can't take our foot off the gas. Hopefully when the final home stretch of matches comes that we are fully healthy.

 

[Green_Guinness]

Tip of the cap to the city on Cincinnati and their new really nice soccer specific stadium.  That crowd was rocking and was mostly pro-US.  Great atmosphere and the type of HFA we need.  Ohio seems to be the spot between Cincinnati and Columbus for heavy US crowds and good results.

I think our younger legs were a big difference in the 2nd half.  Away to Mexico, if we can weather the early storm and keep it tied we got a chance to steal points at the Azteca. 

First place now on GD.  Both Canada and Mexico on the road will be tough, but we now get Panama at home.

 

[DrPhilly]

Big pick up of three.  Long way to go...

[DaEagles4Life]

Barca has a young 3 in Pedri, Gavi, and Ansu Fati. Will be interesting to see their development and if Xavi can bring Barca back. 

[TEW]

2 hours ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Barca has a young 3 in Pedri, Gavi, and Ansu Fati. Will be interesting to see their development and if Xavi can bring Barca back. 

Don’t forget Dest...

Barca doesn’t have the talent to be a real threat this season and they don’t have the money to be a threat next season.

3 year project at a minimum IMO.

[Mike31mt]

US deserved to lose last night, Jamaicas 2nd goal was disallowed for basically nothing.

Berhalter is still a total moron

[Blazehound]

10 minutes ago, Mike31mt said:

US deserved to lose last night, Jamaicas 2nd goal was disallowed for basically nothing.

Berhalter is still a total moron

Agreed. A point is nice though on the road. They’re still in a good spot going into the 2nd half of match play.

Surprised Mexico lost to Canada last night. Bit of a slide for them.

[Mike31mt]

1 hour ago, Blazehound said:

Agreed. A point is nice though on the road. They’re still in a good spot going into the 2nd half of match play.

Surprised Mexico lost to Canada last night. Bit of a slide for them.

They played that Can-Mex gme in literally below freezing temperatures, there was like 3 inches of snow around the field.   Talk about a home field advantage--not sure which is worse, flying 4 hours north to play in the arctic or flying 4 hours south to play in a 3rd world rainforest.

I watched the first half but then had to go to bed. It was pretty rough conditions, you could tell Mexico was not happy to be there.

 

Imagine Panama flying to Edmonton to play soccer.  CONCACAF is insane

[Green_Guinness]

Like when we beat Costa Rica 1-0 a while back (think it was Dempsey who scored) while it was snowing.  Think that was in CO?  Every Central American country has players who play in Europe or MLS so they've experienced cold weather matches. 

Twellman did say he thought the US looked sluggish in the 2nd half and felt it was because of playing in cool temps in Cincy then playing in 85 degrees with humidity.  And why the F did they start the match at 5pm EST?  Since when do they do early evening start times on a weeknight?  I missed the match because I was at work.  All the other matches on the night started around 8pm or later.  It's not prime time TV for better ratings so what was the reason?  Did Jamaica push for it so it'd be hotter and give them a bigger HFA?

Wow.  Just read a report the temp for opening KO for Canada-Mexico was -10F.  That's Ice Bowl conditions.

So 2 points separate 4 countries a top CONCACAF.  We still have Canada and Mexico away and Panama at home.  It's not going to be easy to make top 3 an automatic qualification. 

Two more cycles of matches to go.

1st round:

Thurs Jan 27th  El Salvador

Sun Jan 30th  @ Canada

Wed Feb 2nd  Honduras

Have to win the home matches vs the bottom of the table countries and try to get a point in Canada.

2nd round:

Thur Mar 24th  @ Mexico

Sun 27th  Panama

Wed 30th  @ Costa Rica

That's a really tough final 3 matches.  Beating Panama at home is the key.  If it comes down to needing a win away in Costa Rica to be in the top 3 instead of being in a playoff that's a scary situation. 

Besides being away to us, Panama is also away to Mexico and Costa Rica.  Their home matches are Jamaica, Honduras, and the final day Canada.  It might come down to that final day.

Mexico has FOUR home matches out of 6 to close it out for them.  They are only away to Jamaica and Honduras.

Canada only has Jamaica and the USA at home and 4 away matches:  Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama.

 

[Mike31mt]

8 minutes ago, Green_Guinness said:

Like when we beat Costa Rica 1-0 a while back (think it was Dempsey who scored) while it was snowing.  Think that was in CO?  Every Central American country has players who play in Europe or MLS so they've experienced cold weather matches. 

Twellman did say he thought the US looked sluggish in the 2nd half and felt it was because of playing in cool temps in Cincy then playing in 85 degrees with humidity.  And why the F did they start the match at 5pm EST?  Since when do they do early evening start times on a weeknight?  I missed the match because I was at work.  All the other matches on the night started around 8pm or later.  It's not prime time TV for better ratings so what was the reason?  Did Jamaica push for it so it'd be hotter and give them a bigger HFA?

 

I remember that Costa Rica match and absolutely felt dirty about it, but we needed those three points badly lol

I dont blame Canada at all.  Make it tough on your opponent, and Im definitely not shedding tears for Mexico who force people to endure bottles of piss being thrown at them at the Azteca. 

Just crazy when you think about a team from damn-near South America having to play in negative temperatures.

 

As far as start time, I have no clue.  It may have been a broadcasting rights thing because US-Jamaica and then Can-Mex were both on telemundo.

I was about to post during the game that it looked like literally any away match in CONCACAF: somehow a vastly outmatched team controlling the ball far more than they should, the US pissing away possession after possession for nothing, and just a general feeling of malaise. 

I was thinking while watching, the US doesnt play to the level of competition, we play to the level of the television broadcast.  Tiny little unformatted screen size that doesnt match the broadcast, terrible resolution where you cant even see jersey numbers....thats exactly how we played, we matched the quality of the broadcast.

No doubt the next 3 match cycle will be huge for us.  We can legitimately get 9 points because we'll be motivated for Canada and the travel wont bother us much.  The Ochoa quote about the US is FAR more applicable to us and Canada.  They want to be us, they took a point from us at home, time for revenge.

[LacesOut]

Getting a point away from home is good. Getting 3 points would have been awesome for the US.

Maybe it was a letdown match, coming off of the high of beating Mexico? 

[DrPhilly]

Surely it is time for Ole Gunnar to exit now

[DaEagles4Life]

15 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

Surely it is time for Ole Gunnar to exit now

Has to be

[DaEagles4Life]

Go get Erik ten Hag 

 

[mayanh8]

He gone.

Was hoping he'd stick around long enough to Chelsea to get a bite. 

[Green_Guinness]

The only 4 clubs in the EPL with a positive GD are Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, and West Ham.  There are 2 clubs at even and all the rest are at negative GD.  Those 4 clubs 'should' run away with the top 4 CL spots.  I just watched my Liverpool cut open a red hot Arsenal for a 4-0 win, but know we still have away matches vs Chelsea and City, both of whom we drew with at home.  It's going to be tough and Tuchel has Chelsea playing very well (funny how former Borussia Dortmund managers are dominating the EPL), so we're going to need positive results in those key away matches.  City will always be tough with their near All-Star team and financial resources.  IMO, both Klopp and Tuchel and better managers than Pep because he has only ever managed "All-Star" teams at Bayern, Barcelona, and City.  When he can take a club outside the top 4 and make them a perennial contender then he deserves to be considered as one of the best managers in the sport.  He's had it easy so far. 

Wow, United losing 4-1 to Watford.  That's a really bad result and hard to defend.

 

[DrPhilly]

8 hours ago, mayanh8 said:

He gone.

Was hoping he'd stick around long enough to Chelsea to get a bite. 

Going to make the game at The Bridge a more interesting one if they have a new guy in place to rally around.

[DrPhilly]

4 hours ago, Green_Guinness said:

The only 4 clubs in the EPL with a positive GD are Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, and West Ham.  There are 2 clubs at even and all the rest are at negative GD.  Those 4 clubs 'should' run away with the top 4 CL spots.  I just watched my Liverpool cut open a red hot Arsenal for a 4-0 win, but know we still have away matches vs Chelsea and City, both of whom we drew with at home.  It's going to be tough and Tuchel has Chelsea playing very well (funny how former Borussia Dortmund managers are dominating the EPL), so we're going to need positive results in those key away matches.  City will always be tough with their near All-Star team and financial resources.  IMO, both Klopp and Tuchel and better managers than Pep because he has only ever managed "All-Star" teams at Bayern, Barcelona, and City.  When he can take a club outside the top 4 and make them a perennial contender then he deserves to be considered as one of the best managers in the sport.  He's had it easy so far. 

Wow, United losing 4-1 to Watford.  That's a really bad result and hard to defend.

West Ham is playing amazing (despite the loss yesterday).  I don't think they can win but they are definitely in line to grab that 4th spot.  They actually could stick around for several years as they have a good chunk of money these days.

The race is quite obviously going to be a very close one between the other three.  I can't see either of these three falling far off the top unless of course they get hid hard with injuries.  I'm expecting this one to come down the final five games or so.  City looks like the crazy stacked team top to bottom, Liverpool the team with the dynamic offense, and Chelsea the rock solid defense.  All three are deep enough to handle the holiday break and also the deep season with runs in CL and the cups.

Something tells me that City will be there on the very last weekend together with one of the other two.  Which one depends on whether or not Chelsea gets caught not being able to score in a couple of those last weekends OR if Liverpool just can't keep the ball out of the back of their net.

 

[DrPhilly]

He’s gone. A new start for ManU. 

[mayanh8]

As good as Chelsea is in defense and midfield, I have this sneaking suspicion their inability to reliably get goals from forwards will ultimately doom their chances of winning the EPL this year. We'll see what happens with Lukaku when he gets back from injury but right now, to me, they seem goal dependant on set plays and their wingbacks.