Some USA soccer nuggets
- Thread starter Fk_Pitt
- Start date
I’ve always questioned Mike’s news sources….
At some level it's just great that a thing like sports dailies exist. Something we never really had here.
USA U17 beat the Virgin Islands 22-0 and St. Kitts and Nevis 7-0 at the CONCACAF Tournament. It would have been more beneficial if they stayed in the US and scrimmaged some WPIAL teams. Can we just buy Greenland and get into UEFA already?
The blame for this lies pretty much entirely with FIFA. The U17 World Cup is now a yearly tournament, and CONCACAF gets EIGHT spots in the tournament. So how is CONCACAF supposed to set up a competitive tournament or system to pick their teams when so damned many of them advance?
The first day of the tournament there were games of 7-0, 6-0 and 6-1. The second day was 6-0, 8-0 and 12-0. The third day had 8-0, 8-0 and the US's 22-0. The fourth day was a little better, 5-0, 5-0 and 8-0 (and somehow none of those was the Mexico game, they only won 3-0 against Belize). Then day five, 10-1, 8-0 and 7-0. Today, so far there have been 7-1 and 6-0, with several more games to come.
Most teams have played two or three games so far, and in addition to the US's +29 goal difference there are also Canada 20, Costa Rica 17, Mexico 17. Panama 11, Jamaica 11, and three more at 10. There just aren't enough good teams to support having eight berths in the World Cup.
And keep this in mind. 2-0 with a plus 29, and if the US loses to Cuba on Saturday they are out.
I still put more of the blame on US Soccer for not making any effort at all to get into UEFA. And it looks like the U17 World Cup will be a 48 team event. I would be more in favor of having different 2 or 3 different World Cups as hockey and I believe Euro basketball does. So USA and Mexico can play in the A U17 World Cup while St. Kitts can play in the C U17 World Cup.
Tap in and a penalty. But I’ll take them. Great ball by leão though.
Sergino Dest played for PSV today for the first time in 11 months. Came off the bench in the 67th. It would be nice to get him back to full health.
Josh Sargent banged in another one in their game on Friday. When he came back from his injury he came in off the bench in the first three games that he played and didn't score in any of them. Since then he has played and started eight games. In those eight games he has eight goals.
Josh Sargent banged in another one in their game on Friday. When he came back from his injury he came in off the bench in the first three games that he played and didn't score in any of them. Since then he has played and started eight games. In those eight games he has eight goals.
We need 🇬🇱
Trump is thinking 5 steps ahead of everyone. He wants UEFA Nations League matches on US soil. Or we can play our home matches in Greenland to lessen their travel.
I've said before, sometimes I think he's got to be trolling because no one could be that dumb. Other times, I'm pretty sure he's not.
I am sure it blows his mind that rather than the US taking over Greenland to get into UEFA, what is actually going to happen is that Greenland is going to join CONCACAF.
I dont think the US needs Greenland to join UEFA. I think they just need to call up and UEFA says yes without them even asking. However, in the event there is some push back, an argument can be made that Greenland is part of Europe. Yes, I understand it's essentially part of North America but it's close enough to Europe where you can make an argument. I dont think we'll ever get into UEFA with or without Greenland but it has nothing to do with geography. It's because the US likes beating Honduras and Jamaica.
It has literally everything to do with geography. The United States is not in Europe, and therefore will not play games in the confederation for European countries.
Suriname
Guyana
Australia
Israel
Cyprus (closer to mainland Asia than mainland Europe)
Also, countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan can be considered Europe depending on what border you want to use since there is no natural Europe/Asia border. These countries have a better UEFA argument than USA but they aren't slam dunk UEFA either. You could deny them by saying they are not in Europe by the border you are using.
Again, if the USA wanted it, they'd be in. They don't.
Baku, Azerbaijan is east of Baghdad. Should UEFA add Iraq too? We can do this all day. I realize USA doesn't geographically fit in UEFA but with Greenland, at least you have more of an argument. It's 220 miles from UEFA (Iceland). 1500 miles from London, the same exact distance from London to Athens.
15 goals this year. Unbelievable. I was thinking about this earlier today. CP had to play second fiddle and ride the pine behind the likes of guys like Mason Mount at Chelsea.
I don’t know if that was a pro English bias, or an anti American bias…but wow what malpractice that was.
The timing of the run before the finish and then the finish Itself…this wasn’t the most highlight reel sexy type goal…but it was a really, really good goal. A really good one.
International break is around the corner. Who will start at the #9 in the Nations League Semifinal on 3/20 vs Panama?
FORWARDS (6): Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte FC; 2/2), Yunus Musah (AC Milan/ITA; 45/1), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan/ITA; 76/32), Josh Sargent (Norwich City/ENG; 27/5), Timothy Weah (Juventus/ITA; 42/7), Brian White (Vancouver Whitecaps/CAN; 3/1)
Guess it’s just Sargent.
Yeah, it's got to be Sargent. I believe that they didn't call Wright in because he's just coming back from injury and they didn't want to push him.
I can’t find anything on Balogun. He’s not even in the squad at Monaco. I don’t know when the last time he was maybe in the fall? Is his injury that bad? I thought it was just a hip pointer.
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He dislocated his shoulder earlier this season, missed a bunch of time, then came back in December. But shortly after he came back he got hit on it and dislocated it again, and they decided to operate on it. He has not played since, although it looks like he will be back soon.
Balogun Back Soon
Just goes to show how important depth is. Who knows who will be healthy and in form for the World Cup?
I was reading an article today about Tyler Adams trying to get back into playing a key role with the squad (which he hasn’t seen Poch arrived because of injury).
And of course Reyna has fallen off a cliff.
There may be a few names we aren’t even tracking that prominently (Tanner Tessman, Diego Luna, etc.) who emerge as key parts of the team by then. It’s pretty wild.
I was reading an article today about Tyler Adams trying to get back into playing a key role with the squad (which he hasn’t seen Poch arrived because of injury).
And of course Reyna has fallen off a cliff.
There may be a few names we aren’t even tracking that prominently (Tanner Tessman, Diego Luna, etc.) who emerge as key parts of the team by then. It’s pretty wild.
I’ve been waiting for Weston to fall off a cliff and not be part of the next World Cup. Of course his club teams keep expecting him to fall off a cliff too and yet they can’t seem to ever drop him from the starting Xl.
America will glued to TruTV or Paramount+ or Fubo or whichever random network has the rights to the prestigious CONCACAF Nations League. Can the US claim this trophy over Mexico and some third world countries? It's a script only Hollywood can write.
Get us into UEFA! I read that the Appalachian Mountain range are part of the Scottish Highlands so that should be enough to get us in.
The Scottish Highlands, the Appalachians, and the Atlas are the same mountain range, once connected as the Central Pangean Mountains - Vivid Maps
The Central Pangean Mountains were a great mountain chain in the middle part of the supercontinent Pangaea that stretches across the continent from northeast to southwest during the Carboniferous, Permian Triassic periods.
vividmaps.com
The funny thing is that I was just looking at the potential UEFA World Cup qualifying groups earlier today, and imagine if we went to Europe and then got into a group like the following (these are all actual groups for the next qualifying cycle):
Slovakia, Northern Ireland and Luxemborg (either Germany or Italy gets that group)
Sweden, Slovenia and Kosovo (Switzerland gets that one)
Greece, Scotland and Belarus (Portugal or Denmark gets that one)
Ukraine, Iceland and Azerbaijan (France or Croatia will get that one)
Romania, Bosnia, Cyprus and San Marino (somehow Austria lucked into that one)
Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra (that's who England got)
And there are a couple others that are just as bad. And even if you don't win your group you can still qualify in a consolation round.
That just goes to show you how bad FIFA has destroyed World Cup qualifying for the best nations. We are now at a point where any of the top teams getting left out, like Italy the last time or the US, Italy and the Netherlands the time before, would require several huge upsets to happen.
I think the opposite. We wouldn't win any of those groups, maybe we have a shot at winning Austria or Switzerland's group. Then if you don't win it, you go into a 4 team single-elimination playoff, maybe on the road so you have a 25% chance at best. The US would probably miss half or 1 out of 3 World Cups out of UEFA, even in the expanded tournament. And that's a big reason why they don't want to be in UEFA. They don't see the bigger picture in that it would greatly help MLS being in the Champions League and maybe one day, that exposure enables you to convert the football/basketball/baseball players into soccer players at 8 or 9 years old. The best athletes still don't choose soccer.
MLS fans don’t think they need the help. They think it’s going to be the worlds top league in 30 years. They’re dilusional.
Pretty excited to see the USMNT play tonight. Game is on Paramount+.
I would say my sports viewing hierarchy these days is:
1A) Pitt football, bball, volleyball
1B) USMNT
And then probably NFL, USWNT, NBA, etc. I’ve tried for years to get my wife into watching Pitt but it hasn’t taken. She does like watching the US soccer teams though so it’s a nice thing we do together.
Obviously we better win but I’m also curious about some of the 2026 roster spots still up for grabs. Saw this article today and it reminded me how far the depth has come over the past decade or so. https://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/art...-who-will-make-the-26-for-2026-213037582.html
One last bizarro stat that may interest only me. Our current best option at striker - Josh Sargent - hasn’t scored a goal for the US since 2019. I know he’s killing it in the Championship League but it would be nice to someday see a glimpse of that for country.
I would say my sports viewing hierarchy these days is:
1A) Pitt football, bball, volleyball
1B) USMNT
And then probably NFL, USWNT, NBA, etc. I’ve tried for years to get my wife into watching Pitt but it hasn’t taken. She does like watching the US soccer teams though so it’s a nice thing we do together.
Obviously we better win but I’m also curious about some of the 2026 roster spots still up for grabs. Saw this article today and it reminded me how far the depth has come over the past decade or so. https://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/art...-who-will-make-the-26-for-2026-213037582.html
One last bizarro stat that may interest only me. Our current best option at striker - Josh Sargent - hasn’t scored a goal for the US since 2019. I know he’s killing it in the Championship League but it would be nice to someday see a glimpse of that for country.
I wouldn’t rank USMNT generally speaking. But a big meaningful match would certainly be up there. I’m not sure if nations league does it for me but when the first team is playing I’m certainly watching. For me, I still enjoy the 2 hours of Pitt hoops, 3 hours of steeler football, and 2 hours of Chelsea football. But I don’t include Pitt football because college football is dead. At least for us.
I gotta watch it for free on Univision. Can't get Paramount+ until next year when it comes for free with my Pantherlair membership.
Wow that Sargent finish was so pure.
I’m in a bar. Is there no VAR? It looked offside to the naked eye when I saw it live but curious what they said on the broadcast.
I’m in a bar. Is there no VAR? It looked offside to the naked eye when I saw it live but curious what they said on the broadcast.
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