USMNT
- Thread starter Fk_Pitt
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Nothing. Europe tied their Nations League to the last 4 Euro 2020 spots which I thought was cool. If you dont qualify directly through their normal qualifying process, you have a 2nd chance to qualify depending on how you did in the Nations League.
The lowest rated Nations League (League D) will have a Final Four of its 4 group winners with the winner qualifying for Euro 2020. Its Kosovo @ North Macedonia and Belarus @ Georgia. I like seeing teams like this get a chance on the big stage.
League C will have a Final Four of 3 group winners: Scotland, Norway, Serbia plus 1 non-group winner.
Wales hosts Hungary today for a spot. Loser can still qualify through the Nations League playoff.
These games in March have the affect of those small D1 conference tournaments. I love those.
As for the US, they will beat Cuba and head to a Final Four in March where they will play Honduras or Costa Rica. Mexico will play the other and then the US and Mexico will play for another trophy that nobody cares about.
Nope. These are basically friendlies but using competitive rules such as 3 subs allowed and if you play in it, you are cap-tied. Serginio Dest from Ajax played against Canada choosing the US over Netherlands. To me, he has to be one of the starting outside backs for the next cycle. He is getting time at Ajax so that's enough for me and we have no one else since Yedlin is never healthy.
BTW, the Confederations Cup doesnt exist anymore.
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anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a
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It doesn't appear this has anything to do with Confederations Cup or WC qualifying. From what I remember the Hex is going to now be based partially if not all on your FIFA world rankings. I believe the Gold Cup will still determine Confederations Cup participation as well.
This is what I gathered of wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(CONCACAF)
If I’m not mistaken, the Confederations Cup is dead and won’t be contested this cycle.
Yes, its dead. I dont know why. FIFA likes money. I know German sent a B team and won it but so what. People watch it. For regions besides UEFA and CONMEBOL, its a pretty big prize.
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anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a
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Nations League results will determine who plays in the next Gold Cup. It also has World Cup implications in that since it is a confederation managed tournament you get more points in the FIFA rankings for winning these games than you would a friendly. And the top six CONCACAF teams in the FIFA rankings next summer will automatically enter the final hex of World Cup qualifying. It is very likely that the win that Canada had over the US last month is going to be the difference between them making the hex or them not making it. If that game was a friendly it wouldn't have made near as much difference.
But the US is going to qualify for the hex anyway, so for the US that doesn't really matter much at all.
The whole idea behind this was that it gives the lesser teams a lot more competitive games in which to both get better and increase their ranking. Since that doesn't really help the US or Mexico the trade off was a World Cup qualifying system that makes it easier for those two teams to qualify.
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anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a
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I feel bad for the Cuban team itself. Their best players defect just about every chance they get, they will never advance their FA and national team as long as this happens.
Plus their infrastructure is so bad they had to play tonight's "home game" in the Cayman Islands. Their national stadium was damaged and hasn't been repaired yet, and I guess there is not one other FIFA approved stadium in the whole country. And I use the term "stadium" loosely, because if you watched any of tonight's game it was played on a field that most local high schools would have been embarrassed to call home.
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anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a
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I was thinking the samething about there not being any other stadiums in Cuba that could host the game.
I'm pretty sure most of these fields are given about as much care as most of us give our own yards. Maybe throw a little weed killer down, cut it once a week or so.
That field they played on last night put me in mind of aliquippa HS or a wpial A or AA HS stadium. Concacaf is embarrassing.
Does it have to mean anything more? I just watch games for two hours of TV Entertainment.
Not necessarily. But when I am watching a game, it generally is more compelling and entertaining if there’s something on the line as opposed to an exhibition. And in this case, watching a game on a shit field in a third rate stadium would mean more to me if I know there is something tangible on the line.
Certainly you agree that there’s a difference in entertainment value between exhibitions, regular season games, and playoff games?
True, but these games vs. Canada where competitive in the sense that the main players where going head to head trying to win. Wasn't bad competition. Now Cuba is a joke, mainly because everyone defects to play pro soccer somewhere else, but against better teams, like Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, these games are pretty intense.
Let me just add, we all know over the years, we've all been having a good laugh about me missing Pitt games to watch my daughter play soccer! So it wasn't just rec league in the park, last week her team Howard CC (MD) went to the National Finals NJCAA and finished #5 in the nation, So tell me how much JC women's soccer sucks, I'm still pretty proud she made it that far
but I did skip Pitt games for rec league in the park But I did DVR them and watch later.
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what's more embarrassing is we can't consistently beat those guys. i am not in a good place with the USMNT.
i used to only watch internat'l. mainly b/c i didn't get those channels that had club soccer (MLS was boring). my buddy finally convinced me to give pro stuff a try when it was more accessible.
i'm not going back to the internat'l. the men's team is absolute dreck. it was fun in the past b/c they played with such heart. that's absolutely gone. if they don't care, neither do i.
