US Soccer Catch-All

I find it to be only slightly less dumb than Real Salt Lake, but yes, it's a small cut above.

The weirdo grab bag that is the way various MLS teams are named is a microcosm of the identity and leadership confusion of the league itself.

One could argue that the MLS's own confusion is, in a small way, emblematic of the cultural mishmash that is America as a whole, but I'm not trying to write a thinkpiece here.

But yeah, would it be so hard to just have done Miami Fútbol Club? Deportivo Miami? Or what about Club Atlético Miami? "Atléti Miami" rolls off the tongue nice.

Why do Spanish by way of Brazil, in a manner that, again, few (if any) teams from Spanish-speaking nations actually use, and then shorten it into something that makes it sound Italian?

USMNT v Brasil today at 7:30 Eastern!

USMNT v Mexico Tuesday.

CONCACAF Women's Championship starts October 4. We'll see if the women can handle Trinidad and Tobago better than the men did. Our group also features Panama and Mexico, who I had the pleasure of seeing them destroy earlier this year at the first soccer game I've ever taken my daughter to.

2-0 cruise for Brazil, not really a surprise. From what I've ready, nobody played themselves into our out of contention for a regular starting role.

That penalty was a straight up, no contact dive. Very disappointing, but at least it was only a friendly.

Gonna be weird seeing the kids take on Mexico without old mainstays like Bradley and Dempsey. Cool that fellows like Yedlin and Brooks are bridging the generations, but I don't really think of them when I think of our longstanding rivalry.

I hope to see some fire from our squad on Tuesday!

Here we go!

Largely a poor first half from the US, but some glimmers of potential.

Also: what on Earth happened to Julian Green? He looks like 40 years old now.

Ugly win, but think we were better enough in the second half that we just about deserved it.

I wanted a second goal for a Dos A Cero from a new generation, but I'll just have to settle for a win.

I think the rivalry was born anew tonight!

This may have supplanted Dos a Cero in my heart.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm3KbglV4AAUMbO.jpg)

Am I willing to wear a shirt with this on it? Yes. Would I, a short person, be dunking on myself in the process? Also yes. Worth it? DEFINITELY.

That is the Clint Dempsey whiny baby face for a new generation!

Truly. And I say this in the knowledge that the offended party here (Diego Lainez) is way better than Miazga and that the USMNT probably shouldn't be sh*t-talking anyone after missing the World Cup when qualifying from CONCACAF.

And yet still, LOL.

Apparently I'm the only person in this country embarrassed by Miazga. One of those two people qualified for the world cup.

bigred wrote:

Apparently I'm the only person in this country embarrassed by Miazga. One of those two people qualified for the world cup.

1. No they didn't.

2. Get that noise outta here.

3. USA! USA!

bigred wrote:

Apparently I'm the only person in this country embarrassed by Miazga. One of those two people qualified for the world cup.

Part of what’s missing from this UMNT is swagger and a little spit in the eye. So, does it bother me, no. This team needs ugly wins and they need a Mexico team to be a foil.

I'm kind of mixed on the whole thing.

I like the spark that Miazga's confrontation represented. Sometimes a team just needs to cowboy up and get competitive through emotional investment and swagger. Kudos for that.

At the same time, calling out someone for their height came off to me as low class. Simplified, it was saying "You suck because you're short. I'm better because I'm tall. Tall people are better than short people." It's calling someone out for who they are born as, and felt dangerously close to calling someone out for anything else that is a matter of birth or nature.

From that perspective, I felt like it was just bad sportsmanship, and doesn't deserve a place on a national team, especially in a country where our politics has made insults and foul language an accepted mode of communication. Undignified communication is becoming a mark of who we are as a country, and I'm not a fan of where it is taking our global reputation as a nation.

Qualification for the Women's World Cup 2019 starts TOMORROW!

USWNT v Mexico is Thursday at 7:30 Eastern according to the US Soccer website, but I feel that the actual kicks are frequently later than listed.

Should be an easy win. We thumped them 6-2 here in Houston in April, in what was my daughter's first live soccer match.

These are the wages of being as good as the USWNT is, as I have literally zero interest in this until the tournament starts because the USWNT not qualifying for the World Cup would make the men's failure look not even reasonable, but expected.

I literally opened Twitter to monitor the game when it started, hit refresh, and Rapinoe had the USWNT 1-0 up.

So at this pace, the game should end like 45-1.

Prederick wrote:

I literally opened Twitter to monitor the game when it started, hit refresh, and Rapinoe had the USWNT 1-0 up.

So at this pace, the game should end like 45-1.

We watched the second half, good start for the US!

Only 6-0?!? BURN IT ALL DOWN AND START AGAIN.

Missed two goals due to parenting and still saw more than half of them! #WINNING #TIGERBLOOD

The USWNT may be about to finish this group stage with a clean sheet. That is some FILTHY domination.

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the USMNT sh*tting the bed and not making it to the World Cup, an achievement that, a year later, honestly looks even worse in retrospect. For a team of the USMNT's ambition (and hype), not qualifying from CONCACAF is an embarrassment, especially considering that our replacements, Panama and Costa Rica, managed exactly one point and 4 goals (versus 16 against) at Russia 2018.

Here's hoping the kids can turn things around for 2022. Again, for the hype and alleged ambition of US soccer, the USMNT's only real CONCACAF competition should be Mexico.

In MLS news, Red Bull is good again this season! Curious to see if they'll actually translate that to a MLS Cup win (finally). Also curious to see if Zlatan can drag the Galaxy into the playoffs too.

Amazing coincidence that the USWNT destroyed T&T exactly one year after the men lost to them.

Speaking of the men (boys), they play Colombia TONIGHT at 7:30ET on FS1.

The women play again October 14 in the first knockout game. 7ET on FS1.

The men play Peru October 16 at 7:30ET on ESPN2.

Wow, what a win! Bobby Wood made it 2-1 to the USMNT after that great pass from Weah, and then literally nothing else happened and everyone went home happy!

I was super pleased for maybe a minute! The Return of the Wood!

So it looks like the Crew are staying in Columbus, thanks to Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. Yay?

I'm not sad that they're not leaving, just... Haslam is a... interesting choice given his business history.

But, it seems like a "best of both worlds" situation. The Crew will stay, and Austin will still get its team in 2021.

And things went so well the last time a Cleveland Browns owner took over a soccer team!

(Randy Lerner - Ashton Villa)

I've said from the start that this moving a franchise is terrible business for MLS. MLS is largely succeeding on the premise that it's a more authentic, fan-centric league than the other North American professional sports. Allowing Precourt to burn down one of the original franchises because he doesn't think the city is sexy enough is a stake through the heart of that image. And there's been a lot of rumbling that his fellow owners were not at all happy about the move.

So I'm glad it sort of worked out, but MLS needs protections against this kind of behavior. If not league-wide, then fans in places like Seattle, Portland, and Atlanta need to put pressure on their respective owners to get it written into the charter.