Yeah I suspect it's a two horse race.

From the Copa America Thread. Interested in others' thoughts on next year's Copa America and potential ripple effects if momentum continues like it has been in the U.S. regarding soccer.

Opening day, including USA#1 vs a traditionally scrappy Honduras team.

Great OP

Let's get it

Hopefully Jozy will score some goals like a fat kid eats cake

Pumped to see how we do. Go Go USA

I agree that the Copa America should be cool as **** next year.

Pretty obvious. Even lolcroozin should recognize that, he probably just instinctively hated something USA#1 was doing without even thinking about it.

Ugh. Fox Sports 2 carries a ton of these games and Comcast in Chicago doesn't carry it.

heard that CB Doneil Henry might miss the tournament due to injury (he will), and CM Will Johnson might skip it to focus on his recovery from a broken leg (he will), but i didn't realize that our best player CM Atiba Hutchinson was also injured and missing this thing, ugh. the early forced retirement of MF Josh Simpson is an underrated blow to the team as well, he was a solid player.

should be interesting to see how we line up, have a few options to try out. seems like the experienced de Guzman might start in midfield, maybe joined by youngsters Piette & Osorio. Teibert is another decent option, has good workrate anyway. should be some rotation due to the compressed nature of the tournament, and travel. offense looks set with Larin, Akindele & Ricketts up front.

defense should be an adventure without Henry, and the retired Kevin McKenna. best bet might be to play Edgar inside, with Straith perhaps. i'll assume that beats having the unattached Andre Heynow anywhere near the field. de Jong & Ledgerwood at fullback? Hirschfeld or Stamatopoulos in net.

like i said before, at least it'll be more fun if we're losing games 3-2 instead of 1-0. really need to come out of the gates with 3 points vs El Salvador though.

I think the main challenge for soccer in the US is to stay relevant to its target audience on an annual basis, i.e. become more like the currently successful sports of NFL and NBA rather than every four years like Olympic sports. Next year's Copa America (assuming the US does host it) could be perfect for that goal:

Get people invested in both the USMNT and high level international soccer by filling the stadiums and hosting viewing parties in non hosting cities. Use that as a springboard to get people familiar with the up and coming generation of players for the USMNT and promote the crap out of CONCACAF qualifying and the Confederations Cup (assuming USA qualify) in 2017. Hopefully by early 2018 the vast majority of players in contention for the final 23 are household names. By the time actual 2018 WC come around, you have converted many of the historically casual viewers into more educated and invested viewers.

Expand on that process in the build up to the 2022 WC by aiming for a true "Americas" tournament in 2020 that serves as the Western Hemisphere version of the Euros. Then have it all culminate in the best attended, most highly viewed, and most profitable World Cup in history in 2022 hosted by Qatar!

and yet we are still dealing with this crap. Why doesn't Disney just buy FIFA or something and then dump the Longhorn network or whatever for an all soccer channel on ESPN?

Ah Univision Deportes is carrying it. No Fox Sports 2 but do get that.

When I disagreed with Clark, I only took into account the most important aspect of a successful Copa America, and that is stadium atmosphere. The same can be said about the Libertadores. Everything else like financial success and attendance records and TV ratings are important, but those come second to stadium atmosphere. We all know how it's going to be next year; a bunch of casual fans filling stadiums with no passion whatsoever. Just a bunch of hipsters with money. It isn't going to deliver like you expect it to.

Okay.gif

Opening match about to start. Watching in Spanish on Univision Deportes because lolComcast doesn't carry Fox Sports2.

MLS needs to just ditch when they have the season. NO OTHER LEAGUES FOLLOW THEIR FORMAT. it's insane and stupid

let us get it on!

so many layers of stupid, Bobbo, the MLS season is like ******ed lasagna

couldn't be more wrong

"what the Euro leagues do" is not a good reason to change

it is when it interferes with international cups

They seriously play matches back to back in the same stadium throughout the tournament? Yikes

I'm an epl fanatic. Casual (at best) MLS fan. There is absolutely no way I'm going to Red Bull arena in 30 degree weather in November - September. As it is I'll go to 3-4 games a summer if I have nothing else going on

Ain't nobody going to Panama v Haiti bro. Couldn't justify the cost of staffing even a high school stadium.

2nd half way better than first

or not