I’m not sure they really invest too much in the other teams to be honest. The number of youth scouts is ridiculously low and they just disbanded the DA league so they are spending much less money on the youth teams then they were just a couple of months ago.

Well we finally had some live soccer action and unfortunately the US players really looked pretty bad. Hopefully they are just shaking the rust off. Here’s my assessment:

Gio Reyna-he was supposed to get his first start for Dortmund I’m Saturday and unfortunately got hurt in the warm ups. With them playing games pretty frequently, he should get plenty of chances assuming he is healthy. His substitute was Hazard and he was pretty awesome all game so that doesn’t help.

McKennie-started in (defensive) midfield for Schalke against Dortmund. Had some flubbed passes early. Got beat on a couple dribbles too. Did have some good tackles and defensive plays. Schalke looked like garbage as a team so hard to blame him too much.

Adams-Started for RB Leipzig in that weird wingback/right back position. I only watched part of the first half and didn’t see too much from Adams either way.

Brooks-started for Wolfsburg. Didn’t catch this game at all. Heard he may have had an own goal?

Sargent-came off the bench today for Bremen in the 71st minute down 3-1. Bremen looked bad for most of the game. Disjointed in all areas. Sargent had a couple decent dribble attempts but then usually had to pass the ball back. Not much service but didn’t do anything to help open it up.

Thanks for the write up upnadam. Good stuff.

Coronavirus is the best thing that has happened to the USA soccer team in many years. Many fewer losses this year.

That so funny. The last time I hear that I fell off my dinosaur.

isnt that just a ban?

Adams came into the game in the second half. Looked much better.

Pulisic getting the start for Chelsea v. Man City. Starting now.

PULIGOD

Yeah that was really lovely.

Puli too good. What a player

Klopp long con

I was ready to write some pretty rough things about Pulisic after the first 15/20 minutes of that match. I felt like he wasn't too interested in defending, was timid in the tackle, and was too worried about releasing on the counter rather than playing his role. All that fit in with my belief that he's in this mindset where he's always trying to do too much.

And then he swapped from LW to RW which immediately created an opportunity as the entire City backline tracked him on a counter run which left acres of space on the left to set up Barkley's half chance. From that point on, roughly after the water break, it seemed like instead of Pulisic morphing his game to fit a more disciplined approach, Lampard actually encouraged Chelsea to be more front-footed to match Pulisic' instincts. After that the game was super fun and Christian certainly looked like Chelsea's best attacker (which isn't saying much).

Aside from the solo counter he was making dangerous runs even past the 80th minute, a credit to his professionalism to be this fit in these circumstances. He had pace and determination in the final third which Chelsea desperately needed since it seemed like all they wanted at the start was to try and get lucky and bink one on a Giroud set piece. When Abraham came on it felt like they were actually pushing Christian higher and asking Willian and Azpi to release more directly on the counter. They looked sufficiently dangerous with another attacker who could run.

I know Werner and Ziyech aren't coming in to sit on the bench. But Pulisic isn't really competing with them for spots. Those three with Abraham seem penciled in, but they really need three, probably four, more attackers for a full season next year. Mount and Barkley have been useful this year but neither has what Pulisic brings. If he can just get a healthy nine effing months I think he's good enough to get 30 starts on that squad next year between all competitions.

woot woot. gonna watch it. love that they all kneel in unison at the outset.

https://eplfootballmatch.com/chelsea...-25-june-2020/

Every team has been doing that before every game

nm. he's cap tied.

lol, who was this about? Puli was cap tied in like 2016

Jack Harrison. I missed that he had a U21 England cap which prevents him from doing a Nagbe. I had him in the back of my mind as a guy who was still eligible for some reason.


Also, Pulisic about to get another league start. That's three in a row. And Frank subbed him off in the FA Cup to seemingly keep him fresh. Please stay healthy.

New CONCACAF qualifying format has been announced.

Final Round = 8 teams, playing home and away vs. the other 7 (14 games each)

Top 5 (includes USA and Mexico) are automatically in The Octagon with the other 3 to be determined in a round 1 featuring the other 30 CONCACAF teams (includes Canada)

Those 30 are divided into 6 groups of 5. The 6 group winners will then play each other in a home and away, and the 3 remaining teams will join the 5 automatic qualifiers in The Octagon.

saw this on another forum:

October 2020: friendlies x2
November 2020: friendlies x2
March 2021: CONCACAF Nations League SF + F/3rd place
June 2021: WCQ x4
July 2021: Gold Cup
September 2021: WCQ x2
October 2021: WCQ x2
November 2021: WCQ x2
January 2022: WCQ x2
March 2022: WCQ x2
May 2022: CONCACAF Nations League [these three Nations League windows will incorporate four competitive games and two friendlies]
June 2022: CONCACAF Nations League
Sep 2022: CONCACAF Nations League
Nov/Dec 2022: World Cup

They're planning to play the Round 1 matches (each team plays everyone in their group just once) in the October and November windows, but it seems unlikely that Canada's team would be allowed to travel to Central America by their gov't. with all the restrictions put in place on other sports teams.

I'm just looking forward to no batteries and piss bags being thrown at Azteca and Saprissa...

What do you mean? USA would be playing home and away vs. 7 other teams, Mexico and Costa Rica among them.

No fans in stadiums lol

unless they're allowing there?

Those matches wouldn't even take place until next June at the earliest. And they'll probably save the big matches until 2022 to be sure fans are allowed.

Liga MX isn't allowing fans as of yet, but the big clubs got all the clásicos to be played at the end of the tournament (in 2-3 months) in the hopes that fans will be allowed by then.