You are right…I think they were talking about what happened with South Africa in the previous round. No wonder I was confused!
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I kinda like their team’s song from 2006 World at your Feet, I feel like it really communicates the English heartache at having failed to win the trophy for (at the time) 40 years. Now we are at 60 and i imagine the English yearning for the trophy is even stronger.
2006 was fhe first Cup I really followed as a kid so even though my understanding is that English fans hate that song I kinda like it.
IIRC, David Regis qualified to play for the US because his wife was an American citizen. I don’t recall if the actual calculus was that was the sole qualifier for him, or that because his wife was an American, he could gain American citizenship and then play. I do remember, though, that he got his first cap within days of being declared eligible, and played for the US in the 1998 WC.
The Wikipedia article on him implies that his marriage gave him a fast path to naturalization.
(Rinus Michels, back in the NASL era of American soccer, was asked how long it would take to make a truly great soccer player who was an American citizen. He answered “five years, because that’s how long the naturalization process takes.”)
Sampson probably erred by adding Regis to the left back mix so late in the cycle, over Agoos who was well-liked in the locker room. I mean, the team would have hardly done worse with Agoos in there…
There are all sorts of awkward scenarios. Like if someone’s grandparents were born in Yugoslavia in an area that’s now Serbia but they are culturally and ethnically Bosnian.
Come to think of it. My grandparents were born in what’s now Ukraine but it was the Austrian Empire at the time. They spoke Yiddish at home but the language and culture of the area was Polish.
I have to admit that I don’t know much about the team and the players, but strong performance by Canada so far.
ETA: but ooh, what ugly jerseys!
Would love to see Canada reach the knockout round. Will they with a win here?
Almost certainly with four points then, with the best third up runners also qualifying.
ETA: fine volley by Jonathan David, 2-0!
ETA2: and now penalty for Canada!
ETA3: now it was outside the box, but an obvious red card in that case.
I thought VAR was supposed to pick up dives.
It wasn’t a dive. He clearly hit him in the heel.
Man, I missed it on the replays. .
3-0 at the half. Pinch me, I must be dreaming. It’s like 90% of the play has been right in front of the Qatari goal.
You don’t have to pinch yourself, that was my neutral impression too!
I really have a problem with red cards for DOGSO offenses outside the box like that. Why not just give him a penalty? The ref ruled that the defender denied a goal scoring opportunity, so give him one.
Red cards should be for serious foul play or violent conduct. It really ruins this match as a sporting contest - now it’s just a matter of whether Canada can get above Switzerland on GD (which they probably can).
That was a much worse foul.
To me it looks like Canada’s goals are almost luck. Many of the other goals I have seen this tournament involve passes and great vision by the players. Good for Canada for being so attacking that they are in the goal area, but I think only one of the goals was nice.
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I missed it. And they never repeated it, because it must have been so awful.
Oof. Yeah, that was serious foul play. Never showed a replay but when Kone was laying there you could see the leg was bending in places it shouldn’t bend.
The foul didn’t look that violent live which is why it took VAR to give the red.
Doesn’t matter in a tournament, you take what you get and best play as efficiently as possible. If you score a goal on a rebound from a failing goalie, it’s worth as much as a bicycle kick from 14 meters.