As bad as those transfers in are, you have the Suarez transfer out as well. To a rival, where he scored a lot and they win the league. Barca were shit last year, but if they kept Suarez they almost certainly would have at least won the league.
Dembele and Coutinho at least kind of make sense in that they were trying to replace Neymar and Iniesta. The prices were outrageous, though and the performances were few and far between. Griezmann never made an ounce of sense though, and so I think that’s the worst.
If anyone is interested, World Cup qualifying matches from Africa will be on ESPN+ tommorow morning at 6am PDT.
Not for me, but pretty excited to watch the USMNT begin to exercise some demons. Going to have to wait a bit more for a full best 11 (Pulisic is out), but should be a pretty good squad.
Oman shockingly beat Japan 1-0.
Australia rolled China 3-0.
South Korea couldn’t do better than a scoreless draw.
Indeed, both on the buying and on the selling side. I hope corruption and embezzlement played a role and it can be proven some day, otherwise someone (Bartomeu? Who else?) is going down in sports history as Über-Trump-Level-mega-stoopid.
And Spain lost to Sweden 2-1, making the WC qualification an uphill struggle from now on.
Azerbaijan almost got the 3 against Rep of Ireland. I watched most of that match, Ireland had a lot of chances but couldn’t convert until they were desperate. They are really having a terrible run.
ETA: I just looked up the stats, 21 (5) shots for Ireland. Man.
The second set of CONCACAF games are today. Hopefully Canada can get something against the US.
It was almost all draws in the first round, but Mexico got a last-minute winner against Jamaica.
Does this mean there were 21 attempts with only five actually on net?
Ah, thanks!
::crossing fingers Canada kicks USA’s ass later on today!::
It could only happen in South America redux. Given how packed the schedule is I dont see how this match can be rescheduled unless they play it tomorrow or Tuesday.
What a weird day in football.
Canada 1-1 USA, end of game.
And a very difficult road game at Honduras next. We need at least 1 point from the match.
I’ve said this before, but it’s so much more fun to cheer for a team with someone like Davies on it. Every time he goes on one of those runs it feels like a goal is coming. Tajon has a bit of that feeling too.
Anyway, a good result for Canada and if they can manage a win on Wednesday they’ll be set up great.
The US could’ve used McKennie, who apparently violated Covid protocols just before the game, especially since Reyna was not fit to play. I think those two along with Adams, Pulisic and the oncoming Aaronson give us our best midfield ever.
Davies is awesome. And the other Canadian FB can scoot, too.
Someone tell me if I’m wrong: Does the 2026 North America World Cup mean that all 3 host nations - USA, Canada and Mexico - automatically qualify?
That’s the prevailing assumption, but FIFA hasn’t said much about 2026 yet, including anything about automatic qualifying. Given it’s 48 teams, though, it seems likely to happen.
ETA: to elaborate a bit, the automatic qualification of a host country has been written into the regs of each world cup - so if you look at the 2022 regulations on FIFA’s website, it says “Qatar automatically qualifies as a host.” But I think until the 2026 regulations are written it’s not 100% given.
Two draws in two very winnable games for the US is troubling. 3 points against Honduras and I won’t be too worried. A draw is bad, a loss would be alarms going off. Luckily, most of the other results wen the US’s way so they’re not in a hole yet.
It’s almost like the 2017 failure to qualify for Russia didn’t light any sort of fire in the USMNT.