Dos a Cero!! One of the most dominant games I’ve seen the US play against Mexico. Really fun to watch!
It’s halfway through the Octo, and everyone’s played everyone else once, but at the moment the U.S. still has Canada and Mexico away, Mexico hosts the U.S. and plays at Canada, and Canada of course has two home games against U.S. & Mexico.
I think Canada has the inside track to come out first in the group. They tied both U.S. and Mexico away and might well expect two wins in the return matches. If the U.S. keeps starting slow down in Mexico, it could get ugly in a hurry, but I think they should be able to keep Panama at bay for one of the top three slots in the group.
I can see that, since their matches against the top 2 teams are at home. The issue for Canada is that those are tough games, and if they don’t do well, they only have a home game vs Jamaica and four road games to make up for it.
The final matchday has Canada at Panama, which could easily end up being the decisive match.
Dang it would have been nice if Canada had a bit more breathing space from Panama if bloody Honduras didn’t have to completely implode like that.
Neat homecoming for Alphonso Davies playing in front of family and friends in his Edmonton home crowd. Actually had a weak game, several times getting dispossessed with that double-turn move he does, more errant than connecting passes, and skying the ball.
But the W is all that matters, and this Tuesday I’m really looking forward to seeing that orange ball brought out against Mexico! 
ETA: that discourse doesn’t have an orange emoji is something I’ll have to take up with somebody.
Anybody.
On a street corner.
Just as Costa Rica looked some weeks back, Mexico appeared old and slow last night, and without the usual technical superiority over the US squad as a compensating factor.
We’ve always been able to field an athletic team but these days we seem to be playing the game at our highest historical levels. We’re not ready to win the World Cup - skill levels are increasing around the world, not just here - but I like where we’re at.
That Panama comeback really changes things. Had they lost, the top 3 would look close to decided. Now, there’s a decent chance that Canada or Mexico will be down in 4th after Tuesday, if Panama can put a couple past El Salvador.
Davies (and Laryea too) does seem casual about maintaining possession sometimes. I think he’s so confident in his recovery speed, but it’s stressful to watch.
Let’s check the forecast for the Canada-Mexico start time:
Edm, Tues Nov 16 19:00
Partly Cloudy, -7° C
Wind 25 km/h
Feels Like -15° C
Brisk.
AFC Asian World Cup qualifiers are now on pause until January. After a bad start to the campaign, Japan is now No. 2 and will duke it out with Australia to see who qualifies. China’s hopes are all but officially over; by only getting 1-1 draws against Oman and Australia when they desperately needed wins in both, there’s just about no way China gets to the third place needed. Saudi Arabia is absolutely king-ing it in this qualifier, sitting well clear atop of everyone else. South Korea’s having an easy go of it as well.
Canada 16
USA 15
Mexico 14
Panama 14
Canada deserving winners over Mexico. Bloody hell.
Costa Rica on 9 points, but facing U.S. and Panama at home in next year’s windows. The January 27th home match with Panama is a must win; after that, if the U.S. can take three points from Panama in their home match on March 27th, the Ticos have a shot to make March 30th (when they host the U.S., with Panama playing Canada) very interesting.
Mexico has 4 home matches left and only 2 away. Despite the disaster of this window, they’ve still got to feel good about their chances. If they perform as expected in January/February against Jamaica/Costa Rica/Panama, they could have a berth all but sewn up when March rolls around.
So Argentina tied with Brazil but we qualified anyway thanks to Ecuador beating Chile, the Scaloneta is in (and so is Brazil), now we need an easy group and A LOT OF LUCK and we may get far in the World Cup itself, we’ll be praying to D10S who’s in heaven to help us.
Got a little scary at the end with Mexico making it 2-1 in the 89th and then barraging Canada with high pressure - Milan Borjan had to make two saves off the line. 
Interesting, Larin’s brace, considering he was so sick that he hadn’t eaten in the previous two days, and ending up tying Dwayne De Rosario as the top Canadian men’s goal-scorer in history (22).
Good n’chippy! 23 fouls in the first half.
Yes, the end got pretty ragged. Canada was in pretty solid control for most of the match, but near the end switched to pure defending mode and nearly squandered all their good work. Mexico’s first shot didn’t come until the 58th minute, but they ended up with 12 shots in total. Looked like what happens with NFL prevent defense sometimes.
There was also some questionable refereeing, but what else is new. Although to be fair, there were a couple calls that I was sure were wrong initially, but that the replays showed were correct.
Absolutely hate when teams do that. At least try a little bit to counter instead of just bunkering and hope for the best. It very easily could have been draw if Borjan hadn’t made some really good saves at the end.
Yeah screw Ligue Un.
Last four matches I’ve watched - assholes in the crowd throwing shit at visiting players trying to do corners.
Today there was an annoying two-hour delay after Marseille’s Dimitri Payet was pelted in the side of the head with a full water bottle, (like, in the 6th minute), only for TPTB to finally decide to call the game off. Payet seems to be a popular target - seen him pelted before, in Nice. 
The draws have been done for World Cup qualifying playoffs. For Europe there are small knockouts for 3 qualification spots:
Scotland vs. Ukraine
Wales vs. Austria
Russia vs. Poland
Sweden vs. Czech Republic
Italy vs. North Macedonia
Portugal vs. Turkey
Looks like it will be Italy-Portugal for a spot, and there’s a possibility of Wales-Scotland for another.
For the intercontinental playoffs there are 2 single-elimination matches to be played in Qatar in June:
AFC vs. CONMEBOL
CONCACAF vs. OFC
So if Canada/USA/Mexico/Panama finish 4th in CONCACAF they will most likely have to win in a single game against New Zealand to qualify.
That Barça is still playing harmless possesion after Xavi has been made the much avaited the new coach, that they were unable to score against Benfica, that Benfica had two ENORMOUS opportunities in the last five minutes (and did not score either, unbelievable), that they will have to beat Bayern in Munich to qualify for the next round in the Champions League after scoring just two goals in five matches so far in the CL and that I don’t see how they can manage this is probably not really worth mentioning by now, is it?
OK, I was just moaning, ignore it. You would moan too if it happened to you.
There is hope! A lot of Bayern players are out with covid or on quarantine, and the back line has been in disarray.
OK, I admit that it is comforting that there seem to be no anti-vaxxers among Barça’s players, that is something. And Kimmich is a fool, Bayern and the National Team should suspend him until reason sets in (don’t think they will. Cowards).
On a different topic, but still concerning Bayern Munich: there was an assembly recently where just under 800 members attended (last time before Covid 6,000 came together), but it was still fully operational and could vote on changes to the statutes, which require a 75% super majority. And this super majority was reached despite the strong opposition of the club’s president - Herbert Hainer - and board (including Hoeness, Oliver Kahn, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Hasan Salihamidžić…) on a condemnation of Qatar’s financial backing of the club (Rummenigge: “But it is good money…!”) and endorsement of Human Rights as defined by the UN as a guiding principle of Bayern’s policies. This article is in German and probably paywalled, but it is a joy to read:
Lionel Messi won his seventh Balon d’or last night. I would have given it to Robert Lewandowski who pretty much everyone agrees would have won in 2020 if the ceremony was held (postponed due to Covid). He came second to Messi which I can understand given his season in a poor Barcelona team and winning his first trophy with Argentina in the summer. But it’s hard to see him now with PSG not really getting off the mark and accept right now he is close to the world’s best performing player. Harry Kane won the Premier League Top Scorer and Most Assists awards for last season but came 23rd in the overall rankings which is a clear indication that unlike Messi, Kane is being significantly marked down based on his terrible start to this season.