General Soccer Discussion

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#626      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
wettsten said:
lol @ Canada scheduling a match against Mexico in Edmonton in November. coldest match Mexico has ever played: wind chill of 5 degrees.
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There's always gamesmanship like that in CONCACAF. Typically when the U.S. would play at Honduras, it seemed like the match was a mid-afternoon match played in the peak of the afternoon heat. Back during the 2014 qualifiers, the U.S. and Costa Rica played a match in late March in a snowstorm in Colorado (Granted, the U.S. were using that match as training for playing at altitude in the following match at Azteca).
 
#627      
wettsten
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
There's always gamesmanship like that in CONCACAF. Typically when the U.S. would play at Honduras, it seemed like the match was a mid-afternoon match played in the peak of the afternoon heat. Back during the 2014 qualifiers, the U.S. and Costa Rica played a match in late March in a snowstorm in Colorado (Granted, the U.S. were using that match as training for playing at altitude in the following match at Azteca).
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i remember that match. they had to clear the snow multiple times so they could see the lines on the pitch
 
#629      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
FIFA announced on Friday that the intercontinental playoffs will be single-leg matches played at a neutral site: https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-wo...layoff-to-be-one-legged-games-at-neutral-site

The matches will take place June 13th and 14th at a host still to be determined. The playoffs will involve teams from AFC, CONMEBOL, OFC, and CONCACAF. 3 of the playoff teams (CONMEBOL, OFC, and CONCACAF) will be known by the end of March. The AFC representative will be decided in a single match-up playoff between the two 3rd place teams in the current qualification round (currently UAE and Australia) that is set to take place in May or June 2022.
 
#630      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
U.S. Soccer announced yesterday the sites for their 2 home qualifiers in the next window: https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-...fying-sites-set-for-el-salvadorhondurascanada

The January 27th match vs. El Salvador will be played at Lower.com Field in Columbus. The February 2nd match vs. Honduras will be played at Allianz Field in St. Paul.

Canada Soccer announced today that the U.S.-Canada match on January 30th will be held in Hamilton, ON.
 
#631      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Draw for a couple of different events were held today.

First, the UEFA draw, which ended up like this, with the winners of each path qualifying through to the World Cup:

Path A
Wales vs. Austria
Scotland vs. Ukraine

Path B
Russia vs. Poland
Sweden vs. Czech Republic

Path C
Portugal vs. Turkey
Italy vs. North Macedonia

This means that either Portugal or Italy will miss the World Cup.
 
#632      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
The inter-confederation playoff draw was held today as well. The AFC 4th round winner will face the 5th place team from CONMEBOL (currently Peru) and the 4th place finisher from CONCACAF (currently Panama) would face the OFC winner (which won't be known until March 2022 when they hold their qualification tournament in Qatar).
 
#633      
Joel Goodson
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
U.S. Soccer announced yesterday the sites for their 2 home qualifiers in the next window: https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-...fying-sites-set-for-el-salvadorhondurascanada

The January 27th match vs. El Salvador will be played at Lower.com Field in Columbus. The February 2nd match vs. Honduras will be played at Allianz Field in St. Paul.

Canada Soccer announced today that the U.S.-Canada match on January 30th will be held in Hamilton, ON.
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Nice, warm venues for our Central American foes.
 
#638      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Tough news for Canada heading into the World Cup qualifiers at the end of this month.

Alphonso Davies, who is currently playing for Bayern Munich, was recently diagnosed with covid and as part of his follow-up exam after he recovered, the club's doctors found that he had signs of myocarditis. So not only will he miss time for his club he'll also miss the qualifiers, which includes a match January 30th vs. the U.S.
 
#639      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Sounds like Gio Reyna may not be back for U.S. for World Cup Qualifiers either. Borussia Dortmund's coach came out today and said that they don't expect Reyna to play for them until after the international break. That means it's highly unlikely that he makes the U.S. roster for the qualifiers.
 
#640      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Few USMNT/CONCACAF related notes:

-Wind chill index that could be approaching what USSF health guidelines call "high risk for cold-related illnesses". Forecast for World Cup Qualifier in Columbus next Thursday calls for temps 24-26 with west winds at 4-14 MPH and a 40% chance of snow showers. Forecast for the qualifier in Canada is temps from 22-24 with winds at 5-10 MPH with a 10% chance of snow flurries. Forecast for the February 2nd qualifier in St. Paul, MN, is temps from 18-20, winds 7-14 PMH and 30% chance of snow flurries. Both the fields in Columbus and St. Paul are heated.
-CONCACAF will institute VAR for the final two rounds of World Cup Qualifiers. It also will be added for this year's CONCACAF women's championship, CONCACAF's men's and women's U-20 championships and this year's CONCACAF Champions League.
-Exploria Stadium in Orlando will host the final USMNT home World Cup Qualifier on March 27th, when the Americans face Panama. That match is sandwiched between away matches to Mexico and Costa Rica.
-Mexican Football Federation announced earlier this week that any fans found to be using the anti-gay chant, which has caused El Tri to play home qualifier matches in empty stadiums, will now be banned from stadiums for five years. The new measures will be tested in Mexico's next two World Cup qualifiers, at home against Costa Rica on Jan. 30 and Panama on Feb. 2. While both matches were initially set to be played behind closed doors due to previous instances of the anti-gay chant, Mexico will be allowed to reopen the Estadio Azteca, but capacity will be limited to 2,000 for the upcoming matches in order to test the new measures.
 
#641      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Capacity for USMNT-Canada match on Jan. 30th to be reduced to 50% capacity (or about 12,000) due to public health measures in Canada. Canada Soccer will cancel the tickets issued when the game sold out last month and it will hold a new sale at the reduced figure. The sale will open Tuesday to previous ticket buyers, and a general sale would take place the following day if tickets are available. Fans attending the match will be asked for proof of vaccination, and masks are required except while eating or drinking.
 
#642      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Draw for the third round of CAF World Cup qualifying was held yesterday. Here are the matchups for the home-and-home legs in this round, with the winners advancing to the World Cup:

Egypt v Senegal
Cameroon v Algeria
Ghana v Nigeria
DR Congo v Morocco
Mali v Tunisia

One storyline in these will be Mo Salah vs. Sadio Mane in the Egypt v Senegal match-up.

Cameroon-Algeria winner will qualify for first World Cup since 2014. DR Congo is looking to qualify for its first World Cup since its only previous trip in 1974, when they were known as Zaire. Mali has never qualified for the World Cup.

Matches will take place the final weekend of March.
 
#643      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Schedule for the next round of USMNT World Cup qualifiers, set to resume later this week:

-Thursday, January 27th, 6:00 PM CT, ESPN2: vs. El Salvador (Game being played at Lower.com Field in Columbus)
-Sunday, January 30th, 2:05 PM CT, Paramount+: at Canada
-Wednesday, February 2nd, 6:30 PM CT, FS1: vs. Honduras (Game being played at Allianz Field in St. Paul)
 
#644      
Joel Goodson
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Schedule for the next round of USMNT World Cup qualifiers, set to resume later this week:

-Thursday, January 27th, 6:00 PM CT, ESPN2: vs. El Salvador (Game being played at Lower.com Field in Columbus)
-Sunday, January 30th, 2:05 PM CT, Paramount+: at Canada
-Wednesday, February 2nd, 6:30 PM CT, FS1: vs. Honduras (Game being played at Allianz Field in St. Paul)
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good thing they're playing those matches at domes. :ROFLMAO:
 
#646      
Joel Goodson
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Would you expect anything better than CONCACAF gamesmanship for those home matches?
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I expect it, but the location choices, given the dates, are insane, no? This could backfire: players could get hurt (poor footing) or a slip could result in disaster.
 
#648      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
ILL_INI said:
Both the fields in Columbus and St. Paul are heated per a post earlier from @IlliniFaninHoosierLand.
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Indeed they are though there's talk of the possibility of snow for the Honduras game. The heating system would help but it wouldn't prevent snow from accumulating.

The U.S. playing these matches where they are is mainly a Berhalter thing as he wants to limit travel as much as he can during qualifying. In this case, with Canada hosting the middle match of the window, the U.S. team's choice of venues was going to be dependent on where that game was held. Had the game been held in Vancouver, the U.S. would have held these two matches in this window in Portland and San Jose. When Canada decided to host the match in Hamilton, it meant the games got chosen to be in Columbus and St. Paul due to proximity. In recent years, they have tried to not play in major U.S. metro areas, even though that's more convenient for the European based players, as the opposing sides will show up with quite a few more fans in those cities.
 
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