General Soccer Discussion

#26      
KBLEE
And - I believe a Spurs win will save Ange's job, at least temporarily. He definitely hasn't lost the players so far. Based on his post-game speech yesterday, it looked like they all would run through a brick wall for him. If Spurs win, I'm guessing he gets a minimum of 10 games next year to show progress.
 
#27      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
FIFA approved expansion of Women's World Cup from 32 to 48 teams beginning with the 2031 tournament. The tournament is expected to be hosted by the U.S., as they are the only nation that has bid to host the tournament, with other CONCACAF members also possibly hosting matches.
 
#28      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Pulisic out for the Gold Cup that begins next month. Reason is needing a recovery period after his grueling schedule in Europe this season. If he plays in AC Milan's season finale this weekend, it will be his 50th match across all competitions for the club this season.
 
#29      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Pulisic out for the Gold Cup that begins next month. Reason is needing a recovery period after his grueling schedule in Europe this season. If he plays in AC Milan's season finale this weekend, it will be his 50th match across all competitions for the club this season.
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Just to add to this, he won't be the only USMNT player out for the Gold Cup. Antonee Robinson is in a similar situation to Pulisic and needs rest with the number of minutes he has logged on the pitch the last couple of seasons. Yunus Musah won't play due to an undisclosed personal reason. McKennie, Weah, and Reyna can't play because their clubs will be playing in the Club World Cup. If Johnny Cardoso ends up moving to Atletico Madrid, he'll be heading to the Club World Cup too. Josh Sargent and Tanner Tessmann won't play though Poch said it was due to "footballing reasons" for those two.
 
#30      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Joel Goodson said:
as a long suffering Fire fan, this would be unreal:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1912523682963931335
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When @Joel Goodson saw today's De Bruyne news:


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#35      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
@OrangeBlue98 , when you get a free chance, take a look at the play that led to the PK for Malik Tillman in the U.S./Costa Rica match in the Gold Cup. The way the FOX announcers were talking, they were surprised that it wasn't a red card for the Costa Rica player.
 
#38      
Ryllini
Don’t know where to put this, but I watched the Germany/France women’s Euro game and it was electric. Germany was playing down a girl all game and just hung around. Their goalie was something else. Look for the save she had on an almost own goal.
France had a couple goals called off correctly due to offsides. Great game.
 
#40      
suburbanILLINI
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Starting in 2026, you will not need an MLS Season Pass subscription to watch the matches on Apple TV. You will only need an Apple TV subscription going forward.
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That was a horrible decision to put games behind a paywall. You can get away with it when you're an incredibly established league with generations of followers. MLS owners were really enamored by Apple's $
 
#41      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Earlier this week, MLS announced they will be shifting the regular season to a summer-to-spring schedule beginning in 2027 to align with the international soccer calendar. Among the other details:

-Season kicks off in mid-July running through spring with Decision Day in April and the MLS Cup playoffs in May.
-Winter break would be used, pausing action from mid-December to early/mid-February.
-MLS will run a shortened season early in 2027, running from February to May before fully shifting to the new schedule.
 
#42      
OrangeBlue98
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Earlier this week, MLS announced they will be shifting the regular season to a summer-to-spring schedule beginning in 2027 to align with the international soccer calendar. Among the other details:

-Season kicks off in mid-July running through spring with Decision Day in April and the MLS Cup playoffs in May.
-Winter break would be used, pausing action from mid-December to early/mid-February.
-MLS will run a shortened season early in 2027, running from February to May before fully shifting to the new schedule.
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If MLS and Liga MX play this right, they can use the December-February break to run Leagues Cup. Just do it as more of a made-for-TV event using stadiums in Mexico and the southern US. Have the US matches in Florida, Atlanta, Texas, and California along with the Mexican sites. Heck, you could even toss Phoenix in there and use their USL stadium as a different and more intimate venue.

Overall, I think this is a positive change for the league. I get some of the cold-weather issues, and you clearly can't play January matches in places like Toronto, Boston (area), Chicago, St. Paul, and Denver. But I think doing Leagues Cup like this would be a good use of that January to mid-February timeframe. Plus, I like that future MLS playoffs will be offset from college and pro football. I think the league can compete more effectively with early season MLB and the NBA and NHL than CFB and the NFL.
 
#43      
wettsten
huge statement win for the gunners over bayern munich yesterday! i'm still waiting for the inexplicable loss that makes the wheels come off.
 
#48      
Ryllini
KBLEE said:
He certainly will be on Spain's roster. He helped them win Euro 2024.
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Good news. I'm not the biggest soccer guy as my wife would kill me if I told her I needed to carve out more time for another sport. I do love the world cup though.
I watch highlights of this dude and I don't think I've see skill like that from any professional across any sport. Not MJ or LeBron. This kid is insane.
 
#50      
KBLEE
USA's pot 2 opponent is Australia. That's about as favorable as it could have been. I believe only Iran had a lower FIFA ranking.
 
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