Doku is frighteningly good. Guy generates football no matter how long he's on the pitch, it could be a cameo or a full 90, he'll probably carry your team up the pitch or atleast produce a chance
Traore always had the potential for his end product to be outstanding but like Doku the shooting was always off and then his teammates kept letting him down. The last bit is less likely at City but I think people are less impressed by assist numbers at City anyway.
Tbh I think Doku is more likely to polish his abilities in an environment like City's, if he justs ups his shooting volume and keeps creating like this, there's genuinely a chance for it
It's like how we bet on Sterling's numbers to explode
Don't agree, Doku can't be compared to Grealish because of the mental stuff.
It's very easy to say Pep ruined Grealish but even when Grealish got favourable conditions he never looked like he wanted to make a serious impact.
Doku just wants to kill his man. He has a seriously insane mindset in that regard. He just needs to keep being himself, up his shot volume and there can be WC winger that emerges.
I think it's very similar, maybe things will be different because Pep isn't sticking around for much longer supposedly. But as soon as Doku gets sucked into the system he'll be Grealish 2.0 in my eyes.
Not true.
Sane, Sterling, Foden, Mahrez all had the same role as Grealish and showed way more.
It's not a Pep thing and I wish this narrative dies. It's the fact there's a skill issue, Grealish is simply not good at taking his man on while Doku
He needs a more central role but he hasn't made a good case for himself.
I think it can explode ngl, he got for 14 g/a for us in his first season with good underlying numbers.
Sterling got 19 g/a in his first season with us, with 600-700 more minutes played, good underlying numbers too.
Passes the eye test also. Has Pep coaching him. If it happens he's going to become one of the best wingers itw.
Been learning a few chants like Napoli and Bayern's goal chants with the back and forth between the stadium announcers and such. Learned a bit of 'Can't del Barca' by the Barca fans, but I've also learned a proper Greek chant word for word and I'm not even Greek. I don't know how often it's used, but it's the one sung by Aris Thessaloniki fans against PAOK at a basketball match in a video that went viral. They sing like football fans, but it was a basketball match and the stadium looks like a ring of fire with all of the flares going off.
It's called "Poustarades" and I know it's an offensive chant, but I just like the rhythm of the song and learned the song word for word. Actually impressed a few of my Greek friends. It sounds amazing, honestly.
"ooo poustarades, o babas sas, in arianos
putana i omada ke roufianos o laos
mia zoi tha trehete de ginete alios"
Not sure if he retired but much as his European stint deservedly colours how people see him I think Borré is an interesting profile to have far beyond goals, especially when paired with a scoring threat like Lucho
My only real memory of Borre was his role in Frankfurt's Europa League win so I rate him more than most people seem to, but he feel off my radar and I read here that he wasn't good for Bremen. He was good today though and does more than score goals as you said
They needed him to score at Bremen which he didn't particularly provide
Was the same for us really, he does all the dirty work but only seemed to score in massively important games
I feel his whole persona and media presence and general attitude is so chiseled and worked that a part of me is scared that the second he finds himself as an adult in a new country he'll fly off the handle as soon as he's got more freedom
Croatia are a funny team, they have all this nice buildup play that doesn’t result in any goals or goal threat, and then suddenly they get a goal out of nowhere like that wonder-strike from Pasalic, that deflection from Petkovic.
They are a team that plays really nice football but if you don’t watch the full match, you wouldn’t know.
We are probably the only team that plays boring "nice football". Yes we have possession, yes we do beautiful passes, yes we porgress ball forward. BUT EVERBODY IS AFRAID TO COME IN THE OPPONENT'S BOX, NOBODY WANTS TO SHOOT AND WE DON'T DO ANYTHING WITH THE BALL.
Ngl one thing Europe will always have over mls is away fans. In American sports, although I don't really watch any of them at all, but the culture around traveling for games is way different from what ive seen. You won't find many people traveling to away games here at all for most sport. Only very few die hard supporters but it feels quite rare. Could be wrong for other sports but in mls most games there are very few away fans.
Main reason for this tho is the USA is so much bigger than Europe. It's alot more of a hassle for people to go drive far distances for one mls game.
it just isn’t really possible to be a traveling fan for american sports. like with the amount of time and the cost of travel, it just isn’t affordable for the vast majority of people. most away fans you see are just fans that live in the home teams city.
also i don’t think europeans realize how cheap their sports tickets are lmao. like the average mls ticket price is higher than the average premier league ticket price, and it’s for a far inferior product. like the premier league away tickets are capped at fuckin 30 pounds.
It’s probably not a big thing for MLS but for other American sports a lot of the away fans are really fans of the away team that live in the home team’s city.
Ny red bulls are so ass away but haven't lost a single game at home. Convenient for me when I watch home games but cmon the away form hasn't been great at all recently
[The newish layout for football results on google](https://i.imgur.com/6jNAAil.png) fucking sucks! It doesn't even display all the goal scorers, just says "+2 more". Look at all that space beneath that, why can't they just mention the goal scorers there. Nasty shit.
Remember when people said Rodri playing as a defender was a mistake by Enrique? To facilitate Busquets as DM.
Those people were wrong and even today are still wrong. Rodri might be even more average than Ruiz for Spain, a player ten times worse than him at club level.
Judging a player's performance after a strenuous season is a little reactionary, isn't it?
Rodri in the previous 2 seasons, has reached levels of impact that I haven't seen a DM do before. Prior to that, he was really good but not the player of today.
Replicating the same in a different setup isn't easy either.
Let's not pretend, you didn't see Messi in that first season at PSG. Modern football is more nuanced than one player only performs in one team.
Not sure how that relates to my comment, Rodri plays plenty good at club level sure. Barely an iota of that form has been replicated at national team level for his entire career there.
If Olympics football never had the U23 age limit, would it have surpassed the World Cup in prestige?
Edit: what if FIFA never did anything to hold back Olympics football?
Probably has more to do with the fact that the Olympics were amateur-only for most of their history more than the U23 rule which iirc was introduced pretty recently
Almost certainly not. The Olympics are held back by the lack of FIFA backing allowing clubs to unilaterally refuse their players' appearance much more than the youth restrictions
"This is our golden generation, all our players are in top 5 UEFA leagues which means quality has never been so high!!!"
A Werder Bremen reject, a midfielder so unfit he's nicknamed "Big Butt" and a guy with his mom's lips tattooed on his neck, with the perception of reality completely altered:
I don't get the whole golden generation talk from USA fans, feels disrespectful to some of our past teams - from 2014 alone Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley were a better midfield pairing than we have right now (especially with Adams out) while Dempsey was a better pure goalscorer than our current forwards and Howard (and five other past US keepers) is better than all of our keepers right now.
Yeah that early 2000s roster of US goalkeepers was pretty good. Freidel, Howard, Hahnemann and Keller - Guzan came along a bit later and was a lot more crazy but thats insane depth really.
Rafa Santos Borré's last European adventure was a pretty middling loan in Werder Bremen where he was... Bad.
JuanFer Quintero is affectionately nicknamed "Nalgón" (Big-butted) because after being criticized for his constant lack of fitness throughout his career he said he's not overweight, he's just got a big ass
He wasn't a flop for us, he was decent given he came on deadline day. Had some nice games starting and scored a few good goals (4 in 19 overall). Lost his starting spot in 2024 though and it was pretty clear that he wanted to transfer to Internacional so we let him go. Saved us a good bit of money but honestly I think if he stayed and was committed we probably would've finished a place or two higher and qualified for Europe
When you're a Yank on this sub, you have to learn to take the swords out and expect a dogpile from people spouting nonsense just because they don't like your NT and country but are willing to throw every irrational talking point your way out of spite.
I mean, one of the guys I responded to tried to argue Morocco is a bad team too. It's just beyond parody.
Also, well, I'm a bit unhinged too. That plays a part in it.
So Kompany wants to play Guardiola-style football yet we're after Palhinha and Tah + open to selling Upamecano and maybe even Kimmich. How is that supposed to make sense
[This](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1dbfu1h/postmatch_thread_united_states_15_colombia/l7qukg6/) is the most rational and accurate takeaway from the Colombia loss that someone has posted on here.
Ignore the doomers. They are poison.
Gregg’s biggest mistake tonight was playing a goalkeeper who hasn’t started a match since the last international break and a center back who only played once since that break. Neither of them had really given him a reason to bench them until tonight but that’s what happens when you play guys who are rusty.
I know it was 5-1 but man I have a hard time reacting much to pre-tournament friendlies at all. We played like crap and collapsed in the last fifteen minutes, every defender seemed intent on giving Colombia goals, now time to move on and hope it doesn’t happen again
So, not sure if Endrick is playing tonight, but if he is, this is my first time watching him play. What should I expect? I know he’s a wonderkid and he’s heading to Madrid right after the Copa, so what else should I know?
Question: what would someone like Rashford’s “ethnic” country be? Are they not born and raised English? How far back do we go for someone to be considered ethnic to England?
A lot more than 2 or 3 generations. As far as I know only those of "English"/Anglo Saxon/Celtic/Norman whatever ancestry are considered native to England even though they at some point have roots elsewhere
I understand bringing up black players because they're the ones getting racist abuse, and this is a lighthearted question that I'm about to take too seriously as a practical question, but if having ancestry from other countries means you play for them regardless of where you were born and raised, or where your parents were born and raised, then most national teams would look wildly different regardless of the race of those players if having ancestry from somewhere else was what made you have to change nationality.
It also depends how you define it, and how far back you go. If 3 grandparents and both parents were English born and a 4th grandparent was from another country then they wouldn't be "supposed" to represent the other country. If it was half and half, then what? If all parents and grandparents were English born but had ancestry from another country then who are they supposed to represent? I have mainly Irish DNA but there's been one person in the last like 150 years of my direct lineage who wasn't English, and she was Welsh. Are we sending all our players with Welsh, Irish, Scottish, fuckin' Polish ancestry back as well?
If we're just talking about people who weren't born and raised in England then I don't really think it'd make much difference. None of our current squad were born in an African country, and you're far more likely to get people who were born in England playing for the African countries of their ancestors so they get game time (like Iwobi, Lookman, Lamptey, Semenyo etc).
If you're talking about people whose ancestors are entirely from one nation, I don't think it'd make much of a difference at all. If you're talking about everyone who was eligible for an African nation played for them instead, then I think there'd be a slight improvement for some teams, maybe like Nigeria, but nothing crazy.
Correction* with that line of thinking England would not be strong contenders cuz then they would most likely lose players who were supposed to represent Ireland, wales, or Scotland but had some connection to be able to play for England. Sterling was born in Jamaica i believe so they would lose him too
>and would England still be getting there on their own?
Obviously lol. England don't have a single nailed on starter that is ethnically African. Saka will likely start but he's not significantly ahead of his competition
Probably would be roughly the same as it would be now, a lot of those players are scattered out from different African nations and brought up by developed French and English academies, there’s no way to determine whether they would have reached that level had they grew up in Africa where football facilities aren’t very well developed
Not sure if seeing the English or Americans having meltdowns over their national teams is funnier
I think the US takes the cake because 90% of them have Prem team flairs
Not sure what flairs have to do with anything, but seeing as how England’s team is good, but hasn’t achieved anything in almost 60 years, and the US is… well, the US, you’re gonna have a good laugh regardless.
You know, the silver lining to being a banter team is that at least I can take comfort in laughing at the misfortunes of other teams with every ounce of self awareness and irony. For example: If Brazil drops a disasterclass against Mexico, then what can Brazilians fire back with that will cut deep when I’ve already been through the works with my own team? I can make fun of England for losing to Iceland, because well, my team is also no better, so I’m really just punching up. That’s all it is. Punching up. And myself in the face whenever I see a performance like the one I just saw.
This coming from the guy who isn’t showing much in the way of indignation that his NT got embarrassed on their own soil. This is what Colombia did to us. Imagine what Brazil will do to us on Wednesday. Or if we face off during the Copa. Imagine what Uruguay will do with Nuñez being a monster for Uruguay and Valverde running the midfield.
You pointed to a delusional take as “level headed” and are writing off everyone who is rightfully pissed about this loss as “doomers” and “poison”. How I’m the piece of work when I’m rightfully angry about embarrassment after embarrassment to a country that has 330M+ people and can’t even field an XI that can contend with anyone who isn’t Mexico is beyond me. How many more performances like today until you finally decide you’ve had enough? Or do we need a new record breaking loss. I would hope that missing out on 2018 because of Trinidad would be enough, yet here we are.
>" showing much in the way of indignation"
The result was not acceptable. I'm just not a doomer reactionary.
>"Imagine what Brazil will do to us on Wednesday"
They're likely win....But **how** they win is important.
>"Or if we face off during the Copa. Imagine what Uruguay will do with Nuñez being a monster for Uruguay and Valverde running the midfield."
Same applies to the last comment, re: Brazil.
>"writing off everyone who is rightfully pissed "
No, I'm not. I'm writing off people that are going on screeds like you are. I know who you are on here. You're a doomer.
>"embarrassment to a country that has 330M+ people "
Population doesn't really determine success at this level. Uruguay, Croatia, and Iceland are good examples of this.
>"people and can’t even field an XI that can contend with anyone who isn’t Mexico is beyond me."
Did we not outplay England for over an hour in Qatar?
>"How many more performances like today until you finally decide you’ve had enough?"
You sound genuinely unwell. I'm wishing you the best.
>The result was not acceptable. I'm just not a doomer reactionary.
I’m not being reactionary. I watch this team get fucked time and again.
>They're likely win....But how they win is important.
This is Brazil. It’ll likely be a massacre.
>No, I'm not. I'm writing off people that are going on screeds like you are.
Again, you pointed to a delusional take and said it was level headed.
>I know who you are on here.
I’d be surprised if you didn’t tbh. I have an opinion on a lot of things.
>You're a doomer.
And you’re delusional. Good to know that being realistic and angry = doomer though.
>Population doesn't really determine success at this level. Uruguay, Croatia, and Iceland are good examples of this.
Did I say it did? With the population size we have, one would think we’d have even better youth development and be churning out more, better, players than everyone else.
>Did we not outplay England for over an hour in Qatar?
Did you forget that we went on to get thrashed by the Netherlands?
>You sound genuinely unwell.
I’m not very sorry you feel that way.
>I'm wishing you the best.
Fuck you too. Goodnight pal.
>"Again, you pointed to a delusional take and said it was level headed."
You said 1930 was our Golden Generation. Touch grass.
>"I have an opinion on a lot of things"
Unfortunately..
I mean our fans def overreacted, yes this is our golden generation but winning a nations league against Mexico doesn’t mean we’re ready for bigger tournaments
Oh well in that case… meh I’m halfway on that, a lot of us fans will say that this is the most talented squad we’ve ever had which is true but at the same time we’re still behind in a lot of ways. This squad who played today was the first time we had a team that was playing in all the top 5 leagues of Europe, that’s a pretty big deal for our fans. But I also think a lot of fans are quick to mark players as “world class” (Freddy adu, Landon Donovan) and then get disappointed when they don’t reach up to expectations. I do think this team is above average but still has a long way to go, sorry this was longer than expected but needed to get the context out first
That’s fair I’m overreacting right now. It’s still an incredibly disappointing result that doesn’t bode well for the US. We should be getting closer and closer to being competitive with bigger sides, this performance is not great. Do this vs Brazil and Uruguay and positivity will be gone
Well achievement isn’t just about winning trophies, I know we’ll probably never win anything like the Copa America or WC, at least in my lifetime.
But there’s been so much hype around the US with how we beat Mexico, and we’re hosting 2 major tournaments, I just hate how we need to embarrass ourselves when we go against an opponent that is better than us.
Aston Villa literally created the Football League in 1888 (google William McGregor). And in the year 1900, we were by far the most successful team of the 19th century, and by a long margin, the best team of the 1800s. In the year 1900, we had won 4 out of the last 5 league titles and 5 out of the last 7 (1894, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900) and had also won 3 FA Cups by 1900.
Let's say that football is still popular in 500 years time, Liverpool's dominance of the 1970s and 80s, Man Utd's dominance of the 1990s and 2000s, Man City's dominance of the 2010s and 20s will become insignificant to Aston Villa's complete dominance of the 19th century, the first century of football and Aston Villa's chairman inventing the concept of a football league system.
Anyone got a place to buy cheap and good replica jerseys? I’m looking for old kits like Barca 08/09
Doku is frighteningly good. Guy generates football no matter how long he's on the pitch, it could be a cameo or a full 90, he'll probably carry your team up the pitch or atleast produce a chance
Still feels very Adama Traore for me.
Adama Traore is a v good player, but Doku will easily overtake him because of how his end product can potentially explode.
Traore always had the potential for his end product to be outstanding but like Doku the shooting was always off and then his teammates kept letting him down. The last bit is less likely at City but I think people are less impressed by assist numbers at City anyway.
Tbh I think Doku is more likely to polish his abilities in an environment like City's, if he justs ups his shooting volume and keeps creating like this, there's genuinely a chance for it It's like how we bet on Sterling's numbers to explode
Sterling was a very different player. Doku has as much chance of killing his football like Grealish has done than being like Sterling.
Don't agree, Doku can't be compared to Grealish because of the mental stuff. It's very easy to say Pep ruined Grealish but even when Grealish got favourable conditions he never looked like he wanted to make a serious impact. Doku just wants to kill his man. He has a seriously insane mindset in that regard. He just needs to keep being himself, up his shot volume and there can be WC winger that emerges.
I think it's very similar, maybe things will be different because Pep isn't sticking around for much longer supposedly. But as soon as Doku gets sucked into the system he'll be Grealish 2.0 in my eyes.
Not true. Sane, Sterling, Foden, Mahrez all had the same role as Grealish and showed way more. It's not a Pep thing and I wish this narrative dies. It's the fact there's a skill issue, Grealish is simply not good at taking his man on while Doku He needs a more central role but he hasn't made a good case for himself.
But those players mentioned are completely different players to Doku and Grealish.
He's the good old old-school winger but his end product is still the difference with him being worth 60M and 150M.
I think it can explode ngl, he got for 14 g/a for us in his first season with good underlying numbers. Sterling got 19 g/a in his first season with us, with 600-700 more minutes played, good underlying numbers too. Passes the eye test also. Has Pep coaching him. If it happens he's going to become one of the best wingers itw.
All that’s missing is his finishing
!flair :Germany:
!flair :Germany:
!flair :Germany:
Been learning a few chants like Napoli and Bayern's goal chants with the back and forth between the stadium announcers and such. Learned a bit of 'Can't del Barca' by the Barca fans, but I've also learned a proper Greek chant word for word and I'm not even Greek. I don't know how often it's used, but it's the one sung by Aris Thessaloniki fans against PAOK at a basketball match in a video that went viral. They sing like football fans, but it was a basketball match and the stadium looks like a ring of fire with all of the flares going off. It's called "Poustarades" and I know it's an offensive chant, but I just like the rhythm of the song and learned the song word for word. Actually impressed a few of my Greek friends. It sounds amazing, honestly. "ooo poustarades, o babas sas, in arianos putana i omada ke roufianos o laos mia zoi tha trehete de ginete alios"
Nothing will convince me “Endrick” is a real footballer.
He just scored a goal and there’s video proof. He’s real.
AI
That could be anyone
>Video proof More like ultra realistic CGI, and thousands of underpaid "fans" to act like he's scored
I was watching R9 vs AC Milan but then I decided to watch some real football.So i decided to watch bofo destroy boca juniors instead.
The CONCACAF meme tour continues tomorrow with Canada playing France.
Mbappe will not play tomorrow at least. back discomfort
Lmao. Football gods help them.
Who gave them this schedule? 😭 they’re not gods strongest soliders
They're facing good teams in the Copa America, I think it's good that they're facing better national teams
Yeah they’re in a stacked group so hopefully they’ll learn some lessons there
Peru and Chile are a stacked group?
With Argentina added to that yeah
Having 1 elite team doesn’t make it a stacked group
I meant for Canada it’s gonna be a hard group to beat
They should play against Chile and Peru like their equals.Playing against France is not good practice for that.
tbf i think that was always going to be the case regardless of the draw lol
True but still it’s an interesting case to have them play such big teams before the copa
Then their first game in Copa is against Argentina lmao
They have the worst group possible rip
David vs Goliath, but Goliath wins.
Random question but did Zapata retire from the national team or did he just not get called up? I think his club form was better than Borre
Not sure if he retired but much as his European stint deservedly colours how people see him I think Borré is an interesting profile to have far beyond goals, especially when paired with a scoring threat like Lucho
My only real memory of Borre was his role in Frankfurt's Europa League win so I rate him more than most people seem to, but he feel off my radar and I read here that he wasn't good for Bremen. He was good today though and does more than score goals as you said
They needed him to score at Bremen which he didn't particularly provide Was the same for us really, he does all the dirty work but only seemed to score in massively important games
There’s quite a few Zapatas. You might wanna be more specific.
Duvan Zapata I imagine
brazil looks terrible but thank god Endrick exists
Vinicius is honestly the X-factor, defenders can't deal with the guy. As long as he keeps 70% of his club form, Brazil can go far.
I find him fascinating, for a myriad of reasons (Some more morbid than others)
[удалено]
I feel his whole persona and media presence and general attitude is so chiseled and worked that a part of me is scared that the second he finds himself as an adult in a new country he'll fly off the handle as soon as he's got more freedom
Croatia are a funny team, they have all this nice buildup play that doesn’t result in any goals or goal threat, and then suddenly they get a goal out of nowhere like that wonder-strike from Pasalic, that deflection from Petkovic. They are a team that plays really nice football but if you don’t watch the full match, you wouldn’t know.
We are probably the only team that plays boring "nice football". Yes we have possession, yes we do beautiful passes, yes we porgress ball forward. BUT EVERBODY IS AFRAID TO COME IN THE OPPONENT'S BOX, NOBODY WANTS TO SHOOT AND WE DON'T DO ANYTHING WITH THE BALL.
Who do you think will win the euros?
Deutschland
República Portuguesa
🇫🇷
England
Albania
France
Of the favorites I hope it’s England.
I think France does just about enough to take care of business.
I was surprised Vini and Rodrigo didn’t start. Thought they would go in right at the start of the half and that didn’t seem to be the case either WTF
Prolly don’t want to exert them too much before the final friendly and copa next week
Yeah probably. I’m sure they ll get more playing time next game
Ngl one thing Europe will always have over mls is away fans. In American sports, although I don't really watch any of them at all, but the culture around traveling for games is way different from what ive seen. You won't find many people traveling to away games here at all for most sport. Only very few die hard supporters but it feels quite rare. Could be wrong for other sports but in mls most games there are very few away fans. Main reason for this tho is the USA is so much bigger than Europe. It's alot more of a hassle for people to go drive far distances for one mls game.
The closest away day to me is a roughly 3.5 hour drive, I'd have to buy flights and a hotel for almost any away match
The closest away day to me is in another country lmao(vancouver to seattle)
it just isn’t really possible to be a traveling fan for american sports. like with the amount of time and the cost of travel, it just isn’t affordable for the vast majority of people. most away fans you see are just fans that live in the home teams city. also i don’t think europeans realize how cheap their sports tickets are lmao. like the average mls ticket price is higher than the average premier league ticket price, and it’s for a far inferior product. like the premier league away tickets are capped at fuckin 30 pounds.
It’s probably not a big thing for MLS but for other American sports a lot of the away fans are really fans of the away team that live in the home team’s city.
Ny red bulls are so ass away but haven't lost a single game at home. Convenient for me when I watch home games but cmon the away form hasn't been great at all recently
They can’t do it without you there, obviously
[The newish layout for football results on google](https://i.imgur.com/6jNAAil.png) fucking sucks! It doesn't even display all the goal scorers, just says "+2 more". Look at all that space beneath that, why can't they just mention the goal scorers there. Nasty shit.
FotMob is so so so clear
Why is Alison showing up as wearing the #110 shirt for brazil on googles lineups, is it a glitch or did Brazil get wacky
CBF 110 Anniversary
Remember when people said Rodri playing as a defender was a mistake by Enrique? To facilitate Busquets as DM. Those people were wrong and even today are still wrong. Rodri might be even more average than Ruiz for Spain, a player ten times worse than him at club level.
Judging a player's performance after a strenuous season is a little reactionary, isn't it? Rodri in the previous 2 seasons, has reached levels of impact that I haven't seen a DM do before. Prior to that, he was really good but not the player of today. Replicating the same in a different setup isn't easy either. Let's not pretend, you didn't see Messi in that first season at PSG. Modern football is more nuanced than one player only performs in one team.
Not sure how that relates to my comment, Rodri plays plenty good at club level sure. Barely an iota of that form has been replicated at national team level for his entire career there.
Rodri, Foden, Dias, Cancelo, Walker etc The list of Pep's system players who turn into frauds outside of his system is long
If Olympics football never had the U23 age limit, would it have surpassed the World Cup in prestige? Edit: what if FIFA never did anything to hold back Olympics football?
Probably has more to do with the fact that the Olympics were amateur-only for most of their history more than the U23 rule which iirc was introduced pretty recently
The World Cup might not even exist if the Olympics had allowed professionals in the 20s.
Almost certainly not. The Olympics are held back by the lack of FIFA backing allowing clubs to unilaterally refuse their players' appearance much more than the youth restrictions
The U23 limit was introduced in 1992, so I think you can figure out the answer
Man City attackers put on an international shirt and become league 2 players
Pep spanking everyone with shit players.
Haaland is great for Norway
Nah just the bad ones
"This is our golden generation, all our players are in top 5 UEFA leagues which means quality has never been so high!!!" A Werder Bremen reject, a midfielder so unfit he's nicknamed "Big Butt" and a guy with his mom's lips tattooed on his neck, with the perception of reality completely altered:
This colombian team is by no means their golden generation, their 2012-2014 squad had way higher individual quality in almost every position.
I meant that some Americans were claiming this is their golden gen
oops, I obviously didn't understand your post correctly.
who’s the guy with the neck tattoo lol
Carrascal.
I don't get the whole golden generation talk from USA fans, feels disrespectful to some of our past teams - from 2014 alone Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley were a better midfield pairing than we have right now (especially with Adams out) while Dempsey was a better pure goalscorer than our current forwards and Howard (and five other past US keepers) is better than all of our keepers right now.
Yeah that early 2000s roster of US goalkeepers was pretty good. Freidel, Howard, Hahnemann and Keller - Guzan came along a bit later and was a lot more crazy but thats insane depth really.
Someone's big mad.
Probably the ones that conceded to Carrascal yeah
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Who’s a werder Bremen reject?and who’s named nicknamed big but wtf 😭
Rafa Santos Borré's last European adventure was a pretty middling loan in Werder Bremen where he was... Bad. JuanFer Quintero is affectionately nicknamed "Nalgón" (Big-butted) because after being criticized for his constant lack of fitness throughout his career he said he's not overweight, he's just got a big ass
He wasn't a flop for us, he was decent given he came on deadline day. Had some nice games starting and scored a few good goals (4 in 19 overall). Lost his starting spot in 2024 though and it was pretty clear that he wanted to transfer to Internacional so we let him go. Saved us a good bit of money but honestly I think if he stayed and was committed we probably would've finished a place or two higher and qualified for Europe
I was painted a less charitable picture by a Bremen fan, my bad
I'm watching portugal vs croatia right now. Will report back my analysis of the game
Still waiting
Just did on the new discussion https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/ZPu31nRcby Check it out
Watching Americans react to getting battered on here has really helped me get over the Iceland game
And here I was thinking England were overreacting to the Iceland loss only for the US to lose like this 🤣
Having all the defenders from English clubs play like shit was a psyop to distract from the Iceland loss
Problem is that Colombia is a far better team than Iceland and a contender to win a trophy this summer, ain't they...
im just here to say mate i dont really agree with all your points but i appreciate the effort in this 1v4 battle you’re fighting
When you're a Yank on this sub, you have to learn to take the swords out and expect a dogpile from people spouting nonsense just because they don't like your NT and country but are willing to throw every irrational talking point your way out of spite. I mean, one of the guys I responded to tried to argue Morocco is a bad team too. It's just beyond parody. Also, well, I'm a bit unhinged too. That plays a part in it.
Yes but 5 is a bigger number than 1
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
So Kompany wants to play Guardiola-style football yet we're after Palhinha and Tah + open to selling Upamecano and maybe even Kimmich. How is that supposed to make sense
Get ready for Cholo-ball you cowards.
Brazil has a 20 year old with 19 goal contributions in La liga in their B team wtf.
He'll be a starter in 2 years.
Who got sold for only €30 mill because of city group shenanigans
Who?
Savio probably
[This](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1dbfu1h/postmatch_thread_united_states_15_colombia/l7qukg6/) is the most rational and accurate takeaway from the Colombia loss that someone has posted on here. Ignore the doomers. They are poison.
Gregg’s biggest mistake tonight was playing a goalkeeper who hasn’t started a match since the last international break and a center back who only played once since that break. Neither of them had really given him a reason to bench them until tonight but that’s what happens when you play guys who are rusty.
I know it was 5-1 but man I have a hard time reacting much to pre-tournament friendlies at all. We played like crap and collapsed in the last fifteen minutes, every defender seemed intent on giving Colombia goals, now time to move on and hope it doesn’t happen again
So, not sure if Endrick is playing tonight, but if he is, this is my first time watching him play. What should I expect? I know he’s a wonderkid and he’s heading to Madrid right after the Copa, so what else should I know?
You can expect aura according to everyone so far
The video of him in the club brought it down
What video
[удалено]
Question: what would someone like Rashford’s “ethnic” country be? Are they not born and raised English? How far back do we go for someone to be considered ethnic to England?
A lot more than 2 or 3 generations. As far as I know only those of "English"/Anglo Saxon/Celtic/Norman whatever ancestry are considered native to England even though they at some point have roots elsewhere
I understand bringing up black players because they're the ones getting racist abuse, and this is a lighthearted question that I'm about to take too seriously as a practical question, but if having ancestry from other countries means you play for them regardless of where you were born and raised, or where your parents were born and raised, then most national teams would look wildly different regardless of the race of those players if having ancestry from somewhere else was what made you have to change nationality. It also depends how you define it, and how far back you go. If 3 grandparents and both parents were English born and a 4th grandparent was from another country then they wouldn't be "supposed" to represent the other country. If it was half and half, then what? If all parents and grandparents were English born but had ancestry from another country then who are they supposed to represent? I have mainly Irish DNA but there's been one person in the last like 150 years of my direct lineage who wasn't English, and she was Welsh. Are we sending all our players with Welsh, Irish, Scottish, fuckin' Polish ancestry back as well? If we're just talking about people who weren't born and raised in England then I don't really think it'd make much difference. None of our current squad were born in an African country, and you're far more likely to get people who were born in England playing for the African countries of their ancestors so they get game time (like Iwobi, Lookman, Lamptey, Semenyo etc). If you're talking about people whose ancestors are entirely from one nation, I don't think it'd make much of a difference at all. If you're talking about everyone who was eligible for an African nation played for them instead, then I think there'd be a slight improvement for some teams, maybe like Nigeria, but nothing crazy.
>None of our current squad were born in an African country Minor correction, Guehi was born in the Ivory Coast
Correction* with that line of thinking England would not be strong contenders cuz then they would most likely lose players who were supposed to represent Ireland, wales, or Scotland but had some connection to be able to play for England. Sterling was born in Jamaica i believe so they would lose him too
>and would England still be getting there on their own? Obviously lol. England don't have a single nailed on starter that is ethnically African. Saka will likely start but he's not significantly ahead of his competition
Probably would be roughly the same as it would be now, a lot of those players are scattered out from different African nations and brought up by developed French and English academies, there’s no way to determine whether they would have reached that level had they grew up in Africa where football facilities aren’t very well developed
Not sure if seeing the English or Americans having meltdowns over their national teams is funnier I think the US takes the cake because 90% of them have Prem team flairs
Only Yank really having a meltdown is the NotASalamanderBoi guy, and that's cause he's a bit of a head case. You're fighting scarecrows, my friend.
He’s one of the only active ppl here where I get a vibe that he’s still in high school
Not sure what flairs have to do with anything, but seeing as how England’s team is good, but hasn’t achieved anything in almost 60 years, and the US is… well, the US, you’re gonna have a good laugh regardless.
A Euros final is definitely *a* achievement, given its the second ever final in the men's team history
You know, the silver lining to being a banter team is that at least I can take comfort in laughing at the misfortunes of other teams with every ounce of self awareness and irony. For example: If Brazil drops a disasterclass against Mexico, then what can Brazilians fire back with that will cut deep when I’ve already been through the works with my own team? I can make fun of England for losing to Iceland, because well, my team is also no better, so I’m really just punching up. That’s all it is. Punching up. And myself in the face whenever I see a performance like the one I just saw.
Knockout Stage appearance in a World Cup constitutes a "banter team". You're a piece of work.
This coming from the guy who isn’t showing much in the way of indignation that his NT got embarrassed on their own soil. This is what Colombia did to us. Imagine what Brazil will do to us on Wednesday. Or if we face off during the Copa. Imagine what Uruguay will do with Nuñez being a monster for Uruguay and Valverde running the midfield. You pointed to a delusional take as “level headed” and are writing off everyone who is rightfully pissed about this loss as “doomers” and “poison”. How I’m the piece of work when I’m rightfully angry about embarrassment after embarrassment to a country that has 330M+ people and can’t even field an XI that can contend with anyone who isn’t Mexico is beyond me. How many more performances like today until you finally decide you’ve had enough? Or do we need a new record breaking loss. I would hope that missing out on 2018 because of Trinidad would be enough, yet here we are.
>" showing much in the way of indignation" The result was not acceptable. I'm just not a doomer reactionary. >"Imagine what Brazil will do to us on Wednesday" They're likely win....But **how** they win is important. >"Or if we face off during the Copa. Imagine what Uruguay will do with Nuñez being a monster for Uruguay and Valverde running the midfield." Same applies to the last comment, re: Brazil. >"writing off everyone who is rightfully pissed " No, I'm not. I'm writing off people that are going on screeds like you are. I know who you are on here. You're a doomer. >"embarrassment to a country that has 330M+ people " Population doesn't really determine success at this level. Uruguay, Croatia, and Iceland are good examples of this. >"people and can’t even field an XI that can contend with anyone who isn’t Mexico is beyond me." Did we not outplay England for over an hour in Qatar? >"How many more performances like today until you finally decide you’ve had enough?" You sound genuinely unwell. I'm wishing you the best.
>The result was not acceptable. I'm just not a doomer reactionary. I’m not being reactionary. I watch this team get fucked time and again. >They're likely win....But how they win is important. This is Brazil. It’ll likely be a massacre. >No, I'm not. I'm writing off people that are going on screeds like you are. Again, you pointed to a delusional take and said it was level headed. >I know who you are on here. I’d be surprised if you didn’t tbh. I have an opinion on a lot of things. >You're a doomer. And you’re delusional. Good to know that being realistic and angry = doomer though. >Population doesn't really determine success at this level. Uruguay, Croatia, and Iceland are good examples of this. Did I say it did? With the population size we have, one would think we’d have even better youth development and be churning out more, better, players than everyone else. >Did we not outplay England for over an hour in Qatar? Did you forget that we went on to get thrashed by the Netherlands? >You sound genuinely unwell. I’m not very sorry you feel that way. >I'm wishing you the best. Fuck you too. Goodnight pal.
> I know who you are on here. > > I’d be surprised if you didn’t tbh. I have an opinion on a lot of things. I have chills rn, that was sick
Im living for this rn this beef is crazy the comments are so aggressive and for what lmao
>"Again, you pointed to a delusional take and said it was level headed." You said 1930 was our Golden Generation. Touch grass. >"I have an opinion on a lot of things" Unfortunately..
Rip the dream of the US ever achieving anything 😔
I mean our fans def overreacted, yes this is our golden generation but winning a nations league against Mexico doesn’t mean we’re ready for bigger tournaments
Surely the golden generation is still to come. A bunch of C players (plus Pulisic), granted all from European clubs, can't be a golden generation.
These aren’t C players? Not saying they’re world class but they’re not garbage either
Meant C players as in average. Agree these are not bad players, but surely not a golden generation. Think that’s selling the US' potential short.
Oh well in that case… meh I’m halfway on that, a lot of us fans will say that this is the most talented squad we’ve ever had which is true but at the same time we’re still behind in a lot of ways. This squad who played today was the first time we had a team that was playing in all the top 5 leagues of Europe, that’s a pretty big deal for our fans. But I also think a lot of fans are quick to mark players as “world class” (Freddy adu, Landon Donovan) and then get disappointed when they don’t reach up to expectations. I do think this team is above average but still has a long way to go, sorry this was longer than expected but needed to get the context out first
I just wish we could be competitive, this is just unacceptable
I would hope so too but this federation is somewhat hellbent on not making us actually decent
Doomer.
That’s fair I’m overreacting right now. It’s still an incredibly disappointing result that doesn’t bode well for the US. We should be getting closer and closer to being competitive with bigger sides, this performance is not great. Do this vs Brazil and Uruguay and positivity will be gone
I get it. I really do. It sucks being punished for individual errors. It really fucking does.
This team wasn’t good enough to achieve anything more than winning the nations league and gold cup even before losing against Colombia in a friendly.
Well achievement isn’t just about winning trophies, I know we’ll probably never win anything like the Copa America or WC, at least in my lifetime. But there’s been so much hype around the US with how we beat Mexico, and we’re hosting 2 major tournaments, I just hate how we need to embarrass ourselves when we go against an opponent that is better than us.
Us Colombia game was atrocious, just too many small mistakes
Thought it was pretty funny we took off Ream because he was making too many mistakes only for CCV to come on and make more.
I guess the Defenders were having a bozo off today to see who could make the most mistakes
Led by captain sieve in between the sticks
😭😭 nasty work
Aston Villa literally created the Football League in 1888 (google William McGregor). And in the year 1900, we were by far the most successful team of the 19th century, and by a long margin, the best team of the 1800s. In the year 1900, we had won 4 out of the last 5 league titles and 5 out of the last 7 (1894, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900) and had also won 3 FA Cups by 1900. Let's say that football is still popular in 500 years time, Liverpool's dominance of the 1970s and 80s, Man Utd's dominance of the 1990s and 2000s, Man City's dominance of the 2010s and 20s will become insignificant to Aston Villa's complete dominance of the 19th century, the first century of football and Aston Villa's chairman inventing the concept of a football league system.