General Soccer Thread

[thrill]

I absolutely, undoubtedly would make that argument on the men’s side if the US was playing Vietnam or some other developing nation.

Or if, for example, you're Germany playing Brazil in their home country during the 2014 men's world cup.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

Cô Lên Vietnam!

The last odds I saw were US -75000 (!!!). By that standard, epic upset so far. Blocked PK. Hell yeah. And a Thorn scored the (fully celebratable) goals with class reactions.

Pretty good first half. Vietnam is the lowest seeded team here. If they keep this under 5 it’s pretty massive. My guess though is the size plus talent plus possession disparity is going to wear out the defense and it will get pretty ugly in the second. Also glad to see the neutrals mostly rooting for Viet Nam.

[thrill]

This is great for you. Vietnam gets to hold its head high and Sophia does her thing.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

The M in MLS now stands for Messi. But so do the L and the S. Also, I’m pretty sure the Portland Timbers are going to be forced to change their name to whenever they will play Messi. So rather than what they are called or where they play, they will be known as 4/15/24 or whatever. Everything in this league is now only how it relates to Messi.

Watching the game Saturday took some getting used to. “Not Messi passes to Not Messi. Bad touch by Not Messi cleared away by Not Messi. Not Messi’s Team reported to us midweek that ‘not Messi related’ and ‘also not Messi related.' And Not Messi hits a stunner from Messi-5 yards out!" They didn’t bother to call any of the rest of the game as they were just talking about a Messi. A guy took Timber Joey’s chainsaw onto the field and chased the referee, but they were just talking about how Messi might perform against some team he doesn’t play for.

I’m surprised I’m not more upset or even annoyed by this. Probably would be if this was a league covered like NBA or NFL. It really is a lot.

[thrill]

15+ year MLS fan, so I get where you’re coming from, but I’ll point out two things that I’ve realized: this is heightened but essentially the same kind of breathless coverage he’s gotten in la liga and the champions league his entire career and when I watched him play in the second half, I realized he’s going to live up to it.


I obviously knew he’d be good enough to dominate, but I wasn’t sure about his effort or how he’d handle the physicality. He was 20 steps ahead of everyone on the field last weekend. No one can touch him and he’s up for it. Coverage will continue to be annoying for actual fans of other clubs, but seeing him be full Messi in that kit, even surrounded by bums, was incredible. I wasn’t totally sure how he would integrate into such a relatively lower standard and, god damn, he was incredible. There might not be a level of hype he can’t live up to as long as he’s healthy. It’s an amazing manifest destiny to watch play out. As a fan of the sport, it’s just surreal to watch play out in my home league. I can’t wait to see him against actually good MLS clubs.

That’s right, folks. Miami vs StL will be among the most compelling matches this year in the entire world, and not just for marketing/hype. It will be actual, globally compelling sport just because he’s there.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

I look forward to seeing him play. I have a feeling finding out when and where won’t be hard. I have no perspective on the coverage in Europe, so that’s an important point.


The Women’s World Cup, and I’ve searched myself for misogyny here, is good because it’s often bad. It’s got those shifts in momentum that you see in college football but not at such a dramatic level in the NFL. It’s been fun watching the early rounds. It will also be good to watch higher level play later. We’re really spoiled for women’s soccer here. Me especially.

That Philippines team is a bunch of girls from California who asked each other ‘hey, you wanna do the World Cup?’ 20 of 23 didn’t have a club when they began qualifying. Definitely a family in a way you’d never see on the men’s side or even in the knockout rounds. I do hope it pays forward to get girls playing and supported in the actual country. Interesting story.

Lots of cool stories in the field of 32. Play has suffered, but I really hope it pays off in the future.

You know how I know I’m a dbag? Last night I was like, wow, that ref is really attractive. Sigh. If I lean into this and blame women for making me objectify them there is an internet for me. But I want to be better.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

@thrill how much did you get for this game?

[thrill]

0.

Which is why they debuted him in the made up leagues cup: it isn’t part of season ticket packages so they can sell them at Messi rates, not pre-Messi rates.

Home vs. Charlotte is my first game to sell

[thrill]

Messi is a god, btw. Making Miami look like Barcelona overnight is perhaps the most impressive thing he’s ever done, in a way? Getting rid of one of the all time dumb coaches helped too.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

Oh I got Leagues Cup with my tickets.

Things look slow and easy with Messi out there.