Jordan

Swansea City special edition for their preseason tour

Fair, and I would accept a loss to Belgium in many circumstances (and good job by them blowing us away without even having to get beyond walking speed). But as a team and as individuals that was an abject performance. Tim Ream got put in a body bag by Charles de Ketelaere. Matt Freese is now a meme in human form. Christian Pulisic, get ready to learn MLS, buddy. Youri Tielemans looked like Makelele against what should have been one of the better midfields we’ve had.

We deserved to be mocked for that performance. We were a total embarrassment.

Will never fault anyone for having the guts to step up But I could fault the manager for playing for pens, using a keeper sub that backfires, and having what looked like a pre-planned approach to have everyone shoot to the top right corner with players that just can’t execute such a pen

Bye bye Australia 👋

I was reading/hearing a lot yesterday about Jesse Marsch’s “antics” but the most important thing is he’s met expectations for Canada while having to manage two difficult injury situations. It’s tough without Davies and from what I saw yesterday Davies wasn’t sharp. It was an ugly game yesterday but they won and had all of the better chances in a game where they should have had all of the better chances. Marschball isn’t made to be pretty. Marsh has a loud personality and management style but Canada responds positively to this (and yesterday showed some of their players apparently also know when it’s time to calm him down 😂). Marsch was right to dismiss concerns about his “antics” and I don’t think Canadians should care much either. John Herdman had an in-your-face style on the field and in front of microphones, but Canada responded well to him, too. Without question he took their national team program forward.

In hindsight, a Uruguay team losing their heads as they get knocked out after playing nonsensical Marcelo Bielsa tactics and starting Muslera in goal probably shouldn’t have been that surprising.

Germany in Nike is always going to look strange. I can’t believe we’re just left with Denmark in Hummel and Ecuador in marathon as the only two national team kit manufacturer deals that make sense.

For a more proper response, I would be more than happy to have the law changed should the CanPL’s trial prove successful. Whether we like it or not VAR is here to stay at these tournaments so I’m all for trying to find ways to make it suck less. I just don’t have a problem with the decision last night even if I would have greatly preferred Iran to score that winner because the VAR did his job correctly and transparently.

It would be so much easier to just post IFAB Law 11 instead of writing fan fiction

Yep—if you had to pick out the biggest red flag out of last night’s game for us it’s that the lack of depth in the back line is now pretty obvious should Trusty be unavailable. He’s a solid option at LB when we need to play more defensively or when “Jedi” needs a rest. I’d, also, err, trust Trusty more than Miles Robinson and Mark McKenzie to be the 3rd choice CB after last night’s showing from them. Other than that (and maybe Weah being pretty ineffective) we did ok.

CABO VERDE

Now this Japan vs Sweden game is rising to meet its expectations

Great team goal by Japan

You win the group and you’re playing in Atlanta and a nice roof over your heads

ECUADOOOOOOOOOOR

Not sure if Enner Valencia was subbed off because he’s had yet another crap performance or if his coaches need to spirit him out of the stadium to avoid getting arrested for missing child support payments again.

It just feels like there could be even more refereeing mayhem to come, like some ridiculous indirect free kick in the box or something

I was talking to some Ecuadorian friends earlier today and they were saying they hoped Beccacece’s flight tomorrow is booked straight to Argentina because heaven forbid he land in Ecuador after this disaster of a World Cup… hold up, amigos—he might be sticking around North America a little longer if his team can find a few more shots like Angulo’s!

I don’t think there’s been as much talk or attention as there should be on the amazingly insane scenes in Mexico surrounding all of the matches being played there. It’s incredible. [edit: besides the duck of course, everyone knows about that]

I had been looking at tickets for Norway vs Senegal hoping a little rain would get people to resell low, but ticket prices are still over $700 and it has been pissing down here all day. I’ll watch this one on TV under a roof instead.

We tried this once … and it did not work out at all 🙁

Chris Wood is the best no. 9 in this group.

Scotland fans have been impressive and there’s not much more I can add that hasn’t already been said. Now as for England fans, they might have a reputation in many places around the world but they did not have that reputation preceding them here. Had England started their World Cup earlier, or had England had a group stage schedule that let them base themselves out of one city, I’m sure they would have gotten a good portion of the great media coverage that the Tartan Army had. Everybody is still making a sensation about that German fan on Twitter—he’s not the only traveling fan that’s gotten to experience things like Waffle House the first time but he was one of the first and that story gets to be the one that snowballs. England fans in the Dallas/Ft Worth area also drank bars dry and had fun at sporting events, and although it wasn’t the sensation of Scotland fans, this was all still taken very positively here. England fans have been well-behaved and it seems generally well-received by locals so far.