Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[Suburbia]

USMT should not waste Pulisic's prime.....if they can't make serious inroads by now and 2026, it would be a waste....

Maybe they should hire Alexi Lalas as their manager....

And Lalas, now a commentator for Fox Sports, made his feelings clear -- player by player -- on a live, televised tirade during Sunday night's broadcast of the Seattle Sounders-LA Galaxy game.

"It's dark days, indeed, but this is a time for leaders to step up," he began. "And so to the supposed leaders, I will say this....

"Tim Howard. Tim, the Belgium game ended three years ago. We need you to save the ball now. Geoff Cameron. Clean it up, or let's get someone who will.

"Clint Dempsey. Yeah, you're a national team legend; now we need you to be a national team leader.

"Michael Bradley. The U.S. does not need you to be zen, the U.S. needs you to play better. Jozy Altidore. Is this really as good as it gets? Because it's still not good enough."

Lalas also targeted U.S. coach Bruce Arena, who before the loss to Costa Rica enjoyed a 14-game unbeaten streak this year upon replacing Jurgen Klinsmann.

"Bruce Arena. Jurgen Klinsmann lost at home to Mexico. You lost at home to Costa Rica. This is now all on you, not Jurgen," he continued.

And he also took a shot at young star Christian Pulisic, adding: "And, oh, by the way, to all the guys that I didn't mention, it's because you don't even warrant a mention. That includes you too, Wonder Boy."

Lalas, who played for the United States at the 1994 World Cup, concluded by targeting the mindset of the current team and saying that they owed their supporters better performances.

"So, what are you guys going to do?" Lalas went on. "Are you going to continue to be a bunch of soft, underperforming, tattooed millionaires? You are a soccer generation that has been given everything; you are a soccer generation who's on the verge of squandering everything.

"So now it's time to pay it back. Make us believe again. You don't owe it to yourselves, you owe it to us."

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states/story/3201429/alexi-lalas-blasts-us-national-teams-soft-underperforming-tattooed-millionaires-in-tirade

Pep Guardiola's apparently going to leave Manchester City to coach a National team, after his contract runs out in 2023. If the U.S moves quickly they could snap Guardiola up to coach the National Team.

Hmm......would Lalas be a good fit for the team?

Would Guardiola want to coach the US? They may not be developed for him yet. He likes teams who wins now, he is a win now coach, a team like England or something I can see him managing, especially if Southgate does not get England to the World Cup title in 2022 or something....

We will see....

[Santander]

USMT should not waste Pulisic's prime.....if they can't make serious inroads by now and 2026, it would be a waste....

Wasting his prime how? Pulisic is a great player (although not head and shoulders above the rest of the team), but it's a team sport and you can't win major tournaments with one player.

[NewYorkExpress]

Must-win match for the U.S tonight in World Cup Qualifying, as they go on the road to take on Honduras in about two and a half hours.

[Santander]

Must-win match for the U.S tonight in World Cup Qualifying, as they go on the road to take on Honduras in about two and a half hours.

They're playing their 3rd match out of 14.

[NewYorkExpress]

Must-win match for the U.S tonight in World Cup Qualifying, as they go on the road to take on Honduras in about two and a half hours.

They're playing their 3rd match out of 14.

They've also drawn the first two, and while not winning against Canada is somewhat acceptable given how well Canada's played lately, there is no excuse for the draw against El Salvador in my opinion.

If the U.S doesn't win at least three of the next four games in qualifying (this one against Honduras, and then Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica), I'd say the time would be right to fire Gregg Berhalter.

[NewYorkExpress]

USA corrects the problems with the last two matches, crushes Honduras 4-1.

Great step in the right direction for the United States, and if they can follow that in the next window by sweeping all three games (or at least getting seven points) against Jamaica, Panama and Costa Rica, I'll be very happy.

[NewYorkExpress]

Three good games to watch this weekend.

Leicester City/Manchester City and RB Leipzig/Bayern Munich on Saturday, and then AC Milan/Lazio on Sunday.

[Suburbia]

Three good games to watch this weekend.

Leicester City/Manchester City and RB Leipzig/Bayern Munich on Saturday, and then AC Milan/Lazio on Sunday.

Plus Ronaldo makes his debut Saturday as a Manchester United player for the first time since 2009....I am surprised that games are being played on Sept 11, since it changed the world forever

[NewYorkExpress]

Three good games to watch this weekend.

Leicester City/Manchester City and RB Leipzig/Bayern Munich on Saturday, and then AC Milan/Lazio on Sunday.

Plus Ronaldo makes his debut Saturday as a Manchester United player for the first time since 2009....I am surprised that games are being played on Sept 11, since it changed the world forever

The September 11 date is really only relevant to the United States, and we play our sporting events on that date.

[Mike88]

This evening's Sporting vs FCPorto match was a complete trainwreck. The game had 13 cards (12 yellow and 1 red) and 40 fouls. Neither of the teams were brilliant, far from it, but taking into account Porto's recent performances, the draw wasn't a bad result.

[JGibson]

Arsenal finally won a PL game, as they blanked Norwich 1-nil. Even better, Sp*rs lost 3-nil to Crystal Palace.

[Suburbia]

Wilifred Zaha is a tough player, he always gets into scuffles with other players.....yesterday during a Crystal Palace vs. Tottenham Hotspur game....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wtqaB48Lnc

[Suburbia]

Ronaldo did what he does best: win...in his return at Old Trafford Saturday with two goals...

https://www.espn.com/soccer/report?gameId=606004

[Suburbia]

Poor Ben Mee.

Burnley blew a 1-0 lead today against Everton.

Some Redditers are glad Burnley is 0-4 so far because of the town's "racism" and the blue-collar Tory lurch after Labor MP Julie Cooper lost in 2019....

[Santander]

Poor Ben Mee.

Burnley blew a 1-0 lead today against Everton.

Some Redditers are glad Burnley is 0-4 so far because of the town's "racism" and the blue-collar Tory lurch after Labor MP Julie Cooper lost in 2019....

lol

[Suburbia]

Poor Ben Mee.

Burnley blew a 1-0 lead today against Everton.

Some Redditers are glad Burnley is 0-4 so far because of the town's "racism" and the blue-collar Tory lurch after Labor MP Julie Cooper lost in 2019....

lol

It's the truth.

Mee is the captain, he signed a deal to stay at Burnley, England's version of the Pittsburgh Pirates....small-town team....

Mee should have went to Arsenal or some other well known team.

[parochial boy]

Finally back at football! And as much as I dislike YB normally, it's not every day you get to see a little bit of history



deserved from a football point of view, and especially deserved from an emotional one as YB's fans danced and sang and made a racket for the full 90 minutes while Utd's just sat there is miserable silence.

[Lechasseur]

Sounds like I'll have to troll a my Mancunian colleagues at work about this tomorrow lol

[NewYorkExpress]

Finally back at football! And as much as I dislike YB normally, it's not every day you get to see a little bit of history



deserved from a football point of view, and especially deserved from an emotional one as YB's fans danced and sang and made a racket for the full 90 minutes while Utd's just sat there is miserable silence.

That's a really impressive upset.

I've got to wonder if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is on the proverbial hot seat now, given this loss.

[Santander]

Sounds like I'll have to troll a my Mancunian colleagues at work about this tomorrow lol

Real Mancunians support City anyway. Man Utd might as well play in Dublin or London.

[Lechasseur]

Sounds like I'll have to troll a my Mancunian colleagues at work about this tomorrow lol

Real Mancunians support City anyway. Man Utd might as well play in Dublin or London.

All the people from Greater Manchester at my work support Utd (they're very open about it, it's not me making assumptions).

I'm not talking about all Mancunians, just those at my work.

[Mike88]

I simply don't understand why VAR annulled that Porto goal. I just don't get it. The rest of the game, both teams were very competitive. (I wished that Porto would play like this in the Portuguese league, but, alas). Diogo Costa was, once again, amazing.

[Santander]

Sheriff is amazing. A home win against Shakhtar to add to their home wins against Red Star and Dinamo Zagreb already this season. One goal scored by Adama Traore, and an assist recorded by Cristiano. This is almost a troll team. 🤣

[NewYorkExpress]

Some good matchups this weekend.

On Saturday we'll have Atletico Madrid vs Athletic Bilbao, and on Sunday, we have several good matchups to choose from.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea, PSG vs Olympique Lyonnais, Juventus vs AC Milan (Juventus has been off to a really bad start. They're sitting 16th in Serie A heading into this weekend's matches), and The Eternal Derby between Red Star Belgrade and Partizan

[Suburbia]

Liverpool won a good game today, Mo Salah was good as usual.

Salah is one of the best players in the world, it's no surprise that Salah's presence at Liverpool has reduced hate crimes and Islamophobia in Liverpool, England....

https://www.yahoo.com/now/mohamed-salah-liverpool-islamophobia-hate-crimes-100136927.html