They tried…
Yes, the team members were actually ‘named’ in 2022, and did get at least some chances to play together. The US soccer team made it to the quarter finals, but Belgium beat them 4-1 last night, ending the fairy tale run.
The US team played their hearts out, to do something special for our 250th year. It didn’t happen, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. They never gave up, and, if nothing else, I think they’ve made most Americans proud of what they did accomplish.
I know my grandson was excited to see them playing on the world stage, as he plays soccer out in California.
Yeah, they did give up. They were mentally unprepared to play a team they’ve never beaten in front of a home crowd. Roger Young would not have been pleased.
They were just outmatched, imo. The only really huge mistake I saw was the goal that made it 1-3. A terrible play by the goalie.
Not a fan. Hosting the World Cup has given much of the world a new unfiltered view of our country which is a great thing, IMO.
This lawyer, ‘shipwreckedcrew’, was saying very early on on twitter that the US team simply did not have the players to win, and that many Americans new to soccer were drastically overestimating the chances of the American team.
On 6/11, Moe Lane of moelane dot com posted a list of who Americans should root for, in what order. As trolling. It goes from the United States to Uzbekistan. US, Mexico, Brazil, Japan unless the Iranian team defects than US, Mexico, Iran.
I could buy US, Brazil, Japan, but I think that the rest of his list is has major bonkers elements. Canada, England, and South Korea, due to the relative shift in how aligned they are against us, should be below Egypt and Haiti.
(South Korea is basically where Brazil is in terms of US interests right now, but Brazil has always been mildly weird. )
Anyway, my one RL buddy with a preexisting interest who I have talked with is/was rooting for both Spain and Portugal because of his investments in the players.
Babylon Bee has I think finally caught on to the fact that for some reason Trump has not decided to abuse the deportation powers to fix the tournament. Fixing the tournament in a flagrant and abusive way is clearly the correct geopolitical strategy, so obviously we are doomy doom doomed and must do a lot of public handwringing and blackpilling and fedposting about the midterms.
The thing about having a bunch of foreign sports players and sports fans in the country, is that if we were a real lawless regime we could just arrest them, and either not let on that we know where they are, or kick them out, or throw them in the ocean or a mass grave. Aren’t we supposed to be a lawless regime? Aren’t we supposed to be doing bad things wantonly and capriciously?
The World Cup is not important, buy how we choose to behave as Americans with the law is important.
Anyway, more seriously, this week by listening to people I learned more about how people can be invested in soccer, or in gridiron football.
Hitler let Jesse Owens run.
Today is when they decide who goes into the last quarter final match, which may dash this cheering strategy I might adopt of contrarian geopolitical preferences.
(Morocco is definitely going to the first quarter final match, but I don’t have much of an opinion on Morocco and geopolitics. I know I dislike Macron.)
Norway’s government sucks because of the Nobel prize, and the UK sucks because of more than simply their Labour party. In general, the UK’s people with university degrees seem excessively hostile to the rest of the population.
Belgium has not recently done anything that I know about, and that annoyed me. That I recall. They do have Brussels. Spain’s current government is awful people.
I vaguely recall that Colombia’s current government might be pinkos. Which seemingly leaves argentina, egypt, and switzerland for places I might relatively like.
I think my preferred final is Belgium losing to Argentina or Switzerland, as long as Brussels is also demolished in nuclear fireballs.
All- Thanks for the comments, and I really don’t care who wins… LOL