World Cup 2022

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(12-01-2022, 07:59 AM)hollodero Wrote: I wanted to protest that, but after further consideration, there might be something to that. It's admittedly nice to see the powerful US of A be mediocre in something for a change, like in soccer. In other sports Americans usually are less courteous. Like in skiing, something only Austrians take seriously probably. All of a sudden an American like Bode Miller comes along.... being like what is it you do here, a slalom you call that? Alright, guess I will just become better than everyone else in that. And what is that, downhill? OK, guess I can do that better as anyone too. And oh, women do this skiing thing too? OK, let's create gals like Lindsey Vonn or Julia Mancuso and let them be superior. Ah, and we also make them more gorgeous than anyone else for good measure. Yah, that's annoying, and there's indeed a part of me that wishes that at least when it comes to soccer things don't turn out that way.

Bill Johnson
Tommy Moe
Hilary Lindh
Ski legends off the top of my head. Johnson was a champ only because he was insane and wasn't afraid of things like "too fast for this coming corner".

Quote:And in soccer, yeah, you're still not that good. As you said, good enough to make it past the group stage, but that's it.

So you admit that we earned our pre-tournament #16 ranking. Apology accepted.

Seriously, though. Before Qatar 2022, England has never scored nine goals in the group stage but they did this time. They were held scoreless by the USA and we weren't bunkering. If this was two European squads, I'm under the assumption that this would have been chalked off to "two quality sides canceling each other out", but since it's the USA, the search for excuses usually begins before admitting that.

Quote:Yeah, not merely a retirement league for sure. Then again, it's still not a magnet for world-class players. Hardly anyone that can play in one of Europe's top leagues would change to the MLS instead. And the same goes for young international players. If they have an offer from a decent European club, they won't join the MLS. Imho the league still suffers from a lack of overall quality.

Honestly . . . when was the last time you watched a 90 minute MLS match? I've seen Austrian teams in Champions League and Europa League, but I've never seen a random Austrian top flight match. MLS is not a magnet for world class players . . . at this time. The league has a vision for what they're aiming for and they're slowly plodding right along making minor but important changes along the way to insure that the clubs/franchises don't bankrupt themselves.

If you're a fan of the NFL and read up on the history, you probably stumbled across the American Football League in there somewhere. You may have heard of the name Lamar Hunt before. Many of the steps that he took as a leading partner/owner in starting the AFL, he completely duplicated in the same order as a partner/owner of MLS. I've often laughed when MLS fans read up on the AFL and freaked when the saw the same blueprint, just 35 years earlier.

One of the ideas was to get his AFL and MLS teams into their own stadiums that they owned so they could become profitable to compete. In 1999, Lamar Hunt built the first SSS (Soccer Specific Stadium) in the USA in Columbus. Before the Metrostars(Now New York Red Bulls) moved into Red Bull Arena, they were drawing around 17,000 per game in Giants stadium. The problem is, they needed to draw over 42,000 just to break even. For 14 seasons, they lost money on every single match except for like three or four. Part of the reason that it took so long to build the arena is because the people that ran Giants stadium paid off zoning offices, inspectors, unions and contractors to delay, delay, delay because it was such a money maker for them and as soon as the new stadium was built, they lost all of that sweet MLS rent money.

That's just one of the many barriers that MLS has had to overcome while trying to start a new league in a country that has already established four very large pro sports leagues, a huge college network of sports leagues, NASCAR, PGA and European Football teams hijacking our summers with pre-season friendlies. When I hear/read people's opinions about what they think MLS is and what it isn't and what they need to do, I just kind of shrug and say "From where they were . . . to where they are, I'm pretty confident that they're on the right track." 

At one point, after the contraction down to 10 teams, there were three owners owning 10 teams. NE Patriots owner Bob Kraft is still current owner of New England Revolution . . . KC Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt owned Columbus(sold), Dallas(sold) and of course Kansas City . . . Phillip Anschutz owned Metrostars(sold to Red Bulls), San Jose(relocated to Houston, sold to Oscar DeLaHoya), Chicago(sold), Colorado(sold to Rams owner Stan Kroenke), DC United(sold) and of course the LA Galaxy. Those three guys sat in a room and made a commitment to keep this league alive, despite losing millions every year. They had a plan and stayed the course. 19 expansion teams added in 19 seasons from 2005 into next season.

Quote:I am in no way questioning that the US and Mexico are worthy WC participants. But behind those two, the cliff is steep. All those third and fourth teams like Costa Rica or Honduras or Trinidad or Jamaica or whatever team I forgot now.... they usually were nice underdogs to root for, but usually stood no real chance. There might be an exception or two that I might not think about here, but in general, bottom teams. I am pretty confident there are around 10 European teams that are not participating at this WC and are distinctly stronger than Costa Rica is. That's not meant to be presumptuous, it's just what I consider true, past and present.

Your 2002 Costa Rica example is duely noted, but then again, it's also an example of a team that in the end lost distinctly. That it was an action-packed game imho doesn't factor into it. This is a competition, not an exhibition. And Sepp Blatter seeing it differently usually does not motivate me to rethink things. That guy also suggested to give women tighter clothing to make women's soccer more attractive.

That being said, it's also other regions, Africa and Asia, that probably often had one spot too many. I do however understand the goal of bringing soccer to the world instead of narrowing it down to teams from mostly just two continents. I'd probably say 3 spots is fine for concacaf, but the additional 0,5 spots imho are uncalled for.

So 55 teams in Europe for 13 spots
46 teams in Asia for 4.5 spots
54 teams in Africa for 5 spots
34 teams in CONCACAF for 3.5
10 teams in CONMEBOL for 4.5

Like it or not . . . the Finals are an exhibition. The World Cup begins regionally, no matter how tough it is, there's your chance. If lesser teams get placed further along due to a weaker confederation, they'll get weeded out early in the Finals. If you couldn't get past qualifying in Europe, you would have been weeded out early in the Finals anyway. Italy didn't get bumped out to a tough European side, they got knocked out by North Macedonia. They didn't deserve to go. If North Macedonia can knock off a former champ, so can underdogs from Africa or Asia. It will be rare, but it will happen. So far Asian teams have beaten Argentina, Germany, Wales and Australia has beaten Denmark and Tunisia. I find that shit exciting.