Happy Thursday, everyone. It’s the official start of March Madness, so catch me in front of a TV starting at noon watching basketball the rest of the day. Until then, here’s the news:
USMNT Nations League roster released (SSFC)
Gio Reyna makes the roster, along with recent USMNT commit Alex Zendejas.
Mark Parsons is ready to stop talking (DP)
A great interview with the Washington Spirit head coach where he gives his goals for the squad in 2023.
Bolivian referees suspended after playing 42 minutes added time (ESPN)
42 minutes of extra time?! And a team scored the game winner in the 38th minute of extra time. Yeah, someone needed to answer for that.
Angel City’s Sydney Leroux ‘feeling good,’ nears return after ankle surgery (The Athletic)
Sydney Leroux is ready for a season without pain in her ankle as she discusses her recovery from microfracture surgery.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: AC Milan forward called up to Sweden squad at 41 (BBC)
Zlatan’s baaaaaack! He’s 41 and has been called into Sweden’s team for Euro qualifiers next week.
Real Madrid dump Liverpool out of Champions League (BBC)
Real Madrid end Liverpool’s time in Champions League, and the teams that make up the quarterfinals are set: Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Napoli, and Benfica.
That’s it for today, enjoy the madness!
I typed something longer, but I wasn’t logged in, so, here’s it short: Think Zimmerman should have gotten the call up, and Daryl Dike should have stayed with his club. One has shown good leadership and service, the other has no chance of beating World Cup defenders with his touch in open play.
It’s easy to be a Zim fan. Not the best in the business on D, but the best at being someone we would want as a neighbor and representative for our USMNT.
In CL news, I think it might be time to give the prime viewing spots to Napoli and Benfica, cuz they’re the hottest teams in the competition, remarkably. Amazingly dangerous teams that are likely going to be picked apart in the summer transfer window, but none of the others on that list are in as good a shape as team units.
Good grief 42 minutes of extra time? That’s ridiculous and I’m surprised no one got hurt during that extra time. I also wouldn’t be surprised if a player doesn’t pick up an injury during training or the next game because of it.
This is baseball related, but I thought some of you might find this interesting. Right now the World Baseball Classic is being played. The US advanced as the runner up from group C after a close game with Columbia and an upset loss to Mexico in their 2nd game. The US has a great bullpen but they’ve been limited in how they can use the pitchers in there by the MLB teams who let their players come play. The US plays Venezuela in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Miami.
https://theathletic.com/4315512/2023/03/16/team-usa-world-baseball-classic-quarterfinals/
Fox Sports II was unbelievably annoying last night. It was televising the Orlando-Tigres second round match (first leg 0-0). Although Tigres led 0-1 and Orlando would need to score two goals to go through, it was still a very competitive match with ten minutes to play.
The Fox Sports II abruptly cut away to a World Baseball classic between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. And on Fox Sports I was another baseball match.
Following the soccer on my IPhone, I saw that Orlando scored in the 89th minute but still needed a second goal in seven minutes of injury time It was not to be and Tigres went through on one away goal.
Eh that game turned into Puerto Rico upsetting Dominican Republic 5-2. Still I get your point that it was frustrating to be watching soccer and suddenly have a baseball game come on instead.
It’s like watching a boxing match and having a hockey game break out……
I don’t pretend to be an expert on the mega corporations that have divided up our soccer viewing experience, but Fox seems to have fallen far down the pecking order, either in interest or willingness to invest, so this doesn’t exactly surprise me. On a slightly different note, I do wonder how much the division of our viewing experience is intentional vs competitive by these corporations, right now it seems too neatly divided to get all our money on various major streaming services.
Apparently the Lewis O’Brien loan is complete, and now we’re just waiting on the visa. This could end up not being much, or it could be a really shrewd pickup of a very good player. I’m excited to see how it goes.
I don’t know why but I really really like this signing. Maybe because of the circumstances with which a borderline premier league midfielder coming to DC while still young may not happen again. Either way I’m looking forward to seeing how Wayne uses him.
He looks like he’s done really well at Huddersfield Town, and Premier League playing time is nothing to scoff at. From his highlight videos, he looks like he’s a really good ball-winner, and that he can dribble and keep the ball quite well. Canouse is a destroyer, but O’Brien looks like he can start an attack. I guess he’s our Ravel replacement, but I’m a lot more excited about him than I was by Ravel.
I’m not quite sure how Wayne will structure the midfield, but having Klich, O’Brien, and Canouse in there seems like a nice problem to have. I think it’s a long shot to keep O’Brien past July, but hopefully he’ll be making us do our darndest to try and keep him.
In my brain, he replaces Durkin. All the traits you mentioned seem to be a great fit for that position. Though, if Durkin keeps playing like he did last week he’ll be tough to replace.
He’s a baller. Bottom line.
My enthusiasm is tempered due to short term nature of the loan. He’s likely back at Forest in July.
Forest might be asparagus in July. Stay tuned.
Victor Palsson got called up to represent Iceland. Any chance O’Brien’s visa gets done by March 25? Seems unlikely, but Russell Canouse has also been doing a great job as a CDM, and hopefully we have enough fit center backs that Palsson wouldn’t be there.
Goff reporting it’ll be a few weeks at least.
I beleive the last time we had an Englishman named Lewis on the team it worked out ok…though Lewis O’Brien is a long way from becoming LEWIS NEAL. You have to earn the all caps.
If he wins us the Capital Cup, then he’s earned the honor!
(I have no idea if the Capital Cup is before July or not.)