USMNT’s Nightmare Half, Ratcliffe Honored, Aboukoura Thriving, and More: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
Well, it’s a tense week in the District, and the soccer news in terms of worthy distractions might not be up to it. We will, however, carry on with some of the good, the bad, and the USMNT. Speaking of which…
https://www.si.com/soccer/usmnt-0-4-switzerland-player-ratings-6-10-25
Not much meat on this one, but it’s a headline so I can leave it be. The USMNT squad ahead of the Gold Cup and missing Tyler Adams to a minor foot injury were thrashed by Switzerland in the first half, officially getting into rout territory before the half. “We did better in the second half” is starting to sound like a running gag more than a worthy excuse at this point.
Good question, think there’s something here to explore. Whatever the underlying issues, the USMNT is going into the summer ragged and desperate for a morale boost.
Herculez Gomez has made comments about Cardoso not being in the right headspace for the USMNT. His deflection did allow Switzerland an easy goal, and he had a similarly dire moment that resulted in a goal against Turkiye. It seems the US try to rely on him in Gold Cup play, and that’s worrisome.
Matt Turner might soon be fighting for his place with another club, and filling an opening when the starter gets a likely transfer. The club: Lyon, in France! Let’s hope for his sake this whole situation is beneficial for him.
Ryan Keefer has a piece about Loudoun’s effective attacking centerpiece, Abdellatif Aboukoura.
Brittany Ratcliffe gets her flowers for a sterling performance Sunday. The depth and quality of this team is impressive.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/45487912/emma-hayes-uswnt-stars-summer-break
Hayes has decided that Naomi Girma, who is trying to work herself back to her imperious form pre-injury, will join a collection of mostly domestic players for the next roster. Will be interesting to see how many Spirit players are honored.
FIFA are incredibly shady about the joint World Cup happening next summer. Cough, corruption, cough.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cvgvyjwdp1jo
A shame for Ange Postecoglou, the former manager of Spurs who managed to give them a trophy for the first time in nearly two decades, but I think Spurs fans should be excited about the almost overwhelming competence of the likely successor, Thomas Frank. I’ve personally thought he should have gotten a lot more of a look from various big EPL teams over the years, but it has arrived. He’ll have to contend with Champions League and league play if he’s going to be considered a success. Best wishes to the German.
That’s all I’ve got! Feel free to expand on news in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
The only reason that USMNT “looked better” in the second half was that Switzerland backed off, prevented needless injuries, and practiced maintaining a sturdy lead.
I would be pleasantly surprised if the Gold Cup is anything above a humiliating disaster.
Then comes the World Cup. Thank the soccer gods that we don’t need to qualify, but, then again, we have very little incentive to survive anything over the next year.
Frankly I think there’s a decent chance of an epic fail and not making it out of the group.
Pochettino at least admitted he sent out a bad team last night. Switzerland is not an opponent for you to send out inexperienced players against, they go toe to toe with the best teams in the world. It’s hard to say anything more than “our B-/C players don’t cut it.”
The US’ hand was forced in a lot of ways, mostly by FIFA’s greedy new competition taking their best players away, partly by injuries, and partly by available players turning down the call up for one reason or another. Unfortunately Pochettino was going to have to throw some guys into the fire to see who came out with their dignity intact.
A fair assessment. Honestly, I am always surprised when idiots think Switzerland is an easy game. They are very nasty, and will spank you if you do not come in guns blazing.
I hated the result. But I’m glad that Pochettino had to call on more than the usual cast of suspects. We lack very few opportunities to blood talent that is unproven. For instance, our CBs are a prime example. It’s embarrassing that even with Ream out of the Premiership we’re still looking at him as a possibility in a year.
Spurs fan here. Such an incredibly disappointing year — rescued from a relegation battle only because the bottom 3 were so far behind. All the flowers to Ange for getting Spurs into Europa League with a mostly strong 2023-24 season — but the EPL this past year was just calamitous — and they nearly crapped out in Europa before going on to win it. That said, there’s a remarkable stat out there about how Ange’s teams performed with his starting back 4 available. Night and day. Nearly every loss came without them.
Thomas Frank seems a good choice– a proven EPL manager. However, while I can’t speak to his ancestry, he’s not German. Born and raised in Denmark.
On Matt Turner — based on his body of work, it’s hard to believe Lyon are bringing him into to be their starting keeper.
Whoops, 💯 correct about Frank, my apologies, I thought I heard he was German and never looked into it.
On Turner, he’s likely being trialed as a backup and would have to do well to earn the spot when their current starter, who is a promising prospect, gets transferred
So if we could swap out players who would you bring into the Gold Cup squad?
USWNT
“Asked about Club World Cup ticket sales and team base camp arrangements, Manolo Zubiria, the World Cup’s chief tournament officer, hung up four minutes and five questions into a telephone interview with The Associated Press.”
Well, I’m sure everything is just going fine.