Belgium is in with England, will be interesting, especially since many Belgians play in England.
It's reassuring to know the US is out along with Scotland. We should hold our own tournament.
No pressure. Now we can watch the matches and enjoy the tournament.........and my editorial comment on Russia's easy draw....I expected that. FIFA is not exactly known for being an honest upright organization. FIFA and corruption go together like peanut butter & jelly.
Just edited the names to be in English, copied and pasted from a Belgian news side.
Tough group for Iceland.
My predictions:
A: Uruguay - Russia
B: Spain - Portugal
C: France - Peru
D: Argentina - Nigeria
E: Brazil - Costa Rica
F: Germany - South Korea
G: Belgium - England
H: Colombia - Japan
Ahhh "The Biggest Bunch of Punks Cup"Oh, and that HE Believes Cup for all the failed-to-qualifies?
Report: US Soccer mulling matches vs. nations that missed out on World Cup | MLSsoccer.com
The Scottish way. That and supporting anyone but England. No offence, Mark.
I'd switch Portugal and Spain around but that would be my guess as well.
Oh, and that HE Believes Cup for all the failed-to-qualifies?
Report: US Soccer mulling matches vs. nations that missed out on World Cup | MLSsoccer.com
Oh, I do not disagree with this by any stretch of the imagination. USSF still seems to be operating with the mindset that their purpose to get Americans interested in soccer as a sport (and then monetize it) versus developing players to the highest level possible.Regular league soccer in the US leaves much to be desired as well, only seen it a few times, but face it, when you are use to watching Premier League etc., quality of US leagues leaves much to be desired. The lack of a proper structure with promotion and relegation is bad as well, they need to stop running soccer like they run other sports.
Portugal and Spain give me the greatest uncertainty, so I could see it your way as well. Spain is more attack minded than it use to be though, which is why I think they stand the better chance.
Lol on England; I love the Premier League and am a big fan of Manchester City, yet in general I never like England on the national team level.
I remember, maybe ten years ago or so (Bradley was still coach), the US played in the Conmebol Cup but brought a B-team, the excuse being that the Gold Cup was their cup. That really says enough. Not that Concacaf is to be underestimated, but face it, Conmebol is more prestigious and gives much better experience points.
Regular league soccer in the US leaves much to be desired as well, only seen it a few times, but face it, when you are use to watching Premier League etc., quality of US leagues leaves much to be desired. The lack of a proper structure with promotion and relegation is bad as well, they need to stop running soccer like they run other sports.
From someone who has been closely involved with the USSF on a local & state level for over thirty five years, the organization is comprised of a large number of people from the local and national levels that are only concerned with lining their pockets. It all starts with the youth Club level that charges families large amounts of money to participate and routinely pays many Club coaches six figure salaries. And on the adult level, they often diverted our team fees to pay for National team administrator's inflated salaries & expense accounts.... Instead of recruiting and training youth players according to their abilities, players are advanced on the ability of their families to pay their way through the system. Therefore, the players reaching National team status are often not elite athletes, thus their losses over the years to poor small nations. I founded, coached, and played for an Adult Club organization that had five fielded adult teams at one point in time. I never made a cent, played for the spirit and love of the game. Most of my fellow Adult Club founders and coaches were of the same ilk. But the national,state, & local youth organization, which should be the feeder system for a National team, and the National USSF administrators, operate on the "let's make a good buck for ourselves" system. Until that is fixed, US soccer will never achieve the status they should.
Yes, and that's the way we do it on the adult level. In the past fees were usually around $50 a person. They've now doubled to apx. $100 since officials and field fees have gone up a lot. Contrast that to the thousands of dollars Youth teams charge players on a yearly basis. And the closer they get to college eligibility, then the fees really explode. It's all a con. The elite Clubs sell the "you'll get a soccer scholarship" to college. In reality, there's not many of those to go around and generally they pay very little. I always tell the better players families' that they'd be way better off putting those elite Club fees in a college bank account and let their kid play pick up soccer for fun. Besides, if you look at most college's soccer team rosters, you'll find that the bulk of players are foreign players brought in on special student visa programs. The college sell is a fraud. It's all so sad.This seriously can’t be stated enough. It’s shocking how much it costs to play football in the US. I’m in awe every time I speak to an American about it. When I was younger, I paid £3 a week and that was just to cover the pitch rental for training and games and a strip every season. When I moved to amateur, I think it was a £40 registration fee and that was it. Everybody involved was doing it for the love of the game.
You need to sow the seeds and let the players develop and reap the benefits later.
The Scottish way. That and supporting anyone but England. No offence, Mark.
I'd switch Portugal and Spain around but that would be my guess as well.
So... BPL is basically foregone at this point (Congrats, Man City) and the World Cup isn't for six months.
MLS off-season insanity for the win!