Men's Soccer (Football) Thread Soccer • Page 765

Perhaps they should just hold the final at literally any of the domed, air conditioned venues that are so much nicer than the stadium they chose. There is no reason the finale shouldn't be in Atlanta, Dallas, LA, or Houston other than them wanting the marquee of saying "New York City." San Francisco or Seattle are probably un-domed stadiums that would be fine, too.

 

I like the idea of this Club World Cup. And it could eventually be a really big deal imo. I just hate that it’s adding even more games for the players. It’s insane. Like, can we bail on the Nations League since CWC is a thing now? NL is such a pointless competition.

 

More drama coming in this ordeal I bet

 

I like the Nations League. Gets rid of most friendlies and allows smaller nations to actually compete against each other and test themselves. It’s apparently been instrumental in teams like Luxembourg getting a lot better.

 

Yeah, Nations League is a lot less pointless than the CWC is. It's replaced a lot of absolutely nonsense friendlies in Europe and has given teams more chance to play competitive games. Unsure whether the equivalent competition in the Americas has been equally useful.

CWC at the moment is a cash grab for European teams and a fairly baffling competition in a sporting sense. Teams at different stages of their domestic seasons is a bit weird, along with the extremely questionable qualifying metrics.

 

Apparently we don’t want to sign a striker, plus Eze or a proper winger.

We want to sign a striker, Eze, AND a winger. Which alongside Zubimendi, Norgaard, and Kepa would be some window…

 

Tbh…I think it’s needed to compete with City and Liverpool. If they can’t pull off those signings then I think it’ll be very tough to keep up with those two right now.

 

Pronounced Bah-ree for those interested. Not "Barry" like Gareth Barry.

 

Yeah, feels like last season was the chance for Arsenal to really make some moves and strike. Even with most those moves I still think they’re 3rd best

 

Jonathan David to Saudi would be such a waste.

 

Apparently Villa have lined up a new striker, so perhaps Arsenal might swoop in for Watkins. It will be ridiculous if they don't get a solid striker this summer.

 

I would expect Spurs to sign:

Outside attacking player
Starting level DM
Fullback

And then:
ST - if Richy leaves
CB - if Romero leaves

So probably 3-4 players in total because I think Richy will be on the way out. Absolutely no clue what ST we’d bring in to replace him though. Maybe we bring Wissa over with Frank?

Winger - Kudus
ST - Wissa
DM - Hackney? Pahlinha? Rios?
FB - KWP

It seems a little underwhelming but as I’ve said before, I think the squad is stronger than what we saw last season. And very young. I kinda don’t want to do anything too crazy right now. Let Frank come in and figure out who/what he wants/needs and maybe go big next year. The additions above would keep us competitive across all our competitions.

 

Rios looks like a really fun player. I don’t know how quickly he’d be able to adapt to PL, but the upside is very intriguing. Wouldn’t be mad if he was the DM.

But we REALLY need some HG players.

 

Panic over!

 

Rolls Royce

 

Uh yes please

 

So not only the Branthwaite contract, but Thierno Barry looks official according to Romano's "here we go" and then we're apparently signing the Wesley lad from Flamengo I was talking about in this thread. He'd go on loan to Roma for a season under Gasperini, which I'm not entirely against, even if most of our fans are up in arms about it!

 

They have a transfer ban, while staff and players are leaving. It’s going to be a rough season for Wednesday.

Six Sheffield Wednesday players hand in notice over unpaid wages

 

That was a very fun team goal for the US.


Been thinking about how weird it is to be an American under Trump and how such an immense lack of pride makes cheering on the USMNT in 2026, and all the athletes at LA28, feels… not great. But then I also thought about how so much of soccer is exactly what Trump hates. It’s culture. It’s a blending of races and backgrounds. It’s meritocracy. It’s diverse. So I may try to gaslight myself into thinking supporting soccer is a form of resistance. Because it’s something that could never bring him joy or anything he could understand. Same with how hard the Olympians will work. I don’t know. Just processing another weird day in Trump’s America.

 

Starting to think Luna might supplant Weah in the best xi starting lineup if he can keep finishing like that.

 

Yeah Luna is on fire, I definitely think he's earning a starting spot.

 

As you already know, if you think too hard about anything it’s just a slippery slope to nihilism. Enjoy what you enjoy. Trump (and all of our politicians basically) have fucked up enough for us. We can’t let them take the few things we have left to enjoy.

 

At least that’s how I convince myself.

 

I’ve never felt patriotic about America, so the USA national teams (hockey and baseball in my youth, now soccer) were just the equivalent of my local team to root for. I try to think of it like that, because all ownerships are billionaires and they’re all actively trying to destroy our planet and lives; just lump our (and all) governments in that, too.