~Soccer Thread~

[Brutus Buckeye]

The first day of round one games is in the books. Most of the games will be on day two, but Cleveland prevailed over Chicago United. Also noteworthy was a pair of upsets by amateur teams over NPSL teams. Oyster Bay United took down Hartford City 3-0. Then some team called D'Feeters Kicks upended the Denton Diablos 3-2. 

[rolltidefan]

so, usmnt has some ho-hum games coming up. anyone interested in watching? probably nothing of consequence will happen.


imo, we should go for the win at the azteca. i would 100% be on board with this if we had mckinnie, that's only thing giving me pause. but how awesome would it be to clinch wc qualification with the first ever win at the azteca? especially since this will likely be the last wcq that matters for at least 6-7 years, and maybe ever with the expanded wc format. i want that damn win.

but holy crap all the injuries. turner, aaronson, mckinnie, richards, dest... that's a solid group. throw in brooks and whatever is going on with him, that's a very solid core to build a team around.

outside of a win at azteca, beat panama and it's all but done deal. no excuse not to do that, but then again there was no excuse not to throttle t&t last cycle either.

[Brutus Buckeye]

US Open Cup 

Opening round 

With the Las Vegas Legends (NPSL) defeating Park City (USL2) the first round has concluded. 

The USL2 put 6 out of 10 teams into the second round. The NPSL did the same. The Amateur teams advanced 5 out of 12. 

Round 2 is in early April, and will essentially be the USL invitational. The USL will be favored in 23 of the matches, but there will be 7 games that don't feature a USL team where a tier 3 professional team will be the top team involved. Rochester enters in Round 2 as well. They used to be the Rochester Rhinos, and when they were they once won this tournament and earned a Champions League bid. It was the only time it was won by someone outside the MLS. 

Round 2 will be the final round before the MLS enters the fray. 

[ELA]

so, usmnt has some ho-hum games coming up. anyone interested in watching? probably nothing of consequence will happen.


imo, we should go for the win at the azteca. i would 100% be on board with this if we had mckinnie, that's only thing giving me pause. but how awesome would it be to clinch wc qualification with the first ever win at the azteca? especially since this will likely be the last wcq that matters for at least 6-7 years, and maybe ever with the expanded wc format. i want that damn win.

but holy crap all the injuries. turner, aaronson, mckinnie, richards, dest... that's a solid group. throw in brooks and whatever is going on with him, that's a very solid core to build a team around.

outside of a win at azteca, beat panama and it's all but done deal. no excuse not to do that, but then again there was no excuse not to throttle t&t last cycle either.

With the injuries, I'd focus on the next two

[ELA]

Turns out trying to get under Pulisic's skin doesn't work out so well

[ELA]

After a full morning/afternoon of watching WC qualifier last legs from Asia and Africa, I'm legitimately bummed that this portion is more or less going away in favor of a super unwieldy 48 team WC, where CONCACAF gets 6 teams in, and CONMEBOL gets 8 of 10.

I'd keep, or even shrink the World Cup, and make it the World Cup Finals, with the entire World Cup being an all inclusive tournament, rather than qualifications.  And not make it tied to federations.  If you went back to a 24 team "Final" tournament.  You could do, 2 years prior, twelve 16 team tournaments, hosted by the 12 highest ranked countries.  Put the 12 tournament winners through, and let the 24 2nd and 3rd place teams advance to a second tournament to fill the other 12 spots.

Then you have a World Cup that runs perpetually, and what we know now as the World Cup, is really just the World Cup final.  I think there would be legitimate interest in those tournaments.

[Brutus Buckeye]

[ELA]

Screw that venue though. Thank God for that point in Mexico, because no matter the stakes, we simply cannot compete in a way matches at Costa Rica

[rolltidefan]

england
iran
usa
euro playoff (wales, scotland, or ukraine)

could be worse.

[ELA]

Not terrible.

Did we give Iran their only ever WC win in 1998?

[rolltidefan]

Not terrible.

Did we give Iran their only ever WC win in 1998?

iran beat morroco in 2018 wc. other than that, yes.

[Brutus Buckeye]

Concacaf Champions League

You have the semifinals this week and next, with the Liga MX side going on Tuesdays and the MLS side going on Wednesdays.

• MLS: Seattle-NYC
• Liga MX: UNAM-Cruz Azul

NYC and Cruz Azul would be the most "determines a true champion" Finals match up, in that they each won their league. UNAM and Seattle both squeaked in as non-champions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_CONCACAF_Champions_League#Semi-finals
........

US Open Cup

The "USL invitational" round will be on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week as well, in order to determine which 31 clubs will mix it up with the MLS in subsequent rounds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_U.S._Open_Cup#Bracket

This round introduces the 2nd and 3rd tier professional teams. So there will be:

Tier 2

• All 23 eligible USL Clubs

Tier 3

• All 11 USL1 Clubs
• 2 eligible MLS Next Pro Clubs
• All 10 NISA Clubs

They will of course be joined by the play-in round winners from Tier 4 and Amateur ranks.
Tier 4

• 5 USL2 Clubs
• 6 NPSL Clubs
• 5 Amateur Clubs

So even though there are no games pitting 2 USL teams against each other in this round, the USL can only punch a maximum of 23 of the 31 tickets to the next round, even if they suffer zero upsets. The play in round winners from March will have their work cut out for them though, as they will all have to play at least up to tier 3 (iow, no matches against each other).

The new MLS Next Pro league split off from the USL. It was mostly the MLS owned clubs that weren't eligible for this tournament; although there are one or two MLS owned clubs that stayed in the USL, and there is one club that should be in the USL, but went to the MLS Next Pro developmental league instead, and that one is probably the most storied USL Club that ever existed in Rochester, who once earned a champions league bid by being the only non-MLS Club to ever win this very tournament. So not sure what's up with the divorce there. Kind of funny though.

The other MLS Next Pro Club that is participating in this thing aside from Rochester is St Louis City FC2. Even though they are an MLS owned club, the expansion St Louis City FC club doesn't begin play until 2023. So that opens up a loophole where they aren't technically owned by an "active" MLS Club, and are therefore not banned from participating in this year's tournament. So I suppose this is sort of the unofficial debut of St Louis City FC, as we will get a chance to see what kind of a roster they have acquired up to this point. So kind of a bonus MLS Club a round earlier than the others.

[Brutus Buckeye]

Concacaf Champions League

You have the semifinals this week and next, with the Liga MX side going on Tuesdays and the MLS side going on Wednesdays.

• MLS: Seattle-NYC
• Liga MX: UNAM-Cruz Azul

NYC and Cruz Azul would be the most "determines a true champion" Finals match up, in that they each won their league. UNAM and Seattle both squeaked in as non-champions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_CONCACAF_Champions_League#Semi-finals
.........

UNAM and Seattle both won their first leg. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

US Open Cup

3rd round match ups 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_U.S._Open_Cup#Third_Round_Matches

Crew get Detroit City
Pittsburgh gets Cincinnati 
Austin gets San Antonio 
I think that covers everyone's rooting interest. 
Someone said they follow Nashville, they enter in the next round.