USSoccer

Officiating shenanigans. CIV had the equalizer disallowed improperly.

I would say that the constant dropping of the ball cost them the game.

That was absolutely wretched. Kjlestian shouldn't see the field again for a long effing time, and really nobody gave a good account of themselves. Feilhaber was useless. No leadership, no ideas. Route one the whole time. Absolute waste of an opportunity by everyone who started. Some of the reserves looked streets better than the starters. Uck. Bedoya, Dax and Goodison and maybe Davis raised their stock, but none of them will be in SA except maybe Goodison. Bornstein probably wrapped up a spot. Conrad, Wynne, Sacha all probably played their way to the outside, and Chad Marshall looked clueless. Hopefully no one that played tonight sees significant time in June.

That was a really vague press release by Fulham. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. The info is consistent with a Grade II PCL injury. 6-8 weeks and then he can train. He should be back late March, early April barring setback, which means he's going to be a little more fresh than he would have been otherwise.

I still think we'd be favorites to come out of the group 2nd. Algeria has been awful in the ACN and Slovenia shouldn't scare us. Holden or Feilhaber would be adequate out right. Landon could pinch in on the left. Who plays up front?

MRI's take about 10 minutes to read. My guess is Fulham has been in touch with the USSF and Bradley, and are looking at various treatment options. If its just the PCL, usually there's not a surgical procedure required unless its a grade III tear and even then its not that effective unless you've had prior knee injuries. I'm hoping its just a series of discussions about how to treat the injury so he's ready to go come June, ie should he be sitting out Europa league/FA Cup matches, how long to rest it in the short term, etc. If he misses the World Cup we're completely effed. We won't get out of the group stage.

PCL injuries usually don't require surgery. I'd bet he misses 6-8 weeks. Which rules him out for Netherlands away, but if its a 2.5 month thing, it might mean he's that much fresher come June and that's not the longest layoff ever. 2 months of Prem action to regain his fitness prior to WC camp. /end optimism.

That makes three 1st choice players that are going to be in fitness battles ahead of SA. Two of our three best offensive weapons and our best CB. Our other CB can't get any tick at Rennes.

I believe the Bears will get a compensatory 2nd round pick. I was being sarcastic, but that would be great if true. Oh, also, condolences and such.

DAMMIT I'm going to inject heroin into my forehead if Deuce misses South Africa.

Cripes. Do we get our draft pick back?

Why did you earlier say that field turf is a detraction? Aren't some of those cities named turf stadiums? 7 out of 18 are currently field turf stadia. They wouldnt have left off New York and Washington no matter what, and ditto for JerryWorld, which will compete with NY and DC for the final. JW also has a "3 Field kit" which means it can easily be converted from the current field turf to grass in 48 hours. Seattle fully and completely deserves to be on that list based on the market and the way the Sounders were embraced by the city, and Qwest is going to likely be converted to grass anyway prior to 2018/2022. Boston is on because of the Kraft influence on Gulati and USSF, but quite honestly doesn't deserve to be on the list, as I think Gilette is a terrible facility. Atlanta as a transportation hub, I guess, and it is a good soccer market, plus Blank has plans to build an open air stadium. Baltimore and Indy I don't get. What they did in 1994 was to plant grass over astroturf at the Silverdome and the Meadowlands. Given Soldier Field's inability to grow grass as a primary playing surface, perhaps the USSF decided to forgo the risk that trying to grow it over field turf could present. Playing on that surface as it stands could potentially be embarrassing on the world's stage. We all knew that when they rammed the renovation down our collective throats that doing the stadium essentially for a single purpose could harm any future event bidding, like the Olympics and the World Cup. However, the Bears wanted luxury seat money, and they got it and the price of a more versatile and smaller venue. Between that potential concern and the very real dimension issues I can see the argument behind leaving Chicago off the list. However, KC and DC as well as the Linc have the same dimensional concerns as Soldier Field, although if Dan Snyder's Enormodome gets built it wont matter, and again, the Hunt family would have to be all dead and gone before KC got the shaft. That said, as Wolf pointed out Chicago is the 3rd biggest city and market in the country and by rights should be a venue city based on infrastructure alone. Once the FIFA selection process is done we can put the matches in any city we want. If our goal is to ensure we are awarded the tourney in the first place, leaving off a stadium that currently doesn't fit the FIFA regs for bidding purposes makes sense. Finally, only 12 cities will actually host games. There are going to be snubs regardless of what they do. For what it's worth, I'd guess that if we do get the bid for 2022, Chicago will be a host city as will San Francisco, also not on the list but due to get a new stadia in Santa Clara County by then.

Toyota Park has a max capacity of like 24,000 or so. It's a beautiful park but about half the size needed for a World Cup match.

Human interest stories. They tug at the heart and fog the mind

Apparently Chicago submitted a terrible bid after being too consumed by the olympics, but does Chicago seriously need a bid? It's the biggest city with a centrally located stadium. US Soccer is based here. They play in Soldier Field all the freakin' time. Nashville holds the record for attendance for WCQ'ing. It's one of the biggest, non Disney tourist destinations for Europeans for some reason. It's a market that deserved a host game. Indy has a new stadium that meets FIFA standards and its located in between the Ohio & Illinois markets.

This is the answer. There wouldn't have been enough room for the FIFA reg'd field dimensions, signage and photogs. In 1994 FIFA let us cut corners on the stadia for the sake of market penetration. No reason to do it this time. Also, the fact that the Park District was considering putting field turf onto the surface, and I can see why we were left out. KC was added due to Lamar Hunt's lingering influence on the USSF.

A hilarious misuse of scarce budgetary resources by the Reds.

hahahaha schadenfreude

Oh awful.

I'd almost kick the field goal right now.

Awesome work Wolf. I'd add that Donovan looked more tentative in the first half than in the second, and if Louis Saha could figure out first how to pass, and second, that Landon is faster than anyone else on Everton, he would have had a goal today. My only caveat was that Arsenal is the perfect team to debut against if you're Landon. I want to see him respond when Stoke or Sunderland start beating and hacking him. Overall, I think Wolf is dead on. He showed he belongs there. Not in a Torres way or anything, but he was absolutely not out of his depth. It's going to be a fun 10 weeks. Finally, at Bayern the problem was that Klinsi was a poor tactician (makes Low look much better in retrospect in 2006) and that even then, LD can't be faulted for that team running everything down Ribery's side of the field no matter what. FC Hollywood was the worst fit at the worst time, but it clearly lit a fire under him.

Cedric Benson. Awesome. Orange and black proof why the Bears are the worst organization in the city.

Instead of doing this stupid crap, if you want to "grow the global game" shorten the season by two weeks and pressure the IOC into making baseball an Olympic sport, OR use the extra 2 weeks to hold the WBC in July every 4 years. That makes it an event, something that comes along not every year, players are in season and in shape, puts the stupid patriotism card in play, it only affects 25 guys, and in the non WBC/Olympic years the World Series doesn't go into November.

Great start for Africa in 2010, with the Togo National team's bus getting hosed with gunfire on the way to Angola for the ACN.

Hahahaha Bama. Looks like all 21 other athletes on Texas decided to start playing.