That was just a prelude to the events of the past few days.
As qualifying for the 2018 World Cup draws to a close, national sides both legendary and little-regarded have clinched their berths in the 32-team competition. Their fans have celebrated appropriately.
In Alexandria, Liverpool striker Mohammed Salah scored a pair of goals to send Egypt to Russia, the first time since 1990 that the Pharoahs qualified for the finals. The broadcaster was...happy (the first 1:48 or so will give you the gist).
Iceland became the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup finals, defeating Kosovo by a 2-0 score to win its UEFA qualifying group. 300,000 nordic revelers will wake up tomorrow with the mother of all hangover, and it'll be okay.
Most of them were here:
And those that weren't celebrated Viking-style with the team.
Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic has played in his share of big games, but the Serbian was overcome by emotion after his country qualified for their first World Cup since 2010 with a 1-0 victory over Georgia.
And much, much closer to home, the U.S. Men's National team put aside weeks of panicked commentary and punditariat hand-wringing in a stirring display, drilling visiting Panama by a 4-0 score that probably could've been 7-0. Or 7-3, given the several defensive lapses the visitors failed to bank. Christian Pulisic opened the scoring with a bit of skill rarely seen by American players, then added an assist on the second goal. It's already reasonable to argue that Pulisic might be the best American ever to play the game.
The Americans play tonight in Port of Spain against Trinidad and Tobago. A win guarantees our ninth consecutive trip to the World Cup finals. Barring some epic goalscoring binges by Honduras and/or Panama, a tie will be good enough, too. A loss against cellar-dwelling T&T would be both unthinkable and disastrous. So we won't think about it.
Some of the biggest teams in the world still haven't done all the work, and find themselves in the same place as the USMNT. Portugal and Italy will have to win a qualifying playoff to book their tickets, while the Netherlands are all but out. Tonight, Lionel Messi and Argentina currently sit in sixth place in CONMEBOL qualifying, where four teams automatically go through, and the fifth gets to drub New Zealand for the pleasure. The Albiceleste are tied with Peru on 25 points, only three behind second place Uruguay. Paraguay is only one point back with 24 points. Six teams are legitimately in the mix for the final four places.
But at least they're not Wales. Needing a win over rivals Ireland to clinch at least a UEFA playoff spot, the Christian Bale-less Welsh yielded a second-half goal to James McClean to fall, 1-0, and extend its World Cup finals drought to 60 years. The Welsh fans opened the match with an amazing rendition of their national anthem.
But in soccer, as in life, there are winners and losers. Yesterday, the Welsh finished out of the money. Here's hoping (praying) that tonight tells a different story for the red, white, and blue.
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37 comments:
It's been great to have all these games on over the past week or so. Just wished I had more time to actually watch some of them. But I did get to catch some of the U17 Mexico v Iran game. Decent soccer but those kids look bigger than I was at that age.
Cue height jokes from Whit in three, two , one ...
Happy big 4-0 to Mark!
I was sure that this was a TR post based on the title. Confused that Rob would ever post such a thing. But ah yes, footie.
mark's 40! he's a man.
we need him to write a post about florida's new football uniforms. cause those are...hoo boy.
Are they selling those at the campus bookstore?
Sorry.
Jealous of Mark right now...40? Screw him. Kidding of course - happy birthday my fellow bald friend.
Most of us hate the uni's am guessing, because they are horrific. But the kids will love them, blue chip recruits for example.
Am 1 week into a weight-loss initiative. Fifteen pounds is the goal. How's Whitney coming along on his race to, was it 230?
You don't get it, they're supposed to look like alligators because that's their mascot, the Gator. It's very literal.
The uniform mostly break down along age lines. Recruits seem to love them and alumni hate them. They’re a little much for me but it’s a one off thing so whatever. I’m more concerned about getting our doors blown off by Texas A&M.
Celebrating the big 40 by traveling by myself to Louisville for work. Pretty exciting.
Mark - have only been to Louisville once and it was a long time ago, but a very cool/hip section with great food & booze is in an area known as Bardstown.
When you look at the Ohio River and see the "Toxic" signs, and "Do not enter - Danger!" know that I spent 63 minutes swimming in that cesspool which probably explains my bleeding eye syndrome.
Happy 40, Mark.
Latest Sharon Jones and DK single sounds good. Looking forward to her last album but wish there were more coming. RIP.
Thanks for those SJDK tickets Squeaky.
Happy 40 Mark.
One time I had to book a last minute work trip to Louisville to take clients to the NCAA tourney. The only room I could get was at the Extended Stay America. Ten minutes after arriving there was a knock at the door from two not so young women inquiring if I was “up for a little fun”. I promptly declined given that they resembled Saphire the hidden gem of Zman’s first bachelor party. Apparently they found a taker next door because for the next hour it sounded like Lavar Arrington was trying to break through the wall.
Work travel is glamorous.
holy jesus, the usmnt is getting drilled by trinidad.
Felix?
I love Sapphire. She sold me weed that we smoked out of a Coke can, making Zman's former brother-in-law less than enthused.
This is horseshit by the US men's team. They are pressing the attack and giving up very good counter opportunities to the T&Ts.
Wow. 4 minutes until failure. Alexi Laila's' rant is going to be epic.
Rob jinxed it
fox sports executives quietly trying to resell world cup broadcast rights. should we try to buy them?
Lack luster effort all qualifying. Maybe big changes will happen for the usmnt. Worst part of missing out is the stall in development of Pulisic. Would have been awesome for him to gain that experience that young.
so this is a good day to not give a hoot about soccer then?
the best day, danimal
Taylor Twellman is very fired up about this soccer match. He's aware that this isn't life-or-death, right? Like, this isn't the hunger games.
So we're getting an Eminem - Trumplestiltskin Twitter battle any second now, right?
mc orange krush
Kid Rock has to get in the middle of this somehow, right?
Unfortunately. I'd prefer to hear from Chuck D.
Oh, Danimal, in response to your question... my race to 230 is coming along nicely. Joined a gym, repairing my diet, and I've had exactly one cold beer in 2 weeks. (A Dale's.)
Like Michael in the early days, I'm probably spending too much time with Tito, but it's working.
proudaya
Maybe the USMNT can schedule a friendlies ("playdates") with Wales and the Netherlands next summer.
I've been to both countries... one's slightly more fun.
Damn Whit, well done. Btw my free gym hookup offer still stands. But how are we going to drink 17 beers when i come down next time?
Title of this post is Come On You Yanks. Way to recognize the Sawx were a hot mess and the Yanks would advance to the ALCS, Robbie.
Postcount not meaning much to Rob today.
Kyrie Irving call Boston a "real, live sports city" with "a lot of different cultures, food and people. You get it all."
There are some on this blog who tried to move Boston down in the city rankings, but Kyrie agrees with my 3 out of 3 points assessment!
Then again, he was coming from Cleveland (0 out of 3).
Let's see how Kyrie feels after actually playing a few games in Boston, especially if he doesn't play well and starts catching hell from Sully and Murph and the knuckleheads on WEEI. Or how he feels about the place in January when it turns into an arctic wasteland.
In other news, the President appears to be threatening to pull FEMA and other emergency services out of Puerto Rico, which, for the record, is an American territory filled with American citizens. If you can't rely on the federal government for disaster relief then what's the point of paying taxes? Even limited government types have to agree with that.
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