Boycott the World Cup

In a recent post I have stated how disappointed and sad I am about this World Cup. You can now add the FIFAs pandering to politicians to the list. 

Folarin Balogun was given a red card against Bosnia-Hercegovina. According to the rules, a red card means an automatic suspension in the next match, meaning that the US top-scorer would not play  Belgium when the USA faces them in the next match. The US Secretary of State called for FIFA to lift the suspension, and lo-and-behold, today they lifted the ban on Balogun, getting a big thanks from the US President along the way.

FIFAs possible favouritism had already been announced while lifting a suspension on the Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo when entering the tournament, but this is the first time it has been lifted during an ongoing tournament and with such obvious interference.

So much is wrong with this tournament, and I sadly see no other option than to boycott it. By just watching it I feel that am condoning all the bad things about this World Cup; we are as guilty as FIFA by following it. Criticism is not enough, but something must be done to end this systematic destruction of the game that real football fans love.

So this will be my last World Cup 2026 post, and I strongly urge everyone to stop watching the World Cup, no matter who you support or how your team is doing.

Would you not want them to compete in a fair competition anyway...? 

USA in the house

 No matter how it goes USA under manager Mauricio Pochettino will be talked about a lot, and with the 4-1 victory against Paraguay, USA has stamped into the World Cup in style. It was characteristic Pochettino style high pressure and possession that the North Americans used to completely dominate the South American. Damian Bobadillas’s clumsy own goal after 7 minutes set the pace, and then the Monaco striker Folarin Balogun scored two goals before halftime (first time a US player scores twice in a World Cup match). Second half US lowered the pace but continued to dominate. Nevertheless a mistake gave Paraguay their goal, by Mauricio, and a glimmer of hope against the odds, but in the end Giovanni Reyna scored a splendid goal to give the USA a solid victory in their opener.

They play great football and their matches look to be entertaining, but we will only see their real strength against better opposition in the the knock-out stages, as they are in a very easy group where they should win all matches.

My teams in the 2026 World Cup

In every World Cup, I have my favourite teams, countries that I in some way have some personal relationship to. That said, it is particular that in this World Cup with 48 teams, some of my favourites like Denmark and Chile have not qualified. That said, these are the countries I will follow:

• Argentina: where I lived as a child, will still be my favourite as I hope that they are able to defend their title
• Colombia: country of my mother. I hope they do well and will be supporting them as they play in Mexico City as well, with the certain invasion of a yellow army of fans for an overpriced match.
• Spain: Country where I lived and have family from, will be one of the favourites to take the title with an extraordinary team, and they will also play in Mexico, specifically in Guadalajara, against Uruguay
• USA: Lived there one year as a teenager; they may surprise at home, but I do not think they can go all the way, neither will I particularly support them.
• Ghana: My favourite African team since my time there 2003-2006, and their first World Cup in 2006, I have many lovely memories, and will be wearing my Black Stars shirt for the matches against England and Croatia!
• Mexico: I will surely support Mexico as they try to shine at home, mainly because of their fantastic fans as I do not find the squad very exciting. Perhaps it is good that they won't face Denmark!

All this said, it is not easy to get excited by this excessive, over-priced, over-hyped, and highly politicized World Cup; but I will watch nevertheless.

The sad state of the world

 Iran and the United States are at war; people are dying, people are suffering, and in this context the world of football is absolutely irrelevant.

This being said, Iran has qualified for the World Cup and they are set to play its matches in group G in Los Angeles and Seattle. But what now? Will Iran retire from the World Cup in a country they are at war with? While a lot of things can happen over the next few months, this is a real risk, and if it happens, Iran would likely have to be replaced by Iraq, who in this moment is set to play a play-off final in Guadalajara against either Bolivia or Suriname. But being the next Asian participant in line, they would take Iran's spot, and the United Arab Emirates, as the next in line, would take Iraq's place in the play-off.

I hope it does not come to this. I hope the world will be standing, and that Iran will participate with its great team and fans to celebrate a world in which I hope that football brings people together, because we certainly need that... 

No worries about the World Cup hosts

I live in Mexico. Mexicans are not naive about their country; they know it has problems. Serious problems in terms of violence, as evidenced in the recent violence following the killing of authorities of a major drug lord. Some of this violence happened in Guadalajara, a city that will host the World Cup, so suddenly news (and actually a lot of fake news were published on media, specially social media, and with the uncritical approach that most people have to social media, these were taken as truths...) started complaining about the World Cup being in Mexico, and requiring a cancellation. Even Portugal, who will be playing a friendly match in Mexico City in March, expressed concern about the match.

This baffles me for so many reasons.

Mexico is huge; it is larger than France, Germany, Spain, and Italy combined, and as such a large country, regions are very different, also in terms of where you should go. Surely it is a problem that gang violence can erupt like it did in a city hosting the World Cup (that said, take my word for it, Guadalajara is a great city), but it is also a result of the government's firm response to criminal groups, a response that in my personal opinion also illustrates how seriously Mexico will take the World Cup. 

And Mexico is amazing, full of kind and welcoming people, and frankly they have more experience in hosting world events than many: this will be their third World Cup, but they have also hosted Olympics, numerous international events, that includes yearly Formula 1, NBA and NFL games. It hosts world class museums, universities, and some of the most visited and famous tourist sites in the world.

So people should have no worries about Mexico.

It almost baffles me as much to hear people say that the US should be withdrawn as host because of the policies of the current government, given that this tournament has before been hosted by rather unsavoury regimes that I am not going to bother mentioning, but who hosted memorable tournaments. The US has the infrastructure and the experience in hosting events, including the 1994 World Cup. Perhaps, some years ago, I would have criticized it for not being a real footballing country, but I do not think that this is valid today; of course other sports are bigger, but football (I refuse to call it soccer) is a big and growing sport, with an interesting and solid MLS with decent quality.

I do not know or can I comment on the government policies, but notwithstanding the mess in the Copa America final, I think the US will be great hosts, also because no matter what, in my experience, the vast majority of US Americans are also kind and welcoming people.

There are huge problems with FIFA and how the World Cup is awarded, the exaggerated and overblown prices and the completely shameless pursuit of money rather than the popular beauty of football. 

But Mexico and the US  (and Canada) co-hosting is not one of these problems.

Mexico Gold Cup Champion

I am currently in Denmark, so I was unable to watch the CONCACAF Gold Cup final between USA and Mexico. Despite making the final both sides have been looking shaky lately, with particularly the USA appearing weak under the leadership of Mauricio Pochettino. That said, the arch-rivals were now in their 8th final after difficult matches against Guatemala and Honduras respectively. Of the previous finals Mexico have won five, and the USA two. 

USA opened the scoring on an early header by the Crystal Palace striker Chris Richards, with the Fulham striker Raul Jimenez equalizing for Mexico (and dedicating the goal to his former teammate Diogo Jota). Second half it was another PL player, Wast Ham's Edson Alvarez, who scored the winner for Mexico, giving them their 10th Gold Cup title of 18 possible.

Internationals

Thursday and Friday there have been a lot of internationals. In Europe the UEFA Nations League quarterfinals kicks off with the first legs, and Denmark defeated Portugal 1-0 on a goal by the young Manchester United player Rasmus Højlund. More surprising perhaps than the victory was that Denmark outplayed the classy Portuguese who are managed by Roberto Martinez, who for six years managed the best Belgian side ever, but never gave them any titles. The Portuguese were bad against Denmark, who may now eye a surprise semifinal?

In other matches Germany defeated Italy, Croatia defeated France and Spain and the Netherlands tied 2-2.

Nearer to home the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals took place. Mexico defeated Canada 0-2 to make it to yet another final, but the real surprise came in the USA-Panama match, where a last minute strike by the Coquimbo Unido striker Cecilio Waterman, gave the Panamanians the victory. The result may nevertheless not be surprising since the Panamanians have the screws on the arrogant North Americans: the have defeated USA in four of the last five matches, among them the 2023 Gold Cup.

Panama will face Mexico in the final on Sunday.

In South America the World Cup qualifiers are heading into the last phase. Brazil and Colombia played, and Brazil got a last second 2-1 victory on a strike by Vinicius Jr. and are third in the qualifiers behind Argentina and Ecuador. That said, Colombia is also likely to qualify as six out of ten teams qualify directly.

In the meantime the Argentine World Champions are all but certain to qualify after having defeated Uruguay 0-1 in Montevideo, on a fantastic long-range strike by the young Lyon player Thiago Almada. Argentina just have to not lose their next match (against Brazil), and will be assured qualification.

The last-16 at the 2023 World Cup

 I have unfortunately not been able to watch much of the Women’s World Cup 2023; in El Salvador they do not show any matches (they are focusing on the Miss Universe contest to be held in November….), and although I am currently visiting Colombia and have watched a bit more, I remain limited by time difference.

That said, I have followed results closely. Here in Colombia they have been greatly excited by Colombia’s victory over Germany, 2-1 (and not least Linda Caicedo’s splendid goal, that in my view is the best so far in the tournament). Last though, Morocco defeated Colombia 1-0, which by itself would have been a big surprise, but as Germany only managed to tie South Corea 1-1, the surprise is that Colombia wins the group followed by Morocco, who are playing their first World Cup. Germany is eliminated for the first time ever in the group stages of a Women’s World Cup, and one must wonder whether this was not pure arrogance against sides they considered “small”.

I am delighted to see the ladies from outside Europe or North America go through!

Another surprise though, was the elimination of Brazil, who in their last match was unable to defeat Jamaica, who went through on second place behind France, and will face Colombia in the last-16. Brazil also appeared to be too sure of themselves, but the saddest part is the goodbye to the legendary Marta, perhaps the greatest female player of all time, who against Jamaica played her last World Cup match.

Thank you Marta.

Three teams have gone through with maximum points: Japan, England and Sweden, and these all look like some of the strongest. That said, Sweden will face defending champions of USA in the last-16 in what is bound to be a clash of titans. USA have looked shaky, going through  the Netherlands after tying both the Dutch and Portugal, and defeating a weak Vietnam.

African teams have done great, and perhaps this is a sign of things to come: alongside Morocco, South Africa went through behind Sweden after a thrilling 3-2 win over Italy, while Nigeria through behind the hosts of Australia, whom they nevertheless beat 2-3.

The last-16 look as follows:

• Switzerland-Spain
• Netherlands-South Africa
• Japan-Norway
• Sweden-USA
• Australia-Denmark
• France-Morocco
• Colombia-Jamaica 
• England-Nigeria

Panama in the Gold Cup Final

 Yesterday I had a 4 hour layover at Tocumen airport in Panama City. Fortunately, the layover coincided exactly with the semifinal in the Gold Cup between USA and Panama.

USA are the defending champions, having won two years ago and despite the absence of some players, must have been counted as favourites after defeating Canada in the quarterfinals. Panama had crushed the invitees of Qatar 4-0 to get to the semifinals.

It was a close match throughout, with Panama always having the edge in chances and possession, even having two goals annulled (correctly) for off-side, one in the dying seconds of the match when they really put pressure on the North Americans. It was therefore deserved when in extra time, Ivan Anderson brought Panama ahead. The USA now had to pressure, but at was a magnificent strike by the tournament top scorer Jesus Ferreira whereby the USA were back in the match,

It ended 1-1 and had to go into a dramatic penalty contest where the Panamanians in the bar at the airport were understandably tense. The score was 4-4 after the first four kicks, after misses by Jesus Ferreira and Christian Martinez. After Cristian Roldan missed the 6th US kick, Adalberto Carrasquilla gave the Panamanians a well-deserved winner.

Panama are only in their second final ever (first one in 2013 which they lost to the USA) and this documents the immense strides Panamanian football have been doing under Danish-Spanish Manager Thomas Christiansen. They will face Mexico, who defeated Jamaica 0-3 in the other semifinal. Mexico are always a tuff nut to crack, but they have not looked strong lately and surely Panama has a chance.

I will support them after my pleasant sojourn at the airport.

The World's 16 best footballing nations

The Qatar World Cup continues to be an ugly political event that has come to symbolize ugly nationalism, disrespect, inequality, abuse and greed.

But I think this is just a symptom of our world.

In footballing terms the group stages have been interesting. After Brazil sensationally lost to Cameroun (and frankly this is as surprising as Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia or France losing to Tunisia) it is the first tournament since 1994 during which no team has gone through with maximum points (the same happened in 1958 and 1962, so it is not a common occurrence). But more interesting is that this is the first World Cup where all continental federations (except Oceania) are represented with at least one team (CONCACAF 1, CONMEBOL 2, CAF 2, UEFA, 8, AFC 3). 

The eight matches are as follows:

• Netherlands-USA: The Dutch got through with two victories and one difficult tie to Ecuador, and are surely not as strong as they should be. USA is the only representative from CONCACAF and looked well-organised to defeat Iran and tie England. It will surely be difficult for the Dutch, but I hope they prevail
• Argentina-Australia: Despite their opening loss to Saudia Arabia Argentina won the group and remain favourites. They are surely huge favourites against Australia. The Asian representatives went through on hard work but winning against two poor sides, Denmark and Tunisia. They were overrun by France and should be on their best to defeat Argentina (but certainly not impossible). I support Argentina wholeheartedly.
• France-Poland: The defending champions are looking strong, but lost to Tunisia in a match with many substitutes. They are surely favourites against the Poles, who look delighted just to have gone through. That said, no expectations could be Poland's strength as they still have quality players who could hurt France. But I expect France to prevail.
• England-Senegal: England will underestimate Senegal, that is a given, and I will surely support Senegal, where other players have stepped up in the absence of Sadio Mané. Koulibaly was spectacular against Ecuador and will face English players he knows well. It will be a close match I think, with England as weak favourites.
• Japan-Croatia: Japan winning the Group of Death is one of the surprises, and Croatia have surely seen that Japan defeated both Germany and Spain, although also that the Japanese do have weaknesses. If Croatia can take advantage of their quick passing then they could hope for a repeat of 2018. Japan I think are slight favourites though.
• Brazil-South Corea: The Corean victory against Portugal means that they prevented us from a repeat of the "Maracanazo" classic between Brazil and Uruguay. Don't mind that though. Corea and in particular their fans are the best side through. Brazil are enormous favourites, but the Coreans do and should not fear anybody, and could cause a sensation!
• Morocco-Spain: This is probably the clash I look most forward to. Neighbouring countries; the African upstart with a great team and confidence, against the European giants with some truly fantastic players. It has all the ingredients to be a fantastic match!
• Portugal-Switzerland: The Portuguese went through on first place with two wins and one loss, but appear not to have been tested yet. Switzerland will surely be a test. They showed their quality already in last year's Euro when eliminating France in an extraordinary match, and in this tournament have shown themselves solid in the back, but also strong in attack when it counted against Serbia. This match could go to either side!
  

CONCACAF likelihood

Although all teams can still theoretically qualify in the CONCACAF Octagonal for the three direct spots for Qatar 2022, it appears more and more likely who the three teams will be, and who will be out after the matches played yesterday.

Canada remains on first spot and is a likely participant in Qatar after defeating Honduras 0-2 in Tegucigalpa. Honduras in the meantime, with three points only, takes the last spot among the eight teams. USA trails Canada by one point after defeating El Salvador 1-0 in Columbus, Ohio, in a match that proved more difficult than expected for the USA. El Salvador is on seventh spot with only 6 points, but they played well, and if they start scoring more goals they would be more competitive.

Mexico has suffered, and suffered yesterday against Jamaica as they were down 1-0 with only 6 minutes to go, but two quick goals gave them a victory, and they remain on third spot, only two points behind Canada. 

That is who I think will qualify in CONCACAF: Canada, USA and Mexico. The order may change a bit, specially when USA and Canada face one another this weekend.

The fourth spot (which gives a play-off) is Panamá's right now, with 14 points. But after Costa Rica defeated them 1-0 yesterday, Costa Rica creeps up to 12 points, and may still take the spot from the Panameños. Both teams have some difficult matches ahead for them, but be sure that both will fight hard for the play-off spot!

Canada Number 1 (!)

"Canada number 1" is something I have never said before, but it is the truth in the CONCACAF region´s qualifiers, where the top three qualify directly for Qatar, while the fourth gest a play-off. Although everyone who has been watching Canada lately knows that the team, captained by the phenomenal Alphonse Davies from Bayern Munich, is to be reckoned with, their rise culminated yesterday with a 2-1 victory over Mexico, the team that has historically always dominated CONCACAF. Canada already tied 1-1 in Mexico City, and recent victories over Costa Rica and Panama has put them on top, and we should all be looking forward to a clash between USA and Canada, going for first spot. 

Mexico, traditionally dominant in CONCACAF has fallen to third place after their two defeats to USA and Canada respectively, with 14 points, alongside Panama on fourth spot, also with 14 points. That said, it appears that the top four in CONCACAF is taking shape: after defeating El Salvador 2-1, Panama and Mexico are five points clear of Costa Rica on fifth place. Panama, coached by the Spanish-Dane Thomas Christiansen, are looking for their second World Cup in a row, and have already played some epic matches to defeat the USA, and coming from behind to defeat both Honduras and El Salvador. 

My prediction is that the CONCACAF will end as its stands, with Mexico, USA and Canada qualifying, and Panama going to the play-offs. 

 In the meantime, I should say something about El Salvador, because it is the country in which I am currently residing. El Salvador´s manager Hugo Perez is being widely criticised for the lack of results and from some quarters also for his selection of some players who were not born and bred in the country, but are rather a product of the country´s huge diaspora, mainly in the USA. The team is relatively young, and I think Mr. Perez has a long-term plan, to build up a base of young foreign-based players who are now gaining experience and could compete for the 2026 World Cup. Right now, the team is clearly not competitive at the highest levels; even when they went ahead early against Panama they lacked a high pressure and controlling the match against a much more experiences and tactically savvy Panamanian side. The problem appears a lack of patience with the lack of quick results and what I consider a strange lack of support when things are not going well: last week´s home match against Jamaica was not sold out in San Salvador even though it was a crucial match for a team that could still qualify for the World Cup. 

These are the matches where the stadium should be sold out. Instead, with lacklustre support, El Salvador and Jamaica tied 1-1, and with the defeat to Panama, El Salvador are likely out of the contest. Good luck, and hope they can get more support next time.

USA-Mexico in the CONCACAF Nations League

The inflation of national team tournaments has reached CONCACAF, and yesterday the very first CONCACAF Nations League final was played in Denver, Colorado, between the two all-dominant teams from the CONCACAF region, Mexico and the USA.

It was an eventful match in what I guess must have been historical in being the first final of this tournament. But also, it underlined the almost-hateful rivalry between the two sides that compete to be the best among all the small teams of CONCACAF. And in Denver the Mexican team was almost at home, as Mexican fans seemed to outnumber the home-fans.

Mexican fans have been known to be passionate, if not dirty, and as has been happening a lot recently, the match was suspended temporarily due to Mexican fans' homophobic chants of "puto". It is ok they suspend the match, and have fined Mexico for this. However, I would love to see this kind of approach in other parts of the world, not least Europe, where national teams still seem unpopular for the mere act of kneeling against racism.

The passion of the Mexican fans seemed to provoke the US players who in my view reacted wrongly to the Mexican fans' attacks. In particular when Christian Pulisic scored the penalty kick for 3-2 in extra time, he ran directly towards the Mexican fans silencing them.

A clear provocation that should have cost Pulisic.

After 2-2 in ordinary time (where the USA twice equalized a Mexican lead), USA went ahead on a penalty which was revised thoroughly on VAR. In the dying second of the match Mexico was awarded the chance to equalize on a penalty, but Andres Guardado's kick was saved by the young Ethan Horvath, who had come on as a substitute for goalkeeper Zach Steffan when he got injured. Horvath, who plays in Club Brugge in Belgium had two great saves before taking the penalty that effectively gave USA the title.

Horvath was the hero of the day.

Less of a hero was the Panamanian referee. Granted, it was not an easy match amid the near-hateful atmosphere in Denver, but the referee did not help, failing to efficiently strike down on the numerous little dirty tricks played by both sides.

It was an interesting and eventful match, but it is nearly impossible to want either of these teams to succeed.

Three finals in a day

The Champions League final was the first match that I watched on TV since the World Cup Final. I was happy for friends who are Liverpool fans, but otherwise it did not do anything for me, besides an immense sadness that I have no interests any longer.
For the last month, nevertheless, I had started watching some football news as three interesting national team tournaments have been going on: the Copa America, the Gold Cup, and most interesting, the World Cup for teams made up of female players.
I carefully started watching the Copa America quarterfinals, when Argentina played Venezuela (two countries I have lived in), and Colombia played Chile (the country of my Mother and the country of my birth).
Argentina, and not least Messi, have been one of my great disappointments over the last years, and watching them against Venezuela made me support the "Vinotinto", who undoubtedly are a better team, but still lost to the lucky Argentines. And although I supported Colombia, I was not unhappy to see Chile progress. I watched both semifinals: Argentina lost as expected against a superior Brazil (although they did not play bad), while Peru played the best I have ever seen them play in defeating Chile 3-0. After a disgrace of a third place match between Argentina and Chile, Peru were no match for Brazil, who played well to win 3-1 today.
I like this Brazil side by Tite. They play quick modern football, using the qualities of their spectacular players, instead of the defensive destruction of Dunga or the overambitious arrogance of Scolari. With a good Brazil it might even be worth to watch football again....

It has been difficult to watch matches from the World Cup in France because of the time difference, but I have followed with interest as the tournament has had as much interest as it deserves. As I sat to watch the final this morning I must admit that I was supporting the Dutch, but also that it was always clear that the US ladies were by far the better team, winning 2-0, and they are deserved repeat winners in what in many ways has been a historical tournament.
But congratulations to the USA ladies; in particular I like Megan Rapinoe (as so many people do): she is a great player (better than so many, also men!), but also a fantastic personality. She is the rare person who loves the sport, and knows that all the nationalism around it is just that: nationalistic crap. A well-deserved Golden Boot.

I started to watch the Gold Cup when the country I am currently in, El Salvador, started doing well: they defeated Jamaica and tied Curacao, and were set to go through with a tie against their arch-rivals of Honduras, who had already been eliminated. But El Salvador completely lost their nerves against Honduras, who trashed them 4-0, and then they both were eliminated to the delight of Jamaica and Curacao. I did not watch any matches until today's final between the two CONCACAF archrivals of USA and Mexico. It was a good and intense match which Mexico won 1-0 on a spectacular Jonathan Dos Santos goal. While Mexico were overall the better team, USA had some huge wasted chances to score, and one has to wonder, surely, how these guys get more in salary than the amazing USA soccer ladies....
Open discrimination lives on in football....

I enjoyed watching the matches today, but I still feel that football mostly appeals to the worst in people and that football is an all to open expression of everything that is bad in the world (which is an awful lot).

"World Cup" 2026

Today the "World Cup" 2026 went to the USA, Mexico and Canada in order for FIFA to make billions. Because of course the priority is not the game, but FIFA's money. A tournament in three countries (of which only one can be called a footballing nation) with what seems will be 48 teams participating cannot be called a World Cup but rather a nationalist get-together of mediocrity. The last World Cup will be this one in Russia.

All is normal in Latin America

In San Salvador I went to watch the qualifiers in Sports bar called Strikers. A nice place that was full of Colombians and a few Peruvians to what promised to be a clash as we were also watching the scores of the other matches in South America.
Argentina needed a victory in Quito, and it looked bleak as they went down 1-0 after one minute. But none other than Lionel Messi scored three goals to give them a victory and a spot in Russia.
The World Cup would not be the same without Argentina and Messi, so we should all celebrate.
In the meantime Uruguay got their expected qualification with a 4-2 victory over Bolivia, while Paraguay destroyed their own hopes by losing 0-1 at home to Venezuela (and watch out for the young Venezuelan side in the future!).
As all this was happening Peru and Colombia were playing a nervous match until Strikers exploded with two goals: James scored for Colombia as Brazil went ahead against Chile. This meant Colombia were qualified. Paolo Guerrero equalized for Peru, who needed a win, and Colombia seemed nervous, but it didn't matter: Brazil ended up trouncing the defending South American champions 3-0, meaning that all of a sudden Chile were out.
Colombia are in Russia while Peru are in the playoffs against New Zealand.

It was all too much in one of the most excitng qualification nights ever, but it did not stop there as we swithched over to the CONCACAF qualifiers, where nothing was going as expected: USA was losing 2-1 to Trinidad & Tobago, Honduras was winning 3-2 against Mexico, and just as we started watching Gabriel Torres gave Panama a 2-1 lead against Costa Rica.
It ended like this, and that means Panama are in Russia, Honduras are in a playoff against Australia and the USA can go home.
Granted, Panama qualified with a non-goal, but that doesn't take away that USA lost it themselves. The team has lost five matches, and they were outright arrogant in many of their matches. They have to face it: despite the advances, and MLS and all that, USA is still only a mid-ranking CONCACAF nation. The World Cup is much better without the USA!

A great evening in San Salvador as we look forward to a final round of playoffs to find out about the last teams in Russia.

Klinsmann out

Five years with Jurgen Klinsmann of the US National Team ended with Klinsmann being fired. In World Cup qualification USA is last after defeats to Mexico 1-2 at home, and a 4-0 trashing by Costa Rica.
Klinsmann was hired amid great expectations, and despite some improvements, I think it has been disappointing, given the potential of the US. It all seemed to start well with a victory in the 2013 Gold Cup and World Cup qualification. In the World Cup they made it to the last 16, but it was not impressive at all, and having watched US in other tournaments, this team was not impressive: they rode on a defensive wave, that was only strengthened by a great goalkeeper. But when it counted, against Belgium in particular, US looked without ideas.
In 2015 USA only made it to fourth of the Gold Cup, losing to Jamaica and Panama. At this point USA seemed like a side that arrogantly thought they were too good for CONCACAF, but obviously were far below the big boys. A semifinal spot at the 2015 Copa America Centenario did nothing to take away this impression when USA lost 4-0 to Argentina.
The last defeats are just a confirmation of how far USA is from its potential. Klinsmann's replacement is Bruce Arena, who also coached USA from 1998 to 2006, which was plausibly the period of most advances for US football, most memorably illustrated by their 2002 World Cup quarterfinal, where they fully had the quality to be among the 8 best in the world.
Bruce Arena has been away for a while, but he has the quality to take US back up from the last spot in World Cup qualifiers.

The best doesn't always win

One of the frustrations of football is also its beauty: that just like in life, it is not necessarily the best who wins. That is simply because football is such a varied sports that there are many ways of winning. An excellent example is Portugal's recent victory in the Euro 2016; hardly the best team, rather boring, but one cannot deny their achievement in reaching the title against teams that were better.
Every footballer knows this although it still frustrates them.
In the Olympic football tournament (for women) the defending world champions of USA were eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinals after a 1-1 score in ordinary time, and then 4-3 on penalty kicks. This is a major setback for the USA, who had never not reached a semifinal. Sweden's victory was not pretty: they know that USA, with its amazing players, is a better side player for player (if anyone knows it should be the Swedish manager, Pia Sundhage, who four years ago coached the USA to Olympic gold). And to win against such a side they need to be defensive, disciplined, and for all that it is worth, cynical.
That is normally the way to win against better teams, as has been shown again and again. And it was that which the veteran US goalkeeper Hope Solo was sore about when she called the Swedish ladies "cowards".
Not very nice or fair-played said by Hope Solo, who was probably frustrated after the defeat.
I do think that Sweden will have it difficult in reaching the final, although of course they should not be underestimated. In the meantime it is sad to see the excellent USAmericans eliminated, but there is no doubt they will rise again from this setback.

Olympic football - women

The Olympic football tournament is only interesting because of women. Four years ago watching the men was a waste of time, but the women gave us some splendid matches, and this year we have all reasons to expect the same, if not better, after the fantastic Womens' World Cup in Canada.
Favourites are bound to be the defending Olympic and World Champions of USA, who are in group with France, Colombia and New Zealand. Among the team of USA superstars is the incredible Carli Lloyd, but also Ali Krieger, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan.
Expect USA to make it all the way!
It is a bit disappointing that Japan, in full process of changing their team from the World Cup, did not qualify. Instead, the big challengers for gold will likely be Brazil and Germany.
Brazil is in group with China, Sweden and South Africa, where at least Sweden and China should also be considered contenders. Brazil nevertheless, captained by the legendary Marta, will be under pressure to take a gold medal home for Brazil. Other veterans, as Formiga and Cristiane.
Germany are in a  group with Canada, Australia and Zimbabwe, where Canada should be the one mostly considered favourites alongside the Germans. Germany is captained by the veteran superstar Anja Mittag, and Germany are sure to be contenders for the title.

No matter what, I would highly recommend to watch the womens' tournament rather than the mens', as I believe there will be much more entertainment, drama, and frankly, much better quality in the Women's football tournament.

Argentina in the final

Argentina, led by a splendid Lionel Messi, are looking more and more unbeatable just as they reach the final of the Copa America Centenario.
Despite improvements and a big home support USA stood no chance of challenging Argentina, who won 4-0 with goals by Ezequiel Lavezzi, Lionel Messi, and two by Gonzalo Higuain.
Colombia or Chile will play for the honour to face Argentina in the final.