RJB

I'm really curious to know if having 30+ teams (eventually) ultimately helps the league develop players better or worse. I guess we'll never really know if staying at 20 would have been better. One marker could be MLS' failure to make real progress in the CCL. If the league was improving in quality, they'd have perhaps had more success. I'm just waiting for MLS to switch to divisions... ugh.

I know I keep beating this drum, but John Herdman has played exactly ONE away game in CONCACAF that wasn't in the USA. That was the Nations League qualifier at St. Kitts. Granted the Cayman Islands is technically away, but is more of a neutral site game so I don't count it. And this includes his entire tenure as WNT coach. His first away game outside of USA will be a World Cup Qualifier... unless we get an away friendly somewhere.

Why is this game being played in the Cayman Islands? (according to Wikipedia)

At 7:59 in the video it's funny to see him brace himself for the onslaught of his teamates. It's a funny and reasonable part of the dogpile we don't often see.

Pretty sure there isn't, and so in theory I think this could work.

Cheering for CPL in every tie. Would love to see them win against MLS.

And I really wonder: how much complaining most people would be doing if Canada was comfortably ranked in the top 6?

I know lots can change, but the current rankings have the top 6 (in order): Mexico - USA - Costa Rica - Jamaica - Honduras - El Salvador The next tier has (in order): Panama - Canada - Curacao - T&T - Haiti - Antigua & Barbuda.... If everything works as the ratings indicate, then the real winner is the teams ranked 7-12, because in reality they could only need to beat each other and then Jamaica. (Yes, I know, anything can happen. But for sake of argument let's stick to the rankings order) This system is so inequitable. The Nations League provided meaningful games, you could do Gold Cup qualifying too. But this is is embarassing.

Not yet. But like many others, he didn’t deserve this job. He put the knife in the back of OZ, and slipped into his job Hamlet style. That said, he - like Zambrano before - deserves time. It’s been a really long time since we’ve been a player in CONCACAF, and despite the very misleading romp to nations league qualifying, we still aren’t. And honestly, the nations league will likely also tell us very little. We’ll finish second in our group unless some travesty against Cuba, so the real test will be in WCQ. Like so many cycles before, we won’t know until it’s too late.

I accept this argument. We can throw Wales in too after euro 2016, although they still have time to turn it around. But I suppose it begs the questions as to what you’d rather do: win a gold cup or just qualify for a World Cup?

Haha, yup. Our two most successful tournaments relied on luck to get out of the groups. We had some penalty luck in 2002 too. Those groups of three. Come 2026 the World Cup is going to see how poor the groups of three are. Remember the last WC when a team went through on fair play? (I think it was Japan). Just wait until 2026, I can see lots of tiebreakers being used.

Oh VAR. When you look at the White equalizer in the England USA game, it is painful that that was disallowed. Granted she was a mm or two offside, so it was technically correct, but that hurt to see. Those margins are far too small. The naked eye is a far better barometer in most cases. Now, watching Haiti v Mexico, I wanted VAR to overturn the penalty because I thought it was weak and wrong. But in the end I think I’m ok with the penalty being given. I spoke with a former WNT member, and she raves about VAR. She referenced Canada v England in 1995 WC, that had it existed Canada wins that game. So maybe players like it, and to hell with us. In the end though, why not just referee the game from a screen? Honestly, if all we care about is getting it right, then get rid of the refs altogether. But there’s more to it than that, and so we’re trying to blend refs with VAR and it isn’t working well.

Osieck and Canada followed up our 2000 Gold Cup won with a third in 2002. A pretty strong run for my liking. Haiti would likely be very happy with a Holger Osieck type Gold Cup run.

Just in Time-added-on as I type. 1. I notice that Rodriguez is wearing a Nike headpiece (Commentator called it a swim cap) but Mexico is Adidas. I wonder what the repercussions of that will be. 2. Qatari referee? Have I missed something here? 3. Is that Mexican Coach Martino sitting up high - not on the bench? Was he banned or something, or does he just prefer that vantage point? Tough not to root for Haiti on this one.

I’m carefully daydreaming of a Haiti v Jamaica final.