Anyone else following the Gold Cup? Canada is legit one of the strongest teams in the competition and they’re steamrolling Honduras 5-0 as I type.
This is very well the deepest team Canada has ever fielded. Love their chances!
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I am cheering for Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Cost Rica. Boo states and sad arabia
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Nope. I don’t like this tournament or other sham tournaments like the FIFA Club World Cup in progress now in the odd years. It’s all soccer diarrhoea too, as opposed to the larger tournaments and big league play.
Contrary to some of the media blowhards here in the US like especially on Fox Sports, credit goes to many top players for opting out for the sake of health due to the record-level workload of their recent club season and coming up for next season, starting in August, and then right into the World Cup next summer.
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I will give you credit that there are way too many tournaments these days. However, the regional cups such as the Gold Cup have been around since ever. If anything, its the Nations League Cups and Club World Cup that need to disappear.
I’d also question the Voyageurs Cup at this point and why not just put in the top # of teams in previous years standings in CPL and MLS?
But you know as well as I do that this is all a FIFA cash grab.
So saying all that I am still going to cheer on Canada, as it is clear that we have great depth and they’re exciting to watch!
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Great point - at this point, add to those sorry two FIFA tournaments that need to disappear also two of them via UEFA, the Europa League and that awful Conference League.
Previously, Europa League was the UEFA Cup on a smaller scale like the prior Champions League even before the previous format expanded to 32 sides, was itself a prestigious tournament before being watered down now like never before (i.e. the lowly Spurs last season in the Premier League won it and thus earned a spot in the Champions League “the easier way,” so to speak).
Conference League is the lowliest tournament in Europe as the tertiary competition, which UEFA cooked up a few years ago for the same reasons as any of these, as a money grab, especially via more sports betting than ever.
These are all Soccer Diarrhoea to more than only me.
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And I’m good with now corrupt FIFA, and especially Gianni Infantino, eating some serious crow this week after pushing the envelope for this bloated off-year competition now in the US:
But FIFA is facing an uphill battle with the Club World Cup. FIFA claims the significantly expanded tournament is bringing together the best clubs in the world, but the teams outside of Europe and South America aren’t as well known in the busy U.S. sports market. Plus, to accommodate fans across the world in the competing team’s home markets who want to stream the games on DAZN, matches are happening in the middle of the U.S. workday. And many of the stadiums chosen for the Club World Cup are full-sized NFL venues rather than soccer-specific stadiums, making the empty stands even more noticeable.
I’ll go even better. Many of the teams competing are well known to soccer fans all over the world, including especially in the US.
And most such fans like me can see through this ruse and sham of a concocted tournament that many top players don’t want either.
Pigs get slaughtered folks, and those pigs are FIFA.
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What a joke…
So CONCACAF suspended him two games, and then one CONCACAF official puts Marsch in a suite to continue conducting business, and then another CONCACAF official tells him he’s in the wrong place, gets told off by Marsch, and is facing more discipline.
First of all, I would think that by being suspended, you shouldn’t be anywhere near the premises, let alone in the sight of TV cameras. Clearly CONCACAF doesn’t understand what being suspended means.
Second, shouldn’t the officials be on the same page about where Marsch should have been? That blunder shouldn’t have occurred in the first place.
Third, CONCACAF could have kept this all behind the scenes until it was resolved instead of airing out its own grievance publicly and as vaguely as possible.
Guess what…if he was not allowed into the building during the game in the first place, then the second official wouldn’t have been verbally assaulted.
CONCACAF makes the CFL look like a shining beacon of professionalism by all standards.
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This is quite a prophetic post from 13 May.
I’ve seen already this week FIFA throwing their weight around to remove the more critical articles, as well as to have their usual posh Londoner set via The Guardian and others write some “it’s not so bad…” puffery for them.
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not even trump could do that
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Europa and Confernce Leagues have been good in spreading the money to non-tier 1 clubs. It has also helped buttress support amongst the clubs as for many it is their first foray into European competition and first chance at winning a Cup. So, consensus view is these 2 leagues have been good for the clubs, players and supporters.
Nations League just replaced friendlies. It started off slowly and dismissed by many. But the most recent Finals showed it has started to capture the interest of the players and supporters. In Concacaf region, Nations League has already eclipsed the Gold Cup for likes of USA, Mexico and Canada.
Gold Cup should be held every 4 years rather than 2. But since it provides 75% of Concacaf’s revenue, it isn’t going away.
Club World Cup negative reaction is largely limited to Europe. US reaction is a bit mixed. South America, Asia and African clubs and players are all in as shown by the passionate support seen in the stadiums so far. No players have pulled out.
There is a wide dispersion in attendance but average so far is around 35k. Brazilian clubs have shown they can be as good or better than European clubs.
Brazil, Spain and Morocco have already expressed interest in holding the 2029 edition.
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There is much puffery here in your post and I cannot agree.
Yes of course Europa and Conference League are about the money. That does not mean at all they are good football, which they are not at the level of their predecessors as tournaments, but hey, a new generation of gambling fans do not know or care, so I get it. But don’t tell me they are good for football.
From the standpoint of on the pitch, they are the leftover soccer diarrhoea.
You are correct about Nations League, which alarmingly attracts more interest than many foresaw, as well as for CONCACAF Nations League play.
Gold Cup has sucked for a very long time, but you are correct about the money.
No, Club World Cup has plenty of negative reaction here in the US, including amongst long-time soccer fans, lest you are talking to various team fanboys and of course the lame and now old US soccer media establishment and their idiotic takes of late, including especially the likes of Alexi Lalas for years now along with others. But you are right about outside of Europe and the US.
Your comment about Brazilian clubs, playing their best, against various European 1B sides, missing key players in the off-season, does not hold water. But this is the only time they will play for a good while.
2029 would seem to be better, but fixture congestion is already a mounting problem such that key players are not participating in the sides based in Europe.
Word is out that half the Trinidad & Tobago team were out partying for Juneteenth after getting thrashed by the US 5-0 the previous night.
Also of note, the coach is former Canada Men’s coach Stephen Hart.
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I watched Real Madrid and Pachuca in Charlotte, North Carolina yesterday via Univision. There were 80K in the stands, which is smashing success.
Who showed up?
Real Madrid fans, of which there are many especially via all the fair weather success for years, and various people of Mexican background, who would show up for Pachuca simply because they represent Mexico and “it’s the only game in town.”
As for the match itself, even one man down early, Real Madrid trounced Pachuca 3-1, with Pachuca’s lone goal coming late in the match.
It was football that was at best on par with perhaps that of SkyBet League One, two levels lower than Premier League.
I didn’t watch long, let alone I could not stand the typical Univision announcers homering for the Mexican side.
The only people into this tournament in the US are diehard fans of a team or soccer nerds, with the usual international following from fans of certain big teams like Real Madrid who would show up in droves to even watch them trade farts in a light intrasquad exhibition on the pitch.
On Sunday night, I do think that Mexico and Costa Rica from Las Vegas in the Gold Cup probably drew as much or more interest via Univision. I was not able to get the number on attendance, which was high. They played to a 0-0 draw.
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Here’s a 
taek!
This is how the QF and SF rounds will play out, since they don’t allocate who will play where (based on what is presumed “potential revenue”, but likely preferential treatment).
1B v 2C will play in Glendale, and then have to travel to St Louis to play winner of US v CRC, who play much closer in Minneapolis. This increases the travel for team potentially playing the US and avoids the pro-Latino crowd.
1C v 2B will play in Minneapolis, and will then have to travel to Santa Clara to play winner of MEX v KSA, who are playing much closer in Glendale. More travel again for the team playing Mexico and opposition will face a pro-Mexico crowd.
Note that Mexico and the US already having qualified last night are playing the later QF games while the teams qualifying tonight are playing the earlier QF games.
That’s preferential treatment at its finest.
I’ll eat crow if they prove me wrong.
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You are spot on once again.
As in past editions plus also for other tournament play in North America, this is chiefly all about building up to a game between Mexico and the US again by any means necessary, for those are the two largest CONCACAF markets and also the two most valuable to advertisers and sponsors.
If there is a way to rig the process without going over-the-top, or perhaps really screwing it up at a key moment, it will be done in CONCACAF.
That’s yet another reason Gold Cup, like many of these odd-year tournaments in the summer, is steaming hot soccer diarrhoea.
After five groups have completed play in the group stage tonight, the Round of 16 is already shaping up to be good.
Pirate Sports Network will also be covering those matches.
So far there has been only one upset and top side not to advance, Atletico Madrid, though they were in my opinion in the Group of Death for this tournament, Group B.
Great action should start on Saturday for the FIFA Club World Cup.
Here’s the bracket and the standings after the conclusion of group play.
https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/club-world-cup/usa-2025/standings
Panama v Honduras followed by Mexico v Saudi Arabia. I think the latter game might be the more intriguing but it’ll be hard for Saudi Arabia to overcome the pro-Mexico crowd.
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A solid crowd showed up here in Philadelphia today, and as hot and humid as the day has been I am happy NOT to be there at Lincoln Financial Field, for the first match of the knock-out round action in the FIFA Club World Cup.
I watched from the comfort of my air conditioned residence for free on Univision.
Never in my life would I have imagined to watch two Brazilian sides taking on each other in Philadelphia in the summer, and the two sides basically knew each other well enough to neutralize each other 0-0 until a winning goal in extra time by Palmeiras, who generally did play better.
For the various English sides and European sides who are scouting Brazilian players, I bet they now have some great video to study in the next week so as to make any moves on the very skilled of the Brazilian players on either of these sides, like usual.
Meanwhile for the second match today, Chelsea 1, Benfica 0, but the play was suspended at 86 minutes due to thunderstorms with lightning.
Now that’s an advantage for Benfica, whenever play resumes, to try to obtain the equalizer also when substantially rested. We shall see.
Sunday i guess. Canada has a strong squad and will surprise some teams at the world cup next year.
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