By Andres Jaime-Mendez

Did you think, after recent years of decline, it couldn’t get any worse for the Central American countries?

Turns out, ‘it can’t get any worse’ was wildly optimistic. In the biggest World Cup format in history, expanded from 32 teams to 48 teams, only Panama managed to qualify. No other Central American nation even made the March 2026 playoffs.

It’s never been easier in CONCACAF - three groups, 12 teams competing, winner of each group goes directly to the World Cup and the two best 2nd place teams go to the playoff.

Players like Carlos “El Pescadito” Ruiz only come once in a lifetime for countries like Guatemala. The golden age of the other Ruiz, Bryan, for Costa Rica is more than a decade removed. It is time to wake up in Centroamerica. It is time to realize change at all levels is needed, from scouting to youth national teams to federation structure to manager selection.

Speaking on manager selection, let’s draw a line between the nations that failed to qualify and the one that was most expected to go, considering they are the biggest representatives of the region in WC history, Costa Rica.

After the Ticos missed out on the World Cup, it was almost certain Miguel Herrera would be let go. The question remaining was who would potentially replace him. The Costa Rican media uttered the “Fantasma (Ghost)” Figueroa could be a candidate after Nicaragua beat Honduras.

Then the other option reported was another Mexican coach, 67 year old Luis Fernando Tena, the current coach of the Guatemalan national team.

What’s incredible is there is no joke to be made, the joke has written itself. With the lack of clear, critical thinking in these federations, the laugh factor is set to continue.

El Salvador is barely worth mentioning, they beat Guatemala in the first game of qualifying and then scored only once in the next five matches. Honduras was led by Reinaldo Rueda, who was coming previously from having failed to get Colombia to the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup.

Oh, and guess what? This one is going to be a shocker. He came to Honduras and did the same thing. What exactly made Honduran federation executives think a manager who could not get a squad with the talent of Colombia’s to the World Cup, that Rueda would be to get ‘La H’ there, with the limitations, lower playing level and lack of winning pedigree?

Accountability is also something needed from players, especially representing their nations.

Goalkeeper Edrick Menjivar is such a coward that after wasting time in a critical game once more for Honduras, he rapidly retired after the game, facing tremendous scrutiny from fans and the media. Francisco Calvo, who was Costa Rica’s captain before Keylor Navas returned to the national team, said in his postgame interview that he was one of the constants and reliable players for Los Ticos and that people should familiarize themselves with his statistics. “Take a look at my statistics,” he said. For the last and most important qualifying game against Honduras, Calvo lost possession 22 times, the most of any player on the field. Supposedly one of the leaders of the team, not only did he not deliver any performances that came close to being average, but he couldn’t put any responsibility on his own shoulders.

However, that is where Central American fútbol is today. Every region in the world, from the Baltics to subsaharan Africa to Oceania, have figured out how to get themselves at least a chance to play at the 2026 World Cup.

Altogether, outside of Panama, Central America has united and come together in the saddest way possible: showing the world the region is the belly button of soccer as we know it.

There, but not serving any particular purpose. For Central American fans, start choosing the nation you will support come June. At least there won’t be any stress in watching for these fans, myself included, or being afraid that another embarrassment is on the way in 2026. A new era of World Cups begins in the United States, Mexico and Canada, and the largest region of CONCACAF won’t be there to represent it. Maybe, at the moment, that’s for the better.

Lionel Messi put Inter Miami on the global football map when he signed for the MLS club but with his fresh contract extension he has a chance to truly transform the club and lead them to a completely new level.

The Argentine joined Miami in July, 2023 and was quickly accompanied by his old friends from Barcelona, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez. They turned on the style to win the Leagues Cup in their first season together but age has gradually caught up with them.

The Barca reunion may yet provide an MLS Cup this season (Inter Miami kick off their post-season against Nashville on Friday) but whatever the final outcome, that era of Inter Miami is coming to a close. Busquets and Alba are hanging up their boots and Suarez may follow them into retirement.

The club know that this provides them with the opportunity to build something very different from next season when they move to their new stadium Miami Freedom Park.

The danger was that if Messi left now, there would be little legacy of his impact - a new stadium without him and a team without the ex-Barca boys, would risk being irrelevant.

Now there is a chance for a re-set and to take a fresh approach.

There have been clues in some of the club’s recruitment this season - yes, there is more experience in the form of 31-year-old Rodrigo De Paul, who will be upgraded to a Designated Player next season, but signings such as 22-year-old midfielder Baltasar Rodriguez, 19-year-old winger Mateo Silvetti and Ecuadorean teenage striker Allen Obando, point towards the new direction.

Messi surely knows he needs legs around him. He’s played in enough games for Miami where they have struggled to maintain intensity and tempo for the full 90 minutes against MLS teams who, whatever else they may lack, are fit, hard-working and fast and strong in transition. He’s 38 and now and is planning on playing until he is 40 or maybe 41, if he takes up the option of a third year in his new deal. He can still produce his magic but he needs youth around him to cover the ground, make the runs and put in the graft that allows his remarkable skill to shine.

For the club’s owners, the Mas brothers Jorge and Jose and their partner David Beckham, bringing in younger talent is an opportunity to build a more mobile team now but also lay the foundations for life after Messi. It will also give them a chance to generate some income through the kind of business that saw Diego Gomez come into the club from Paraguay before being sold to English club Brighton for a reported fee of around $14 million.

There is surely no better sales pitch to a young Argentine or South American prospect than offering them the chance to play with Messi in Miami. Which talented teenager would not want to be given the opportunity to play with (and learn from) the GOAT himself?

De Paul provides some continuity and proven top quality in the centre of midfield but it would be no surprise if there were a host of changes to the roster in this off-season as the new Inter Miami for the new Messi era takes shape.

Messi can now look forward to ending his career in MLS, helping to develop new talent whilst still competing for trophies. He can mentor and mould those new faces and work towards building a team that can thrive even after he too has finally left the stage.

There will still be a temptation to bring in big names, towards the end of their careers, to give Messi that quality that he demands. He wants player who can provide him the service he requires; that sometimes requires big money players with big-time experience and there will be a spare DP slot.

But there is no need for the supporting cast to be made up of journeymen and never-quite has-beens. With the World Cup winner committed to at least two more years, this can be the start of Messi’s Miami 2.0.

And it could be even better than the first time.

You could be forgiven for missing the news but San Diego FC, a team which didn’t even exist 12 months ago, has just finished top of MLS’s Western Conference in record-breaking fashion. If so you have missed one of the great American soccer stories.

Perhaps because St Louis City also had such an extraordinary debut season two years ago, finishing first in the West, or maybe because soccer remains seriously under-covered by American sports media, San Diego’s achievement has flown somewhat under the radar outside of the committed MLS fan.

But it is worth pausing to reflect on just how extraordinary this story is and also how uniquely American it is too.

Nowhere else in the world are clubs being created from scratch. And with MLS now at 30 clubs there are going to be fewer of these stories to come - although there are going to be plenty of new clubs in the lower leagues in the USA in the coming years as the growth in the game expands well outside of the top flight.

The concept of expansion teams barely exists outside of the U.S. of course partly because, in Europe and South America, new clubs were mainly formed over a century ago and also because, due to promotion and relegation in a pyramid system, any new club which did come along would have to climb up the ladder from the lower leagues.

In this part of the world though, with closed leagues and no promotion and relegation, becoming an expansion franchise is the only way to enter a league, whether that be MLS, NWSL or USL.

The opportunity doesn’t come cheap. It cost San Diego’s primary owners, Sir Mohamed Mansour and the Sichuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a reported $500 million to secure a franchise, a record amount and one which has helped drive the sky-rocketing values of MLS clubs.

Traditionally, expansion clubs in MLS, like in the other American sports leagues, have struggled in their first seasons. Cincinnati, for example finished 24th out of 24 teams in 2019 and Austin finished 24th out of 27 two years later.

Why has it been so difficult? Well, for all the many differences between MLS and European leagues, it is hard to avoid the basic football truths that impact success the world over.

When you create a club from scratch, every player is a new signing needing time to settle in to the new club. The same applies to the coaching staff. There is no existing ‘Locker room culture’ or leadership group and no established style of play. Rosters are assembled by bringing in players from other clubs and abroad meaning an awful lot of players and coaches (and their families) needing to find houses and schools and adjust to living in a new city, state or even country.

It is, as if, a Premier League club fired all its coaching staff and sold its entire first-team squad and signed 30 new players in one window for the new management team. Let’s just say there is a reason why no-one ever does that.

Yet San Diego have not only finished top of the West - their 63 points is the most ever for an expansion team, as are their 19 wins. Their 37 points on the road is tied for the most of any team in MLS history - alongside LA Galaxy in 1998 and Messi’s Inter Miami last year.

Until St.Louis’s impactful debut, the most successful recent expansion was LAFC’s opening season when they finished third in the West and made the playoffs.It is perhaps no coincidence that the co-founder of LAFC and its first president, Tom Penn, is the man who has overseen San Diego’s arrival in MLS, as CEO. Having a leader who knew exactly what is involved in creating a club and hitting the ground running has proved to be invaluable.

From a business point of view, the club has been an instant hit. San Diego have drawn average home crowds of 28,000, the fourth best in the league, they broke league records for merchandise sold through official club stores and signed a series of impressive partnership deals.

But the key to the success on the field was the way in which San Diego, despite the short runway to their debut, instantly had an identity and style of play.

Egyptian billionaire Mansour recently recalled that when he attended an MLS board meeting on December 12 last year, just two and a half months before the start of this season, he had just seven players under contract.

He did have a technical staff in place though and those appointments turned out to be inspired - if unorthodox.

The temptation for an expansion franchise is to seek out experience. LAFC had Bob Bradley as their first coach, the Seattle Sounders went with Sigi Schmid - San Diego opted for Mikey Varas, whose only experience above assistant level was two years in charge of the U.S. U20 team.

Varas, a Californian of Chilean heritage, has proved to be an inspired choice. His background in youth national teams, made him an ideal choice to work with a young squad and he has been able to quickly instill a distinctive style of play.

Varas is 42, but the man above him, in the crucial roster-building general manager role, the man who hired him,Tyler Heaps, was just 33 when he was brought to the club.

But despite his youth the owners knew exactly what they were getting with him.

Heaps had cut his teeth in various analyst roles with U.S. Soccer, innovating as he built out the analytics department for all the national teams. He then moved to Europe, becoming Head of Analysis and Insights at AS Monaco, a club well known for smart recruitment.

His next role was with the Right to Dream organization in Denmark, a global youth development and education system with bases in Ghana and Egypt as well as the Scandinavian country. Right to Dream has itself been crucial to San Diego’s success and the academy set up in Southern California is expected to produce the next generations of players for the club.

The Danish connection has been crucial- defensive midfielder Jeppe Tverskov has brought experience as captain and winger Anders Dreyer who has lit up the league with 19 goals and 19 assists, delivered numbers that would make him an MVP candidate if it were not for the presence of Lionel Messi in the league.

Dreyer, 27, was a bargain with just $5 million paid to Belgian club Anderlecht for his services, a deal which must go down as one of the smartest acquisitions from Europe in MLS history.

All the focus in the pre-season was on the signing of Mexican international Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano, but it was Dreyer who made the instant impact, scoring both goals in the 2-0 win at defending champions LA Galaxy in San Diego’s first ever game.

That game set the tone of the entire regular season - San Diego’s brand of smart possession, well co-ordinated pressing and devastating breaks in transition has been particularly effective on the road.

SDFC have a league best 12 wins from 17 games on the road and Dreyer has been a big part of that success with 17 of his 19 goals coming away from home where he has made 27 of his 38 goal contributions.

The team’s form at home has been less impressive, they ranked 18th in MLS with a 7-5-5 record with the team’s approach not quite as effective when teams allow them plenty of possession and employ a low block to limit the damage from those fast breaks.

The overall roster features plenty of young talent, in line with the club’s philosophy and with smart rotation, the club has delivered more minutes for U-20 players this season than any other club.

But Heaps was wise to ensure there was plenty of experience in the starting line-up for the first season.

Panama international Anibal Godoy, who makes up a solid central midfield pairing with Tverskov, is 35 and has over 200 MLS games under his belt as well as 155 appearances for his country, while U.S. midfielder Luca de la Torre, a San Diego native, has added nous to the midfield.

Smart use of the loan market, to bring in young players from MLS clubs and Europe, has created a squad which was not only instantly competitive but also had half an eye on the future.

There has been a tendency in MLS over the years for clubs to follow a template. A core of MLS journeymen, a smattering of young talent and the money spent on a couple of foreign ‘stars’ at number 10 and number 9. Heaps has found the right mix of youth and experience but with very few players who have years of MLS soccer to their names.

If there was a gamble in what Heaps and San Diego did it was in trusting the data and their instincts over the tried and tested in MLS and understanding that you don’t ‘disrupt’ the league in your first season by following the well trodden path.

“It’s beyond belief for an expansion team in their first year, what we have accomplished so far,” Mansour said recently.

Whether San Diego can end this remarkable debut season with a deep play-off run remains to be seen. The ‘home advantage’ of the top seed position, doesn’t seem quite such a factor given Varas’s side’s better performances on the road but with Dreyer in such electric form and the team brimming in confidence, there is a daunting task awaiting the winner of Wednesday’s Wild Card game between the Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake.

After overtaking Vancouver on the final day, with a 4-0 win at Portland, Varas insisted his team should take a little time to appreciate their achievement.

“It’s monumental. You have to celebrate these moments because they dont come all the time and what these guys did, every single day for the last 40 weeks, man, they’ve done something special,” he said.

“It is an incredibly humbling project to be a part of. And now we ask ourselves, what now? Because we’re hungry for more.”

(Photography courtesy of San Diego FC)

Andres has attended World Cups since he was 10 and at only 18 he became an accredited member of the media and worked as a reporter at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and later 2024 Paris Olympics. He has also covered the 2023 Women’s World Cup for NBCU Telemundo Deportes and 2024 EURO and Copa America for FOX Sports. He still plays soccer for pro academy Milan de Miami FC.

Don’t let a 1-1 tie against a good Ecuador side distract you from the problems being walloped by Colombia shows. It’s always the same story for Mexico. World Cup participation and make it as far as the round of 16 but never further, with the two times they have been hosts being the exceptions.

In 1970, Mexico reached the quarter-finals before losing 4-1 to eventual finalists Italy. 16 years later, back on home soil, a tense last eight clash with West Germany ended goalless after extra-time before the home side lost on penalties.

The famous “quinto partido,” the fifth game in a World Cup which has eluded Mexico ever since, in 2026 will be only the Round of 16 because of the expanded 48 country field.

Also famous is the way the Mexican media is usually deluded about the national team’s real chances. The running joke is that the local commentary goes “Mexico is playing so well, dominating the game. And here comes Germany and they score to make it 3-0!”

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Now, it appears the media is waking up to the cruel reality that this Mexico would be gasping for air if they needed to go through qualifying. Sure, you could say that the history Mexico has of doing better when playing on home soil will play to their advantage in 2026, and it should.

But, losing 4-0 in a friendly to the already-qualified Colombia is the tip of a giant iceberg the Mexican federation has known about but still chosen to continue on its same Titanic path.

Jorge Sanchez, who should have cost Mexico the Gold Cup final for his handball in the box, continues to be preferred over Julian Araujo at right back, who even with limited appearances for Las Palmas and Bournemouth, has demonstrated he is at a much higher level than Sanchez.

To illustrate the illogical selection of squads for Mexico, take the example of Carlos “Charly” Rodriguez, another Cruz Azul player. Now the focus is on young superstar Gilberto Mora, who has drawn the attention of European club giants, but let’s not forget that Charly was tasked for so long with being Mexico’s creative engine in midfielder. In 56 games for Mexico, Rodriguez has not scored one single goal and has only managed three assists in over 3,000 minutes.

There is no reasonable explanation for why someone like Charly should continue to be called up, even when Mora was away on U-20 World Cup duty. If Javier Aguirre and El Tri cannot figure out how to even be competitive in their preparation matches, it could be an ugly scene for the only ever three time World Cup hosts.

Within CONCACAF, the Central American region is going through a difficult time stepping up in the absence of the USMNT, Canada and Mexico. The play of Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras hardly inspires confidence in the quality of the expanded World Cup. The larger nations still vying for a place in the World Cup have faltered and failed to win or impress on several occasions, with Costa Rica giving up a two goal lead to Haiti, Panama failing to beat Suriname, and Honduras not using home field to their advantage.

Manfred Ugalde and Alonso Martinez lead the Costa Rican front line and are among the top goalscorers in the Russian Premier League and MLS, respectively. Ugalde weeped and cried profusely when Haiti came back from 2-0 down to make the game 3-2, while Martinez did not register a multi-goal performance until beating Nicaragua 4-1 at the National Stadium in San Jose.

For Honduras, Romell Quioto and Luis Palma had no impact in the most important game when “La H” hosted Costa Rica, even if Honduras was awoken with the participation of Rigoberto Rivas and Anthony “El Choco” Lozano in the 3-0 victory over Haiti in Tegucigalpa.

Most shocking of all has been Panama, who were considered the most improved country in CONCACAF, but who were held to a tie at home versus Suriname and sit in second place behind Suriname after four games in Group A.

As it stands, Honduras, Suriname and Jamaica are in pole position to qualify for the World Cup with Costa Rica facing the real threat of having to go through the intercontinental playoffs or miss out entirely if Haiti beats them. Guatemala (and their incredible fans) still have some hope of making the playoffs, but El Salvador looks doomed.

Suriname, who would be World Cup debutants, could be the ‘feel good’ story in CONCACAF but Central America’s passionate fans deserve much better.

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For a community that prides itself on being part of a global, cosmopolitan game, the American soccer world is surprisingly suspicious of foreign coaches. We saw it throughout Jurgen Klinsmann’s reign and it has been evident again with Mauricio Pochettino in charge of the national team.

Why are they here? What is the motivation? Do they understand ‘the American player’? Are they taking advantage, here for the big pay day while offering nothing that an American coach couldn’t provide? Bruce Arena might be a particularly blunt example of this curious soccer nativism but it’s always bubbling away under the surface in so much of the discourse.

And, to a degree, I get it. If there is a strong American option, that should be the first option. Jesse Marsch should have been given the job of taking over from Gregg Berhalter after the last World Cup.

But, having failed to do that, getting Pochettino for the USMNT was a great hire. The Argentine has proven himself at the highest level. His disappointments at PSG and Chelsea (two notoriously difficult jobs) didn’t undo the outstanding work he did with Tottenham Hotspur, who he took to a Champions League final.

The annoyance at the approach taken by the Argentine in his first year was understandable - to a degree. The whole process of preparing a squad for a World Cup with no qualification process almost inevitably leads to frustration for those who want to see a team looking ready for a World Cup on home soil but at times it did feel like the friendlies were being used as little more than trials or practice sessions.

But, after a creditable draw against Ecuador and a decent win over Australia in this window, following a solid victory over Japan, the method rather than the madness is now evident.

Pochettino has been testing out his player pool, making sure he has taken an up-close look at as many realistic options as possible. It meant some players were called up, who it was hard to imagine being part of a World Cup squad. Rather than take established opinions about those players and simply accept them, the coach brought them in and took a good look.

And why not? Yes, it meant some players not ready yet for the big stage, started in friendlies and Gold Cup matches and others, who almost certainly will start next June, were left at home or allowed to take breaks. But it has been a process of elimination and it is one that has led to some useful discoveries.

The frustration of watching those disjointed performances was real - they were tough matches for fans. But while it was legitimate to question the extent to which the coach was experimenting, the idea that he should simply be fielding his best team and trying to win every match like it was a World Cup knockout game was absurd.

Also absurd was the tone of the criticism. Pundit Hercules Gomez describing Pochettino as a “phony” was ridiculous and hugely disrespectful but he wasn’t the only one questioning the coach’s commitment and professionalism. We also had the chorus of ex-USMNT greats questioning the attitude of the coach and his players in what seemed at times like a competition to find who could be the most outraged.

Look, the international game has changed. There is no such thing as a ‘First Eleven’ any longer and hasn’t been for some time. With five subs per game since COVID, there is an entire second team sat on the bench. The squad size for tournaments is 26 not 22 and when you factor in the need to have back-ups ready in case of injury, the broad roster that a coach needs to manage is over 40 players.

Add in the factor that these players are spread all over the world as well as in MLS and you have a complicated job in assessing talent and building a roster. Pochettino could have better explained his process (his difficulties with English don’t help at times) but the pundits could also have done better in appreciating the scale of the task and explaining that to the public. Instead they played to the crowd.

So instead of howling that Max Arfsten isn’t as good as other options at left-back, the pundits could have remembered that players get injured and that Pochettino now knows exactly what Arfsten’s strengths and weaknesses are as a back-up. The same applies to Alex Freeman on the right.

Pochettino now also knows that Diego Luna has a great attitude and can be an interesting option from the bench and cover for Christian Pulisic. He knows that Cristian Roldan is more than just a useful guy to ‘have around’ in the locker-room. He now understands that Haji Wright is a confidence player who is in a rich vein of form and can be an option when Folarin Balogun isn’t firing. But, at the same time, he has also learnt about some players who haven’t impressed and won’t be around in next year’s squad and some young players who aren’t ready for this cycle. He wouldn’t have known any of this, for sure, without experimenting.

The coach has been much better at explaining his approach to creating a new team culture and this also reveals some of his choices. He has been testing players, seeing how they react to different situations and disappointments. Better to find out now who the sulkers are who react the wrong way to selection choices. Better to discover now who your leaders are and who hides when the going gets tough. If there were cliques or there was complacency, better to root that out now.

The two games in this window were encouraging but the level still isn’t where Pochettino will want it to be. It is not consistent enough throughout the game, the intensity isn’t constant enough and the defense remains a worry. The coach seems to have settled on playing three at the back but don’t be surprised if he moves away from that at some stages before the tournament.

Pochettino is ultimately right that the team needs to peak in June, 2026 not now. After all, the history of the World Cup is littered with teams who were brilliant in qualifying or who shone in pre-tournament friendlies and who then crashed out in the group stage.

Next May, Pochettino will call 26 men into his camp to get ready for the tournament of their lives. They will all be in a hotel together all day and night and training together every day. That is when the real chemistry is created, when the real tactical work is completed.

Pochettino knows what he is doing. If he didn’t care or wasn’t committed he could make his life easy by calling up the same old squads every time and simply say they are the best available. He is doing it the hard way, trying to make sure he hasn’t missed any hidden gems or not noticed any red flags.

The time to judge the coach is after the World Cup. Until then he deserves a little more understanding and a lot more respect.

Since I experimented briefly last year with the concept of The Daily Soccer, I’ve been concentrating on developing The Soccer Business newsletter and podcast, focused on the growth of the soccer industry in North America.

It is a project which continues to grow and develop with podcast guests such as Rio Ferdinand, Alexi Lalas and Sunil Gulati, bringing their perspectives on the state of the game off-the-field, while the newsletter has focused on chronicling the growth of the game at all levels - MLS, NWSL, USL and more.

But, to be honest, I’ve missed having an outlet for opinions and analysis on the game itself - the on-field action that I still follow as closely as ever. I continue to follow and report on MLS and the USMNT in particular and American and international soccer in general. I have views and I want to share them for those who might be interested.

And is there a better place for writing about the game than here on Substack? So, why not? There is no great plan, the only promise is honest opinions and hopefully some useful insights and analysis. It won’t actually be daily (at least not at the start) and I’ll be offering the platform to some friends and colleagues who, from time to time, will offer their perspectives.

With the World Cup on the horizon next year, there’s a lot to talk about, especially regarding the USMNT and I’d love for it to be a conversation. So please feel free to join in the discussion with your own viewpoints.

I hope you’ll follow along.

Two tournaments. One channel. All day. What could possibly go wrong?

Let’s see who came out on top…

The Formats: with the Euros at 24 teams and Copa America at 16, the former including extra time and penalties and the latter straight to penalties, Copa America reminded us that less is sometimes more. And the insanity that was third place qualification confused even the best mathematicians. Lord only knows what an expanded 48 team World Cup is going to be like.

Winner: Copa America

The Soccer: neither were classic tournaments by any means. The Euros had very few great games, although there were great moments with some very good games in the group stages. But, they tailed off as the tournament and the favorites progressed. France and England were terrible overall, Germany exited too soon, and the likes of Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands underperformed or were distinctly average. At least the best team in the tournament, Spain, won it. Copa America at least saw the better teams perform, but too many games turned into bad-tempered affairs, which detracted from the soccer - the standard of the pitches also not helping. Probably the best team won the final and Canada were a nice surprise package, but Uruguay didn’t live up to their billing, and the USMNT failed to get out of their group. VAR spoiled both tournaments, but at least the Euros had it set up properly. Unfortunately, neither tournament had a decent final to be remembered by from a footballing perspective.

Winner: EURO 2024 Loser: The Beautiful Game

The Logistics: Copa America, with its World Cup dry run in NFL stadiums suffered from some terrible playing surfaces, badly considered and overpriced ticket allocations with partially empty stadiums (even for USMNT games), a disastrously-organized delayed final, and Uruguay players fighting with fans. A very poor showing other than some meme-worth drama. But, the fan spectacle in stadiums that were full was impressive. Other than some early travel complaints in the group stages, the Germans held a great tournament with minimal trouble and some fantastic atmospheres both inside and outside the grounds.

Winner: Euro 2024

The Punditry: This pretty much sums it up.

Winner: Euro 2024

The Players: Too many household names just didn’t show up - Mbappe, Kane, Bellingham, Foden, Ronaldo, De Bruyne, Brazil and USMNT, but we did see the re-emergence of James Rodriguez, as well as excitement from Lamine Yamal, Georgia and Austria. At least Rodri cemented his place as best midfielder in the world and Messi was Messi. Spain were excellent, but how would they fare against Argentina? Moving forwards, if international tournaments are to recapture their magic then top players need to play like them. It might be a workload problem, which could be fixed by addressing domestic seasons or, as we saw with the scheduling of the Qatar World Cup, holding it mid-season.

Winner: Nobody

Overall, what have your thoughts been? Let us know in the comments…

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EURO 2024 Round-up

SPAIN 2-1 ENGLAND

Olympiastadion, BERLIN — Spain clinched an historic fourth European Championship title, defeating England 2-1 in the Euro 2024 final.

A scoreless first half saw both teams struggle to create clear opportunities. Spain controlled possession while England relied on counterattacks, but neither side could break through.

The second half started disastrously for England. Lamine Yamal beat Luke Shaw on the wing, setting up Nico Williams for an easy finish to put Spain ahead.

England manager Gareth Southgate responded with substitutions, and the move paid off in the 73rd minute. Cole Palmer, a substitute, equalized for England, finishing a move initiated by Jude Bellingham.

As the match seemed destined for extra time, Mikel Oyarzabal, another substitute, scored the decisive goal for Spain, capitalizing on a pass from Marc Cucurella.

England, masters of the last gasp equalizer this tournament, had those hopes dashed in the 90th minute when Dani Olmo cleared off the line. [Highlights]

Anyway, here’s the occasion in memes:

COPA America Round-up

ARGENTINA 1-0 (AET) COLOMBIA [Highlights]

Hard Rock Stadium, MIAMI - AFP’s Simon Evans was at the final, and here’s his report of the chaos prior to kick-off [:

The chaotic scenes at the Copa America final have raised serious questions for the organizers of the 2026 World Cup which will be held in North America.

The start of Sunday's final between Colombia and Argentina at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium was delayed by 82 minutes as overwhelmed security struggled to process the safe entry fans into the stadium.

Organisers blamed ticketless fans for rushing the entry points into the venue for their decision to keep the gates closed for almost three hours after the planned opening time.

But, while there was plenty of evidence of ticketless fans entering, it was also clear that the security system was unable to cope.

Some fans needed medical attention for heat exhaustion after being stuck in the crush around the fencing at the entrance to the 65,000 capacity venue amid alarming scenes.

Hard Rock Stadium will host seven games at the 2026 World Cup which the USA is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada.

The Copa America was organised by South American confederation CONMEBOL while the World Cup will be controlled by global governing body FIFA and it's local organisation.

"This is not a good look," said former USA international Alexi Lalas, now a leading television pundit for Fox Sports.

"I understand this is not a good look for CONMEBOL and this is also, because it is happening on our watch, in our country, not a good look for the US less than two years out from the World Cup," he said.

FIFA, who had no role in the running of the Copa, did not immediately comment on the incidents but sources indicated they would now intensify discussions with stadiums over their security plans.

'An embarrassment'

A former stadium employee, who spoke to AFP on the condition of anonymity, said that the incident at Hard Rock was down to bad organisation.

"I know this facility like the back of my hand, this should never happen," he said after spending over two hours in the crush outside the ground.

"If you're worried about weapons, if you're worried about guns, if you're worried about knives, you set up a perimeter, you check them and check tickets outside, not in a gate where you funnel in 10,000 people when you have women and children, you have women and children passing out at the gate trying to get into the stadium with people paying $2,000 a ticket," he said.

"This is an embarrassment, for CONMEBOL, for the Hard Rock Stadium, an embarrassment that should never happen," he added.

FIFA's World Cup stadiums tend to use such a perimeter control, as the initial check on fans, before they enter a zone closer to the venue.

"I have no doubt that FIFA and the USA and Canada and Mexico will sort this out and make sure that this doesn't happen going forward," said Lalas during the match broadcast.

But the Miami debacle was not the only incident to raise concerns during the Copa America.

Wednesday's semi-final between Colombia and Uruguay in Charlotte ended in ugly scenes as Uruguayan players climbed into the stands and clashed with Colombian fans, claiming family members had been threatened in the unsegregated stands.

As in Miami, local stadium security and police appeared to be caught by surprise by the very different behaviour of soccer fans compared to the far less rowdy NFL spectators they are used to.

All the World Cup stadiums for the 2026 World Cup are NFL venues. The USA hosted the World Cup in 1994 which was viewed as a successful tournament, setting a new attendance record.

The placing of grass surfaces over or in place of American football's artificial turf fields caused plenty of issues during Copa America, with several coaches including Argentina's Lionel Scaloni complaining about the poor quality.

FIFA sources said they intend to have all stadiums install grass in good time, rather than the very late switches that occurred for the Copa America.

But the bigger issue appears to be in training and preparing stadium security to deal with soccer crowds and having an effective system in place.

Canada's American coach Jesse Marsch believes that the Copa's issues were mainly due to CONMEBOL's inexperience in the US market and that FIFA will do a better job in 2026.

"They made the mistake of thinking that they were just going to bring all their people from South America and be able to run a tournament in a new country and they were going to be able to do it seamlessly. And they made a massive mistake in that," he told Canadian Press.

"(FIFA's) overall experience for running tournaments, I think, is at a much different level," he said.

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In Other Soccer News

Transfers:

The Guardian’s interactive transfer thing.

And the women’s one.

Stat(s) of the Day

England are the first nation in UEFA European Championship history to lose consecutive finals. Well that’s something.

Martínez has won 4 consecutive trophies since becoming the #1 goalkeeper for Argentina.

Since the start of 2023, Rodri has lifted twice as many trophies (8) as he has lost games (4) for club and country.

• 2x Premier League

• 1x FA Cup

• 1x Champions League

• 1x Super Cup

• 1x Club World Cup

• 1x Nations League

• 1x European Championship

• 22/23 UCL Final Player of the Match

• 22/23 UCL Player of the Season

• 2023 Club World Cup Golden Ball

• 2023 Nations League Finals Best Player

• 2024 EUROs Player of the Tournament

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“I hope the birth rate will rise in 9 months, because its very low in Spain (...) I don't know if Yamal has exams tomorrow, but if his dad lets him, he can party with us.” - Cucurella

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“Football's appeal is diminishing because it doesn't prioritize the aspects that made it the world's top sport. While the business side focuses on maximizing viewership, this approach undermines the quality of the game itself, leading to fewer skilled players and less enjoyable matches. Football is more than just highlights or short bursts of action; it's a cultural expression and a source of identity for many. The focus should not be on controversies and accusations but on preserving the essence of the sport and creating a positive environment for it to thrive.”

Decline in Quality: Bielsa argues that while football's viewership is increasing, the quality of the sport itself is diminishing. Does it entertain like it used to?

Commercialization: Bielsa's main critique centers on the over-commercialization of football. He suggests that the sport has become more about business and profit than the love of the game, resulting in decisions that prioritize financial gain over the quality and enjoyment of the sport.

Loss of Core Values: Bielsa laments the loss of the core values that made football so beloved. He implies that the pursuit of spectacle and entertainment has overshadowed the fundamental skills, tactics, and spirit of the sport, making it less engaging for true fans.

Oof. Your thoughts, Alexi?

It might be fair to say Alexi isn’t a ‘proponent of the beautiful game’ as purely an aesthetic spectacle. Results matter; and he’s spot on about Uruguay’s quarter-final against Brazil - no goals, 41 fouls overall, with Uruguay committing 26 of them resulting in one shot on target and a man sent off. Maybe Bielsa’s comments were some next level psy-op?

Not everyone agrees with Alexi about the Euros, though:

Nostalgia and your country getting knocked out can do strange things to the average football fan. The fondness England fans have towards Italia ‘90 is only surpassed by the shock of finding out that everyone else hated it.

There has been unmissable drama during the Euros and exceptional skill, although even England fans had stopped watching to see Jude Bellingham’s bicycle kick in the 95th minute to force extra time against Slovakia.

But France not scoring in open play has been turgid stuff. While Belgium’s inability to hit a barn door with a banjo became its own tragi-comedy.

Also, if you’re a top player, you’re coming to major tournaments spent. As Michele Platini said before Euro 1984: “England are lions in the autumn, but lambs in the spring.”

This tournament, they’ve been a late-night kebab. Only Portugal had played more minutes.

The lack of wingers, or more precisely wingers coming inside on their wrong foot is nothing new, and little skill-spots are now almost imperceptible to the naked eye in real-time.

But, if you look at the likes of Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, and Bernado Silva, they look completely different footballers - Pep having sucked the living flair out of them. Pep wants to unlock opponents as a compact unit in the final third because, god forbid, they should be exposed to a Sean Dyche counter-attack after his Burnley side has cut all lines of supply off for 78 minutes.

And it’s a lot easier to do park a bus as a lower ranked international team facing Mbappe, or the England frontline than it is go toe to toe with them.

Greece 2004, anyone? 1-0 to the Arsenal? Italy since time began?

It’s no mean coincidence that the sides that have captured the imagination have been Ralf Rangnick’s Austria, Spain, Germany, Georgia, and Jesse Marsch’s Canada - the latter being a disciple of the former, and both hell bent on attacking and entertaining.

Bielsa’s Uruguay have entertained when they can, resolute when required, and streetwise.

VAR doesn’t help. In fact, in a tournament where own goals are the top scorer VAR is horrendous. Bielsa is exactly right about controversies becoming too focal.

VAR doesn’t create beautiful moments, but it sure can kill them.

Saying that, a tournament is as good as the last round.

If England and France don’t stink out the semi-finals, and the final is decent, the narrative changes.

But, no matter the outcome, we need our stars to shine, not flicker, or fade away.

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

Bracket:

Quarter Finals:

Spain 2-1 (AET) Germany: Probably fair to say the Germans aren’t happy. 30,000 have signed a petition to have the game replayed after something of a controversial handball that didn’t result in a penalty for the Germans and then Spain winning it in the 119th minute of extra-time.

Portugal 0(3)-0(5) (AET) France: France still haven’t scored a goal in open play and questions need to be asked why Portugal persisted in playing with ten men all tournament - although, there were no Ronaldo waterworks. [Highlights]

England 1(5)-1(4) Switzerland: Football fans across the world will be dreading a Euro final match-up between England and France. Unless it goes straight to penalties. England have gone from winning two out of the previous nine shootouts before the Southgate-era, to three out of four with him at the helm. They’ve now got Ivan Toney who doesn’t even look at ball when taking one. [Highlights]

Netherland 2-1 Türkiye: This had the makings of another Turkish corner kick upset until the Netherlands found a couple of gears and goals in the last twenty minutes. [Highlights]

Semi-Finals:

Tuesday July 9th: Spain vs France

Wednesday July 10th: England vs Netherlands

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COPA America Round-up

Bracket:

Venezuela (2)1-1(4) Canada: the pundits at Fox could just about keep their jealously in check in their post-match summarizing - they knew it could’ve, should’ve been USA, but their little-fancied cousins had plenty of chances to see off Venezuela in normal time prior to their 4-2 PK shootout win. [Highlights]

Panama 0-5 Colombia: 27 games unbeaten, and looking extremely solid. Colombia have looked the most comfortable side in the tournament progressing quite easily to the last four brushing past Panama 5-0. [Highlights]

Uruguay (4)0-0(2) Brazil: not for the faint-hearted, what this tetchy affair lacked in quality it made up for in the dark arts. Down to ten men after VAR sent Nandez off in the second half for a dangerous challenge on Rodrygo, Bielsa’s Uruguay saw off the slightly more progressive Brazil 4-2 on penalties. [Highlights]

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In Other Soccer News

Transfers:

The Guardian’s interactive transfer thing.

And the women’s one.

Stat(s) of the Day

Most shots taken at a single Euros without scoring since 1980 Deco (2004) - 24, Cristiano Ronaldo (2024) - 23, Fernando Hierro (1996) - 23, Kevin De Bruyne (2016) - 21, Dani Olmo (2020) - 21:

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

“At Brighton it was all tactical, just with the ball; tactical, tactical, tactical. And at Chelsea, it was run, run, run and it was very difficult for me.” - Moises Caicedo

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It must feel like Christmas in soccer jersey land, and if there’s one thing you shouldn’t do is take any brand selling soccer jerseys too seriously as a barometer.

That’s because the football shirt itself is the barometer.

Replica shirts weren’t a thing until the 1973/74 season, when Admiral first released a Leeds shirt out into the wild; and that was only for children.

I’d love to say it could only handle one wash before falling apart, but football shirts in the seventies were like wearing a chain mail potato sack. Just putting it on would chafe your nipples so badly that if they were available at a BDSM club they’d have their own safe word. 

Grown-ups had to wait until the 1982 World Cup. Even then, you would only wear your club colors and national team. If at all.

Then Italy happened. First, Italia 90. Then in 1992, Football Italia started showing live Serie A games on a Sunday afternoon with all the best footballers in the world who you’d only ever seen in major international championships.

And (a) football subculture was born. 

English football had just finished a five year ban from Europe, and it wasn’t particularly good, and it definitely wasn’t stylish. Reaching the World Cup semi-final had captured the imagination, but Italian football was aspirational. 

People started wearing Italian club shirts - and not just football fans. There was a subset who wouldn’t be seen dead supporting an English team, but slept in their Gazza-era Lazio shirt until the ‘Banco di Roma’ started peeling off.  

They were a tribe of football culture warriors. 

 It wasn’t that English club fans were above such fripperies. Most kids only ever doodled two things during maths: unflattering caricatures of their teacher, or football kits.

Fast forward to today, and the football shirt doesn’t just tell people who you support, but tells a story about when/how/where you supported them. 

It’s a coded footballing and cultural reference point.

In fact, if you want to see men who consider shampoo an affront to their masculinity, let alone moisturizer, go full ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’, listen to them talk about whether this year’s kit would look better with hooped socks, or how the band on the away kit sleeve doesn’t continue the line of the shorts. Oh, and the wistful longing for the late 70’s ‘v’ collar.    

You might buy this season’s jersey for gameday, but it isn’t SHARP-era United (electronics, not Lee), or 90’s OPEL Milan. 

It isn’t special….yet.  

So, back to the selling of jerseys, a certain online retailer has broken down their best selling jerseys by player, state, and club. On the face of it, we can dismiss it as a standard bit of marketing to flog some more Messi shirts on the back of Copa America.  

Nothing wrong with that. They’d be fools not to.

So, what’s the subtext? Is there a story? Do they even sell enough jerseys?

Let’s take Pulisic. He’s interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. Are they Milan or USMNT jerseys? Or both?

2. Is it hyperbole? I’m not sure I’m with Carli Lloyd when she says on live TV, that with Messi and Ronaldo at the end of their careers, Pulisic is the next generational talent in that bracket. 

However, once you do a little bit of digging, there’s one very telling stat that should make anyone sit-up and lay some respect down:

Pre-Pulisic, AC Milan sold an average of 300K jerseys per year globally with only 9% sold in the US.

In the Pulisic-era, Milan has seen a 75% global increase in shirt sales, up to 525K, with 43% of those sold in the US. 

Should anyone outside of the US scoff at me for wearing a Pulisic Milan shirt (besides being too old to wear one), that’s the story.

That makes America some force to be reckoned with - at least culturally. Because they aren’t all being sold to Italian-Americans. The 9% pre-Pulisic would account for that.

And like the fall of Serie A after the heady days of the 90’s, the Premier League is flirting with its own final days of Rome.

We’re going to need another empire.

Just make sure you’re wearing the shirt.

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

Here’s the Last 16 bracket:

Marvelously well done Georgia. First ever tournament, ranked 74th in the world, and while it may have been Portugal’s reserve team, they were well worth their 2-0 win.

After all that whining yesterday, this is why we watch football.

And they’re getting 10 million euros off the former prime minister / billionaire for just getting out of their group. That’ll have them playing like England in no time!

And the other game in the group between the Czech Republic 1-2 Turkiyeiye finished 18-2:

And in the ongoing group of death, everybody finished on four points after all starting the day on three points. Slovakia 1-1 Romania, while Belgium drew 0-0 with Ukraine to a chorus of boos as they left the pitch. Ukraine go home despite finishing with more points than Slovenia.

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COPA America Round-up

Mexico aren’t having a great tournament after failing to score a penalty and losing 1-0 to Venezuela, who qualified for the knockout stages. While Ecuador still have a chance to qualify after beating Jamaica 3-1.

Panama vs. United States

• Date: Thursday, June 27

• Location: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

• Time: 6 p.m. ET

• TV: Fox

• Streaming: Fox Sports App, FuboTV, Sling TV, TUDN and ViX

Uruguay vs. Bolivia

• Date: Thursday, June 27

• Location: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

• Time: 9 p.m. ET

• TV: Fox

• Streaming: Fox Sports App, FuboTV, Sling TV, TUDN and ViX

In Other Soccer News

US Soccer aims to use 2026 World Cup to jump-start youth development. (LATimes $)

MLS: Brighton are interested in Inter Miami’s Diego Gomez (BBC)

PREMIER LEAGUE: Transfer gossip a go-go, with Chelsea after Alexander Isak for £115 million, obviously confused about the PSR loophole thing. Barcelona interested in Man City Julian Alvarez. And more (BBC)

Shaquille O’Neal is looking to buy a stake in West Ham (SUN)

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Stat of the Day

For the first time in his career, Ronaldo has failed to score in the group stages of a major tournament. No wonder he looked grumpy.

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"This is the best day in the lives of Georgians. We just made history. Nobody would believe what has happened, that we would defeat Portugal but this is why we’re a strong team. We just encourage each other and told each other that we could do that.”- Kvhicha Kvaratskhelia after 74th ranked Georgia beat 6th ranked Portugal.

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Yesterday, discussing the latest turgid display from Gareth Southgate’s England, someone asked what seemed to be a pertinent question – Yes, England matches may be pretty dire viewing but how many truly great games have we seen at the Euros or Copa America?

Everyone will have their own answers, depending on loyalties and preferences. There have been good games, moments of drama and some ding-dong battles (think Georgia v Turkey) but perhaps the loaded question was right, we have yet to really see two teams producing entertaining world class football.

But here’s the thing – we really shouldn’t expect elite level football from the group stages of modern tournaments.

The expanded, enlarged, tournaments we are presented with today aren’t designed to deliver top quality because they aren’t designed for that purpose. They are less about the best against the best and more a combination of participation opportunity, fan-festival and revenue play.

UEFA didn’t expand the Euros from 16 teams to 24 to bring us better football, they did it to create more involvement for their member associations (a political win for the UEFA leadership), more games and more money.

This approach has been taken to its extreme by FIFA who will present us with a 48-team group stage at the World Cup in 2026, which will produce a lot of games and a lot of television inventory to simply get us back to 32 teams for the knockout rounds.

Now, before anyone accuses us of hypocrisy, yes, we celebrated the fact that the Euros is packed full of East European nations that are normally frozen out of top-level club competition. That is largely the result of expansion. So we can’t have it both ways.

What we do need to do perhaps, is to temper our expectations. There will be plenty of great football to come before July 14 – both in Europe and in the USA. We will end up with the best playing the best and it will bring us the quality we are perhaps missing right now.

The top teams know they need to pace themselves to give themselves the biggest chance when it matters the most.

Of course there are different ways of going about that. You have the England way and then you have Argentina, who have looked top class in overcoming Canada and Chile without truly hitting top gear.

But ultimately, the only thing that matters in the group stage, is getting out of it. If we currently have a little sense of being underwhelmed it’s probably because the build-up to these tournaments massively over-promises.

If there is one lesson from the Euros and the Copa so far it is simply – don’t believe the hype.

Or, don’t believe the hype of the favorites. Yet.

Another unforeseen byproduct of the ‘Summer of Soccer Saturation’ has been a more pronounced confirmation bias, plus the tournament structures aren’t quite apples to apples.

With six games a day, had you picked Austria vs Netherlands yesterday rather than France vs Poland, skipped Group C, watched the Canada vs Peru game, then switched Chile vs Argentina off after 75 minutes, your take would be markedly different take to having spent half your day watching the dross served up by France and England. 

Copa America needs teams to come out of the gate slightly hotter as qualification leads you straight into the quarter finals, while the Euros requires a crash course in pivot tables.

It can’t be that hard to know who you’re playing in the next round, surely?

As an exercise in preventing a drop-off in viewing figures now your country can only be ‘quasi-eliminated’, the UEFA suits are probably feeling rather smug.

It’s not like their job is to really care about the football.

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

It’s Crunch-Zeit - the final group games played at the same time and it’s all on the line. We still haven’t a clue who is playing who in the Last 16, but we do know who has and hasn’t qualified:

QUALIFIED (11/16): Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland

ELIMINATED (5/8): Albania, Croatia, Poland, Scotland, Serbia

Then we get to third place, ranked by:

1. Points
2. Goal difference
3. Goals scored
4. Wins
5. Lower disciplinary points
6. European qualifiers overall ranking, unless Germany are involved. If Germany are involved, random draw.

Top four qualify:

ESPN seem to be on top of what the devil is going on.

Moving swiftly on to yesterday’s entertainment: Group D

Yes, that’s Ralf Rangnick’s Austria winning the group with a very impressive 3-2 win over the Netherlands, meaning the Dutch could play England in the next round. France limped their way a 1-1 draw against the first team to be eliminated from the tournament, Poland.

Favorites are making a terrible fist of EURO 2024 thus far. Speaking of which…

…on to Group C.

When the most interesting thing to happen in a group is a yellow card given to the assistant manager of Slovenia, Milivoje Novaković, you know it’s been a bad day.

After both England vs. Slovenia and Denmark vs. Serbia finished 0-0, Denmark and Slovenia finished level on points, goal difference, goals scored and yellow cards shown to players. The yellow card shown to Novaković tipped the balance and Denmark qualified in second place, but Slovenia have still qualified for the knockout stages for the first time in their history.

While England aren’t even trying to hit a barn door with a banjo at the minute, they do have the lowest number of shots against in the tournament.

Something, something, defenses winning championships?

And today, it’s Groups E & F

First up, Group E: the one where everybody is on three points, and undoubtedly conspire to all finish on four points as Lukaku has more goals chalked off by VAR in one half than England have scored in the group stages:

PERMUTATIONS: See ESPN

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COPA America Round-up

We’ll have to take The New York Post’s word for it that the atmosphere during Argentina’s 1-0 win over Chile at the MetLife Stadium was akin to a Taylor Swift encore, who played there last summer.

And just like Taylor Swift last year, Argentina are the first to qualify for the quarter finals.

Jesse Marsch has his signature win as Canada beat ten-man Peru 1-0 with a Jonathan David goal in the 74th minute. It was all too much for the assistant referee who needed to be stretched off after fainting in the 93 degree temperatures. (Y!Sports)

And today’s games:

In Other Soccer News

EUROPE:

Bolstered by the 2022 FIFA World Cup, revenue in the European football market grew by 16% in the 2022/23 season to €35.3 billion. (Deloitte)

WALES: Thierry Henry is ‘in the frame’ to replace Rob Page as manager. Either that, or Ryan Reynolds has been trying to get him to come out of retirement. (BBC)

USWNT: Emma Hayes isn’t messing around. There is no place for Alex Morgan on the Olympic roster.

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Stat of the Day

Phil Foden has passed the ball more times to Jordan Pickford (3) than to Harry Kane (1)

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The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"I think today I love tennis more than football. It’s unbelievable, I can’t watch football matches, I find them very boring.”

- Ronaldo (the Brazilian one) yesterday, so probably after just watching England…..

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Copa America - tv numbers up, stadium numbers down

The United States Men's National Team (USMNT) had more soccer fans across the nation tuning in during their Copa America opener against Bolivia than tuning out, drawing a record-breaking 3.17 million viewers on Fox. It’s a figure that marks the network's highest non-World Cup soccer audience in history and surpasses all previous English-language Copa America viewership records.

The group stage match, held on Sunday night, peaked at 4.01 million viewers between 6:30 and 6:45 PM ET, demonstrating no small amount of interest and enthusiasm in the USMNT

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Copa America Viewership Comparisons

To put this into perspective, the U.S.-Bolivia game outperformed the USMNT's group stage matches in the 2016 Copa America Centenario, which were all broadcast on FS1. Additionally, it surpassed the viewership of the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup final between the U.S. and Mexico, which held the previous record for English-language cable TV's best non-World Cup match.

However, the audience for the U.S.-Bolivia match was still significantly lower than the USMNT's group stage matches in the 2022 World Cup, all of which garnered at least triple the viewership.

Regional Viewership Trends

San Diego, a city known for its strong support of both Copa America and UEFA Euros, led the way in viewership for U.S.-Bolivia, followed by Washington, D.C., and Austin. Spanish-language viewership data for this match, as well as other notable games like Saturday's Mexico-Jamaica encounter, will be released soon, providing further insights into the tournament's overall reach.

MLS Shattering Attendance Records, Fueled by Messi Mania

Major League Soccer (MLS) is riding a wave of unprecedented popularity, shattering attendance records left, right, and center. Building on the momentum of a record-breaking 2023 season, the league is poised to set new benchmarks in 2024.

An impressive 6.5 million fans have already flocked to MLS matches this season, marking a 725,000 increase compared to the same period in 2023. The league has witnessed a strong surge in high-attendance games, with five matches exceeding 60,000 attendees, six surpassing 50,000, and a whopping fifteen exceeding 40,000. This fan-driven momentum has translated to a 13% overall increase in attendance, with 25 out of 29 clubs experiencing growth or maintaining their average attendance compared to last year.

A few things are fueling this growth, including consistent Saturday night scheduling, a 15% surge in season ticket sales, and the undeniable "Lionel Messi Effect."

Messi's impact was evident in two record-breaking matches:

• Inter Miami CF's 3-2 victory over Sporting Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium on April 13 drew a crowd of 72,610, the fourth-largest standalone crowd in MLS history.

• Inter Miami CF's 4-1 win over the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on April 27 attracted 65,612 fans, setting another club attendance record

In Comparison, Copa America Attendance has been Poor

The 2024 Copa América is struggling to fill stadiums in the United States, with attendance significantly lower than capacity in most venues. While the opening match between Argentina and Canada attracted a near-capacity crowd (for the obvious reason), subsequent matches saw much lower attendance figures. For example, less than half of the stadium was filled for the Ecuador-Venezuela game.

High ticket prices have been cited as a major factor contributing to low attendance. Many fans are unwilling to pay the steep prices, especially given the large capacity of NFL stadiums where the matches are being held.

"It's frustrating, especially for the player, to be in a stadium that seats 70,000 people and barely 25,000 get in. There is no atmosphere." - Weston McKinnie

Despite similar issues with high ticket prices in the 2016 Copa América, that tournament still managed to draw an average attendance of 46,000 fans per game. The current tournament's attendance figures fall significantly short.

In contrast, the Euros have attracted large crowds to smaller venues, likely due in part to shorter travel distances between host cities and home countries.

Organizers may need to learn some lessons before 2026.

A Promising Future, But We Need The Full Picture

These are all mostly fantastic numbers, of course, but there will be executives, soccer and non-soccer alike, anxiously awaiting the numbers once The Summer of Soccer has been factored in.

We discussed the potential pitfalls of continuing MLS alongside two international tournaments; and while Copa looks to have shot itself in the foot logistically, it’ll be evident just how reliant US soccer is on the little magician.

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

It’s Crunch-Zeit - the final group games played at the same time and it’s all on the line. If you’re struggling to work out which third place teams can play who, we got you:

Got it? Good. If you’re a bit slow on the uptake like us, here’s an explainer.

Moving swiftly on, Yesterday was Group B.

Let’s start with the Azzurri, who literally left it until the last kick of the game in the 98th minute against Croatia to earn a 1-1 draw and qualify for the Last 16. At least this Italian commentator channeled his inner Tardelli:

Spare a thought for man of the match, Luka Modric, who, in his last Euros at 38, became the oldest ever goalscorer in the history of the tournament netting the opener after missing a penalty 33 seconds beforehand. At least this Italian journalist was gracious enough to appreciate him.

In the other Group B game, Spain beat Albania to top the group with a 100% record. (BBC)

And today, it’s Groups C & D

PERMUTATIONS:

England are through no matter what, but everyone in Group C can still qualify. In Group D, only Poland are out of the running. As much as we’re enjoying the chaos of this third place nonsense, it’s enough to give you an aneurysm, so maybe pop over here for further clarification.

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COPA America Round-up

Brazil huffed and puffed their way to a 0-0 draw against Cost Rica, with Luis Paqueta looking odds on to win the most shots off target award.

"We were Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. Everyone thought we were dead before the movie started." - Costa Rica coach, Gustavo Alfaro, on a movie where nobody thought Bruce Willis was dead beforehand.

Colombia looked convincing in their 2-1 win against Paraguay, James Rodriguez involved in both goals.

Today we have two more games, including the birthday boy returning to the scene of his ' I am quitting Argentina' moment

Group A: Peru vs. Canada

• Time: 6 p.m. ET

• Location: Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas

• Cable TV: FS1

• Streaming: fuboTV

Chile vs. Argentina

• Time: 9 p.m. ET

• Location: MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ

• Cable TV: FS1

• Streaming: fuboTV

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In Other Soccer News

MLS/USL:

Planning for a ‘soccer specific stadium’ in Indianapolis is still in full swing so long as they have a team to fill it. (WTHR)

PREMIER LEAGUE: More on the PSR Swap Shop:

• PSR-friendly homegrown deals jar with the moral fabric of football. (The Athletic $)

• Chelsea Warned by Premier League over FFP ‘loophole’ as transfer hurdle emerges (football.london)

But, the Championship saw revenues exceed wages for the first time in six years - 10% to be exact, up to £749m. It’s still the fifth biggest league in Europe, and while it collectively spent £706m in wages over the 2023/24 season, it was still eclipsed by the £4bn the Premier League spent. (BBC)

Premier League Players Not at EURO 2024 or Copa America:

Oh, and Kalvin Phillips…

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Stat of the Day

121 countries have won a game at a national tournament since Scotland last did. Quiz question - who was it?

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The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"You can’t have eight minutes of added time after that game. Eight minutes, it’s nonsense. There weren’t too many breaks in play or too many fouls to justify that. I don’t want to get into it too much. I don’t want to cause a fuss about what’s going on." […] “We are a small country. No one really gives us too much thought, so we have to stand up for ourselves.”- Croatian coach Zlatko Dalić hinting at conspiracy theories so Italy doesn’t have to.

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Thanks for reading The Daily Soccer ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Tim Iroegbunam

Lewis Dobbin

Omari Kellyman

Yankuba Minteh

What do they all have in common other than nobody’s ever heard of them, and likely won’t until they pop-up on season six of Welcome to Wrexham?

In a desperately cynical or superbly smart move to abide by PSR, three of the clubs forced to sell players to balance the books before the June 30th accounting deadline, Aston Villa, Chelsea, and Everton, decided they’d ditch Transfermarket Sweep and have a little ‘swap meet’ instead over the weekend.

Essentially, they sold swapped each other the aforementioned bunch of ‘academy prospects’ at highly inflated prices while costing them very little. Oh, and Ian Maatsen.

For example, say a club (let’s call them Everton) have an academy starlet piece of deadwood who is ‘worth’ $6M, and another club (who we’ll call Manchester City) have ‘the next Peter Schmeichel’ a fifth-choice U21 League Two keeper worth $4M.

Standard transfer swap practice means a difference of $2M to be paid, while noting the standard valuations in the books as a piffling $4/2M profit.

Now that’s not a huge dent in the $XXXM they need to find before the end of the month.

But, there’s nothing to stop clubs valuing them at $28M and $26M respectively and still doing a ‘swap’ with the same $2M cash difference - instead they’ve ‘made’ a very different profit of $26/22M.

BINGO!

Suddenly, they’ve ‘balanced’ the books, met PSR requirements, and kept their star players prized assets.

They obviously needed a new model seeming Vincent Kompany and Burnley were no longer around to buy the likes of James Trafford.

You can read more over at the BBC.

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

It’s Crunch-Zeit - the final group games played at the same time and it’s all on the line.

Yesterday was Group A.

Hungary could still advance to the last 16 as one of the best third place finishers, after Kevin Csoboth scored with the last kick of the game on 90+10’ - the stoppage time due to Barnabás Varga suffering facial fractures in a collision with Scotland’s goalkeeper Angus Gunn that immediately knocked him unconscious.

Awfully decent of UEFA to gaslight us that there was ‘no delay’ by medical teams even though we all saw the Hungarian players have to get the stretcher themselves.

Meanwhile, Scotland go out of a major tournament at the group stage again:

In the other Group A game, Switzerland secured second spot - and would’ve qualified as group winners - had Germany not equalized in the 92nd minute. (BBC)

And today, it’s Group B:

Croatia vs. Italy 3 PM on FOX

- Commentators: Ian Darke & Landon Donovan

Albania vs. Spain 3 PM on FS1

- Commentators: Darren Fletcher & Owen Hargreaves

Yes, we’ll be watching Ian Darke and Landon Donovan, too.

PERMUTATIONS: Spain have qualified as group winners.

The defending champs will finish runners-up if they avoid defeat against Croatia, but will be out if they lose and Albania beats Spain.

If Albania beats Spain and Croatia beats Italy they’ll finish runners-up to Spain, but will be out if they lose and Croatia wins.

Croatia finish runners-up if they beat Italy and Albania loses, but should they draw and Albania not lose they’re out.

Switzerland awaits the runner-up in the Last 16.

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COPA America Round-up

The pitches aren’t getting any better, and Weston McKennie isn’t impressed by the crowds, either:

"It's frustrating, especially for the player, to be in a stadium that seats 70,000 people and barely 25,000 get in. There is no atmosphere."

He wasn’t a fan of the AT&T Stadium’s pitch, despite USA’s easy, if labored 2-0 win over Bolivia: "It's an uneven pitch, it breaks away with every step".

And while it was far from a full house in Miami for Uruguay’s 3-1 win over Panama:

They made a decent enough racket as Uruguay showed why they’re one the the pre-tournament favorites.

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In Other Soccer News

Bastian Schweinsteiger speaks into his coffee:

Raul Pinto, the Football Leaks hacker, is threatening to release more documents related to Man City’s dodgy dealings - another five hard drives to be exact containing millions more emails and documents. (Y!Sports)

Ruud van Nistelrooy could be joining Manchester United as part of Erik ten Hag’s coaching staff, or possibly Burnley’s new manager. (The Telegraph)

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Stat of the Day

The Poland vs. Turkiye had more pitch invaders (5) than goals (3). Including this little munchkin (and the kid on the left):

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"I’m over. I’m dead. Paul Pogba doesn’t exist anymore." - Paul Pogba

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00:00:46 - Introduction

00:01:26 - Copa America Start and US Team Preparation • Discussion of the tournament's start and pitch complaints • Analysis of USA's preparation and expectations for the team • Debate on Greg Berhalter's role and potential future as coach

00:19:26 - US Team Talent and "Golden Generation" Discussion • Examination of the current US team's talent level • Debate on whether this is truly a "golden generation" for US soccer • Comparison to past US players and teams

00:27:55 - Bolivia Match Preview • Analysis of Bolivia as an opponent • Expectations for the US team in this opening match • Importance of matching intensity and getting off to a good start

00:32:04 - Tournament Atmosphere and Expectations • Discussion on playing in large NFL stadiums • Importance of crowd support, especially in Atlanta and Kansas City • Expectations for US to gain 6 points from first two games

00:34:01 - Copa America Tournament Predictions • Analysis of tournament favorites including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Uruguay • Discussion of potential upsets and storylines to watch • Speculation on dream final scenarios (e.g., Colombia-Argentina in Miami)

00:38:14 - Conclusion • Wrap-up and thank you to guests • Reminder to listeners about future Copa America updates

So Copa America got underway last night with Argentina doing enough to take care of Canada without ever really hitting top gear. The world champions will take a 2-0 win with a host of missed chances (including two times when the 70,000 crowd in Atlanta thought they were about to witness a Messi goal) but what they won’t take is playing on sods of turf placed on top of an NFL style artificial turf field.

"It's not good for the spectacle. I'm sorry, it's not an excuse, but it's not a pitch,” said Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni.

“The stadium is beautiful and with the synthetic turf it should be spectacular, but with the (grass) turf today. Honestly, it's not suitable for this kind of players," he said.

Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez went a little further, calling the pitch a “disaster” although we have to wonder if it really was much worse than many of the surfaces teams in South America and CONCACAF regularly play on?

Still, its not a good look that in 2024, soccer in America is still being played in such ad-hoc environment. Great stadiums, great facilities but the idea of placing grass on top of artificial grass is kind of absurd when you think about it. Thankfully, FIFA are demanding that the venues for the 2026 World Cup have to switch to proper natural grass - not sods on top of plastic.

Canada boss Jesse Marsch found something else to complain about after the game - turning his ire on Argentina for their half-time mind-games when they left his team hanging around awkwardly on the sods of turf waiting for the world champions to return.

"When they were waiting, I knew that they were looking at video and they were analyzing how they wanted to play against us. Now, I wish again, the referees would manage that. If we were five minutes late, we'd get a fine. There'd be a big problem."

"Let's see what happens with Argentina. I think they have to be fined,” added the American.

It wasn’t the worst opening game - Canada battled hard, a little bit too hard at times and Argentina offered enough glimpses of what they are capable of in attack. Have a look at the short highlights anyway:

It’s Peru v Chile tonight, at AT&T Stadium in Dallas (Cowboys Stadium) where the two south American teams will be playing on….recently installed Kentucky bluegrass.

Chile, remember, won the Copa America centenary tournament in the USA in 2016 but they haven’t looked like repeating that feat this time around. They do, however, have the upper hand over Peru traditionally and start as favourites this time too. Plenty of info and stats here.

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

Today’s Games:

Group E: Slovakia vs. Ukraine, 9 a.m. on Fubo

Group D: Poland vs. Austria, 12 p.m. on FS1
Group D: Netherlands vs. France, 3 p.m. on Fox

"We know it's an experiment. We know we don't have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips,” blabbed Gareth Southgate after England were fortunate to hold on to a 1-1 draw against Denmark, who hooked Phillips’ ‘replacement’ on 54 mins despite…

But maybe Southgate has a point?

Italian coach, Luciano Spalletti, suggested Italy were fortunate to only lose by a single goal. “They caused us problems beyond what the scoreline suggests and we can't beat around the bush on that," he said after losing 1-0 to Spain.

And Serbian manager, Dragan Stojkovic, suggested that “Serbs do not die so easily,” after a last-gasp equalizer kept Serbia in the tournament.

Derek Rae’s commentator notes for Slovenia vs. Serbia:

In Other Soccer News

MLS: Inter Miami hire former Barcelona and Arsenal director of football, Raúl Sanllehí, as co-president:

"I have a very clear model in which I believe that clubs should be based and grow from there. The ownership wants to turn this club into a global football powerhouse, and that's something that I embrace completely."

PREMIER LEAGUE: Crystal Palace offer Micheal Olise a ‘bumper new deal’ in an effort to deter Bayern, Chelsea and Newcastle. (DailyMail)

Liverpool hope the arrival Of Mbappe and Endrick at Real Madrid means a chance of signing the ‘Turkish Messi’, Arda Guler. (TeamTalk)

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Stat of the Day

England have never won their first two games at a Euros.

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"For a country that's won one World Cup & have never won the Euros they're very expectant & very arrogant about their chances." - the always impartial James McClean on RTE.

Tune into live from Atlanta as we preview Copa America with AFP’s US Soccer Correspondent, Simon Evans:

Listen to Our Podcast

Finally, Copa America gets under way tonight with the world champions Argentina up against Jesse Marsch’s Canada in front of a sold-out 70,000 crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Yes, the Euros may be great, but over here we have the world champions, the GOAT, Brazil, Bielsaball, NFL stadiums with grass on top of artificial turf, Alexi Lalas rants, and endless online debates about Gregg Berhalter.

Plus you can actually watch it on television, on your sofa, after dinner rather than having to sneak a look on your phone in the office. (Its an 8pm kick off and on all these channels)

On paper, Argentina should ease into the tournament with a comfortable win but the `15-times Copa America champions will need no reminders of how early games in tournaments can provide early wake-up calls - Saudi Arabia anyone?

Canada will be captained by 23-year-old Alphonso Davies, whose journey from a refugee camp in Ghana to Bayern Munich via the Vancouver Whitecaps, is well worth revisiting. He’s a great story but also a player to watch in this tournament.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni knows there is going to be a big narrative around Messi’s final Copa America (he turns 37 on Monday) and regardless of how this tournament goes, constant chatter about whether he will be around as a 39-year-old to play in the 2026 World Cup, so he tried to dampen down that debate by saying we should all just enjoy watching him play, while we can.

And he’s right - it’s great watching Messi for Inter Miami in MLS but another all together watching him play for his country with a title on the line.

But we might also start to get a glimpse into the future of Argentina with young players such as Alejandro Garnacho of Manchester United and Valentin Carboni (Inter Milan/Monza) likely to feature from the bench initially.

And we’ll talk about it all in some depth on our Audio Newsletter (or podcast if you prefer) available on all good podcast platforms.

Tomorrow we’ll look in a bit more depth at Friday’s game between Peru and Chile and also look ahead to the weekend’s games which includes the USA’s debut against Bolivia on Sunday as well as first looks at Mexico and Uruguay.

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

Germany beat Hungary 2-0 - report here and bonus Jurgen Klinsmann analysis video here from ESPN.

Croatia 2 Albania 2 was another good all-East European contest. (UEFA.com)

Scotland finally got their Braveheart on to earn a 1-1 draw against Switzerland.

Inspired by this particular Scotland fan: “You’ll never take our Tennant’s Super!”

Oh, wait…

It’s a wee bit early to start on the permutations, but here’s what every team needs to do to qualify out of their groups.

EURO 2024 POWER RANKINGS

CBS, FOX, and even The Daily Telegraph. Interesting to compare them to ESPN’s pre-tournament rankings.

At least they all have Scotland dead last. Although, they made a decent fist of it against Switzerland in their 1-1 draw.

And where the money’s going:

In Other Soccer News

MLS Midweek Round-up: Inter Miami beat Columbus Crew 2-1 without, Messi, Suarez, and Rojas. Real Salt Lake go 15 unbeaten winning 4-3 at Sporting Kansas City. FC Dallas beat Minnestoa United 5-3 with help from a Petar Musa hat-trick. 16 year-old Julian Hall scored his first MLS goal moments after coming on in the 88th minute to snatch a 2-2 draw for New York Red Bulls against FC Montreal. Seattle Sounders scored twice in the second half to secure a 2-2 draw against Houston Dynamo with Paul Rothrock scoring in his first MLS start, and Jackson Ragen scoring his first career goal. Atlanta United won 1-0 away at D.C. United, Thiago Almada scoring the only goal. LAFC left it late to salvage a 1-1 against Austin FC, Kai Kamara equalizing on 90 minutes, which also put an end to their eight-game winning streak. FC Cincinnati also left it late, scoring in the tenth minute of stoppage time to overcome Philadelphia Union 4-3.

Chicago Fire’s Xherdan Shaqiri is the first player to score in the EUROs while playing his club football in North or South America (@OptaJack). Even more impressively, he’s the only European to have scored in each of the last six major international tournaments. (@Squawka)

PREMIER LEAGUE: UEFA have blocked Manchester Utd from signing Jean-Clair Todibo from Nice due to a clampdown on multi-clubs owners trading with each other. (@TelegrapDucker)

Stat of the Day

Did you know….

• The penalty was invented in 1891 after a free-kick (which was customary back in the day) had been awarded for handball on the goal line and the opposition crowded the ball making it impossible to score?

• On average, PK success rate is 70%; at the EUROs it’s 77%.

• Players who focus on the keeper have their penalties saved 40% of the time as opposed to those who don’t that have a much lower rate at 20%?

  (Wired)

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"They've told me it's going to be 12.30… from what I know, Jurgen complained a lot about this so probably they thought, with Jurgen being out let's put them at 12.30 again!" - Arne Slot attributing an early kick-off conspiracy theory to Jurgen Klopp.

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We preview the opening match between Argentina and Canada, the potential of the US team (despite their tough group), and the challenges faced by Mexico.

Who are the standout players to watch, including Lionel Messi and young talents such as Endrick?

Mexico is going through a challenging period and needs a strong performance in the tournament.

South America continues to produce incredible talent, and the tournament is an opportunity to discover new stars.

"There's something different about seeing him play for Argentina than there is seeing him play in MLS." - Simon Evans

"South America still produces an incredible amount of talent that always ends up going to Europe." - Simon Evans

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Five things to watch for in the Copa America:

1. Can Messi still do it? The eight-times Ballon d’Or winner turns 37 next week and is now in the stage where he is managing his workload before a major tournament. Ok, we’ll stop that train of thought right there. Of course, we know Messi can still do it. He has shown it with Inter Miami in MLS and he is in the Argentina team for good reason. It’s only 18 months since he led his nation to the World Cup after all. He could quite easily score a hat-trick in the opening Group A game against Canada on Thursday in Atlanta. But what we are getting at is - at the back-end of the tournament, when it’s all on the line in the last four against teams like Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, when it’s a hard, high-tempo game and it goes to extra-time, can he still really deliver then?

   We wouldn’t bet against him (who would?) but it will still be interesting to see whether the idea of him playing in the 2026 World Cup as a 39-year-old seems a realistic prospect or not.

2. Just how bad are Brazil? “It’s one of the worst teams in the recent years, no respectable leaders, only average players for the majority. I’ve never seen a situation as bad as this”. Those were infamously the words of Ronaldinho until he backed away and said it was all a stunt for an ad campaign for a deodorant.

   Thing is though, the reason so many fell for the stunt was, the analysis wasn’t far off.

   This Brazil team, sixth in CONMEBOL qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, really haven’t looked good at all. Is it going to click for coach Dorival Junior and his team in the USA? Is Vinicius Junior going to be the player we see for Real Madrid? Will 17-year-old Endrick live up to the hype? And will they find a shape and rhythm that was so evidently absenct in the recent friendly draw with the USA? We should find out pretty soon because they are in a fairly tough Group D with Colombia, Paraguay and Costa Rica. There is potential for a total disaster but, we don’t want that really do we? At the end of the day, everyone wants to be entertained by Brazil right?

3. The Berhalter Referendum USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter needs a good Copa America if he is going to build any kind of momentum heading towards the 2026 World Cup. Not a “just about good enough” tournament but one in which his team comfortably take care of business against Bolivia and Panama and compete for top spot in Group C with Uruguay. Then it should be Colombia or Brazil in the last eight. We aren’t going to say - if he fails to make the semis his job will be in danger - but fans will want to see his team really get close to beating a top side and not a repeat of that loss to the Netherlands in Qatar.

   You would think US Soccer would have a similar attitude. It would also be nice to see some of the much-hyped ‘golden generation’ live up to their reputations. Let’s see if the likes of Gio Reyna, Tim Weah and Weston McKinnie, can deliver top class performances against top class opposition.

   Game on.

4. ‘Bielsaball’ Rather like Ralf Rangnick with Austria, we suspect that Marcelo Bielsa’s high-energy approach, is much better suited to a three week tournament than for the long drag of a season in English football.

   Indeed his Uruguay team have been looking very good indeed heading into this tournament. Pace, directness and with Darwin Nunez on the end of it all, La Celeste should be well worth watching in this tournament, with or without cameo appearances from the one-legged Luis Suarez.

5. Will El Tri self-combust? The vibes say this should be a disaster for Mexico, who have looked pretty awful over the past year or so. But the draw has been relatively kind to them with Ecuador, Venezuela and Jamaica their opponents in Group B. Kind, but still…on recent form there is no guarantee that Mexico will make it into the knockout round and that could really see the end of Jimmy Lozano and all manner of angst.

Of course, the key question is: Just how much money will US Soccer make from COPA America?

Then again, maybe it’s: Who has the best kit?

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EURO 2024 Round-up

Where to watch: all TV broadcasters around the globe from UEFA

Seriously, Fox, it isn’t a summer of soccer if you fail to air games. You missed another belter - Turkey beating Georgia 3-1, with Arda Guker the first teenager to score since Ronaldo in 2004.

Portugal’s last gasp win over Czech Republic 2-1 had it all - a Czech rearguard against a geriatric, misfiring Portugal - the Czech Republic taking the lead with their first shot in the 62nd minute, only for Portugal to equalize seven minutes later after Stanek parried an innocuos cross against Hranac for an own goal. In the 92nd minute Conceição popped up 111 seconds after coming off the bench to win it for Portugal after Hranac tried to prevent a cross by sitting on it.

Talking point of the day seems to be just how past it is Ronaldo?

Group Standings After Round One

In Other Soccer News

Steve Cooper is the new manager at Leicester City. (SkySports)

Everton’s Friedkin takeover, which we aren’t entirely sure as to the timeframe cut-off that it can be called a saga again, is now in the Premier League approval stage. (Goodison News)

Stat of the Day

Portugal completed 368 passes in the first half of their match, the most in a single half of football at the European Championship finals on record.

On This Day….50 Years Ago

The Cruyff Turn was unleashed against Sweden:

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"Difficult to find a jersey for working out where there are no stupid rumours afterwards" - Mats Hummels on being seen wearing a 2012 Greece shirt.

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Make sure to check this UEFA page for the broadcast schedules of every country.

Monday was a day of high drama and great soccer, though.

Looks like Mbappe will miss the game against the Netherlands, which is handy for the TV folk as they wouldn’t know whose nose to focus on - his or Ronald Koeman’s.

While the tournament favourites didn’t look as unconvincing as England, albeit against better opposition in the form of Austria, Mbappe still didn’t manage to register his first goal at the Euros after missing a gilt-edged chance to finish the game off, breaking his nose, then getting booked.

Thankfully, the BBC has done a round-up of players who have had to wear masks in the past so we don’t have to.

But if you thought Les Bleus were unlucky with Nosegate, spare a thought for Belgium, who had a woeful time losing 1-0 against 48th ranked Slovakia. The Belgians had two Lukaku goals chalked off by VAR, the second by the new ball ‘snickometer’, referred to as a ‘bullshit decision’ by Gary Lineker - not on TV, of course.

Ukraine also had a terrible day at the office, beaten 3-0 by a very good Romanian performance, their first Euro win in 24 years. (Reuters)

In Other EURO 2024 News

The footballing world thought it had eradicated the more egregious old-school haircuts, and while there are still outbreaks of the Bundesliga müllet, especially in Australia, the combover hasn’t been seen since Sir Bobby Charlton played a charity five-a-side in 1986. That is until Landon Donovan.

He seems to have taken it in his stride, but we’d still like to make Landon feel a bit better by reminding him of the honey badger and mother of all combovers, Burnley, Tottenham, and England winger, Ralph Coates.

Speaking of England. No, you didn’t see Kieran Trippier inject himself with steroids in Sunday night’s 1-0 win against Serbia.

But he was juicing - pickle juicing.

Stat of the Day

Romelu Lukaku is the first player to have two goals disallowed by VAR in a EURO Championship finals.

Opening Weekend EPL Fixtures

Yes, they’re out; and here’s your first weekend including the mouthwatering mid-table match-up of Man Utd v Fulham on the Friday:

Aug. 16 20:00 Manchester United vs. Fulham

Aug. 17 12:30 Ipswich vs. Liverpool

Aug. 17 15:00 Arsenal vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers

Aug. 17 15:00 Everton vs. Brighton

Aug. 17 15:00 Newcastle vs. Southampton

Aug. 17 15:00 Nottingham Forest vs. Bournemouth

Aug. 17 17:30 West Ham vs. Aston Villa

Aug. 18 14:00 Brentford vs. Crystal Palace

Aug. 18 16:30 Chelsea vs. Manchester City

Aug. 19 20:00 Leicester City vs. Tottenham

BBC Sport have done a decent deep dive, and there’s even a digital calendar for people who like that kind of thing.

Jose Mourinho launches his own pair adidas Sambers 'made up in a tonal khaki colorway with a hairy suede upper,' that draw on 'quintessential footballing aesthetics' while he is photographed against a backdrop of 'quotidian Portuguese life'.

While the trainers/sneakers launch prior to his first game in charge of Fenerbahce on June 27th, you can get the ball now at all good dollar/pound stores. (DailyMail)

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

“Dallas has one of the smartest defences. We had to be creative to counter them. Pep [Guardiola] helped me in transitions and how to move guys…”

- Boston Celtics’ coach, Joe Mazzulla, on Pep giving back to the NBA

Jude Bellingham was very good indeed for England, in the first half of their 1-0 win against Serbia. Which, of course, was no surprise for anyone who has watched him play for Real Madrid this season of course. The lad is a special talent (and yes, incredibly mature for his age) and England were playing a rather mediocre Serbian team.

Perhaps it was because the second half was such a dull exhibition of Southgateball and there really wasn’t much in the way of excitement or controversy, but the English press has gone, well, slightly over the top in their praise of the midfielder.

We have ‘better than Gazza’ from Barney Ronay in the Guardian: We remember Paul Gascoigne, who also had everything but was barely in control of his own energies, whereas Bellingham seems to have been born already processing his route to greatness.

James Oiley at ESPN says “comparisons like this are palpably premature given the formative nature of these finals, but there were shades of Wayne Rooney in 2004” Bellingham shows he can bend Euro 2024 to his will.

“He knows what he is, and what he can be, too. Certainly he could be the player, the face, of this tournament.” says Martin Samuel in The Times ($).

The Times also has a nice piece with various people who have known Bellingham since he was a kid.

If it was a contest to see who could go the most overboard in their praise of Bellingham though, then Piers Morgan in The Sun is the clear winner:

Bellingham is a stunning hybrid version of some of the greatest to ever pull on an England shirt.

He’s Duncan Edwards with a dash of Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, David Beckham, Paul Gascoigne, Brian Robson, Paul Scholes, Glenn Hoddle, Gary Lineker and Wayne Rooney.

And there was us thinking that headed goal was pure Paul Mariner…..

Oh, and he’s even got a bit of Vinnie Jones in him.

Meanwhile Erik ten Hag is doing punditry duties in Holland and provided his views on Southgate and England’s very familiar retreat in the second half. (Daily Mail)

“England were playing very passive. I actually saw them moving backwards, they kept Serbia coming at them. It's the vision of the manager. England will take a 1-0 lead, then he decides to start gambling with making his team compact and relying on moments for the remaining minutes of the game.”

Yep.

The Athletic takes a good look at what actually went on with the guy with the hammer and molotov cocktail in Hamburg. All very weird.

Thankfully it wasn’t a repeat of this incident in Magdeburg on Saturday where an Afghan attacked a Euros garden party, killing one before he was eliminated by the German police.

Other EURO 2024 News

We’re not sure if allowing Joe öffentlich the opportunity to slip straight through Manuel Neuer on the Munich subway is sending the right message…

At 1-1 against Poland, and with ten minutes to go, Dutch fans were looking for Ronald Koeman to do something, anything….

And after a little root he came up with Wout, perennial Burnley loanee, and major championship talisman for the Netherlands, scoring with his first touch on 83 mins:

“He has value to the team,” Koeman said. “He has a different way of behaving, which is great. It was what we needed.” He was “a little bit upset” not to start, according to Koeman, but said afterwards he was “so happy, it's indescribable”. (Independent)

Where to Watch

Check out the UEFA page for the broadcast schedules of every country.

Stat(s) of the Day

There were just 11 shots between Serbia (6) and England (5), the lowest of any game at the EUROs on record (since 1980). (@OptaJean)

Mmmmmbappe?

In Other Soccer News

COPA AMERICA: 20 questions you didn’t know you needed answering about USMNT. (Henry Bushnell, Y!Sports)

EVERTON: Friedkin Group, the American owners of AS Roma, are reported to have bought a 94% stake in the blue half of Merseyside for €650 million plus their debts of €400 million. Sounds like a bargain! (Romapress.net)

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"The memes? Of course one or two get to me, I usually have a laugh about it. I was born this way, I have this body shape, I’m not saying that I was this big when I was born, but I have a basic, physique, genetics, I can’t change that.”

- Martin Adam - Hungary’s ‘Big No. 9’ and proverbial '“tégla szarháza”  

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This ain’t your momma’s usual transfer window. If there’s one thing financial fair play rules have inadvertently done to improve football, it’s the introduction of Transfermarket Sweep! 

Not to be confused with the supermarket version where contestants go on a mad dash to fill their trolley with as much crap as is humanly possible in a minute, Transfermarket Sweep has the clubs filling up the trolley prior to dashing around to find a buyer before the end of June. 

Winners will start next season without a points deduction, but also without their best players, and losers could start with a points deduction, but a more intact squad. 

Leeds are likely to do both.

Contestants this year include:

Aston Villa’s trolley has developed a wonky wheel after their initial Champions League transfer plans were dealt a blow with the need to comply with PSR. Unai Emery is in talks with Ross Barkley after impressing with Luton last season, and is looking bring Tammy Abraham back to Villa Park should £40m-man Jhon Duran move to Chelsea.  

Chelsea, slightly confused about the memo, join the race to sign Michael Olise from Crystal Palace along with Man Utd, Bayern Munich, and Newcastle, and have agreed personal terms with the winger. They’ve  already signed Tosin Adarabioyo on a free from Fulham, and could be interested in Mats Hummels who left Dortmund this morning on a free after manager Edin Terzic resigned. Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran is also discussing personal terms, with Conor Gallagher and Ian Maatsen going the other way, although BVB are keen to sign the Dutchman. 

Everton have shot out of the gates with Jarrad Branthwaite agreeing personal terms with Manchester United - the sticking point being the £80m Everton want for the England international. United have offered £35M. However, Sean Dyche will need to sell or need new owners to buy the likes of Armando Broja from Chelsea.

Leicester City are relatively quiet, as they focus on their search to replace Enzo Maresca, with Graham Potter the latest managerial frontrunner. But, they are in talks with Juventus in an effort to sign their Argentine forward Matias Soule.

Newcastle are looking to replace Migual Almiron with Chelsea’s Nono Madueke should they manage to offload the 30-year-old winger for £60m, although they are also sniffing around Michael Olise from Palace. 

Nottingham Forest only have to find £20m to comply with regulations this time round, but there’s still interest from Spurs for Morgan Gibbs-White. Forest are looking to sign Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian defender Vitao as a potential replacement for Murillo. 

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EURO 2024: IT BEGINS!

It all kicks off in Munich today as Germany take on Scotland in the tournament opener. It’s a win win for most England fans as one of their old foes will provide reason for mockery. 

Although, Scotland haven’t helped themselves with setting up base at the foot of Mount Wank. (Express)

Where to watch and odds

• Date: Friday, June 14 | Time: 3pm ET / 8pm BST

• Location: Fußball Arena München -- Munich, Germany

• TV: FOX (subscription) | Stream: Fubo (subscription)

• If you can get a suitable VPN it’ll be shown on ITV and STV, and can be streamed via ITV X and the STV Player. Every match at Euro 2024 is free-to-air on BBC or ITV (and STV) in the UK.

• UEFA has a full worldwide list of TV broadcast partners and online live streams (UEFA.com)

• Odds: Germany 1/4; Draw 5/1; Scotland 10/1

And in an effort to stop it kicking off properly, German police have advised England fans to smoke cannabis rather drink themselves into oblivion for their opening game against Serbia, where only low-alcohol beer will be available. 

The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

"I'm proud to be the first player to play in six EURO tournaments. I'm thrilled about it, as it shows the longevity of my football career. However, it's merely a chapter in what Cristiano Ronaldo has achieved in football."

- EURO record-breaking Ronaldo’s ego and alter ego   

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