OT: Chance for USMNT to be World Champions with a win tonight.
Happy Friday, and Happy COPA America Centenario to all you soccer fans out there.
I found this article over at StarsandStripesFC, SB Nations USMNT & USWNT blog. I was totally unaware of this, but tonight's match vs. Colombia has bigger stakes than just group standings for COPA. America could be crowned the World Champions* with a win tonight!
Almost like the Championship belts in Boxing, or wrestling (for all you WWE fans out there), "Nasazzi's Baton" has been passed from country to country since the first World Cup in 1930.
...Yet not everybody viewed the title of world champions that way.Some football fans imagined an alternative version of the world championship, viewing the honour the same way that titles are passed on in boxing. To become the world champions, they reckoned, you had to defeat the current holders of the title.
As such, Italy were not the "defending world champs" at the 1950 World Cup. Rather, England was the team putting the title on the line. They had defeated Scotland, who had defeated England beforehand, who had defeated Sweden, who had defeated Switzerland, and so on and so forth all the way back to Brazil, who had defeated the 1930 World Cup winners Uruguay in September of 1931.
Sure it's not really how this works (that's not how any of this works), but I found the idea to be fun. And while www.nasazzi.com isn't updated, Colombia's 3-1 win over Ecuador in a WCQ Match in March means they are the current holder of Nasazzi's Baton. With the USA is next in line to challenge.
So let's get 3 points and a Baton tonight! #USA #USA #USA!
And, last but not least, obligatory dog gif.
Dumb Question: Has the USMNT qualified for the 206 Olypics in Rio?
Nope, the USMNT-U23 team lost in a 2 match playoff against Colombia's team. Fact of the matter is Colombia shouldn't have been in a playoff anyways, because their U23 team is really good. They used their U20 team up to the playoff though, and that's how they found themselves in that situation.
As far as the US goes. We didn't have a shot against Colombia. A lot of out U23 top prospects weren't on that squad (CCV, Yedlin, Brooks, Pulisic all missed for various reasons). But we really blew our chance earlier in qualifying when we lost 2-0 to Honduras.
The Honduras games was especially frustrating. They simply out worked us, terrible calls and the team was undisciplined and unorganized. We fielded a talented squad. Overall, I think Herzog did a poor job coaching that team.
Agree, but JK as technical director has to get some of the blame too.
I wish I could look at the Copa as a win-win: if we do well, great. If we are crushed, oh well at least JK gets fired. Unfortunately, I don't think Gulati will fire Jurgen for anything short of a felony between now and 2018.
We didn't qualify for the Olympics.
I'm game. But hw in the hell did Colombia and Ecuador get Nasazzi's Baton in the first place?