OT: Soccer Tuesday Open Thread (Also, USMNT v Panama Open Thread)

Submitted by itsbigcat on

Today’s Schedule

 

This One Right Here

10:00p USMNT v Panama - beINSports

 

World Cup Qualifiers

2:35a   New Zealand v Fiji

5:00a   Australia v UAE – ESPN3

6:35a   Japan v Thailand

7:00a   Korea Rep v Syria – ESPN3

8:00a   Iran v China – ESPN3

9:00a   Uzbekistan v Qatar

1:30p   Saudia Arabia v Iraq

4:00p   Bolivia v Argentina – beINSPortsenEspanyol

5:00p   Ecuador v Colombia – beINSports

5:00p   Honduras v Costa Rica – beINSportsConnect

6:00p   Chile v Venezuela – beINSportsenEspanyol

7:00p   Trinidad and Tobago v Mexico – beINSports

8:45p   Brazil v Paraguay- – beINSPortsenEspanyol

10:15p Peru v Uruguay – beINSPortsenEspanyol

 

World Friendlies

2:45p   Netherlands v Italy – beINSports

2:45p   Ireland v Iceland – beINSportsConnect

2:45p   Portugal v Sweden – beINSportsConnect

3:00p   France v Spain – ESPN2

smwilliams

March 28th, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^

Just saw that Messi got suspended for 4 of Argentina's 5 remaining qualifiers. They are only 2 points clear of Chile who is currently in 6th place and would leave them out of the tournament. I can imagine that in those 4 matches, there may be some *ahem* creative officiating to help Argentina sneak in. 

itsbigcat

March 28th, 2017 at 2:55 PM ^

Two options. 

1. Wait to post the entire "today's schedule" thread until later in the day when half of the games have already been played.

2. Post two seperate threads. This schedule thread, and the specific game thread. 

I just did it this way to get the games in and save threads. I can always post more soccer threads. 

ken725

March 28th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^

I once went to a Panama vs USA friendly in Carson, CA. I sat next to a really annoying guy wearing cargo shorts. He claimed to be some kind of scout. 

All match he would drop really annoying lines like, "I was texting with him last night" or "I had dinner with his brother." Not once did he mention anything techinical, it was usually a second hand account of talking to someone that knows a player.

ak47

March 28th, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

Its pretty stupid that a US qualifying match is going to be on a chanel 95% of the country doesn't have.  Sweet planning there for growing the game Gulati.

JMo

March 28th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^

Not Gulati at all. The home team controls the broadcast rights for qualifying matches. USSF controls the home matches for USMNT which is why they're with a major provider (Fox). Gulati/USSF don't control Panama's distribution rights. Panama has the ability to sell the match to any distributor, and in this case they sold it to BeIN.  

BeIN sports is actually a midly positive advancement from days gone by. A match like this was either not broadcast or on PPV.  BeIN was on my Comcast (although not in HD) package, and now that I'm with DirecTV I could upgrade if I want the channel. Not great, but still better than "back in the day."

Vengeful Barbarian

March 28th, 2017 at 1:22 PM ^

My Dish network package has all the sports channels I need except for fs2 and bein sports. Ill be watching the USMNT feed in Spanish on Telemundo. OP might want to include Telemundo for those of us that don't have BeIn.

uncle leo

March 28th, 2017 at 1:34 PM ^

No one has access to beIN sports unless you live in Panama or pay for the station separate?

I would also assume that you will be able to find a stream somewhere?

superstringer

March 28th, 2017 at 1:39 PM ^

Have Verizon FiOS in DC metro area, and beIN is part of the sports package w FS1 ,FS2, ESPNU, etc etc.  It just showed up one day a year ago or so, previously it was by subscription only.  Actually I kind of like it, has EFL Championship, Serie A, La Liga, etc.

Between EPL on NBC, Bundesliga on FS, and BeIN with its variety, there is a lot of good, quality, very-watchable soccer on the weekends now.  On top of that there's also MLS on like four channels too.

ken725

March 28th, 2017 at 4:39 PM ^

Thoughts on the matchup vs Panama tonight?

I'm not sure if we will have the same success against Panama. Panama is more equipped to take advantage of iffy play in the middle of the pitch since they can crowd the middle more with their 4-3-3.

Interesting point from Matt Doyle:

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/03/27/armchair-analyst-tactical-prev…

 I've rewatched the win over Honduras twice now and remain kind of stunned at how open the US allowed the central midfield to be. We all called it a 4-4-2 diamond (which it was), but at times it was a 4-1-5. Part of it felt like Arena was challenging captain Michael Bradley to hold that part of the field down all by himself, and part of it felt like he was daring the pure attackers – mostly Clint DempseyJozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic – to just go out there and score every time they got into the final third.

By the time it was 4-0, however, he had the troops ease the foot off the gas:

Alejandro Bedoya's night was fascinating, and underappreciated. His ability to slide inside in support of Bradley, but still get to the touchline in support of his fullback, more or less locked the game down for the US. Still though: He was an outside player primarily tasked with moving inside – necessary in the 4-4-2 diamond, but not all that customary in the modern game.

That's partially why I suspect the diamond may not be the choice on Tuesday. Panama flood the central midfield more than Honduras does, so putting more numbers there from the start makes a certain amount of sense for the US.

 

FreddieMercuryHayes

March 28th, 2017 at 9:10 PM ^

Soooooo Cameron now injured as well? So like half of the projected starters going into the qualifiers are now injured? Great. Really should have brought Chandler. In hindsight that seems like a big mistake.

Atticus

March 28th, 2017 at 10:01 PM ^

Nice to see Villafana get the nod again after the Honduras game. Hopefully he holds up in a tougher environment,

Not sure I like Jones as a starter in this match. Personally would have chosen Bedoya, with Jones as a spark off the bench if needed. Jones tends to go rogue at odd times, which might leave a lot of space for our makeshift backline to cover.