August is a long way away ... the start of football season feels like it will never get here. The baseball season is giving us it's best shot at an impression of a Ben-Stein-like-monotone-teacher-spiel, from Ferris Beuhler's Day Off, hypnotizing the country into a deep sleep.
But this could be something to help pass the month of July ... and wouldn't take too much to get up to speed on what it's all about.
The U.S. Men's National Soccer Team begins defending it's title in the Gold Cup tournament tomorrow night at 9:00. (Fox Sports 1 is televising it).
Why should you care? Well, it's not important that you do. But it can be fun. And where the U.S. is normally an underdog, we're one of the heavyweights here. The Gold Cup is the championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean Americas. It's held every two years. And the last two winners of the Gold Cup play each other for automatic entry into the next World Cup "prelim" tourney called the Confederations Cup. Since we won the last one, if we win this one, it's an automatic entry into this tourney. Which is critical for the US Men as they try to build themselves into a top level world soccer program.
There are 3 groups of 4 teams competing in a round robin format, with winners advancing to a tourney style finish. So very much like a regional World Cup set up. Here's the schedule for the US:
USA - Honduras at 9 on Tuesday, 7-7, in Frisco.
USA - Haiti at 8:30 on Friday, 7-10, in Foxborough.
USA - Panama at 8:30 Monday, 7-13, in Kansas City.
Quarterfinals July 18 and 19 in Baltimore and East Rutherford.
Semifinals July 22 in Atlanta.
3rd Place game July 25 in Philly.
Finals July 26 in Philly.
The US Men's team just beat up on a Guatamalan squad in Nashville Friday night, 4-0, where the Guatamalan coach played a young group to save some his better players for this week's Gold Cup opening round matches. The two previous friendly matches for the US were against #1 world ranked Germany in Germany, and at #4 or 5 ranked Netherlands in the Netherlands ... and the men posted impressive come back upsets in both of those contests (without some of our stars you may know, from last summer's World Cup, making those wins that much more impressive). (as an aside, I think the US men's team is ranked something like 27th in the world ... for reference).
I'm no soccer guru. But things about the game appeal to me.
--- running 45 minute clock in both halves, means no stupid commercial breaks every two minutes. An entire game can be played in a two hour window, assuming no overtime. This is awesome.
--- you can dvr this if you're busy without much fear of having the result spoiled for you by friends. (I did this for Fridays last warm up match, watching it Sunday without knowing anything about the game).
--- since the ball is always moving, it feels like a combination of basketball principles on a football field, with zone defenses, and man-to-man at times too.
--- there's also the feel of a QB "throwing" open his WR with deep or intermediate kicks, as teams try and set up a hoops styled "fast break" down the field.
I'm mainly a fan of the US teams, and the more I watch them, the more about the game I pick up. I know others on this forum have picked up the game quicker than I, so I am sure they could add more to the technical aspects of the game, and share the things they find intriguing about the sport.
But some of the athleticism displayed by these guys, only using their feet, is very very impressive.
So .. give it a shot ... heck - it's July .. what else are you gonna watch??
Here's an article to take you deeper into this if you wish ...
http://www.mlssoccer.com/goldcup/20...referral&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=Unpaid
But this could be something to help pass the month of July ... and wouldn't take too much to get up to speed on what it's all about.
The U.S. Men's National Soccer Team begins defending it's title in the Gold Cup tournament tomorrow night at 9:00. (Fox Sports 1 is televising it).
Why should you care? Well, it's not important that you do. But it can be fun. And where the U.S. is normally an underdog, we're one of the heavyweights here. The Gold Cup is the championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean Americas. It's held every two years. And the last two winners of the Gold Cup play each other for automatic entry into the next World Cup "prelim" tourney called the Confederations Cup. Since we won the last one, if we win this one, it's an automatic entry into this tourney. Which is critical for the US Men as they try to build themselves into a top level world soccer program.
There are 3 groups of 4 teams competing in a round robin format, with winners advancing to a tourney style finish. So very much like a regional World Cup set up. Here's the schedule for the US:
USA - Honduras at 9 on Tuesday, 7-7, in Frisco.
USA - Haiti at 8:30 on Friday, 7-10, in Foxborough.
USA - Panama at 8:30 Monday, 7-13, in Kansas City.
Quarterfinals July 18 and 19 in Baltimore and East Rutherford.
Semifinals July 22 in Atlanta.
3rd Place game July 25 in Philly.
Finals July 26 in Philly.
The US Men's team just beat up on a Guatamalan squad in Nashville Friday night, 4-0, where the Guatamalan coach played a young group to save some his better players for this week's Gold Cup opening round matches. The two previous friendly matches for the US were against #1 world ranked Germany in Germany, and at #4 or 5 ranked Netherlands in the Netherlands ... and the men posted impressive come back upsets in both of those contests (without some of our stars you may know, from last summer's World Cup, making those wins that much more impressive). (as an aside, I think the US men's team is ranked something like 27th in the world ... for reference).
I'm no soccer guru. But things about the game appeal to me.
--- running 45 minute clock in both halves, means no stupid commercial breaks every two minutes. An entire game can be played in a two hour window, assuming no overtime. This is awesome.
--- you can dvr this if you're busy without much fear of having the result spoiled for you by friends. (I did this for Fridays last warm up match, watching it Sunday without knowing anything about the game).
--- since the ball is always moving, it feels like a combination of basketball principles on a football field, with zone defenses, and man-to-man at times too.
--- there's also the feel of a QB "throwing" open his WR with deep or intermediate kicks, as teams try and set up a hoops styled "fast break" down the field.
I'm mainly a fan of the US teams, and the more I watch them, the more about the game I pick up. I know others on this forum have picked up the game quicker than I, so I am sure they could add more to the technical aspects of the game, and share the things they find intriguing about the sport.
But some of the athleticism displayed by these guys, only using their feet, is very very impressive.
So .. give it a shot ... heck - it's July .. what else are you gonna watch??
Here's an article to take you deeper into this if you wish ...
http://www.mlssoccer.com/goldcup/20...referral&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=Unpaid
