I remember when Alyssa Naeher replaced Hope Solo as number one goalkeeper, and everyone was so uncertain if she could fill those shoes... Well she fucking filled them and created her own for the next goalkeeper to fill. This woman is the only one worthy of being our number one goalkeeper and I will DIE on this hill, and if I do die, I'll come back from the dead and die on that hill again.
Where the FUCK is Andi Sullivan. She played every minute of the World Cup and deserves to be on this roster.
I don’t get the Sam Coffey hype as much so if it’s her or Sully, I vote Sully.
Also missing Hatchy and Sanchez and Aubs. Vlatko absolutely screwed Hatchy and Sanchez and it pisses me off. I’m hoping Sanchez gets to shine in NC and prove herself. Aubs, idk why she’s not on there.
Excited to see some of the young kids!! Jenna, Olivia, Korbin, Mia, Jaedyn. I doubt all of them will make the Olympics roster, but CONCACAF is a great first tournament for them to try and spread their wings and test them.
I understand not having Kelley and Alex there. Kelley’s been injured, Alex hasn’t been performing to form on the national team as much. I worry if they’ll be in the Olympic roster but haven’t been included in the team in the lead up.
Ultimately: this isn’t a tournament for us to qualify for the Olympics, so we can try out some new formations and players. Some omissions I absolutely disagree with, but overall great roster.
gabriel pulling out of the brazil squad, kdb pulling out of Belgium’s, last year with Haaland and Rodri. genuinely pisses me off that fans just accept teams blatantly pulling players from internationals because ‘it’s just friendlies.’
yeah, friendlies that fans pay significant amounts of money to go to. friendlies that people across the world wake up early/stay up late to watch their favorite teams play. because that’s what football is about- the fans, and the game. football is a sport. it should not become a business.
people saying it’s ‘smart’ to pull players from national team squads with fake injuries are stupid. you don’t need to be smart as a coach to do that, you just need to be an entitled cunt.
international football is being destroyed by greedy clubs and the growing idea that ‘oh it’s not as important.’
a quick reminder that international football has stopped wars. it has brought fractured countries together. it has provided people, real, human people, a sense of unity that even the most experienced of politicians could not.
not to target all English people, but that is easily where I see this idea circulating the most. English fans don’t want their clubs to send players out to internationals— unless they’re english players, and then it’s fine— because they’ve still got that inherent sense of superiority that is so heavily engrained in English identity.
“uhh why would we send players to afcon? club is more important!”
you wouldn’t say that about the Euros if they happened mid-season.
you didn’t say it about the world cup when it happened mid-season.
international football is a uniting force. it unites nations and ethnic groups and fractured communities. but people would rather pull their best players to ‘prevent injury’ than recognize just how important these institutions and teams are to people.
So i just watched the Canada v United States womens gold cup semifinal.
It started raining like an hour before the match started and it was so WET. The pitch was crazy waterlogged. The ball could barely roll on the field. First goal the US scored off of a mistake caused by the field. Canada should have gotten a clear penalty if the ref looked at VAR. Then Canada equalized in the 82nd min so it went to extra time. Then the USA scored in the first half of extra time. Then right in the last min of extra time Canada got a penalty and sent them to penalty kicks.
I have to give credit to the uswnt keeper Alyssa naeher. She saved all but 1 of the Canadian penalties and scored one of her own.
I hated that game. No one won, it was just managing the pitch and chance.