Summer of Soccer

I'm a Tottenham supporter myself...

I've enjoyed watched EURO 2020 matches, but not so much the Copa America 2021 matches - the South American games have been marred with way too many fouls that just stop the action to a crawl. I know that the Central American nations the US face in CONCACAF are often-times marred with players "flopping" and "time-wasting" (especially if they have the lead), but there's been an uptick in that in watching the CONMEBOL making if difficult to watch. 

Results from the "Summer of Soccer":

EURO Championship: Italy over England; thought this was a really good tournament and entertaining to watch

COPA America: Argentina over Brazil; although the ending story with Messi winning his 1st trophy for his country was nice, the tournament overall was very choppy and the games were hard to watch - so many fouls, no flow to the games, etc.

CONCACAF Gold Cup: USA over Mexico; this was actually a nice tournament w/ Qatar being a surprising team and nice addition. Plus, teams like Honduras and Canada are starting to get better and Mexico isn't as strong as they once were. Team USA winning this with their "B" team over Mexico with their "A" team was really surprising to me, and could mean that Team USA has turned a corner w/ their program.

Olympics (W): team USA only comes away w/ a bronze after suffering two losses which was very unusual for them. A medal is nice, but the women's USNT may not be as dominant as they used to be with female sports in many other countries really increasing in popularity.

I thought it was great following these tournaments this summer and it took us right up to Vikings TC/preseason. The Premier League starts up on 13th Aug so Sat/Sun mornings will be filled w/ that going forward.

FC Augsburg, the soccer team of which I've been a die-hard fan since my childhood, signed one of the biggest US talents a few days ago. 18-year-old Ricardo Pepi was transfered from FC Dallas for about $ 20 million, making it not only the most expensive transfer in our club's history, but also one of the most expensive transfers in the history of the MLS.

I am very excited about the young striker and hope that he will meet our high expectations. That should also be in the interests of the US soccer team :)

You know the AFCON, that is African Cup of Nations is going on. It's a big deal like the Euro Cup is to a lot of us.

I think it is being played in Ivory Coast, Cote d'Ivoire, honestly, it's the law to call it that, the official name.

I watched Equatorial Guinea plaster the hosts, Ivory Coast, 4-0. Ivory you know, had soccer great, Didier Drogba, so, I'll bet the home crowd is 😡 upset.

More at soccerway below. I think I watched it on the channel called Fubo.

us.soccerway.com/international/africa/africa-cup-of-nations/2023-ivory-coast/group-stage/r67837/

Man, you sure beat around the bush! 

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