True. It was Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez who posted on line some of the Argentine players after their Copa win chanting a racist song. He’s in big trouble with Chelsea. To say things are tender between France and Argentina at the moment would be an understatement. It’s kind of continued from France losing to Argentina in WC final and the after match sledging. Racisme of any kind should not happen. However it’s disappointing to hear the French public booing the Argentine Olympic 7s team, it’s hardly their fault. You can’t tar a whole nation because of the actions of a few dick head footballers. And as we know footballers are not really a bastion of high level morality or intellectualism. The French can’t really take the higher ground on racism. In the recent elections 35% of them voted for a racist far right party. As an aside, this should be a warning to any players on the dangers of posting stuff on line. Everyone knows there’s stuff that often goes on within a team that is not for public consumption. It’s a kind of code of privacy. However in this modern era players seem quite happy to hit social media without thinking of the consequences. I guess it’s up to management and senior players to monitor this.
No surprises re Old, and tbh I think all things being equal he'd have the most valid excuse of any of our top players not to play. It's just annoying that his club haven't been transparent about this at all. It seems likely he was never going to play from the moment he signed.
The fact that he is now based in France though. Surely it wouldn't have been a huge inconvenience if played a few games at the Olympics. He's more than likely not a starter for his club, so he'll have plenty of time to prove himself off the bench once season gets under. Huge for the guy not to represent his country at an Olympic games. Would have thought he'd be absolutely gutted.
Dude’s starting a season in a month at his new top flight club. We don’t know he wasn’t injured. He had a lot of injuries with us that were constantly being monitored. We can’t have it both ways.
As discussed in relation to the other players missing, I just don't think most New Zealanders appreciate how much of a mickey mouse football tournament the Olympics is seen as being, in light of the multi-billion dollar business of top level professional football. Sure it's cool to play at the Olympics, but it's also pretty cool to sign for a top flight club in a top 5 league. It's quite likely that in two years time Old will be starting for his country at a world cup. That will be the thing he looks back on, not this.
And yes I'm aware of the irony here having described our result against Guinea as one of our highest profile wins in the last 20 years, but I think both of those things can be true.
For sure Old will be disappointed. But gutted? Not so sure.
He has all the excitment of being in a new country, signed for a club in one of the world's top 5 leagues, getting to grips with a new language & culture. It's likely all pretty exciting, a bit of a daily dream/blur. He won't have time to dwell on missing the Olympics. And yeah playing at a World Cup will heavily mitigate missing out this time.
Bigger blow for Riley Bidois, as yeah could have been his shop window. Bayliss gets his chance. But fingers crossed Randall is fit, preferable he starts.
Though Bazeley may start a bit more defensive in this game. Conchie coming into midfield?? The US will be a level up from Guinea & they sounded a bit unlucky against the French. Hit the post 1-2 times first half. The Americans also need to chase the win after losing against France.
Our good friend from Canada (who maybe a little embarrassed at the moment) kindly gave us a good rundown on the US squad a few weeks back.
Paredes I'm guessing is their main guy to watch? Completely different to Guinea who had very young players as their CBs - and likely helped gift us Garbett's goal as they made a mess of it playing out - the US have to 2 older experienced o/a CBs
juneof86
U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team roster GOALKEEPERS (2): Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew), Gaga Slonina (Chelsea) DEFENDERS (6): Maximilian Dietz (Greuther Furth), Nathan Harriel (Philadelphia Union), John Tolkin (New York Red Bulls), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Caleb Wiley (Atlanta United FC), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC) MIDFIELDERS (5): Gianluca Busio (Venezia), Benjamin Cremaschi (Inter Miami CF), Jack McGlynn (Philadelphia Union), Djordje Mihailovic (Colorado Rapids), Tanner Tessmann (Venezia) FORWARDS (5): Paxten Aaronson (Eintracht Frankfurt), Taylor Booth (Utrecht), Duncan McGuire (Orlando City SC), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg), Griffin Yow (KVC Westerlo) ALTERNATES (4): Josh Atencio (Midfielder, Seattle Sounders FC), Jacob Davis (Defender, Sporting Kansas City), Johan Gomez (Forward, Eintracht Braunschweig), John Pulskamp (Goalkeeper, Sporting Kansas City)
I think most Americans are pretty disappointed in this squad. It certainly isn’t what it could have been. I thought they would pick two overage central defenders and they did, which will help this group. And it doesn’t hurt that Zimmerman and Robinson were paired together for much of World Cup qualifying in 2021.
But they left out Diego Luna, who is third in assists in MLS and is a tricky, creative player. He responded to the snub by scoring a goal and setting up three more on Saturday. I like Mihailovic and after struggling in the Netherlands he’s back in form in MLS, but he’s very similar to Luna and feels like a waste of an overage slot.
Reports are that forwards Haji Wright (Coventry), Ricardo Pepi (PSV), and Brandon Vasquez (Monterrey) weren’t released by their clubs. So the U.S. were trying to use an overage slot there, but it didn't work out (Pepi is still a U23) That leaves only Duncan McGuire as a true centre forward in the squad.
I didn’t expect any of the U.S. players that went to Copa would be involved, but out of Yunus Musah, Ricardo Pepi, Malik Tillman and Johnny Cardoso, only Musah started a single match and none of them featured that much. Miles Robinson was also on the Copa roster but didn’t play, so he is doing both, but I felt like the U.S. could have prioritized the Olympics a little more and had a significantly better Olympic side.
If they can find goals, it’s still not a bad side. Tessman is heavily rumoured to be off to Inter, Chelsea are after Caleb Wiley, Cremaschi has played well with Messi in Miami and is only 19. But the Americans had 8 U23s on their Copa America roster and none of them are going to the Olympics.
Would have been nice for Rollo to have asked about Randall. We could really use him as an attacking option with Old confirmed out for the rest of the tournament.
Would have been nice for Rollo to have asked about Randall. We could really use him as an attacking option with Old confirmed out for the rest of the tournament.
Stuff article updated to include short video clip of Bazeley saying 'everyone who is here is available..." So sounds like Randall is fit.
Bayliss, Herdman & Singh are not wingers, we need more attacking width, and despite the fact he got the assist (which was actually only due to a bit of luck as it ricocheted off the defender back to him) he is probably the one you would leave out out of those three. Randall will give us a different dimension.
Huge challenge for the kiwis. The USA will be a significantly bigger challenge than Guinea. The yanks were very good for the first hour against France. I suspect Bazeley will keep it tight and compact. I would take a draw 100%
