USMNT - World Cup qualifying - The Hexagonal
- Thread starter shagcarpetjesus
- Start date
I'm feeling much better about the potential back line with Fabian Johnson & Chandler called in. It will be interesting to see if JK goes with Cameron & Boca in the middle or if he tries to get Omar some experience. Possibly both with Omar coming on as a sub at some point? Parkhurst is a solid guy to have on the bench as well since he can cover pretty much everywhere.
Midfield is about what should be expected. Evans and Davis don't excite me AT ALL but I suppose there is no harm with having them around as long as they don't make the game day 18. There's not much speed in there, but that's probably going to be the norm as long as Landon decides he's not playing. Gatt could help down the road, but I just don't think he's there yet. Shea can help too, but I'm sure JK is thinking he needs to get settled in at Stoke & get back in form.
We'll probably see Zusi on the right and Dempsey on the left & rely on Fabian & Chandler to push things wide. I really don't care to see Torres anymore. He's pretty clearly Klinsmann's Bornstein at this point, but he's had lots of chances and has never really impressed in my opinion.
Midfield is about what should be expected. Evans and Davis don't excite me AT ALL but I suppose there is no harm with having them around as long as they don't make the game day 18. There's not much speed in there, but that's probably going to be the norm as long as Landon decides he's not playing. Gatt could help down the road, but I just don't think he's there yet. Shea can help too, but I'm sure JK is thinking he needs to get settled in at Stoke & get back in form.
We'll probably see Zusi on the right and Dempsey on the left & rely on Fabian & Chandler to push things wide. I really don't care to see Torres anymore. He's pretty clearly Klinsmann's Bornstein at this point, but he's had lots of chances and has never really impressed in my opinion.
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They should take Bornstein down to Honduras just so they can have a parade for him. He doesn't have to play in the match, just let him bask in the glory of being a Honduran national hero.
[video=youtube;vhY-IbViJ20]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhY-IbViJ20[/video]
[video=youtube;vhY-IbViJ20]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhY-IbViJ20[/video]
How did I ever miss the Torres "Gringo" jersey tag? Awesome!
Here's a good preview of the Hex with comments about all 6 squads. I really think this could be a nail biting qualification cycle as the quality of the bottom teams in the Hex has really improved in recent years.
Monday Postgame: Hex could be toughest ever for USMNT | MLSsoccer.com
Here's a good preview of the Hex with comments about all 6 squads. I really think this could be a nail biting qualification cycle as the quality of the bottom teams in the Hex has really improved in recent years.
Monday Postgame: Hex could be toughest ever for USMNT | MLSsoccer.com
I hate the fact that I have seen 100% more El Tri on ESPN commercials than USMNT commercials on the ESPN Network.
Ugh ya wtf is that all about? Did I see correctly that ESPN2 is showing all of the MEXICAN games live? And here we are on BeIN sports.
Yep All of Mexico's home games will be on ESPN/ESPN 2. Kind of pisses me off that a US based company is giving money to another countries federation, but it is capitalism, I bet those games have better ratings then the US games.
However, like most sports the US and Mexico don't control the rights to their away games. So BeIN picked up the rights to most of all opponents this qualifying run.
ESPN has the rights to both the US and Mexico's home matches. beIN only has the rights to US road qualifiers. ESPN is promoting the hell out of Mexico right now because their first Hex match is at home in the Azteca, while the US dosn't have a home match until the end of March. I'm sure you'll see plenty of US love as those March dates approach.
As much as beIN is a pain-in-the-***, it's actually an improvement over the previous arrangement. I can't remember the name of the entity that beIN purchased the road match TV rights from, but all that company was doing was offering US road matches on a PPV basis. At least with beIN you can go to the sports bar and catch the match on a channel that's easily available on DirecTV. Before beIN acquired road rights, I don't think there were many places that were shelling out the money for the PPV games. There's an official US Supporters bar here in Phoenix and even they didn't pick up the last US road qualifier pre-beIN because they said the company wanted a ridiculous amount of money for the PPV broadcast.
As much as beIN is a pain-in-the-***, it's actually an improvement over the previous arrangement. I can't remember the name of the entity that beIN purchased the road match TV rights from, but all that company was doing was offering US road matches on a PPV basis. At least with beIN you can go to the sports bar and catch the match on a channel that's easily available on DirecTV. Before beIN acquired road rights, I don't think there were many places that were shelling out the money for the PPV games. There's an official US Supporters bar here in Phoenix and even they didn't pick up the last US road qualifier pre-beIN because they said the company wanted a ridiculous amount of money for the PPV broadcast.
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Thanks for correcting me. I completely forgot that the US does have away rights, but had sold them. Any idea when these rights revert back to USNMT? I would think with the growing audience ESPN, or another US cable company would be interested in the away rights.
The away rights are owned by whatever federation we are playing. The US doesn't have control over them. It's up to their federation on whom they sell the rights to.
The US can't sell away rights, those are held by the hosting federation. So at some point the PPV company went to many of the smaller CONCACAF federations and acquired their TV rights. beIN simply bought those rights from the PPV company when they launched in a pretty shrewd move to get a foothold in the int'l soccer market.
Okay so my initial assumption was correct, I then incorrectly read ianoconner's post, then misread and article. Apparently my brain has quit working today.
Moving on to the next item. Anyone found somewhere to watch this online? I see on BeIN website that in the future they will make games available, but it doesn't look like they are ready to do this yet. My Dtv Subscription has BeIN, but of course can't stream it through that either.
