Digby

Love this topic, I am similarly petty/annoyed as that Tumblr post about the collective misremembering of what passes for meme 90s aesthetic these days. I don't feel like those main two aesthetics hit sports design as deeply. The OG MLS year always sticks out as the ultimate of 90s sports design, but it's something else... obviously the Revolution were grunge. MetroStars stick out as being pretty factory pomo, and looking at it again I suppose San Jose Clash were sort of up that alley, as well?

They played pretty well! Jamaica's always going to have issues with chemistry and training times right now but it was cool to see them with all that PL talent last night. Gave the USA a good scare, who may have trouble having trotted out a C squad for this tournament.

Nah, it's pretty close.

That new Villa crest just looks like a recolored Chelsea to me. Old one wasn't great but at least there was character to it.

Cornball, corporate synergy nonsense better suited to 2000s NASCAR. I get ads for these crossover t-shirts on Fanatics all the time and I think it's silly -- woohoo, I love my sports team AND Captain America or Darth Vader or whatever -- but putting it on the athletes is fully cringe.

I think he's only got a year left and could conceivably restructure to get an extension at a lower AAV. Smart's deal was going to be up in a couple years and that was likely to end up in a very awkward standoff given how much he'd want vs. how much they're going to be cap-tied with Brown and Tatum. I think getting Porzingis, a brand-new first, and an upgraded first (from a second) in exchange for Smart and two guys that didn't play... that's a good piece of business on-court, just not sure about if it'll work out off-court.

Between him and Rob Williams and an Al Horford who's older than the head coach, I guess the play here is getting enough bigs to let you play those lineups despite constant injuries. I guess I get the need to reshuffle the tilt of the team's depth chart a bit but idk. Really hurts to lose Marcus Smart. Which I can't believe I'm saying considering how often he pissed me off in the first two-thirds of his Boston career and I'd shout for him to get traded. To his credit he really cut down on the infuriating mistakes the last few years and sharpened his game, although the consistency was never really what you'd want from a championship team's starting PG. But the "heart and soul" thing was real on a team that always seems to lack any of it from its stars when it matters. Even if Smart often rubbed people the wrong way for that reason. Also a generally good dude who's been very involved in the community, and the only one left who connected back to Isaiah Thomas (god how long ago does THAT era feel) and Rajon Rondo.

Not to go down this rabbit hole again, but I really only think Seattle, Vegas and Kansas City are the only remotely viable future NBA markets (and I have questions about the latter of two of those). And the vibes to move the Pelicans seem to be a lot heavier amongst the subculture of people who love fantasizing about franchise moves more than anything rooted in reality. Sure, they're kind of a sad franchise, but someone needs to fill out the lottery.

I think the offensive spark we've seen in these last two games has been largely: - Balogun is a true number 9 who's also in excellent form from his club season. Exactly the piece that was missing last fall. - Reyna, Pulisic, and Weah on the field together. Lost in all the Gio drama of last year is that he didn't get much playing time because of injuries, and even when he did, some other key cog would be hurt. The team slogged through most of qualifying with patched-up lineups, which wasn't a crisis as the depth was mostly there, but we didn't see as "ideal" as we did last night. (To me that explained the relative underperformance of the USMNT in WCQs, as well -- that and bad luck.) My only question with this eleven is... what do you do with Adams when he's back? He seemed more integral to the team when he was playing, but also plays much differently than Musah. If Reyna stays healthy and out of trouble, he's gotta start, so figuring out which of the MMA becomes your game-killing second-half sub... I've also been very impressed with Pulisic in these games. His play has been excellent, and it seems like he's really embracing his leadership role, which was a thing I was never sure he'd be comfortable with. Considering how his club season went those things are even more impressive. (Similarly, it's wild how Matt Turner steps into USMNT games cold and looks like the best keeper in the world. Playing time is overrated?) Canada has had a nice couple of years there but the shine is wearing off some. I don't think they can keep up with top teams consistently and I don't trust their ability to keep goals out. Mexico looks like they might be doomed for a generation; if there were any brains anywhere in Mexican soccer they might take that as a sign to reboot their culture, but I won't hold my breath.

"The 2026 World Cup is the most important event in American soccer history, so let's be sure to just waste time for the first 20 percent of the cycle."

Is Reddit still "blackout"? I hope for the sake of /r/ussoccer that it is.

That was such a bizarre sequence. I get that they had to totally wing it since the news leaked on-air, but... that's the half-baked take that you came up with, Charlie? It's true that the USSF is not going to pay $8 million a year (double that if you want a highly rated UCL club coach to come over) for the biggest of big names but that's not the women's team's doing.

I'm fine with Berhalter coming back, but yeah, that's not a decision that requires a global talent search and a new sporting director first and for it to leak at the start of a big match, but okay. If that's not classic USSF... At least they're not going to play the whole friggin' Gold Cup with the interim to the interim coach, the way things were looking recently. This BJ Callaghan guy really had the guys cooking last night though. Head assistant! Make it happen.

The parallel universe where Canada has decent uniforms, EPL teams are still owned by old British guys like it's a country club, and Pep Guardiola is a chill, uncompetitive dude.

I thought it was lazy that Nike gave Canada WNT the same jersey they had for the '21 Olympics, just with the geometric patterned darkened to be partial black instead of entirely tonal red. That this is appealing by comparison with how the men are outfitted is... woof. Would've made sense in the dark ages but a total squandering of the moment for the men's game in Canada.

Only when it's a convenient proxy for partisan political arguments.

Arguably the most underachieving team in MLS, on and off the pitch. Should be a major market, is actually an afterthought. I wouldn't want to help these guys build anything on the cheap and half-empty, either.

This discussion is even more confounding now that we have a new set of Canada men's team kits -- they've just updated the red, white, and black teamwear catalog options from the old outdated shirt model to the newest one. Now there's a candidate for "just give the men what you gave the women".

That's just Ned Lamont doing his thing. In his defense, it's his job as Connecticut governor to sell the state and do its PR. Tough job when it's Connecticut you're talking about.

I do like the way the reddish-orange looks paired with the navy but I feel like that's exactly what Kansas City Current are doing. Equalizer has a story about the branding and it basically comes down to "streetwear", which feels lazy and obvious and not even a good application of the genre if your best idea is just still ripping off Kanye West's tour merch from 2016.

That's a nice thing. I'd taken the train to the Sportsplex in Philly before and liked the convenience. But have also heard complaints how it feels far from downtown and, being a stadium with both good train connectivity but also acres and acres of parking lots, wasn't sure if the train is actually a popular option. The Patriots pay for the train to Foxboro just to exist for Pats games... riders still pay the normal fare. Cheaper than parking but also a lot less convenient, such is the Foxboro problem.

I did forget about the Vikings stadium, but also having ridden that trolley by there many times, I think that stadium is totally hideous in the Minneapolis skyline. Count me in for the suburbs!

Whatever happened with the trademark case that Inter (as in Milan) had brought up? A forced-by-law name change would be hilarious but feels too high-stakes to happen. I simply cannot see Bielsa in MLS, he doesn't seem like the right guy to navigate the MLS byzantine bureaucracy. Would be fun if he did, though.

The USL women's league has intentions of being on par with NWSL, which might be interesting to watch but seems like enough of a pipe dream. Getting Saudi money is kind of interesting in an evil way but I think MLS already has too many big markets on lock for that to appeal. They've got better located (but underfunded) teams in Miami, the Bay Area and now San Diego, hypothetically maybe they could add Boston to that mix but that still doesn't really build a real competitor league.