Digby

Pinstripes and patterns and such I think are forgivable, because different sizes will make those inconsistencies more likely or even inevitable maybe. Stuff like where does the fish go and does it have an outline is much wackier and unprofessional if not consistent.

Long term, all the leagues having a full quarter of their respective team lists emulating the ASU Coyotes would provide limitless fodder for that thread. but short term, you’re probably right, if that’s the low-hanging fruit money left over when the RSNs dry up.

Real chance to get Ligue 1’s third leading scorer to commit to the USMNT and an interim coach is in charge of the recruitment. Useless federation.

I rarely buy jerseys for teams I don't support, but I might have to pick up Germany or Colombia. Whew. (Really love the color scheme for Argentina, too, but it doesn't read as ARG at all to me and I can't stand the asymmetrical trim.)

Wow, Adidas is releasing all new away kits for the Women’s World Cup and they’re pretty stunning. Nature-inspired art prints and wild color schemes.

safe to say we’ll get Olympic-runup-levels of saturation on Matt Turner profile pieces between now and then?

The bedazzledness wasn’t the issue, i just can’t trust a company that let a piece of Yankees paraphernalia violate my sacred space

I'm a little surprised the NBA didn't find a way to do it on the blockchain (no I don't know or care if that means anything) sponsored by a crypto exchange, only for said sponsorship to crumble and the randomness revealed to be three cats swatting catnip balls around a room.

Yeah, I wouldn’t worry too much about the on-ice product becoming slapstick levels of poor quality. I’d bet if New Era got the contract that they would’ve used the same facility for authentics. feels like it’ll be more the regrets of giving Fanatics even more control over the merch pipeline and supplies. Like “MLS teams ordering all their merch from Adidas in one go at the start of the season” levels of messiness, and if you do somehow get to order your favorite team’s jersey or jacket or whatever, you’ll also get a bedazzled Yankees tank top in your order* *literally this happened to me

Because then in all likelihood you’d pull a Blue Jackets ball like 4 more times after you already pulled the first one, no? I guess you could just say “they’re already on the list so discard” if it’s behind the scenes but that would get tedious as a TV spectacle. Probability math stuff gets heady quickly. The current NBA/NHL method with the assigned number sequences makes sense in theory but it could well be the nerds pulling one over on me. I remember taking stats in college thinking it would be like sabermetric stats and… it was not.

I think a part of it is that I have other things to do on Saturday nights. It's a nice timeslot when I feel like going to a game, but early in the season, 35 and dark out makes me a lot less inclined to schlep to Foxboro than 45 and sunny. If I'm at home, I guess the whiparound is fun but I'd kinda rather watch full games. And anyway there's a more-likely-than-usual chance that I won't be home, because it's Saturday, and how am I gonna get a bar/restaurant to put on a game now?

I think it’s more that it doesn’t go with the current Astros aesthetic. I’m getting tequila sunset vibes from that champions patch — maybe it’s the lack of white. But then it looks less nice in the old timey font and next to the single-layer orange head spoon.

They even got away with wearing the white one at Arsenal, no? Kinda surprising but fortunate for us all.

Am I missing something here or does the “all the games are roughly at the same time” thing kind of suck? A cool March Madness thing is that you can really go wild and binge it if you want to. MLS making a leaguewide plan the default would seem to point to that, but it’s undone by such an emphasis on simultaneous kickoffs.

Boston is totally spiraling all of a sudden. Rob Williams is hurt again, and is arguably the MVP in terms of how irreplaceable his skillset is. Tatum sure looks hurt but doesn't ever take a rest. Coach Mazzulla had a nice start but he's sure looking more and more in over his head as the season advances without him coming up with any answers. A zillion assistant coaches but none with any useful top-level experience feels like a mistake.

Just found out this morning that Patrick Vieira got sacked by Crystal Palace. I remain ambivalent on the Berhalter return question — actually leaning toward bringing him back given that Pulisic ESPN interview — but if you want a fresh voice who strikes the right balance of experience in the global game with familiarly and success within the weird framework of the USA game, seems like a great choice. Plus he’s in the Pep coaching tree which should please that crowd. Only problem: was brought to America by… Claudio Reyna.

Same. It’s giving either Atlanta or Portland Thorns for me. Maybe the worst looking game in MLS history in terms of color schemes, ick.

I don't think that's too big a deal as a lot of those national TV games are simulcast on the local affiliate. I *think* it's only the weekend ABC/ESPN games and the Thursday TNT games that are exclusive to the national network; other nights the national teams pick up whatever looks good but the RSNs carry on as normal as well, so you have a choice. It might be that there's more movement between teams/networks, like Fratello bouncing around between the Cavs and Clippers broadcasts and doing national games on top of it. Announcer empowerment! But again I'm not sure I really buy the premise here.

Until Tom Heinsohn died it was him and Mike Gorman my entire life, so can’t relate. interestingly this year the Celtics have half-promoted Sean Grande to the TV cast since Gorman no longer travels to most road games. Which is good because he’s an excellent broadcaster, but a little bittersweet in that he and Cedric Maxwell doing radio have become almost as iconic a duo and it’s a shame to break them up. Should promote Max too; seems like we’re stuck with Brian Scalabrine for the foreseeable future, which is horrible.

Ah, ok, I can see it with the full picture. Probably won't read as such in any practical action shot but that makes more sense to me. Agree though that it's hard to beat the fronds. Reign make me sad... miss their original brand and color scheme, still. This one looks nice but it's too close to what the USWNT were wearing the last two years, esp with Nike making it.

Yeah, the shirt design seems cool enough but doesn't scream LA in particular to me. Love those patches though!

Thierry Henry for USMNT? Interesting possibility. On the one hand, I can't imagine any other big names of this stature wanting the job, on top of his unique mix of being an all-world player who also knows the American landscape of the game (plus World Cup coaching experience to boot albeit as an assistant). On the other hand, very limited head coaching experience at any level, and what he did have wasn't particularly good. https://www.espn.com/soccer/france-fraw/story/4902213/thierry-henry-rejects-france-women-head-coach-role-keen-on-usmnt-sources

Hideous logo but great album. I think Rosalia is from Catalonia so that's a nice tie-in, a better fit than just giving Drake any more attention as if he needs it.

You know some of the “but Gregg is TACTICALLY INFLEXIBLE” crowd are going to tie themselves in rhetorical knots to excuse a Marsch hiring and oh, how I will laugh. I hope Marsch gets an assistant job on a solid Euro club rather than the NT (for now, anyway). He’s obviously a very smart dude but he also got totally exposed at two consecutive jobs in top-tier leagues.

There are valid criticisms to be made against Berhalter but “soccer terrorism”? Jeesh. 14th best in the world with 25 players who hadn’t even been in the program the previous cycle really isn’t so bad.