Qatar 2022 World Cup Discussion

[TrueYankee26]

His last article 

 

https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-25?utm_medium=ios

 

RIP

[Germanshepherd]

Qatar deserves none of the benefit of the doubt here, but Grant Wahl did post about not feeling well/health declining over the past week and press members saw him collapse. 
 

I’ve never planned an assassination before, but unless he was poisoned or there was somehow a bioweapon involved I don’t see when/how they could have killed him. 

[Digby]

5 hours ago, Germanshepherd said:

Qatar deserves none of the benefit of the doubt here, but Grant Wahl did post about not feeling well/health declining over the past week and press members saw him collapse. 
 

I’ve never planned an assassination before, but unless he was poisoned or there was somehow a bioweapon involved I don’t see when/how they could have killed him. 

he does seem like the kind of guy who would work himself past the point of good health, especially given the circumstances. But also, wouldn’t that be a convenient fact for a state-sponsored secret poisoning.

[Cujo]

12 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

The US really shouldn’t participate in a FIFA sanctioned event ever again

 

Ya. So that's never going to happen.

 

Maybe they'd boycott a World Cup if an actual US player was legitimately murdered. But definitely not gonna pull out over an untimely death of a sports writer.

[Seadragon76]

Agreed. It smells fishy, but nothing will be done until after the World Cup ends.

 

Speaking of the games... How about Morocco? They defeated Portugal 1-0 and become the first ever African nation to reach the semifinals. They call themselves the 'Atlas Lions'... I want to add 'Indomitable' next to it because that defense of theirs is damn near iron clad.

[TrueYankee26]

[Sport]

Horrific and tragic. Read Grant for forever and I just watched Good Rivals in which he appears frequently. It’s surreal and almost difficult to believe. 

 

At best this was an unfortunate coincidence, at worst it was nefarious. Either way, I was already struggling with watching these games when the US was still in the tournament, but I’m fully out now. Whole thing feels incredibly gross. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

16 minutes ago, Sport said:

At best this was an unfortunate coincidence, at worst it was nefarious. Either way, I was already struggling with watching these games when the US was still in the tournament, but I’m fully out now. Whole thing feels incredibly gross. 

 

Same. I was up this morning but didn't watch Portugal/Morocco.

 

Maybe I'll be a hypocrite and watch the finals, but I don't know...it's easy enough to opt out.

 

I just wish I didn't have to stop opting out of things because of the monsters in charge. You kind of find there's not much provided on a screen that isn't majorly compromised in one way or another.

[Dilbert]

16 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

The US really shouldn’t participate in a FIFA sanctioned event ever again. This all seems just too strange to be above board. 

 

3 hours ago, Cujo said:

 

Ya. So that's never going to happen.

 

Maybe they'd boycott a World Cup if an actual US player was legitimately murdered. But definitely not gonna pull out over an untimely death of a sports writer.

I mean the US is hosting the next world cup so losing in the group stage would be as close as a boycott you'd get.

[TrueYankee26]

Qatar honored him before England v France

 

 

[Rockstar Matt]

13 hours ago, Germanshepherd said:

Qatar deserves none of the benefit of the doubt here, but Grant Wahl did post about not feeling well/health declining over the past week and press members saw him collapse. 
 

I’ve never planned an assassination before, but unless he was poisoned or there was somehow a bioweapon involved I don’t see when/how they could have killed him. 

 

I feel like this is the correct take.

 

While the timing is certainly suspicious, I think the speculation/insinuation that Qatar made a hit on Grant is dangerous. Wahl had been sick (hearing it was bronchitis) and recently recovered from Covid only a few months ago. It's not impossible that this current illness, combined with the long term adverse effects of covid could result in his passing.

 

It's also important to note here, that despite Qatar having abhorrent policies (and like you said they deserve none of the benefit of doubt) they are a massive ally of the United States. It doesn't make sense they'd risk ruining their diplomatic relationship with the US by assassinating a prominent member of US soccer media. Certainly, someone not associated with the Qatari government could have taken issue with Grant and done something about it, but that's just speculation with zero evidence. 

[JerseyJimmy]

France are the only team left I don't want to win and it's so painfully obvious that they're going to.

[Red Wolf]

3 hours ago, Sport said:

Horrific and tragic. Read Grant for forever and I just watched Good Rivals in which he appears frequently. It’s surreal and almost difficult to believe. 

 

At best this was an unfortunate coincidence, at worst it was nefarious. Either way, I was already struggling with watching these games when the US was still in the tournament, but I’m fully out now. Whole thing feels incredibly gross. 

 

Coincidences happen all the time, but this is one where the conspiracy part of my brain will always spin up anytime it's mentioned.

 

3 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Maybe I'll be a hypocrite and watch the finals, but I don't know...it's easy enough to opt out.

 

I just wish I didn't have to stop opting out of things because of the monsters in charge. You kind of find there's not much provided on a screen that isn't majorly compromised in one way or another.

 

I haven't watched a single second of this World Cup, And yeah, it's been easy because I can watch college football players get brain damaged instead.

 

I wrote several things here and I actually don't know where to go with this now. Everything being bad doesn't seem helpful.

[DoctorWhom]

I want Morocco to win just because of this 

 

 

[Digby]

Quote

The sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said that Reyna showed an alarming lack of effort in training ahead of the U.S.’s opening match of the tournament against Wales on Nov. 21, including in a scrimmage against Qatari club Al Gharafa SC on Nov. 17. Reyna’s lack of intensity in the scrimmage — sources described him walking around throughout his time on the field during what was otherwise an intense session — caused significant frustration within the team. 

 

Quote

The sources said that the situation became untenable and that it had to be addressed multiple times, including with the coaching staff, until, finally, Reyna stood up before a video session and apologized to his teammates for his initial lack of intensity and said he understood he was part of a collective group.

 

Athletic's got the gossip that Gio Reyna was being a petulant child at World Cup camp. Explains some things, though the more radical factions of the anti-Berhalter crowd are going to have some reckoning to do. https://theathletic.com/3991695/2022/12/11/gio-reyna-usmnt-gregg-berhalter/

[MJWalker45]

15 hours ago, Digby said:

 

 

Athletic's got the gossip that Gio Reyna was being a petulant child at World Cup camp. Explains some things, though the more radical factions of the anti-Berhalter crowd are going to have some reckoning to do. https://theathletic.com/3991695/2022/12/11/gio-reyna-usmnt-gregg-berhalter/

They haven't bought in to that yet, according to what my Twitter looked like this morning.  Instead of saying he did the right thing they are saying he shouldn't have put it out there after the fact. Some of them even said that Gio was too good to bench, even though he put zero effort in at training and during a scrimmage. If it gets to the point that the team captain is about to fight you, as well as a few other players, you might need to shape up a bit. 

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/spain-esp/story/4830995/spain-president-rubiales-luis-enrique-sacked-because-of-need-for-new-project

Spain has a new head coach and I don't know how this will work out since his last club appointment was in 2011 at Alaves. As little as they've paid attention to the women's team, it feels like they're doing that here with the men. 

[Digby]

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

They haven't bought in to that yet, according to what my Twitter looked like this morning.  Instead of saying he did the right thing they are saying he shouldn't have put it out there after the fact.

 

It was naive of Berhalter to speak of a situation like this at an "off the record" event expecting it to stay as such, but based on the Athletic's reporting, this was going to come out soon anyway. By my read he did well managing this in the moment if it didn't leak during the USA's games and got Reyna back into the fold by the last game, much like how McKennie surfing Tinder during a Covid-times qualifier was dealt with and ultimately blew over. Good! No big deal, situation managed. But a reminder to the rest of us armchair coaches that we're making judgements on just seeing a small slice of the overall situation.

[Rockstar Matt]

19 hours ago, Digby said:

 

 

Athletic's got the gossip that Gio Reyna was being a petulant child at World Cup camp. Explains some things, though the more radical factions of the anti-Berhalter crowd are going to have some reckoning to do. https://theathletic.com/3991695/2022/12/11/gio-reyna-usmnt-gregg-berhalter/

 

Gio responded this morning.

 

Basically stating that Berhalter told him prior to the World Cup his involvement would be limited in the tournament (which is absolutely a ridiculous statement to make to arguably your best player), acknowledged he let his emotions get the better of him for a few days, apologized for it. He explains he's an emotional and passionate player, and was told he was forgiven for his few days of acting disinterested. States that some of the events that have been leaked are "highly fictionalized", in other words false. He was told by Gregg that in-house issues stay within the team, yet was surprised to see Gregg leak this to the media. People should read Gio's full statement. Comes off very professional and mature, taking accountability for his actions and behavior. 

 

We laud Gio for his passion and emotion, it's part of what makes him such a good player. He has that "eff you" mentality that we've sorely missed since Dempsey retired (who, mind you, once tore his hand open because he punched through a glass window when he found out he wouldn't be started in a Champions League semi-final match for Fulham). It's the managers job to do more than just X's and O's for a team, but also manage the ego's of those players. I'm failing to understand how can a manager go and leak what was suppose to be private to the media, especially when it's about a 20 year old kid. It also means Gregg was lying from the start. He stated that Gio was hurt, which is why he wasn't playing, but now we're finding out it's because Berhalter determined prior to the Word Cup that Gio wasn't going to play much if at all (which is a fireable offense, IMO). 

 

So who was acting like the petulant child here and who was acting like the adult? 

 

I don't know how Berhalter can remain as the USMNT manager after this. What player would trust him after he not only leaks private team matter to the media, but essentially throws one of his best players under the bus for reasons unknown.

[MJWalker45]

2 minutes ago, Rockstar Matt said:

 

Gio responded this morning.

 

Basically stating that Berhalter told him prior to the World Cup his involvement would be limited in the tournament (which is absolutely a ridiculous statement to make to arguably your best player), acknowledged he let his emotions get the better of him for a few days, apologized for it.

This sounds to me, that Gio is trying to to take the words said in regards to the Wales game and applying it to the entire tournament.  Regardless, that doesn't excuse slacking off in practice. And I don't believe any coach would automatically decide that he's not going to play someone that much going into a tournament, let alone tell that player this as well. 

[Rockstar Matt]

25 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

This sounds to me, that Gio is trying to to take the words said in regards to the Wales game and applying it to the entire tournament.  Regardless, that doesn't excuse slacking off in practice. 

 

What? The timeline in which Gio was acting disinterested was during the week before the Wales game. The reports specifically cite the friendly against the local Qatari club as one of the examples where Gio was slacking off before he was confronted about it. He apologized and was forgiven all before the Wales game. 

 

Quote

And I don't believe any coach would automatically decide that he's not going to play someone that much going into a tournament, let alone tell that player this as well. 

 

I don't understand this statement. You don't have to believe it, we all saw it happen. There's no other reasonable explanation as to why Gio only played 50 minutes through 4 games. He's our best player and he's healthy. Gregg has done a lot of things that we wouldn't believe a coach would do. Hell, I wouldn't believe a coach who is actively trying to pursue club coaching opportunities in Europe would leak this to the media (or be so naive that he thought a reporter wouldn't report a story like this), but here we are. 

 

I don't understand this blind support for Berhalter, it's like he's immune to any and all criticism.