Yesterday, the United States Soccer Federation found itself in the news cycle during world cup qualifications despite an embarrassing loss to find themselves a way out of the tournament. There are obviously going to be big names missing in Russia, especially with Italy falling to Sweden. The reason they were in the news?
What an absolute joke and bad look for the U.S. To add insult to injury, we’re going to attempt to bring in some of the big names that failed to qualify for a glorified soccer version of the NIT? There’s a reason nobody watches the NIT — because nobody wants to see mediocre teams that couldn’t qualify for the real thing compete. Sure — Italy, Netherlands, Ghana, and Chile are huge teams and usually find themselves competing at the highest level. However, they failed to do so and it should stay that one.
There’s absolutely no chance that these players would want to compete in a meaningless tournament rather than spend their time off on vacation. This is the most American thing ever and is such a bad look to the rest of world soccer. Even if this did happen, I can’t see any of those teams fielding their first choice team. Another genius idea from Sunil Gulati, I’m sure. Just take the L and move on.
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