***US Soccer***

[BioHawk]

U.S. soccer game in St. Paul could be coldest game in history

This is insane. The US will not get any advantage from this and will probably lose, actually. Poor conditions never benefits the more talented team. It negates most of the advantages they have. They just played a game on turf so it is possible to play games on artificial surfaces. Oh, and look, the Vikings won't be needing US Bank Stadium anytime soon so it's not like they don't have a state of the art facility sitting around to use. I hope someone realizes how stupid playing this game outdoors is.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

The bigger mistake imo was the wasted year after missing the 2018 WC. Interim coach, and no overall plan save for seemingly just giving every player possible a game or two that year. Absolutely nothing gained from that season.

Oh my gosh. Don't get me started on that... complete waste. I was whining about a coach probably once a month until we settled on Gregg.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

Has it sold out? I hadn’t seen.

I'm actually not sure. I believe they sold all the tickets but secondary markets gobbled them up. Lots still out there.

 

[jaxhawk06]

Has it sold out? I hadn’t seen.

As of a couple of days ago, I still saw tickets available on Ticketmaster. I'm going, but I had to sell a pair I had around half price to get them off my hands

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

This is insane. The US will not get any advantage from this and will probably lose, actually. Poor conditions never benefits the more talented team. It negates most of the advantages they have. They just played a game on turf so it is possible to play games on artificial surfaces. Oh, and look, the Vikings won't be needing US Bank Stadium anytime soon so it's not like they don't have a state of the art facility sitting around to use. I hope someone realizes how stupid playing this game outdoors is.

Yeah, seems idiotic. They’re overthinking it too much. Find a warm weather spot and line up and play. Have to think it’s unsafe at those temps.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

Yeah, seems idiotic. They’re overthinking it too much. Find a warm weather spot and line up and play. Have to think it’s unsafe at those temps.

To be fair. Even if they played tonight it would have been 20 degrees warmer. It was a poor decision and one that they thought would lead to a chilly game but not -11 wind chill. We got some bad luck on top of really bad planning.

 

[sober_teacher]

Yeah, seems idiotic. They’re overthinking it too much. Find a warm weather spot and line up and play. Have to think it’s unsafe at those temps.

To be fair, it’s going to be close to 30 degrees below the average temperature in Minneapolis tomorrow, normally close to 30 degrees, but wind chill will be below zero.

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

[blhawk]

This is world cup qualifying. You take any advantage you can get over any opponent.

You sound like a euro wannabe US kickballer... this is chicken shits doing their thing. It's f'n El Salvador (2-5-3) and Honduras (0-7-3). If you have less talent then maybe it's an advantage but US isn't used to it either. Can't even root for this p*ssy ass shit. And people wonder why this sport is one Americans generally don't give a shit about?

Embarrassing. And I'm not even talking about the lame ass chants from the crowd or losing to powerhouse Panama with their massive 4.3 million population. But hey, maybe they'll get to participate in the real show this time

 

[BlIIlken2]

That was a textbook set piece. Also my god I feel so bad for the Hondurans. Why even show up? Last place, negative wind chill. This is dumb and dangerous.

 

[ConvenientParking]

This looks miserable on the field.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

This looks miserable on the field.

It’s dumb. No idea why they would do this.

 

[ConvenientParking]

2 first half goals, how about that.

 

[Hawk-A-Doodle-Doo]

Meh...this isn't even that cold by our standards. But man are Hondurans a bunch of whiny bitches. Jebus!

 

[ConvenientParking]

1 minute added lol. Figured haha.

 

[Dorrman]

Pretty good 1st half. Now let’s finish them

 

[ThorneStockton]

Maybe we should play every game in sub-zero temps and against poor teams.

 

[MepoDawg#]

Wow, a yellow? He flopped.

 

[B1GDeal]

Like what De La Torre brings. All in all… job well done tonight.

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

Hawkeye Football representing:

 

[Hawkfan_08]

About an hour from IC. That was actually really fun but I'm still thawing out. It was bad but manageable. I don't know how the guys kept themselves warm.

The conditions didn't have as big of an impact as I had anticipated. I thought the US looked good. Our midfielders McKennie and de la Torre were really good. Pepi didn't get involved a ton. It was interesting to see the runs he didn't make. I thought we had chances to get him the ball a few times and didn't do it. I thought we were a little too cautious at times. Too much movement side to side and didn't get the ball into the box.

Oh well, three points!

 

[jaxhawk06]

I'm still thawing out too. I actually wasn't as cold as I thought I would be but I hope I never have to experience that again

 

[sober_teacher]

About an hour from IC. That was actually really fun but I'm still thawing out. It was bad but manageable. I don't know how the guys kept themselves warm.

The conditions didn't have as big of an impact as I had anticipated. I thought the US looked good. Our midfielders McKennie and de la Torre were really good. Pepi didn't get involved a ton. It was interesting to see the runs he didn't make. I thought we had chances to get him the ball a few times and didn't do it. I thought we were a little too cautious at times. Too much movement side to side and didn't get the ball into the box.

Oh well, three points!

Games like last night are what can frustrate me about Berhalter. It seems like they get too methodical, looking for the perfect run into the box. Last night they did much better at being aggressive and always being on the move, and the opportunities were more plentiful as a result.

I realize that’s partly because of the opponent, but that’s something I wish they’d be that active more often.

 

[Hawk and Awe]

That’s cool that you guys went to the game. I literally could not have been paid…. Or I guess maybe my price would have literally started at $10,000

US Soccer should be absolutely embarrassed with themselves for putting on that clown show. Berhalter taking pics with fans is the cherry on top. No wonder the other countries don’t like us

Can’t wait to hear people bitch about field conditions for away games. All credibility has been lost

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

That’s cool that you guys went to the game. I literally could not have been paid…. Or I guess maybe my price would have literally started at $10,000

US Soccer should be absolutely embarrassed with themselves for putting on that clown show. Berhalter taking pics with fans is the cherry on top. No wonder the other countries don’t like us

Can’t wait to hear people bitch about field conditions for away games. All credibility has been lost

You guys are really going over the top with this. No one cares that we had a soccer game in super cold conditions.

No one cares that the head coach was taking pictures with fans.

 

[Dorrman]

 

[Hawk and Awe]

You guys are really going over the top with this. No one cares that we had a soccer game in super cold conditions.

No one cares that the head coach was taking pictures with fans.

Who is no one? I care.

You’re probably right if you’re referring to the rest of the world. They definitely don’t care about anything this team does.

 

[sober_teacher]

That’s cool that you guys went to the game. I literally could not have been paid…. Or I guess maybe my price would have literally started at $10,000

US Soccer should be absolutely embarrassed with themselves for putting on that clown show. Berhalter taking pics with fans is the cherry on top. No wonder the other countries don’t like us

Can’t wait to hear people bitch about field conditions for away games. All credibility has been lost

They scheduled the game with several factors in mind.

1) playing at Canada. Travel for CONCACAF games is always a pain, and they didn’t want to have to add several additional hours of travel time by flying from sunny CA or FL to Hamilton, Ontario and back

2) first time they ever played a WCQ in the January/early February window due to the condensed schedule and the WC in Qatar, which combined to force creative scheduling

3) the desire to create some home advantage by forcing El Salvador and Honduras in temperatures they’re not used to

4) the average temp in Minneapolis was 30-40 degrees warmer than the actual temperature they got. They expected chilly, not freezing cold like they got.

I’m not sure why it evidently wasn’t an option to move the game to the Vikings stadium once it became obvious how cold it was going to be. But I don’t think the rest of CONCACAF is going to be all that upset about it like you seem to be.

 

[Joes Place]

They scheduled the game with several factors in mind.

1) playing at Canada. Travel for CONCACAF games is always a pain, and they didn’t want to have to add several additional hours of travel time by flying from sunny CA or FL to Hamilton, Ontario and back

2) first time they ever played a WCQ in the January/early February window due to the condensed schedule and the WC in Qatar, which combined to force creative scheduling

3) the desire to create some home advantage by forcing El Salvador and Honduras in temperatures they’re not used to

4) the average temp in Minneapolis was 30-40 degrees warmer than the actual temperature they got. They expected chilly, not freezing cold like they got.

I’m not sure why it evidently wasn’t an option to move the game to the Vikings stadium once it became obvious how cold it was going to be. But I don’t think the rest of CONCACAF is going to be all that upset about it like you seem to be.

They need to quit playing those winter games in outdoor stadiums.
Soccer is not "American Football" where players get continual "time outs" and shifts to warm up on the sidelines.

 

[sober_teacher]

They need to quit playing those winter games in outdoor stadiums.
Soccer is not "American Football" where players get continual "time outs" and shifts to warm up on the sidelines.

It previously hadn’t really been an issue for the most part. This window we just completed is normally an international friendly one, and in normal WC cycles would have consisted of guys trying to earn the last couple of roster spots, and are normally played in warmer climates. The normal competitive windows run from March thru September/October, and the USA has traditionally considered where the away match is during these windows when deciding where their home game was played.

The “Snow Clasico” against Costa Rica was scheduled in Denver because the next game was going to be at the high altitude of Mexico City and they wanted players to be able to be used to the thinner air.

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

My club team had their Latin American scout (and former cup winning striker) looking at two Costa Rican national teamers last night 🤔...

 

[Hawk and Awe]

They scheduled the game with several factors in mind.

1) playing at Canada. Travel for CONCACAF games is always a pain, and they didn’t want to have to add several additional hours of travel time by flying from sunny CA or FL to Hamilton, Ontario and back

2) first time they ever played a WCQ in the January/early February window due to the condensed schedule and the WC in Qatar, which combined to force creative scheduling

3) the desire to create some home advantage by forcing El Salvador and Honduras in temperatures they’re not used to

4) the average temp in Minneapolis was 30-40 degrees warmer than the actual temperature they got. They expected chilly, not freezing cold like they got.

I’m not sure why it evidently wasn’t an option to move the game to the Vikings stadium once it became obvious how cold it was going to be. But I don’t think the rest of CONCACAF is going to be all that upset about it like you seem to be.

It’s hard for me to separate a few things - 1 being the snow game feels like it was a month ago (not sure why)

The other is how plenty of people thought this was a ridiculous idea from the start and it played out in the worst case scenario. As if we all knew this was going to happen! And all this to gain an edge on the worst team in the group?

(If it’s not clear - what I’m saying is there is a considerable amount of bias driving my anger not helped by the fact that this team is really damn talented and no fun to watch)

But I think u nailed it. I’m overreacting, but it’s Crazy not to play indoors. It was one of a handful of times I’ve ever felt sorry for professional athletes

 

[sober_teacher]

It’s hard for me to separate a few things - 1 being the snow game feels like it was a month ago (not sure why)

The other is how plenty of people thought this was a ridiculous idea from the start and it played out in the worst case scenario. As if we all knew this was going to happen! And all this to gain an edge on the worst team in the group?

(If it’s not clear - what I’m saying is there is a considerable amount of bias driving my anger not helped by the fact that this team is really damn talented and no fun to watch)

But I think u nailed it. I’m overreacting, but it’s Crazy not to play indoors. It was one of a handful of times I’ve ever felt sorry for professional athletes

Yeah idk why it apparently wasn’t even considered. Not like the Vikings were using it.

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

[sober_teacher]

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I think USSoccer and Berhalter were gambling the temps would have been in the 30s. Still cold, but not extreme.

 

[Joes Place]

I think USSoccer and Berhalter were gambling the temps would have been in the 30s. Still cold, but not extreme.

Either don't schedule OR have "backup plans" in place.

 

[sober_teacher]

Either don't schedule OR have "backup plans" in place.

I would have assumed the Vikings stadium would have been an acceptable option. They goofed here, but I have trouble feeling sympathy for Honduras and other Central American teams here, considering the abysmal playing conditions we’ve encountered for WCQ in the past.

 

[jaxhawk06]

Either don't schedule OR have "backup plans" in place.

They almost moved the game to Austin, TX last week but decided to keep it in St. Paul

 

[HawkRugged17]