diamond_ace

Pochettino in! Never in a million years thought that was a realistic option. He's not fantastic but he's miles better than anyone we had in the past. Definitely thought we were going to pull Cherundolo from his MLS side because that's what we do...

I'd definitely be in for this!

This is a standard edition of Copa America, not the Centenario, but I certainly don't mind reusing the thread. Having said that... WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS USMNT DOING? 11 years ago, Berhalter was fired from fucking Hammarby. He had just come from a 5th place finish in the Superettan (yes, that's correct, he couldn't even win a promotion to the Allsvenskan - just upper midtable in the 2nd tier). He went to Columbus Crew from there. He did ok there, playoffs 4 years out of 5 (in a league where most teams get in) and one final appearance, but even then nothing amazing, especially because it's the MLS. Leaves Crew in 2018 and we all know where to from there. Can't get promoted from the Swedish 2nd tier, can't win the MLS or even make more than one final, and what do we do? We decide this is somehow a great candidate to run a national team. He got us back to the WC in 2022, sure, but the round of 16 is something we'd accomplished before. Nothing spectacular. Better players, same result, that usually means worse management. Then his contract was up - with the whole Reynas thing, I can see the rainbow flavoured unicorns of getting rid of him then not being great, as he certainly wasn't in the wrong on that particular issue, but he's just not good enough. Especially considering there was another American manager (Jesse Marsch) between jobs, who had a much stronger resume (Salzburg/Leipzig/Leeds, admittedly without the best run at Leeds, but they're all miles better than Hammarby and Crew). When Berhalter was rehired, Marsch was not managing anywhere. Berhalter gets back in there, wins the Concacaf Nations League (which frankly isn't a great accomplishment), loses to Panama at home on pens in the semis of the Gold Cup after having only scraped through the quarters over Canada also on pens, none of this seems to be a concern for USMNT. We get to host the Copa America again, and on paper we should have been the 5th or 6th best team in the tournament (Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, then either Ecuador or us - if you say you saw this Venezuela run coming, you're lying, and yes *on paper* we should be better than Canada, more on that in a minute). We get a slightly tougher than average group, one big team and two teams we should be beating, but look who it is again - our old poisoned chalice Panama. We lose to Panama of course, thanks Tim Weah, and get grouped when we should absolutely not have been grouped. Panama becomes one of two Concacaf teams to get into the knockouts based on that result, and the other one is of course Canada (who I'll admit to enjoying a little, it's definitely a change of pace from the years where it was just US/Mexico). Who is managing Canada? Jesse. Fucking. Marsch. I hope he's enjoying this. I hope he's savoring these results like a steak and a good bottle of wine. I hope he's equally as happy from schadenfreude seeing USMNT lose as he is with his own successes. It's just Copa America, it's not WC qualifying, this result isn't quite on the level of 2018 Trinidad and Tobago, but USMNT brass should be looking at it like it is. This team is packed with more talent than we've ever had, and it's all getting flushed down the drain by some guy named Gregg that couldn't even cut it at fucking Hammarby. I'm sorry to steal the "Fire X" thing from @Fire Tortorella and apply it to a completely different sport, but you know what, no I'm not. Berhalter out, not 2 years from now, not 2 months from now, do it now, USMNT. Berhalter out or we riot.

A few of these I personally think there are better options for, even if we largely work under your existing framework: Would go Buffalo for NY's farm, rather than doubling up on the NYC metro area. Would go Portland for Seattle's farm, if Tacoma happened it would likely be the least relevant place ever used for the league other than when Minot, North Dakota had a team - yes, that was a thing. Like the option you went with in Milwaukee, proves you weren't just 100% going within state lines. Winnipeg seems a bit far from Toronto to make it work as a farm, although I'm not super up on internal Canadian stuff and that might be more reasonable than I think. If I'm right and it's weird, maybe that's where the missing Mississauga could fit. Seconding Ahma's mention of Turku, especially as we had a Turku before. Would go Glasgow for London's farm, just to cover a second "constituent country" of UK rather than double up on England. Would go Vilnius for Riga's farm, since "the Baltics" are a thing and not really Belarus. If we are working *outside* of your framework: I disagree with the idea of removing DC, and not just because I play for them (you know historically my heart is with Prague, and prior to that Calgary, so this isn't bias talking, although all credit to Frosty as I've very much enjoyed DC and couldn't have asked for a better landing spot if I was going to branch out a bit). (Coincidentally, although completely unrelated other than sharing cities/states that get a mention: the Milwaukee Lakefront is one of my expansion teams in my 40-team NHL23 save, as are the Portland Owls, and since you mentioned Alaska briefly in the M section, the Anchorage Narwhal)

Nah the disappointment already happened with another team winning and eliminating us between games 81 and 82...

7 1/2! not bad not bad

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Is that Marie Curie? Can't quite tell - looks similar enough, but not so close that it's definitely a match. If so, you definitely read up on where at least part of the name came from. In any case, the render is fantastic and the card looks great, regardless of who it's supposed to be

Lets get this cup

I care, but I am notably not a single person, so this doesn't actually prove Cow wrong. It does, however, speak to a strange target demographic - not sure why the Commie Cup would appeal more strongly to those in relationships, but I can't reasonably prove otherwise.