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Soccer Wednesday: Your Running Commentary

JackWilshereEngland1-Peru2014 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Fresh off a rousing send-off at Wembley Stadium, England has traveled to Miami to begin the next stage of World Cup preparation.

Next up for the Three Lions is Ecuador, who fell to Mexico, 3-1, last Wednesday and are in the process of preparing for the World Cup themselves. England manager Roy Hodgson has gone with an experimental lineup featuring younger players such as Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ross Barkley, and Luke Shaw. Hodgson is also experimenting with playing Wayne Rooney out wide and James Milner as a right back.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands hold its third and final World Cup tune-up in Amsterdam against Wales, though the Welsh are without Gareth Bale. Louis Van Gaal is testing out a diamond midfield, pairing Arjen Robben up top with Robin Van Persie.

Later on, Argentina hosts Trinidad and Tobago, Chile hosts Northern Ireland, and El Salvador faces the Ivory Coast at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. In MLS action tonight, the Columbus Crew host Real Salt Lake, and the Chicago Fire hit the road to take on the Colorado Rapids.

If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action. (Today’s viewing schedule is after the jump):

2:30 p.m. – Netherlands vs. Wales – ESPN Deportes/ESPN3

2:45 p.m. – Italy vs. Luxembourg – Univision Deportes

3 p.m. – Ecuador vs. England – beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español

6:30 p.m. – Argentina vs. Trinidad and Tobago – beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español

7:30 p.m. – Columbus Crew vs. Real Salt Lake – MLS Live/MLS Direct Kick

8 p.m. – Chile vs. Northern Ireland – beIN Sports Play

9 p.m. – Colorado Rapids vs. Chicago Fire – MLS Live/MLS Direct Kick

9 p.m. – El Salvador vs. Ivory Coast – beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español 

Comments

  1. Greetings, peace, and best wishes.
    Be back with you over the weekend?
    Got the New York Rangers, going on.
    interesting they look just like our Bomb Pops(Sweaters&Kits),
    anyway nobody is giving them a chance.
    Torn, Broadway Blues all the way.
    But love Dustin Brown, my home town boy on the Kings.

    Rangers, are a well rested bag of hammers, blue collar nuts and bolts all the way.
    NY, over LA, in 7.

    peace, love, and good night. for France St. Louis.

    Reply
    • Oh yeah, I wouldn’t be my Grinchy self if I didn’t tell you.
      The Broadway Blues should have drafted Dustin Brown,
      they had the 12th pick and passed, LA took him with the very next pick lucky #13.
      the rest is history, Captain Brown and the team got LA, their first Lord Stanley.
      Something even the great one did not do.

      Reply
    • I didn’t but I’ve seen the replay of the Sterling/Valencia incident. That is an outrageously bad tackle from Sterling and Valenica was extremely lucky his leg wasn’t in the ground. Childish reaction from Valencia but I can understand his anger. I don’t understand the people trying to defend that tackle, it was very high and late

      Reply
      • I can understand the nerves, especially with this rash of horrible injuries. But yeeeahh, fist fights aren’t the answer.

      • I disagree. Whats Sterling going to remember more a red card in a friendly game or getting his @ss kicked? Im going to go with option 2

      • Perhaps you didn’t hear what Valencia said first about the Donovan omission.

        I won’t even repeat it but I’m sure you can imagine.

        [Dent my face please]

      • Seriously. The hilarious part was the BeIN commentators trying to act like that wasn’t Serious Foul Play. When you tackle a guy so hard that he ends up flying a$$-over-teakettle like Charlie Brown, you might have used excessive force. The only reason Sterling didn’t see red immediately was because Valencia popped up and grabbed Sterling’s throat to earn himself a red.

  2. So are there Germany, England and Italy fans calling for the ouster of their coaches, and perhaps questioning why they didnt call up some seen-better-days and indifferent former superstar based on these results? Are American fans just more demanding?

    Reply
  3. 1. So who won the Valencia-Raheem Sterling fistfight? My money is on Sterling, who I expect is slippery in a mano a mano.
    2. How serious is Jack Wilshere’s injury? Precautionary substitution, or more serious?

    Reply
  4. On a completely unrelated note, I know that the focus is on this 2014 World Cup right now as it obviously should be, but as I find myself counting the days until the WC starts with nothing to do I spent a few hours yesterday making a spreadsheet of the US talent pool for 2018. I’d be very interested to hear what people think about the pool (I was personally shocked at how stacked we are at all defensive positions), and I could also use some help putting together a list of prospects at the bottom of it who have yet to really come onto the USMNT radar but have the potential to do so. So with that said anyone have any suggestions as to how I could share it on these comment boards?

    Reply
      • +1, unfortunately unlike FRANK mine is too large to screenshot and not quite as funny, but I’m downloading dropbox so hopefully I can upload it as a pdf

      • I would, except the time I have between spring semester and summer classes at Cornell is killing me, how’s yours going?

      • Not bad. I’m busy with my social life in between classes at HARVARD (LOOK AT ME). Have fun at your fake Ivy League school.

      • Ha ha, last time I checked Quaker. This is America, I can exercise my first amendment rights properly. Thank you, have a wonderful rest of your night. #LD>JG

      • haven’t heard that one before, instead of pissing on each other though lets just agree that our summers are going well and there’s no need for bickering

      • My word.
        Both of you guys should be out smoking dope out and getting laid somwehere. Get out of this place while you can… you can always come back when you’re old and broken down like the rest of us… or when you’re faded later tonight .. whenever.

  5. Moreover, Ives has posted links to stories about FIFA or CONCACAF fraud and politics in the past.
    Not asking him to scoop a big story, just shed some light. There are daily stories on the situation in Brazil that he could link.

    Reply
  6. Agreed it is perhaps THE World Cup story, but isn’t it more of an Anderson Cooper-type thing as opposed to an Ives thing? After all, last I checked Ives was a soccer reporter, not a feature writer on social/political stories or an investigative reporter.

    Granted, this may be the perfect opportunity to expand his horizons and I suppose it is worth asking. . .

    Reply
    • This is a SOCCER story as well.
      Soccer is a GLOBAL game with huge social, economic and political fibers.
      Besides Anderson Cooper will be busy reporting celebrity gossip.

      Try as you will, you cannot take politics out of the game.

      Reply
      • yes we can, sí se puede ,and we will keep it out. Take the socio-economic-politico issues to the CNN web page.

        Otherwise I will start talking about the socialist/commie governments and their soccer team uniforms.

      • Two topics for a civil and in no way loaded internet discussion:

        1. Did LD deserve to be left off, or was it just a good idea?

        2. Is Capitalism evil, or does a dellusionally myopic reliance on it lead to massive corruption and secondary treatment of human life?

        1, 2,3… GO!!!

      • Only when it involves the US hosting a WC that it becomes a football story. It does not matter that the poorest people in Brazil will be paying Batler’s and Platini’s vacations in the Mediterranean. Hypocrite.

      • The problem isn’t a soccer problem, it is a society problem. It is easy for us to question why FIFA is taking the game to these places but it is also a bit hypocritical… imagine if New York was hosting a World Cup match back during the Occupy Wall Street nonsense, imagine what reporters from around the world could have made of that had the Occupy kids marched down the street over the expense of the World Cup or whatever. Imagine if outsiders wanted the World Cup removed from Arizona because it wants to enforce current immigration laws or whatever.

        If you want to really make a statement, demand that US Soccer withdraw from 2022 qualifying or something like that. Organize to write to Nike to withdraw funding for World Cup matches in questionable locations, asking a sports writer, even a good one, to do this story is not going to get your side very far.

      • Wow – seems like I touched a reactionary nerve.
        Soccer reporters around the world are reporting on this story. Obviously, American press will blackout this story – like so many others that do not fit in the official corporate sponsored narrative. BTW, the problem is capitalism. You can go back to pimping your ebook now and writing letters to Nike. Sorry, I rubbed your fur the wrong way.

  7. Ives,

    Do you plan on doing any reporting on the massive protests that are ongoing in Brazil? This is a MAJOR story with this WC. Despite being the “holy land of futbol”, the Brazilian people are putting their socio-economic interests before a sporting event. Many people are realizing that this is a big party for the benefit of the elite, that poor an working class Brazilians will need to pay for – financially and even with the removal/destruction of their homes.

    Reply
  8. Ecuador with the early goal. England dominating possession, but the Ecuadorians looking dangerous on the counter.

    Reply

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