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Soccer Friday: Your Running Commentary

Photo by  John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports
Photo by John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports

The U.S. Women’s National Team begins the Olympic knockout rounds on Friday, headlining a busy day of action.

Facing off with former coach Pia Sundhage and Sweden, the USWNT’s path to the team’s fifth goal features a clash with a familiar face. Following a disappointing 2-2 draw with France, the USWNT will look to get back on track in a round where there is no room for error. In other quarterfinal action, Canada takes on France, Chica faces Germany and hosts Brazil face-off with Australia.

Elsewhere, Paris Saint-Germain visits Bastia to headline European action, while MLS takes over at night with a clash between the Vancouver Whitecaps and San Jose Earthquakes.

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

Enjoy the action (Today’s TV schedule below):

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

11 p.m. — UniMás/Univision Deportes/MLS Live — Vancouver Whitecaps vs. San Jose Earthquakes

FRENCH LIGUE 1

2 p.m. — beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español/beIN Sports Connect — Bastia vs. Paris Saint-Germain

WOMEN’S OLYMPICS

Noon — NBCSN/NBC Sports Live Extra/NBCOlympics.com — United States vs. Sweden

3 p.m. — NBC Sports Live Extra/NBCOlympics.com — China vs. Germany

6 p.m. — NBC Sports Live Extra/NBCOlympics.com — Canada vs. France

9 p.m. — NBCSN/NBC Sports Live Extra/NBCOlympics.com — Brazil vs. Australia

MEXICA LIGA MX

10 p.m. — Azteca America — Tijuana vs. Club León

PORTUGUESE PRIMEIRA LIGA

3:30 p.m. — Univision Deportes — Rio Ave vs. FC Porto

Comments

  1. Ives – you and the SBI crew have too many Caipirinhas last nite. Where is the running commentary thread for the EPL season opening weekend. Com’mon lads ✌⚽️ ?

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  2. Ives – to thread above about US MNT v WNT in “making money” (as a proxy for assessing the value of the respective product), what do we know? Does the MNT generate more revenue (top line growth), while the WNT makes more profit/margin, or..? Has the financial performance of each squad changed over the same period (say since the last WC cycle)?

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    • You’re asking: A) For Ives to pay attention to his website & B) For SBI to do investigative journalism with facts and research.

      I wouldn’t hold your breath, my friend.

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  3. I’m trying to follow from work. Why was Rapinoe subbed on and then off after only a short time? Seems more and more like a bad decision to have even included her on the roster.

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      • Agree on all points. NATS may have dominated the volume stats but not necessarily quality attacking pla, and Sweden scored a legit goal. Welp… here comes the agony and hopefully exhilaration of penalty shoot-out. Go Ladies!

  4. USWNT is so meh. They simply show up and get results, like they probably will end up doing today, and they expect to be worshiped.

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    • meh? What exactly is meh? They dominate possession shots, and every aspect of the game. If you think thats meh id hate to hear what you have to say about the MNT

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      • The MNT plays against real competition. The ‘dominate’ the box score, sure….but they also still look unconvincing more times than not and certainly have during the Olympics.

      • except in the US the womens team make more every WC cycle than the mean in the US? stop talking, youre just proving your ignorance every single time you say anything

      • THE USWNT do NOT make more every World Cup cycle than the men. They only did that in 2015. Listen. You are talking to a guy is very, pro-USWNT and pro-US Soccer. Not only did I play through university, but I also coached travel girls soccer while in school before I went to law school. I also have a close friend who works for one of the biggest sports agencies in terms of soccer and basketball — they deal with US Soccer.

        Trust me, when I tell you 2015 that was the ONLY time USWNT has earned more than USMNT team (I even gave you additional citations). She also travels to Europe and Latin America for clients (she had to go the Brazil World Cup). I also have a friend who works in finance for FIFA in Zurich (seriously – he used to be in investment banking). They both say women’s soccer is not relevant anywhere else in the world except US. It is barely relevant in Germany and I used to live there.

        Stop with this incessant stupidity you are spewing.

      • you saying womens soccer is irrelevant shows that your a chauvinist anyways, thereby disqualifying any word you say, Go back to your cave

      • No, it shows I am speaking with facts versus your blind, ignorant obsession. Again, show or cite facts instead of your UTTERLY stupid crowing.

        When I say irrelevant, I speak to the fact that virtually no one watches women’s soccer outside US and Canada on a regular basis. It receives negligible funding and generates negligible revenue in most places in the world, seriously. In a lot of this places it is based upon chauvinistic attitudes towards women and sport and in some places it is not the preferred sport for women. Even in the US, viewership numbers for women’s club soccer are abysmal – I am talking 4 digits in some cases for views and those players in the USWNT team pool. That is a fact (in terms of youtube viewership numbers and game day attendance numbers — they don’t have a national tv contract for the NWSL). I have to assume that college soccer does better, since that is on tv on the conference networks. All this while USA is BY FAR the biggest market for women’s soccer.

        However, go ahead and accuse someone who coached girls soccer, done fund raising, attended women’s college soccer matches, and regularly watches women’s college (ESPNU, SEC Network, Big10 network) as a chauvinist.

        What you need to do is learn to correctly formulate an argument to support a thesis you put forward and use citations, if possible, when your veracity is questioned. Until then, do the world a favor and go yell at a wall.

    • If you want woman’s soccer to be paid the same as men they need to do a few things.

      1) the mid level women need to agree that they will participate in a strike. Highly unlikely, this is why basketball and NFL unions are weak. There are more midlevel players than higher paid players and they will cave faster.

      2) they need a league somewhere to gain traction. The current group of teams are barely selling out very small venues if they are doing that. I have seen USL games with better crowds in the few woman’s games I have seen. If they could improve the TV package and people showing up, then they can ignore national call ups because they do not need the money.

      3) hate to say this. But they need to sex up the product. Men are still prominentetly watch sports, and only watch women’s sports if the like what they are seeing. It sucks but it is reality.

      4) as mentioned above another country somewhere needs to care. Nobody does.

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  5. White knights keep trying to tell us that U.S. women’s national team soccer is as big or bigger than the U.S. men’s national team, but that crowd is a joke for a game of this importance.

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    • In this case, the crowd is a joke for women’s soccer broadly, not just USWNT, as these 2 squads are 2 of the “best”. Bet if this match was played in the US, we’d likely have a sell out. Cheers

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      • I think there’s definitely merit to that sentiment, but if the USMNT were playing a game of this importance it would be sold out no matter the country and a significant amount would likely be USMNT supporters.

        If we’re lowering the bar for any reason it’s still lowering the bar which invalidates the agenda of those denying reality.

    • nevermind the fact the men are expected to turn negative profits this year (i.e lose money) where as women are expecting huge profits, Keep telling yourself there isnt an issue though

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      • except its 100% accurate. even in 2015 the MNT lost $2 million total compared to $18 million profit for the women. keep being delusional though

      • 2015 is the ONLY year, ONLY year where the USWNT made more than the women. However, that is comparing apples to oranges because the World Cup Year is always the highest earning years for the respective national teams; speaking of which USMNT 2014 out-earned USWNT 2015 (comapring like for like years). Even with that, in FY 2015 , USWNT earned $23.5 million with $6millon profit (in their best year on record) when the USMNT earned a little over $21 million with $2million profit (not loss), nowhere close to their best year. In FY 2015, after all expenses

        BTW, my cites are: (1) USSF Financial statements (they are all on record) , (2) ESPNW article dated April 21, 2016, and (3) NY Times article about pay disparity in USSoccer..

      • No one but US soccer actually knows the numbers because so much of the books are tied up in SUM. What you’re looking at is really just friendly revenue.

  6. Credit to the NATS for ratcheting up the pressure and tying the game. Morgan beats her marker to latch onto an error by Sweden in the box. Strong in holding off her mark.

    Reply

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