The American contingent in this season’s EFL Cup competition is down to only two.
Chris Richards and Antonee Robinson are the remaining U.S. men’s national team players left as the annual competition completed the Round of 16 phase on Wednesday. Richards and Robinson were not part of the midweek action, but their respective clubs booked their places into the final eight.
Richards was not in the Crystal Palace squad due to a calf injury as the Eagles defeated reigning English Premier League champions Liverpool 3-0 away from home. A first-half brace from Ismaila Sarr paired with a late insurance goal from Yeremi Pino helped Oliver Glasner’s men claim a third-straight victory over the Reds in all competitions.
Robinson remained absent for Fulham, who outlasted League One Wycombe Wanderers 5-4 on penalty kicks on Tuesday night. The two clubs played out a 1-1 scoreline through 90 minutes before seven rounds were needed to find a winner.
The USMNT left back has been out of action since September 28 due to a knee injury. Robinson underwent knee surgery at the end of last season and has been reduced to only four appearances during this campaign.
The American defenders will both aim to be back in their squads well before the quarterfinal round this December. Richards and Crystal Palace visit London rivals Arsenal while Robinson and Fulham travel to Newcastle United in another All-Premier League affair.
Manchester City will host Brentford in quarterfinal action as well while Chelsea visits League One side Cardiff City.
All quarterfinal ties will take place during the week of December 15.
FIFA is using the same tactic it used for club WC tickets but with prices about 10X higher. For the club WC those of us bought early were screwed as FIFA eventually lowered the price as they didn’t sell at the higher prices and did not want to have half-empty stadiums.
Don’t know what the price trajectory will be, but with the starting price for the cheapest group stage ticket is about $450 and a lot more if the US is involved. With a couple air fares from the coast, and hotel room it’s well over $1500 each for even the cheapest ticket. (I think the US cannot play in the northeast until the final, good luck with that.)
Both these players seem like good guys, so yes, I would have liked to be able to watch them in the League Cup (aka EFL Cup aka Carabao Cup? — confusing).
However, so far none of those games seem to have been broadcast on actual TV or standard cable channels. Is there any reason to think that later stages will even be available to US viewers?
Or with MLS, equally, it seems pointless to watch the later stages, when the powers that be have flatly refused to broadcast the earlier ones to a wider audience all year. Why would I care now about any MLS team?
The latest win for corporate money over actual fans and viewers seems to be the World Cup. Have any of you read the article in the Guardian (Leander Schaerlackens?) about trying to order tickets?
Have any of you actually been able to get (affordable) WC tickets?
Or should we just be resigned to the sad fact that the brief window during which soccer was growing among US fans and media has already passed?
As a onetime viewer, it all now just makes me sad.
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Share your frustrations but the trend is much bigger than just soccer. Don’t know many people that just subscribe to cable anymore, all the best tv is on one streaming platform or another. The consumer has much more choice in what to watch but unfortunately the cost is ultimately just as bad or worse than the old cable tv packages. I gave up on WC tickets after I found out they wanted a $1000 deposit just to put you in a lottery. Maybe that’s changed but it was such a putoff that I was done. And I’m a longtime fan that could afford it.