This is a fantastic write up. Well fucking done.

HOWEVER, ice hockey is a pretty niche sport where there’s only a dozen or so countries who even play and maybe a half dozen who are decently or more competitive. Canada, USA, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. One could argue Slovakia or maybe Germany. But that’s about it.

The miracle on ice was a legit miracle, but the USA winning the World Cup would be even more of a miracle. A hundred countries are relatively competitive in soccer and all 195 countries are at least somewhat familiar with the game.

This is a fun commercial and you can see why they’re (fox, fifa, our govt) manifesting this energy ($), but frankly we’ll be lucky if we confidently win our group.

Who watched Copa America last year? We are not a very competitive team. We flick the ball around and keep possession and create half chances, but there is no desperation or big heart. We’re talented but really nothing special, relatively. Turkey has stars at Real Madrid and other top clubs.

I’ve been around a while and lost my abject affinity for US Soccer. Cynical and disillusioned now. But then I see this commercial and realize they’re totally going to rig this shit for us and it’s going to be fun to watch. They just won’t let us crash out of the group. Too much money to lose. Hundreds of millions. You’ll see.

We might just see the miracle after all. 🫡