U.S. men’s soccer coach will get to stick around
• No more proof should be needed that the United States has reached maturity as a soccer nation than this: A victory in Game 3 of the 14-game CONCACAF qualifier for the 2022 World Cup is sufficient (for now, anyway) to quiet those who wanted head coach Gregg Berhalter fired immediately ...
• The 4-1 victory over Honduras on Wednesday night was a huge relief after what seemed like an opportunity blown Sunday night against Canada in Nashville. That failure to win a home game not only was a tie that felt like a loss, but in a region where every road match is perilous, it was a crisis. Falling behind 1-0 in the first half at Honduras on Wednesday night seemed to be a disaster in progress. And at halftime, the Twitterverse was already suggesting not only whether Berhalter should go but debating the best candidates to replace him.
(One of those candidates currently works for LAFC, by the way.)
Three substitutions at halftime, a formation change and some renewed intensity made the difference in the USA’s comeback, a stark contrast from the first two matches when Berhalter didn’t go to his bench until late in the game. Believe me, U.S. fans noticed . ...
• As the game ended, it was the Honduran fans on-site demanding that their manager must go. This happens everywhere else in the world, and often the national federations are just as quick as their constituency to turn on the field leader. That it is happening here and now is a measure of impatience, certainly, and reflects the reach of social media platforms. But it also says the fans are knowledgeable, unwilling to settle and more vocal about it than ever. (Just like the rest of the world.) ...
• The idea that a roster stocked with Europeanbased players would be an advantage? Two of the second-half heroes Wednesday night were MLS players: FC Dallas’ 18-year-old
Ricardo Pepi, who had a choice and picked the U.S. over Mexico, and the Galaxy’s own Sebastian Lletget. Could it be that domestic-based players might better handle the gamesmanship the U.S. traditionally faces on the road in CONCACAF? ...
• Unsolicited advertisement dept.: Former Sports Illustrated soccer correspondent Grant Wahl, a casualty of that once-venerable magazine’s puzzling changes, has a Substack newsletter that is a go-to source of information for those following the World Cup qualifying effort . ...
• Email heading of the week (and this one tumbled into my inbox Thursday morning): “Dream Job: We’ll Pay Someone $2K to Drink Beer (Ends Soon).”
It’s an Oktoberfest-themed gig, and it shouldn’t be too hard to find job candidates. This time of year, you can find them in tailgates across America every Saturday . ...
• A fan group has created a website and a Facebook group devoted to getting Tommy John into the Hall of Fame. Its main objective is to lobby the Historic Committee, which will meet in December 2023 to consider players who dropped off the BBWAA ballot.
I’m in favor of it. John’s highest percentage of the writers’ vote was 31.7% in 2009, his last year on the ballot. I voted for him consistently because, beyond his 288 career wins, he changed the sport with the groundbreaking elbow surgery that bears his name.
But if he goes to Cooperstown, he needs to go in tandem with the late Dr. Frank Jobe, who performed the then-unprecedented surgery in 1974 . ...
• For years, writers would be allowed into the Dodgers’ training room to talk to that night’s starting pitcher while he was icing his arm and elbow. One night, we were talking to John as he was soaking his elbow in a tub of ice — and there were also two bottles of beer in that tub. If that’s not multitasking, I don’t know what is.
And if I remember correctly, it wasn’t domestic, either. It was the good stuff. (Lesson to young reporters: Observe everything, no matter how small. You never know when you can use it.) ...
• Things we wish we’d written, from Bay Area sports/politics humorist Janice Hough: “This is the first year for college football where players can profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL). Some fans are upset and feel that the money will destroy the sport. Meanwhile #5 Georgia beat #3 Clemson, 10-3 in the — ‘Duke’s Mayo Classic?!?’” ...
• Last week, the USC Basketball Twitter account announced that the 202021 Trojans would receive rings for reaching the Elite Eight.
So if you’re UCLA how do you handle this? Give your guys bigger rings for getting one step further? Or remind them that the only banners hanging in Pauley Pavilion represent national championships? ...
• I think I know how Mick Cronin would lean. As he put it back in March: “I’ve got a lot of friends in the NBA, and they make fun of people that have rings that say ‘conference champion.’”
In other words, no consolation prizes will do.