Oh man! Can’t believe I missed the call. I have a great one. Went to visit my college buddy for 4th of July. He lived just north of Boston. So one of the nights I was there we decided to go to his friend’s house. The friend’s parents have a beautiful home. The friend was also completely dumb (not clinically, just…

A 4-4-1-1? I thought it was more of a 4-2-3-1. Seemed to me that both Holiday and Brian were hanging back a little more, but each had the freedom to spring forward knowing the other was there, and Lloyd was free to just go HAM knowing she would have at least one of the 2 behind her. Meanwhile Rapinoe and Heath (and to…

Great point. I was really excited they kept her in the lineup. I thought she made all the difference in the US reigniting it’s attack against China. She’s not a holding mid by nature, but she’s done an admirable job in her 2 starts in that role.

I don’t think you sub either Rapinoe or Heath, I’m just saying if either is a catastrophe tonight, I’d sub them out for O’Hara no problem. Or potentially O’Hara for Rapinoe if we’re protecting a lead late...

I think Morgan Brian did a reasonable job there against China. I’d like to see her start. Really the only change I make to the China lineup is Rapinoe back in for O’Hara, as good as O’Hara was. But if things aren’t going well I wouldn’t be opposed to O’Hara as an early 2nd half sub for either Rapinoe or Heath.

Call me crazy...but I think Holiday should NOT start. I know she’s an incredible talent, but unfortunately, she’s stuck behind another incredible talent at her natural position. She was given the opportunity to play out-of-position and make and impact, and she has not played well to put it mildly. Morgan Brian, while…

As soon as I watched this earlier I knew I’d be seeing it here eventually...

I smell a pointless action movie!!! Good guys team up with evil terrorists to overthrow the government of Qatar and occupy the state in furtherance of the good goal of removing the World Cup from Qatar. Maybe for a reboot of the Rambo franchise...

Another embarrassing incident for a football player at a bar in Georgia...

For the record, I said fire George Karl in the last post about this saga...a post in which Deadspin presented 3 options, none of which were fire George Karl.

Valid point.

You never know. Maybe FIFA is sensitive to not wanting anymore bad press than they’ve already brought on themselves, so they’ve instructed officials around the world to be harsher on racial and homophobic slurs. I don’t think it’s entirely out of the question.

Here’s a thought: fucking fire George Karl. I’m sure that Karl knew the feelings of ownership with regards to Cousins, and rather than at least attempt to play nice with the most talented player on the roster, Karl started pushing for a trade, probably leaked it to the press, and was basically willfully insubordinate.…

The one time Suarez wasn’t just being a douchebag.

I’m not missing anything here, right? Cavani didn’t actually touch Jara, right? Could be one of the worst flops in history...maybe Cavani got carded for dropping an f-bomb (the homophobic slur, not the physical act of making love).

Perhaps you’re more familiar than I am, but who was out there to fill the holding/defensive mid role that got left out?

Solid article. I tend to agree we’ve fallen behind tactically. I disagree it’s as systemic as you make it out to be.

I was summer interning at a law firm, and I couldn’t get out of work. Thankfully it was a small firm, I had my own office in a secluded, and lightly trafficked hallway. So I streamed it to my ancient office desktop. It was so grainy I could barely tell who each white blur on my screen was. When Donovan scored I leapt…

Not so sure the time off is a bad thing for Holiday and Rapinoe. They’ both logged a lot of minutes and the US is on shorter rest than China...so it’ll be nice to have them with fresh legs come the semifinals, assuming we beat China.

Rapinoe has been the best player going forward...but I think the best players have been Sauerbrunn or Johnston. I lean Johnston, but I’d accept either answer as the best so far this tournament for the USWNT.