I think the “why didn’t you go get Butler” question is going to hang over a lot of GMs’ heads (the only reason the same question doesn’t about the Cousins deal is that that was about a crazy obsession with one player on Ranadive’s part, but I don’t think the Bulls have any delusions that they just got Steph Curry...).

The diamond is fine against non-Mexico CONCACAF but if we want to advance out of the group stage in Russia we probably ought to be playing something a little more balanced. Something like a 4-2-3-1 with Johnson-Pulisic-Nagbe ahead of Acosta-Bradley (and Dempsey demoted to super-sub) would make a lot of sense.

Yeah, they have to deal with all of those *and* still beat out both Trinidad *and* Tobago for the last qualifying slot. Doesn’t sound so easy now, huh?

Yep, this is right. I didn’t see it at the time of the first tech but they showed a replay of it at the time of the second. Kerr comes off the bench yelling, ref stares him down and makes the T in his direction. I don’t know whether the ref said the wrong name to the scorers or if they misheard, but he had it right…

The factor this article fails to mention is compensatory picks (which teams have gotten smarter and smarter about in recent years and which just grew in value since they’re tradable for the first time).

Why would you assume Bayern offered a higher wage? Man U pays its players way more than Bayern does.

I think by “penalty” you mean “history’s most-ridiculous, least-deserved penalty”

That’s actually a pretty good description of the sort-of neo-libero CB/LW role he’d have Alaba play at Bayern. But it’s probably also a role that Alaba is the only one on the planet who can play (and in particular, Alaba with Manuel Neuer behind him ranging way outside the box to snuff out long balls). And even with…