Hail GFOP!

Rog writes: How you feeling about our G-League USMNT team? The good news, our boys have rebounded from that dark, flaccid run of four straight losses, by piecing together three straight wins and topping their Gold Cup group. The counter-argument is, we clipped a truly ragged Trinidad and Tobago team, scraped by a weakened Saudi Arabia, and were in a fist fight with 83rd-in-the-world Haiti. A caller on our post-match live taping of The Deuce asked Clint Dempsey if he has seen progress and if he believed the score would now be different if we faced Türkiye or Switzerland again. The knockout round will be the moment of truth. Are we progressing or did we just drop down several weight classes in terms of quality of opponents? 🍻

📺 WATCH HERE: Clint Dempsey breaks down what he saw last night, and what this U.S. team needs to work on to thrive in the knockout rounds.

Make no mistake, this was a tough watch. This shorthanded team lacks creativity and a ruthless edge. The strangest reality is this: the majority of these players have been gifted a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket to audition for a World Cup on home turf they would never have thought was possible. Yet, the attacking football is so deferential. Bar Malik Tillman, we appear low on alphas. Last night, Quinn Sullivan attempted to take opponents on in flurries, but few others seized their chance to enforce their will upon the game and make themselves impossible to deny. Our football is to belief, hope, and optimism what Olive Garden is to authentic Italian cuisine.  

ii. Hot Tillman Summer ☀️🕶️

If this summer is the one that etches Malik Tillman as a bona fide World Cup starter, all would not be lost. The 23-Year-Old German-American has three goals in three games, but it is the quality of his finishes which have set our pulses racing. Look at the way last night he instinctively elected to go back across the goalkeeper with this header. Just Assassins Creed Shadows level of clinicality. Pochettino so desperately wants to discover “his” players he can rely on. Tillman has been that, and may emerge as the one player Poch has from this summer who can challenge the absent big names, and get more out of them. 

iii. In Goal: Is It Time for Next Matt Up? 🧤

Matt Freeze had experienced two shuts outs. He had also only faced one shot on goal. Last night, under the first hint of pressure, he went “Black Hawk Down”. Tim Ream did his goalkeeper no favors with the tricky bouncing back pass, but Freeze was caught in two minds, between smashing the ball clear, and following tactical instructions to play the ball out of the back, and this self-inflicted wound ensued. Herc Gomez tweeted: “This is easily the worst generation of American Goalkeepers in #USMNT history. Matt Turner has international experience and needs games, but can’t get them at the Gold Cup? Might as well report to his new club team. Get a head start on winning a spot.”

iv. Patrick Agyemang Is the Pineapple on Pizza of U.S. Strikers 🍍🍕

Clint Dempsey always tells me you can’t argue with numbers, and gent has scored five goals in nine U.S. games. GFOP @Owenwise16 wrote on our insta: “Seen enough, send Agyemang to Madrid.” But the young striker remains so raw, clumsy and uncalibrated, he is dividing opinion amongst the U.S. fanbase. Take these two comments last night from our livestream chat:

David Meyer: “Agyemang… is not your prototypical well-polished forward that's why some folks are flummoxed, but you can't deny his goal rate, and how his size poses headaches for defenses.”

R Baranski: ​​”Agyemang really has four goals: I know he gets credit for Luna’s but no skill or effort of his went to that. His passing accuracy is bad, he’s indecisive, he’s not fast when he needs to be, etc.”

I admire him so much – his story of perseverance from D3 college to international football is inspiring. Let us be clear what we believe he is auditioning for: When all our gents are fully fit – which is a hypothetical – the No. 3 slot behind Balogun and Ricardo Pepi is the one up for grabs. Enjoy Big Pat. Cult hero in the making. My son calls him the most Everton-looking striker the U.S. have had in a while. All hail “American Beto.”

More: Clint Dempsey breaks down the USMNT striker depth chart.

v. Yes, the Lack of Attendance at These U.S. Games Is Heartbreaking 💔

CONCACAF’s decision to play this game at an 80,000-seat stadium was a choice, but the U.S. just played in Austin, and turn out was meager. Whatever the Savannah Bananas got going on, our U.S. team is experiencing the opposite. Contrast our attendances to the scenes at the Club World Cup, where Boca, Flamengo and even Wydad and Urawa fans are creating intoxicating spectacles on our shores – and project that forward in terms of what the next generation of American football fans are feeling and thinking… it is then you sense the amount of work we have to do to compete for their hearts and minds.

The U.S. men’s national team used to be the pinnacle of American football fandom, but now fans have real choices for their emotional bandwidth and their money. In Brazil 2014, there were 200,000 tickets brought by U.S. supporters – the most outside of the host country. Fast forward to the present day inertia around this program and even our most diehard fans are at risk of losing interest at the worst possible time. That support cannot be taken for granted. It can, and needs to be rebuilt.

vi. The Knockout Rounds Will Be Our Moment of Truth 🇨🇷🇺🇸

On to 54th-in-the-world Costa Rica in Minneapolis on Sunday night. Mexico topped their group too and can only collide with the U.S. in the final, if we both get there. Here is the good news, the Ticos will be down four starters. Key amongst them, hot striker, Manfred Ugalde, who has three goals in the tournament, and midfielder Carlos Mora are suspended. I will break this down with Herc Gomez on Friday (send in your questions and comments for us at [email protected]) and then go live with Clint Dempsey immediately post-game Sunday.

vii. Washington DC, I Can’t Wait to See You 🏦

We are headed to you for a live show. Join me and two USWNT legends-turned-leaders of The Women’s Game, Sam Mewis and Becky Sauerbrunn. We will celebrate one of soccer’s greatest rivalries, USA vs. Canada, ahead of the Allstate Continental Classico. It goes down next Monday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m. ET at the stunning Howard Theatre. Guests include Canada manager Casey Stoney and Washington Mystic Georgia Amoore. Tickets are available here. Come and have a pint with us and revel in all that is good about life and football. 🇺🇸🏛️ 

Finally, congratulations to my friend, Alex Caruso, enormous Manchester City fan, who is a champion once again. Commiserations to the great TJ McConnell, who will experience the solace of being the first Leeds United owner ever to play in the NBA Finals.

Courage,

ROG

The FIFA Club World Cup Vibe Check 🏆📈 

- Written by Tommy Stewart

So far, the Club World Cup has been everything and nothing all at once. At times, it’s had the unshakeable feel of turgid pre-season friendlies where big-name clubs in sporadically capacitated stadiums face each other for marketing reasons only, but there’ve also been profound moments of magic, as alien footballing cultures collide in the land of the free. FIFA can be thankful for South American fans and teams, who have been the life force of everything magical in the USA. At this point, Brazilian teams Flamengo, Botafogo and Palmeiras all lead their groups, and their supporters, along with Argentinians Boca Juniors and River Plate, have given the streets and stadiums of America noise and color. Fans of European big boys, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, have also congregated in their masses, and UEFA’s best teams have all brought their heavy artillery on the pitch. 

We Do, However, Have Some Notes 🤔

In the spirit of Frank Costanza, “I’ve got a lot of problems with FIFA, and now you’re gonna hear about it!” While we’ve seen a couple of full stadiums, there have been some tragically empty ones and were this tournament in Europe or South America, it’s likely the atmosphere and attendance would be vastly heightened. The big yellow sun provides a beautiful canvas aesthetically, but the inordinate heat has seen games delayed and already exhausted players struggling to cope. In Cincinnati, Borussia Dortmund’s substitutes used umbrellas and the air conditioned locker rooms to escape the weather and Jude Bellingham has complained about it, as well as the poor state of the pitches at the tournament. The individual player introductions are also a total misfire that feel like a “Black Mirror” interpretation of football because it negates the point of a sport that is so team focused. Hopefully this will be trial and error for next year’s World Cup showcase in North America, but there’s little that can be done to prevent forces of nature and acts of God.

Permutations, Baby: Who’s In, Who’s Out and What’s Next?  📊

Like on the last day of the Premier League season, the final lot of first-round fixtures in each group will kick off at the same time, adding a sense of urgent jeopardy and hopefully images from the stands of fans on phones cheering or crying as they find out how the score in the other match impacts them. Bayern Munich, Flamengo, Juventus and Manchester City are all through to round two, while Auckland City, LAFC, Urawa Red Diamonds, Ulsan HD, Wydad AC, Al Ain and Pachuca are all out. If Palmeiras and Inter Miami draw today, they’ll both qualify from Group A, with Porto and Al Ahly both on one point to their four. Group B is tasty, because after their historic victory over PSG, Botafogo are on six points, meaning they’re almost certainly through, leaving either the Champions League winners or Atletico Madrid to surprisingly exit the tournament at this early stage. In Group D, Chelsea have a direct play-off with ​​Espérance de Tunis tomorrow, but a draw can see the Londoners through on goal difference. Groups E, F and H all remain wide open, with myriad permutations and narrow points disparities between the teams involved, but for a full breakdown of how the final round of fixtures can play out, take a look at this handy explainer.

📬 Enjoying The Raven? Check out our other Men in Blazers newsletters here.

The CWC’s Biggest Weekend Results 🏟️

Flamengo 3-1 Chelsea 🇧🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Both on the pitch and in the stands, South American teams are reminding the world why it’s a continent that prioritizes football over almost anything else. Chelsea are one of the most prestigious teams in the world’s richest league, but Rio De Janeiro’s Flamengo truly made the searing Lincoln Financial Field their home on Friday, giving weight to the notion that it really is always sunny in Philadelphia. Pedro Neto scored early, continuing to evolve into one of Chelsea’s most potent forces, and although they were a bit unlucky to not get a penalty just before half time, Maresca’s men were not ready for what came in the second half. Two quick-fire Flamengo goals in the 62nd and 65th minute had the Linc making sounds Philly hasn’t heard since the Eagles won the Superbowl, and only three minutes after going 2-1 up, Nicholas Jackson displayed Dennis Reynolds-levels of anger, rightly seeing red for his high studs. Wallace Yan put the blues to bed late on, and for once, Cole Palmer looked sweltering; both on social media and the pitch, Chelsea were truly cooked. 

Bayern Munich 2-1 Boca Juniors 🇩🇪🇦🇷

Not many grounds have sold out in this tournament so far, so leave it to this fantasy match between Bayern Munich and Boca Juniors, arguably both Europe and South America’s strongest fan bases here, under the Friday night lights of Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, to do just that and make this feel like visceral and consequential football. Harry Kane finally got his first goal of the tournament, not long after Bayern were unlucky to have one disallowed thanks to an arduous VAR decision, but their relentless first-half momentum was ultimately impotent and Boca’s Miguel Merentiel scored one of the goals of the tournament so far to make the Hard Rock roar. Heartbreakingly for those tens of thousands of traveling Argentinians, Michael Olise also showed up, further cementing him as one of Europe’s elite footballers with a clutch and casual finish in the 84th minute to win it for Bayern and take them to the next round. The look, sound and feel of this game is more crucial to this tournament’s future than any result because matches like this elevate the spectacle far beyond pre-season vibes and morph it into the monstrous version of the Champions League that FIFA want it to be. 

Mamelodi Sundowns 3-4 Borussia Dortmund 🇿🇦🇩🇪

Why did this game have to end? While teams from Europe and South America have been the glamour on which this tournament has been sold, South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns have been a welcome discovery for much of the football universe. Brazilian Lucas Ribeiro opened the scoring with an early entrant for goal of the tournament, forcing Borussia Dortmund to respond ruthlessly, finding themselves 4-1 up by the 59th minute, with new signing Jobe Bellingham scoring and assisting, elongating the brotherly Brummie legacy at the German giants. Dortmund just about survived a late surge from the Sundowns, whose liberated attacking football in yellow shirts and blue shorts harked back to prime 1970s Brazil, providing Cincinnati's TQL Stadium with blissful, unleashed joy. Group F is tight, and the strength of the Club World Cup is that there’s still the opportunity for underdogs like the Mamelodi Sundowns to qualify for the knockouts.

Real Madrid 3-1 Pachuca 🇪🇸🇲🇽

A 35-year-old Salomon Rondon provided surreal moments in the first 20 minutes in North Carolina, giving Real Madrid’s defense more headaches than the morning after a night with Clint Dempsey on the Camarena tequila, with his persistent pressure leading to a clumsy Raúl Asencio red card. That was Madrid’s starting gun because their 10 men finally remembered they were in an international football tournament, and started playing the fluid attacking football that a Xabi Alonso side promises. Bellingham scored a beauty, proving that anything Jobe can do, Jude can do better, as England’s second-most-famous brothers teased what could be an epic sibling tit-for-tat in Champions League fixtures for the next few years. Temu Luka Modric, or next in line to the throne, Arda Güler, buried the game before half time in front of a white ocean in the stands of Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. Skipper Federico Valverde continues to be one of the world’s most underrated footballers, and his second-half goal was a well-earned encapsulation of his endless running and subtle quality. Elías Montiel finished a lovely consolation goal for Pachuca, which means he can tell his grandkids, and anyone that will listen, that he scored against Real Madrid in a competitive game. Now that Alonso’s first win is done, we can all move on with our lives as the inevitable era of domination looms.

📊 See the full list of Club World Cup match results here.

Some Absolute Weekend Worldies 🚀 🥅

There were a lot of great goals this weekend, but these three get top marks:

Mid-Week Matches Worth Faking a Meeting for 📺 

Club World Cup 🏆

Inter Milan vs. River Plate (Today, 9 p.m. ET, TBS/DAZN) 🇺🇸 🇦🇷

This is the sort of fixture that makes the Club World Cup, at times, irresistible. It’s like pitching Muhammad Ali against Mike Tyson, because these two have never had the opportunity to come head-to-head before, and with South American teams and their frothing contingencies of fans providing this tournament with most of its life and color, Seattle’s Lumen Field will be gladiatorial. Inter’s new manager, Christian Chivu, oversaw a disappointing 1-1 draw against Mexico’s Monterrey last week, and although River Plate’s 3-1 victory over Urawa Reds was to be expected, they come into this with more conviction and less to lose. The two are level on four points each at the top of this group, so as well as the historical weight and fantastical aesthetic of this match, should Monterrey beat Urawa Reds, a loss for either side sees them knocked out. It’s Italy vs. Argentina, Milan vs. Buenos Aires, Goliath vs. Goliath. Bring. It. On. 

Benfica vs. Bayern Munich (Tomorrow, 3 p.m. ET, TNT/DAZN) 🇵🇹 🇩🇪

In 11 head-to-heads, Benfica have never beaten Bavarian Overlords, Bayern Munich, with the two most recently facing each other in last season’s Champions League, divided only by a Jamal Musiala goal. Group C has delivered on its first-glance promise, with Auckland getting pastings and patronizing points only for participation, and the other three big boys violently left to a triple threat match in order to qualify to the knockout rounds. Despite Benfica relying on ageing Argentinian legends Angel De Maria and Nicholas Otamendi, they are an efficient attacking outfit, but Bayern are a different beast who said from day one, “we are not here for a holiday.” They’ve already qualified for the second round of the tournament, and Benfica only need a draw to progress, but Vincent Kompany is gunning to compensate for his side’s quarter-final Champions League exit, and as exhibited in their 10-0 decimation of Auckland City FC, his side are always out for blood.

Juventus vs. Manchester City (Thursday, 3 p.m. ET, TNT/DAZN) 🇮🇹 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

This reads like a Champions League quarter-final, and although Juventus haven’t looked like the most successful side in Italy’s history for a while now, they and their American boys go into this replenished with the confidence of two convincing victories that puts them at the top of group G. Manchester City’s new signings Tijani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki already look at home in Pep’s side, so you can catch them in parker jackets and round sunglasses singing about the ‘soooonshyyyyyne’ in Orlando, Fla. on Thursday. Although both teams sit on six points having won both of their games so far, whoever tops the group gets an easier passage through the knockout rounds, and perhaps more importantly, a win for either will be symbolic for the rest of their campaign. On paper, with history accounted for, this is arguably the biggest game of the group stages, so let’s hope the Camping World Stadium gives the tie the crowd it deserves.

Some Non-Football to Start the Week Off Right 📖

• “Slow Horses” Season 5 prep: Why John le Carré’s Work Remains More Essential Than Ever.

• It’s Hard Out Here for a Short Guy. Well, at least Lionel Messi is a short king.

• 'Together-together' - why South Africa's triumph matters on the long walk to freedom (it's not just about cricket)

• The Definitive, Insane, Swimsuit-Bursting Story of the Steroid Olympics. How is Gianni Infantino not involved?

It’s MiB Trivia Time 🤔

Your weekly dose of MiB Trivia is here!

This week’s question: Lionel Messi scored his 68th career free-kick for Inter Miami against Porto in the Club World Cup on Thursday; he has the third most goals from direct free-kicks in football history, but who is top? Clinch the patch if you can name second place as well!

Email us with your answer for a chance to win a much-coveted MiB patch.

Congratulations to last week’s winner, Matt DeAngelis, who was the first to correctly answer that Landon Donovan is the CONCACAF Gold Cup’s all time top goalscorer with 18 goals. Good work, Matt, the patch is on its way to you 📦