Iron Crotch

Dahlin makes the big bucks now... you'd think he could afford a Dermatologist. ? (I'm a jerk)

I forgot how boring pre-season hockey can be.

Christian Pulisic scored in the 83rd minute on Saturday with Dortmund a man down and a goal down. The kid (just turned 20) was the best player on the pitch. https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/video/1326863427956

I'd start a Bundesliga thread, but I get the feeling I'm the only one around here who watches the Bundesliga (more Americans in Germany than any other "top tier" league).

I just searched this thread for "Allen" posts. Some of the pre-draft and immediate post-draft stuff is... quite entertaining... ? Anyway, it'd be a minor miracle to win in Green Bay next week, but I though the same about today's game.

A slice of apple pie in Jamaica costs $2.00. It is $2.50 in the Bahamas. ….these are the pie rates of the Caribbean. ?

So my college team (Virginia Tech) lost as a huge favorite yesterday to a winless team, and now this on the road from the massive underdog Buffalo Bills?! ...this is why I love sports!

My job circumcising elephants doesn't pay much... but the tips are huge.

Someone subscribes to Pun-based Humor on Facebook. ? 6 of 7 dwarves aren't happy.

I'm seeing Crowbar at their "home" venue - basically just a big house - down here in New Orleans on Saturday. 20th anniversary of their Odd Fellows Rest album, so they'll play it in its entirety. Crowbar has been one of my favorite bands for a quarter of a decade.

Not to be a jerk, but pretty much anyone who follows European soccer beyond just a casual interest was already well aware of Mbappe. He's already one of the top-5 players in the world at 19. He won the Golden Boy Award last year as the best player in Europe under the age of 21 and should easily win it again this year. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/23/golden-boy-2017-kylian-mbappe-wins-award Of note is 2, 6 (Pulisic), and 8 on the list in the above link all played for Dortmund two season ago. Also of note is no American player has ever been nominated until Pulisic, but watch out for 18 year old Josh Sargent at Werder Bremen. He has a chance to be America's first ever "world class" striker.

Gareth Bale to Man U is a rumor.

This isn't entirely true. The age that Americans are allowed to play for European clubs is 18 not 19. I believe you can train with a team before turning 18 with no contract - Josh Sargent trained with Werder Bremen's first team before he signed on his 18th birthday. But you cannot play in any matches until turning 18. The EU passport rule is a little loose. You need a grandparent (or parent) with EU citizenship. That's how Pulisic got around the rules - Croatian grandfather. Other exceptions that'll allow an American to play in Europe before turning 18: The player’s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons not linked in soccer. The transfer takes place within the territory of the EU and the player is at least 16. The player lives outside the country, but no further than 50km from a national border. The club must be within 50km from the border. IMHO, the "American's can't develop" stuff was pretty true in the past. But most MLS clubs now run European-style youth academies. They're producing comparable players to the European academies and many of (the best of) these players have been signing with European clubs. But this is a recent phenomenon - MLS academies have only been around for a decade. That the US has the best and deepest collection of young talent (17-22) it has ever had probably isn't a coincidence.

So glad this game didn't go to penalties. I'm happy for Modric who I think is one of the best 5 or 6 players in the world. He's like a point guard or quarterback out there. Just always in the right spot and always making the right pass. Great game!

This game doesn't suck.

England put my twin Marcus Rashford in. That's the correct move. ?

Perisic, ! ...my second word didn't get through the new more stringent smut filter I see. I used a synonym for 'female dog.'

That's easier to do since there aren't all that many of them playing in Europe. ? (there are a few though) ….after some research, there appear to be no Canadians in the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, or Ligue 1.

I'm not sure if other SabreSpacers follow American players over in Europe, but I try to keep up with these guys as much as I can. We have quite a few young guys who are just coming into their own in the World's top leagues (England, Germany, Italy, Spain). In particular, the Bundesliga recently put out their list of 11 "Wonderkids to watch for 2018/2019" and 4 of the 11 are Americans: https://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/Bundesliga/wonderkids-to-watch-christian-pulisic-leon-bailey-pavard-sule-509386.jsp Most American soccer fans are familiar with Christian Pulisic (Dortmund) and Weston McKennie (Schalke) at this point, but keep an eye out for Josh Sargent who just signed with Werder Bremen. He is the future striker of the US National team IMHO. Also, Jurgen Klinsmann's son Jonathan (born in California) is a heck of a goalie. He's at Hertha Berlin. Anyway, if I see any interesting updates of relatively unknown Americans playing over in Europe, I'll post them here.

I was gifted a brand new England "3 lions" jersey last week. ...So now I feel like I have to root for England (while I wear the jersey). I'm a huge fan of Modric though, so either way I don't care too much about who wins today's game.

It's part of the game, but the time wasting toward the end of the game was bordering on absurd. I wish refs would compensate for blatant time wasting, but most don't.

Yet another set piece goal. Seems like the majority of goals in this World Cup are either set pieces or from the spot.

The locker room is a nice topic for talk radio and the newspapers... but I'd argue that we're not winning because our players aren't good enough. Occam's razor. I agree with pi2000. Win and all these one-off theories about the underlying problem (e.g., locker room) go away.

Croatia is through! Wow, what a game! Fernandez was a hero in tying the game in the second OT. ...but, his penalty kick well wide was about as bad as it gets.