International Break - Soccer +PLUS

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30,000 foot view 🛩️ - What’s Been Going On

☝️Italy Failed to Qualify for the World Cup…Again

It was a shock in 2018, a disaster in 2022 and possibly a trend in 2026. One of the BEST national soccer teams in the world just did it again, failed to make the World Cup - for the third straight time. Italy, known as the Azzuri, lost in a shootout to Bosnia Herzegovina to fall short of the 2026 World Cup. This is the first time a former champion has missed the tournament three consecutive times.

Keep in mind, Italy have won the World Cup FOUR times, most recently in Germany in 2006. Only Brazil has more with 5. What’s even crazier, they won the European Championship in 2021. It’s not like they fell off a cliff.

Italy earned 18 points in their UEFA qualifying but were in a loaded group and had to play their way in through the playoff. Kosovo had 11 points, and is thru. Sweden had 2 points, and is thru. A lot of talk right now on qualification rules.

✌️ Story Time

The Italy loss hits hard. It was in Italy, you might say, the “Clean Sheet” was started. Not “specifically” started, but the journey to the Clean Sheet.

Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino

In the early 2000’s CS was traveling to Turin, Italy for work. FIAT, Italy’s largest automotive company, had just purchased CASE IH (tractors) and CS was part of a post merger-integration team. When you spend a lot of time in the office with Italians you recognize just how passionate the culture is, overall and for sport.

So, it can be quite embarrassing to have NO CLUE what Serie A is (the EPL of Italy), the Champions League is, or what a Juventus is (The most accomplished Italian soccer club in Italy - based in Turin).

Add to the embarrassment - FIAT was started in 1899 by Giovanni Agnelli and his grandson Gianni Agnelli led the company from 1966-1996. In 1923, Giovanni’s son and Gianni’s father, Edoardo Agnelli (a VP at FIAT) was elected Chairman of Juventus Football Club and after WWII Gianni was appointed president of the club. Later Gianni’s son Umberto and grandson Andrea all served as Chairman of Juventus. Currently, the Agnelli family owns 65% of the club.

So - not only did the client CS was working with have huge Juventus fans, but the owners of the client also owned the team. Not a good thing to say “what is a Juventus”.

And from that - CS started learning about European Soccer.

👌 CS World Cup Corner 🌎🍵🏪

The final 6 teams have qualified for the World Cup.

• Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-1 (4-1 penalties) Italy

• Czech Republic 2-2 (3-1 penalties) Denmark

• Turkey 1-0 Kosovo

• Sweden 3-2 Poland

• Congo 1-0 Jamaica

• Iraq 2-1 Bolivia

The World Cup Field Is Set

🍀 MORE CS World Cup Corner 🌎🍵🏪

• 104 Matches

✋ USMNT Friendly Results

Two losses for the USMNT against 2 top 10 clubs in the World. This ended a 5-match win streak. Roster decisions will be made in May.

• USMNT 2-5 #9 Belgium

• USMNT 0-2 #6 Portugal

Glass Half EMPTY

• Got drilled. Some significant mid field and defensive issues.

• Injuries to Tyler Adams and Sergino Dest showed up on the back end of the defense and that will be a problem.

• Pulisic has been scoring for Milan in Italy but is on a USMNT scoring drought.

• The effort of the team in the 2H was questioned. You need to be going at 100% to beat top 10 teams.

• Herculez Gomez (@herculezg) is not impressed: Poch and Berhalter before him have wasted the last 4 years.

Glass Half FULL

• Still 2 months to go and the USMNT learned a lot about where they are at.

• Poch said they are “not far away” and that losses are the “only way to improve”.

• The 1H of both matches were great.

• In 1980 the US Hockey Team won the Olympics over much better competition after getting drilled by them in warm up matches. Poch will find the magic!

The USMNT will need to punch above their quality in July. It’s possible but will be a heavy lift. They could win the group they are in or lose all 3.

The Record of the USMNT against their Group Opponents.

🕕 The WISCONSIN Bosnian

Back to Bosnia-Herzegovina defeating Italy.

The player who scored the winning penalty for Bosnia - 21-year-old Wisconsin born Esmir Bajraktarevic. The former US youth international who made is USMNT debut in 2024 switched to B-H. Esmir’s parents fled Bosnia as war refugees. He Played with the Milwaukee Wave and Chicago Fire academies before moving to the New England Revolution academy making his first team debut in 2022. He currently plays for PSV in the Netherlands.

7️⃣ Schedule Reminder

The EPL is off another week, and for the teams in the Champions League, there will be some quick turnarounds. Here are the Match Weeks remaining.

• FA Cup QF - April 4-5

• CL QF - April 7-8

• MW 32 - April 10-13

• CL QF - April 14-15

• MW 33 - April 18-20

• MW 34 - April 24-27

• FA Cup SF - April 25

• CL SF - April 27-29

• MW 35 - May 1-4

• CL SF - May 4-6

• MW 36 - May 9-11

• MW 37 - May 16-17

• FA Cup FINAL - May 16

• MW 38 - May 24 - all matches at 10a cst

• CL Final - May 29-30

🎱MORE CS World Cup Corner 🌎🍵🏪

FIFA Rankings can be somewhat questionable, but there are rankings, so here are the rankings of each Group.

• $30 Canada in a GREAT spot!

• #1 France in Group I is gonna be crazy.

• #16 USA is gonna have to earn it.

• #2 Spain has to like their path.

• Defending champs #3 Argentina needs to show up in the group.

9️⃣ EPL News +PLUS

• Former BHA manager Roberto de Zerbi takes over Tottenham.

• Isak is returning to practice at Liverpool, if health could really help.

• Chelsea reported a pre-tax loss of $300M, the biggest in EPL history. But before you think they are in trouble, sure seems like the club value increases each year well more than that number.

• Man United are 17 points ahead of last season, the biggest improvement in the EPL this season.

• Forest and Liverpool are 25 and 24 points behind last season, the biggest drop.

• Hey Texas Clean Sheeters - anyone try the wearable Rally Sombrero?

🔟Artemis II

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is on a mission - to fly around the Moon - and the Artemis II crew is on board.