The Daily Dirt February 26, 2018: A USMNT injury, BINGO, and the World’s Fair

Atlanta United concluded the preseason over the weekend and it seems to have come not a moment too soon. Tata Martino really treated the games as if they were friendlies where he was trying to learn things about his more fringe players and others who will have a non-starting role on the team. On the one hand, this was a little painful to watch at times with the team losing to the Columbus Crew 3-1 and getting draws against Charleston and Minnesota United. End it has though. Hopefully, Tata saw what he needed to see and the team is ready for the regular season.

Domestic

Good news everyone, Atlanta United has finally made it. People are excited about Andrew Carleton, but some people are cautious - both seem reasonable thoughts to have, but this is the internet. Check out this hot internet beef that went from - mild disagreement to accusation of sociopathic, narcissistic manipulation in 5 tweets. There needs to be a Godwin’s Law for that - for now give these two a BINGO square.

In a tough break for Jordan Morris, the Seattle Sounders forward tore his ACL and will be out 6-9 months recovering from the injury. Morris won MLS rookie of the year in 2016 before an injury riddled 2017 had him looking to make a come back this year. Morris is the second USMNT player who will be unavailable for the March friendly after Kellyn Acosta went out with a sports hernia injury.

This is an interesting read about MLS and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair from In These Football Times’ Ryan Huettel. The article makes an interesting comparison between the identity of MLS and the identity of America in the early 20th century, there are some parts that are a bit of a leap in logic and the invocation of Atlanta United is almost worthy of a BINGO square. Still it is something to think about and has probably set off a certain blogger in Minnesota to write 1,000 words about post-structuralism, popped collars, lackluster soccer, and modernization theory.

The final roster for the SheBelieves Cup for the USWNT has been announced. The tournament will kick off March 1st at 7 PM on ESPN 2.

International

Everton lost to Watford 1-0. I’d like to say they fought valiantly, that their through balls just didn’t find the mark or that Watford’s keeper stood on his head. I’d like to tell you those things. But I’d be lying - the truth is much more painful.

Snow games aren’t just for Colorado and Minnesota - this was the scene in Turin on Sunday

Goals

Pretty pedestrian by Messi here. He just gathers the ball in the 18 yard box, draws five defenders to him and makes everyone on Girona look like they play for Minnesota United.

Willian has been on an absolute tear lately. After a huge performance against Barcelona, he did this against Manchester United.

It was a big weekend for Howlers - there was this one from LV Lights, which should be the gift that keeps on giving as far as bizarro soccer news goes:

But the howler of the weekend goes to captain waterbottle Mark Flekken who doesn’t even have the excuse of playing for a minor league team in their first season for this one:

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