The world according to Jim:
• Whee! The U.S. men’s national team won a soccer friendly the other night, beating Japan 2-0, and all is well. World Cup, here they come!
And if your first response is to yawn, who can blame you? …
• It’s a weird run-up to next year’s extravaganza, held mostly in this country but co-hosted by Mexico and Canada (and we will refrain, for the time being, from any mention of the geopolitical stresses currently taking place with longtime allies). The host countries are automatically in, so there’s no qualifying crucible where guys play their way on (or off) the roster in serious match conditions. …
• Instead we have a selection process that’s way too low-key, with a leader in Mauricio Pochettino who I’m not sure understands the soccer culture here or how to work around it. And you have what seems like the same old, same old in the player pool, not exactly confidence inspiring on the brink of a tournament with (so we’re told) the potential to change the sport’s profile in this country. …
• Right now the USMNT is doing hardly anything to get its fan base excited. Pochettino insists that nothing really matters until the World Cup actually begins – which for the U.S. is June 12 at SoFi Stadium – but his team right now may be worse than the one that got Gregg Berhalter fired after the Copa América in July 2024. And the biggest news story of the past few months involved Christian Pulisic taking time off. …
• This isn’t the 1993-94 window, a more innocent time when Our Boys were still a novelty act going into the first U.S.-hosted World Cup after unexpectedly qualifying in 1990, the USA’s first berth in 40 years. They were a feel-good story, they reached the Round of 16 by upsetting Colombia at the Rose Bowl – in part because of an Colombian own goal that ultimately got the guy scoring it, Andrés Escobar, shot and killed after returning home – and they made eventual champ Brazil sweat before a 1-0 loss in the knockout round.
And I still second-guess coach Bora Milutinović for essentially playing rope-a-dope with the Brazilians in the second half of that match when his team had a man advantage. …
• Pochettino, the former Chelsea and Paris St. Germain manager, has picked up some of the finer points of the way we do things on this continent. Last week, asked about a particular player’s omission from the lineup, he said: “If people want to talk about (fertilizer), they can talk about (fertilizer), but we feel the responsibility to provide (chances for) the whole group of players that we think can be important for this country in the World Cup.”
He didn’t actually say (fertilizer), but you get the point. Did he get his hands on some old Tom Lasorda recordings, perhaps? …
• And, of course, Pochettino wasn’t happy about playing “home” games with the majority of the crowd rooting for the opponents, which happened last weekend against South Korea and previously during the Gold Cup against Guatemala.
Here’s a hint: Play better, create some excitement – and oh, by the way, US Soccer, make ticket prices more consumer-friendly – and your own fan base might respond in kind. …
• Worth noting: Peyton Manning is recruiting Pope Leo XIV to appear on ESPN’s ManningCast this season, saying he’d been sending handwritten letters to the Holy Father. Well, gee, if THAT’S all it takes …
• This week’s quiz, with a hat tip to reader Ken Rowe: Sandy Koufax (as noted earlier this week) shut out Minnesota in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series. Beyond winning the Dodgers a second championship in three seasons, that game carries another distinction. What is it? …
• Bonus quiz, this one from reader Ruth Stern: Harvey Kuenn made the final out of Koufax’s perfect game in 1965. How else are the two linked? Answers to both below. …
• The National League’s batting champion this year may not crack .300, which (a) reminds us how much batting average has been devalued as a statistic, and (b) also reminds us of 1968, when Carl Yastrzemski won the AL crown at .301 in The Year of the Pitcher – and the mound was lowered the next season. Any suggestions this offseason? …
• I’ve got to admit, those “influencers” who appeared on the YouTube stream of last Friday’s Chargers-Chiefs game in Brazil (shown here over the air on Channel 4) added something to the broadcast. I still haven’t figured out exactly what it was, but whatever. …
• The viewership for that game within the U.S. was 16.2 million, which isn’t bad. International viewership was 1.1 million, probably not what Roger Goodell anticipated but not unexpected, either. It’s not the world’s game yet, Mr. Commissioner. …
• This from the New York Daily News’ Mike Lupica: “So wait – Kawhi Leonard has another no-show job besides basketball?” Ouch. …
• St. Louis’ loss is L.A.’s gain. The Kings announced their broadcast personnel Thursday and John Kelly, son of legendary Blues play-by-play man Dan Kelly and an awfully talented broadcaster in his own right, will assume the lead play-by-play role vacated by Nick Nickson’s retirement.
Right now it’s a tossup as to the Kings’ best move of the offseason: Kelly in the TV booth or Ken Holland in the general manager’s suite. …
• Answer to quiz No. 1: Koufax is the only non-Twins pitcher to win a World Series game in Minnesota. The Twins have been in three World Series, all with the home advantage. They won in 1987 and ’91 (both in the Metrodome) and were 11-1 at home over the three series. It took a future Hall of Famer to beat them in ’65. …
• And the answer to quiz No. 2: Kuenn also was the final out in Koufax’s second no-hitter, against the Giants in May 1963. That time he grounded back to the box.
jalexander@scng.com
