It took one hour and 28 minutes for FIFA to finally draw a ball.

You know the World Cup will inevitably be awesome (see Qatar 2022), but wow is FIFA again doing everything to blunt enthusiasm.

When the #USMNT gets an absolutely brutal draw, at least I know who to blame.

FIFA clown show in full effect. Just get on with it, this is embarrassing.

The dream #F1 scenario for today: Max wins. Norris DNF/out of the points. Piastri finishes 9th. And we go to the last race of the season with a three way tie for the Championship.

It's kind of a bit of a long shot, but it's still on the board. Max wins tomorrow. Lando DNF. Piastri finishes 9th. And we have a three way tie going into the final #F1 race of the year. So...you're saying there's a chance...

I mean on the bright side Ajax are probably going to need a new manager really soon and maybe Arne Slot is available?

Oof

This MLS playoff game between Cincinnati and Inter Miami is riveting. It's such a shame that it seems like no one really watches.

If Max wins both races and the sprint, Lando needs 35 points the rest of the way to win the title. Two seconds and a sprint DNF is still 36 points. McLaren must be pivoting to a Lando centric strategy right?

Good thread. The USA is the wild west when it comes to sports tickets. The rest of the world doesn't remotely operate like that (USA: that ticket is yours do whatever with it. RoW: you are going, if not return to club.) and I suspect FIFA at the World Cup is trying to be more like the world.

This is way better than I ever imagined they could coordinate with the stadium conversion to grass and FIFA's unwieldy demands for stadium access.

I didn't have Cristian Roldan and Gio Reyna starting on my #usmnt bingo card.

I've never been a Europe does it better soccer guy in regards to #MLS But I think the calendar switch is great. Just getting the MLS playoffs to the spring instead of this yearly slog between the international break where NFL and college football is dominant on TV...a great idea.

This is good. And there's a ton of good TV shows on Apple TV, great value.

It's 1:20 AM and I'm on day 5 of a 12 day solo parenting stint. And the Sounders just did this to me, not cool guys. Not cool.

The really crappy thing is that I genuinely believe this Sounders team had a good chance at another MLS Cup. We play this series 10 times and we win 9, 8 of them pretty easily. But these things happen in knockout soccer.

3 posts/crossbars hit in one penalty shootout. Sigh

How do you not play advantage there? Unless you are thinking straight red card, I can't imagine any scenario why you don't come back to give that yellow card?

Message received, plan executed.

Huh, that was a pretty good free kick. Okay, it's going to be one of THOSE games it seems.

First goal 10/10 Dummy, one touch cushion pass back to the dummier to a one touch finish....sublime. Second goal um.... We will take it. Hey listen, you still have to finish a cross from 2 yards away, clearly you can miss that exact kick.

It took 7 years of living abroad, but I'm watching the Sounders game and the temp was listed as 36F / 2C and I looked at the 2C and not the 36.

It's on like Donkey Kong: 1. Norris 357 2. Piastri 356 3. Verstappen 321 With four races to go, it's a realistic 3 way battle. #F1

The Sounders have not only made the playoffs in 16 of their 17 MLS seasons, but they have also hosted at least one home playoff game in 16 of their 17 seasons across numerous playoff formats. That's somewhat incredible.

Sounders playoff schedule: - Monday, Oct. 27: 9:00 p.m. ET broadcast / 9:00 p.m. ET kickoff (Apple TV, FS1, Fox Deportes, TSN, RDS) - Monday, Nov. 3: 10:30 p.m. ET broadcast / 10:55 p.m. ET kickoff (Apple TV, FS1, Fox Deportes, TSN, RDS) - Saturday, Nov. 8: TBD Apple TV)

For sale: One Egyptian King, slightly used. Still useful under the right circumstance, needs generational support to fully unlock potential. Available...January 1 but might need to be shipped from Africa shortly thereafter.

I love the French commitment to the bit. Even the thieves breaking into the Louvre are like "no one will believe workers are out at 6 AM on a Sunday, we do it at 9:30 AM"

Well that's not really the start I was hoping for.

Max has a chance to bookend an unprecedented 5 titles in a row with the most dramatic/controversial title ever and the biggest points comeback, sandwiched around the most dominant 3 years in #F1 history.

You can still get Max +400 for the title. It seems like this is going to happen.

ugh...Yuki

What a performance last night by Cristian 👏

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

"We are doing the studies to make the proof." Just an embarrassment.

76 KM to go in the European Road Rice championship and it's down to just Pogacar and Evenepoel already. Jonas was dropped back at km 109, he's still not the best one day rider. It's game on between these two.

I mean you bring a Sounder in and good things happen...

Hey, there's RBW at the #U20WC!

The #USYNT U-20 team is playing France in the World Cup and a Zidane is starting for France. Yes, he looks exactly like his dad but is playing as a ball playing centerback.

The Seattle Mariners are currently +550 to win the World Series, I'm certain that might be the lowest odds of my lifetime outside of 2001 (116 wins! but those playoffs got derailed by world events). Weird fact, I had M's season tickets for one year, I split with a friend...2001 I went to 41 games.

Lamine Yamal in braces at the Ballon d'or ceremony, in the final 2 with Dembele is a site that will be shown for years. Dembele won, but Yamal might be there for 15 more years.

A few times a year Dutch TV does on site pre-game, halftime and postgame shows of EPL games and they bring in Sounders Legend Freddie Ljungberg. The best part of this is that because Freddie is there, they do it in English.

We are about 90 minutes away from Sydney McLaughlin in the Women's 400M final. Could one of the oldest (and dubious) major track records be broken today? Marita Koch of East Germany ran a 47.60 in 1985. McLaughlin coasted to a 48.29 American record in the semi-finals.

Never in doubt, they just kept it interesting before the inevitable set piece goal.

Juventus 4-4 Dortmund Champions League is so back. Dortmund had a 2 goal lead going into stoppage time and gave up a 94' and 96' goal.

I've been watching a ton of the Track WC. It's been great. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone just casually dropped a US record 48.29 and 7th fastest ever 400M in the semifinals where she clearly eased up. 47.60 is the World Record held by an East German from 1985. It might be in play.

There's a storm coming into the Netherlands, so they decided to host a kite surfing contest on short notice called the #RedBullMegaLoop and it looks absolutely insane.

The Sounders v Inter Miami MLS Cup Final is going to be an epic end to this year's trilogy.

I'm really happy that Roldan got called up to the #USMNT again, but the entire story about how they handled the call up is a huge red flag for the Pochettino regime for me. Not in provisional roster, called later in the week...on vacation 3000 miles away. Weird feeling.