JamieZ

Also, if any of y'all runners are on Strava, feel free to add me. I'm not a super competitive runner or anything, but it's nice to see other people's progress and offer encouragement.

Yeah. I think at this point my completely unsatisfying advice is "Keep doing what you're doing and keep an eye on it." I've also had really good luck with kinesiology tape (you can look up taping methods by body part online and troubleshoot from there). I've received conflicting advice from physios regarding its efficacy, but I know I feel more solid when I'm taped up and that's gotten me through some rough spots.

Yikes! I cringe not just at the thought of the initial injury but the thought of you "braving it". You brave the last mile of a marathon after having already run 25—that is, if you've run 25, you can run one more. Suck it up. You don't brave recovery from a gnarly injury. One's psychological, the other's structural, ya feel? I feel like the name of the game for you should be easing into dynamic motion, flexibility, and massage. Again, I want to stress that I'm not a physio, but instead of limp -> walk -> run, I feel like the progression should be something more like limp -> walk -> exercise bike to get that sucker flexing and moving again -> easy jogs -> run, with internal assessments every step along the way. Also, make the foam roller your new best friend. If you're in D.C., they're $10 at Marshall's.

Okay, so (again, I'm not a doctor) it sounds like more of an "overuse" injury than a structural imbalance or something like that. I've struggled with IT Band Syndrome because my glutes are weak relative to the muscles in my legs—so that comes from an imbalance, and it sorts itself out once I build up the muscles in the weaker area. My ITBS would cause my knee to swell and lock up on me, sometimes ten or twelve miles into a run. Tightness, but no pain...at least until it locked up. Your pain sounds like more of a patellofemoral issue, which is a common overuse injury, despite the fact that you seem to be doing a good job of easing into things. Does the pain increase when you squat or go up stairs? I asked about foot strike as well as some runners tend to heel strike, which, if you can envision it, sends the impact from landing (which you do thousands of times in a run) right into your bones and joints instead of letting your soft tissue absorb some of the shock. As for trainers, there's no way to give advice without potentially sending you the wrong way. You'll know what works for you when you find it—and then they'll discontinue it the very next year. I tend to be able to get away with any neutral trainer that doesn't cause blistering or hot spots, but not all runners are like that. My only suggestion is that you use your yours for running only and keep track of the miles you put on them (which is easy with a running app like Strava). There's no magic number for replacing your shoes either, but most people will notice a significant drop off in the 300-500 mile range. I tend to get closer to 500 as I'm relatively slight at 155lbs/70kg.

I got these because I'm not fast enough to wear the wraparounds. They're cheap, designed specifically for running, and they're very good at not bouncing around when you do—but I have an issue where I sweat profusely, so any day that's going to be bright enough to require sunglasses is going to unleash a waterfall of sweat down my forehead, which means I end up spending most of my time moving my glasses out of the way so I can wipe my eyes or the sweat off the lenses. I don't think I've completed a run in them. Maybe the next step is to go all out on a sweatband and just own the look.

I'm new to the thread but I'm a pretty avid runner (I did 100km between road and trail last week) and I've dealt with some knee issues in my day. Can you tell me more about the kind of pain you're having and where it manifests itself? Is it on the outside of the knee or behind the kneecap? Does it hurt while you run, afterwards, or both? Are there any movements or activities that make it worse? Do you notice swelling with the pain? Oh also, what kind of trainers are you wearing, do you wear them for other activities or just running, and when you run, where do you land on your foot? In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a therapist or doctor.

I think it's down to context and personal preference. When I wear a baseball cap, I look like a bald man trying to hide the fact that he doesn't have any hair—despite the fact that I'm not bald. I have hair. Needless to say, caps are a no-go, unless I'm going to run for hours in direct sunlight; then I've got a trucker-style cap I can just about get away with. But if you are a bald man trying to hide the fact that he doesn't have any hair, it might actually be a pretty good idea. I think as with anything else in fashion, before wearing what everyone else is wearing, it's good to stop and consider, "Does this make me look like an idiot?"

It's not so much the goal (I mean, it is), but the fact that Dest told Gregg Berhalter before the match that he was going to score. Playing out of position at left back.

Thank you. That was precisely my reaction. "Don't you have to take three keepers?" Otherwise, everybody would take two keepers and Phil Jagielka.

Okay, it doesn't really diminish my point if I adjust my numbers to, say, 190 out of 210. Look outside the Top 15 and it drops off real quick. My point is that it says a lot about England's attacking depth that you have a ten or a dozen in-form, quality options for three starting spots.

In all seriousness, though, it's a testament to your depth in attack that he missed the cut. Bamford is in fine form and would walk into the first XIs of, what, 200 of the 210 national teams in the world? I'm not sure that's even hyperbole. I think that's probably just about right.

I guess I can wrap my head around it from the perspective of "Look at the state of things!" and wanting things to change. And I understand what you mean about...about there being something rotten in Denmark, so to speak. You're too deep in too many positions to not be performing better than you are. England has been a "lesser than the sum of its parts" national team for almost as long as I can remember, and I don't entirely understand what that's down to. Too many options to create a sense of cohesion within the group? Substandard management? Lack of interest from the players. Or just a "club before country" culture? As an American, it's so different. Aside from the fact that I very much support the USMNT because it represents a kind of American pluralism that has almost political significance (let's just say it resonates with my world view more than gun shows, xenophobia, and monster truck rallies), I think Americans who truly follow football want something they can call their own that's considered valuable or at least legitimate on the world stage. Like, "Look! It's not just bald goalkeepers anymore! We can actually play." And I think we're finally getting to that point—where someone can say they don't rate a particular American player, fine, but it's a bit far fetched to suggest now that it's because he's an American player. And there's a really, really good vibe around the programme and a palpable sense of team spirit that is drawing dual nationals like Sergiño Dest (who would walk into Netherlands' starting XI) and England-eligible Yunus Musah to turn out for us. So things are looking up. I hope we're able to build depth but maintain that camaraderie and positivity within the group. It seems like we're on the threshold of something good.

Seriously, what happened? Where are the new Mark Schwarzers and Tim Cahills and Mark Vidukas? Granted, America is literally ten times the size of Australia, but we're growing by leaps and bounds and I feel like Australia has noticeably dropped off.

That is so strange to me as an American: we're country before club as a rule. Maybe it comes from "not being a footballing nation", but I can't imagine not wanting the team to do well.

I honestly don't know what to make of Konrad. I've spent a fair bit of time watching him with the U-20s and in his limited appearances at Barça, and he seems like a...maybe like an Adama-type player, but like, the Adama who played for us. Lots of skills, puts his head down and runs himself into a dead end. Koeman sees something in him as he's often in the full squad and his numbers with the second team aren't bad from what I recall—but what haven't seen from him just yet is where everything clicks and that final product emerges. I'm not saying it's not there, just that I haven't really seen it yet. And I'm shamelessly hoping we bring in an American at some point in the near future.

I think I rate Berhalter more highly than many supporters. I think he's done a lot for rebuilding the team and generating a sense of cohesiveness and identity after the failure of the last squad in reaching the 2018 World Cup and the year spent in limbo under a caretaker manager. I think there was a natural youth movement coming through that made that reset possible, but I think he embraced it and rightly so. He's been instrumental in winning over dual (or multiple) nationals like Sergiño Dest, Yunus Musah, and Theoson-Jordan Siebatcheu (and hopefully Folarin Balogun, Alex Mighten and many more to come), and I think his tenure will rightly be seen as the beginning of a new era (if not a Golden Generation just yet). But you're right. I know a lot of people are watching at Jesse Marsch at Red Bull Salzburg, but it's difficult to think he's not eyeing an RB Leipzig-type job within the next couple years. Pellegrino Matarazzo at VfB Stuttgart is another American manager worth keeping an eye on. In that aspect, I think a solid showing in 2022 will put us in good stead to build strong heading into 2026 on home turf. I suppose this should go in International Football Chat, but I'll take any of the players I mentioned here at Villa, please.

He wasn't particularly prolific even at the youth level, but there seems to be something about him. If reports are to be believed, Spurs and Liverpool are interested in him as well. I haven't seen enough to have a firm opinion, but from what I have seen, there's a certain rawness about his game that clearly needs refinement, but he also seems to have a kind of ruthlessness that you just can't teach. Schalke are such a mess that it's really hard to suss out how players will perform in other environments. Just like Rashica and Sargent seem to be the bright spots for Werder Bremen (I rate Gebre Selassie as well, but he's 34), Hoppe and Amine Harit seem to be the bright spots for Schalke.

There's certainly been a sort of development horizon where something has changed for us. There's still a long, long way to go till we've got seven or eight world-class players challenging for two or three spots like England, but I'll take marked progress where I can get it. Exciting prospects are coming out of the woodwork. I'm not afraid to admit I've got my fingers crossed for an American at Villa again—and not a goalkeeper.

He's been involved in everything since he moved to West Ham. I've been impressed with him and Tomáš Souček whenever I've watched them play this season.

It's really hard to say because Werder Bremen are so dire. Their league position has improved since last year but they're still painful to watch. I'd suggest that both Rashica and Josh Sargent are talented attackers who would thrive in a better team, but it's just so hard to be sure until you put them in a better environment. Rashica seems to have a lot of attacking enterprise, but I'm not sure about his final ball, and Sargent seems to be a really well-rounded striker who works hard for the team but is starved of service. I'm looking forward to seeing how Sargent makes out for the U.S. over the international break—with respect to how he stacks up in comparison to strikers Daryl Dike, who has been tearing it up at Barnsley, and Jordan Siebatcheu, who has been in a rich vein of form at Young Boys, and how he makes out in a more dynamic system with service from creative attacking players like Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna.

I'd take him here! Jesse Lingard has demonstrated that good players don't automatically become bad players just by sitting on the bench for Manchester United.

That always seemed the most logical explanation to me, as well—that he could really impact a match but often went missing. I wonder how much of that is down to stamina versus focus or discipline. When he went berserk versus Ajax in the Champions League a couple years ago, I think he was playing centrally and he was fantastic.

I've always wondered why he's never really broken into that top tier. Heck of a player whenever I've seen him.

I'm going to go with Arsenal, for my part—which isn't as inconceivable as it would have been a few years ago.