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The club announced a tie up with a newly formed USL2 team yesterday. Anyone (Scotty maybe?) got any insight to the team, their league and what it may mean for us? ICTFCCaley Thistle Go Global with Landmark US Affiliation - ICTFCInverness Caledonian Thistle are delighted to announce a new commercial international affiliation with USL League Two side Lorain County Leviathan, marking an exciting step in growing the club’s globa

The season apparently runs May-July with playoffs in July and August. I dont know much about USL2 but reading online its mainly college kids and college coaches. The team had open tryouts in December (https://loraincountyleviathanfc.com/2026-team-tryouts) and a wikipedia page does list a squad but no-one on the squad has their own wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorain_County_Leviathan_FC I highly suspect no-one on that squad other than the two marked as English would be eligible to get a work permit. Certainly not through football at least. A hell of a way to go for a World Cup jolly - and quite far from any World Cup stadia. Its a 2-hour flight to Boston and a 1-hour international flight to Toronto for the closest World Cup stadia. Flight prices do seem to have settled down now though ... anything around June 11-30 was showing up 4 or 5 times the normal for a while but now seems to have settled down to 2-3 times the normal. Apparently accommodation in Boston is through the roof though!

Yeah I commented on this on Facebook. I really don't see what's in it for ICT. Good luck to them and all that, and maybe some time down the line there's something to be had from it, but the article makes the connection sound pretty significant with US wide recognition coming because of this. There is probably more brand recognition in myself and @luvgravy wearing our ICT tops to a Toronto FC game so I have to say our former CEO or one time potential phygital chairman back then would be mighty proud of the verbage and spin. These were my facebook comments (which someone in their supporters didnt seem to like ;)) then ... Bottom line is that USL2 is tier 4 (of 5) in the US pyramid and these 2 graphics kind of explain it. Click image to make them bigger. No-one outside of the local base for each team hears of them unless they perhaps do something in the US Open Cup (equivalent of Scottish Cup) where you might hear the name if one of these teams did a giant killing act. Sacramento Republic are the closest thing to an upset and that team reached the Open Cup Final in 2022 with Nick Ross taking part (came on as 88th minute sub) as Orlando beat them 3-0. Sacramento were tier 2 of the pyramid ....

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Peterhead goal was so offside, how it was given was unbelievable. Peterhead player ran from an offside position, clearly interfering with play, to prod the ball home. Unbelievably, the linesman didn't flag and while the referee did speak to him still awarded the goal. How the referee didn't see the offside either beggars belief. Referee was really poor tonight, totally inconsistent. Comfortable win otherwise.