MNT’s 2022 | Page 10 | The Boneyard

MNT’s 2022

Being paired with the Qatar group is nice and England is about average for the Pot 1 options. But Wales and Iran would be the 2nd and 3rd best teams out of pots 3 and 4 so some bad luck there. Overall I'd go slight positive with the draw
 
From what I can tell, the most positive aspect of the draw is if we make it out of group stage, our knockout round opponent (if not Netherlands) could be pretty soft.
 
ZooCougar said:
This is not a group of death lol.
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GoD means that neither of the top two seeds (us and Eng) are not locks to go through. It doesn't mean the group with the toughest teams. The only GoD candidate would be Group H.

Since they changed the pot system to be based on rankings and not federation, the GOD isn't as bad as it used to be. The US can finish anywhere from 1st to 4th. England can also easily bomb out just because of the potential head games of potentially playing us, Scotland, Wales or Ukraine.

As an Everton supporter, with Pickford as the likely #1 we could easily have another Joe Hart situation. 4 pts isn't going to get the US through unless we run up the score on someone. We will need 2 wins.
 
SubbaBub said:
GoD means that neither of the top two seeds (us and Eng) are not locks to go through. It doesn't mean the group with the toughest teams. The only GoD candidate would be Group H.

Since they changed the pot system to be based on rankings and not federation, the GOD isn't as bad as it used to be. The US can finish anywhere from 1st to 4th. England can also easily bomb out just because of the potential head games of potentially playing us, Scotland, Wales or Ukraine.

As an Everton supporter, with Pickford as the likely #1 we could easily have another Joe Hart situation. 4 pts isn't going to get the US through unless we run up the score on someone. We will need 2 wins.
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That’s a pretty low bar for a group of death. I don’t know where you got that from, but it’s not correct.
 
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ZooCougar said:
This isn’t Germany, Ghana, Portugal tough though.
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Oh absolutely agree. That was brutal. England is a tough one, the roster is quite good this time. Wales is the highest ranked team in the playoffs at #18, and would have been the highest ranked team in Pot 3. Higher than Iran. If they win it will make this a fairly tough group. There's no "group of death" I see this year, and the Dutch group is easily the weakest.
 
Palatine said:
Time for GB to stop experimenting and try to develop chemistry with his top players. We know the back line and the midfield. Time to pick front three and let them learn to communicate and play together
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I'm not sold on the back line being locks. Robinson/Zimmerman have been decent, but not locks to me, and I think Berhalter is showing extreme bias by not even bringing back Brooks, considering how almost every single player has had crappy showings, yet weren't exiled like him. Bundesliga CB>MLS CB most of the time, and Aaron Long coming off injury was less deserving of a call-up than others. A. Robinson seems more of a lock than the CB pairing, and Dest is worse with the US than with Barcelona, so he shouldn't be a lock either.
 
Group H and Group E are the groups of death if there are any.

To be a GoD you need 4 teams that are all good and all not only should advance but could go deep.

I hope we get Wales or Scotland. This group is geopolitically tense enough, I don’t want to play Ukraine.

HuskyHawk said:
Oh absolutely agree. That was brutal. England is a tough one, the roster is quite good this time. Wales is the highest ranked team in the playoffs at #18, and would have been the highest ranked team in Pot 3. Higher than Iran. If they win it will make this a fairly tough group. There's no "group of death" I see this year, and the Dutch group is easily the weakest.
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SubbaBub said:
GoD means that neither of the top two seeds (us and Eng) are not locks to go through. It doesn't mean the group with the toughest teams. The only GoD candidate would be Group H.

Since they changed the pot system to be based on rankings and not federation, the GOD isn't as bad as it used to be. The US can finish anywhere from 1st to 4th. England can also easily bomb out just because of the potential head games of potentially playing us, Scotland, Wales or Ukraine.

As an Everton supporter, with Pickford as the likely #1 we could easily have another Joe Hart situation. 4 pts isn't going to get the US through unless we run up the score on someone. We will need 2 wins.
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Wouldn't a win over Iran and draws vs. England and Wales (really hope it's Ukraine) do it?

Is it mathematically possible to get 5 points and not make at least 2nd? I think the only way that happens is if Iran loses all 3 and England and Wales tie, and one of them beats Iran by more than us.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
Wouldn't a win over Iran and draws vs. England and Wales (really hope it's Ukraine) do it?

Is it mathematically possible to get 5 points and not make at least 2nd? I think the only way that happens is if Iran loses all 3 and England and Wales tie, and one of them beats Iran by more than us.
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That would be 5 pts. Beating Iran, drawing Wales, et al, and losing to England would likely mean going home if you assume Gareth Bale is good for a few against Iran.

And I seriously doubt Germany and Portugal are sweating this year's Ghana squad. Whereas England and the other Euro qualifier are sure sweating us, while we should very much be seeating dropping points to the Pot 3 and 4 entrants.
 
I don’t think we have ever won two matches in the group stage in the modern era.

Even in 2002 we only won two matches. Portugal and Mexico.

We drew against RoK, lost miserably to Poland and lost narrowly to the Germans.
 
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All the groups in this draw seem to be very close difficulty wise. USA got a tough draw, but there really is not a true group of death. USA has their work cut out for them, but when the entire team is there and healthy they are much better than their world ranking. Get out of the group stage and anything can happen.
 
It feels like the USMNT could win all three, lose all three, or anywhere in between. While advancing is absolutely possible, the inconsistency of this team makes predictions very difficult.
 
Going back to qualifying, Tony Meola said before qualifying started that you grade it pass/fail. Period. We passed. The last game in Costa Rica was certainly disappointing but can you imagine a trickier situation than that emotionally? You’re going in knowing a 5 goal loss is fine but a 6 goal loss isn’t? And where you for all practical respects qualified at home but didn’t really get to celebrate?

We need a number 9 and we need our whole to be equal to the sum of the parts. Draw is on the tough side, but being drawn against Group A in the second round probably makes up for the risk of Wales winning the playoff and being in our group.
 
SubbaBub said:
That would be 5 pts. Beating Iran, drawing Wales, et al, and losing to England would likely mean going home if you assume Gareth Bale is good for a few against Iran.

And I seriously doubt Germany and Portugal are sweating this year's Ghana squad. Whereas England and the other Euro qualifier are sure sweating us, while we should very much be seeating dropping points to the Pot 3 and 4 entrants.
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I agree getting through on 4 points is unlikely. Would require England destroying Wales like Germany did to Portugal in 2014.

Looking back to 2014, we were about two minutes and a Michael Bradley choke in the midfield away from getting 6 points and wrapping up a position in the knockout stage in our first 2 games.
 
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Palatine said:
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Turner absolutely over Steffen right now.. Debatable how you should use Musah/Acosta but starting Musah isn't necessarily a mistake. Dest is the RB for good and bad, but Yedlin helped his cause quite a but this cycle. If Dest's mistakes outweigh his technical skills, then I could easily be talked into a switch.

BL is right, whole has not equaled the sum of the parts. They are marshmellowy soft but this is the best collection of on-ball skill players we have ever put together. They need to do it when it counts.
 
SubbaBub said:
Turner absolutely over Steffen right now.. Debatable how you should use Musah/Acosta but starting Musah isn't necessarily a mistake. Dest is the RB for good and bad, but Yedlin helped his cause quite a but this cycle. If Dest's mistakes outweigh his technical skills, then I could easily be talked into a switch.

BL is right, whole has not equaled the sum of the parts. They are marshmellowy soft but this is the best collection of on-ball skill players we have ever put together. They need to do it when it counts.
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Turner is going to Arsenal where he will not play just like Steffen. Horvath will be the only one playing regularly.
 
Palatine said:
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I agree with all of this except Turner over Steffen. Steffen has been touted for his distribution and ability with the ball at his feet, but I haven’t seen anything that impresses me. Turner is a MUCH better shot stopper. Steffen should have done way better on the first CR goal, and he was completely at fault for the second.

I’ve been calling for Weah to be the starting Striker for a while. Pepi isn’t it, certainly not yet at least. He doesn’t get involved at all, doesn’t have much pace, not very good in the air. He just has good instincts. Weah is better in everything I just mentioned, plus hits the ball very well from distance and connects passes well. He should start up top.
 
ZooCougar said:
Turner is going to Arsenal where he will not play just like Steffen. Horvath will be the only one playing regularly.
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I forgot about that. What a bummer. Still take him over Steffen. Horvath doesn't have the caps that Turner does but if he is playing regularly, I might take him over Steffen too. You'd like to go with the guy most in form, but that's going to be a tough call. Perhaps Turner will be released for the tune-ups.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
I agree with all of this except Turner over Steffen. Steffen has been touted for his distribution and ability with the ball at his feet, but I haven’t seen anything that impresses me. Turner is a MUCH better shot stopper. Steffen should have done way better on the first CR goal, and he was completely at fault for the second.

I’ve been calling for Weah to be the starting Striker for a while. Pepi isn’t it, certainly not yet at least. He doesn’t get involved at all, doesn’t have much pace, not very good in the air. He just has good instincts. Weah is better in everything I just mentioned, plus hits the ball very well from distance and connects passes well. He should start up top.
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Weah isn’t really a striker. He only played Striker for his club under Brendan Rodgers in Scotland.

That being said, could he be as inconsistent as the pure strikers? Clint Dempsey was a good target striker at times for the USMNT and he wasn’t a target guy.
 
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Rough translation of what a Spanish newspaper said about the USMNT.
 

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ZooCougar said:
Weah isn’t really a striker. He only played Striker for his club under Brendan Rodgers in Scotland.

That being said, could he be as inconsistent as the pure strikers? Clint Dempsey was a good target striker at times for the USMNT and he wasn’t a target guy.
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He has all the ability to be a good striker. He’s played all across the front line his whole career. I think he is arguably our best striker.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
He has all the ability to be a good striker. He’s played all across the front line his whole career. I think he is arguably our best striker.
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I’d like to see how it works in some meaningless nations league matches or something first. There isn’t much of a body of work to judge. Striker and winger are different.
 
ZooCougar said:
I’d like to see how it works in some meaningless nations league matches or something first. There isn’t much of a body of work to judge. Striker and winger are different.
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True, but I hope GGG gives him a shot there and see.
 
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