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OT: World Cup

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I am someone who said there was no way US makes it through this group. I was very wrong and am really impressed with the effort put through by the boys. Made me look like an idiot.

We got a little lucky, but we got a lot unlucky too. We have 6 days off. Plenty of time for Altidore.

Let's move on!
 
Did we have a shot on goal the whole game? That last shot the guy had the whole left side of the net to shoot at and he tries to put it to the goalie's short side through 2 defenders.

In any event, I felt like I was watching UConn v. Louisvill 2014 right up until the last flurry. We were just shut down on O. I thought our D was good, but if you score 0, your D has to be perfect.
 
In the words of Wolfman, "This gives me a hard on".

Might have had something to do with those massive tits bouncing on TV a few seconds ago.
 
Strummer said:
Did we have a shot on goal the whole game? That last shot the guy had the whole left side of the net to shoot at and he tries to put it to the goalie's short side through 2 defenders.

In any event, I felt like I was watching UConn v. Louisvill 2014 right up until the last flurry. We were just shut down on O. I thought our D was good, but if you score 0, your D has to be perfect.
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I absolutely believe we were gassed from Manaus. That place is hell. Teams are something like 1-8-1 after playing there.
 
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Tommyboy said:
That was such a bad call. I cant believe that he called that.
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There was also the play on call earlier (up the middle) where we couldn't control it. Then he didn't even give us the call after we coughed it up.
 
That initial save by Howard was phenomenal and it was frustrating that nobody could corral the Germans after that ... but hey, they advanced!!
 
tykurez said:
That initial save by Howard was phenomenal and it was frustrating that nobody could corral the Germans after that ... but hey, they advanced!!
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Yeah - we had five guys in the box all ball watching. But that's normal on a corner to make sure you see deflections and clear it. Muller just had a quality finish through traffic. But We didn't defend the short corner, or the cross, or the rebound.
 
Gurleyman said:
Maybe non-SA teams. Argentina and Colombia have packed stadiums, as you'd expect.
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USA bought 196,838 tickets. The next most was neighbor Argentina, at 61,021. Columbia is around 55k and Mexico 34.5k So even among SA teams, we are more than 3 times the next country.
 
intlzncster said:
I absolutely believe we were gassed from Manaus. That place is hell. Teams are something like 1-8-1 after playing there.
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And the one winner was Portugal today. goal differential after playing there is awful as well
 
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I think that Manaus took its toll; then giving Germany an extra days rest didn't help. Finally playing in Recife in rain and a very wet pitch, that takes a lot out of your legs. A dry fast pitch would have helped the US. The German four backs are pretty slow and very vulnerable to speed on the flanks. BS foul on Beasley late. Expect to see Belgium, very talented players; classic sum of the parts is greater than the whole team.

So far you have to give credit to Klinsman. His subs have been good. It would help if Altidore is available if only as a sub for Belgium.
Will the US be able to elevate its game? Will Belgium under achieve again? Belgium is do able, after that it is really unlikely.
 
Gurleyman said:
Cant believe how many uninformed people are saying we didn't deserve to go on because we lost or that we backed in. Or are knocking the World Cup in general. Group play = mini regular season. Pretty easy stuff to grasp.
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I was thinking the same thing. What if we happened to have played the Ghana game today, would we have backed in still?
 
Gurleyman said:
Cant believe how many uninformed people are saying we didn't deserve to go on because we lost or that we backed in. Or are knocking the World Cup in general. Group play = mini regular season. Pretty easy stuff to grasp.
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Only morons think that round robin play is unique to soccer.
 
HuskyHawk said:
USA bought 196,838 tickets. The next most was neighbor Argentina, at 61,021. Columbia is around 55k and Mexico 34.5k So even among SA teams, we are more than 3 times the next country.
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Seems odd. Argentina fans have overwhelmed their stadiums with blue and white shirts. Maybe it is since a lot of Argentinians live in Brazil and aren't included in the numbers?

Either way, US has traveled great and been very vocal so that's been awesome. Could help against Belgium.
 
Belgium is a very good team. In fact, the last time before today where the US was completely outmatched was a friendly against Belgium last year.

Granted, that was a completely different US team, but Belgium is for real.

They have a very strong defense, with defenders who are very good on the ball.

Klinsmann will have some thinking to do about how he plans to attack them.
 
tykurez said:
That initial save by Howard was phenomenal and it was frustrating that nobody could corral the Germans after that ... but hey, they advanced!!
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But that shot though. Clinical finish.
 
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Gurleyman said:
Cant believe how many uninformed people are saying we didn't deserve to go on because we lost or that we backed in. Or are knocking the World Cup in general. Group play = mini regular season. Pretty easy stuff to grasp.
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People are stupid. They were calling for benching Bradley after his first 2 rough matches. And while he wasn't good, they neglected to mention who they'd put in attacking mid, with Dempsey locked in at striker. There is no one else.
 
Tommyboy said:
I was thinking the same thing. What if we happened to have played the Ghana game today, would we have backed in still?
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We would have been run into the friggin ground.
 
intlzncster said:
People are stupid. They were calling for benching Bradley after his first 2 rough matches. And while he wasn't good, they neglected to mention who they'd put in attacking mid, with Dempsey locked in at striker. There is no one else.
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Everything Bradley does now is magnified. Jones was pretty bad with the ball today (looked tired) and Bradley had only a couple bad moments (which happen in 90 minute game), while creating most of our chances (Jones over the top. Zusi's shot over the bar, the late header from Dempsey, a long ball to Johnson up the right). Yet everyone is on Bradley again - mostly for that one missed trap that prevented a possible shot.

Bradley's work rate today was excellent putting pressure on the Germans up top. He's fine. We just need him to be elite next week.
 
HuskyHawk said:
USA bought 196,838 tickets. The next most was neighbor Argentina, at 61,021. Columbia is around 55k and Mexico 34.5k So even among SA teams, we are more than 3 times the next country.
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I have a feeling they are counting ticket sales by the purchasing address/country. For example my company's CEO (who lives in US) bought tickets to several matches last week, but is originally from Chile(and a fan of Chile). I can imagine a decent portion of US purchases were by people who are fans of the other countries. Nonetheless, its still an impressive number even with this.
 
Gurleyman said:
Everything Bradley does now is magnified. Jones was pretty bad with the ball today (looked tired) and Bradley had only a couple bad moments (which happen in 90 minute game), while creating most of our chances (Jones over the top. Zusi's shot over the bar, the late header from Dempsey, a long ball to Johnson up the right). Yet everyone is on Bradley again - mostly for that one missed trap that prevented a possible shot.

Bradley's work rate today was excellent putting pressure on the Germans up top. He's fine. We just need him to be elite next week.
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Totally agree about Bradley. I thought he played well today and he was much more with it as far as putting pressure on the ball defensively (I think the last game was an anomaly and he was just spent).

That ball over the top to Jones was really nice as well.

As I thought a few games ago, Bradley does not have much help in the midfield as far as touch and quick passing, so a lot of what happens in the center of the field falls on him, both positively and negatively.
 
Gurleyman said:
Bradley's work rate today was excellent putting pressure on the Germans up top. He's fine. We just need him to be elite next week.
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While I can't lie, I'm worried about his lack of composure in the area, I absolutely agree with this last point. I had no problem with his game today and noticed him tracking back and playing scrappy D throughout. He'll never be an elite defender, and you have to be ok with that, you just want to see the effort and execution there on D. And it was today.
 
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bobbygt said:
Totally agree about Bradley. I thought he played well today and he was much more with it as far as putting pressure on the ball defensively (I think the last game was an anomaly and he was just spent).

That ball over the top to Jones was really nice as well.

As I thought a few games ago, Bradley does not have much help in the midfield as far as touch and quick passing, so a lot of what happens in the center of the field falls on him, both positively and negatively.
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I thought Beckerman was phenomenal coming out of the back today. He really stood out for me today by playing mostly very smart soccer. Good tackling, good passing.

I'd say that Bradley's D was poor the first game as well, but athletically, he doesn't remotely match up with the Ghanaians.
 
intlzncster said:
We would have been run into the friggin ground.
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I am just saying the perception on what day your wins occurred. Whether its the first day or the last day. Win first/lose last - you back in. Lose first/Win last - you earned it. Its silly.
 
Tommyboy said:
I am just saying the perception on what day your wins occurred. Whether its the first day or the last day. Win first/lose last - you back in. Lose first/Win last - you earned it. Its silly.
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Ahh Gotcha.
 
intlzncster said:
I thought Beckerman was phenomenal coming out of the back today. He really stood out for me today by playing mostly very smart soccer. Good tackling, good passing.

I'd say that Bradley's D was poor the first game as well, but athletically, he doesn't remotely match up with the Ghanaians.
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Agree about Beckerman defensively. He's another player that I'm slowly warming to.

But he is not a player that can move forward with the ball. As soon as he gets it, he slows down play and usually plays it back to the defense or Howard. This is normally what you want out of this position, but if Bradley is playing it safe also, it leaves Jones as the only other playmaker in the center of the field and although he's shown me a lot more offensively than I expected, he's still a defensive midfielder first.

Maybe I'm just not seeing the field as well as others better equipped, but to me, the US's best offense is through Beasley and Johnson.

In all, the US advancing is awesome. I think it's a major accomplishment. I just have some worries about the playmaking going forward, which is still just nitpicking.
 
intlzncster said:
Dang wet pitch. Hard on goalies and favors their shooting and likely greater number of chances.
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The field sucked, hurt the US team speed; but, also impacted Germany’s passing. Neither keeper seemed to have an issue with it. Thought it was a wash.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Why use Green in this game of all games? Loew is his manager and knows his game. I think Davis may have better ball control skills than Bedoya.
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My thought was at the time if the US’s spot was secure by the second half, which it was not until the end, then put Green in in a less competitive situation to lock him into the US team.

Overall, I have no idea why Davis was in there over Bedoya.
 
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