OT: World Cup

[Jaker]

Messi beautiful finish 1-0

 

[LIuconn]

All class

 

[SubbaBub]

The problem coming in was that we had too much mileage in the midfield. The talent drop off is so bad that we really couldn’t rotate much.

You could see the tired legs and lack of sharpness all day with MMA.

Ferreira was absolutely the worst player out there. We could have played Weah at striker and started Reyna on the right.

But we came out throwing numbers forward which is the game the Dutch wanted.

So, we have a depth issue and a fatigue issue as well. We had a game plan that made those issues worse and allowed the Dutch to use their strengths.

This is called being out-coached.

For me right now, Sargent and Weah are the top picks for the 9. The others need better footwork. They all do really, but those are the best two that GGG brought with him.

For a minute I thought GG would bring in Yedlin for Weah and Reyna for Musah, but GG isn't that creative.

Dest/Yedlin on the right. Before he got hurt Robinson/CP on the left and Reyna, Aaronson and Wright in the middle. I wouldn't have put Wright in but he was already in by that point.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Both are true in some respects. But it shows that Gregg didn’t understand the tactics. Like I said, they baited our guys forward. Dest, Jedi and Adams. Ream seemed aware of it.

What the Dutch aren’t honest about is that had CPs first attempt been two inches to the right, it’s a goal. The Dutch then abandon that counter strategy and it’s an entirely different match.

 

[LIuconn]

CPs first attempt was a huge defensive error. That wasn't tactics. He has to bury that, he doesn't, and that's him at Chelsea

The stats say we had possession, passes, corners, etc. That was the Dutch gameplan.
Obvi the pulisic and ream chances were real, but overall the game wasn't close

 

[gtcam]

P

The problem coming in was that we had too much mileage in the midfield. The talent drop off is so bad that we really couldn’t rotate much.

You could see the tired legs and lack of sharpness all day with MMA.

Ferreira was absolutely the worst player out there. We could have played Weah at striker and started Reyna on the right.

But we came out throwing numbers forward which is the game the Dutch wanted.

So, we have a depth issue and a fatigue issue as well. We had a game plan that made those issues worse and allowed the Dutch to use their strengths.

This is called being out-coached.

no. Not out coached
Simply beaten by an explosive veteran offensive team with a 6’7” keeper that played the game of his career and a defense that bent but didn’t break. It was men vs boys.
Anyone who thought the USA was going to beat that team needs their head examined
Four years from now the USA will pull out games such as these.
Ready for the 3 lions to make some noise

 

[LIuconn]

Yes. Outcoached. Four years from now the Dutch will have guys like van robben and we'll still be arguing over pepi/Sargent/dike/haji

But it won't be berhalter and we'll have a better shot

Also, Im not buying the age thing. Our guys play major minutes in Big 5 leagues. Its depth.

Ggg also told the players concacaf qualifying is extremely difficult. He's a joke

 

[LIuconn]

And goalie game of his career? What game did you watch? We had like 1.5 true chances

 

[Plebe]

Eleven hours have passed since the game ended, but I'm still shaking my head at the catastrophic defensive breakdowns that led to all 3 Dutch goals.

It's one thing to lose to a better team, but to just fall asleep and leave attackers all alone at the top of the box or on the far post ... unforgivable for any World Cup team, much less a round of 16 game.

I forget which US player it was who just casually jogged back on defense as the Dutch goal scorer five yards ahead of him raced to the top of the box for the unmolested shot on goal. It was a level of defensive hustle that Michael Bradley would be proud of.

 

[Mots010]

I forget which US player it was who just casually jogged back on defense as the Dutch goal scorer five yards ahead of him raced to the top of the box for the unmolested shot on goal. It was a level of defensive hustle that Michael Bradley would be proud of.

that was Tyler Adams on the first goal. He’s arguably our best player of the tourney, and he just jogged back on that counter. It was odd.

 

[SubbaBub]

CPs first attempt was a huge defensive error. That wasn't tactics. He has to bury that, he doesn't, and that's him at Chelsea

The stats say we had possession, passes, corners, etc. That was the Dutch gameplan.
Obvi the pulisic and ream chances were real, but overall the game wasn't close

Don't forget Wright's gaffe. We had three bankable chances and gave up 3 calamitous goals. If our quality matched our hype, we win 2-1, all things being equal.

You are correct that the Dutch encouraged our attack tactics because they rightly figured we were not much of a threat in build up play.

 

[Plebe]

that was Tyler Adams on the first goal. He’s arguably our best player of the tourney, and he just jogged back on that counter. It was odd.

Odd is one word for it. It's nice he had a great tournament, but it doesn't mean a whole lot when you jog back like you don't care. It was way too early in the game to have the excuse of fatigue.

Same thing with Dest, who also had played pretty well until then, just casually ball-watching and letting his man cut to the middle for an easy shot.

On the third goal, the Dutch attacker hung out all by himself on the far post long enough to take multiple selfies and post them to Instagram.

To give up just one goal on a high school junior varsity caliber error would be embarrassing. But then there were 3. After the incredible effort that Iran put forward in their losing effort under the most trying of circumstances for them, I'm embarrassed that we took their spot just to give such a pathetic effort vs NED.

 

[SubbaBub]

Odd is one word for it. It's nice he had a great tournament, but it doesn't mean a whole lot when you jog back like you don't care. It was way too early in the game to have the excuse of fatigue.

Same thing with Dest, who also had played pretty well until then, just casually ball-watching and letting his man cut to the middle for an easy shot.

On the third goal, the Dutch attacker hung out all by himself on the far post long enough to take multiple selfies and post them to Instagram.

To give up just one goal on a high school junior varsity caliber error would be embarrassing. But then there were 3. After the incredible effort that Iran put forward in their losing effort under the most trying of circumstances for them, I'm embarrassed that we took their spot just to give such a pathetic effort vs NED.

Ideally, we would have rested Robinson, Adams and McKinnie vs Iran and avoided the fatigue problem. Robinson and Adams put in more miles during the group stage than anyone else.

McKennie was coming off an injury but I don't think he was incapable of playing 90 as the broadcast suggested. I just don't think he regained his pre-injury sharpness. For me, he was most underperforming player based on pre-cup expectations. We can't know what was up but he wasn't the threat in the box or on set pieces that I thought he would be.

Dest is Dest, you are going to get good, bad, proactive, and lazy in equal measures. You just hope for more good than bad and I think we got that from him.

 

[LIuconn]

They achieved what I expected with this group and coach.

I'm not buying the youth narrative. True we have a lost generation in the 26-30 age range, but pulisic & weston are 24, Adams 23. That's prime. Jude Bellingham is running England and he's 18 (sure, 1 person but it's not rare)

Average age of teams at the World Cup 2022 | Statista

Iran's squad was the oldest out of any team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with an average age of 28.9.

www.statista.com

We're talking 1 year of average age away from mid pack. This same roster would be the oldest in 2026 (obvi ream Morris roldan and yedlin won't be there, but for context).

We've got some guys, we need depth and someone to take on being "the man" at their club. Preferably a creative mid. We trotted out 3 defensive mids all tournament

 

[LIuconn]

^ wrong thread. Anyway, we get England France next round and a pesky Japan team tomorrow.

Looking ahead already to watching Hakim Zayech against Spain Tuesday. That one is ripe for Spain to outpossess and outpass morocco by a mile and lose 2-1

 

[shizzle787]

Biggest change with 3 teams is there's going to be an unbalanced first game for some teams. The second game for the group will end up being 1 team coming in fresh against another team who just played their first group game. The flip side is the team playing game 2 also knows exactly what result they'll need based on how the first game went for them

FIFA are likely go to scrap this according to Arsene Wenger. There had been mention of this a few months ago as well.
The three options are 16 groups of 3, 12 groups of 4 (8 best 3rd place teams to Round of 32), 2 separate tournament (6 groups of 4 each) with the two winners meeting in the final.

 

[LIuconn]

This feels as natural as the big 10 grabbing usc and ucla

 

[meyers7]

There is nobody less likeable in this sport than Ronaldo.

Eh, Pepe?

 

[meyers7]

The problem coming in was that we had too much mileage in the midfield. The talent drop off is so bad that we really couldn’t rotate much.

You could see the tired legs and lack of sharpness all day with MMA.

Ferreira was absolutely the worst player out there. We could have played Weah at striker and started Reyna on the right.

But we came out throwing numbers forward which is the game the Dutch wanted.

So, we have a depth issue and a fatigue issue as well. We had a game plan that made those issues worse and allowed the Dutch to use their strengths.

This is called being out-coached.

Don't know if it was tiredness so much as the Dutch marked MMA and left it to our CB's to make good passes/move the ball up the field. Our CB's can't do that. I mean they are decent passers for Championship or MLS, but not at this level.

Like you said, out coached.

 

[August_West]

P

no. Not out coached
Simply beaten by an explosive veteran offensive team with a 6’7” keeper that played the game of his career and a defense that bent but didn’t break. It was men vs boys.
Anyone who thought the USA was going to beat that team needs their head examined
Four years from now the USA will pull out games such as these.
Ready for the 3 lions to make some noise

Men against boys? I was hosting my UK football loving insane people the last 2,weeks. They saw the same thing I did. US in 4 games can’t put a clean look on net with pace. And then can’t defend. Our country is 385 million people. Surely we can find 11 kids who have “ legs” and don’t gag in the boxes.

 

[ZooCougar]

Don't know if it was tiredness so much as the Dutch marked MMA and left it to our CB's to make good passes/move the ball up the field. Our CB's can't do that. I mean they are decent passers for Championship or MLS, but not at this level.

Like you said, out coached.

The Adams mistake looked like a fatigue issue. But nobody is perfect.

 

[meyers7]

They achieved what I expected with this group and coach.

I'm not buying the youth narrative. True we have a lost generation in the 26-30 age range, but pulisic & weston are 24, Adams 23. That's prime. Jude Bellingham is running England and he's 18 (sure, 1 person but it's not rare)

Average age of teams at the World Cup 2022 | Statista

Iran's squad was the oldest out of any team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with an average age of 28.9.

www.statista.com

We're talking 1 year of average age away from mid pack. This same roster would be the oldest in 2026 (obvi ream Morris roldan and yedlin won't be there, but for context).

We've got some guys, we need depth and someone to take on being "the man" at their club. Preferably a creative mid. We trotted out 3 defensive mids all tournament

Eh, not really. Adams is a 6, but McKennie and Musah are 8's. (I think Musah has played on a wing once in awhile.) Granted we don't have a 10. Aaronson sorta plays that, but he's not overly creative. He more runs a lot so he works well in the 10 for Leeds who press all the time.

 

[ZooCougar]

Men against boys? I was hosting my UK football loving insane people the last 2,weeks. They saw the same thing I did. US in 4 games can’t put a clean look on net with pace. And then can’t defend. Our country is 385 million people. Surely we can find 11 kids who have “ legs” and don’t gag in the boxes.

Can’t defend? We had 1 goal scored on us in the group and it was a PK. Go back to the basketball board.

Even the Dutch goals were a result of counterattacks because we had to push to score.

You do not understand this sport.

 

[meyers7]

Men against boys? I was hosting my UK football loving insane people the last 2,weeks. They saw the same thing I did. US in 4 games can’t put a clean look on net with pace. And then can’t defend. Our country is 385 million people. Surely we can find 11 kids who have “ legs” and don’t gag in the boxes.

Actually Weah had a couple decent finishes. He doesn't play the 9, but maybe he should for us. Would get Reyna or Aaronson on the field.

 

[LIuconn]

Brazil is doing what we expected