I'd give Jones a bit of a pass. I mean he showed up this tournament and was bound to get exhausted. Bradley should've been benched and brought maybe as a sub. Something was off with him all World Cup.
Wondo is not what one might call a "clinical finisher". His strength is in getting chances because he always seeks to be open in the box. Once his gets them, however, his conversion percentage is pretty low. Kareem Benzema is kind of like that too, albeit on a much higher level.
I'd feel shittier about that miss if Belgium didn't have about 15 more chances than the United States.
Fair game to criticize Wondo's whiff. However, soccer is the ultimate team game. There were literally a zillion things to criticize in the game - from all the players. Well, except Howard. I also thought that Wondo did some nice things out there - and was winning more of the headers and second balls than his teammates. I will admit that I am a huge Wondo fan and he is probably my all-time favorite Earthquake. But I can also be honest in looking at this. Wondo isn't of the caliber we need for the WC squad. Wondo makes the NT list, and is perfectly serviceable for the Gold Cup and similar situations. However, our progress as a nation will be seen when a player of Wondo's caliber gets bypassed in 2018. Last note: A number of players seemed worn down from the first three matches - especially Jones. I also thought that Zusi had an especially tough day - particularly in the second half.
Rendering his miss moot, wasn't the flag up even though he was clearly onside? I thought Ian darke said as much but had a couple people tell me no. Just read the newspaper though and in black and white it says the linesman had his flag up.
Americans who play soccer/watch soccer love to use words Brits use, for some reason. It is weird, but oh well.
That's a huge pet peeve of mine. I can't stand the self-hating Americans that go on English forums and try to fit in. It just takes the piss fancy what I mean mate?
Not really, since they're wrong. If you watch it on the tactical cam, the AR never put his flag "up" as he would have if signaling for an offside and instead all he did was point his flag toward the center of the field by the goal, which is the signal for a goal kick. I'm going to trust my own eyes over an erroneous report from yahoo. If you want to look yourself, it's around 2:54:10 on the tactical cam. I suspect anyone still saying otherwise doesn't understand the referee signals, or didn't see it at all and is just repeating something said by someone else. Which is precisely what occurred. Don't take my word. Go watch it on the tactical cam. I suspect people are using the phrase "flag up" without understanding the signals.
I don't mind words such as "gutted" or "pitch". It's just the hardcore English vernacular that would never be used in conversation. IE: I went to the Sunderland forum and an American poster said "Haway the lads for the performance." May as well have thrown God save the queen in there.
espn3.com or watchespn if you're looking for an app it's a wide angle of the field from behind one of the goals. just pulled it up on my computer and the timer is different than my pad. it's around 1:55:11 out of a total of 2:40:02. i don't know how to do a GIF of it if that's allowed, or i'd post it.
I think that was Wondo's first and only shot on goal in regulation. Had he started alongside Dempsey in the first place, and had JK not arranged things so that Belgium would be allowed to have as many shots on US goal as they wanted, Wondo conceivably could have gotten his customary one or two missed sitters out of the way early in the game and eventually scored a goal anyway (not an unusual sequence of events for him).
I thought the STARS had aligned for Wondo to score that goal and live forever in that moment as a US hero. It would have been a fitting end to the game and to his status as an underdog who could come up BIG.
I think if the US had taken more shots Wondo might have been the hero -- you can't poach if nobody shoots the ball and forces a rebound.