What are you talking about? Possesion matters.. if you control the ball, the opposite team will have less chances to score, that is a FACT. Now, you are right when you say that possesion with no scoring opportunities is not good, but it is worse to have no ball possesion at all and no scoring opportunities. I think this team has good skillful players but we need a player with a good soccer IQ. We need a Kevin De Bruyne type of player that can organize the plays.
We looked like 18 year olds playing against 20 year olds. Also, bold strategy from Tab to play without a center forward for much of the game.
Someone could do the research, but there's a decent chance we can advance just by beating Qatar, particularly if our GD isn't too bad.
No, effective possession matters. How many chances did we create inside the box? And as I said, maintaining possession not good if you screw up defensive basics, like staying goal side, and playing poorly in the air.
Also, playing out of the back on the feet of the keeper in tight situations is dumb, one of the dumber things in modern football. It's dumb when good teams like City do it, it only works because of their massive talent advantage, and this team ain't City. Hoof it
We had a few scoring opportunities but we do not have a pure striker of great quality. The team generated a few good combination passes and was able to penetrate into the box. We lack the quality to finish those plays.
For a defensive-minded center midfield, they sure sucked at defense. Little ball pressure for Durkin, Servania, and Mendez. And they couldn't win 50-50's or even 70-30's. Mendez lost two of them on the possession that led to the 2nd goal. And got beat on the header (don't even know why he was in the box). Sometimes he just got galloped by as if he wasn't there. Yeah, his shot is nasty, and can pass solidly, but is looking more like that classic specialist 10 as he moves higher in the ranks. A couple of those mistakes by Dest at the back were ignominious. If you're going to get beat aerially outside the box, get beat in front not behind. Bad gamble. Don't know why Richards was all the way up there. He was partially at fault for the other goal two. Servania's poor ball pressure was also key. Keita didn't make those crucial errors, but was kind of clumsy at the same time, and unnecessarily gave up possession. If Tab subbed in Real for Gloster when he was healthy then the former must be his illegitimate child. Only provided the team less width and ball-winning. Gloster was probably the team's 3rd best player. The class of the squad were Weah and Pomykal. But they needed more help. That would have been the cm's actually winning the ball and carrying it to them in dangerous positions. KDLF was a little disappointing on the other side. Better first half, but bad touches in the first and not dangerous as his teammates. You could consider playing Rennicks there next game. It would be part rotation and him providing a spark as a sub + in qualifying. Things are already looking bleak with Nigeria next. This would be an unceremonious end to Tab's tenure (I guess with third place teams advancing w/ 4 points that's a lifeline).
Not a bad game. Dest, Durkin and Scott were poor. Weah wasn't that great. Keita was better than expected. Richards was pretty good. KDLF is a real deal. Pomykal, Mendez, Servania the same as at quals, what is good. Hopefully Gloster is OK, that would be a big loss. Rennicks again makes this team better. And it's better to advance from the 3rd place than from the 2nd in this group.
That's a pointless post. Make a point that has a chance to be countered or keep it to yourself, punk.
I've matched him as much as I could in PSG friendlies last year and in US friendlies(ly?) and he always could not get connected. Not that it's easy, but combined with some sloppy technique on top of the raw speed it could point to his ceiling.
Yeah, you have to go back to 1999 to find a time in this tournament where 4 points didn't get you through. Hell, in 2015, 3 points and a -5 GD would have sent you through.
This game reminds me of 2010 WC USMNT vs Slovenia. Both opponents have compact defense, let us dominate possession, while we cannot make real threat in the dangerous area. Then they play directly, utilize our mistakes. And for this game, we really lacked center forward. We should start Soto on this position next game.
Ugh that was a tough loss. Ukraine are incredibly good defensively considering how talented are attackers are, and their GK is certainly better than ours. Is Nigeria that good that we’re doubtful to get a win?
Once again we see the difference between our lads and their more realistic, mature (in both a physical and mental sense) opponents. It isn't enough to be technically sound if you haven't mastered the nous of winning. The later quality you can't learn from X's, O's or mobile apps.
It's hard to keep track of all the things wrong with your analysis - the DMs turned out not to have any ball pressure because Ukraine never had any possession and when they did they Route 1d it over the DMs head, so what do you expect? Meanwhile Weah was silent other than his assist and Konrad was the class of the team and it wasn't even close.
Disappointing result with all the possession, but that's what happens when a) you're naive tactically, and b) you don't actually create enough with said possession. Everyone could have contributed more to the effort today, but I'm going to focus on three BigSoccer favorites who we all hope have high ceilings and who noticeably underperformed relative to expectations: 1.) Weah - had the nice assist, but not even close to impactful enough for a player with his aspirations. A game like this (and others I've seen) makes me worry about his ceiling being as high as many hope as he didn't look able to create any separation whatsoever with the Ukrainian defenders. That's troubling for a forward/winger that doesn't have a particularly great touch or dribbling skills. 2.) Durkin - if you're not a destroyer at the 6 position, you'd better make up for it with your passing and composure on the ball. He definitely did not do that well enough today, and his career will ultimately depend on whether he can do better in that regard going forward. I will cut him a bit of slack though as he's played sparingly this season, and when he has, it's been under the guidance of Ben Olsen's mediocre soccer brain. 3.) Dest - horrid form on the first goal, but even more troubling is that he didn't look particularly fast at times. Perhaps it's a fatigue issue but average speed and small doesn't often translate to a high ceiling at right back, even with his ball skills. I don't really remember this being a problem for him in the past, so hopefully it was just a bad game. All that said, one game does not a career assessment make. Hoping for a better effort against Nigeria, and more importantly performances that help to validate the high potential we hope these three prospects have.
You realize Weah had to come back to the ball because the cm's couldn't make many penetrating passes and win the ball then break into space, right? Mendez was getting run by and was losing loose ball battles, Durkin got sidestepped on scoring opportunities and was resorting to fouling, and Servania was playing off. They had a lot of toothless possession. Weah would drop deep and interplay really effectively to break pressure, but either there would be nobody up high as a result, or there would be a breakdown along the way. On the goal, that was indeed a brilliant play by Weah on a ball that pulled him way wide, and could have had other opportunities with the right last pass like Pomykal trying to dribble thru the defense instead of hitting Weah when he probably would have scored given his striking efficiency. He was a real leader on the field and steadying force. Overall so was Pomykal, outside some over-dribbling. If you think KDLF was the class of the team, I guess what match you were watching was just the second half. Or that's all you remembered because it was the most recent sample. He had a bunch of bad first touch giveaways and didn't do anything in the first half. I noted overall he played well in the 2nd, but what did he do to carry a performance for team MOTM, cut in nicely and sky a shot instead of hitting teammates in better position? Maybe you just really had an affinity for the kid and couldn't take any critique. I didn't condemn him overall as a prospect.
i thought weah should’ve made runs and not dropped back nearly as much it at all. he just got in the way of pomykal who should’ve been on the ball in those positions