Did you somehow get the halfs confused? He was MUCH better in the second half, created dangerous opportunities with his runs with and without the ball, and drew fouls. The first half he barely had any of the ball, mainly down to how poor Dortmund were after Bayern equalized.
I didn't say he was poor, just that he missed those final passes. History could have changed if he didn't. Water under the bridge, overall he'd get a very strong 7.5 from me. I hope he wasn't taken out because of the penalties, because that'd mean he's not good at it in practice. I think he was taken out because he was tired. Defending when you're a forward means covering acres of space.
My conclusion is that Suyuntuy is just trolling today and I will leave debate on our respective perceptions of events of this game alone.
That has nothing to do with homerism. Pulisic was bright in the 2nd half and a regular threat. Bayern was struggling with him at times. What you're doing I'd call reverse-homerism. Essentially looking to downplay Pulisic because he's American.
It's amazing how no one ever remarks on all the iffy calls Bayern gets. In the end, they committed more fouls but only got two yellows to Borussia's FOUR. The Vidal foul on Pulisic was a yellow anywhere. This is why watching the Bundesliga annoys me. I've seen them get away with offside goals, handballs, studs-up tackles, even pushing the rival keeper blatantly, all last season. Ah well, guess criticizing them is taboo.
I've watched so many BVB games the last year and it seems like in half of them they make a stupid mistake defensively that costs them. Today was no different. Why didn't they spend more money bringing in defenders? Their starting centre backs are solid but their fullbacks are not title aspiration and UCL quality.
Yet today of the seven guys on their bench, four were defenders. The irony is that none of them could play on the left. Even the kid they started on the left didn't play there as a youth player.
I watched only the second half of the match, and Pulisic was brilliant. The attack force of Pulisic, Castro, Dembele, and Aubameyang was beautiful to watch at times. I'm surprised that the BVB players didn't all go to Ulreich's left in the shootout, considering he went to his right on every single penalty, except for one where he didn't dive. The two he saved were the only two BVB penalties that went to his right. Just an observation.
Good performance from our lad, and BVB look to be fine with the new coach. When Rafael and Weigl get back they should be fine. The problem is Bayern doesn't drop many points and Dortmund have to win with a midfield that is not up to their aspirations. I am glad he was taken off before the penalties, he was very tired. Probably irritated him too, that's not a bad thing. I will say he has the heart of a champion not sure he has a ceiling. I thought Pisczek was wretched, Rode at least looked competent when he came on. Why the hell would you have VAR if you are not going to overturn an offside goal?
Pisczek really seems to have regressed. Hopefully it's just pre-season rust. And 100% agree on the VAR comment. WTF, right? I was screaming at the screen, and Holden was trying to say it wasn't clear cut; you don't get much more clear cut. Edit: Just reading the BVB forum on Transfermarkt.de (https://www.transfermarkt.com/super...chen/thread/forum/12/thread_id/805367/page/42), and they are discussing it; maybe not so clear cut. Apparently this was shown on the German broadcast: But they are arguing about how the line is drawn there. It doesn't look quite right to me, but definitely not as definite as I thought.
problem with that still is that ball is still on his foot. I'd love to fast forward it a fraction and see it. Frankly the VAR official made his decision so quickly I don't think he had enough time to frame by frame it like this.
That was extremely close to call. It could go either way, and I am perfectly fine with that. The truth here is their LB left a gaping hole on that side for BM to exploit and so they did very successfully all day long. I don't know who BVB's starting LB is, but you can't trust an 18 year old CB to start all season long as a LB. They need to address that if they are to have any level of success this campaign.
Won't be for awhile. Didn't he have ankle surgery? Takes awhile to get the joint back to working properly.