Bobby Wood couldn't hit water if he fell out of boat. The backside of barn, kicked ball into the ocean etc.
This guy is quietly making a comeback. Good for him . And before anyone says a disinterested Bolivia team, mind you, they blocked a ton of shots from our players, which disinterested teams don't do.
We beat a talented Paraguay team, we tied a Portugal team. Our kids are getting minutes for PSG, Dortmund, Schalke, and Benfica. Are you sure someone has not noticed yet? Ill let you think about it.
Some of our young players showed something in the match, but I have seen all or part of over 20 Bolivian national team matches over the last 11 years and that was far and away the most pitiful collection of Bolivian players that I have ever seen. (Also the tallest group of Bolivian players that I have ever seen.) I expect us to give Ireland a run for their money thanks in large part to our older reinforcements, but if France doesn't completely crush us, it will be either because they are being nice, or internal strife in the French squad. I'm glad that we're playing our kids, but that Bolivian side was pitiful and we should get spanked in 10 days.
Funny how the posts before this were after Colombia and Ireland in Nov 2014. Rubin should have scored in both games if I remember correctly, definitely against Colombia in London on a diving header, Bobby Wood too. Glad to see him back on the radar after a tough couple of years
How many times have we seen players show well in friendlies only to fall apart when the games matter? Too many times to count. I’m not saying that we don’t have talented young players with some promise(Weston and Pulisic clearly are there), but close to none of these have played in a real international game. Hopefully they will soon.
paraguay isn't a very talented team and it was a friendly...as in a scrimmage. they had 6 shots and only three on goal it wasn't hardly a great performance. the portugal team was a b team in a friendly and again...us had 39% poss in the match it wasn't great at all. 'minutes for psg and benfica'...just an fyi its like less then 10 total first team matches for the two guys at those two clubs. I really like both of them but relax a little they have a long way to go. just relax and give them sometime to grow and improve. nobody is saying they won't be good or that nobody likes them we just don't think its over and the us is amazing magically because they beat a terrible bolivia team.
Rubio was playing pretty well, despite lack of starts, right before his injury. As I've posted elsewhere (sorry to repeat myself) I doubt he's ever the best choice at any one position for the USMNT, but if he gets back to peak Utrecht form, he may be a very good squad player who can play CF, SS, AM and even wide if needed. He could end up being a kind of Jovan Kirovski of this current generation. "If" he gets back to peak pre-injury form.
yeah...so are you now in agreement with that or still thinking the paraguay match locks the us in as a 2022 world cup favorite?
Was he "one of the most hyped players of all time?" I'm not a big watcher of the hype. I did keep an eye on Utrecht when he was there, and he was in and out of the starting line-up. Probably the biggest issue for him there was positioning. They wanted him to be a pure CF, but he wasn't a high enough % finisher and when Seb Haller came in there was no question who was a better CF. Many (most?) Utrecht fans and RR himself thought he was a more natural 10, but while he got a # of runouts there, starting the season of the injury (2016-17 I guess..?) Nacer Barazite was getting the starts, and a dutch kid whose name escapes me was tending to come in off the bench at the 10. RR could be the best CF we have if, say, Wood doesn't get back to form, Jozy reaches sell-by date and some of the other kids don't pan out, but RR has to improve his finishing % and get more a goal scorers personality on the field to own that position, I think. At the 10, or even a "wide AM" he's got a lot of very decent competition. I think it's hard to imagine him better than CP, for instance. And while RR may have gotten the most minutes at R/LM in a 3 at Utrecht (or at least a decent # of minutes.) unless the US goes to a 4-3-3, he's not really a touchline or great 2 way outside midfielder. If we played CP as a wide-ish AM could RR earn the CAM slot? Sure, he could, I guess, but my money would be on some other players to give him serious competition at that slot.
amazing...kid plays a decent match against a terrible team and people are basically saying he can start everywhere lol.
I don't know if that is supposed to be in response to my post, but if it is, either my post is poorly written or you didn't read it well as that is exactly the opposite of what I said. So, just to be clear: I do think, as I wrote - "if RR gets back to peak pre-injury form" - he can be a very useful utility player in that he is good enough at a number of attacking positions, but I think the problem for RR is, even at "peak pre injury form" he is probably good enough to be back-up at a couple of positions, but not good enough to be the starter at any of them.
they need him to be better then that his 'pre-injury form' wasn't good enough even as a backup they need better and more production.
Don't know where you are going with this..... You cant tell someone to "relax" when your the instigator.