Brooks went 90 and received a yellow card in Wolfsburg's 3-0 (5-1 agg) win. The Round of 16 draw is tomorrow, and the first leg of that round will be on March 12. Wolfsburg travels to Union Berlin on Sunday for their next match.
They will play Shakhtar in the round of 16. Eager to see if Frankfurt can get thru today. If not, then Brooks will be the only USMNT player left in the tourney. I thought Brooks had another solid game last night. He had one errant pass that he was bailed out from but the rest of his passing was on point. As always, he had some key headers, pass breakups and cross-blocks.... and yes, as always he had a couple of plays where he took on a quick dribbler one-on-one and was made to look silly.
Starts: Coach Glasner's starting 1⃣1⃣. #FCUWOB pic.twitter.com/z87EnMsmTR— VfL Wolfsburg US 🇬🇧🇺🇸 #GetENwithUS (@VfLWolfsburg_US) March 1, 2020
He was okay. He got isolated by an attacker once and got run around, but it wasn't egregious defending and it didn't lead to a goal. Otherwise he was solid and had some good distribution.
Brooks lacking agility is painfully obvious. That's why you don't want him facing dribblers. He's the type who'd be useless in Spain.
Thanks for posting this. It is a pretty solid write up... two games of footage isn't a ton but I think the plays the author noted represented his strengths and weaknesses well. IMO, he is above average to plus in all the categories except defending against the one-on-one dribbler... unfortunately... I think he is significantly below average at that. There are at least a couple of plays every game where he is made to look silly defending one-on-one. As long as he has sufficient support from his flanks and co-CB then I think he is an overall plus for the USMNT... just don't leave him on an island as the last line of defense on the counter.
That is true of pretty much every large CB when isolated 1v1 with a strong dribbler. But JAB isn't giving up reds and penalties by lunging to recover, and it is up to the coach to know the limitations of his players to make sure the formation isn't designed for JAB to win 1v1 when play is fluid.
Don't look now but Wolfs in 7th place... Schalke still above them (shocking but awesome) Dortmund too (unsurprisingly) and of course Leipzig... Ams owning the Bund! lol... Brooks started today in 0-0 tie
I believe there's a chance that Wolfsburg and Schalke could both end up playing in the Europa League next year (in addition to Leipzig and Dortmund in the Champions League) if the standings remain the same. But I can't remember if it depends on whether both DFB-Pokal finalists have already qualified for Europe, or just the winner. (Right now there are two semi-finalists in the cup who will likely qualify for Europe regardless.) And with Schalke's form right now, they could end up dropping below 7th very easily regardless.
Indeed... and Mr Brooks had another solid game... the entire D did and I think Wolfsburg actually created the better chances. Great game. I hate Bayern with a passion but serves Nagelsmann right for not even subbing in Adams
Starts: ⌚️Less than an hour to go! #WOBDON #UEL #VfLWolfsburg Our lineup to face @FCShakhtar_eng! pic.twitter.com/vF9snx3b1d— VfL Wolfsburg US 🇬🇧🇺🇸 #GetENwithUS (@VfLWolfsburg_US) March 12, 2020
Brooks with the assist for Shakhtar's goal. For a stream, and considering this is likely one of the last games we'll be able to watch in a while, see here.
JAB scores! 1-1. Brooks compensates with a headed goal for the bad header in defense that cost his team the first goal.
He's disappointed he missed last weekend's YA goalfest: GOALLLLLL!!!!!!! LET'S GO!!! BACK IN IT! John Brooks baby! pic.twitter.com/jZ9673gVs1— VfL Wolfsburg US 🇬🇧🇺🇸 #GetENwithUS (@VfLWolfsburg_US) March 12, 2020
Shakhtar is Brazilians and Brazilians nationalized Ukrainians, so the Wolfsburg defense is suffering, including JAB who just cannot follow a dribbler. Losing 1-2 at home, not good. --- JAB has the last shot of the game, but it didn't go in. It ends with a home defeat for the Volkswagen guys.
He scored a goal on a corner... the solo goal for the team on the day. And on that last corner he got a great touch on it to put it right on Ginczek's foot with half the net open and he shanked it. He also came out of nowhere just after his goal to win the ball back in the midfield for a great counter but Mehmedi had a poor shot to finish it. So offensively you really can't ask for much more. If there was something missing from his offensive presence it was the lack of the long penetrating passes in between the lines that I am used to seeing. It actually looked like Shakhtar planned for that and those lanes were tough to find on the day. I thought Knoche had more success in this regard. Defensively, he was at least partially to blame for the 1st goal as he didn't get enough on his cross-block. To be fair, I am not sure why there were two Shakhtar players wide-open behind him and the bounce was a bit fortunate for the away team... but Brooks could have done better. I pointed out the play in the last paragraph where he came into the midfield to disrupt a play and start a great counter... well the video shows a play where he slides to stop a run and the dribblers goes right through the tackle. Overall... not his greatest day defensively... but when your CB scores and lays a perfect head-on to tie the game at the end one should start to point some fingers at the O for not finishing. There were several plays in this game for Wolfsburg where the finishing was just not on point. They have been in great form of late so it was a bit surprising. Could have easily been 3 or 4 goals per side. Especially considering that each team missed a penalty shot.