Look at the results from the closed-door Covid matches across the world. Home-field advantage basically disappeared without fans putting pressure on refs.
For sure. But we've struggled strongly in large part because we aren't creating spacing in the final third. I'm not sure why the other poster wants to abandon a key part of the game. I'll be honest, I didn't follow the logic. Perhaps it was just an Arriola comment? (Which I still don't get, but whatever). But players like Pepi, Dike, Pulisic, Weah, Jedi, all provide it. It's a vital part of a functioning offense. And abandoning that would be a disaster. You have to apply that kind of pressure, just like you have to move the ball horizontally at times as well.
Oh lord this GGG press conference. He has a carnival barker screaming out age stats between questions to make GGG seem better. Embarrassing
I mean that’s not true quite yet given how much Juventus paid for McKennie and how much Venezia paid for Busio. There’s also the fact that McKennie is playing for Juventus and Busio for a team fighting relegation.
Or without fan energy playing a role in player motivation and effort? I also haven't seen a firm stat that home field advantage disappeared? Do you have one?
I think the main conclusion is that HFA is huge, in all sports, and that you want it. We all know how big HFA is in WCQ so the question is is Beerholder vindicated in "punting" the Panama game to have fresher legs here tonight? They asked it post game and nobody really had a great answer. I still say you play to win the game in front of you and worry about tmr tmr but it worked out alight I guess.
I think the thing with Busio is that his growth is going to be exponentially higher given his age and that he’s now playing in Italy. I still don’t think he can play the 6 though. Acosta remains locked in for that reason. With only two games next window, Adams will for sure play 180 minutes. Let’s just pray him and everyone else stay healthy between now and then.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2020.593499/full "Hence, the Covid-19 lock-down turned a home advantage of 54.35% into a home disadvantage of 44.10%." Among a whole load of stats about referee bias changing due to the lack of crowds.
No clue about subjective rating. How you compare the top player on a bottom 6 team and below average player on the top 6 team? But all ranking programs Whoscored, Fotmob, Sofascore rank Busio much higher.
Of course they do. Busio's role at Venezia is to dictate the attack. He's the focal point of that, so he's going to complete a ton of passes, which all basic ranking programs love. That's not McKennie's job at Juventus.
I mean transfer value is a pretty objective measure of what people think of either player. So is club pedigree.
San Jose is a tough place for us, but this Tico team is not. I can't remember the last time we played a team this athletically limited, to the point that it absolutely handicapped them.
Pepi also seems to do a good job with flicks and keeping the ball moving when trying to go vertical. with him and guys like weah and Aaronson bombing forward you can expect some danger when the opposition can't immediately win it back in midfield off a loose ball. add in gio and pulisic and you really got a stew going.
Hopefully we are either 1) already qualified or 2) Costa Rica is already eliminated for our finale match in San Jose. Tough to get a result and Costa Rica might be playing for everything.
I'm about to re-watch but I didn't see a terrible game from McKennie. He, no doubt, struggled with the final ball... but if we're criticizing people for that, the entire US team is basically damned every single game. I thought Weston was good. He was far from great, and like everyone, I do wonder if he will ever get the consistency in precision and focus to be truly great game in and game out. But he brings so much that even when he's not sharp, I think people miss how much he can help control a game when he's out there. The A team's biggest issue is final third execution. McKennie was poor at the last pass tonight... but he got to the last pass. That attacking precision is a problem for us, period, and while McKennie contributes ... it's a thing. We're just not there yet.
I see him as a disrupter. And I like his aggression. I bet he’s sort of a pain in the ass to play against. Remember those guys? The guy who just does a few things to throw you off your game? The more I think about it, one of his strengths as a player probably has lot to do with just being cocky AF and psyching out the opposition. All that said. his decision making and passing often lead to giveaways. I often find myself rubbing my chin thinking “did he really just try to dribble three guys instead of passing to the open teammate? Uh, that wasn’t good.”
Scotland? Croatia? Austria? MLS overlaps the Championship and some of your tier 2. It's not as good as any of those, but there's miles of evidence it is better than the leagues you are putting there.
No I’m abandoning asking our attacking midfielders to be the ones to dedicate themselves to verticality. Our best teams ever had Dempsey and Donovan on the side, and they constantly cut in and let fullbacks overlap. They were given complete freedom to attack how they see fit. That is what I want out of our elite outside attackers
And it hasn't worked for the US. Dest doesn't provide it, and depending on how the game going, even Robinson can be unreliable. We watched across a number of matches where not having any verticality in the wingers created a crowded and bogged down attack. It's the big problem with the Pulisic/Reyna pairing right now. Either they need to make more runs or we need to think about putting in someone who will stretch the defense more (like a Weah or Aaronson).