I can’t see how that could heal in three days… I’ll be stunned (and very happy) if he was able to play Saturday.
This is exactly what the complaint is. That midfield was solid and created chances and kept the ball, but then completely fell apart in the second half. Based on the first half: Solid U.S. win. But the second half turned it into what should have been a draw, except some excellent luck. Just like against Wales.
Guys. Give it up for @Iranian Monitor . He brought a great deal of knowledge to this forum about our opponent. Yes, at times, his Iran fandom got he best of him, but wouldn't we do the same in an iran forum? A gracious competitor and opponent. Good luck in the future with your NT and your nation. به سلامتی
Insightful post. Totally agree and understand the assessment. I think a good number of us felt that we were heading for a potential catastrophe after those September friendlies. Like a potential demoralizing beatdown from England. We were woeful in those games. Many were talking about a repeat of 1998, which was our worst World Cup performance. If I was unfamiliar with our team, I would have reached similar conclusions about the USA team based on those data and reference points from September.
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea exactly what Berhalter was trying to do with this side in September. We did have some guys missing and that affected things, but I honestly couldn't figure out what Berhalter's aim was for both of those games, and how the lineups he chose and the way we were playing were intended to bring them about. The team was awful. We've had some ups and downs, but that was probably the worst window we had since the games re-started after the pandemic break, well below our usual standard. I just rewatched our match. The first 20 minutes of the 2nd half were not as bad for us as I remembered while watching the first time. Clearly we were not as dangerous without Pulisic, but we were still regularly getting into the Iranian third creating chances and half chancres, roughly as many as Iran created in the last 10 minutes plus stoppage. When Acosta was subbed on for McKennie, we lost control of the center of the pitch and were no longer really creating chances of any quality, but Iran's defenders were still being kept honest. When Sargent came off for Wright, he wasn't able to hold the ball up at all, he posed your defenders no threat at all, and they didn't respect any threat he posed. At that point, if Berhalter hadn't have subbed on Zimmerman to win long balls and clean things up in the back, we might've conceded. We had lost control of the game, for sure.
I actually propose we make Iranian Monitor an official honorary guest of the USMNT forum. Of course there is no such thing - but you guys know what I mean! It would be great to continue to get news from abroad, as Iranian Monitor feels fit to share.
And v England. Kane was clear on the FK header towards the end of the game. Simply missed. All three 2nd halves we have fallen apart and given away the momentum. And a team with finishing quality converts 1-2 of the chances Iran created today. For whatever the reason with the US the most undervalued and understated part of closing out a game instead of putting yourself under fire is, maintaining composure on the damn ball. For some reason few appreciate that. Show me a team who has scored without the ball. The problem is glaring, it's obvious and it's self inflicted. We can be happy we won while still point to the major shortcomings of G and this is one of them. As it always follows his sub patterns which essentially give up on the game and put us in a hopeless bunker. Where at that point you're simply playing the law of average while under heavy artillery fire.
Indeed, I think he's generally been the best foreign poster on this board in ages, and brought a lot of insight into what predictably turned out to be a crucial third group match. I definitely was able to watch and understand what was happening in real time a lot better with his insights in mind.
The September performance was a combination of two things to my mind: Berhalter really testing out some tactical and player choices that clearly didn't work The players just really not being up for it The latter is an issue we've had, and sometimes not just in friendlies. The team struggled to take some of our games/opponents seriously in qualifying, and laid a complete egg in our Nations League group stage as well (in that one, I swear everyone looked hung over). Berhalter's gone to a much more pragmatic model here ... but honestly, the biggest change is the intensity and focus the players have brought. Most of us were just hoping that they'd flip the switch, and for the most part, they have. Still have real issues in the final third and on set pieces, and that's not going to change now.
This is a nice counterpoint to some of the pre-game narratives in the press. I hope the Iranian journo that was grilling Tyler Adams pre-game noticed this.
I appreciate all the gracious and kind comments. Best of luck to the US against Holland and hopefully Pulisic will have fully recovered by then.
We get TO the final third pretty well. We might be one of the five or six worst teams in the entire tournament when we actually get there. That's the one thing that I'd say that Iran clearly does better than us.
You're right, that's fair. He's just been in here so long that I almost think he's one of us, despite his name.
OK I'm done. the bottle of wine is empty, and opening another at 11:46, well, that is my vice but no. @gogorath man I was missing you those first few days. Hawaii??? WTF. Lock the FUCCKK in. Thanks for bringing a voice of reason to this forum. @Marko72 damn. you know that we are basically brothers, literally Russian refugees from a Philippine island. God Bless. @The Clientele yes. love you. @PassionOfTheFoot that's a new one for me. Welcome! @Bajoro Fan of you. Don't agree a lot of the time. but lets' goooooooooooooooooo edit: @TheRightPants Hell yes. I love that name and avatar. LOVE IT
Is risking unpopularity worth being truthful in the face of so many outrageous and fantastic lies? Maybe not, but the lies do get under my skin. In fact, one of the very few things Iran's thoroughly corrupt regime has going for it is the nature of the organized opposition to it (as well as the conduct of the regime's foreign enemies). And I say this as a westernized, mostly agnostic individual (any remaining faith I have in the battle between truth and falsehood certainly doesn't fit the rubric of any organized religion, least of all Islam) who didn't support the revolution in 1979 from the get-go. But for me, the "opposition" to the regime is akin to a factory that churns out the most fantastic lies and claims on a range of issues, without even the imperfect checks that exist in other contexts for these lies to face at least some challenge. Our players were under a lot of unfair and at times disgustingly odious pressures in this tournament. That much is true. https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/queiroz-unhappy-disinformation-proud-iran-225853445.html Queiroz unhappy with 'disinformation' but proud of Iran despite World Cup elimination Reports had suggested the players' families had been threatened if they protested again, but in his post-match press conference, Queiroz gave a stern response. "The world, in the current circumstances, is full of stupidities," he said. "If you hear from an anonymous source, you convey the information and in the space of two hours, some stupidities become truth. "It's disinformation, it's a shame but it's the truth. We have heard several stories about threats the players received. "But what I can state is that thanks to their work, thanks to the conversations we had, the players started smiling again and understood who they were playing for, their mission. "I'm very glad they were able to give a response on the field and give prestige to the shirt."
I do wish Gregg had been able and/or willing to get some more minutes out of the bench. I had thought that we'd get some good minutes out of Reyna and, especially, Aaronson. I thought Ferreira would play 90. I thought Roldan would spell someone for a bit. But what's happened happened, and the team played pretty well over 3 games. Some players could have been a bit fresher for Saturday than they will be. That said, in the months (and even years) before this World cup: a bunch of fans said we'd go 3 and out (HAHAHA); lots of reasonable people set getting out of the group as the bar; another significant set of reasonable people said making the quarterfinals is the bar. No one ever set the bar higher than that. And now that the team (and the coach) has exceeded YOUR expectations, you move the bar all the way to the top--"win the World Cup". Gotta tell you, even if Berhalter had rotated the squad--while still managing to get the required results--this team wouldn't win the World Cup. And this team, in 2022, wouldn't win the World Cup with whoever you think is the best coach for the job, either.
I turned on Philly sports talk radio this morning and the first subject they were discussing was this match. If you know anything about Philly culture, sports talk radio is the central nerve of sports culture in a sports-crazed town usually obsessed only with its own big four pro teams (and primarily its football team). To have the USMNT lead off discussion is really kind of fantastic because this would not have happened a couple decades ago. The hosts seemed to be really into it, enjoyed the game, and even offered reasonable critique of the US' second half strategy. Average sports fans have a greater acceptance of the sport now and the USMNT took advantage of the higher levels of interest last night. While it is an admirable goal to "change the way the world views American soccer," as Berhalter has puts it, an even more important goal is changing how the general American sports public view the sport and the USMNT. I'm not going to make any "soccer has arrived" pronouncements (because we still have a long way to go), but this is yet another anecdotal piece of evidence that the USMNT, and soccer in general, have grown in actual interest. I get it: many folks won't watch another soccer game for quite a while after the World Cup, but some of them will. I see tangible, real evidence of growth in interest in the sport from where we were as a country when I got the soccer bug years ago. And, USMNT success is a really important driving factor in that endeavor.