bruised pelvis. he was back in the hotel before the team was. ice and ibuprofen, he'll see the field Saturday. Today he'll be very sore.
There was a graphic in the NYTimes of all places that showed the video graphic/replay of Weah's body vs the last Iranian defender. He was offside by the tiniest of margins. What a gorgeous goal that would have been....
Third choice - Reyna is a great player playing regularly in the Bundesliga, but doesn't fit Berhalter's system (need to press aggressively). I would argue that Pulisic's defensive skills are wanting relative to Sargent, Aaronson, Weah...but Pulisic's not going to sit unless he's injured.
I was happy to see the passing map including the CF. That has not been the case before last match. I think a lot of that turns on whether Musah turns and goes when receiving the ball in the middle third. If CP is the only real attacker receiving in the middle third, that gets to easy to shut down. Musah attacked vs Iran but not England. I don’t know if that was by design or his choice, but I think in the end a lot of our offensive potency turns on that choice (in the absence of any other creator in MF).
I didn't see hoofball until Zimmerman and Moore came on. And again, I don't think we "hoofball" unless we are winning and its late. If we are doing hoofball against Spain or Brazil, I'll take it as that likely means we are winning.
You got that from a two second clip of him? You have absolutely no idea what was happening immediately before or after those 2 seconds. He could have just gotten a text saying his dog died. Are we tabloids dissecting the Kardashians now? C'mon.
I could not disagree with this any more strongly than I do. No one forced GGG to bring in Wright instead of Reyna, no one forced him to bring in Acosta instead of LDT. No one forced him to bring in Moore instead of Scally. What he did was take off a bunch of players that were good in possession for a bunch of players that couldnt dribble around a cone. The result is what you saw, in the moments we got the ball back in the last 25 minutes, there was almost no one left of the pitch that could possess the ball so there was no outlet, no possession which is the best way to relieve pressure. You can say that GGG got it right because we escaped with the win, but don't lie to yourself and act like this cowardly bunker and spray approach was his only option. It wasn't.
When Wales tied I would have liked Reyna in over Morris, but I actually don't think Morris played poorly in a short cameo. The big issue is hindsight that once we gave up the penalty we had at that point, we just didn't have players that could get the ball into the box. But also... Puli, Weah, and Musah have been excellent 3 games, Wes has been great last 2 games after being iffy against Wales. Brendan is clearly the first guy off the bench to go against tired legs. The game that was crying for Gio, Gio got in. Later than expected but yeah. I think Gio has a part to play against Holland for sure
I'm 99 percent convinced Luca is no where near ready to play at which point.. yeah he shouldn't have been part of the roster.
That seems to put an awful lot into the word “good.” He has very good skills, but young players that lack World Cup experience need to grow into the tournament. That doesn’t happen instantly. Nevertheless, if he does get a start, my bet is that he performs. If it is an 8 minute cameo, that is too small a sample to bet on.
Don’t understand why you would infer an injury or lack of readiness given Gregg’s treatment of Reyna.
You seem like a genuinely nice guy - but I think your takes might find more of a like-minded audience with the Twitter crowd. My personal preference would be that content here be reasonable and balanced. For example, I hated JK and tried to acknowledge that I was probably at least somewhat blinded by that dislike. It’s possible to be both critical and balanced and to recognize when you struggle with balance. Most people acknowledge that Berhalter set us up pretty darn well for England. He wasn’t perfect though - he didn’t go for the win at the end. But if you can’t acknowledge the good with the bad, I think it’s hard to take the analysis seriously. There is no coach out there who makes perfect decisions all the time and coaches have strengths and weaknesses. Remember Pep in the Champions League final against Chelsea? He was awful. Which brings me to one of my issue with folks who constantly find fault with our coach - where does all the certainty that you are right come from? Heck, I wish Reyna were having a breakout Cup, but I have no clue what’s going on behind the scenes and there are really reasonable arguments for why he hasn’t featured prominently. For example, Sargent was doing stuff yesterday that Reyna and Weah don’t/can’t do. I get irrationally hating the coach - but take some humility pills with a glass of perspective, you don’t know as much as you think you do. For me, the World Cup is glorious in part for its banana results. You may not think qualifying for the knockout is as awesome as I do, you may not remember how we played in previous cups where Howard was secretary of defense - but we are playing well and every one deserves at least a little credit.
Yes, and no. This was partly a choice. We let them on the front foot, instead of equal footing, by going to a hyper-conservative formation and making defensive subs, rather than ones that helped us keep a foothold. I mean by Iran fan's own admission, they have the worst midfield in the tourney. It's not hard to just keep them from dominating you territorially, just with some fresher guys. If we had a CM of Gio/BA, Adams, fresh player, & Scally at RB; we should have maintained about even control, which is granting you that's well below our virtual dominance in the 1st half. Then we'd have had a theoretically equal chance of scoring a goal as Iran. Which would mean you're about 75% to win, as opposed to close to 50% going that defensive for the better part of a half hour. It was near a toss-up to win with how many opportunities we were ceding, while creating next to nothing the other way. The model ESPN cited had Iran with a .8 xg. That had to have heavily come during that survival mode we went in. That means it wasn't the right strategy, logically, or by the odds. It's a strategy that should have been employed over a much shorter period of time when you're just trying to keep the opponent's xg particularly low for the rest of the game. You wouldn't have time to respond with your own score anyway. All's well that end's well, though.
So, to sum up, Berhalter completely mangled the second half of a must win game, and got lucky that Iran couldn’t put away the many excellent chances that mismanagement gave them and now everybody thinks this is the best team ever? Do I have that right?
Tifo analysis of USA vs Iran starts around 32:00 Highlights: - USA came out with a different system for all three matches - focused on overloads on one side, much like how England found success vs Iran - McKennie and Musah would break lines themselves due to their dribbling prowess - Adams immense per usual - the group thinks that USA can give the Dutch a real run
I know Pulisic says he wants to be ready against the Netherlands on Saturday, but that bone contusion will probably take longer to heal. You just can’t rush some things. This next game seems like it would be Gio’s opportunity to start on the wing with Weah on the other side. Brendan can come in 2nd half. If Gio doesn’t start, I’ll be very surprised.
"Excellent chances?" Iran had one shot on goal, the exact sort of thing this team got criticized for the first two games.
Back atcha. Hard to take rahrah boosterism seriously when people don’t acknowledge Berhalter’s screw ups and the huge role luck played in this. I mean maybe that makes sense for the casual fan who doesn’t understand the sport, but those of us who do get it aren’t buying.
You're pretty much saying here that those who aren't condemning the coach are not as analytical or smart as the Berhalter critics. Is that right?
Yes. The beat the keeper just wide of both posts and got lucky that a ball that had left Turner all at sea happened to fall closer to a defender than an attacker who would have needed only a tap to poke it in Neither shot nor goal line clearances count as shots on goal which is why people who actually watched the game laugh at people who mention that.
I guess I don’t see celebrating the win and the performance as rah rah boosterism. Most people here acknowledge his subs haven’t been great.
I’m saying those who say “score line baby” to dismiss the obvious and glaring problems are showing they have zero understanding of this sport. So, pretty much, yeah. Because one thing you don’t see is *anyone* defending Berhalter’s tactics. Because they can’t.