Omar did himself proud. Great 2 games from him. Tough on Besler. Lukaku was a brick wall there. Beas was pretty great once again. Congrats to him. Yedlin fantastic. RB is yours son. Fabian can take left. And Timmay can still come over a f*ck my wife.
We have some good developmental material at the back end for the next cycle. Brooks, Besler, Gonzalez, Yedlin, Chandler and maybe Johnson (veteran depth). Hopefully, one or two more young talents can emerge.
Hard to argue with anything here. Beasley had the best World Cup we could ever hope for. He was fantastic today. Omar was boss. Some co-worker emailed me complaining about Besler after the first goal but I told him Besler has more than earned his keep during a great World Cup. Yedlin was very good too. This game was lost in midfield, we just couldn't relieve the pressure. The defenders should be proud of this whole tournament with the exception of a couple gaffes vs. POR.
Didn't know which thread to put this in, but the replay shows that Besler was clipped by Lukaku on the first goal. Thats how he fell over. The announcers made you think that Lukaku just outmuscled him. The replay shows that he clipped him, and he fell over. Thats a foul. Tough to see, but it should have been a foul on Lukaku.
I've been very critical of Howard getting beaten near post in big spots in the past but I don't think he could have done anything there.
Whoscored gave Howard a 10. Generally, they (or it) thought that both teams played very well, giving Belgium a average of 7.54 and the US an average of 7.4.
Our whole backline was good. I know some people want to crown Howard but our backline probably had an equal amount of interceptions and defensive plays. Cameron offered no positional cover. Beckerman should be respected for how he plays the game.
Everyone in the backline was good against a very good Belgium side, period. Expect some of these guys to get some big offers in the near future.
Howard was much more animated than usual I think. He was marshaling the back-line as if we were really under siege for whatever can be read into that.
For all they battled their asses off, 16 saves and two goals is failure although the midfield got overrun on the way to them. For all that Yedlin provided a spark, I thought the Fabian injury killed us, he might have provided a bit more sophistication in his attacks. Yedlin's crosses might have been effective if we had a McBride, but too often we could not turn them into an actual chance. Timmay deserved better....
Howard was incredible. Over all I think the back line did well under almost constant pressure. Really surprised about how well our defense has done this world cup. Lots to build on for the future. Would like to see Besler, Yedlin and Gonzales move to Europe.
I can't blame the defense for not closing down De Bruyne on his goal. He's scared the hell out of me ever since he shot that kid on the dirt bike to cover up a train robbery. I can only imagine our defenders felt the same way.
I'm seeing a lot of Beasley love here. The guy fought his ass off for four cycles on this team. I get it. I just think we can do better at his position. He gets bullied physically by just about every challenger, and his ball control is well below what you'd expect from an international. In fact, the team as a whole rarely won the 50-50 balls today, which was a major reason we lost. Anyway, again, don't get me wrong...major props to DMB for giving everything he had to this program for a long time. We just need to get better at the position, especially if we plan on continuing to trot out more defensive formations in the near future and counting on the back four to keep us in games. Oh, btw...speaking of the defense, someone tell Yedlin that he isn't required by law to go into the corner and cross the ball every single time he has it. I was wishing just once he'd have cut inside and attempted a shot.
How long have you been watching Beasley? If anything, his ball skill has improved in my opinion and he doesn't fall nearly as much as he used to... 6 months ago I was one who not only didn't want Beasley to start, but I didn't even want him in the 30...to me he was a historical figure of US soccer. I have never been more wrong in my USMNT analysis. Crow, and lots of it. He got forward and defended better than I've ever seen a left back do for us. He is my MOM for this game.
The team lost many of those 50/50 balls because they usually ended with Fellaini throwing Jones on the ground and the ref not calling it. I don't know what it was about him, but Jones couldn't buy a call today.
Beasley did a lot of work defensively. But offensively he killed us. Had tons of space all day and did nothing with it.
Alexi Lalas @AlexiLalas 10h As a defender, you should be embarrassed when a GK has a game like Tim Howard had tonight. #BELvsUSA
Alexi Lalas just admitted that he's embarrassed by 80% of the games against quality teams that the US played as when he was on the team.