Usually we outplay and outshoot minnows but can’t finish. Rarely are we hanging on for life late against one.
Yea but CR is historically a top team. We’re talking about a island with 160,000 people and ranked 130th in the world. Sorry, there’s no way to compare the two.
We will get steamrolled by Mexico if we are defending with 3 at the back with a Bradley-to-no outlet.
Anyone who watched that game last night saw Mexico’s movement in the final third. That movement will cut us to absolute pieces. Assuming we beat Jamaica. Which I doubt.
I want to put some respek on Curacao's name. We were terrible but they brought it, add a few more dual nationals to their cause and I don't see why they can't make some noise come qualifying.
I will take getting outplayed over outscored anyday. We should of been up on them 2-3 to nothing if not for a Pulisic ball hogging.
They didnt give us any respect (why should they?) and had nothing to lose. Combine those 2 things with some solid play and it's never going to be pretty for us.
Czech Republic and Germany? Do you come from an alternate reality where Rossi played for the U.S. and Adu turned out to be a star?
Eh, that wasn't a "great" game either. CR packed it in, and their entire offense was a fortunate penalty. Mexico is doing the normal "get ball on wings, try to cross in" on CR's 5-man backline, to no effect. In 120 minutes, Mexico scored a single goal, and was not dangerous for most of the game. Haiti, meanwhile, scored 2 on the same Costa Rica team, and was very dangerous for the last 30 minutes.
Not to be a mindless contrarian, but our defense has been perfect. Go back to my first post. We attack like a team preparing to defend. I don’t like it, but 6 scoreless hours speaks for itself. I don’t think it will work against Jamaica, let alone whom we would face in the final if we win. And Lord knows I expect a shitshow if we fall behind. But predictions about the future are hard. Maybe it’ll work.
I always enjoy posts like these that completely ignore the primary point in order to pick out a minor detail. How’d you like the game?
My opinion was with how bad the team was playing Berhalter pretty much said screw it let's just get out of here. I'm not thrilled with that, but it is what it is. They said during the broadcast that when Boyd came out he had lost possession 13 times. And honestly (and this is likely me just being dissatisfied with how the game went) I felt like he was just so off from the rest of the team that that is why he got subbed. Now I would have subbed McKennie off too as I felt he was a main reason for a lot of issues in the midfield and left Bradley and the backend out to dry. Agreed on Zardes. There were a few moments where he got the ball and he just didnt know what to do with the ball. Like I mentioned earlier. He is an okay option if he doesnt have to be involved too much in build up play and can just get into position but today we needed more. But again, nobody should be happy with this game. Team came in with wrong mentality. On to the next one
It's a massive problem that Zardes' link game is so weak our attackers flat out ignored him in the 2nd half. You simply can't play him the ball and expect a return on your run. That deflates the entire attack. WTF is Greg thinking. And we look horrendous defensively against the counter. Fullbacks provide nothing. Bradley's legs are 60 yrs old. CB's can't play with the ball at their feet. No midfield cohesion in the middle 3rd. McKennie playing as a high 10 AND covering for Bradley as a 6. What a mess. The problems are too numerous to have an confidence looking towards qualifying.
Your right about Czech Republic, my mistake. We did nearly beat Germany in 2002, some people say we were the better of the two sides
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the much-heralded system at work. Same flaws many of us have pointed out before, they just looked worse against a more energetic team. We're lucky they didn't have a forward. Bright side - I didn't think Long and Zimmerman were as bad as many of you did. Ream also held up much better than I expected but still shouldn't be there. Negatives - Lima was poor. Bradley was a sieve. Arriola was anonymous. Morris and Boyd gave us the worst play from the right wing of the tournament. One sub and extremely ineffective adjustments from Egg? Zardes just wow. McKennie had a nice goal but really looked out of sorts for long stretches. Nothing is a given even in the rounds leading up to the hex as long as this is what Egg considers our A team.
Sure there is. Curacao's in a better spot, they have a diaspora that provides most of their players. Costa Rica's small and doesn't have Dutch players to call up.
I only saw the first half, and so if you are describing Bradley's passing tonight as "excellent" then he must have had a scintillating second half......because in the first half, his passing was wretched ....... [unless you mean his pass backs. Retrograde movement of the ball has always been one of his strengths].
Lol. Judging the defense by the scoreline suggests an inability to see the intricacies of play during the full 90. Game after game we get caught in positions which will get punished ruthlessly against a quality side. This leads to folks who don't understand much beyond the boxscore to be surprised when we ultimately get hammered by a side who takes their chances.
What a brilliant game plan by Berhalter: grab an early goal, and counterattack world power Curaçao the rest of the game. What absolute rubbish, if I was at that game, I would've asked for my money back. I'm actually considering trying to get my cable company to give me credit for 2 hours of wasting my time. Whatever happened to being a pressing team? It's not like it's a midday game, we let Curaçao read a book when on the ball in their defensive half. And when we have the ball, we move it at an absolutely glacial pace. I laughed out loud at bringing on Gonzalez as a fifth defender to seal the win. What the hell is that, the Portugal game in 2014? What exactly are we building here?
To be fair to Bradley I think he got hung out to dry a few times by teammates. He wasn't good but he was far from the worst player on the pitch