He was the nominal #9 when he came on. But he has freedom to go side line to sideline. In practice it was kinda like a #10.
He seemed to move from one flank to the other mostly. His first touch was on the left side, he blew by a guy and was tactically-fouled, resulting in a yellow. His hockey assists and shot came from the right side, which I think was moreso where he was playing (he replaced Brandt, who was on the right side I thought).
The BVB wingers switch sides all game long. It is a great tactic. He drew two fouls that should have been yellows... one on the left-side where he beat his man as you pointed out... and the other led to a goal... this was an amazing pass on the right touch line on the counter... that could easily been a yellow. This play was pretty awesome because it looked like the pass went thru the defender like he was a ghost. This was one of Gio's better 10 minutes. The hockey assist was great because he disguised it. Most players would have taken an extra touch or put his body in a position for the pass that would have made it easy to read. He made it look like it might go inside rather than out which gave Witzel just a little extra space. I am constantly amazed at the game of soccer and just how many games and successful plays are won/made on the little things.... just the same thing that kept Gio from getting his first league goal. Paderborn has already lost big yet the keeper stands on his head to keep Gio off the scoresheet.
His breakaway speed--I've never seen that before in him. I did not realize how fast he can be once he gets his long legs going. And he was only denied the goal by a fine save.
Anyone have the highlight of his shot? YouTube video is private now. Looks like his shot is mixed in with goals on both sides of when his shot happened in the 88’.
Apparently he gets that from his Momma. IQ from Dad and athleticism from Mom. To have those genes......
Apropos of nothing but it seems this Bund "final leg" is the perfect situation for some sports nerds to make bold pronouncements about home field advantage being lack of travel vs. impact of supporters. If I was in the studio I'd have rigged up a whole bunch of crowd sound effects and just mix the crap out ambient stadium noises to screw with everyone at home - but only in the close-ups or anything frame out the crowd. As soon as the camera caught the empt seats, I'd kill the sound and put in crickets. It would be lit! And I would crack myself up...
Those are up around noon tomorrow (Monday evening in Germany). I'd think he qualifies for a Kicker 3,0.
When you see it packed together like that really looks like he had a hit out on him today. seemed to hit ground after every ball he played.
can take that two ways - an overmatched opponent willing to resort to the most cynical kind of persistent hacking fouling also didnt stop gio from playing his very saucy game. an attitude that will certainly come in handy for him during national team duty
He has speed of mind I don't think any other US prospect has had, including Pulisic. Obviously it helps to have the technical ability but the way he sees the game, at 17, is incredible. Guys talk about adjusting to the "speed" of the professional game in every sport but Gio is already up to speed.
i think after hopefully saying such and such prospect was undermatched by the level and thats why he didnt look good at such and such tournament gio is the first guy i can remember actually proving that
Yeah, he seems to be good at suckering defenders close to him before releasing the ball. Just like yesterday when he got hammered before the 4th goal. Really good sense. Such an exciting player for us, he’s gonna take such a huge load off of Pulisic.
Editing my comment above- it wasn't a "cheeky back-heel", looks like it was an even cheekier rabona. Nice.