Just because Harry Kane has not scored in this World Cup doesn't mean he's all of a sudden he's a bad player. The guy literally won the Golden Boot at the last World Cup. He's one of the four best strikers in the world (the others being Haaland, Lewandowski, and Benzema). Lewandowski is not left in the tournament so he doesn't count, but Kane is a much more prolific scorer in the EPL than Giroud, Morata, or Richarlison have ever been (Muller has never played in the EPL, but he's never scored in the Bundesliga at the rate of Harry Kane in the EPL). The idea of those guys are better strikers than Kane is simply not backed up by the facts. This is not the same England. These guys made the semifinals last time and the finals of the Euros last year. They may not win the tournament, but the team is definitely stacked with talent.
Ok, and hear me out: The EPL is an awesome league, largely because their money attracts non-English players and coaches. Harry Kane is not playing in the EPL when he puts on the 3 lions. He does not have Son and his spurs teammates to help him, nor his (superior in every way to Southgate) manager to guide his side. His record in the EPL means less than his current form for his nation. The other thing is that for my entire life, the English media ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS overhype England BEFORE a WC, so that it leads to irrational exuberance. Then, they have the easy story of "England disappoints" after the WC. England were lucky to have played the Euro final comfortably at home, or they would have been rightly curb-stomped. Do not buy their hype. England are not in the class of Brasil or France or Spain or Argentina in terms of on field talent. On the sideline, there is not an active British manager who is better than his peers, as witnessed by the proliferation of imported managers in their league. I'll agree with you that England are good, no doubt. But they are nowhere near being a favorite in this tournament.
The EPL is the best league in the world, so the fact that Harry Kane is the very good player in that league is pretty relevant to how good a player he is. And yes his coach is not good as Conte but international coaches are rarely as good as club managers. And he may not have Son, but he has Saka, Sterling, Foden, Grealish, Rashford, Bellingham, etc. What has Italy done to convince you they should have curb stomped England? They didn't even qualify for this World Cup. England has not had that sort of loss against anyone in either the 2018 World Cup, 2021 Euros or this tournament. It's a fallacy to say this England team is overrated based on what the English press has said about them at past tournaments. This isn't the same team that those teams were, the talent level is much higher, and they've backed it up in recent tournaments. Brazil and France I'll give you, but I'd take England's overall talent over both Argentina or Spain, especially their depth. Luis Enrique is probably the best overall manager in the tournament, but as far as international managers go Southgate is fairly solid.
So true. It is their m.o. for Wimbledon coverage as well. Poor Tim Henman played to his abilities and beyond, yet “disappointed” every year.
And now we have our first instance in this tournament of a top seed (Belgium) being knocked out in the group stages. (Obviously not counting Qatar, since Netherlands are the real top seed in that group.)
They went right into Wembly, and took the title from England. IOW, they went right into the stadium with perhaps the best home field advantage in all of soccer, and took the title. This means that if the final were in any other stadium on earth, England would have been curb-stomped, full stop.
Yes, his zero goals in the WC are just so awesome. He's tied me and you for goals in Qatar. IOW, he's overrated, as are England.
Home field advantage is not worth that many goals. And Wembley is not the stadium with the best home field advantage in soccer. And if England and Italy were to play tomorrow on a neutral field, no one would expect an Italy blowout. They played in Nations League, in Italy, in September and the score was 1-0.
He won the Golden boot last World Cup. And since then he's continued to score at a very high clip in the EPL. Since the last World Cup only 1 player in the EPL has scored more goals than Kane (Salah who has 92 to Kane's 87). That's in the best league in the world, at no point at which has been playing for the best team in the league. And that includes 2 seasons where Kane had some injury struggles. He is not at all overrated, though you seem to have quite the animus against him. No one writes off a player based on a 3 game sample size. Marcus Rashford has 3 goals so far in the World Cup. No one thinks he's better than Harry Kane.
Considering the historical performances of US teams that have made the WC since the Donvan era. 2002: quarters 2006: group stages 2010: R16-extra time 2014: R16-extra time Taking into account the talent levels of the current US team vs previous US teams, rather than vs transfermarkt or some other BS, R16 is the minimum acceptable with the group.
Indeed . I will say that we shouldn't be ho-hum about advancement, though. Do people see how all of these nations and players celebrate advancement??? Its a big deal even for the powers. I totally agree with you that round of 16 should be our expectation for this group. We ARE one of the top 16 teams in the FIFA rankings. On the other hand, HELL its an accomplishment worth celebrating. Which of the following four nations has advanced to the Round of 16 over the last four World Cups (2010 and forward) the most? Germany Belgium United States Italy The answer of course is the United States. Italy bombed out of 2010 and 2014, while didn't qualify in 2018 and 2022. Belgium is supposedly in a "golden generation." Well............??? Germany has now been disappointing in two straight group phases. They lost to South Korea and Mexico in 2018. Lost to Japan this time around. If we make a list of the nations that have advanced to the round of 16 in 3 of the last 4 World Cups, its presumably not a long list. The USMNT and Mexico from CONCACAF. Japan now has, but they've never been past the Round of 16. They're the Mexico of Asia.
I said this in another thread but I think it fits here. The expectation should absolutely be to get out of the group but we should not take that for granted.
With this group, I expected nothing more than good, solid effort and even that has been more of a hope than expectation. They have given that, to the best of their ability, but constrained by the insufficiency of pressured experience by the best players in the pool, i.e., going into the WC, IMHO, the best team possible has had nowhere near enough big game experience playing as a unit. Fortunately for the team, all the players that could realistically be available for the WC have been available. The opening 45 of the Wales and Iran games show how the team can play (as did the entirety of the defensive side of the England game). The last 30 min of the Wales and Iran games shows what happens when the sense of mission is lost under the pressure of the game. The stats show that the US actually began to play longer passes that were more difficult to complete and, therefore, more likely to turn the ball over in the second half of both the Wales and Iran games. Patience and solid, confident play was replaced by a cross-your-fingers with each action approach. This SHOULD disappear with maturity and more experience together. I hope we see a convincing second half offense against the Netherlands. If so, win or lose, I will be pleased.
Come on, this completely discounts the fact there is another team out there who is also trying to win the game. I have no idea why guys think we should just easily be able to dictate the play and tempo of the game. Why should we not have to respond to what the other team does? If the other team starts pushing more for a goal, why do you think we wouldn't have to defend more? Why would you think that with Iran absolutely needing a goal we would not have to defend more? I seriously want someone to explain that to me.
I never said they wouldn't have to defend more. If you didn't understand the intent of what I wrote, I'll be more explicit: the team lost its composure and played in a disorganized manner in the second half of both the Wales and Iran games. The data show that in the second half of each of those games, the US actually began to take more chances with its passing, the opposite of what should have been happening. Experience and confidence can eradicate loss of composure. Sure, a team of excellent players will usually defeat a modest team, but it does not have to be because the modest team loses its composure and becomes less organized. The other side of that statement is also true as a team of excellent players can lose to a technically inferior team those technically excellent guys lose their composure and do not play in an organized fashion.
A really nice tournament for a young USMNT. We're one of the top 16 nations based on results and talent. We're not one of the top 8. Sounds about right. But this cycle was infinitely better than the last one, so we're headed in the right direction.