That may be the way most fans see things but if we draw New Zealand tomorrow then I expect we would be the favorites.
Even New Zealand? Come On the US reputation has improved so much and we've tied or beat alot of good teams in the World Cup, I may agree with you that obviously the US aren't up there with top 10 teams but they are in fierce competition with alot of teams for the next 5 spots.
Are Uruguay and Tunisia in the situation that FIFA likes to avoid, where if they tie, they will both advance? Watch, 10 seconds after I post this, somebody will score.
Tunisia needs to defend. A tie guarantees a spot. A one goal loss virtually guarantees a spot. A two goal loss would put them at the edge. They will grab a goal if they get a chance but mostly they want to prevent them. Uruguay is absolutely thrilled by this and will not go to great efforts to get multiple goals.
Not so sure. I recall when World Cup Champion Italy was eliminated by New Zealand in 2010 and Simon Elliott who had just been released by the San Jose Earthquakes was Man Of The Match. I don't trust anyone in today’s game.
Well, awaiting the lst match and Franceanages to dig a deeper hole by collecting a red card in th 13’ minute And Honduras manages to score shortly after. France would need to score 4 now. Honduras advances with this result of it holds.
Uruguay. For me the #2 or #3 team in the tournament. Or, Gambia/South Korea if they upset them, and honestly, if they play Gambia like they played Tunisia today, they'd lose. I'm not sure about South Korea, they've been pretty helter skelter through 2 matches, 1 great performance, 1 ---- one.
Yep, France with the most shocking performance vs technical talent in their age 20 cohort pretty much ever if this holds. Truly horrific. Nice to know you can't take an U20 C team to the WC and expect to dominate if your France.
Looks like they got off 35 shots and had 65% possession against Tunisia. I wasn’t able to watch, were they actually poor today?
You're answering a different question with an extreme example rare to happen. I was referring to someone's post regarding us having such a poor standing worldwide we would be considered an underdog no matter who we played. This isn't 1999 anymore.
We should be favored to beat New Zealand but then it will likely be Uruguay and Brazil before likely Argentina in the finals. Pretty difficult road.
Looking at it, we basically get all the advantages against Uruguay. We play NZ two days before Uruguay plays, which means we'll be plus 2 days of rest on them (we'd get 5 days, they get 3). They also have a much harder game (and therefore probably more physical). Could be good.
I’m just happy we finally have a KO opponent we can afford to look past - as long as we avoid even the slightest hint of overconfidence.
France almost pulled it off, they had like 10 clear cut chances in the last 15 minutes. The ball just refused to go in lmao
I don’t know. I’ve been commuting to Latin America and also to Europe for the last twenty years and still have a house there. Although it’s been changing , things have improved and aren’t as bad as they used to be, both the USMNT and the American player are still regarded on a much lower level than their counterparts across the rest of the world. I don’t think this way but this is perception from many pundits in different nations and it’s ignorant and sad. Just this morning I was talking with some of my friends and relatives in England and all they talk about is the lack of quality in the American player and the level of the league bla bla bla. Again, I don’t think this way but this is the majority of the world does. Having said this though, as an American, I do hope the USA goes far in the tournament and it would be great if they could win it all.
I am not who you have quoted, but I did watch the game. I thought Uruguay looked really good. Their shots on goal were low, not because of poor shots, but because Tunisia was just throwing bodies in front of everything. It looked a bit like the US-Spain game in the 2009 Confed Cup, only Tunisia never even threatened on a counter. On a different day it could have easily been 4-0.
I sort of think it like our 2021 Olympic qualifying team. We took a C team, probably should have qualified anyways, but crashed out and didn’t qualify. It was disappointing but also didn’t mean much because it was so far from our best team available. I imagine it’s a one time deal in terms of the releases being this bad for France given the calendar issues this year.
From the average person in Europe and Latin America, late 20‘s and older this is still pretty much the regular thought process. We have had a couple of outlier players who were OK but that‘s about it. I mean, is that wrong? It really isn‘t. We have had a few highs, outperformed in the WC for what we are, but really don‘t produce quality on any regular basis. Seriously, is that wrong from their point of view? Then a few come here and read about our top ten world talent during qualies, the ludicrous ranting and raving, chuckle and move on. Are they really wrong? From an outside perspective? We are IMO finally becoming a true footballing nation. Our youth teams play like they never have, the IQ of the average player has gone through the roof, we have competent coaches, technically we are so much better, and now we have an infrastructure to boot. Our image will start to change over this next decade, but it will be slow and gradual. The older guard won‘t change their minds and they have little reason to. In 20 years it will be a completely different world but there is, and never has been a magic button. I‘m just happy to actually see it happening.
The only clear favorites in the knockouts are US vs NZ, Brazil vs Tunisia and Colombia vs Slovakia. In my eyes, Argentina is somewhat favored over Nigeria and England over Italy. The rest, to me, is pretty even.
One of the most interesting things about this tournament is seeing a tiny country like Gambia finish first in its group while the much larger neighbor that semi-surrounds it finished last in its group.