2014 FIFA World Cup™ Round of 16: United States v. Belgium | Tues, Jul 1

There's no such thing as what ifs in football. The one who sxores, wins. Rather simple. This debate has no point.

 

Bottom line is.. if they didn't care and thought they would have easily won, they would have played their subs.. not the case, regardless of what you to believe and how you want to paint that picture. All starters were playing unlike the teams which won both of their first 2 games and had nothing to play for, so they rested their starters (not a lot of teams in this cup was able to do this and Germany was not one of them)

@Tukafo @RevsLiverpool

 

Well done to the USA team especially Tim Howard .... We just call him team USA over here ...... Tim Howard was team USA on the green grass that faithful day.

But at the end of the day, the better team won.

 

We need to improve our possession and holding skills. We gave up too much space, territory and possession. Johnson's injury was a big loss given how he links on the attack. Yedlin is a fabulous young player with tons of talent. He was a revelation yesterday. His ability to attack, and take on players was amazing. Yedlin also had some excellent crosses.

We lack consistency and quality in our ability to maintain possession limited our chances to attack Belgium. The Red Devils have lots of quality. They lack the ability to consistently put together precise shots on goal. De Bruyne was the most dangerous player for Belgium for the entire match. Hazard had a relatively quiet match.

Lukaku really impacted the opposite flank when he came in and his speed and skill, against a tired USA team made for many dangerous runs in the extra period.

We needed a healthy Jozy to be able to hold the ball in the transition from the middle to the attacking third. It would have helped our possession and out attack.

Beasley played a great World Cup. He was calm and composed. I have never seen him so mistake free in his career.

Wish Cherundolo was still playing to help Johnson and Yedlin in their development.

Well done USA. Looking forward to 2018. I know we will win.

 

Only way to achieve that is improving the players technique, which is the holy grail of football

 

It's coming. We are more comfortable maintaining possession in the back and transitioning to the middle third of the field. I see less loss of composure in tight spaces and when pressured. It use to be we only had a handful of players capable of doing that. Now I see less and less of those panicked long kicks from the back unless we are tanked.

 

but what if the ball were composed of a material that more closely approximated that marshmallow whip stuff but not so moooshy and the pitch weren't grass but some sort of synthetic fur and the players were equipped with hooks that were connected to a network of wires?

 

Then all kinds of weird things might happen. Perhaps even England might have a good team
On second thought....no...England having a good team is too unbelievable even then

 

I have the Turkey game. When we had our full side, everybody healthy, ready to go, and we played an open game against a team with plenty of attacking talent in the midfield, and at forward, they overwhelmed our defense much like Belgium did, for whatever reason, Belgium and Turkey struggled to finish against our elite goalie, and defense.

I have the first 25 minutes against Nigeria, when our players were trying to get comfortable in the new formation, and I have the Portugal game, where we played a more open game and pulled out a draw, really should have been a win, because Portugal lacked the finishing quality and talent of the Belgians, and Germany (in part because of injuries).

If you want to believe things would be fine, you can. My logic is most definitely not flawed. If you open the game, you leave little defensive cover for a defense that got shelled to the tune of 39 shots.

What happens when you do that? Well, you do generate more opportunities for yourself, which I'm sure is what you're getting at, but what you also do is improve the quality of chances your opponents have because they are no longer working at attacking a defense in depth.

Belgium would have had clearer, and cleaner chances if we'd played a more open game, maybe not as many, since we would have held the ball even more, but their chances almost certainly would have looked more analagous to the ones they got with Lukaku subbing on, than to the ones they struggled to finish in the first 90.

You can disagree with that, but you'd be disagreeing with what I believe is basic soccer. Push out of your own half and attack aggressively and you leave yourself open to counterattacks. Now if you have a great #10, and a great, well organized veterant defense, and are wonderfully skilled with the ball at your feet, it won't matter that much, a la Spain 2007-2012, but if you lack that #10, if you lack that outstanding skill on the ball and veteran defense in the back, then you are going to open up massive gaping holes on your defensive end, and when you offer that on a silver platter to a team with Eden Hazard, Lukaku, Origi, De Bruyne, Mirallas, Fellalani (spelling?), etc, you're going to get your arse kicked.

When we have a #10, like Landon could be and Reyna could be in their primes, again, than I'll be all for taking risks like that, when we have a turnover machine who should be a b2b midfielder, but is being forced to play the #10 role, you simply can't afford to pretend you're France with Zidane or Platini, or the Dutch with Cruyff, or Argentina with Maradonna, or Italy with Pirlo, you're a hard working side committed to the game plan, like South Korea in 2002. Hopefully in 2018 we'll have Zelalem w/the US, or Flores having blossomed into a true #10 so Bradley can play his true role, but right now, we don't have a #10, Mix is nice, but not quite at the level we need for a group of death, or a top 8 caliber side like Belgium.

 

but what if there were no plastic tigers and silly putty had more nutritional value than tofu and all irons magically adjusted to the kind of fabric so you would never melt some garment you didn't realize was part nylon (for some stupid reason on the label that you should have read but didn't).

 

what year is this, again???

 

geez. i've been looking all over holy you know what for that game and you have it.

espèce de vache!

 

Fantastic game from Belgium. I'll have some chocolate waffles in honor.

The Belgian defense is just killer. It's the strength of the team. It's so good that they can have some of their players have off games and the defense keeps them in the game long enough for that one moment to come through.

I could see this team beating Argentina.

The question is just whether or not the whole team will click. If the whole team clicks, you'll see these guys in the final.

 

Aren't you Ecuadorean?

The marshmallow whip ball would definitely play to England's strengths, so they may just be favorites.

 

Nope.

I am an American citizen by choice.

 

Then why would you join a website/forum where that is precisely what we indulge in, with virtually every single post?

And btw, that's total b.s. as well. There are "what if's" in everything, and it has always been so.

 

I hope Gedion decides to play for the U.S. I've heard that he is in the process of getting citizenship that will allow him to keep his German passport and EU credentials. Playing for Germany would be great but he has a chance to be a real legend if he can help our team into a semi or a final. There is some really good talent coming up and I'm excited about the possibilities for a number of young U.S. players.

 

Thanks man !!! Team Argentina is not a threat but it's Messi we fear the most !
If he has a superday like we had in 86 in the semi's vs Argentina with Maradonna then we have litlle chance thow.
But if our guys can keep him on a leash we stand a chance !

Holland ... wel we played them a few times and since 1998 we never lost a game against the dutch.... we won like 4 times i think and the rest were draws also 4 times i believe !
But it are always exciting games , like with the USA 2-4 and now the 2-1 on the WC !
against Holland we also won 4-2 and once i believe in 2000 we had a 5-5

BUT !!! Holland did not play well on this world cup , but they do keep winning 1-5 vs Spain , 2-0 vs Chili ... Spain was my favourite to win the WC and Chili was my outsider to play the final so that's that !
I believe in Holland it's the same as with Argentina , take Robben out and they are harmless.
They depend on 1 player .
Belgium doesn't our top-player was invisible the whole tournament (Hazard) , but you can leave out Lukaku we have Origi ... take out Kompany we have Vermaelen , Lombaerts ... take out Witsel We have Defour ... and so on ...

Buttomline ... we have to play as we played against USA , with balls.
But i repeat USA is a great team to play against , you guys play to win ... not like most teams defence defence defence .... and hope it will end 0-0 !

I really believe USA will do great things in the future (in soccer) !

 

especially the Under-17 they beat Brasil 4-1 you guys defeated England 5-1
Pierre Da Silva , John Nelson , Haji Wright , Joe Gallardo , Elijah Rice , Christian Pulisic , ..............
You'll get there , have patience my american friends. Soccer in USA is a relativaly young mariage.
Once you master it ... USA will kick some butt !

Until then maybe support Belgium a litlle bit. We need all the support we can get against Argentina or should i say Messi.

If you want to support Belgium we have a BELGIUMIZER ....


GO TO http://www.belgiumizeme.be/

 

I am rooting for Belgium now that the US is out. You and/or the Oranje. Can't get behind any of the past winners or any SA team. Just too much time on the ground complaining about tic tak fouls. Worse than the Italians sometimes.
Got to hand it to Belgium... they did none of that.
As far as Argentina... they rely on 3 guys in the attack. Messi/Aguero/Higuain. But the defense is where they lack. Not bad defense, just not able to pull off an amazing defensive effort. You have a chace if you guys can stay on he attack.
And Netherlands is a bit tricky-ier than you think. Yes Robben is the creative force but you cannot deny what Robin Van Persie can do or for that fact Schnieder. They are missing DeJong which helps out big time but they are not horrible on defense either.
But lets get past the South Americans first.

 

Are you referring to the next to last friendly against Turkey in Harrison?

 

That's the one. I think we used a diamond 4 man midfield in that game. Can't remember for certain. Outshot 23-8, and outchanced 8-4, and it was real ugly, particularly early on.

 

I got Belgiumized. Guido Claes has a strange ring to it though. I will be pulling for Belgium against Argentina but I must warn you to ignore the media about Messi being Argentina. Argentina is a very good team but it shouldn't be a surprise that the best player on the planet always seems to produce something special at this WC. Just because he has been consistently doing it this time doesn't mean that there isn't a great team behind him.

 

i always wondered about Enzo Scifo being Belgian.

 

They should have let the wee little devil suit up. It could have been 5 WC for him! and blushes for Italy.