A lot of truth here. The Balogun red card saga was a huge distraction. it’s hard to say, exactly, how much this impacted our performance against Belgium. Certainly, it was the worst in recent memory. And, the stakes were the absolute highest. Has there been any mention of Pochettino trying to downplay/diffuse this scenario. did, he realize the impact that it might have on the team and its performance? England coach, Tuchel, organized a team meeting to clear the air and discuss team issues, following the Norway victory. Poch pontificated to the press. Anyway, we’ll never have a chance to play that match again. it might be a while before we have that opportunity on our home soil. Poch was brought in to win this match. and, in some ways, it was the most disturbing loss in United States history. I think it’s time to clean the house and start over.
Bahahaha, Hold my beer! “Lads, we got our son, Balo, back. The stars have aligned and all’s right with the world. After me storming out of the press conference, the media is not going to be a concern about this game. We can do exactly what we’ve been doing and not worry about Belgium. Their team is getting older. Christian and Sergio, will step up if necessary. There’s going to be a lot of room for them to maneuver and Belgium might not be motivated. It’s bound to be disheartening, to them, that Flo has been recovered. I can outcoach Rudi, any old day. We have met our expectations for the Big Soccer fan base. My contract is safely going to be extended. I’m looking forward to watching my homeland, Argentina, make its way to the final and hoist the World Cup for the second cycle in a row. What could possibly go wrong? “
I don't know. I'm watching an MLS guy single handedly win the world cup so... (insert cute face emoji or adorable meme)
I think the team just sort of shrank and rather than fight it Tuchel decided to reinforce it with 10 minutes to go. In the process they forgot who was supposed to mark Messi.
30 million people watched the US games and what, a handful of nuts dump on MLS? The vast majority of US fans don't give a crap about, know about, or care to know about these controversies. How many posters here shit on the MLS, maybe 10. It's a tiny, tiny fraction of the fan base.
Typically when you lose a game a large part of it is because you could have played better. And typically when a team scores a goal it's because the defending team made a mistake. There have been 294 goals scored so far so there have also been 294 defensive mistakes made. Or defense didn't just make mistakes. 45 other teams defenses made lots of mistakes too. Not sure why so many US fans seem to think it's an "outrage" that we shit the bed against Belgium. Teams shit the bed in sports... all.... the .... time. France could have played way better against Spain. England could have played way better against Argentina in the last 20 minutes last night. 48 teams entered this tournament and only 2 are left. How many of those 46 fan groups are happy with how their team went out? Maybe 4. The entitlement of some US fans is deranged. We are going to be let down by the national team ALL THE TIME. That is sports. Get used to it. If 40 out of 48 fan bases are outraged than that is the norm, not the exception.
Absolutely--this was a huge (and obvious) coaching error by Tuchel. I called it out to my dad when I realized they were really, actually going to try to bunker and defend their way out to a 1-0 win (sometime around the 60th-65th minute I'd guess). Told him England were going to lose. Then they did. I was completely unsurprised when Argentina scored (and then I said, "Alright, and shortly they'll score the winner). In hind sight, as soon as I realized that Tuchel had instructed England to play like that, I should have placed a bet on Argentina to win. Might've made some pretty good money on that one.
With Tuchel out................the string continues of no foreign coach ever winning the World Cup. Is that just a coincidence that will end the second a foreign coach inevitably does? Maybe. I don't know, but it's a fact. We went just as far at the World Cup with Bradley & Berhalter as we did with Klinsmann and Pochettino. To some degree, the players are the players. The talent level is the talent level. Belgium is better than us. Our all-time record against Belgium? 7 straight losses, including multiple recent World Cups (2014 and 2026). We're working to close that gap, but the gap is real. Before the Bosnia win (and they're ranked 61st in the World), here was our record over the last 5 years against European teams. Turkey 3 USMNT 2 Germany 2 USMNT 1 Portugal 2 USMNT 0 Belgium 5 USMNT 2 Switzerland 4 USMNT 0 Turkey 2 USMNT 1 Slovania 1 USMNT 0 Germany 3 USMNT 1 Serbia 2 USMNT 1 Netherands 3 USMNT 1 England 0 USMNT 0 Wales 1 USMNT 1 Switzerland 2 USMNT 1 ................................that's, let's see, 0 wins 2 draws 11 losses. USMNT versus Argentina? We've played 5 times since 2000. 0 wins. USMNT versus Brazil? We've played 12 times since 2000. 0 wins. USMNT versus Colombia? We've played 11 times since 2000. 1 win. The gap to the top nations is real. You can believe it doesn't exist, but then I don't know what you've been watching. We're working and working and working to close that gap. But the talent gap is real. You want to do the same analysis with European nations? USMNT versus England? We've played 5 times since 2000. 0 wins. Yes, we can point to games at which we've beaten big teams. Those are the outliers. The only time we've ever beaten Spain was that game at the 2009 Confederations Cup. Yes, we beat Portugal at WC02. We've played them three times since and haven't won. The list goes on. We've played the Netherlands 6 times. Won once (the friendly under Klinsmann). Yes, I wish the gap wasn't real. I wish I could tell you that with a different coach we'd beat France. It would be nice. WE'VE NEVER BEATEN FRANCE. They won't play us, but it's true nonetheless. Heck, we've played Switzerland 11 times and only beaten them once. Maybe we should worry about not getting blown off the field 4-0 by Switzerland before worrying about France anyway.
Hard to develop that insane drive to win when you can’t even get your best team together for the regional tournament.
Same vibe watching with my son. They can't bunker for the rest of the game against the all time best player at unlocking defenses. When they brought on Burn I told him it's was the wrong weapon to stop crosses, they weren't going to be hitting route 1 long balls for a jump ball, they'd be hitting crosses to moving runners and lo and behold....in the land of the 6'7" absolute unit of a CB, the 6'8" cross is king.... Surely our best athletes would have been able to deal with that though....
Tuchel didn't tell the players to bunker. They froze. It's wasn't until he brought Dan Burn on that he changed the tactics. In the meantime they'd had 12% possession since scoring.
Only 8 teams have won the World Cup and once you drop Uruguay and England only 6 have won it in the last 60 years. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with whether you have a foreign or native coach but whether you are France, Spain, Argentina, Germany, or Brazil. If you're not in that group, no matter who your coach is, you're not winning.
Right. The countries with the top players often have a very good coaching pool to choose from and rarely go outside it.
And now Brazil haven't won in 24 years.And Im told will only win again if they repent and accept the Magisterium.
Soccer is becoming more competitive around the world at the low and mid ranges. But the elite are getting even more concentrated in Western Europe. Argentina is an anomaly because they have 39 year old Messi. They are so incredibly dependent on 1 aged super star where Spain, England, France, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands are not. I include Portugal because many, including me, thought they would have played better with Ronaldo on the bench.
Brazil would beg to differ. So would England who's only top English club coach is Eddie Howe. Maybe 30 years ago having a foreign coach (who doesn't understand your system, or whatever) would be a hinderance but look at how many foreign coaches are coaching clubs in England, Germany, Spain, France, etc. now.
My point is that there's nothing specially wrong with a foreign coach. It's just that the best teams usually have a domestic coach pool of quality, and you are likely to select from that. In the history of the World Cup, how many teams have really had a foreign coach and been a contender. This is a very new trend with Tuchel and Ancelotti.
I might be biased but I also think there are some soccer cultures that focus more on coaching than others. The Dutch, Germans, and Italians all seem to produce more top-level coaches than other countries per capita.
France ever since they won its first WC have developed talent at an insane rate that they weren't doing before. Spain too but not at the rate of France. Winning the World Cup isn't easy. It's why only a select few have done it.
No, your post is full of jumbled half- thoughts, which might explain why you write as you do. It is hard to read. Chat GPT could be your best friend. LOL There was a stark contrast between the way they played against Belgium and how they played in the group matches. It had more to do with a lack of confidence than technical skill and tastical awareness. However, even in the group stage, you can see tactical and technical limitations. Compared to other teams in the Rd 32/16, the US was relatively consistent. They are clearly behind most of the team in QF, both in technical skills and tactical awareness. I think people's expectations are higher than they are. People are judging where we should be rather than where we actually are. The fact of the matter is that there is little difference between 2022 and 2026 in terms of technical skill. Tactically, in the past, US players took few risks when taking half-chances; in 2026, they took more risks, taking those half-chances and converting those chances. So from a tactical awareness perspective, there was some limited improvement. There is no difference between "defense" and "offense." In all phases of the game (defending or attacking), you need cohesion and tactical awareness, whether defending or attacking. I wouldn't call it a "talent" so much as knowledge and chemistry, which is why choosing the "right" XI is vitally important. Anyway, I am not making the argument that the coach did a good job. Clearly, the US national team was not mentally prepared for the Belgium game as they should have been. I am not "buying" your argument to go look back at games a month or two months ago. I see a clear difference in mental preparedness (of several games) within weeks of the Belgium match.