tuned in 10 minutes late to the last friendly before the World Cup and of course they're done already and a set piece defense that would make Vanney proud
they seemed to have settled down after the goal, still good to have a preview of what to expect for when the games really matter
So if you turn it off and I turn it on at same time we get a goal within one minute? Let’s save it to use as a surprise tactic during the WC.
all I got from this game is USMNT is far from being ready for prime time and all the glazing by announcers for this team showing a pulse is not going to make this team any better Germany is not winning crap
How are things going Dawdler? Someone pee in your cereal? You grouchy today, lol! Debbie Downer here has a more positive take. Germany is ranked #10 in the world in both ELO and FIFA rankings. Those rankings use very different criteria and algorithms and the fact they agree means Germany is probably, in fact, the #10 +/-3 team in the world. US meanwhile is #38 on ELO and #17 on FIFA rankings. Yet our starters played pretty even with them for the 60 minutes they were on. Germany dominated the start of the 2nd half but the last 20 minutes of the first half was all USA, when we had them pinned back and created several decent chances. And over the entire game we outshot them 14-10, shots on goal were equal at 4, we out-possessed them 53%-47% and we had 10 corner kicks to their 2. They slightly edged us on xG 1.39 to 0.98. Pretty even game. Do I think Germany will win WC? Unlikely, they are in the 2nd tier of good teams. But they are a good team. And the US starting 11 played toe-to-toe with them so give them credit. Of course the US playing on home soil helped, but we will have that asset in the WC as well. US could have been blown out 3-0. That didn’t happen and, personally, I find that encouraging. If things go well I think it is realistic to believe we could be in the final 16. If things go badly, we’ll I don’t want to think about that. Go USA!
I thought it was a decent performance. They looked dangerous on the counter and even had Germany on their heels in some moments, but also allowed way too much space at times and were too lax defensively. They seemed to settle down later in the match and managed well after the shock start. No real surprises; this team can be really dangerous in attack but is a little soft defensively. I think it needs to figure something out in midfield, there are a lot of strong players there but as a unit they're anonymous.
for a minute there I thought I was in a Galaxy thread and not a USMNT thread, and for all the reasons above, is why I think this USMNT can either go undefeated or winless in group play, my prediction is they go 1-1-1 to mirror our beloved Galaxy in being mid.
They will also need a goal differential of 0 if they really want to keep up with our level of mediocrity.
I think they'll qualify from the group comfortably. They're more talented than the other teams and playing at home. This is the WC, not qualifying or Nations League -- you won't see US fans outnumbered in these matches. Not winning the group should be seen as a bit of underperformance. Not qualifying at all would be a shocking disaster. Not that we haven't seen this team underperform, of course.
You’re underrating the Turkish team who will give them a run for the money. Agree that the US goal should be to win the group. But I don’t think it’ll be a cakewalk. That said, I was pleasantly surprised today. Adams looks healthy. Mckennie is playing well. Old man Ream doing ok. Tillman a pleasant surprise. Robinson was great and Dest has all made some good runs. Pepi has been fabulous at distribution and should be a great sub. Pulisic did great against Senegal and then reverted to his dribbling self today. It will kill this team if he doesn’t pass. PASS THE DAMN BALL. I’m finally excited. It’s taken me a long time to get back into this team. I finally have some favorites and I hope we do great. It really will continue to help the sport. Goal should be final 16.
Good point, I expect Turkiye to be the toughest opponent in the group, against whom we'll likely draw. I don't take for granted that we're hands-down better than Turkiye on a given day, but the boost at home should get us a result. But I have us beating AUS and PAR for 7 points in the group. But even 6 should see us through.
I decided my 16 year old son’s grades didn’t bode too well for college, so I raided his college fund and am attending the USA 2nd and 3rd group stage matches. I am excited. (kidding/not kidding on the college fund thing )
Don’t worry - he don’t need no stinking college. He just needs a laptop and Chat-GPT! Learning and thinking is for wussies.