Elo rankings: 14. Turkey 22. Paraguay 26. Australia 41. USA As for our pool we have played the 19th most top 5 league minutes.
@gogorath “Second goal is on ... someone. I don't know who was supposed to mark Felix, but that's a big mental error. So a TBD there. I don't think Morris shaded correctly on the close out, but he wasn't lollygagging.” Coaches tell players how to defend set pieces as a team. They are hybrid (like most modern teams) they have some zone marking inside six yard box and the rest man mark). She Portugal sent one short, two followed for a 2v2 at the flag. No one marks the wide open player on the 18. That’s a massive team mistake. If anything, one of the 2 at the corner should have marked Felix on the 18. Who cares if they go short? First defender delays, etc. but you can’t allow an unmarked threat on 18. That’s prime goal scoring space! Decision making by players on who to leave open was bad.
Johnny was in good position the entire time. It's not often that you see professional/international players sprinting around on defense. There is a lot that they need to process at every second of the game, so it's not generally smart to run around like a mad man. The shot was from 30 yards away. Most players attempting to block a shot from that distance will anticipate a shot in the air. That is what Johnny did and why he jumped. The shot went under him and past three other players before beating Turner. Johnny had been defending exactly where he was supposed to -- between the 6 and pk spot, and then he jogged out when the ball was cleared. It's not smart for him to run full speed out of that position. That is not going to keep the team connected, and there were others who would have had that responsibility first (the entire team was behind the ball). What if the Belgium player plays the ball out wide as Johnny is charging him? Now, he's out of position for the next service that could come into the box. The thing that you can ding him for is jumping, but that is extremely harsh on a shot from 30 yards. I would start Cardoso next to Adams. Who would you play?
I've been thinking about two things while catching up on this thread today: 1) Lots of great comments (respectful??? On BS???? WTF?!?!?!?!) and, 2) I was really happy with Trusty's play throughout the game. Nothing really specific about it, but he put in very strong effort, seemed to communicate well and put out some fires. He seemed very focused throughout. His play definitely made me think he's going to be on the final roster, and I feel good about that.
Portugal 1-0 Once Fernandes gets put through, an emerging 3v2 develops. Richards could've been amazing by recognizing and defusing the backheel. Freese could've been better than the mid keeper he is by recognizing and getting to that shot on goal. Or one of Morris and Berhalter could've simply hustled back to even up the numbers. Guys are not going to be better than what they are. But keeping team shape and showing some urgency is certainly possible. Except for Gio. He ain't never hustlin.
I thought Trusty looked the part also. Hopefully he earns some trust and shows us more this summer. I don’t want to pile on Ream, but the gig is up. He is such a liability in space.
No, he's not. Again, he's not. The ball has quickly shifted position and the there's huge gaps in our coverage. From the ball's perspective, there's really only Ream between them and goal. A good defense here would have multiple lines in the way of any shot. And he's nowhere near where he's supposed to be. To be clear, Johnny is not the only one. But the ball goes right through where he should be. What are you talking about? Who is supposed to get to his spot in the set up? Why do you continue to act as if I've said he should have pressured the ball? He's supposed to be in the second line of three, in the inside on the same side of the ball. Like any low block, it's about covering passing and shooting lanes. He's not there so he allowed a clear shooting lane. If the ball had been played wide, that would have been GREAT. The player then would have had Jedi rotating to them, and an in position Johnny could have rotated over. Forcing the ball wide is almost always a better defensive option because the shooting angles make it much easier for the defense and the keeper to stop the shot. There's some much less angles of attack. I'd probably put McKennie, Tillman or Tessman. I don't know why I'd need Cardoso with Adams out there to begin with. I'd likely have Roldan backing up Adams at this point but I'm not entirely sold.
That was not my quote. It was from a post by someone else that I quoted and then stated my response to. And I mistakenly removed the original poster's name from my post, because I 'klutzed' the copy/paste. You can disagree with MY opinions - I"m used to it and don't profess to be any kind of expert. That's part of the fun of posting. to learn. But what you quoted is not mine.
Show me where he's out of position at any moment in that play. And, how did he allow a shooting lane? He jumps, and the ball goes under him. By laws of physics and logic, he is in line to block the shot. He jumped because he anticipated a shot in the air, which is completely logical. The entire team is behind the ball, so Balogun or Pulisic would theoretically be the players responsible for pressuring a shot from 30 yards. A shot from 30 yards on the ground shouldn't beat the keeper. It was a combination of a great shot, unlucky for one of our players not to block it, and more Turner could have done to react earlier and make the save. Johnny jumped, but that is not a crazy decision given where the shot came from. It's crazy to single him out like you've done placing most of the blame for that goal on him, and it's borderline comedy to say that he was "lollygagging" on the play.
Talent pool and history: US in World Cups This Century: 2002: Quarters 2006: Grouped 2010: Rnd16 overtime 2014: Rnd16 overtime 2022: Rnd 16
We JUST beat Paraguay and Australia. And people are crying because we can't beat Belgium and Portugal. When we beat a good team like Uruguay or Japan, everyone is quick to tamp down the excitement. It's just a Friendly, the teams are not full strength. The teams aren't taking things seriously. There is experimentation. We lose, and everyone who played is garbage, first and second XI. It's not disjointed because we subbed out our entire team piecemeal, it's disjointed because Poch and the players have no idea how to play soccer. I don't put much stock in ELO. Counting every match in existence makes no sense to me. I'm not pleased at the lack of competitive opportunities we've had by missing WCQ, but again, we just beat Australia and Paraguay prior to our most recent struggles, and ELO would've told you those were better teams.
Don't disagree with anything here. More just a comment that with our group being fairly even across the board, the chances of making it out are nowhere near 100%. I'm not overly upset about these last games, but I also think that once the group comes, it's going to be a bit of a battle.
I agree. We don't have a 100 percent chance to make it through, and this isn't even a Group of Death. I have just been responding to people who, instead of saying "There's a slim chance we get grouped" which has always been true of the USMNT, will say "I think we can all see the writing on the wall. We have little to be optimistic about and it now seems possible that we get grouped.", which to me seems like they think that the needle has moved significantly from these Friendly games, when I'm absolutely certain that it would not have moved in the positive direction had we gotten better results or closer games. I get it, it's natural to be pessimistic after losses and optimistic after wins. But the US has a significantly greater chance of getting out of the group, rather than getting grouped, and at the moment, that's the best possible outcome for the USMNT in a World Cup scenario. I'm a fan, I pay attention. I'm not going to stop paying attention. But short of major injuries to key players, or a manager change, I'm not moving the needle in either direction leading up to the World Cup this year. If we'd beaten Portugal and Belgium, or tied them both, the chance of the US advancing would not have been 100 percent. And the chances of the US getting grouped are low enough, irrespective of those results, that it makes little sense to spend time/energy complaining about it.
No one has 100% chance of making it though group stages. But the tournament is at home. 8 out of the 12 3rd placed teams in the group stages advance. The US advancing is certainly highly anticipated.
It's gonna be interesting to see these home crowds... with prices like these, surely it's overwhelmingly going to be pro-USA crowds. Perhaps I'm underestimating the pull for these opponents, especially in LA?
Mario listed five areas of concern, any one of which would be a major impediment to success. Injuries Poor form Lack of discipline Lack of cohesion Sketchy goalkeeping Sounds about right.
Yep. And we are tinkering. This window was about narrowing down the player pool to set him up to pick the roster. He thinks he has plenty of time in camp to fine tune styles of play and have us ready to go for the WC. As an X coach friendlies are invaluable to get a chance to tinker and find new wrinkles or rule things out. CP up top could have worked out. He’s been a liability on defense for us as a LM, where up top he wouldn’t be. Had he gotten behind and scored some goals, that would have been some nice info to have going into a WC. Coaches at this level have to talk to the press like they took it seriously, but these are learning exercises through experimentation; that’s it.
Three thoughts: #1 it definitley felt from reading reports Poch used the first halves until subs in the second to play his core’s and the…. #2 second half subs to give guys their last looks on the edge of the roster. Not great or pretty but less awful if you look at it that way. #3 in terms of our relative group toughness, what made it unusual is our draw from each pot was in an opposite zone from the next. Pot 2: Australia was generally ranked dead last in quality from Pot 2. Pot 3: Paraguay was ranked dead center in pot 3 and bit better by elo. Pot 4: Turkey was the absolute worst draw possible in Pot 4, essentially a Borderline Pot 2 side making up for the absurdity of Australia being in Pot 2. That’s why our group is so even, the teams are all typically 18th-40th in the world caliber from mid Pot 2 to mid pot 3 based upon the past 25 years or so and presently.
When it comes to friendlies, imo, the first halves are by far the most important. In that sense we didn't perform badly against Portugal and Belgium. I agree that we have a fairly even group of mid teams. Again, playing at home, we should top this group. The toughest WC group the US competed in this century was 2014's Group G, which featured Germany, Portugal, and Ghana. Needless to say, Australia, Turkey, and Paraguay ain't it. Nothing is guaranteed, of course.
We could play those two friendlies again, exactly the same was as last week and have different outcomes. 1. US actually makes a shot or two count. 2. Not likely that both Belgium and Portugal have the finishing that they both did last week. Thats not to say we didn't get out played a bit, especially in the second halves or that we didn't have issues. But we DID outshoot Portugal 8-3 in the first half. Goodness it wasn't all bad.
The biggest disparity is how clinical they were in the final third vs how hapless we were. As another poster up thread mentioned, had we given them the opportunities they gave us in the first half, it would have been 2/3-0, but we couldn't take advantage of our opportunities. Meanwhile while we gave them fewer opportunities, they made the most of them. The second goal in particular sits with me. Was the marking poor? Of course. But if they left one of our attackers unmarked in the same manner, would we have been able to deliver the ball in and have that attacker control it and finish with such precision? No chance.