Going easy makes sense in a blowout. Going easy with 1-0 lead doesn't make sense given the possibility of a fluke goal. They scored in the 55th minute but, ok, great.
Ireland rather embarrassingly offered nothing going forward against France but they were well organized and thorough in their defensive spacing. Will be interesting to see them against the US.
I suspect Delgado would be here if he hadn't picked up a minor injury that kept him out of Toronto's game against Dallas recently.
Even with a fluke goal, Germany would have finished #1 in the Group with 5 pts (same as US) but with a much better goal diff than the US.
Scoreline does not tell the whole story. You can win 1-0, or even tie 0-0 and still dominate. Did you think that we were on even level with Belgium after 90 min? We should have lost that game by 3 or 4 goals in regulation.
Starting Lineup: Hamid; Yedlin, CCV, Miazga, Villafana; Trapp; Weah, Adams, McKennie, Rubin; Wood Bench: Steffen, Parker, Robinson, Moore, Lichaj, de la Torre, Corona, Sargent, Novakovich https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2018/06/02/17/16/20180602-news-mnt-vs-ireland-lineup-notes
Midfielders Julian Green (right foot injury) and Kenny Saief (right knee injury) were held out of tonight’s squad due to injury. Midfielder Keaton Parks, defender Erik Palmer-Brown and goalkeeper William Yarbrough also will not dress for the match.
No Parks? Why the hell not??? I don't really get this lineup. Rubin was active but profligate vs Bolivia, would've rather seen anyone else out wide. Robinson earned another start - let Jorge deal with France and see how he looks against non-Concacaf competition. More worrying is that Sarachan is putting out what is probably our most experienced group (minus Corona) against Ireland... are we really going to start the kids vs France? I thought this game would be a better opportunity to see whether the promise shown vs Bolivia by the young guys would translate against real opposition. Now I'm a bit concerned that we're just going to see the exact same group vs France, meaning we don't get to learn as much as we could've from these two games that are otherwise meaningless.
If we're going to start Trapp, which we are, putting McKennie and Adams in front of him makes a lot of sense to help protect his softness. The biggest question for me is Weah at RW. I can see him at striker, SS or LW cutting inside onto his stronger foot. Putting him at RW seems to neuter all his strengths but I guess we'll see how it goes. Strong CB pairing. Frankly given what these games mean and the intent of them I'd prefer having Mueller starting at RW. He's the top young American RWer in MLS and he actually plays a style and has the skillset which projects to higher levels. I'd sub on Sargent at the half for Wood. I'm not convinced Sarachan't knows how to handle a talent like Keaton. Doubt he understands what that kid would bring to the game if put in the right position. Villafana over Robinson makes my head hurt.
Yeah, it pains me to say cuz i really like him as a player, but I don’t know what Wood has to do to get dropped from this team. He’s been absolutely horrible for club and country for a while now. And it’s early, but Rubin is starting to look like Sarachan’s Zardes.
I'd imagine Robinson will get the start vs France. Players need rest, and there's no need to run a guy ragged for these friendlies.
Hamid, Trapp, Villafana, Rubin? Parks and EPB nor dressing? Does he think he is limited to 20 players?
Rubin has limitations, but he's going to get chances as long as our pool of guys who can play in wide attacking positions remains so thin. Pulisic was given a needed rest, Saief and Green are hurt, so who else do you even slide in there?
Not excited about this lineup, but let's go. Anyone see an update for TV for this. ESPN2 has NCAA baseball that's in a rain delay, so that game is going to go way into ours.
Terrible, terrible lineup. I’d be hard pressed to have picked a worse starting 11 and won’t be shocked in the slightest when this group gets rocked.