Richards instead of Zimmerman against Canada?!?! This is the game for strength to win 50-50's and aerial ability. That's a pretty suspect choice. If Dest performs well this game, it'll be the first time in a US shirt where we probably hasn't bossed the game. So I hope we somehow still manage to do that or he proves me wrong that he can defend, win 50-50's, and make smart decisions from deep. I understand Zardes on this type of field, in these dimensions, and vs. the particular opponent. I vastly preferred Dike. But he got injured after rosters were announced anyway. May have still opted for Pepi. This is a fall from grace. Don't think Pulisic should have gotten the nod given he'll probably play 3 straight, his recent starting performances were poor, he doesn't complement Aaronson (this is the same duo that played last time v. Canada), and may or may not be a worse fit w/ how deep we could be starting (dribbling into TO's, he needs to stay high up). It's put up or shut up time for this guy. Some had a phobia to Morris and overreaction to limited time off the bench in front of a guy he never played with that had them out of sync. But he was our best player the last two times he played Canada competitively.
youre correct. @AutoPenalti gets his lineup graphics right about as often as gregg gets his lineups right
Not as much turnover as a I expected. That's fine, though I'm going to be real annoyed if an exhausted team drops points on Tuesday in the much more important game. I like Zardes, but still would have went Pepi and if we're going to trot out a best XI, I don't like benching Zimm
i think its a tossup between any of our fwds scoring anyways vs gyasi as our best pressing fwd, so, you know, whatever. without weah our only effective attacker left is in there (jedi). its almost time, lets do this thing.
Estaquio on the bench and available, but not starting. I really hope that MMA midfield exploits their advantage
My new take is that the players in the lineup don't really matter because Berhalter's system has Harrison Bergeron vibes. Whether the lineup features Pulisic, Adams, Weah, and McKennie or Arriola, Acosta, Lletget, and Yueill, the performances basically look the same. Today's going to be a slog. Hopefully we come out on top.
If we do not win .... a loss and it starts to get a little scary. Not must win scary. But we start to need certain results in the rest of the games.
Yeah, this window is big because of how tough the last window is with both Mexico and Costa Rica away. This is one of our better chances to pick up tough points left. We've got the two home games left where we should max out, but some points today would make things a lot more comfortable.
If we win our 2 home games, we're extremely likely to qualify. I view most of our away games as gravy
Zimmerman didn’t have a great outing last time against Canada, I think that’s the logic behind that one. Very lucky to not get called for pk. This game will demand max athleticism
Wish Canada wasn't stupid with their Covid rules. Full stadium would have been better atmosphere. Why cap at 50% and then everybody's next to each other anyway. Dumb.
My CONCACAF best WCQ XI (not most talented) ——————David——————— Lozano————————Buchanan ——-Herrera———McKennie—— —————-Adams——————— Davies——————————-Dest ———Miles———Zimmerman—- ——————Navas——————-
its well known that Covid can’t travel sideways, only vertical . It’s like a more pointless version of the rook chess piece. See “lines at Target and Whole Foods” for the case study
The Paramount pregame chucklefest is pretty silly, but I enjoyed Charlie Davies owning Gooch just now for putting Brooks in his Concacaf best XI right before narrating a clip of him blowing it on Larin’s goal.
My pre-planned subs: Morris (Aaronson) Pepi (Zardes) De la Torre (Musah) Acosta (McKennie/Adams) Cannon (Dest)