His holdup play has improved just in this camp. You can see him learning to use his body and elbows better to seal off the defender and keep the ball.
Someone on here said he was like 2/10 in his duels. I imagine that was him losing alot of balls to defenders trying to hold it up.
I think Jermaine Jones might have just broken the legs of some random Trinidadian on the streets. Is it fair to that dude? No. But messages still need to be sent and if none of these pussies are gonna do it he’ll still man up.
Hopefully this is sarcastic. It was notable that T&T’s entire strategy in the second half was 1) chop Tillman down at every opportunity, and 2) tackle Agyemang.
More embarrassment for US Soccer Futzeration. On the plus side, I've never seen a manager get game out of McGlynn yet so props to Poch for that. I actually saw McGlynn stick his foot out to block a ball. One year is sufficient time to obtain a right foot. Poch should tell mcGlynn to develop his right or forget about wc 26. Maybe those hard practice sessions without bielsa's pigs around made an impression. While I'm at it, once again there's aaronson (whom Poch classifies as a mid) with another huge chance creation but he has to take the shot and this time he finishes. Leeds dont seem to have much of a finishing school so I'd just like to tug Poch by the sleeve and suggest he teach Aaronson how goals from close distance to goal need a professional poke and how to do that rather than trying to gain power thru the hip joint which is too slow. Aaronson will be in a position to save us WC2026 when the time arises but I'm not sure he'll execute. He'll get the chance. Always has, all levels.
I was watching fox and Univision OTA. I assume Vix was using their own Univision broadcast. There was a point late when the broadcast showed a random replay of a goal at an inopportune time. I think there was about to be a corner. From there, unvision went to a crowd shot. Fox stayed with the feed and a random replay a little longer before switching to a skycam. Univision eventually went back to the regular camera position. It might not have looked like anything was wrong, but it definitely stood out since I was watching both broadcasts at the same time and they were using the same feed until then. It looked like fox said ******** it at the end after being tired of the audio issues and stayed with the skycam at the end.
Looks like Big Pat was 3 of 10 in duels so not great. Note Berhalter was 1 of 9 in duels yet we don't hear the same outrage. Big Pat was very active which is a good sign for his future development. It is good to have the option of a big, strong, not-slow line leading CF who can bang with CBs. https://www.fotmob.com/matches/usa-vs-trinidad-tobago/1q1z63#4772437:tab=stats
It's not good for Berhalter, but it also isn't a thing that he's expected to be good at either, so of course you don't hear the same outrage. Same reason you can't get that mad at a centerback if they sky a chance from 6 yards but you'd be apoplectic if a center forward misses the same opportunity.
I see what Poch sees in him. He's tough to handle. Poch was a cb. He also has instinct to play with others, which is so important in 9's these days, but lacks experience.
lol, same here in The Netherlands, at 90+1 or something the screen went black and then they started the game highlights. We got Tillman's first goal from 3 or 4 angles and when they got back to the game it had just finished.
I repped this only because you were 1)watching this in the middle of the night in the Netherlands and 2)you stayed until the end. Hat tip and I raise my glass of single malt to you.
Luna is our best player. (in this selection) There's stuff he does that people here would never get. Instead they would go to fbref and look at Tilman's tackles and oooh and aahhh. Luna is actually a great defensive player. Getting that out of your 10 is super.
It's a Concacaf production and unfortunately I think I have to give credit to fox and univision for making the best of that mess of a broadcast whether audio or everything that happened late. We saw the conclusion.
Yeah thanks, well game started at midnight here so still manageable. Watched for Tillman ofcourse but also funny seeing Dante Sealy (ex-PSV) and Haji Wright (ex-VVV Venlo). Wanted to watch Suriname as well but that's at 5 AM here so no go. Well, at least they show all Gold Cup matches on Dutch tv while the club world cup is not broadcasted on TV here.
I've not seen that much of him before, but he looks like he should be a good strong hold-up forward that draws coverage and lets his wingers and AM/SS get in on goal. He's got a lot of the tools, but just seems really rough and a half step behind. I guess we don't have a lot of that kind of player atm. Pepi looks like he could play that way, but he really does not. Sarge does further away from goal, but not once he's near the box... do we have anyone else that plays like that. Dike to an extent, but obviously not in the convo.
For most strikers his age, the sunlight of potential would have gone past the horizon of experience, into darkness. With his now-weird, 20-years-ago-normal, path, I hold out some hope. It’s only dusk. I think he and Zardes have many things in common. Played in college, late bloomers, erratic touch (and I think erratic is a much better word than “poor”, especially for Zardes), very athletic, hard working. Heck, even Ghanaian heritage. Well, if you’ve got a guy like that who is smart too, he’s going to be in position to make plays constantly. Like I wrote earlier about Lune, I prefer players like that, I think they really help you win. Anyway, you can focus on the too-many plays he flubs, or on the counting stats. Or you can take the whole picture into account. I’d temporarily forgotten about Pepi, so what I said earlier about Agyemang competing with Wright and Sarge for #2, change that to #3, I.e., break glass in case of emergency. If that spot matters, I’m thrilled, because it means we’ve made the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
??? His left foot is nice, all his right foot has to be good at is trapping nad getting the ball to his left foot. He didn't look slow of foot in the freindlies either. If he keeps this level up he will be good depth at the World Cup and won't be long for MLS.
100% disagree. As a CM Berhalter is judged by the quantity and quality of his duels and 1 of 9 is atrocious, you expect 50% or higher from a CM. Berhalter also did not win a single tackle and was dribbled twice. The only thing of note that he did was take set pieces. His performance was significantly below the rest of the team against a poor opponent.
People would use the term "vision" but memory has something to do with it. He knows where everybody is at all times. Eyes in the back of his head. He's playing defense without you even seeing it because you're on fbref looking for Tilman tackle stats. I'd have some reservations if Poch were a pressing guy but from what I can tell, Poch doesn't prioritize pressing schemes. We're not getting there by being Colombia as far as Poch is concerned.
Yeah, not in the top 10 of things I look for in a striker, but he sure makes it easier for his teams to score in the 85th minute.
I love the contrast between Luna and Tillman and love watching them play together, they both accomplish many of the same things, but do it in contrasting styles and I don’t have a preference. Tillman is a languid glider, Luna a knife fighting cube, but they both play serious defense, whilst being chance creating and finishing machines. So lucky to have both and their tickets are punched as far as I’m concerned.