Yep, all good points. #2 surprises me b/c they looked good in the summer on set pieces but not in qualifying. We all know in a sport where the margins are so small, set pieces are often the difference between winning and losing. Something as simple as better service is a start.
I don’t feel comfortable with any of ‘em really. Kind of hoping Horvath gets regular minutes between now and thanksgiving.
I don’t think bunkering is how you get results against Mexico. Unlike us, bunkering plays into their hands.
Yedlin’s touch… yikes. After all these years of playing, it’s surprising his touch is still so rough. Is it just me, or does it seem like the ball bounces off his foot, onto a random body part, before he finally gets control?
The fact that nobody's posting in this thread says all that needs to be said. Nobody gives a shit. Onto the draw. If you folks who are soured by this performance want to feel better, just imagine the Azteca draw the other night as the clinching match or something. I don't know, I'm sure you'll figure it out.
some random weird thoughts in response to your take and that of others. Agreed on the Deuce thought, to quote a comedian, “that went over like a fart in church.” The positive is that w/the draw 36 hours away, we’ll move onto that quite quick. But I do agree w/the general sentiment that this set us right back to the uncertainty that we felt after windows 1,2 and 3. Why can’t we play w/any consistency, especially away from home? I’ll add that it may have actually hurt us that Costa Rica had all those yellow we. Instead of getting an old, tired Costa Rica n match day 3, we got a fresh, hungrier one that was rested. Still no excuse but it does explain it a little bit. Steffen should be demoted to 3 after this but he’s got a death grip on Berhalters view of the top of the position. He shouldn’t, this window should open the door for an audition this summer. In response to another persons take. Costa Rica got away w/all manner of concacrap bs tonight and it had me 1000% wishing we were in another confederation. The lack of cards is infuriating. Unless I’m mistaken though, we won’t be safe at the World Cup, there have been innumerable clueless idiot refs at the World Cup Over the years including a coke mule in ‘02 and whatever syndicate Coulibaly was working with when he screwed us in ‘10. Hugh Dallas etc. Taking some solace in the fact that we were tired, dealing w/illness, playing w/on3 of our best 5 players for most of the game but man did that suck.
Every time I hear somebody talk xG, especially regarding an overall bad game, I want to ask them to pay me $10 for every soccer game in the last 20 years where the team with less chances won...
Most of you guys are being lame. Cheer up, we just qualified for the World Cup!! Team form comes and goes and a lot of things can happen in 8 months. We do need a striker and goalkeeper to step up.
Nobody is posting in this thread because there's another postgame thread higher up the page. But yeah, the game was uninspiring but we are still in. Woohoo?
He has really played poorly for the USMNT since returning to the US to play for Inter Miami. That is one clear spot on the roster that is up for grabs IMO... Who can we count on to play RB behind Dest? Moore is a decent option but not sure the ceiling is there. Cannon brings it on D but not much on O. Hopefully Scally will get more minutes down the stretch for BM and proves he belongs. One thing is for sure... it took a while for GB to drop Lleget... hopefully what we have seen from Yedlin is enough for GB to cut ties.
I think preferring Turner is an incident of the grass being greener. It's easy to forget that Turner is shockingly poor with the ball at his feet and also not great with crosses or distribution. Great shot stopper, but that's not the whole job. I think Steffen is still my #1 unless Horvath gets time and does well.
I wish we had gotten the result tonight because it would have been a nice feeling for the team to qualify via winning versus the feeling of backing our way in. Navas is really really good, and Steffen was not great tonight. Maybe Steffen is the guy, but I’m all for rolling the dice on Slonina a bit this summer and seeing what what we have there. He’s probably not ready, but might as well give him some run and see what you got. Costa Rica clearly had fresher legs then we did and it very much showed. I also sort of thinking sometimes when teams play backup/younger players they play super hard because they are trying to get noticed by MLS teams. Feels like once we went down 2-0 we were content just to play the game out and not really push from there. The ref really let Costa Rica manhandle Pulisic. When they beat up on him like that, and you don’t really show cards it just incentives them to keep doing it. In the end though it feels good to qualify after last cycle’s disappointment. I look forward to hopefully getting a good draw on Friday. Maybe in 8 years we can finally win a game at Costa Rica.
This is false. Miles had another strong game (rated MOTM on Sofascore, w/ a 7.7). He put out fires all over & passed smoothly. Optically it looks bad on the 2nd goal if you just watch in slow mo, but he was going down to cover a ball that was slammed at the ground, and went thru a player right on front of him. This after Steffen foolishly came out his net again and was out of position to not cover pretty much any ball. Other than that, Miles was virtually spotless. He had 1 bad game in qualifying, 3 months into his offseason, in the toughest game. He out-passed and out-defended Richards in qualifying. Zimmerman out-defended him by a mile. Passing he was shaky, but Richards wasn't even taking the onus. There's no grounds for this analysis at this time. Our cb pairing was arguably the biggest strength on the team. Maybe Zimmerman's lack of foot-speed gets exposed some at the WC. He regularly teeters on committing a penalty. But w/ Miles there's no significant flaw there to expose. And MRob + Richards have been oil mixed with water. So Richards is going to at least need to play better team defense, be a receiver for passes, & get some gumption to drive the ball fw to be considered part of a starting pairing. Right now we're more than fine. Heck, we defended well enough with Besler, Gonzalez, & Cameron at the '14 Cup. Our d kept us in those games while our offense could generate very little.
I don’t have a strong preference between them and Turner had some not great moments during qualifying too. The main questions are how Horvath looks now that he is finally playing consistently, and whether Slonina really takes off.
Remember the 2002 World Cup, when the U.S. "backed in" to the Round of 16 with a 2 goal loss? That worked out pretty well.
Yedlin was a soldier and got the job done through qualifying. Was it pretty? No. Would his current level of play cut it at a World Cup? I’m afraid the answer is no. Yeah, hoping Scally makes a push for the position.
True, I don't want to bag on him too hard, he had a good game in Mexico, for example. But he can't get a cross in, turns the ball over, and is basically a hole in possession. I feel like they need to find a better option. Defensively, they could do worse for sure.
It's easy to forget Turner's allowed 3* as few of goals per game w/ the NT, which is impossible to make up with your feet. Not that Steffen is a big asset with his distribution either. There's a gap there, but at least Turner's not delusional to fiddle with the ball, leading to crucial errors. And he's actually passed ok at home in qualifying. On the road when the pitches are bad he struggled mightily. But that's most of our players. Horvath has similar distribution to Turner and is arguably an even better shot-stopper. None of our keepers are w/out flaw. But it's a matter of weighing which are the bigger ones. That's proven to be Steffen's by a wide margin. I guess people need to learn it the hardest possible way. Well, I guess that would have been not qualifying. Which may have at least not happened directly if we didn't get lucky breaks in the 1st Costa Rica match to avoid drawing or even losing. Otherwise, we could have dropped to that spot or further if Steffen was available to play more games. Now I guess the hard lesson would be just getting bounced earlier in the WC.
The problem is that by the time the World Cup rolls around, Turner won't be starting either. He'll be on the bench at Arsenal, just like Steffen is for Man City. I get that the $$$ Turner is getting to move to Arsenal is life-changing....but it's a really bad move for him timing-wise UNLESS he get's Arsenal to loan him back to New England until the end of the MLS season.
Very interesting about Arriola - Giannone suggests that its just a short-term injury. Paul Arriola got injured during WARMUP pre-game in Orlando, and wasn’t supposed to start after that. Told Berhalter he was playing no matter what. Pushed through, was one of the better players, if not the best, on the field during first half and scored a goal.— Michele Giannone (@MicheleG3) March 31, 2022
@Real Corona @bungadiri @dark knight Could one of y'all merge this thread with the other "Postgame Costa Rica" thread? Thanks!