Pre-match: USA v Australia Game 2 6/19 3 pm ET

To answer your question and the one about arfsten being fodder, i think arfsten is very good at close control, taking people on. Better than Brendan. Better than Weah. And he’s got size, and you know he’ll be a willing, active presser.

I’m a big Zendejas fan. But I think in this match his small stature might hurt us. Arfsten is 6’1” and solid.

I think arfsten has above average skill at going at people. And Aus would have to mark him touch tight when crossing was an option, the keeper would have to know where he is.

Reyna would be more so. But can you start him? Is he a better late game sub? We ll he press?


if puli can’t go, or you want to protect him from the Aus bone crushers…..if you started arfsten And told him “be pulisic” + be available in the box for crosses, that may be might be possibly be the best option.

I don’t know much about Wright. But if I were him, I’d be pissed at being passed over for someone listed as a defender. There’s that to consider, too.

 

I’ll admit it, I’m a Stella guy. I did the post college back pack thing in the 80’s and Stella was our beer then. You couldn’t find Stella anywhere in the U.S. until like the 2000’s. So I got fixated on it. Kind of like southerners with coors in the old days. But ya, Stella is kinda like Pabst. But I like Pabst too. That’s another long story but I’ve been loyal since the mid 80’s. To complete the irrelevant rambling, we were drinking Fosters in HS in the 70’s. At that time, the big can was an attention getter. This was significantly before the fosters marketing push.

 

And yet people went at me for saying watch out for Aus, they hate us.

 

Have you never been mellow? Have you never tried to find the comfort from inside you? Have you never been happy just to hear a song? Have you never let someone else be strong?

I mean, it’s not like someone on the board played B17.

I will not go so far as to say that I love you, I honestly love you.

but playing against Oz, Poch should tell the boys let’s get physical, physical.

because they have to believe they are magic. Nothing can stand in their way.

 

I respectfully disagree. I think you can’t completely abandon the aerial game. Spain did that. Turkey did that. You got to have the aerial game as a threat, having the aerial game as a threat changes angles and forces the keeper to watch the guys in the box, in addition to the guy w the ball.

 

I've seen a number of people want two strikers (was going back and forth on reddit on this), but I think a far better solution to generating some height and people in the box is to push Weston and Tillman up, and preferably, unpredictably.

If they are going to let the wide players take unopposed crosses, have your striker make lateral movements to try and occupy / pick multiple defenders, and then piston / slash the center mids to screw with the marking. Both guys can get up, especially with a head of steam.

After the cross, the wings should crash for a header back in a give and go or a far post flick on. The other CM covers more with Adams staying back.

 

I wouldn't just never cross it, but Australia is going to be much better at winning headers than any of the US's front 6. Sure, throw in a few to keep them honest, but the most likely way to score is to have a scramble where the ball bounces the US's way. Need to generate as many chances for that to happen as possible.

 

I know, we all know, that rankings are crap, should be taken with a grain of salt, etc. Point here is that there's a significant difference between 40th and 27th, and crushing the 40th doesn't mean the same will happen to the 27th. I hope it happens. I don't want to get too excited. Yet. If the Aussies succumb the same way, then I'll start thinking about how far this team can go.

Go Yanks!

FIFA rankings prior to World Cup start
United States – 17th
Paraguay – 40th
Australia – 27th
Turkey – 22nd

 

It won’t happen, but it might be better to give the Aussies the ball and let them see what they can do against a counter attack. I don’t think it would go well for them. Their defenders are slooooow.

 

Playing without the ball for any period of time is a disaster for our defense, though, so I think you'd want to create space in other ways. They have a great low block; we do not.

However, we should do our best to stretch them out vertically. Lots of vertical movement. Don't give up on it if they don't respond immediately.

Press hard in the midfield if you lose it there. Be aggressive with entry passes when our rest defense is good then press like hell to create the scramble.

 

If Christian really can't go, I think I would probably:

• Play Arfsten or Zendejas at LW, but have them play LM in defense and play wide in attack.
• In attack, slide Tillman up into Pulisic's role and then slide Jedi behind into more of Tillman's role.
• Maintain the usual Freeman dynamic on the other side.

It's not ideal -- Tillman is probably pretty fantastic crashing in late given his profile, but this keeps him in the build up and centrally in a more passive defense. It also removes the need for someone to play like Pulisic and puts a left-footed crosser wide.

I'd probably go with Max; he's great at getting to the endline and delivering a nice cross while still able to cut in. But Zendejas is not a bad option.

Another other option would be to play Reyna and Wes as CMs. Neither give you the one on one play Christian does on the left, though, and that leaves Jedi as the wide crosser. With the counter attack present and mediocre crossing skills ... maybe that's worth it to get Reyna on the field. Dunno. Close call.

Another option is to slide Tillman up. But like putting Reyna or Wes there, that puts a lot of pressure on Jedi to be the wide guy and it puts someone like Berhalter starting. Berhalter's got a lot to offer in this game offensively, but it's a defensive downgrade in an important spot.

 

Unfortunately, you seem to have counted wrong. Each group has 4 teams, so each team plays 3 matches, for a total of 9 possible. In that context, the 6/6/6/0 is the only real way a team w/6 points doesn't make it (if that is for the majority of the groups). Not very likely.

 

You're on a roll today, LOL!!!!

 

I don't know if I'd go that far, but I feel like the Turkish counterpressing wasn't as aggressive and as consistent as what we saw from the US against Paraguay. I do think our pressing could create real problems for them and allow us to attack while they're out of their preferred shape.

 

I mean.... do we really *have* to choose one?

Had to fire up "Xanadu" after reading this. One of the sexiest voices of my youth

 

I know I mentioned that I think Arfsten is a great fit on the left as a wingback, but I feel like you’d want a right-footed player to replace Christian. To that end, I still think moving Dest over there would be the closest thing to a player like Christian, and then replace Dest at wing/wingback with Weah.

 

I like the idea of playing Dest at LW if CP can't go but my opinion of Weah has declined pretty sharply... his move to FB/WB has certainly improved his defensive capabilities but he appears to have lost his courage on O.... He generally just cycles the ball with the safe pass to another player... and when he finally does attack someone one-v-one his step-overs don't appear to fool many. He does have serious whip on his crosses and can stretch the field in a straight line so I could see him making a play against Oz on the counter.

 

I think you are saying the same thing he did in a different way.

 

Ya, I was wondering about just passing the ball around the midline until they came out. Be ok with just standing there with your foot on the ball until someone comes within 10 yards of you. Be ok with playing 5-2, or 6-3 keep away for a while. If they won’t come out then get Wes, and your your two tallest guys that aren’t your CB’s into the box, have another guy crashing. Then you should have all day to hit a driven ball into the box. Make Aus chose between keeping their line deep and pushing out, leaving space behind for the crasher. And see if they can all be on the same page.

 

That's why I threw her in.

 

My thinking is that you can't replace Christian with one player, so don't try.

Send someone to play a more traditional LW and then push a CM up to fill in the central space.

But moving Dest over is another option, for sure.

 

Why do you think they are slow? When FIFA published some speed stats after day 3 5 Aussies were listed in the top 10 fastest players and 3 of them were a part of our back 5