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

You better believe it. The stadium was made for field noise and Seattle is a huge soccer market. Somehow my kid landed some tickets for the AUS game and I still can't believe I'll be there. He said it the tix are several b-day and x-mas presents in one. LOL

The pessimist in me keeps hoping we haven't peaked too soon.... This AUS game will be a huge test if we are a one hit wonder or not.

 

Really hope worst case that it’s a draw.

 

Beating two solid counterattacking teams on the spin would represent a new level for the US.

 

I don't think we can overstate just how bad Turkey's attacking strategy was against Australia. The U.S. just cycles the ball around in the final third so much more rapidly than anything Turkey were doing. Turkey just becomes entirely static close to goal. If Yildaz and Guler don't create something brilliant nobody else will put themselves into a dangerous position to score. The U.S. attack was constantly moving and shifting players against Paraguay. That's going to be much harder for Australia to defend against.

 

Anyone else think Australia tries to surprise the US with full field press before settling into a deep block after about ten minutes (or a goal is scored)?

 

Turkey wasn’t horrible and it wasn’t like Australia completely shut them down, but yes Turkey looked like a team that had to qualify the hard way in Europe. Lacking a real spark and definitely not the Turkey of 2002-2008. Australia countered nicely and mostly defended well. Dangerous game, but one the US certainly should be favored in.

 

Well, it hasn't happened since 1966, so Arena has just reached the Grumpy Old Man stage of his career…

Not that he always hasn't been an asshole., but he's our asshole.

 

Lets not get carried away. When Gio Got the ball the closest 'defender" to him was a US player sitting in the box who just got out the way. The match was over, everyone was waiting for the clock to run out, especially the Paraguay players.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jLDglo8Fsr0

The Aussie match will not be like that; They are big, strong, very fit, and will run all day!

 

I think you could be absolutely right. I wouldn’t be surprised if their strategy will be to press us early with the intent of scoring an early goal. They might be feeling especially confident after the last game…

 

Have you forgotten about the 3rd-place path?

 

All else being equal, advancing in 3rd is twice as likely as going out in 3rd. If you get to 4 points, your chances are very high.

I guess you deleted your #5 scenario, which seemed to count Australia "out" in a 6/6/6/0 3-way tie situation. The third team would come down to GD/GS scenarios, could be anybody, but clearly all three would advance.

 

Nothing will surprise the US team nor the coach, and the US should dictate the play and not react to what Australia does.