Post-match: USA v Germany WC tune up

Good final tune up for our team, Germany is a tremendous litmus test.
I wouldn't mind to witness Poch pair Pepi and Balogun up top with Pulisic in his normal role to be wide left or float inside when Jedi makes his runs up our left wing. Pulisic and Pepi just link up so well, find each other and our attack thrives.
Get healthy Richard's!

GO GET 'EM BOYS! LET'S GO U.S.A.!!!

 

I wasn’t able to watch in real time. This is my text conversation with my brother after he told me Germany had scored:

Me: Lemme guess: they drew a foul in the right channel about 35 yards out
Him: How did you know?
Me: Because that is the most reliable way to score against USA for the last 30 years. And Germany does it all the time.

So many breakdowns had to happen - LONG before the backline marking - for that first Germany goal to happen. If I knew, without seeing it, how Germany scored, why wasn’t the team better prepared? Why was anyone giving up a foul in that particular part of the pitch?

So many people are determined to vindicate their weird prejudices against Ream and Miles that they are missing the real defensive weaknesses on this team: the void in defensive midfield when the opponent does a cutback (a problem first exposed by the Netherlands in 2022) and the gaps behind the wingbacks created by Poch’s aggressive style. If your instinct is to immediately point the finger at your least favourite MLS CB every time we give up a goal, you have at best a two dimensional understanding of the game.

 

I thought we played well.

Moral of the story is that 4-time World Cup winner Germany is better than us.
Just a little bit better.

If we play like that we'll be fine until the Round of 16 when we play somebody better than us.
[Just like 2022.]

 

Twice since camp started, apparently.

 

Guys are going on and on about the free kick. The direct kick was a beauty, perfectly hit into no-man's land for the goalie. Even if Havertz wouldn't have gotten a header on it it would have dropped into a very dangerous area where another Germany only needed to get some rando body part onto it to direct it on goal.
25% of all goals are scored on direct or corner kicks. Blaming 1 defender for losing his mark for the goal is just dumb. As Klopp said, "I don't know if you've ever played soccer, but those kinds of things happen."

 

There's no way that second goal was Miles Robinson's fault. Someone failed to track Sané's run and Miles was the only one to react.

 

Sane has been one of the best attackers in the world the last 10 years. No one should be surprised he scored against us and having Richards in there wouldn't have changed the odds much. Dude has been a baller for a decade.

 

Yep. This is a perfectly executed free kick. A player left offsides by MR picks Ream. The ball is inch perfect for the header. And as usual the BSers pile onto a whipping boy and assign blame to them for a goal. This is clearly a zonal man marking system and we can criticize that the last three (at the far post) could have/should have been a little closer to Ream instead packing three players on the far post. But still that would have made no difference in the outcome of that play. The ignorance of some posters to suggest we shouldn’t keep a high line and just manmark the opponent where ever they go is astonishing to me that they watch soccer on a weekly basis and should understand basic tactics of the game they claim to love.
And yes I understand that the pick play is illegal and should be called, but I watch enough soccer to know that it often doesn’t get called. VAR should catch that in the WC. Against a favorite like Germany, they probably get away with it against a team like us.

 

How far should you follow your man? Do you let him stand infront of the keeper so they can shoot a ball over a crowd standing in the six yard box? Come on man you can’t be this clueless? This has got to be some kind of mental gymnastics your doing so you can blame MR for a goal.

 

Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like picking and maintaining (or trying to maintain, anyway) an offside line is a standard feature of soccer played in 2026.

 

It's typical of people who don't understand the game, or maybe have an agenda, to blame the only player that actually reacted to the threat and not the ones who stood around ball watching.

 

It's an epidemic!

 

I'm aware, but should one apply the same solution to all situations, especially when it does not work? The USMNT has a history of being burned by this kind of free kick. We do the same thing every time and it has always resulted in a goal for the opponent. Isn't that the definition of dumb? Maybe time to do something different?

 

I’ll be curious to see if the same degree of blame is attributed to other guys individually in the actual tournament as Miles got against Germany. We’re probably going to concede similar goals at some point.

 

We've had different coaching staffs through whatever extent of history you're referring to. The players are at different (and better, overall) clubs than they were through history. I don't like getting burned on these free kicks, either. What's the "different" thing that they should try?

Ultimately, that free kick location is about the most dangerous you can get.

 

germany is deadlier than most on this kind of goal; i've seen them do it over and over for 30 years, they did it to us in 98 in the world cup, setting the tone early. the usa actually did not play that bad in that game.

 

Wright not playing isn't a big deal because we could see that the US wasn't desperately chasing a goal in either match.

He'll almost certainly play in such a situation at the World Cup.

 

You start with a defensive line, but you better stay goal-side once the ball is kicked. I never mentioned Miles Robinson. You got the wrong poster. We understand what Germany did, but we had no solution. AGAIN. Every measure has a countermeasure. We need to figure out what that is in this case. For example, an attacking player gets between Ream and Havertz? Maybe you switch off and sandwich Havertz. Maybe you do some dark arts (grab, trip, impede, etc.). I do not accept that there is nothing we could have done and the goal was inevitable. I do not accept a weak, defeatist mentality. I do not accept "that's the way it is always done." Innovation has driven this country forward. I do not fear Zee Germans. We are every bit as good as them.

 

Adams.

 

You can’t maintain a high line and stay goal side unless the opponent is willing to stay on sides. The attacker that picks Ream comes from an offsides position. In these situations you are asking the Refs to make the proper call, which they didn’t and often don’t for “traditional “ powers. If You want to critic the play, we could have made it more difficult by not giving so much space between Ream and MR and yes squeezing Havertz. It’s still a perfect ball and probably goes in no matter what you do there.

 

I'm really enjoying the interviews with Arena, Bob Bradley and Berhalter. Bradley said Germany had a play run horizontally and Adams dropped slighter deeper than everyone else because of it. Kept Havertz on side. Arena said it was obviously going to not be a shot so Freese should not have been on his line but three steps forward and maybe he could have punched. Bradley said small details like that are what can decide games.

I think the team will improve as the tournament goes on since they've had so little time together. I'm sure Poch's staff will see the same stuff as the other x-US coaches and make adjustments. Richards will make a huge difference once healthy. The offensive end is more troubling. Maybe not in round one but once they meet teams at this level later the team needs to figure out how to score non glazes against top ten teams.

 

It's funny -- I listened to 4 different USMNT managers dissect what went wrong on the Kai Havertz goal, and they basically all identified a different primary issue.

Gregg Berhalter thought putting 4 men in the wall made it harder to defend the attackers in the box and left too much space.

Bob Bradley identified the pick play, but felt that the space between Miles and Tim Ream was too big from the outset, which allowed Germany to execute that play. As a secondary factor, Bradley also thought that Adams dropped a step or two too early because a German attacker made an early run that dragged Adams back and ruined the offside trap.

Bruce Arena thought the biggest issue was that Freese needed to be further off his line, and that an experienced goalkeeper would have read that play better and punched the ball away.

Pochettino said he'd have to speak to his goalkeeping coach and break it down further, but his initial impression was he doesn't think Freese was the issue there. Poch said it was basically just a very well executed play all around. But his main comment was "I think there was a blocking run involved, and it could have been offside had we managed our defensive line better. I believe Weston was playing the attacker onside from behind. These are things we’ve been working on over these past two weeks, but we need to keep at it and continue to improve."

 

Also during or before?

 

You should call Poch and tell him about this