Pre-match: USA v Netherlands Round of 16 12/3 10 am ET

if youre into this sort of thing...

 

The Dutch wear orange??? Who knew?

 

The Dutch were the first great maritime trading nation, which meant that they invented and/or popularized many of the legal institutions of modern trade, like the corporation and futures contracts. They were among the first to use state military power to colonize developing countries to secure favorable trading regimes, and they were (along with several other European nations) avid traders of enslaved Africans to the America. Some of those enslaved people returned to Africa after emancipation to found the nation of Liberia, now headed by Tim Weah’s father.* What a crazy world.

I love the Netherlands. The people are tall, direct, friendly, and willing to speak English (because their own language is so difficult for others to learn). You can go anywhere without a car because the public transport infrastructure is so good. Their genius at holding back the sea is inuring to the benefit of the rest of the world as a warming climate means rising sea levels. And they have given us many great artists — Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Cruyff. And Frankie De Jong showed the world just how timid WC referees can be; now we all know.

Let the game begin!

*Whichever lurking reporter steals this story angle has to credit me.

 

Well if you're willing to cut off your own ear .....

 

im tempted to go borderline radical and say reverse our gameplan to throw the netherlands for a loop: start with 3 in the back, adams and acosta in the middle, with aaronson/ferreira/weah across the front.

nominal press high but primarily suffocate their midfield and shut down the wings for runners.
that leaves musah, mckennie and pulisic (for whom i will gladly offer a money-back guarantee is going to play) for the second half (pulisic for weah, musah and mckennie for acosta and zim).

in the first half the dutch are all "oh my tulips, whats going on?" BOOM- zim nods in an acosta corner. in the second theyre shaking in their wooden shoes- BANG aaronson pokes home a loose ball in the box.

gregg brings on morris and shaq moore (at lb) to see things out, we concede once but go through.

youre welcome america.

anyways, now that thats out of my system- the netherlands are a sort of weird team for me; keepers not impressive, crazy good cbs, good (not great) midfield that theres no reason to say we cant choke off, and fwds that arent all that great (imo) but are a pretty bad matchup for our cbs.

im a little torn between wanting zim or ccv cause i still think zim is "the guy", but i dont think they pose all that much of an ariel threat outside of set pieces. i dont know that ccvs speed/mobility is enough of an upgrade to justify his inclusion, though. i mean, if gakpo gets a free run at either of them i dont think its going to matter which one is there.

im sure itll be turner, dest, ream, jedi, mma per ush. weah. again- pulisics 100% gonna play i just dont know if you get whatever we are gonna get out of him from the start (my preference) or save him for however long you think he can go. i really hope sarge is good to go, i think he put in our best fwd performance since pepis 2 match era, if not i begrudgingly go ferreira.

i said after the england match i think part of the reason wright started was to help out on england set pieces, so that would also apply here, just...ugh. i dont think he brings enough. honestly i dont think he brings anything sarge doesnt (and im not even saying sarge is the shit here).

anyways, we are here. this world cup is already satisfying for me (or will be, unequivocally, in hindsight), and like i said- theres no reason we cant contain their midfield. their cbs (literally any two/three of them) are hella good so its hard to see where a goal(s) is gonna come from but, you know, when isnt it?

so why not go out and (gently) kick their ass (once, before holding on for dear life), right? lets get it!

 

the good news is if we can get shots past those cbs their keeper is pretty soft.

 

Reyna, the forgotten asset. LDLT and Scally, perceived as last resorts after Acosta, Moore, Yedlin. The talented MMA rode hard and put away wet.

I hope we win impressively and Gregg gets a lot of attractive club offers in Europe.

 

promo idea: van dijk and pulisic back-to-back like boxers, tagline " the netherlands vs the nether regions

 

3 games in 8 days.....something has to give....the entire team was dribbling off their shins as the iran match wore on....they are gassed. france played their b team vs tunisia for a reason

thats why how you win matters in the world cup if you want a deep run...kill of teams early and conserve energy is what the good teams do

people act like going alls out for all 3 games is fine....but it lowers a teams chances of advancment in the knockout immensely. this is a more condensed wc anyway

im hoping berhalter has a plan for this and wont just start the same 11 again

 

it looked to me- a completely random dude with no medical knowledge whatsoever- that it was probably his achilles if anything major, and i suspect "bruised heel" is what is is.

 

okay whatever 2 goals in 3 matches....has musah done ANYTHING even close to scoring or creating a goal yet??? his position needs to create more. he loses the ball carelessly often in attack.

if you wanna try and play 120 minutes and PKs all the way to the final, good luck....

thats likely the only way MMA could even get there.

 

I’d go with 75% Reyna, 25% Aaronson. Musah and McKennie will need to be subbed whether we’re up or down. We’re going to need Brendan in the midfield. Could always drop him back, but he’ll be much less effective and the difference between him and Gio on the wing isn’t that significant (other than stylistically). They’re both good free kick takers, but I think Gio is the best we have.

 

eh...im not so sure. i mean, i am, but if gregg refuses to play an attacker in the middle of the woods and gogo repeatedly insists reyna isnt that good anyways does it make a sound?

isnt that the famous saying? i feel like i may be a little bit off...

 

(borderline sexual moan) if adams gets to end messis intl career? <chefs kiss>

 

So, because our coach doesn't play a specific attacking player (who I wish had more minutes too if I'm honest; one of my favorites in this squad for sure) that means we don't have depth? Whether we use it or not is a different question. With Aaronson and Gio on the bench (both of whom have been mostly used as singers) yes, we absolutely have quality depth on the wings.

 

When I lived in Europe 20 years ago, I supervised a Dutch guy and spent a long weekend in Amsterdam. Great city - so much culture there (and I'm not being sarcastic in "Yeah, the Red Light District is great!!"). Extremely friendly people who know how to party. I'm guessing I had some second-hand weed influencing me at some point during that weekend as well.

Plus, when the Dutch use their traditional deep orange instead of this bad metallic yellow-ish hue, they have the best kits in soccer.

 

Not sure where to put this but interesting Group B stats our guys showed well

Not only has Pulisic been fantastic, but check out Dest, Wes, Musah, and Weah.

And Tyler Adams, as a defensive midfielder, is in a good spot.

We've come a long way, people!#USMNT #OnlyForward https://t.co/BuzkXdMJMp

— 🇺🇸 US SOCCER CORNER 🇺🇸 (@USMNTCORNER) December 1, 2022

 

It's pronounced "Iran-yeah"

 

That Sterling v Pulisic data could not have been more predictable to anyone watching Chelsea, except fans who watch through Brit-colored glasses. And look at Mount on that graphic, FFS. I swear the valuation of the English squad is inflated by at least 2x because of that bias.

 

are they still stashing krul on the bench for that scenario?

cause while i couldnt agree more heavy legs and pks dont mix, im also not all that scared of a dude named norbert or some shit...

 

Chelsea fans who comment on The Athletic are insufferable because of this. They all think Sterling and Mount walk on water while Pulisic is the reason Tuchel was fired. It would be comical if it wasn't so sad.

 

I'm just stating why everybody keeps wanting to insert Reyna as per your original question, not stating that it'll be effective.

 

there was a preseason match, maybe one of those american tours a couple or three years ago between chelsea and liverpool, and pulisic absolutely danced on joe gomez, then van dijk, cut back and beat him again before finishing near post.

...and if theres one thing i know about soccer its that preseason soccer is gospel <cough>juliangreen<cough>

 

From comments on the USA matches (I havenot watched any matches but the Orange Squad 2 matches vs Senegal and Qatar) I read they have problems scoring and they ran out of gas after about 60-65 minutes.

Louis van Gaal from what I watched has had the Orange Squad play in the first gear in defensive mode and tries to slow down the opponent's play. From reports about the Ecuador match it didnot work out that way too well, but the managed to put the draw over the end line.
As I wrote before the WC started we would be boring to watch, but also it's hard to beat us.
The USA has one thing to be careful for and that's not to let Gakpo slip away from the defenders as he seems to have a conversion rate of 50%.
If he scores early the Orange Squad will pull up the defensive curtain and then try to penetrate that wall is going to be hard.
The non Dutch press like La Gazzetta spotted that LvG has had his team play in a very low energy mode in the group stage and call it an advantage going into the ko phase, where teams come up against the energy drain with plays within a few days time.