Well thats a nice exclamation point on the thing. Pulisic hattie If you dont think Zimmerman-Robinson is our centerback pairing if healthy for 2022 you are straight up high. LDLT probably my MOTM, but Jesus and Arriola's first half performances were divine. Steffen was clearly drunk today. Lots of wtf moments and surprisingly wasnt punished for them. Shaq Moore, very sturdy game. Cant complain about that callup now. Bad Jedi showed up today unfortunately.
THOUGHTS! 1. De La Torre should not only have secured a spot in Qatar; we need to start having the conversation about where/how he consistently factors into the lineup. I'm not nearly reactionary enough to say it's a McKennie for LDLT swap, but there has to be some plan to play LDLT. 2. Steffen was "thank God the Costa Rica match is essentially already secured" shaky tonight. Which brings me to... 3. There is nothing inherently wrong with playing out of the back. It can absolutely be sound strategy. But when A) your players aren't particularly good at it and B) the other team is pressing high ... maybe don't make a concerted effort to reset on your keeper every possession? Looked like some "we're up 10-0 on a youth team and want to show good sportsmanship" soccer... 4. If Antonee Robinson can consistently deliver the quality of crosses he's delivered the last two matches (a real struggle for him to date), it completely changes the potency of the US attack. 5. We're running out of words for the solidness of the Zimmerman and Miles pairing, but man, after so much CB pairing pain over the last 5-6 years ... it's amazing to have those two marshaling the backline. So they struggle to play out of the back. I don't really notice when Walker shuts down airspace every match. 6. I want a broadcast that just has a camera trained on Reyna's face when his teammates screw up his service. 7. A lot of the broadcast PBP stuff is obvious/fluff, but as someone who criticized Pulisic's body language, I really did agree with Stu tonight: the US needs this version of Pulisic The Leader™. Fiery, intense, making it clear the US ain't afraid of anything. 8. It ultimately didn't matter, but that ref (Ivan Barton) sucked, and it's not the first time he's crapped the bed on a widely-broadcast CONCACAF match. 9. Final thought: can't give enough props to Shaq Moore. I think BS actually smartly acknowledged that he may do well in this match because his penchant for crossing meshed well with the likely gameplan, but still, really stepped in in a high-pressure spot and delivered. It's still clearly Dest and Robinson on the outsides, but good to know Yedlin and Moore can step in these high-pressure spots soundly ... even if we do wanna see Scally etc.
We didn’t play as great as the final score indicated but there were some really good performances there. Capping off qualifying by getting a result in CRC would be a hell of a way to finish up.
Great time for Puli's best performance in a NT shirt. Luca in contention for MOTM for me. I'm gonna get to watch a USMNT WC match with my son in a matter of months for the first time!!
Team rose to the occasion and did the damn thing. There's only one thing left to do: go down to Costa Rica and get someone in the press to grill Berhalter about Joe Scally.
All is well, why is GD+5 and not +10 13 vs 3? S. Moore can cross but is very bad at give aways and possession. We have to do much better. A.Long not quite there either. Jedi is solid but still want a better player in possession. Glad we found DLT great at pushing all upfield. If we can stay healthy, find some outside back depth and a 9 we can be good.
Lol what. LDLT was good, but he had some very poor touches too and our CM is extremely crowded. Let’s try to figure out how to play Reyna before LDLT.
Great performance even with a horrible referee. Luca might start pushing Musah for his spot at this rate.
I'll ALWAYS take the goals and the points, but tonight's result is more a reflection of how poor Panama was rather than how GREAT we were in this game. Godoy should never gave up those 2 idiotic PKs.
Cool, we just beat Panama by four goals in the next to last game of WCQ. Orlando is such a great venue! We're not fully qualified for the WC, but the series of things that would have to go wrong to prevent us from getting there is so unlikely as to be totally absurd. We're effectively, if not theoretically, going to the WC!! --Oops, sorry, that post was from 2017.
LDLT was great in the final third but our CM was atrocious at progressing the ball through the middle third. If the ball didn’t get to one of the front 3 very early in the buildup it wasn’t going anywhere.
He was incisive in a way too many US midfielders are not. I'm not saying he should start over McKennie or Musah etc. of course but he looks a solve when this team is stuck in a maelstrom of back-passing.
yup, not saying start, but absolutely an equation solver off the bench. Hes on my Qatar flight right now
I love laughers. Pulisic wormed his face right into the turf. Luca is smooth on the ball and very important for our immediate depth. I hope Jedi has Jedi recovery strength.
Because if Costa Rica beats us 5-0 They go to +8 and we fall to +8 as corrected by everyone basically we have to win draw or lose by 5 or fewer given goals scored
Ref was so undeven, we touch them foul, they foul us nothing. Reyna gets hammered on counter and nothing, I could mention 10 other fouls. We almost got concacafed. Remember both PKs had to be VAR'd. He didn't give them live.
Defense had some mental lapses in the beginning, but we stepped on Panama's throat when we needed to. There was pressure on the team and they stepped up. Kuddos to Greg for giving the armband to Pulisic and challenging him to step up to the challenge. it's obvious Greg believes in his players and they reward him for that.
Finally, it all came together. I predicted that if the US could get a couple of early goals, Panama would fold. And that's exactly what happened. LDLT makes such a huge difference in attack. I realize it's a hard midfield to crack, but he's a big asset when trying to play through the middle of the field. Having him is, at worst, a really good option to have off the bench. I like the lineup with Moore being able to combine with LDLT. They complement each other well. I'd REALLY like to see Gio play a CAM role on Wednesday. I know we haven't officially qualified, but it is awfully close. I want to see what Gio can do on this team playing in central midfield like he does for Dortmund.
As long as we don't lose to Costa Rica 6-0, we're in the WC. For anyone who is nervous for some reason, the last time the United States lost by 6 or more goals in any game was August 21, 1975, when we lost 6-0 to Argentina.
Which is why I don’t understand how an additional outside back was not called in when we have the ability to have more guys in camp.