I feel like a lot of the upfield pressure from Wes and Tillman were just as instrumental. I didn’t see as many instrumental moments from Tyler
Nope. Wide awake in dreamland. When we went 3-0 up on Portugal in 2002 I felt the same. Though we steuggled to hang on
It's awful. I mean, maybe it's not thaaaaat bad, but I called my wife over who proabably has only a vague recollection of Landon's looks, and she was like, "no". It's just a bad wig. He had to do it way earlier if he was gonna. Can't be on TV for 20 years and then try to pull it off. Now on the other hand, I had a beard for the past 9 months. Had a shaving accident, and welp, no other choice but to shave it all off. That was 2 weeks ago. Not one person, not coworkers, public who see me, my kids, my WIFE....nobody said a word.
Haha man if Malik was slightly luckier today with G/A he would have put up a Zizou level performance. He was fantastic without end product
Well, they were pressing, and pressing very well, while Tyler was keeping the ship behind them. It was very influential. Had Tyler needed help, they wouldn't have been able to defend so aggressively.
Jordan vs Algeria at Levi's in the Bay Area. They could totally have held that at PayPal (Earthquakes).
Haven't had a night where I just don't want to go to bed and just keep refreshing Big Soccer in a while. 1 beer, 1 glass of wine and now vodka #4. uh-oh
Ahh yes here we go https://youtube.com/shorts/zDD50AMjoWc?is=8uyE6_67ICL1rBRu I think this zoomed in angle really minimizes the degree of difficulty it was
Which is another reason I don't like him at CAM or RW as much. He does a lot of nice work but often lacks goal contributions. Got on the scoresheet tonight, though.
That was my impression as well. Too slow to make a decision, passing up shot opportunities it seemed like around 3 times? If you can shoot it at the top of the box shoot it. Lots of good things can happen. I don’t remember exactly what happened on that shot he had in the 2nd half except that it was an easy save on what was a very promising attack. Other than that he was good.
Yep. Bruce Arena was lamenting in a conversation before the game that our whole attack is Christian Pulisic on the left side. But I think Dest gives us balance. We're better off with Freeman / Dest on the right side vs. Dest / Weah (which Gregg Berhalter said he still favors).
I just went ahead and rewatched the game on the BBC's broadcast off a link I found online, and man they were gushing about our team and this performance even more than the FOX crew.
Two things from the first half ... The coach of Paraguay was right -- we had a pentagon in midfield at worst. It was the midfield box (midfielders + CP) plus either Jedi or Dest/Freeman, depending on which side you were on. The only way that works and you still have an effective attack is if everyone runs their ass off. They did. Completely unpressable with the numbers Paraguay was using and nearly impossible to get through the other way. Playing a more traditional 442 against this is a nightmare. The level of attacking interchanging was intentional and screwed with the Paraguayan defenders. The fullbacks already couldn't keep with CP and Dest, but we very clearly pistoned the runs behind to pull the defenders around. CP would come back and Tillman would make a deep run, for example. Later, it'd be Jedi's turn. We did a lot of the same stuff over and over but the players kept changing. On the right ...Wes had some plays he could have played better (and he weirdly wasn't prepared to make a few runs early on great passes) but man ... he was moving around all over the place. Stretching the defense vertically and horizontally. Dest was on the ball, but Wes was off the ball, always moving, always wrecking shit. And then Freeman would bust through a defense already off balance. Tough night for Paraguay.
What a compete joy to watch. I'm trying to sleep but keep hearing the audio on the replay my son is watching out in the front room, and I can't stop smiling.
Roger Bennett (Men in Blazers): "That first half was Nutmeg City." He emphasized the joy he felt he perceived in our play, and I think he has something there. Except a bit in the second half, there wasn't the tightness that we've often played with. In attack, there was a sense of freedom and confidence. In defense, we were aggressive and tenacious and made very few mistakes (though we conceded on one of the few such sequences).
I was watching the BBC broadcast live and saw a little of the halftime show on FOX and said nope, going back to BBC. Lalas needs to retire. I'm embarrassed by US announcers.
The World Cup comes but once a year. A home World Cup but once every 32 years. I'll be lucky to see another.
Lalas knows that he's talking to the vast swath of America who doesn't follow this game regularly, or at all. But all in all, they didn't dumb the telecast down nearly as much as they used to in the 90s and 2000s, that's for certain. In fact, both he and Stu and a bunch of the crew today pointed out that America has 10s of milllions of soccer fans who know this game, now.