Bert Patenaude? Though I cannot really say if he was a striker or winger as 1930 was before my time. But as far as guys with multiple goals at one WC game, the list is Patenaude's hat trick in 1930 and Flo's 2 last night. That is the list. All time? 5: Donovan 4: Patenaude, Dempsey, OG (Colombia 1994, Portugal 2002, Italy 2006, Paraguay 2026) 3: McBride 2: Balogun 1: McGhee, Florie, Brown, Donelli, Pariani, Gaetjens, Wallace, Maca, Caligiuri, Murray, Wynalda, Stewart, O'Brien, Mathis, Bradley, Brooks, Jones, Green, Weah, Pulisic, G. Reyna. And the Agoos OG vs Portugal in 2002. And the Edu one vs Slovenia in 2010 that should have counted but didn't. Some sites only credit Patenaude with 3. And some AI's will tell you Altidore scored once (or even twice) in 2014, but he didn't.
McBride scoted vs Portugal and in a Knockout game. I will take that. Let's see how Flo does in the rest of the tourney.
His parents were in NY around when he was due and were having some visa troubles. His mom apparently made the decision to birth him in the States and then they moved back to England a month or so after he was born.
The airline wouldn't let his mother fly because she was periously close to giving birth. That's the story on Wikipedia.
I'm sure it's been discussed, but I dunno if Alex Freeman's emergence at the role he's playing gets enough credit for how it helps the team. Allows a change in shape that protects Ream, takes pressure off of Tyler, and allows Jedi and Dest to put more energy in attack. Plus, when he does decide to go forward, he's a tank and difficult to disposses. When Tim Ream retires from the USMNT Chris Richards is getting the arm band. Completely different player from Copa where he was unsure of himself and hesitant. He's playing with confidence and does a great job of organizing the team. It's kind of funny how so many people were insistent that Wes needs to be in the double pivot next to Tyler. Think in the dual 10 role Wes is playing some of if not the best ball of his career with the USMNT and I think last night was probably the best game I've seen him play. On the other side, Malik Tillman has been on record saying that he doesn't like playing the role we had him play last night. I think he might learn to like it because between his pressing and ability to be a connector he has such high potential. I remember a year/18 months ago being concerned about Balo, turns out both club and county (when healthy) were using him too much as a target striker. He can hold the ball for sure but Poch and also Monaco have changed the system a bit to play to his strengths... which is his ability in space. I kind of want to see a game where we let Balo play off Pepi. When Puli stays higher up the field, and is allowed to sit in the half spaces and create/run from there, he's elite. First half showed that. Of course, having Jedi back in the lineup also helps. Goal given up to me came down to team taking foot off the gas and Weah ball watching. Great performance. I do think Australia will be a little tougher just because I expect them to play a bit more physical from the beginning, but go get a result then the Turkiye game can be more for getting guys experience.
There was some dispute on whether Patenaude scored 2 or 3 goals against Paraguay until 2006, when FIFA officially credited him with a hat trick.
Patenaude scored one against Belgium and a hat-trick against Paraguay. The US technically won third place because Yugoslavia took the boat home before a playoff match could be scheduled.
I will be interested to see how Freeman develops. Looks good as the RCB in a back 3 but not every team used that position. Can he develop and get comfortable playing CB in a back 4? Will he be a RB in a back 4? Personally, I hope he becomes a more traditional CB. But it will be fun to follow.
My only quibble with him is that cards largely stayed in his pocket later when it got a bit chippy. I know he doesn't want suspensions but it was started to crumble a bit on him. He also missed a couple of obvious corners for us, but that happnes. But honestly, our best ref by a country mile that I can remember.
No that was my honeymoon. 3 weeks in Croatia during the 1990 World Cup, featuring anti-Serb riots in Split.
I was pumping Freeman up during the game yesterday. His work on positioning, consistency, and reading the game is phenomenal. At least two “playmaker” tackles yesterday. He had a roughish start to the second half but nothing major. Teammates helped him out once or twice, but that’s being a teammate and everyone should be wanting to do that.
Yeah he gave Paraguay five yellows to our one. Couple there at the end. Could have been a couple more. But his control of the game given the risk that it would boil over into a shithouse fest was admirable.
This is one of many reasons why it's so silly comparing and using stats from old world cup games. Info exists that Gajtens wasn't even a US citizen.
I think if you are going to play Wes on in the CAM spot, Dest is vital on the right side. If we look at that trio of attack in the right side ... Dest is the ball control, Wes is the off ball mover, one touch passer and chaos merchant and Freeman is the wild card. You need someone who is very good at holding possession there, someone to be on ball.
According to The Athletic the reffing was so biased that at once point the ball went out of play against Argentina, a policeman kicked it back into play, the ref waved play on and they scored.
It's kind of interesting ... we totally dominated the game and it felt like it could have been 5-1, 6-1. But if you look at the xG ... it's also clear we had some pretty great finishing. Balogun's second goal was freaking nutso good -- and it needed to be top left because the keeper was on it. (Also, OG is 0 xG, so that's part of the lower number.)