On the way home from the game. Absolutely amazing, blistering, brilliant first half. We were PLAYING. Crowd was electric. Absolutely awful Berhalter for Pulisic sub. Killed our shape and invited them back into the game. Spursy from Poch. Taking off Pulisic didn’t mandate putting on Berhalter. That was just stupid. Killed the crowd with the capitulation. Killed our attack and opened up theirs. Tale of two halves and hopefully Poch is not too arrogant to learn. God bless Gio. I spent a lot on beers.
I think I just didn't see McKennie accurately I guess, probably because the attacking side wasn't happening.
He was surprisingly up front with it on his podcast, and in media, and all I could think is, if it aint camouflage, why do it?
Wow, just wow! An ass kicking of major proportions. It seems like every player in the squad raised his level for this game. Their right back is going to see Christian and Malik in his nightmares for about a year. A #9 with 2 goals in a World Cup game, did we ever think we would see it? And one of them an Upper 90 job that could've been our best goal in a World Cup game for decades, and was probably that for about 50 minutes. Holy shit, Gio! And one defensive cluster ********, perfect for the Coach to get an important coaching point out of the game…
Great game, especially the first half. Good lineup, good subs. I only wish we had subbed Adams before the yellow. When I saw Richards was starting, I half expected him to be a planned sub at the half. Glad to see him able to play the full 90 since we need him 90 minutes match fit. As good as we looked I though Paraguay was really poor. They seemed second to every ball and just couldn't stay in front of Pulisic. It seemed like he won virtually all of his 1 v 1s which just unbalanced their defense repeatedly. Given the full week between games and the high quality showing today, I'm guessing we keep the same 11 for Australia. While definitely not in the bag yet, with so many 3rd place teams making the knockout, a 3 goal win makes the odds of advancing pretty high. Feels nice not to be stressed about being grouped at home.
Bad McKennie? Dude open your eyes. Between him and Robinson I’ve never seen guys with engines that are so high quality all the time for 90 minutes.
The ref today was excellent. I really, really liked that VAR called attention to the erroneous yellow card that the ref gave to Ream, and switched it to Almiron, who dove and deserved the yellow he got. Aside from that, though, he made the right calls through and through. This ref is definitely getting more games assigned to him.
Paraguay's gameplan was ... surprising. But the first goal changed the game a bit from their end. Australia will be smarter, I think. I'm not sure it will matter. This team came out on a ********ing mission. Best counter pressing I've seen from us since ... the last World Cup? Just with more attacking quality and nous.
I'm Tillman over Reyna. Malik did soooo much. But, I will say, a while back, I said I'd be happy if Reyna got called into camp and got reamed! What is the story on when yellows get erased? Maybe I should read the thread and find out
Ranking the eight teams we've seen so far: 1. USA 2. South Korea 3. Mexico 4. Bosnia 5. Canada 6. Paraguay 7. Czechia 8. South Africa
Ok, let me ride the beers out. Robinson is looking like top LB worldwide again. Tell me I’m wrong. The guy was just stuck in.
Berhalter was excellent. No one had a bad game, but he made quite a few key plays. Honestly, I've been a supporter, but he was better than I expected.
Bizarre take. We were up 3-0 and Pulisic needs to be protected. There's basically no value in winning 6-0 relative to Christian getting hurt or tired. The team didn't have a mediocre second half because of Berhalter or shape; we took our foot off the gas on the counter press and the intensity dropped about four levels. Which may have even been planned. It's a long tournament. I have no idea why you'd rock n roll for 90 minutes when you don't have to.
Yeah, it was, people forget how many near goals we didn't quite finish, including the shot that went out for a corner before we scored our first. They are both just absolutely superlative first halves, the best I think I've ever seen in the shirt.
Just adding Dest was a f’ing boss tonight playing at RM. A menace. Terrorized them. So much better than previous years of Weah.