There are four new field starters since the last WC. Richardss, Freeman, Tillman, Balo. They sure made the team much better.
I’ve only seen Puli in person a handful of times but my guess is in the stadium what he was doing was even more impressive. The tv doesn’t do his talent justice.
Even with Tyler there the space in front of the CBs has been suspect. We might be whistling a different toon at some point.
Did you notice how Pepi dragged his defender across the goal and not only blocked the GK's vision, but removed the only defender from the area who could have blocked Gio's shot. That was a solid goal contribution right there, but it won't show on the stat sheet.
Around 15 minutes in, I turned to my wife and said, just give the ball to Pulisic and let him go by people. They had no answer.
But that was like a 10/10 performance as a team. 9/10 minimum. Most goals ever in a men's WC game. Tied for the biggest margin of victory ever, and most since 1930. 4th time winning by multiple goals. Now, probably not as impressive as beating Portugal in 2002, or England in 1950. Nor does it match the Mexico 2-0 Rd16 or even the QF 0-1 loss to Germany or the 2-2 draw with Portugal in terms of a result vs a quality opponent. But that is a near top level result in group. Ever. In somecways the very best. Pulisic, Balogun, McKennie, Dest, Tillman, Adams, and Robinson were all off the charts good. Not perfect, there was a squandered chance or bad touch or two in there. Adams got a silly yellow. But on balance, fantastic. Freese, Richards, Ream, and Freeman did not have much to do since we were on the front foot so much, but were all solid or better. Made a meal on the goal. Freeman had one bad square pass. But that was a USWNT quality dominant group stage win.
Poch did a great job there just keeping it on the down lo wrt to his health, and whatever training they did or didn't need to do had chris ready. and chris himself gets credit a real pro and talent.
Agree with a lot of the takes on here. For those who didn't think Weston played well, I completely disagree - not only was he everywhere, he was so smooth and clever on the ball. And something that is intangible, his confidence early to do the flicks, the turns, the ways he skinned his man. That swagger definitely infected the side. Only point I haven't seen talked about too much is that we outcoached them too. I thought Poch's game plan was excellent. Those runs from deep into space that we knew was going to be there, the smart working through the middle - I felt Poch coached this team to exploit Paraguay and it worked perfectly.
It was awesome watching the work rate of every player today. There were instances it felt like we were playing with an extra player. I'm honestly mind-blown at the fact that hustle was at a 100% but it was also creativity, skill moves, taking players on, etc. at 100% too. Typically 100% hustle brings out some haramball terrorism (which we will see with Australia soon lol)
Dont watch much PSV but am always impressed with his smart movements. Hope he bags a couple against Aus.
I'd say stupid players ratings. 4 is a total disaster, what Freeze done to get it? 5 is a poor game, Richards was outstandig.
Sorry if this has already been mentioned (I forgot about the post-match thread) but... I went looking for post-match interviews, presser, etc. Looked on Fox One, looked on YouTube, looked on FIFA, there's basically nothing. 1-1.5 hrs after FT. Seems odd to me and wondering if there's some reason, like super strict FIFA rights restrictions? And if I/we can continue to expect zero in this regard for the whole tourney???
I will say...we did not start out that great. Paraguay was pinning us in a bit the 1st 5 minutes. Was a bit surprised early Paraguay looked more the possession team and we were more on the counter. Certainly we were extremely fortunate to get the own goal. And from then on we just dominated pretty much. That 1-0 was HUUUUUGE.
I don’t want to overstate how impressed I was with how well Poch had this team prepared for this match, but where do I buy that magnificent fishing guide shirt he was wearing?
Great take. I already addressed my thoughts on Wes elsewhere. I’ll encourage my kids to watch Wes as usual and maybe they will tomorrow! Poch has got the boys humming and no matter what I’ll appreciate a performance like that.
Other than the missed shot, Tillman was absolutely immense for us tonight, and essential. The Reyna over Tillman remark seems misguided. Tillman put in a fantastic shift on both sides of the ball.
We did not. We scored three in 22; five in 14; five in 10; two in 06; seven in 02; one in 98; three in 94; and two in 90. We scored more goals tonight than we scored in five of the eight modern world cups we’ve played in. The average number of goals we scored in WCs from 1990-2022 is 3.5. We exceeded that average in one night tonight—and against a team that conceded only ten goals in the entirety of Conmebol qualifying. This is some historic shit.
2-3 moments where he froze in the box. He was a good but can be great. Reyna can score apparently.. so?