Turner at fault big time on the first goal. Horrible piece of distribution which comes right back down his throat. We’ve seen that before. Still deserves credit for all the saves though. The team looked better. The main reason for that I think is Brazils poor form and style of play (not nearly as much high intensity pressing from them) High intensity pressing wrecks us. Forces turnovers that lead to easy goals for our opponents. I guess Brazilian aint about working that hard. Colombians and Uruguayans are though.
The most important thing was 90+ minutes of useful experience against a quality opponent who was actually switched on. Mission accomplished. Scally has been great over the last two games. Robinson was poor last game, but dude goes whistle to whistle every ********ing game, warrior. CP is awesome. Ream and Turner had terrible first halves and much better final “45. Good for Turner, but Ream is over. Aaronson works hard, hustles, gives it all, etc, to always arrive late and get big brothered. Biggest take away was these greggyball gems: “Shaq Moore is our best 1 V 1 defender” “You want the opponent to cross the ball because it’s low percentage” Am I on crazy pills?
Maybe but there’s still an incredible amount of talent and their team and they were bringing some really good players off the bench.
I honestly wouldn’t mind giving the MOTM to Joe Scally tonight. Vini Jr was in his pocket. That’s a tremendous accomplishment
A proper soccer nation would have broadcasters questioning the Pulisic shot that should have been the winner. Instead, they are celebrating a draw with a goalkeeper who giftwrapped the lone goal from Brazil. Yeah, he made a ton of saves. But let's talk about the disappointment of giving up so many chances or not taking advantage of so many chances that we had.
Good game plan by berhalter. Good effort by the players. Scally is turning into a very solid right back. Good to see Turner play well after that early mistake. He should have a confidence boost after that. The draw was very deserved. They had chances to grab more goals but so did we.
It may get lost in the mix. But Ream.Was. HUGE! We were dead set on playing it out of the back, Ream was incredibly deft wit hthe ball. Getting us out of pressure over and over. Defensively he was super smart. But, wit hthe ball, he relieved pressure and made the right pass a ton of times. Glad Scally is getting his due. His run down the wing and pass to McKennie which McKennie knowcked on to Puli, was fantastic. Super stoked for Turner. Right now, Gio is not playing spectacularly, but I love seeing him doing the yeoman's work. The Magic will still be there.
Good bounce back game from Ream, Jedi and Turner. Tons of good saves from Turner despite the poor pass that led to the goal. Very strong game from Pulisic. 2nd solid performance from Scally in a row. Wes is playing like he doesn't want to be injured before transferring to the EPL. Johnny looked good off the bench. Pepi and Balo didn't do much. We need to find a way to get our strikers more involved. Defense still looks slow and shaky on the ball at times.
Musah was fantastic for the most part. Not intimidated by the Brazilians. I'd like to watch again just to see how many times he manhandled/schooled a Brazilian defender. He didn't get that goal, but he would have deserved it.
For me, this game underscores the importance of rotating and subbing liberally in the group stage. We won’t be able to perform like that in the knockouts unless our guys are rested.
Heck of a performance kudos to the men grrrrrrr - kudos to Berhalter could have been 4-3 or 3-1 us … Result was fair and deserved the defense and goal keeping was a vast improvement we knocked them down - good Excellent free kick goal (it was practiced) heck of a long range blast by Musah I thought Scally was going to get torched but he did very well
That is step 1. Step 2 is Crocker et al getting after Berhalter to stop with the system and use the players we have in a way that maximizes their strengths and minimizes their shortcomings - all players have them.
Effort, other than Musah's loafing in the first half was A+. Execution was C+. Brazil have issues. We're not the only nation that can play down to its competition or less than the sum of its parts.
I'd be interested in seeing what the xG looks like; it doesn't seem to be available on any of the usual sites. Brazil had more quality chances, but we had the two best chances of the night.
He just needs to figure out how to pull up and retain possession when nothing is happening in front of him.