Post-match: USMNT v Saudi Arabia (Gold Cup)

-------------------------------Balo/Pepi-------------------------------
----Pulisic------------------------------------------------Weah-------
----------------------------Tillman/Reyna----------------------------
---------------Adams------------------------McKennie-------------
Jedi--------------Ream-------------------Richards----------Dest
----------------------------Turner/Steffen---------------------------

He's going to try to get Luna and Musah in there as well somehow, but that's the first XI as it stands in "standard" mode.

I think we're also looking at potential 3 in the back system, with McKenzie, Miles, and CCV all in the running as the 3rd CB, and sacrificing one of Weah or Jedi or Dest or Tillman/Reyna, depending...

 

One would hope that the example has set them straight, maybe Steven Gerrard having PTSD from a short tour of duty in MLS lol helped. Looks like they'll be playing 4 games per day in the group stage just like the previous World Cup. So what times would be the kickoffs? I found an old thread from WC '22 that ran into the summer of '23 before dying talking about it in the FIFA/Tournaments forum.....There's interesting bits here and there, including, lol, someone who assumed SF would be fine in June/July, needless to say, Santa Clara is in the bottom of the horse shoe that is the peninsula South of San Francisco, and it turns into an oven in summer. It's not the humid east/south level bad, but it gets quite hot there during the summer. I really hope they're smart, a lot of retractable roofs, but Santa Clara, for instance, does not have one, and they definitely shouldn't be hosting games Noon-4pm in late June and July. Not sure how many stadiums have a similar issue.

People were talking about games in Mexico not being too hot, not realizing that at altitude in Azteca, heat is just one of the many issues.....A lot of naïveté. It was nice to see that people kind of understood that the US, like Brazil as a host, but worse, is really, really, really spread out like a continent of Europe, rather than a smallish country like Qatar, South Africa, Germany, South Korea, Japan, France, even Brazil and even Russia, which though large, had games in one area of the country. This tournament will host games all across North America....IT's gonna be quite interesting. Hopefully no games in the South and East will be hosted locally between Noon and 4pm.

 

Most of the games in the south are indoor… HOU, DAL, ATL… only southern city with an outside venue is MIA

 

Wow that Ream number is eye opening. So is the Luna and Tillman numbers.

So even though McGlynn seemed to have much less of the ball on the right, he still connected more passes than Arfsten on the left…. Interesting. Thanks for the stats.

 

yep. I went to all the games in Orlando (5 games) and most of them had on field temperatures above 100.

 

I think Lalas did too. Is he better than LDT?

 

yeah I’m not going to agree with that. He’s quite good at combination play if the RB overlaps or if Tillman shows for the ball.he also got behind the defense and squared a dangerous ball (with his right foot) across the 6 yard box that we didn’t get to.

 

OK…. It goes with what I thought I saw. But of course I come on here and all the takes are how great Tillman was and McGlynn sux and it makes you second guess things. It’s really par for the course on here that people’s biases skew what they see.

You have to be careful though, as those xA numbers can be mostly from free kicks and not really be fair to compare against other players that don’t take free kicks.

 

Seems like you agree with me. There’s no overlap if he’s on the touchline.
I mever said McGlynn sucks so I don’t know what that’s about. And if you think McGlynn is a threat to beat opponents off the dribble we can agree to disagree.
I think he’s a real talent but he’s slow, that’s a fact.

 

Haha, Lalas didn’t score though at 94 Cup. Wynalda and Earnie Stewart did though.

 

yeah I misunderstood your position. We agree on all the things then. He’s an inverted winger who will cut in 90% of the time. If he had an overlapping RB, he would be more effective.

 

Even better shouts…. What do you think Stewart or Green?

 

Just to clarify, those were completed passes into the final third.

 

Yeah. Exactly what I had asked for.thanks

 

based upon recent performances

I could see Luna in for Weah and then put Luna on the left and Pulisic on the right (right where he plays for ACM) …

Reyna likely will not even be on the squad based on current situation …

and Freese is over Turner and Steffen is injured ..

 

I should attach a picture of myself and my 1 year old melting in Orlando from '17. One June trip was enough to insure that my family would never set foot again in Florid in June, July or August lol. How in ---- did Miami decide it alone was deserving of no dome? The place is like an apartment 3 blocks from the corona of the sun in July. Insane.

 

Part of the issue here is (IMHO) combo play involves 3 players and not just 2 (a wall pass is not a combo play) … you need crisp combo plays to break down better opponents and I just don’t see the movement from McGlynn to be effective with combo play - or maybe I am just missing it ..

 

Well that’s why he keeps cutting in and feeding Tillman. If Freeman was free to overlap, when that play is on, we’d have a combo situation.

 

The buildup tactics against T&T were also bad, it’s just that T&T are so incompetent that it didn’t matter.

 

I don’t think one can say that. Tillman played some as an AM in a 4231 in his first season and his attacking per 90s (actual and underlying) were significantly stronger than this last season. Figuring out if that threat came only when he was playing on the left vs AM would take some ground work.

 

PSG totally overran PSV but finished poorly. Malik didn’t embarrass himself.

 

FotMob uses Opta. Opta don’t provide actual xA any more. They use a metric that’s actually “expected goals assisted”. It measures the likelihood of every pass’s chance of resulting in an assist, so necessarily that includes passes where a shot is not taken. Because the term xA is well known and accepted Opta wants their clients to just label their new stat that.

 

All this discussion about a failed attack comes down to the inability of the #9 to receive and maneuver balls sent accurately to him. Any of 3-4 other would-be #9s would have done better, IMHO. Maybe time and recovery will be the answer.

 

Don't know if you are right about Luna over Weah and who knows at this point where Reyna stands but if nothing else, the fact that we are talking about it is significant. Interesting that Musah seems to have been forgotten in many of these conversations. Imo, the gold cup seems to be on track to clarify, somewhat, the cb position with regard to Richards but muddying everything else. Ream is getting older and slower but still is better than anyone else at distribution and has experience that makes up a bit for his declining physical abilities and nobody seems to be able to wrestle the spot from him. Aaronson might be losing his first off the bench and occasional starter position. Tillman has done enough for people (including Poch it seems) to start taking him seriously for the next step up in the hierarchy.

 

He seems to do best when the cb climbs on his back 30 yds from goal.

For my money, he needs to improve his runs and he is too slow in making decisions...whether it is speed of thought or technical he often/usually gets closed down without taking the shot or making a pass.

I would also say that passing is a two way street. A good run makes the pass easier and opens space for others on the team. Our players don't usually make those runs: inside out, near post etc.