What's the rest of the world thinking of our performances so far this tournament?

Whoscored & Fotmob punishes you very heavily for simply coming off the bench, unless you're involved in 1, or maybe more major events - goal, assist, goal line clearance, etc. So using it to evaluate bench performance would be very misleading. Aaronson could produce the same level performances as a starter and he'd shoot up the rankings.

The interesting ones are Sargent and McKennie. Because really they've had 2 poor matches (though Sargent wasn't on long for 1). McKennie's had one very good one. Sargent's just had 1 solid one. He was still very imprecise on the final ball. Yet, he was very quick to be anointed. It's a very low standard for certain players (high, if any for others). Of the true CF's, he's the one I'd start, but there were better options outside the roster, and I'd still rather go in the direction of Weah even if Josh were healthy. He definitely shouldn't start at below 100%.

 

My 11th grade daughter’s teacher wanted to watch during her class so that’s what they did. She came home excited to let me know the US beat Iran. (Um yeah, I work from home so I already knew that.)

 

Ann Coulter: "Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation's moral decay." And other politicized, if inane and factually baseless, observations.

https://www.salon.com/2014/06/26/an...grandfather_was_born_here_is_watching_soccer/

I realize she's not a politician. But she is a political voice, and a prominent one featured on many sports networks. This argument is just one extreme iteration of the nativist claim that soccer is a "foreign" sport that is insufficiently American.

I take DK's point that this forum is not a venue for political debate, and if this is over the line my bad and pls delete. I'm not seeking to debate in the sense of making a normative claim, just asserting the factual point that soccer has at times been a target in political discussions.

 

Having looked through a number of your garden variety Twitter sources with heavy feedback from other countries I've been struck most at the perception of MMA. And if we are to confess to being surprised by any one thing it is how an out-of-form McKennie playing for a fading European giant, a fell out of favor at Leipzig Adams and a very young and modestly emerging Musah have been one of the best midfields in the World Cup--and none of them have entered their Prime. Collectively they have set themselves up for a big jump in dollars, pounds, Euros or whatever currency awaits. The ultimate foreign compliment to them is probably Gareth Southgate's pragmatic removal of pre-WC darling Bellingham coming off his debut with Iran and lifting him after he and Declan Rice were made to look ghosts.

Look...if we're playing through next weekend it's not exactly The Miracle on Ice; but we will have put out a powerhouse from the last Half Century in the Dutch and ended Messi's World Cup dreams. Sign me up though I hate that it would be us...but that is what stands in our way. If we run over those midfields like we did the English our perception of where we stand on the World Stage going into the next qualifying cycle really is bolstered.

 

The less coverage these people get, the better. They're just far right mouthpieces for whatever political causes they have, not much different from that Iranian mouthpiece who lectured Tyler Adams about the pronunciation of Iran.

 

Depends how far north. As you get closer to Oregon, it’s very conservative/regressive.

USA being good at ‘soccer’ really pisses off many countries. They feel football is the last thing they can lord over Superpower USA which dominates the world in other respects (military, economy, pop culture).

 

She obviously doesnt know what you do while "working from home." Best to keep it that way.

 

There's one country that immediately comes to mind in that regard:

 

Although not of a different generation, just look at interviews from Adams, Aaronson etc. talking about how Pulisic’s success paved the way for “the world” to think differently about non-goalie Americans, thus, making their path to Europe a bit easier.

 

Except that in this day and age so many teams are good and group stages is a three game sample size. Our group was close enough that a few different bounces of the ball and we could have 9 points or zero. Yet, that would not change that we have had a very consistent play especially with our starters.

 

To further this point: with seven groups completed, teams eliminated who were only one big late moment or lucky play away from advancing:

Ecuador, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Tunisia, Germany, Uruguay, Ghana

The margins can be tight.

 

Group stage was 3 matches in each of those Cups. Plenty of teams were 'good' in each of those Cups. The US group was not strong.

 

Elo rankings disagree but whatevs.

 

Some teams are going to be weaker than their rankings. Wales and Iran were dog$hit.

 

I think the US group was tricky for being a pot 2 team. It was an easier group than we often get, but we have never been a pot 2 team before. That makes a real difference.

 

Remaining unbeaten teams at the #FIFAWorldCup:

Netherlands 🇳🇱
England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
USA 🇺🇸
Morocco 🇲🇦
Croatia 🇭🇷

— Chris Smith (@CJSmith91) December 2, 2022

World Cup group play is over, and five of 32 teams got through it without losing:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 7 pts
🇳🇱 7 pts
🇲🇦 7 pts
🇭🇷 5 pts
🇺🇸 5 pts

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) December 2, 2022

Six teams allowed only 1 goal in group play:
🇳🇱 Netherlands
🇺🇸 USA (only goal allowed was a PK)
🇹🇳 Tunisia (did not advance)
🇲🇦 Morocco
🇭🇷 Croatia
🇧🇷 Brazil

No team recorded 3 clean sheets.

— Steve Fenn //\\ Mast: StatHunting@skrimmage.com (@StatHunting) December 2, 2022

World Cup round of 16 by confederation:

UEFA 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇫🇷🇵🇹🇵🇱🇳🇱🇭🇷🇪🇸🇨🇭
AFC 🇦🇺🇯🇵🇰🇷
CAF 🇸🇳🇲🇦
CONMEBOL 🇦🇷🇧🇷
CONCACAF 🇺🇸

— Paul Carr (@PaulCarr) December 2, 2022

 

San Francisco and Sacramento are in northern California, but not far northern. In far northern California there are forests and no significant cities.

When the rest of the world thinks about soccer in the Americas, they think about Brazil and Argentina, and maybe other countries that produced stars like Uruguay's Luis Suarez. Being the only Concacaf or CONMEBOL team other than Brazil and Argentina to advance is significant.

 

This has got to be one of CONMEBOL’s all time worst performances. Only 2 advanced. At least none finished last in their group.

 

Ream and/or Tyler Adams should probably be in that as of now, but there's still half a tournament left to play and lasting deep into it will obviously affect that.

 

As long as the MMA midfield is intact, I tend to agree. I expect that several sides could hold possession and have the better of it but it wouldn't be that kind of one-way traffic. However, if we're missing one or more of those guys (especially Adams), expect Argentina, Brazil, France, and Spain to force Turner to have to make like 16 saves like in the good ol' days...

 

What impressed me more than qualifying to the R16 was how we qualified. In 2014 we hung on against Ghana and Germany. In 2022 we largely controlled all three games.

If we played 2014 Belgium today there's no way this team lets them fire 39 shots on us.

 

No team out there today has prime Eden Hazard and prime KDB. And a prime Lukaku came off the bench. It also should be remembered the US midfield featured Jermaine Jones, Geoff Cameron, Micheal Bradley, and Ale Bedoya. These guys were no slouches compared to the fabled 'MMA'.

 

Germany won the tournament. Ghana had placed 3 shots on target to the US's 4.