Wtf was that

11/25/2022 3:52:29 PM

I’m a soccer novice and also stopped watching once the State game started (because I’m a real fan!)…what is the WTF ^ in reference to?

11/25/2022 3:54:28 PM

Final free kick, basically last play of the game and instead of taking a shot they just play it safe.

Maybe equivalent of a football taking a knee instead of a hail mary in a tie game

11/25/2022 4:09:11 PM

Well a free kick from 45 yards out isn’t exactly dangerous, then play was to roll it to the side of the 18 and cross it in which was defended well

11/25/2022 4:11:21 PM

Thanks for the explanations!

11/25/2022 4:12:24 PM

^^maybe, seemed like there was barely time for a cross


2nd game in a row where starting striker is uninvolved

11/25/2022 4:15:20 PM

There was time for a cross. A ref wouldn’t stop time with a cross into a promising area of attack.

11/25/2022 4:23:57 PM

It looked very much like dumping to the corner to seal the draw but I'll accept your explanation

11/25/2022 4:29:57 PM

Berhalter seemed to point to his watch and then motion to slow-play it

certainly seemed like he was fine with the draw

11/25/2022 4:31:19 PM

Yea that was my take


Also, prob didn't have much impact on the outcome, but refs card usage has been strange both games

11/25/2022 4:48:10 PM

So the US needs to beat Iran to advance? And they advance regardless of any other game?

11/25/2022 4:53:49 PM

Yes

USA advances with a win
USA does not advance with a draw or a loss

11/25/2022 5:06:03 PM

Before the cup I would have taken needing to beat Iran to advance. If we can’t we probably wouldn’t make it out of the next round anyways.

11/26/2022 11:22:12 PM

LETS GO!!!!!!!!


I swear I had worse nerves during that last 15 minutes than any sporting event I can remember

11/29/2022 4:05:36 PM

That was a nerve racking last 20-30 minutes.

Pulisic taking the Captain America nickname to new levels just throwing caution to the wind. My guess is he is done for tournament, so here is Reyna's opportunity. Sucks for Sargent as well, his holdup play was good today.

11/29/2022 4:38:42 PM

Pulisic says he is good to go for Saturday... from his hospital bed. LOL

11/29/2022 4:58:54 PM

What in the world does ggg say to his team at halftime in these games lol

Does he or Tim Beck play more conservative with a lead

11/29/2022 8:13:26 PM

he says "We are gonna sit our 2 bona fide Bundesliga stars so we can sub in average MLS players. I believe in miracles"

11/30/2022 9:06:12 AM

Lol. Who's the 2nd Budesliga star though other than Reyna?

11/30/2022 9:42:11 AM

Star might be a stretch, but Joe Scally is a locked in starter at Gladbach

11/30/2022 9:53:20 AM

No worries I'm not as read in to the German league, thanks

11/30/2022 10:16:39 AM

Also btw finally our forward was connected on the pass map! Sargent actually involved.

And we had 5 SOT yesterday compared to 1 in each of the previous games

11/30/2022 12:52:30 PM

Yeah but the targetkeeper, or targetie if you will, stopped 4 of them

11/30/2022 1:04:52 PM

Quote :

"This overhead view of the USMNT's goal against Iran is sort of a work of art. From the front to back play, to the switched fields, to the well-timed runs, this is some fine 4D chess that GGG's drawn up for his Baby Eagles. (via: @rodrigoccc97)"

https://twitter.com/MenInBlazers/status/1598112046859841537

11/30/2022 8:47:40 PM

man, that really was a thing of beauty

11/30/2022 9:02:25 PM

Pulisic’s recognition as soon as the ball gets switched is impressive

11/30/2022 9:55:54 PM

Big, if true

12/1/2022 12:37:55 PM

^^^^already disabled

12/1/2022 12:47:55 PM

man, FIFA fuckin sucks (or is it fox in this case?). I know that's not new news, but not being able to post clips of games/goals on social media is literally the opposite of promoting your event/game. What a boomer mentality of shutting down commentary and clip sharing of your coverage.

12/1/2022 1:48:18 PM

I think the NFL and EPL are like that too, but NBA is smarter. I'm always seeing great dunk clips on socialized media

12/1/2022 2:13:55 PM

https://twitter.com/LeanderAlphabet/status/1598662619782516738

Quote :

"It seems that the flu has also hit the Dutch camp (after the Brazilian one) before their World Cup round-of-16 match tomorrow. They won’t say how many players are sick, but it appears all-important playmaker Frenkie de Jong is among them."

Doesn't de Jong being out hurt us?

12/2/2022 8:57:02 AM

Who is his replacement? He has played every game and been pretty solid helping the defense in the middle of the park. Not sure that changes our tactics as we are more dangerous on wings.

12/2/2022 9:16:35 AM

I'm not super familiar with the Netherlands or Barcelona, but he has been pretty underwhelming this cup IMO. When he is involved in the attack, it looks clumsy. I'd rather he be in personally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-dWD2efCEo

On an unrelated note, this series with Rog and Jesse Marsch has been pretty cool.

12/2/2022 10:23:37 AM

Man, the marking on that 3rd goal.....

12/3/2022 11:48:49 AM

I hope whoever is coaching us in 3.5 years realizes that the international game isn't the place for the underdog to play possession heavy high press especially if you don't have world class defenders

12/3/2022 11:56:56 AM

just completely outclassed in all facets of the game

12/3/2022 12:13:29 PM

I don't think that's the case, they just finished chances while we didn't. It was a pretty even game from a creation standpoint.

12/3/2022 1:11:26 PM

The only place we got completely outclassed is at manager. I can't remember many dangerous chances that we didn't finish (except the Pulisic chance he botched early)...unless you count about 15 shitty non-dangerous crosses that didn't hit a target.

We did dominate possession, but that seems to have been the Dutch manager's intention. He let us have the ball and knock it around which we love to do and then smoked us on the counter. It was basically the Canada playbook from WCQ with better players. Their chances converted weren't even world class. Most of them were just flat out bad errors by our defenders with wide-open chances.

You could chalk it up to fatigue (too many minutes on Adams and Musah IMO), inexperience, or whatever but I watched all of the Netherlands games and I don't buy the idea that their players are leaps and bounds better than ours.

As far as I'm concerned, getting out of groups is the bare minimum for a US coach at this point. In hindsight, we probably had the weakest group too. Iran and Wales were terrible. It's time to build on this result with our group with a new coach and figure out some ways to get some games against real competition over the next 4 years since we won't have WCQ.

12/4/2022 3:53:19 PM

More on the idea that Gregg wants to promote that we just don't have the horses

https://twitter.com/herculezg/status/1599498559891521536

Quote :

"“We don’t have a Memphis Depay right now, who’s scoring in the Champions League”.. - Gregg Berhalter Pulisic: 47 apps, 7 g/9a Depay: 29 apps, 8g/4a"

Berhalter's system doesn't create well offensively with our personnel... And don't get me started on the set pieces. If we weren't absolutely useless there, we wouldn't even have to create in open play.

[Edited on December 4, 2022 at 4:32 PM. Reason : d]

12/4/2022 4:25:07 PM

GGG has got to go. His tactical awareness is pretty weak. He wastes roster spots on ra-ra guys like Roldan. Plus the wasted start for Jesus Ferreira who was fucking awful and should not see the pitch until he vastly improves.

Adams and Musah were pretty bad in the Netherlands game, I am not sure if it was fatigue or illness or they were just was scared to mess up, out of position, lazy passes, not getting into attack.

LVG knew our weaknesses, which is what a good manager does. Robinson is not good in defense, that is what Fulham supporters scream all the time, he is good in attack and he has a lot of pace, but his ball winning skills are suspect and Dumfries abused him all game long. The third goal I am not sure who was supposed to rotate over in cover since Robinson had moved to the center of the box, but that was nail in coffin. Not sure we would have gotten another goal but Dumfries isn't getting an easier goal than that.

So where do we go with the manager? Do we go after a Jesse Marsch who has chaotic style and has weak defensive tactics? Do we try another Non-American?

12/5/2022 8:05:33 AM

I love Marsch for Leeds and his pressing system is great for creating goals with less talent which he has to do with at a mid-table Prem club. At the club level, you can simply go get players who fit your style.

On a national team, I think we need someone who is less about a "system" and can instead be smart tactically and build a system around our talent. Maybe Marsch has that ability but from what I have seen, he seems pretty one-note like GGG. Besides, he seems to be on the verge of something with Leeds and I don't want to see him leave that.

When the question surrounding our most talented player (Gio) is "but who should he go in for?" as if we simply don't have a spot for him on the field while our 9 was basically a non-factor all tournament no matter who played and A-rob and Dest were ok, but not world beaters. I know you don't change this shit at the WC, but maybe play a back three, or two up front to give more mid-fielder options.

Gregg's one-note system is why probably our best and most experienced defender isn't even on the roster so we can have Aaron Long bringing the vibes. Or leaving our most prolific goal scorer at home because he doesn't fit the system. It's a challenge, but the best managers figure out a way to get the best talent on the field and working together.

BTW, this exact conversation is being had about Southgate at England, but the major difference is even their B talent gives them more room for error than we have at the moment.

12/5/2022 8:44:38 AM

Quote :

"Louis van Gaal: "The #USMNT??? didn't adapt, they didn't adjust, we made our tactical plan based on [targeting the flanks].""

12/5/2022 9:56:49 AM

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4827699/usmnt-boss-gregg-berhalter-interested-in-european-club-options-amid-new-contract-talk-sources

Good grief. 2 cycles is too much for any national team coach. But especially one who is as mid as Gregg. I keep seeing his national team record pop-up as a reason why he should be looked at as successful...and 95% of those wins are against teams with a tiny fraction of the population and resources as us. We have done well against Mexico and Gregg has recruited dual nats well. But Mexico just had their worst World Cup in 20 years. We barely got out of maybe the worst group in the tournament. We finished tied for 4th out of 8 in qualifying... barely getting into the World Cup.

As mentioned before, his personnel decisions are all over the place. And none of this mentions how he even got the job in the first place which was a complete sham--his brother was a the COO and they literally interviewed 2 people.

12/7/2022 11:06:49 AM

Of course they are going to bring back GGG.

12/7/2022 11:47:49 AM

Quote :

"#USMNT??? winger Gio Reyna's lack of effort in training & scrimmage vs. Al-Gharafa contributed to role at World Cup, per sources. Reyna eventually apologized to team. Gregg Berhalter comments via @charterworks seem to reference issues. ?? w/ @samstejskal:"

https://twitter.com/PaulTenorio/status/1602074325057785860

12/11/2022 8:21:27 PM

So if USSF wants to destroy this young talent pool of European based players that are actually seeing the pitch then sign GGG to another contract.

If not go find a coach that can take this squad to the next level.

If you keep GGG making it out of groups is probably his ceiling.

12/12/2022 8:00:15 AM

Let's assume all the shit that is out there about Gio is 100% true with no nuance or context needed, it's still absolutely absurd that this shit is out there in public now or that he was nearly kicked off the team. The kid is 19. Kicked off the team? The team that you selected? The idea that it was allegedly voted on by the staff is even worse. A freakin vote? Like survivor? What a shitshow.

Sorry but GGG is a joke and clearly cares more about vibes and "hustle" than technical ability. And that mentality was fine 30 years ago when our players didn't have the technical ability to compete so we had to be about the hustle only. Being a head coach is managing egos. This is akin to the Ziyech/Morocco issue...which was resolved with a head coach being fired and a subsequent run to the semis.

[Edited on December 12, 2022 at 9:54 AM. Reason : d]

12/12/2022 9:53:59 AM

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmE_QazJeDF/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Quote :

"Just before the World Cup, Coach Berhalter told me that my role at the tournament would be very limited. I was devasted. I am someone who plays with pride and passion. Soccer is my life, and I believe in my abilities. I fully expected and desperately wanted to contribute to the play of a talented group as we tried to make a statement at the World Cup. "

Man, Berhalter needs to go somewhere for real. Before I just thought he was a stubborn dude with his own guys and system that he prefers but overall a nice dude. I didn't hate him, but I was consistently annoyed by his personnel and tactical decisions. This whole situation with Gio pisses me off though. How can you end up looking like the smaller person in a situation that involves a 19 yr old kid sulking on the field?

12/12/2022 2:39:44 PM

Was this Berhalter's team trying to get ahead of this? Because yes, this seems petty. I get it Gio was injured a good bit of qualifying but he is still one of the better talents we have especially with his versatility.

But I suppose we should be used to this, him making John Brooks a pariah should be the red warning lights. Based on his connections in the USSF he will be retained and we can only hope at the next Gold Cup he gets embarassed and gets fired because of a poor result but I won't hold my breath.

12/12/2022 4:19:09 PM

I think he thought it was off the record but it was a semi public event? Also he didn't name names but people figured it out pretty quick.

12/12/2022 4:42:06 PM