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USMNT 2021


Napoleon

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2 hours ago, ztejas said:

Still needs to work on his finishing off the dribble - especially on the counter with grass in front of him.

I would like to see him do many more give-and-go’s, Barça style one-twos in and around the box. 

If he’s going to draw the foul, draw that bitch in the box, not 30 yards out. 

I think that for starters, the plan has to have some variation from:

Antonee brings the ball up the left side to Pulisic and the passes it to him from 10 feet away and the just watches to see how Pulisic is going to try to take on two guys from 36 yards out. 

Pepi gives one-touch layoff passes to half the team and then turns and heads for the goal. Weah is the only non-FC Dallas teammate of Pepsi’s who even considers getting the ball back to Pepi for another layoff. 

Ferreira knows how to play like this, especially with Pepi, but so far they haven’t had the opportunity to play together. 

In my expert amateur opinion, this should be something that Pulisic can excel at, but he needs to look for it and think about it. That’s not the case so far.

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I'm the first to say the FIFA world rankings don't matter, garbage, etc.

But...

1	Belgium			1828.45
2	Brazil			1826.35
3	France			1786.15
4	England			1755.52
5	Argentina		1750.51
6	Italy			1740.77
7	Spain			1704.75
8	Portugal		1660.25
9	Denmark			1654.54
10	Netherlands		1653.73
11	Germany			1648.33
12	United States		1647.14
13	Switzerland		1642.83
14	Mexico			1638.76
15	Croatia			1620.74

It's the first time the US has been ahead of Mexico in 6 years (July 2015).

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18 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

I'm the first to say the FIFA world rankings don't matter, garbage, etc.

But...

1	Belgium			1828.45
2	Brazil			1826.35
3	France			1786.15
4	England			1755.52
5	Argentina		1750.51
6	Italy			1740.77
7	Spain			1704.75
8	Portugal		1660.25
9	Denmark			1654.54
10	Netherlands		1653.73
11	Germany			1648.33
12	United States		1647.14
13	Switzerland		1642.83
14	Mexico			1638.76
15	Croatia			1620.74

It's the first time the US has been ahead of Mexico in 6 years (July 2015).

Top 7 get the #1 seed in a pot, correct (with the 8th #1 seed going to Qatar)? Might be attainable since WCQ games earn more points than friendlies. 

Croatia, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, and Spain have all played their last meaningful game until the World Cup. Portugal and Italy have at most, 2 more. We have 6. Maybe there's a chance?

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I'm not sure that's possible. Right now we are down 57.61 points on 7th place. Here are our current points available the rest of the way for us

El Salvador: win +6.06
@ Canada: win +8.24
Honduras: win +5.75
@ Mexico: win +12.3
Panama: win +6.59
@ Costa Rica: +7.72

That's only a total of 46.66 AND we only get points with wins, anything else will cost us some points. So we need to jump everyone AND having them lose some points too. Not seeing that happen.

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5 minutes ago, shnsajax said:


Imagine having Jonathan David on our roster now.

Fuck that syrup-slurping poutine lover.

4 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Or some other center forward. I'm 100 percent pro-Pepi, but it's absolutely bonkos that Gergg called up a solitary striker for the previous two cycles.

Yeah this basically. Pepi can barely play 90 in CONCACAF (through no fault of his own - he just isn't there physically) let alone string productive, workhorse starts together 2 or 3 games in a row. Jesus has potential but he isn't a 9.

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13 minutes ago, Mittens said:

I'm all for the home field advantage over the tropical countries, but this seems a little...extreme?

 

Wahl kind of makes the point that while this puts the Central American teams at a big disadvantage, it's doing little to no favors for us either. In these potential conditions we are going to probably have a drop off of play too. Let's not even get started about the danger of these conditions and injuries.

I'm not saying let these teams play in Dallas, but play these games in fair conditions and we are likely to win too.

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The more I read, the more I agree. This might be among the dumbest decisions that US Soccer has made for places to play. If either Honduras or El Salvador get early crap goals, we are going to be in a world of hurt. These are our two easiest games and we just upped the degree of difficulty for no reason at all.

 

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My chief concern for home fixtures is having a majority of the crowd cheering for the USMNT, i.e., an actual home game.

Due to El Tri's extensive popularity, this might necessitate playing in Columbus or Saint Paul in winter, but I see no need to put El Salvador, Honduras, or our own players in a deep freeze.

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On 11/23/2021 at 5:39 PM, Braff Zacklin said:

Or some other center forward. I'm 100 percent pro-Pepi, but it's absolutely bonkos that Gergg called up a solitary striker for the previous two cycles.

The last two games Pepi and Jesus were the only two strikers. The window before that Pepi, Zardes, and Hoppe were called in as the potential strikers.

It feels like Pefok and Dike have dropped out of favor because they don’t fit the pressing style.

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1 minute ago, goatsaag said:

The last two games Pepi and Jesus were the only two strikers. The window before that Pepi, Zardes, and Hoppe were called in as the potential strikers.

It feels like Pefok and Dike have dropped out of favor because they don’t fit the pressing style.

I'd forgotten about Zardes, but Jesus and Hoppe are not pure strikers, which has already been stated and discussed.

Point is, Gergg continues to make puzzling roster decisions. Bringing only one true center forward into camp for the last cycle is merely the most recent example.

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32 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

We wound up idiotically in St Paul, Minnesota 

Them cold little Hondurans playing for a draw, fucking draw

But we knew Qatar was in the cards if we won all the points

But Pulisic crossed Big River like Washington 

William Shakespeare would kill himself if he weren’t already dead. 

Hell, most living poets should be put on suicide after they read that. 👀

🤯

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5 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Playoff draw done.  4th place COCACAF will play a 1-game playoff v Oceania at a neutral site.  Obviously, it would be New Zealand.

It's likely New Zealand, but you never know. And I don't see how anyone that would finish 4th in the Octagonal wouldn't win that matchup. The teams are just too stacked, IMHO.

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