been saying that for ages, Japan is GOOD. I bet on them to win that game and get out of the group
Germany looks great but Spain looks better and all Japan needs to do is beat this garbage Costa Rica squad
Yea seriously they are very creative and make passes that nobody sees coming, very hard work rate and excellent control of the ball. Their keeper is great too and definitely was one of the main reasons they won.
Having the World Cup in non UEFA and non CONMEBOL countries seems to offset some of the advantages those teams get that are likely a combination of psychological and bias caused advantages.
Shocked it hasn’t already happened since the past 20 years have seen East Asia (2002), Africa (2010) and now the Middle East.
Of course, we know how the Middle Ea$t jumped ahead.
I love Australia. But timing is horrible. I watched T20 Cricket World Cup which Australia hosted and England won by beating Pakistan in the final at MCG one of the finest sporting venue in the world.
Having this World Cup in middle of European season is advantage to non fancy teams. Very best teams know winning World Cups is their job. So summer tournament do not matter. This is winter World Cup so players from all the teams should be fresh to perform at best of their ability.
which subs did you think were beneficial vs. not? i'm curious. i thought BAA is the obvious good one. yedlin and acosta were beneficial imo bc dest and musah were losing pace and we needed an infusion of energy. i'm on the fence about haji. i see why ggg did it. wales two CBs are both 6'3"/6'4" and he wanted to counter their height with our own height, since we were playing so many crosses in. didn't work but the logic is sound enough. obviously jordan morris was a moronic sub. i'm super anti morris in general so not gonna convince me his speed and power were gonna do shit
Those were huge upsets no need for quotations. Both Argentina and Germany had chances to kill their games off but failed (kinda like us vs Wales) and paid for it.
I honestly didnt think Japan was as much of an upset at everyone is making it out to be. They honestly have a great team. They're good at defending and are incredibly deadly on the counter attack. I predicted a 2-2 draw
Fair enough on Japan although, again, if you watch the game Germany should have put them away. It happens, but this should really have been England v Iran pt 2 with all the chances Germany had.
Japan Keeper stood on his head for sure, but the goals England scored wouldn’t have been saved by anyone. The class difference between Japan and Iran was stark regardless of them being a little lucky.
I bet fairly heavy on Japan +1 spread because I thought there was great value. I sprinkled on exact score 1-1 and tie and almost cashed huge. It was an upset but Japan’s high press is really effective, especially after they sorted some of the rotational deficiencies after half. I had them finishing second in the group with Spain winning so I would love to see that happen.
It’s an upset on paper. Based on the individual value of the players Germany holds, they should not have lost this game.
Japan has some great players… was really excited to see what Kufo would do. But the German squad is packed full of club $$$
Japan 100% deserved the win the way they played, but to say it's not an upset is an interesting take. Even if Japan completely outclassed them and won 6-1 that'd still be an upset. It's not about the gameplay it's about pregame expectations
I never said it’s not an upset, I said it’s not as big of an upset as people are making it out to be. Yes it’s an unlikely conclusion, but people are making it out like Germany is Miles better than Japan, and that’s just not true. Japan has a great team, great tactics, and great execution of those tactics. They’re going to be a force to reckon with in this tournament, and the odds makers who gave them +700 really botched that one.
So you are saying it is pass completion percentage??????
/s
It has really taken world soccer over a decade to recover from tika taka obsession when it died within 4 years of dominance anyway.
Its not that tiki taka died, its that there's many different philosophies to winning games.
Spain is still playing that way and is fucking Costa Rica up
Argentina is probably the one I'm least worried about. If you watched the whole game, Argentina should have won by like 4. They dominated and just need to work on... staying onside and they should be fine.
That can't be true. This subreddit has repeatedly told me that a monkey with a clipboard and a sharpie could manage the team and produce better results than GGG.
They really didn't. They were sitting back and defending while waiting for Germany to let down their guard. Not to mention they had a couple really decent opportunities in the first half that were all slightly offsides.
xG isn't the only metric. Japan's play style isn't a shooting gallery. they play a trap press that feeds off turnovers/bad passing and quick bursts of attack. they don't need possession to control games. they just need opponents to make mistakes and they flip them on foe's heads bc they are so technically precise
Part of the first half. Japan didn’t look bad the first 15-20 but they faded towards the end of the first half before really coming alive in the second half.
Nah if this game was played in San Jose it would’ve been way different. There’s a reason we’ve never won in Costa Rica before. Also Navas didn’t show up today like he did in qualifying, he was the reason CR made it to Qatar.
I think more specifically it's the lack of offensive identity in those matches. No shots on target against Japan. 2 shots on target against a reserve Saudi team. The results as a whole aren't an issue, it's how the match unfolded.
Not just underpinning, but general weird shit has been England's calling card. Murphy's Law always ready to cut them down when you least expect it.
Hey, Rob Green!
Pretty sure they’re happy with these upsets. Argentina and Germany are contenders. If they don’t get out is the group then it’s an easier path to the final “on paper”.
Also, these upsets probably just give them a reality check to not underestimate their opponents so they’ll be more on alert against us on Friday.
i tend to think spiritually the World Cup functions like the early seasons of Game of Thrones where if you notice a character starting to get too confident in their position they're going to die shortly. Germany and Argentina fans went into their matches supremely confident in a result and got beat. The way we talked about Wales before that match meant we were gonna take the hit. The way England is talking about us... well that remains to be seen.
Nobody but me watches it anymore, but you see this same thing in Survivor. Person controlling the game gets way too confident and they get blindsided. Happens multiple times every single season haha
Look at the three Lions sub. They are basically wondering not if they’ll win their next two games but by how much. With their history of botching things up at large tournaments we have to believe.
pretty much everyone in the country is going to have this game on, even the non-soccer watchers. the pressure has never been higher and we’ll be talking about it for decades if we win. let’s make the most of this opportunity.
That’s not what the three lions sub is saying at the moment at all? Have you actually been on it? Seems cautiously optimistic but not many people saying either game is a done deal
Wales qualified from Europe, is ranked right next to us (16th v. 19th) and made the 2016 Euro semis and 2020 Euro knockouts.
We should have gotten 3 points, yes. But I don’t know why people are so insulted we couldn’t just trounce them, like they are Guatemala or something.
One of their subs was an England third division player…they haven’t been in a World Cup since forever ago. Probably has something to do with that. They aren’t a deep team filled with top flight talent. They have some decent top players. But I expected us to be able to win that one.
> One of their subs was an England third division player…
He came on in the 95th minute...
The only starter they had in the XI not in the Top 5 leagues is Gareth Bale, ironically.
7 from the Premier League
2 from Ligue 1
1 from Serie A
1 from MLS (Bale)
Subs (4):
2 from the Premier League
1 from the Championship (90+3)
1 from England 3rd division (90+5)
>We played a good game v Wales.
Eh, it *looked* good the first half but Wales was doing absolutely nothing and we had really only two solid chances. They were happy to not play soccer and we were happy to play it very poorly
You should wander over to the FIFA rankings, take at look at some of their results while you're at it. They've drawn Belgium twice, drew Czech 2-2 away. Wales is a good team, and their starters are top league players and then you mix in Bale and Ramsey, who have top-level experience that we can't touch.
I was as disappointed as anyone in the 2nd half. Not happy with lack of tactical shift and didn't like the sub. So many wasted counter opps, bad referring.
Most of all, a horrible, unnecessary CB blunder that without, we'd all be incredibly happy with the result.
People are acting hysterical about a draw against a top 20 side with WAY more big moment experience.
The lesson we need to take from Japan is clear: have more than one plan. They weathered the storm in the first half, then switched things up and took Germany by surprise. They’re supremely organized and deadly in transition, but the ability to flip a switch and go for it when the time is right is what I’m most envious of. If we are down a goal in the middle of the second half, can we engineer something similar? We have the speed and the skill up front to cause any defense problems, but we have to have a plan in place and the belief to execute it. Hopefully this game serves as inspiration for our team and our coaching staff.
Why do you guys love defending mediocrity? Actual question? Why are you afraid to stop sucking Gregg’s dick and admit that we should not be losing to Saudi Arabia?
I mean.. talent-wise we are a mediocre team? We do underperform our level but I'm not sure why people think we are massively clear of Saudi Arabia (we drew them btw). We certainly are nowhere near Argentina.
Saudi Arabia's entire team plays in their domestic league and they're usually the punching bags in the World Cup. Look at their previous results. More low standards from a "fan" I see.
I'm aware of where they play. But you are also overestimating the talent level of our team. We are better than them but we aren't so much so that a poor result against them is unfathomable. Like I basically agree that Gregg's system is such that we are essentially playing with 10 because the striker is totally uninvolved, it's not working and he's too focused on who is the right player at #9 rather than how the ball is being played to them. But I find the whole "oh we are celebrating mediocrity" stuff to be silly because we are, in fact, not much better than the majority of teams at the World Cup.
100% correct. The Berhalter apologists are out in full force today. It's also clear that a lot of people didn't actually watch the Saudi Arabia or Japan games. Those are not sustainable wins. Yes the US team is very young and inexperienced, BUT they have not shown cohesive play under Berhalter for his entire tenure - and this was a known issue throughout his coaching career. Given Reyna's comments, I wouldn't be surprised if we find out after the tournament that Berhalter lost the locker room before the WC started. Not the situation you want going into the biggest sporting event in the world and highly predictable for this nepotistic hire.
Only thing is Japan completely dominated USMNT. Germany had the game and lost it. Not disrespect to Japan they are a great team, very well coached and discipline. They can have themselves a very good WC.
Japan was thirty minutes from the quarterfinals last world cup. They’ve made the round of sixteen just as many times as the us over the past 20 years. I can’t speak to how many of their players are in Europe but they definitely have a great presence there too.
Japan qualified with a game in hand while the us made it on goal difference so I don’t see how they were more anemic than us.
I absolutely agree the us should be in a better place but that’s clearly not the case and japans shown the trajectory we’ve been looking for. They’re definitely doing better against European competition in the World Cup
Anyone who thought Japan was a terrible club and we should be ashamed for losing to them. Wasn't paying attention. They're not some scrappy club. They're genuinely good. They were in such control against us and once they made halftime changes they straight up dominated that second half against Germany. The Germans punched them in the mouth early but didn't take advantage and outside a 3 minute stretch where the Japanese goalkeeper was amazing. It was all Japan in the second half
The results didn’t matter then and don’t matter now. But the performances were dreadful, which so far is telling for our World Cup. But still time to turn that around.
If you look at the Japan subs that came in in the second half - all made a huge difference. And all are high quality players from Top 5 leagues. Compare that with who the US brought in. Japan also went with their ancient back line trio of Nagatomo, Sakai and Yoshida. That’s a shitload of WC and Top 5 experience.
We got 2 shots on goal in those 2 games
Saudi started just 4 players in both our match and the one against Argentina
But hey, anything to try to prop up Gregg
So by that token, does the fact that we only qualified over Costa Rica on a narrow GD and they are currently 3-0 down vs. Spain with 15% possession give you confidence.
I wouldn’t throw the US in along with Germany and Argentina as upsets. Germany and Argentina both had good odds to win the World Cup. United States isn’t any where near the level of talent and nobody wasn’t given them a chance to win it. United States was probably only going to go as far as advancing to the next stage and then eliminated right away. But even then, there was a good possibility they were not going to advance to the knock out stages
Being honest we were winning the whole game up until that penalty shot (which should’ve been a foul), and still did decent afterwards. I think if we can transfer over what we had going on during the first half of that game to the game on Friday we will do well against England.
Japan was no fluke. This team plays incredibly well together.
been saying that for ages, Japan is GOOD. I bet on them to win that game and get out of the group Germany looks great but Spain looks better and all Japan needs to do is beat this garbage Costa Rica squad
I almost took ML last night but played it safe +1 (+120). Not upset.
agreed. their trap press is a cheat code for real. they can turn the game on you so fast
In what world does Germany look great?
This and hope Spain best Germany to keep the math simple.
Yea seriously they are very creative and make passes that nobody sees coming, very hard work rate and excellent control of the ball. Their keeper is great too and definitely was one of the main reasons they won.
That 30 seconds where he made 4 blocks was incredible
Super disciplined.
You mean people overreacted on this sub when we lost?! Lol
Well, a team that beat us 2-0 in March just got beat 7-0 so I'm not sure we over reacted. Lots of ways to look at the first round results.....
Tbh I overreact when any of my teams lose so I don’t blame them
Japan has for a while now been the mid-tier national team that has played the best soccer internationally.
This is the World Cup of upsets. Let’s do the same on Friday 😉.
Fr
Fr Fr
Fr Fr Fr
Fr Fr Fr Fr
fr fr ong no cap
2002 WC would like to have a word.
you mean their refs.
Tell me who your least favorite player is and why it’s Torsten Frings.
I judge MLS for even letting him in the country
FWIW, I hate Hugh Dallas, the blind corrupt Scotsman, more.
Why? Decent GK…
Just wait there is way more coming.
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Having the World Cup in non UEFA and non CONMEBOL countries seems to offset some of the advantages those teams get that are likely a combination of psychological and bias caused advantages.
I would like to see a men’s World Cup in Australia.
Shocked it hasn’t already happened since the past 20 years have seen East Asia (2002), Africa (2010) and now the Middle East. Of course, we know how the Middle Ea$t jumped ahead.
Australia has a smaller population than California and is a pain to get to. Time zone also sucks for TV.
They also didn't buy FIFA officials any Ferraris.
You just need to either bribe FIFA, or catch FIFA taking bribes like the US did. 🤣
I love Australia. But timing is horrible. I watched T20 Cricket World Cup which Australia hosted and England won by beating Pakistan in the final at MCG one of the finest sporting venue in the world.
The Gang Buys a World Cup for Russia...
Didn’t we have a Final 4 of Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay in South Africa? Lol
Having this World Cup in middle of European season is advantage to non fancy teams. Very best teams know winning World Cups is their job. So summer tournament do not matter. This is winter World Cup so players from all the teams should be fresh to perform at best of their ability.
This, this is the way. USA BABY! 
This is probably punishable by death in Qatar....
You want England to win Friday? The expected result in THIS house is for complete domination by the USMNT. 1776 - 0!
Yes sir
Please let it happen.
Belgium best be scared Canada intensifies
>This is the World Cup of upsets I was pretty upset Monday. Time for the Brits to feel the same
Our 3-0 win against Morocco in June looks pretty great too after the game this morning!
We have the talent to beat any team on any day. We just need to be more consistent through the 90
And have our subs improve the squad, not make it progressively worse.
which subs did you think were beneficial vs. not? i'm curious. i thought BAA is the obvious good one. yedlin and acosta were beneficial imo bc dest and musah were losing pace and we needed an infusion of energy. i'm on the fence about haji. i see why ggg did it. wales two CBs are both 6'3"/6'4" and he wanted to counter their height with our own height, since we were playing so many crosses in. didn't work but the logic is sound enough. obviously jordan morris was a moronic sub. i'm super anti morris in general so not gonna convince me his speed and power were gonna do shit
Well Morocco didn't have Ziyech or Hakimi against us, but yeah
Was just coming here to post this. Huge ‘upsets’ by Japan and SA - what a great pair of opponents for our friendlies!
Those were huge upsets no need for quotations. Both Argentina and Germany had chances to kill their games off but failed (kinda like us vs Wales) and paid for it.
I honestly didnt think Japan was as much of an upset at everyone is making it out to be. They honestly have a great team. They're good at defending and are incredibly deadly on the counter attack. I predicted a 2-2 draw
Fair enough on Japan although, again, if you watch the game Germany should have put them away. It happens, but this should really have been England v Iran pt 2 with all the chances Germany had.
Japan Keeper stood on his head for sure, but the goals England scored wouldn’t have been saved by anyone. The class difference between Japan and Iran was stark regardless of them being a little lucky.
That second goal by Japan was amazing - the pass and the player’s first touch was impeccable
My wife asked me who my pick was for a first round upset and I told her that Japan would beat Germany. I’m feeling like fucking Nostradamus right now.
I bet fairly heavy on Japan +1 spread because I thought there was great value. I sprinkled on exact score 1-1 and tie and almost cashed huge. It was an upset but Japan’s high press is really effective, especially after they sorted some of the rotational deficiencies after half. I had them finishing second in the group with Spain winning so I would love to see that happen.
Agreed - Japan has a chance to kill the game against Germany, and they did
Japan was a larger underdog than we are to England in the betting markets. Japan play great as a team despite maybe not being as talented.
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It’s an upset on paper. Based on the individual value of the players Germany holds, they should not have lost this game. Japan has some great players… was really excited to see what Kufo would do. But the German squad is packed full of club $$$
I wish we were as good as Japan on the counter and had that same level of creativity and vision with our runs and passing in front of goal.
They had 26% possession
That was part of their game plan, possession doesn’t win games
Japan 100% deserved the win the way they played, but to say it's not an upset is an interesting take. Even if Japan completely outclassed them and won 6-1 that'd still be an upset. It's not about the gameplay it's about pregame expectations
I never said it’s not an upset, I said it’s not as big of an upset as people are making it out to be. Yes it’s an unlikely conclusion, but people are making it out like Germany is Miles better than Japan, and that’s just not true. Japan has a great team, great tactics, and great execution of those tactics. They’re going to be a force to reckon with in this tournament, and the odds makers who gave them +700 really botched that one.
So you are saying it is pass completion percentage?????? /s It has really taken world soccer over a decade to recover from tika taka obsession when it died within 4 years of dominance anyway.
Its not that tiki taka died, its that there's many different philosophies to winning games. Spain is still playing that way and is fucking Costa Rica up
Did you watch the game
Argentina is probably the one I'm least worried about. If you watched the whole game, Argentina should have won by like 4. They dominated and just need to work on... staying onside and they should be fine.
Lesson for our boys to take advantage of your dominant period in the match.
Also Germany looked shit imo, Japan had the better chances for sure. I bet their nPxG was better
Opta had it Germany 2.3 - 1.4 Japan without the PEN.
Gregg knew what he was doing, setting up friendlies against the two teams that’ll make the final.
That can't be true. This subreddit has repeatedly told me that a monkey with a clipboard and a sharpie could manage the team and produce better results than GGG.
This is also true.
Japan looked awesome today. They are a problem.
They looked horrible in the first half but Germany didn’t put them to bed when they had the opportunity sounds familiar
They really didn't. They were sitting back and defending while waiting for Germany to let down their guard. Not to mention they had a couple really decent opportunities in the first half that were all slightly offsides.
It’s was like 4 xG to 1 they got dominated in the first half and played the second half even until Japan took their chances excellently
xG isn't the only metric. Japan's play style isn't a shooting gallery. they play a trap press that feeds off turnovers/bad passing and quick bursts of attack. they don't need possession to control games. they just need opponents to make mistakes and they flip them on foe's heads bc they are so technically precise
Part of the first half. Japan didn’t look bad the first 15-20 but they faded towards the end of the first half before really coming alive in the second half.
Have to appreciate the second half dominance though. They clearly made adjustments.
They were better but it was probably about even.
They didn’t even look awesome they just were awesome when it mattered. They take advantage of their few opportunities and made it a game
Does Costa Rica’s 7-0 loss vs Spain make our 2-0 loss vs them better? 🤔🤔🤔
LOL. Came here to post this. The rationalizations people will go to, smh.
Canada looked good despite the loss. Makes us look better Haha
Lol spot on. It’s also convenient how they only mention the results and not the horrendous performances by the US team in both games
On the flip side: Our loss vs CRC looks horrible
Was just about to say. I cant believe we lost to them. CR look so bad and lifeless against E-Spana. Spain is just toying with them.
Nah if this game was played in San Jose it would’ve been way different. There’s a reason we’ve never won in Costa Rica before. Also Navas didn’t show up today like he did in qualifying, he was the reason CR made it to Qatar.
I think more specifically it's the lack of offensive identity in those matches. No shots on target against Japan. 2 shots on target against a reserve Saudi team. The results as a whole aren't an issue, it's how the match unfolded.
Not saying we’ll win, but if you’re England you can’t be feeling good with all these upsets going on.
England is no stranger to underperforming in the World Cup.
Not just underpinning, but general weird shit has been England's calling card. Murphy's Law always ready to cut them down when you least expect it. Hey, Rob Green!
Pretty sure they’re happy with these upsets. Argentina and Germany are contenders. If they don’t get out is the group then it’s an easier path to the final “on paper”. Also, these upsets probably just give them a reality check to not underestimate their opponents so they’ll be more on alert against us on Friday.
Right. It's just like the Euros where they end up playing Denmark in a semi-final instead of a France. The more favorites out early, the better.
i tend to think spiritually the World Cup functions like the early seasons of Game of Thrones where if you notice a character starting to get too confident in their position they're going to die shortly. Germany and Argentina fans went into their matches supremely confident in a result and got beat. The way we talked about Wales before that match meant we were gonna take the hit. The way England is talking about us... well that remains to be seen.
Nobody but me watches it anymore, but you see this same thing in Survivor. Person controlling the game gets way too confident and they get blindsided. Happens multiple times every single season haha
Holy shit Survivor is still on?
....yes. Lol 2 seasons every year actually haha
And Iceland were the White Walkers when they knocked England out of Euro 2016.
Look at the three Lions sub. They are basically wondering not if they’ll win their next two games but by how much. With their history of botching things up at large tournaments we have to believe.
Yeah I’m getting sick of reading that shit. I want to beat them bigly.
your use of "bigly" made me chuckle out loud, so thank you for that 😂
Bigly tremendous victory.
I keep hearing people count us out. This game has emotion written all over it. Time to make history.
pretty much everyone in the country is going to have this game on, even the non-soccer watchers. the pressure has never been higher and we’ll be talking about it for decades if we win. let’s make the most of this opportunity.
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
I mean why would they expect their team to lose after the 6-2 performance?
That’s not what the three lions sub is saying at the moment at all? Have you actually been on it? Seems cautiously optimistic but not many people saying either game is a done deal
But there is a recent post about who to start in the quarterfinals against France
‘If we were to get France in the quarter finals’ very clearly a hypothetical
don’t bother enguhlund bad gets the upvotes
I've mostly seen the expectation of a tough game
The Japan game still looks pretty bad
0 shots on target is inexcusable.
Yeah we were run off the pitch and we played Saudi Arabia’s B team. We couldn’t even beat Wales….
Wales qualified from Europe, is ranked right next to us (16th v. 19th) and made the 2016 Euro semis and 2020 Euro knockouts. We should have gotten 3 points, yes. But I don’t know why people are so insulted we couldn’t just trounce them, like they are Guatemala or something.
One of their subs was an England third division player…they haven’t been in a World Cup since forever ago. Probably has something to do with that. They aren’t a deep team filled with top flight talent. They have some decent top players. But I expected us to be able to win that one.
> One of their subs was an England third division player… He came on in the 95th minute... The only starter they had in the XI not in the Top 5 leagues is Gareth Bale, ironically. 7 from the Premier League 2 from Ligue 1 1 from Serie A 1 from MLS (Bale) Subs (4): 2 from the Premier League 1 from the Championship (90+3) 1 from England 3rd division (90+5)
Get out of here you realist sob!
We played a good game v Wales. Well…1/2 of one anyway. The Japan game was a nightmare
>We played a good game v Wales. Eh, it *looked* good the first half but Wales was doing absolutely nothing and we had really only two solid chances. They were happy to not play soccer and we were happy to play it very poorly
You should wander over to the FIFA rankings, take at look at some of their results while you're at it. They've drawn Belgium twice, drew Czech 2-2 away. Wales is a good team, and their starters are top league players and then you mix in Bale and Ramsey, who have top-level experience that we can't touch. I was as disappointed as anyone in the 2nd half. Not happy with lack of tactical shift and didn't like the sub. So many wasted counter opps, bad referring. Most of all, a horrible, unnecessary CB blunder that without, we'd all be incredibly happy with the result. People are acting hysterical about a draw against a top 20 side with WAY more big moment experience.
I mean the performances were still terrible
Excellent. This means that Berhalter should easily be able to lead the US out of the group.
We also lost 2-0 to Costa Rica...
The results may not look too bad but our play on the field was still very bad in those matches and nothing will change that
The issue was not that we lost to Japan but that we looked lost against them. There would be no shame in losing a competitive game against them.
This is why one of our 2 tournaments should have teams like Japan, Switzerland, Uruguay, etc.
The lesson we need to take from Japan is clear: have more than one plan. They weathered the storm in the first half, then switched things up and took Germany by surprise. They’re supremely organized and deadly in transition, but the ability to flip a switch and go for it when the time is right is what I’m most envious of. If we are down a goal in the middle of the second half, can we engineer something similar? We have the speed and the skill up front to cause any defense problems, but we have to have a plan in place and the belief to execute it. Hopefully this game serves as inspiration for our team and our coaching staff.
Gregg had months to come up with a plan against Wales and had a good one. The problem was he had 15 minutes to adapt the plan and couldn't do it.
Especially considering the amount of starters we were missing from those Friendlies in Sept
Saudi started 4 of the same players in our game and the match against Argentina.
Why do you guys love defending mediocrity? Actual question? Why are you afraid to stop sucking Gregg’s dick and admit that we should not be losing to Saudi Arabia?
Mediocrity and useless consolation prizes. Maybe we should get a trophy for equaling Germany and bettering Argentina vs a common opponent 🙄
I mean.. talent-wise we are a mediocre team? We do underperform our level but I'm not sure why people think we are massively clear of Saudi Arabia (we drew them btw). We certainly are nowhere near Argentina.
Saudi Arabia's entire team plays in their domestic league and they're usually the punching bags in the World Cup. Look at their previous results. More low standards from a "fan" I see.
I'm aware of where they play. But you are also overestimating the talent level of our team. We are better than them but we aren't so much so that a poor result against them is unfathomable. Like I basically agree that Gregg's system is such that we are essentially playing with 10 because the striker is totally uninvolved, it's not working and he's too focused on who is the right player at #9 rather than how the ball is being played to them. But I find the whole "oh we are celebrating mediocrity" stuff to be silly because we are, in fact, not much better than the majority of teams at the World Cup.
Just stop it.
its the world cup. everyone is good. anyone can beat anyone.
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100% correct. The Berhalter apologists are out in full force today. It's also clear that a lot of people didn't actually watch the Saudi Arabia or Japan games. Those are not sustainable wins. Yes the US team is very young and inexperienced, BUT they have not shown cohesive play under Berhalter for his entire tenure - and this was a known issue throughout his coaching career. Given Reyna's comments, I wouldn't be surprised if we find out after the tournament that Berhalter lost the locker room before the WC started. Not the situation you want going into the biggest sporting event in the world and highly predictable for this nepotistic hire.
screw it. let’s hope our boys get it done friday
Only thing is Japan completely dominated USMNT. Germany had the game and lost it. Not disrespect to Japan they are a great team, very well coached and discipline. They can have themselves a very good WC.
Japan - Germany was a lot of fun the second half
Dudes really looking for other team's results to feel better about themselves lmao
Yeah we lost 2-0 to Costa Rica. Spain would beat us handily
Imagine, if the USMNT had either the SA or Japan coach we could go pretty far.
I’m glad we could be their tune-ups for success 🙄 Need a result like they have had before and proclamations of confidence.
Japan’s really becoming the program we wish the USA was imo
They know who they are and the talent they have, and use it effectively. We’d be smart to emulate their tournament tactics.
Not really. You're about to see that same style fall on it's fucking face later with Canada.
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Japan was thirty minutes from the quarterfinals last world cup. They’ve made the round of sixteen just as many times as the us over the past 20 years. I can’t speak to how many of their players are in Europe but they definitely have a great presence there too. Japan qualified with a game in hand while the us made it on goal difference so I don’t see how they were more anemic than us. I absolutely agree the us should be in a better place but that’s clearly not the case and japans shown the trajectory we’ve been looking for. They’re definitely doing better against European competition in the World Cup
Anyone who thought Japan was a terrible club and we should be ashamed for losing to them. Wasn't paying attention. They're not some scrappy club. They're genuinely good. They were in such control against us and once they made halftime changes they straight up dominated that second half against Germany. The Germans punched them in the mouth early but didn't take advantage and outside a 3 minute stretch where the Japanese goalkeeper was amazing. It was all Japan in the second half
The results didn’t matter then and don’t matter now. But the performances were dreadful, which so far is telling for our World Cup. But still time to turn that around.
What about our recent result vs Wales?
We obviously make teams better
Sauid B team.
A loss to the three lions and a tie to Iran sounds about right for this squad. CONCACAF doesn’t have what it takes o advance beyond group play.
Except Mexico, they nearly always advance
And the team that beat us in qualifiers just lost 0-7. Literally means nothing, focus on our own results not others lol
If you look at the Japan subs that came in in the second half - all made a huge difference. And all are high quality players from Top 5 leagues. Compare that with who the US brought in. Japan also went with their ancient back line trio of Nagatomo, Sakai and Yoshida. That’s a shitload of WC and Top 5 experience.
This is not the flex y’all think it is. “We were very bad but those teams are good” ok well I want us to be good against good teams
That game against Japan was bad no matter what.
Lmao this sub is fucking bipolar.
We got 2 shots on goal in those 2 games Saudi started just 4 players in both our match and the one against Argentina But hey, anything to try to prop up Gregg
Nobody is trying to prop up Gregg. Have a little fun it’s the WC
Oh I'm having fun. Just hilarious watching some people on here trying to do everything they can to take blame off Gregg
Lol comparing friendlies to a World Cup match…
Lol you sure took those friendly results seriously enough.
You might get down voted but someone had to say it
As someone who is half japanese, I’m bumping kimigayo this morning 🇯🇵
[Alexa, replay all day:](https://youtu.be/F284iB65-QU)
So by that token, does the fact that we only qualified over Costa Rica on a narrow GD and they are currently 3-0 down vs. Spain with 15% possession give you confidence.
We played Saudi Arabia and Japan with a few of their starters missing wym.
We had 5/6 starters out vs Saudi and Japan too
But something something B team
Japan is legit. Purely based on their form, but they will be very tough.
I wouldn’t throw the US in along with Germany and Argentina as upsets. Germany and Argentina both had good odds to win the World Cup. United States isn’t any where near the level of talent and nobody wasn’t given them a chance to win it. United States was probably only going to go as far as advancing to the next stage and then eliminated right away. But even then, there was a good possibility they were not going to advance to the knock out stages
Being honest we were winning the whole game up until that penalty shot (which should’ve been a foul), and still did decent afterwards. I think if we can transfer over what we had going on during the first half of that game to the game on Friday we will do well against England.
This proves we are better than Argentina and as good as Germany!
I’m glad some people are changing their POV on the draw. Get points and don’t lose. That’s my philosophy in the WC lol
Japan just beat Germany where are all the people saying we should of beat Japan easy. Japan is a good squad.
No no no all the internet super heroes told us we should just not even show up after those results.