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World Cup - Moscow Edition

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Yes. We'll see how Poland Columbia plays out later today. But, I could see any one of those teams advancing out of the group for sure. On an unrelated note, Panama looks pathetic. How the Americans couldn't qualify ahead of them is beyond me.
Yeppp. Bruce Arena is a terrible manager. US has so many young players that play in the EPL and Bundesliga and, outside of Pulisic, were excluded from the team. Furthermore, his defensive style against Panama, Costa Rica, and Trinidad and Tobago is still mind-boggling.
 
I think 90% of Colombia is in Russia
 
Yeppp. Bruce Arena is a terrible manager. US has so many young players that play in the EPL and Bundesliga and, outside of Pulisic, were excluded from the team. Furthermore, his defensive style against Panama, Costa Rica, and Trinidad and Tobago is still mind-boggling.

Arena was the wrong man for the job. They reverted to him in a time of need thinking that he would just play it safe. Instead, he went brainless in his tactics, his selections were based on history and not current performance and his mentality did not match the direction in what the US had been heading in.

But, par for the course for Gulati. Hopefully the new President of USSF and this GM find a coach who embraces more of an open game, not the old school shit that Arena subscribes to. There is way too much talent in the USSF ranks to not be at every world cup. Especially with CONCACAF being absolute shit.
 
Arena was the wrong man for the job. They reverted to him in a time of need thinking that he would just play it safe. Instead, he went brainless in his tactics, his selections were based on history and not current performance and his mentality did not match the direction in what the US had been heading in.

But, par for the course for Gulati. Hopefully the new President of USSF and this GM find a coach who embraces more of an open game, not the old school shit that Arena subscribes to. There is way too much talent in the USSF ranks to not be at every world cup. Especially with CONCACAF being absolute shit.
The US has multiple players in the top leagues in England, France, and Germany. Moreover, while the MLS is a mediocre league, those players are still not talentless. There is no reason we are not qualifying for the World Cup easily.

Ultimately, if the US wants to play defensively, that is totally fine by me; however, they must also play direct. My issue with Bruce Arena was he played defensive and indirect. You see Australia doing this now, and it does not work.

If you are going to sacrifice possession then it has to be made up with a blistering counterattack. This is what countries like Iran, Portugal, Mexico (sometimes), France (sometimes), Croatia (sometimes), etc. do, and it works very well. With the midfield talent we have (Pulisic et al) this type of strategy should be doable.

I can rant for days about the USSF. I hate their top-down structure, their obsession with homegrown talent, their poor managerial selection, and their quick trigger. But hopefully they can figure this all out because it would be great for the sport in the United States.

(sorry for the bad grammar. I am not feeling well and can't edit my post)
 
The US has multiple players in the top leagues in England, France, and Germany. Moreover, while the MLS is a mediocre league, those players are still not talentless. There is no reason we are not qualifying for the World Cup easily.

Ultimately, if the US wants to play defensively, that is totally fine by me; however, they must also play direct. My issue with Bruce Arena was he played defensive and indirect. You see Australia doing this now, and it does not work.

If you are going to sacrifice possession then it has to be made up with a blistering counterattack. This is what countries like Iran, Portugal, Mexico (sometimes), France (sometimes), Croatia (sometimes), etc. do, and it works very well. With the midfield talent we have (Pulisic et al) this type of strategy should be doable.

I can rant for days about the USSF. I hate their top-down structure, their obsession with homegrown talent, their poor managerial selection, and their quick trigger. But hopefully they can figure this all out because it would be great for the sport in the United States.

(sorry for the bad grammar. I am not feeling well and can't edit my post)

Their favoritism for the MLS destroyed them in this last cycle. The real gold mine is Liga MX and all he mexi-Americans that are neglected there. Forget the trash MLS, it's a retirement home and not all that skilled.

USSF is a tire fire. They had a chance to make it better after Gulati left but instead went with his hand picked replacement.

We'll see. Not entirely thrilled with their current coaching staff. I do think the one thing the USSF can do if they are stuck on finding home grown talent, is looking at the coaching ranks in the MLS. There are a surprising amount of talented coaches there now.
 
So group H is a huge mess, but rest of the left side of the bracket could easily be

Uruguay
Portugal
France
Argentina
Brazil
Germany
Belgium
Group H

Like...holy balls

Right side, then

Spain
Russia
Croatia
Denmark
Mexico
Switzerland
Group H
England

Thats 6 of the top 7 in the FIFA rankings (for whatever they are worth) on the left side. Insane
 
ISCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
 
Portugal went from leading Group B to a foot from not advancing in 5 minutes.
 
So group H is a huge mess, but rest of the left side of the bracket could easily be

Uruguay
Portugal
France
Argentina
Brazil
Germany
Belgium
Group H

Like...holy balls

Right side, then

Spain
Russia
Croatia
Denmark
Mexico
Switzerland
Group H
England

Thats 6 of the top 7 in the FIFA rankings (for whatever they are worth) on the left side. Insane
Yeah it really is unbalanced. You could see a team like Mexico getting to the finals with all of the good teams in the other side of the bracket beating each other up.


Portugal went from leading Group B to a foot from not advancing in 5 minutes.

Those Group B final match were so fun to watch. It did look like Spain and Portugal might lose. As you stated earlier, Portugal would've had a much easier road had they won group B since they would've been on the weaker right side of the bracket.
 
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Yeah it really is unbalanced. You could see a team like Mexico getting to the finals with all of the good teams in the other side of the bracket beating each other up.




Those Group B final match were so fun to watch. It did look like Spain and Portugal might lose. As you stated earlier, Portugal would've had a much easier road had they won group B since they would've been on the weaker right side of the bracket.

Just going to throw this out there....

England may come out of the right bracket. Kane is in form and they seem really confident right now.

England vs Mexico would be awesome right now.
 
Argentina 30 mins from elimination, but still

MESSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
 
HRVATSKA!!!!! The cup is Croatia's this year gentleman, also rooting for Serbia but I think they will be done after tomorrow.
 
I am excited for the group F matches tomorrow Mexico Sweden and Germany S Korea. Not so much with the group E matches. I am curious to see if the Germans step up their play tomorrow. They've been surprisingly lax defensively by conceding goals in each match. I would love to see Sweden upset Mexico and have the Germans win tomorrow. I would be cool to see the top 3 teams with 6 points each. I'm glad the group matches are the early ones as well.
 
Germany went from defending champs to last in their group
 

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