Zimmerman is like a whole different, much better, player when he has Miles Robinson with him back there. He’s been bad every time I’ve seen him since Robinson‘s injury. Makes tons of mistakes in his positioning and in the ball. It’s weird.
OT: 2022 World Cup Thread
- Thread starter cshelley
- Start date
Team was also too reliant on Puli to create - late in the 2nd half when attacking down the middle on at least 2 occasions Sargent was open to goal or able to run onto a diagonal pass and instead we pushed it out wide.
Hopefully Reyna can give us a run on Friday to help balance out the field.
Adams was man of the match for sure.
If Iran sits in a bunker do we have enough creativity to break thru?
Isn’t it as simple as Zimmerman is built as an attacking central defender and needs speed to cover him.
Robinson swept up all the mistakes…
Soccer is a fundamentally flawed game. PK's should be eliminated except in the most, most , most. egregious cases . The reward is just too great for the penalty inflicted. Free kick, fine. Take a man off, fine. But the PK is an absolute sham. And to ultimately decide a tied game on PKs is a travesty.
Don't even get me started on the operatic flopping sh*t. I come from a soccer loving, soccer playing family. I'm the outlier. I've grown to hate the sport as its popularity increases. And I live in Portland, soccer town USA.
Don't even get me started on the operatic flopping sh*t. I come from a soccer loving, soccer playing family. I'm the outlier. I've grown to hate the sport as its popularity increases. And I live in Portland, soccer town USA.
That would be the concern. Plus forwards that can hurt us. It is all still there for us but we really won't have group clarity until after Friday. It is possible 3 ties could get us through the way this group looks at the moment.
Could be that, yes. To be honest, they were so stable at the back that I was spending all my time watching the mids and forwards and thinking about how they could become more prolific scorers.
Now I’m watching the back and wondering what they can do about it. LOL.
If Iran beats Wales that would put them on 4 points. They will be in a bunker against us for sure.
If Wales beats Iran, Iran will be out, might open up the game for us.
Wales and Iran tie. Will be a slow game. If we can get a result against England it would be huge. Even a point.
So many times over the years I've seen the Mexican team come back from a near upset by falling down on contact in close and getting the damn penalty shot. I guess Zimmerman never saw those particular games.
Yes a lot of ways this can play out. You also have the possibility of England playing backups last group match having 6 points/ clinched the group with an Iranian Wales tie, giving Wales a golden opportunity there to get a result. Not ideal to be playing England next but we made our bed.
With VAR, I think they ought to be able to have 2 levels of fouls in the box: one, where the foul obviously didn't take away an imminent scoring opportunity (like today's, where the player fouled has his back to the goal or if player is moving away from the goal) and the second where the foul prevents an imminent goal scoring opportunity. For the first, maybe take the offender off the field for 10 minutes, but no PK, whereas for the 2nd, keep the PK. I also hate PKs to decide any championship - play till you're dead, lol, or just allow unlimited substitutions. And we all hate flopping. But I don't understand these things significantly affecting your ability to enjoy such a fantastic sport.
Was going to post similarly. If Wales beats Iran and England beats us, it's more likely England doesn't beat Wales, as they wouldn't need to to advance (although England will absolutely still want to win that game against their neighbors) and we would need England to beat Wales in that scenario to have a shot to get out of the group. That's why we almost have to not lose to England.
Here's the thing. I can't find the mildone post but he said it better than me in this thread. On your point if we feel we need a point against England (reasonable belief frankly) I think this US team fundamentally is not capable/at its best with a bunker down/draw 0-0 design. So if you are GB do you play aggressive, but then maybe get smoked. Or you tie 2-2 and you are in a very decent spot going in against maybe a finished Iran. I honestly don't know.
This is my concern as well... which is why a win today was so vital. If we lose to england 2-0. and Wales beats Iran 2-0... then the last day we have 1 point, Wales has 4, England has 6. The goal differential would also hurt badly. In my opinion if we can't tie England, we go home.
Couldn't believe how tentative Aronson was. He didn't start.. was brought in, presumably, for an energy injection, and he deferred and demured time and again (with the ball on offense.. he did fight to win balls).
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Had exact same though... England beats us, has their 6 points. Even if everyone beats Iran it will come down to goal differential.. right? Iran is going to fight like hell against the Great Satan. This can get ugly. We best tie or, gulp, beat England.. or at least keep it real close. I can see England not caring to beat Wales and keep USA from advancing.. and maybe they should look at it like that. Hell.. Iran might give Wales as many goals as they need should they be losing early in that game. Assure the USA does not advance.
I like the way you think. I have argued for the same type of penalty distinction for years.
No argument that it can be an exciting, entertaining sport but way too often it is like war- long stretches of boredom punctuated by a flurry of heart stopping terror or just a flat out boredom fest. I’d rather watch curling.
One other thing to point out about today. Turner was very shaky. I think his save has overshadowed a lot but frankly I'd expect most top level keepers to get a hand on that one. He will have to stand on his head Friday. A Howard-esque performance and I believe he is capable.
We looked absolutely great in the first half... why? Because we pressed and won the ball back high up the pitch... and the huge benefit of not needing our **** CB Zimmerman to actually defend. The MF tired out in the 2nd half and Wales discovered that they could just bypass a tiring weston and musah by going over the top on them. Then Zimmerman needed to defend. And he's not good enough at this level. Not against a 6'5 target man and a guy as talented as Bale. That foul was incredibly bad. I can't understand why he is starting over CCV.
Current projections to make the Round of 16, from FiveThirtyEight:
England 93%
USA 45%
Wales 37%
Iran 25%
England 93%
USA 45%
Wales 37%
Iran 25%
Question - would you sign up right now for a one goal loss to England?
I might. Especially if it were 3-2 or higher.
Unless we beat England (a longshot), we're going to need to beat Iran regardless. A one-goal loss, in which we score a couple, positions us pretty well I think.
I might. Especially if it were 3-2 or higher.
Unless we beat England (a longshot), we're going to need to beat Iran regardless. A one-goal loss, in which we score a couple, positions us pretty well I think.
Huge advantage to Wales having Iran next. England may already be through by the time they play Wales. We had a golden opportunity for 3 today and let it get away. Not nearly done, and better than a loss (obviously), but our road remains difficult.
On the post game show one of the TV guys said that Coach B said that Reyna will be ready to go on Friday. We'll need him and we're going to need better defending and we're going to need Turner to have a great game.
We are going to need quite a bit more from everyone. Pulisic's set piece delivery sucked today. Need weston and yunus to play like 1st half versions of themselves over 75-80 minutes. Jedi and dest will need to step up defensively against saka and sterling. Zimmerman needs to sit. Ream is who he is... just avoid mistakes. Turner is going to need to be on his game and have better command of the defenders in front of him. Need sargent or wright to be in dangerous positions in the box more often. Weah needs to put enough pressure on Shaw to force him to sit back further. Adams was the only one who played well thru the whole game today.
I am not even a casual fan - basically watch the World Cup for men and women and that’s about it. So from an outsiders view the most frustrating thing about that penalty call (which every soccer person I have heard today says was the right call) was the Wales player did not have possession and both players went for the ball at the same time.
You don't need to have possession to be fouled. Think of it like pass interference or defensive holding. Zimmerman went in with a dangerous challenge.
I agree with you on the PK. It is almost automatic, when I’ve seen fouls committed in the box that aren’t automatic goals. Hate to see a game won/lost (or tied) on what’s a judgement call by the ref.
A dangerous tackle in the box is pretty egregious. It was a very very stupid play by Zimmerman. The pk could have easily been avoided. Take away penalty kicks and you'll see a lot more tackling and much fewer goals. That's not an outcome anyone wants.
Agree about the flopping... ref let that get out of control.
Saudi Arabia up 2-1 in the 2nd half. Argentina scored a PK in the first half and had a couple goals called back on offsides.
England will lie down for their fellow country men if the opportunity presents itself. Don't doubt it.
I only watched the 2nd half but Saudi Arabia defense and goalie have looked solid in this game.
What can be done about flops? These guys roll around like they lost a leg on the play. Really a huge turnoff for me to enjoy this sport.