2022 International Soccer

[BrySmalls]

Japan and Saudi Arabia qualified for the World Cup. When group play finishes, Australia will face the third-place finisher in Group A, most likely United Arab Emirates, in a one-off playoff. The winner will advance to the interconference playoff against the 5th place CONEMBOL finisher, either Peru, Chile, or Colombia.

[JayMac]

6 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Ukraine vs Scotland has been moved to June for the 2022 World Cup playoffs.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup-qualifying-uefa/story/4612086/scotland-vs-ukraine-world-cup-playoff-postponed

 

 

I'm torn with this match. I have a lot of Scottish heritage and Scotland hasn't been this close to the WC in forever.

On the other hand, it is Ukraine that they are playing.

[Rockstar Matt]

No way. No freaking way. Italy lost to North Macedonia in the semi-final playoff. The goal came in stoppage time no less.

 

They’re going to miss the World Cup for the second straight tournament. 

Massive upset to say the least. 

[tigers]

26 minutes ago, Rockstar Matt said:

No way. No freaking way. Italy lost to North Macedonia in the semi-final playoff. The goal came in stoppage time no less.

 

They’re going to miss the World Cup for the second straight tournament. 

Massive upset to say the least. 

 

That's what they deserve. Four from Eight is not good in this type of tournament.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I just signed up to Paramount+ for this stupid game.

 

That said, shockingly well officiated game through 90 -- which means anything is possible in extra time.

 

EDIT: Boring but satisfying 0-0 tie. Nice result, even with some bad missed opportunities.

[Rockstar Matt]

The US should have won. They had the two best chances, with Pulisic and Pefok (the latters miss was inexcusable though) both in front of goal, but didn’t score. 
 

We’ll take the point, plus with the Honduras draw in Panama, all the US has to do is basically beat Panama, don’t lose to Costa Rica by ten goals, and they’ll go to the World Cup.

 

Gotta say too, one day I’d love to see a full strength USMNT with Reyna at the 10. Pulisic is our best ever player, no doubt about that, and the US was missing Weston who is arguably the best current American footballer, but Reyna has the potential to surpass every American player ever.
 

That dude is special, special. 

[Seadragon76]

It's a draw, which means both the US and Mexico are still tied and still in great position to make the World Cup. Costa Rica edged out Canada 1-0 (caught the very end of that game - Canada had a chance, mind you), which is huge for Costa Rica as they leapfrog past Panama into 4th place.

 

Sunday's games are going to be extremely important as Canada looks to seal their first trip to the World Cup since 1986 with a win over Jamaica, the United States can get in with a win over Panama in a huge game for both sides and Mexico can get in with a win over hapless Honduras.

[Digby]

People love to bag on Kellyn Acosta but he was the best midfielder on the night and was making those chances happen. Too bad Pulisic and Pefok both came in on form but couldn't do anything with that. That lovely Reyna run was a less clear chance, but what an effort by him to make it happen. Also worried about some of those defensive lapses; the US were lucky that this Mexico squad is so pedestrian. 

[Digby]

Also how weird that the PA announcer in the Azteca was leading chants, like a basketball guy getting a "DE-FENSE" chant going. Though some of them were obviously to disguise the usual homophobic chant on goal kicks, which is hilarious in its own way. That whole program has lost a lot of mystique over the past year or so.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

9 minutes ago, Digby said:

Also how weird that the PA announcer in the Azteca was leading chants, like a basketball guy getting a "DE-FENSE" chant going. Though some of them were obviously to disguise the usual homophobic chant on goal kicks, which is hilarious in its own way. That whole program has lost a lot of mystique over the past year or so.

 

True. You can tell the Americans weren't scared of the Mexican team, which feels a lot different than, say, the Bradley era where Tim Howard (or heaven forbid, Brad Guzman) would have stood on his head for 90 minutes and we'd all be begging for an equalizing 1-1 goal at 90+6. 

 

Altitude aside, that game felt like a neutral atmosphere rather than a home game for Mexico. Maybe it's because everyone was stuck outside watching on their phones.

 

 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Shockingly surprised by the lack of Concacaf'ing in Mexico/USA that I missed this:

 

 

 

[MJWalker45]

10 hours ago, Rockstar Matt said:

The US should have won. They had the two best chances, with Pulisic and Pefok (the latters miss was inexcusable though) both in front of goal, but didn’t score. 
 

We’ll take the point, plus with the Honduras draw in Panama, all the US has to do is basically beat Panama, don’t lose to Costa Rica by ten goals, and they’ll go to the World Cup.

 

Gotta say too, one day I’d love to see a full strength USMNT with Reyna at the 10. Pulisic is our best ever player, no doubt about that, and the US was missing Weston who is arguably the best current American footballer, but Reyna has the potential to surpass every American player ever.
 

That dude is special, special. 

Both forwards should have buried their chances. If Pulisic  picked anything other than straight ahead with his shot it would have been 1-0. That game felt like it was played in an empty stadium last night. I think that affected both teams last night. When you can hear the PA guy yelling, "Mexico" after every goal kick, you know that the atmosphere is just not what it should be. Canada dropping the game 1-0 to Costa Rica was infuriating, even more so when I saw the bump that the Canadian player did to get the second yellow card. It wasn't egregious, and the guy acted the hell out of it, but you can't give refs the chance to hand you another card. 

11 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I just signed up to Paramount+ for this stupid game.

I specifically watched this on Univision because when they played Jamaica away I heard the damn vuvuzelas over the announcers. And the stream seemed to be about 2 minutes behind the actual game play.  When you have alerts turned on stuff like that gets annoying when the alert tells you about a score before it happens. 

[DEAD!]

5 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Shockingly surprised by the lack of Concacaf'ing in Mexico/USA that I missed this:

 

 

 

If Canada wasn't in first and just about assured a place in the World Cup, I would be extremely upset at this. But, I can't help but LOL at all that. I was more thrilled at the Panama draw with Honduras 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

This is intense. But also looks like generally good news for USA and Canada and Mexico:

 

 

[Rockstar Matt]

9 hours ago, Digby said:

People love to bag on Kellyn Acosta but he was the best midfielder on the night and was making those chances happen. Too bad Pulisic and Pefok both came in on form but couldn't do anything with that. That lovely Reyna run was a less clear chance, but what an effort by him to make it happen. Also worried about some of those defensive lapses; the US were lucky that this Mexico squad is so pedestrian. 

The US was very lucky that México couldn’t put a good shot on goal all game. Every time you thought they might have a good opportunity, they fumbled it. Either with a heavy touch or a terrible shot. Chucky in particular was awful for México last night. Can’t remember a game that he looked that bad to be honest. 

 

6 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Both forwards should have buried their chances. If Pulisic  picked anything other than straight ahead with his shot it would have been 1-0. That game felt like it was played in an empty stadium last night. I think that affected both teams last night. When you can hear the PA guy yelling, "Mexico" after every goal kick, you know that the atmosphere is just not what it should be.

Pulisic buries that if he gets that chance again. Can’t believe he put it in the one place that Ochoa could save it.
 

Obviously, getting the point was a very good result, and that was probably the best road performance the US had in this qualifying cycle, but the US has to feel disappointed to not walk away with a win there. 

 

And again, I have issues with Berhalter’s scheme and how it doesn’t put our best players in the best position to succeed. Our midfield doesn’t really impact the game offensively, or at least in the build up of attacks (meaning we either always play from the back with ping balls in or with our fullbacks and wingers bring up the ball. We have the best, or at least most talented midfield in the region and yet our midfield never dominates? 
 

Pulisic in particular still seems lost in this scheme, and he’s in form at the club level too so it isn’t that. It’s concerning that ever since Berhalter took over, our best ever player is nonexistent on the pitch (for the most part).

 

I still just hate that we have a manager, who instead of seeing the talent we have on the field and instituting a scheme/gameplan that best utilizes that talent, tries to force our players to fit his scheme regardless if the fit is there or not. We were trying to play off of Zimmerman and Myles last night, (who are fine defensive center backs but they are not good with the ball at their feet), instead of using our talented midfielders to bring up the ball. That almost cost us a goal last night because we were asking those two to do something they are not comfortable nor good at. 
 

On paper, and objectively, the US has the best collection of talent in CONCACAF by far and it isn’t all that close. The US should be unbeaten and dominating this Octagonal, but we aren’t. That isn’t all on Berhalter because ultimately the players still need to put away the chances they create. 
 

We’re gonna qualify which was the main objective coming in, but will we even advance out of the group in the World Cup? With Berhalter, I doubt it. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I like our chances against North Macedonia.

[officeglenn]

26 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I like our chances against North Macedonia.

 

So did Italy.

[Digby]

5 hours ago, Rockstar Matt said:

The US was very lucky that México couldn’t put a good shot on goal all game. Every time you thought they might have a good opportunity, they fumbled it. Either with a heavy touch or a terrible shot. Chucky in particular was awful for México last night. Can’t remember a game that he looked that bad to be honest. 

 

Pulisic buries that if he gets that chance again. Can’t believe he put it in the one place that Ochoa could save it.
 

Obviously, getting the point was a very good result, and that was probably the best road performance the US had in this qualifying cycle, but the US has to feel disappointed to not walk away with a win there. 

 

And again, I have issues with Berhalter’s scheme and how it doesn’t put our best players in the best position to succeed. Our midfield doesn’t really impact the game offensively, or at least in the build up of attacks (meaning we either always play from the back with ping balls in or with our fullbacks and wingers bring up the ball. We have the best, or at least most talented midfield in the region and yet our midfield never dominates? 
 

Pulisic in particular still seems lost in this scheme, and he’s in form at the club level too so it isn’t that. It’s concerning that ever since Berhalter took over, our best ever player is nonexistent on the pitch (for the most part).

 

I still just hate that we have a manager, who instead of seeing the talent we have on the field and instituting a scheme/gameplan that best utilizes that talent, tries to force our players to fit his scheme regardless if the fit is there or not. We were trying to play off of Zimmerman and Myles last night, (who are fine defensive center backs but they are not good with the ball at their feet), instead of using our talented midfielders to bring up the ball. That almost cost us a goal last night because we were asking those two to do something they are not comfortable nor good at. 
 

On paper, and objectively, the US has the best collection of talent in CONCACAF by far and it isn’t all that close. The US should be unbeaten and dominating this Octagonal, but we aren’t. That isn’t all on Berhalter because ultimately the players still need to put away the chances they create. 
 

We’re gonna qualify which was the main objective coming in, but will we even advance out of the group in the World Cup? With Berhalter, I doubt it. 

Sorry but this is way too harsh. The soccer wise guys of Twitter and Reddit wanted a JV team to save legs for the rest of the window. Turns out it was a good call to put out the best team (injuries withstanding) against this diminished Mexico team; Berhalter went for it, and the only reason the draw felt disappointing, compared to the expectations widely held hours earlier, is that the USMNT put itself in so many positions to do better. The fluffed chances were not Berhalter’s fault, maybe Pulisic should have put his chance literally anywhere else besides Ochoa’s shoulder from 5 feet away.

[Rockstar Matt]

18 hours ago, Digby said:

Sorry but this is way too harsh. The soccer wise guys of Twitter and Reddit wanted a JV team to save legs for the rest of the window. Turns out it was a good call to put out the best team (injuries withstanding) against this diminished Mexico team; Berhalter went for it, and the only reason the draw felt disappointing, compared to the expectations widely held hours earlier, is that the USMNT put itself in so many positions to do better.

But what do we want here? Simply just to qualify and make a little noise at the World Cup?
 

I know the 2018 failure has changed expectations somewhat because we never expected to fail to qualify for a World Cup but the overall goal for the program should still be the same that it was after the 2014 World Cup (after we had just made the R16 for the 3rd time in 4 tournaments; and did it in back to back tournaments for the first time ever). The goal is to see the program become a world power.
 

Simply making the World Cup isn’t good enough anymore. Not with the amount of money we’re putting into the sport, nor with the talent we’re developing and that’s emerging from our country. We need to consistently advance out of the group and start challenging the best nations in the world in a few cycles. 

 

I will give Berhalter credit in our defensive shape. Once he went away from the moronic 3 CB with 2 WB lineup, the US has generally been stout defensively this cycle (aside from Canada away).

 

It might be harsh, yes, but given the talent the US now possesses, subpar performances, not putting our best players in positions to get the most out of them, just aren’t acceptable anymore. Hell, we can’t even match the dominance USMNT had in CONCACAF in the mid-to-late 2000’s/early 2010’s and our current USMNT is better on paper (and I know CONCACAF as whole has gotten much better).
 

I just see a young, talented team, who individually is having more European club level success than any generation of Americans before, and we have a manager who cannot get the most out of them. A lot of that is on the players too, no doubt, if they’re so talented, they need to show that when playing for country and not just their clubs. 
 

FIFA rankings (which don’t mean anything, I know) have the US ranked 13th (behind México which will no doubt change). I would argue that the if you look at the rankings in terms of talent level, I’d agree that there are only about 10-11 countries in the world that have more talent than the US possesses and is developing. 
 

Do you think Berhalter would manage any of the national teams ranked above us or in the top 20? Absolutely not. So why are we okay with a subpar coach managing a top 15 national team?
 

Quote

The fluffed chances were not Berhalter’s fault, maybe Pulisic should have put his chance literally anywhere else besides Ochoa’s shoulder from 5 feet away.

Agreed. I literally stated that in my last post. Should have been a 2-0 victory if our players score on the easy sitters they had. 

[Digby]

I mean, a coach alone is never going to make the program a world power by himself. There just aren't simple answers here. Concacaf qualifying has always been tough and has only gotten tougher. There have been loads of injuries this entire cycle to key players, on top of the extra fatigue of the post-covid calendar. The team has lots of talent compared to recent years but it is not evenly distributed (e.g. the lack of an obvious, best-position striker, still).

 

And I'm actually not convinced that this team IS better than some of those 00s teams! On paper, sure, and if we're talking pure upside, sure. But also I'm not sure we have any goalscorer who I have full confidence in the way I did with, say, prime Clint Dempsey or Brian McBride. Maybe being the 2nd-best player for Fulham puts you in better position for USMNT success than being the 16th-best player for Chelsea, I don't know. Maybe being a young starlet at a top-level European club is not the best environmental prep for Concacaf (can he do it on a humid Tuesday night on a crappy pitch in San Pedro Sula?).

 

But, really, I think the big issue is that a lot of the top USMNT talent right now also possesses a lot of duplicative skillsets, which is nice for squad rotation but maybe that means not everybody is in their ideal position, and maybe continuity becomes that much harder to come by. I do think Berhalter's tactical dogmatism can be a little much. But I'm not seeing any obvious roster snubs, or mindnumbing tactical decisions on the level of, say, placing Michael Bradley at the 10. I don't know that Berhalter is the greatest coach we've ever had, but he's fine. It's hard to imagine what the obvious other answer is, or to see an alternate universe where we're running away with the group easily.