Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 1095

Him lying down on the touchline is one of the best PL moments for me lol.

 

Watched France vs Finland on my flight and I gotta say if Pogba and Griezmann played for their clubs like they play for France they’d be the second and third best players alive right now. Sensational to watch them for France. Benzema’s (deserved?) exile from the French team has to taste like bile too watching him instantly command games from the front, too.

 

Piss off

 

Apparently, Richarlison won't be affected by it because of our good relations with the Brazilian FA. About time we were rewarded for letting him go to the Olympics.

 

The Brazilian antics against Argentina were so see-through after Argentina won the Copa against them earlier this year, so it's not really surprising to see this sort of nonsense continue from them.

 

What I don't understand is, how can Raphinha be banned when he personally turned down the Brazil call-up and was not blocked by Leeds from going? Mexico FA looking to get Raul Jimenez banned too, plus Chile FA for a couple of their players, weird situation.

 

Unwise for the FAs to be playing petty games like this. We’re getting closer and closer to clubs just pulling the plug on internationals this year if a better solution can’t be worked out.

 

I like this starting XI from England today

 

How is that a yellow

 

That goal from Kane was filthy.

 

Clubs have no say in that actually. They have to let their players go if no mutual solution is found.

 

The USMNT is a fucking disgrace

 

It's almost comical at this point.

 

But. But. But it was 4-1

 

I see that the concacaf hack job that Landon used to receive every game has been passed to Christian.

 

Now that I've watched highlights and read about the match I slept through (my above post related to a string of tweets mid-match about the fouling tactics that led to him being subbed off injured that was the first thing I saw this morning)... this three game stretch still feels like a missed opportunity. I'm not sure if it's a blend of weird tactics, injuries, and pure stupidity (McKennie), but this isn't the same team that won two titles in the summer. However, I *do* think we have our starting XI sorted out if everyone is healthy:

------ Aaronson ------- Pepi* ------
-- Pulisic - Adams - McKennie** - Reyna --
A. Robinson - Brooks - McKenzie - Dest
----------- Dealer's Choice -----------

*Pepi was electric against Honduras, but we also can't really expect that every time. But Sargent has been... lackluster, to say the least. Weah/Zardes/Pefok/Jozy/etc could also go here without much change to the final product, I think.

**While I think that McKennie shouldn't be called in for the October games as a punishment to drive the point home, I also want to beat Mexico in November and three more games for the collective to gel is as equally important for the overall goal. Berhalter has a big call here, but could also see him going with Roldan/Acosta.

The Adams-McKennie midfield duo is where we experience our steepest drop-off during the "next man up" idea, imo, when looking at our pool of players. Our player pool is exploding everywhere but central midfield. I wonder why that is.

Canada are going to be a force in the Octagon this time around and that's pretty cool to see, looking at the overall results of the weekend.

 

That first half was abysmal, though.

 

Thought this was interesting, even it is from Grant Wahl lol

 

Super excited for USA/Costa Rica next month. First game I've ever attended, should be a great time.

 

Should be a blast, I would love to get tickets to USA vs. Mexico but that is a serious pipe dream unless you have a connection with all the different drawings or pay crazy secondary prices when that hit there.

 

I honestly think Sargent is great at pressing, but that makes him a very one dimensional player with a skill that is lower on the priority scale for a striker. So to your point, he has been (and might continue to be) lackluster unless he somehow garners something from being in the same squad as Pukki.

I think Aaronson really bumped himself up the depth chart with Weah out. Weah would have definitely seen more minutes at the start of the window but obviously we can't speculate about how he would have performed. I know a lot of people expected him to have locked down the starting role at RW. It will be interesting having him available in the future as I do think he has the potential to offer more on the ball than either Pepi or Aaronson. I honestly can't speak to his finishing, however.

I think you are mostly correct regarding the midfield depth situation. However, I think Julian Green would have been a better option last night than whatever Berhalter was trying to do with pushing Sands/Acosta forward last night. Same with Yunus Musah. I think he could potentially be the second best box-to-box guy behind McKennie despite his lack of USMNT team experience.

 

Is Julian Green a known commodity at this point? I feel like I haven't seen him since 2014. I forgot about Yunus Musah. Hopefully he has a monster La Liga season and can step in there.

 

Green has been at Greuther Fürth played a ton with them in 2.Bundesliga and they got promoted last season. Looks like he has started three games already this season for them with a goal and assist so still early but promising production in their jump up. Think he is a main cog in that team.

 

Yeah, he played pretty well last season too.

 

I am actually really happy he was able to bounce back the way he did. Had wayyyy to much expectations pumped on him as he was on the front end of that obsession of young players playing in Europe.