USA - 2026 World Cup Champions

[mikee1186]

We’ve got some real dawgs on this roster in Adams, Tillman, Luna, Berhalter in terms of injecting toughness into the team. Fans will love seeing that. First half was average, second half was much better. We were in control but I think it was an error by Poch to wait so long for subs. Arfsten is terrible defensively, why would you leave him in so long with a 2-1 lead? He and DLT contributed to giving up the equalizer with some really amateurish defense, but i would argue neither should have been on the pitch at that point.

Manager will have to learn from this as it was Freese’s heroics in the shootout that saved us. I couldn’t believe his save in the penalty right down the middle, crazy one as keepers these days NEVER remain stationary. Very gutsy play on that and then came up with some other good saves. He’s still shaky in some ways but you have to give him the starting job for the foreseeable future given the GK issues we are having. Maybe Turner finds regular club playing time and takes it back, who knows.

Agyemang did a lot of great work and hold up play, including in contributing to the second goal. But that’s not going to be enough. He has to continue developing his speed of play, decision making, and finishing if we wants to play at this level. Happy for him and his meteoric rise, but he’s not showing enough to be with the top national team roster consistently.

Tillman, Adams, Richards are the guys really setting the tone right now. Big win, let’s see what happens Wednesday in another dogfight.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by mikee1186

Manager will have to learn from this as it was Freese’s heroics in the shootout that saved us. I couldn’t believe his save in the penalty right down the middle, crazy one as keepers these days NEVER remain stationary.

I always wonder why so many keepers guess on PK's instead of remaining stationary and reacting.

Because if you wait and react, the only ones you're not going to be able to get to are the ones that are so good that you weren't going to stop them even if you guessed right.

And by not guessing, you give yourself a chance at saving a lot of less-than-perfect penalties that you would otherwise have had no chance at by guessing wrong (like Navas did on Downs' winner).

It's not just the three that Freese saved it's also that he got fingertips on two others as well by waiting and reacting instead of guessing.

[dubsea]

Freese was impressive with the PKs. In addition to the 3 he saved, there were 2 more that he almost did. That has to play on the mind of the player taking the shot. Nice to see them grind out a win.

[YayNJ]

I just want to take yet another opportunity to have a big LOL at Jessie Marsch.

Utter fraud. Teams win despite him, not due to him. I've never seen such incompetence in a manager before until he obviously won a competition to get the Leeds job. If you ever want to blame anyone for B. Aaronson never fulfilling his potential, this man is responsible.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by dubsea

Freese was impressive with the PKs. In addition to the 3 he saved, there were 2 more that he almost did. That has to play on the mind of the player taking the shot. Nice to see them grind out a win.

Definitely, because the MO these days for penalty takers is to stutter step until they get the keeper to commit.....but if the keeper doesn't commit (like Freese), the taker is f**ked, because they're off-balance with no power and no plan.

[JWBlue]

Is there anything to take away from the GC loss?

It was our B team wasn't it?

[LittleJimmies]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

Is there anything to take away from the GC loss?

It was our B team wasn't it?

Feel like it was a net positive result overall for this game and the tournament on a whole. This Mexican squad should beat this US squad. Guys who will end up being very important role players next year got some great experience in hard-nosed concacaf football.

[JWBlue]

Originally Posted by LittleJimmies

Feel like it was a net positive result overall for this game and the tournament on a whole. This Mexican squad should beat this US squad. Guys who will end up being very important role players next year got some great experience in hard-nosed concacaf football.

I thought this was considered an important tournament.

Why didn't we play our best squad?

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

Is there anything to take away from the GC loss?

It was our B team wasn't it?

It was our "B/C" team against Mexico's "A" team.

Out of the players on the Gold Cup roster:

- Richards & Adams are guaranteed starters
- Freese, Ream, Tillman, Luna, and Matt Turner should make the roster and be in the running to start.
- everyone else will be a longshot to even make the roster

So maybe 7-8 guys from this roster will make the World Cup roster, and maybe 3-4 will start.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

I thought this was considered an important tournament.

Why didn't we play our best squad?

Three players were required to play the CWC (McKennie, Weah, Reyna), although the latter two barely played.

Pulisic did not play due to been generally exhausted and needing a rest.

Musah did not play for personal reasons.

Pepi, Balogun, Dest, and Antonee Robinson are recovering from injuries.

Sargent, Scally, and Jhonny were not called up.

That's 10-11 players who are likely to be on the World Cup roster, including six certain starters (McKennie, Weah, Pulisic, Dest, A.Robinson, and one of the strikers).

[j0shuab]

Mexico were simply better, with more quality through the squad. The refereeing was inexplicable, he started off calling everything, then let everything go for most of the rest of the game. The hand ball no-call was bizarre, and the foul that led to Mexico's 2nd goal was incredibly soft relative to the no-calls that preceded it.

Richards was a rock, he's carried his club performance through to the US. Tillman was a little anonymous in the final, but our best non-Richards player through the tournament, thought he was affected by the physicality and no-calls yesterday, which is a little surprising for a player who spent a year in Scotland.

Freeman made a bunch of mistakes, but competed well for a twenty year old, and almost scored through straight hustle in the final.

As much fun as the Diego Luna story is, don't think he's starter quality vs. better teams.

And a little worried about Adams, he didn't impose himself on the the game when we needed it. Think I heard on the broadcast he's managing a hamstring issue, and with his hamstring history that can't be happy news in Bournemouth.

[mikee1186]

Originally Posted by j0shuab

the foul that led to Mexico's 2nd goal was incredibly soft relative to the no-calls that preceded it.

It was a complete dive. Shameful to win the game on that.

[YayNJ]

Adams leaving Leeds is one of the best bits of transfer business we've done in recent history.

Out of all the Americans we've had in the past couple of years, he was the best one by far - head and shoulders above McKennie and Aaronson, but he is made out of pink wafer biscuits.

... all the Americans that have played for us he is a solid number 2.

1 - Eddie Lewis
2 - Tyler Adams
--
vast chasm
--
3 - Brendan Aaronson
4 - Eric Lichaj
5 - Mike Grella
6 - Weston McKennie
7 - Jemal Johnson
8 - Charlie Horton
--
worlds deepest bore hole
--
9 - Robbie Rogers

[gomiamigo]

Originally Posted by mikee1186

It was a complete dive. Shameful to win the game on that.

It was definitely incredibly soft. Ref was awful.