Well, hey, that was exciting. It was, in fact, too exciting. I don’t think most of us needed quite that much excitement. I personally would have settled for roughly 40% less excitement, if I’m being honest. But, as they used to tell our girls when they were in preschool, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
I found watching that game made me nervous, which was only increased by my dislike of the policies of the country the USA was playing against. I got anxious. I guess I need to stick with the calming ritual of baseball. (I will watch the next game against the Netherlands also.) I love the Dutch, no problems.
I believe this is the current text of the offside rule. It is a ridiculous rule that simply cannot be accurately assessed by a linesman. They should base offside calls on the location of the players' feet that are touching the ground.
A player is in an offside position if:
any part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half (excluding the halfway line) and
any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent
The hands and arms of all players, including the goalkeepers, are not considered. For the purposes of determining offside, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.
If only we had a true #9 we’d have a chance for the cup. It’s great to see the improvement and so many of them are young. I think the next generation of US soccer is going to be outstanding. I also wish they held the cup every two years so we could enjoy this more often. The games have been fun to watch. Soccer has done a good job with incorporating technology. I haven’t been watching it as much as I did ten years ago and the difference is pretty striking.
18 mos. Ago I, too was completely soccer ignorant. Then I attended my first Charlotte Independence match and fell in love with the beautiful sport for reasons that still elude me.
If you haven’t already, you should come to a CLT FC match, Joe. Each match the atmosphere is more like playoff baseball than anything else I’ve experienced. It’s a good time and, to your point, it’s easier to watch the whole pitch and learn about how the game works in person.
Commentator Aaron West said it best when he wrote, "the best way to describe watching Tyler Adams is when you're watching a game on tv and you scream and point "RIGHT THERE" when there's danger, just follow your finger and Tyler Adams will be "right there".
Joe, I love when you talk about baseball or any sport...except the ones you don't know anything about like soccer. On that goal, the one-touch header cross by Dest was the most difficult and most impressive. In the top leagues in the world (PL, La Liga), 80% of the players can do the McKinney kick with their eyes closed--great look up, good accuracy, but it's not like a sublime pass by Messi, Xavi, or Guti. 90% of players in elite leagues will score given the on-the-platter service by Dest. Only 10% can do the header. The US team was lucky to go through against a bad passive Iranian team who if they had played as they did against England would have beaten or drawn the US. Our expectations of US soccer are so low that we're happy to have participated. If we think they're deserving, let's be as hard on them as we are with all the top teams. US had sloppy touches and passing and could not finish and broke down on defense as well. Deserving of their bottom half ranking in the 20s out of 32. They are unlikely to beat NED but as in 1960 and 1980 on ice, there can still be a Miracle on Grass.
I may be a little biased, but my suggestion for Joe is to go and watch the Amazon "All or Nothing" documentary series that came out this year for Arsenal of the EPL, where Matt Turner is now the backup keeper. The manager, Mikel Arteta, has had an unbelievable time since joining, starting just a few months before Covid shut the league down while also dealing with organizational dysfunction and overpaid malcontents in the squad, attempting along the way to change from a country club atmosphere for overpaid older players to a cohesive group of young and hungry young men.
My recommendation--hoping, of course, that Joe's new football team of choice isn't an NFL team, but instead Arsenal--is not just based on bias, but on the sense that I think Arsenal's year last season, which ultimately ended in some level of heartbreak, and so many ups and downs along the way, really gives a sense of what the game is like and what it's about these days. Arteta is a young disciple of the great manager Pep Guardiola, and you get to see his fierce attempts and instilling a certain style of play and mentality into a changing, youthful group, which of course is going to be rocky at times. But it's a great education in the combination of high-level tactical thinking, passion, and a collision of old mentalities with new ones (particularly from the fans).
When the USA is trying to score in this tournament they have outscored their opponents 2-0. When they are trying to play tight defense and shut down the other team while protecting their lead they have been outscored 0-1 and came very close to allowing a goal to Iran in stoppage time today. I wish they would keep their foot on the gas the whole game.
It's incredible the the US' first two qualifications for the knockout round ended in 1-0 matches against one of the two best teams in the world that year. Brazil won the tournament both those years, but Germany was the team Brazil beat in 2002. The US was extremely competitive with the very highest level of international team competition.
Hopefully, the US can have a surprising run, akin to 2002--perhaps with even a second victory in the knockout stage.
I am a complete amateur fan as well but I thought Walker Zimmerman was not good when he came on. Kept Iran inside a few times by a good distance. He cleared the one ball behind the keeper but that was not a difficult play. Anyway, interesting how different people see different things. Maybe he was great at the little thing I do not appreciate enough.
I'm not a Walker Zimmerman fan by any means (was glad he wasn't in the starting XI), but he did exactly what he was supposed to do in that situation. He sagged back to clean up messes and swooped in on any aerial attacks. He definitely wasn't supposed to be worrying about an off-side trap. He's too slow to catch up with most strikers so it's better for him to yield a step and use his size.
I don't love the strategy, but it's clear that's what Berhalter wanted to do.
I think it’s pretty hard. You know how despite us being immersed in American football since day 1 at least half of everyone you know is an idiot, even those who have “played the game?” I’ve been trying to find that elusive football guru since at least 2002 and it’s ...more akin to the experience I described.
That would be Weston McKennie, another central midfielder, who in the past has been more highly-touted than Adams (got a transfer to the big Italian club Juventus) but has been plagued by inconsistency, injuries, and some youthful distraction from the cause (putting it nicely for a young man).
Tyler Adams showed his class before and during the game. He made a fool of a flunky govt. stooge who calls himself a reporter, but in the classiest way, then played flawless soccer. This is what an MVP looks like in soccer.
The tweet is a diagram of where the England players passed the most. The joke is that Tyler Adams was lording over them, pretty much making the English passing nonexistent.
"The closest feeling I can express is that it was like watching your favorite NFL team playing a soft prevent defense — FOR THIRTY MINUTES. "
Welcome to Minnesota Viking football.
I found watching that game made me nervous, which was only increased by my dislike of the policies of the country the USA was playing against. I got anxious. I guess I need to stick with the calming ritual of baseball. (I will watch the next game against the Netherlands also.) I love the Dutch, no problems.
I believe this is the current text of the offside rule. It is a ridiculous rule that simply cannot be accurately assessed by a linesman. They should base offside calls on the location of the players' feet that are touching the ground.
A player is in an offside position if:
any part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half (excluding the halfway line) and
any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent
The hands and arms of all players, including the goalkeepers, are not considered. For the purposes of determining offside, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.
If only we had a true #9 we’d have a chance for the cup. It’s great to see the improvement and so many of them are young. I think the next generation of US soccer is going to be outstanding. I also wish they held the cup every two years so we could enjoy this more often. The games have been fun to watch. Soccer has done a good job with incorporating technology. I haven’t been watching it as much as I did ten years ago and the difference is pretty striking.
18 mos. Ago I, too was completely soccer ignorant. Then I attended my first Charlotte Independence match and fell in love with the beautiful sport for reasons that still elude me.
If you haven’t already, you should come to a CLT FC match, Joe. Each match the atmosphere is more like playoff baseball than anything else I’ve experienced. It’s a good time and, to your point, it’s easier to watch the whole pitch and learn about how the game works in person.
Yunus Musah
That is all.
After all these years, soccer is still a niche sport in the US.
Your English friend is right - you are getting it. Adams has been a revelation, and so has Ream. Lee watching. Football has it all.
Commentator Aaron West said it best when he wrote, "the best way to describe watching Tyler Adams is when you're watching a game on tv and you scream and point "RIGHT THERE" when there's danger, just follow your finger and Tyler Adams will be "right there".
Joe, I love when you talk about baseball or any sport...except the ones you don't know anything about like soccer. On that goal, the one-touch header cross by Dest was the most difficult and most impressive. In the top leagues in the world (PL, La Liga), 80% of the players can do the McKinney kick with their eyes closed--great look up, good accuracy, but it's not like a sublime pass by Messi, Xavi, or Guti. 90% of players in elite leagues will score given the on-the-platter service by Dest. Only 10% can do the header. The US team was lucky to go through against a bad passive Iranian team who if they had played as they did against England would have beaten or drawn the US. Our expectations of US soccer are so low that we're happy to have participated. If we think they're deserving, let's be as hard on them as we are with all the top teams. US had sloppy touches and passing and could not finish and broke down on defense as well. Deserving of their bottom half ranking in the 20s out of 32. They are unlikely to beat NED but as in 1960 and 1980 on ice, there can still be a Miracle on Grass.
I may be a little biased, but my suggestion for Joe is to go and watch the Amazon "All or Nothing" documentary series that came out this year for Arsenal of the EPL, where Matt Turner is now the backup keeper. The manager, Mikel Arteta, has had an unbelievable time since joining, starting just a few months before Covid shut the league down while also dealing with organizational dysfunction and overpaid malcontents in the squad, attempting along the way to change from a country club atmosphere for overpaid older players to a cohesive group of young and hungry young men.
My recommendation--hoping, of course, that Joe's new football team of choice isn't an NFL team, but instead Arsenal--is not just based on bias, but on the sense that I think Arsenal's year last season, which ultimately ended in some level of heartbreak, and so many ups and downs along the way, really gives a sense of what the game is like and what it's about these days. Arteta is a young disciple of the great manager Pep Guardiola, and you get to see his fierce attempts and instilling a certain style of play and mentality into a changing, youthful group, which of course is going to be rocky at times. But it's a great education in the combination of high-level tactical thinking, passion, and a collision of old mentalities with new ones (particularly from the fans).
When the USA is trying to score in this tournament they have outscored their opponents 2-0. When they are trying to play tight defense and shut down the other team while protecting their lead they have been outscored 0-1 and came very close to allowing a goal to Iran in stoppage time today. I wish they would keep their foot on the gas the whole game.
That's really one of the major criticisms of Berhalter is that he bunkers too early.
It's incredible the the US' first two qualifications for the knockout round ended in 1-0 matches against one of the two best teams in the world that year. Brazil won the tournament both those years, but Germany was the team Brazil beat in 2002. The US was extremely competitive with the very highest level of international team competition.
Hopefully, the US can have a surprising run, akin to 2002--perhaps with even a second victory in the knockout stage.
I am a complete amateur fan as well but I thought Walker Zimmerman was not good when he came on. Kept Iran inside a few times by a good distance. He cleared the one ball behind the keeper but that was not a difficult play. Anyway, interesting how different people see different things. Maybe he was great at the little thing I do not appreciate enough.
I'm not a Walker Zimmerman fan by any means (was glad he wasn't in the starting XI), but he did exactly what he was supposed to do in that situation. He sagged back to clean up messes and swooped in on any aerial attacks. He definitely wasn't supposed to be worrying about an off-side trap. He's too slow to catch up with most strikers so it's better for him to yield a step and use his size.
I don't love the strategy, but it's clear that's what Berhalter wanted to do.
I think it’s pretty hard. You know how despite us being immersed in American football since day 1 at least half of everyone you know is an idiot, even those who have “played the game?” I’ve been trying to find that elusive football guru since at least 2002 and it’s ...more akin to the experience I described.
Is adams the one with the spot of mismatched hair?
That would be Weston McKennie, another central midfielder, who in the past has been more highly-touted than Adams (got a transfer to the big Italian club Juventus) but has been plagued by inconsistency, injuries, and some youthful distraction from the cause (putting it nicely for a young man).
Tyler Adams showed his class before and during the game. He made a fool of a flunky govt. stooge who calls himself a reporter, but in the classiest way, then played flawless soccer. This is what an MVP looks like in soccer.
I obviously know nothing about soccer, and I have no idea what that Tyler Adams tweet is trying to show me.
The tweet is a diagram of where the England players passed the most. The joke is that Tyler Adams was lording over them, pretty much making the English passing nonexistent.
Thank you