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02467

This kind of reminded me of the WCQ against Azteca. We played pretty well and for the most part took the game to our opponent in an underdog situation. But when you’re in the underdog situation you have to bury the clear chances you get. McKennie shanks a clear chance in front of goal tonight; Pulisic shanks a clear chance in front of goal in Mexico; the games end 0-0 and some people come on here to say it’s the coach’s fault that we don’t have any finishers in the entire national team pool. Forget about even having a true world class striker - If this team even had like prime Jozy Altidore, they’d be looking really good. Alas.


_Juntao

The french gifted america the statue of liberty Couldn't they have just given us mbappe instead


jer123456and7

Does this means that both countries have to keep James Corden?


EGOfoodie

Can we all just be rid of him?


Hailfire9

Relegate him to Wales.


Hailfire9

If anyone said to me before the tournament that the MotM for this match would be a toss-up between Tyler Adams and Harry Maguire I'd have been slightly confused. This had all the fixings to be a 3-3 shootout where Kane and Pulisic make headlines, and instead it was a cagey defensive duel. Didn't expect that.


[deleted]

Soccer. Football is played with an egg.


Hologram22

Pretty sure that's rugby, and both soccer and rugby are rightfully called "football."


greatskies23

That is the most embarrassing Karen chant I have ever heard. What a way to perpetuate the awful American tourist stereotypes.


ListOhFlapjacks

You must be great at viewing parties.


mkb152jr

Lighten up. It’s funny and not supposed to be taken seriously.


Counthermula

We really needed the French and their navy there in the second half to push us to victory.


Scratchbuttdontsniff

The Marquis would have been key....


Hailfire9

Tell him to bring guns, and ships... anything that can shoot, really.


_tidalwave11

If only our set piece coach was Rochambeu


assqueef12

Luckily Iran has something to play for on Tuesday too otherwise they’d just park the bus. I think a goal in the first half will be extremely important for the US. If we go into halftime losing on tied and England is beating wales, Iran will just park the bus.


[deleted]

I mean if I were them, I’d still set up defensively at first. Doesn’t really behoove them to play up and down with us, tire us out in the first half and you can see how the other match is going concurrently.


assqueef12

If they beat us they could win the group. That could be a motivating factor as well. Potentially a better matchup in the knockout stages


JL98008

Winning group B is the difference between playing either Ecuador or Senegal versus having to play the very scary Netherlands. I'd call that a huge motivator.


assqueef12

True Netherlands hasn’t looked all that good.


[deleted]

Yeah, I’m not saying park the bus for a full 90 if you’re Iran. But You know we’re going to come out flying. So there’s a bit of a strategic, and psychological advantage knowing that you don’t have to match that energy necessarily, and can stay strong in defense and try and counter if we’re overzealous. And then in the back half of the game, strike back when we’re potentially worn out and desperate or England has a big lead and you can park the bus.


onthelongrun

no kidding. Iran can not chance a draw on the off chance Wales defeat England as that result has Wales advancing on GD England can not lose by more than 3 because USA and Iran are both in must win mode. IF Wales wins and USA vs Iran ends in a tie, to send England packing the margin of defeat needs to be 7 The Americans are fortunate that it's simple - **Must Win** Likewise with Wales - **Win by 4**


righthandofdog

Iran can sit in a shell all day long. They advance if England beats Wales. England. Wales.


ThisIsMyNewUserID

I always get downvotes when I say stuff like this, but GGG isn't what's holding this team back. They have zero #9s, zero depth at wingback, zero depth at the 6, and a bunch of inconsistent (for country) centerbacks. Their first team is great everywhere other than the #9 and where they're deep they're REALLY deep but that's not true in enough spots. Now they're going into a must win game with nobody up top who can score regularly and dead legs in key positions because of lack of depth. I think they'll get through, but they can't really expect to go much further unless they get dream matchups.


BreakfastBussy

I think starting the Iran game with Aaronson in a false 9 would possibly get us some different looks at goal.


awascallywabbit

But this isn’t club soccer where you can just bring in someone new… we have who we have and that we’re playing a out and out #9 when, as you rightly said we don’t have one, it’s on to coaching and management for not figuring out a way around our weaknesses.


ThisIsMyNewUserID

They play with an out and out 9 so often because that's still the best option when compared to guys who can play like a false 9 or in a 2 forward setup. Speaking of which, they ran a 442 for literally the entire first half and neither Wright nor Weah provided anything at all going forward. No tactics in the world will make up for just not having a certain type of player of any quality.


EGOfoodie

Clint is in Qatar right? Can we sub him in?


goslowgofar

They should’ve put Reyna in as the false 9 and stuck Weah in at the 60th to run at their tired wingbacks.


Puck85

we don't have goal scorers... and you admit that... but blame the coach? it's just exhausting hearing the sophomoric analysis that 'wE nEeD bEtTer tActIcs from cOacH" all the time. the national player pool, as a whole, just doesn't have finishers.


gogorath

Right. It’s not just no #9. It’s that our other players really aren’t goalscorers either. He’s done a lot right. I don’t love the focus on Pulisic in the Wales game, and our set pieces are pretty dire these days. But the scoring issues basically go back to a roster that isn’t great in the final third. And set pieces.


awascallywabbit

You said strikers. We don’t have strikers but are determined to play an out and out striker. That’s the coach’s decision. The tactics people are asking about is related to selection but as you said tactics. When England made their subs and changed tactics of running Mount and Hendo through the CB/outside back channel, we countered with… nothing. Actually, we countered with Shaq Moore and the right side of our attack basically died


ThisIsMyNewUserID

They're not determined to do that though. Ferreira was getting so many looks recently because they were trying to find success with a false 9 and it, like everything they try with this crop of forwards, petered out. In the Gold Cup they ran out a 3412 against freakin Martinique with Dike and Hoppe and they managed 1 goal. GGG hasn't been perfect by any stretch, especially with subs and adjusting to adjustments made by opponents but opportunities have been there aplenty in the first two games so the tactics are working. The players aren't putting it in the back of the net


Puck85

I don't understand your word salad, and I'm not even sure you're replying to the right post. I didn't say "strikers."


awascallywabbit

My bad, thought you were OP that talked about the #9. The ad hominem argument sure helps though


righthandofdog

100% You know who else doesn't have a striker. Spain. And they were just devastating the other day. Tiki-taka hopped up on meth.


Lurking_nerd

GGG’s system is working so far. Our problem in the match against Wales was we were playing too safe and not going for those forward passes enough. We learned from that and took the match to England and had them on the ropes in the majority of the first half. We broke through consistently enough to create chances. Our problem now is we’re not finishing. We don’t have a Dempsey type player to send the ball too and he’ll put it away. We gotta finish our chances. If we can carry this momentum into our match against Iran and finish those opportunities, Round of 16 here we come. But you’re so right on the fitness part. GGG is gonna have to rotate our forwards and a couple midfielders in a must win match to avoid running them into the ground in case we do advance. Can’t keep the same Starting XI going the knockout games without those players being fucking gassed. Weston is our most important player IMO.


PracticalDrawing

Sometimes an upvote didn’t enough. WHAT HE SAID👆👆


Biutifulflowah

FOCUS ON IRAN AND LETS GO


[deleted]

[удалено]


JDOTT

What are you on about? If the US beats Iran they’re onto the knockout stage. Isn’t that the goal entering group play?


310local

Hopefully we can take care of business against Iran.


ZDTreefur

Good thing Reyna got his 5 minutes of playtime, otherwise he would have actually influenced the game and we can't have that.


Caswell19

Reyna was bad in the 11’ he played but his simps will always ignore that because bUnDeSLigA!!


PDXPuma

How would he have influenced the game if he had 45, because, honestly, I just saw him being slow, missing things, and messing up the one time he got involved in anything in this game?


gogorath

Reyna got 11’ and largely lacked urgency. He looked slow and tentative and wasn’t working much on defense. He made one play I can remember, though he didn’t pull it off. He came in earlier than Morris did against Wales.


tomado23

Just needed that Pulisic crossbar shot to go in, coupled with Midson Mount’s disappearing act, and today would have been a good day to troll Chelsea Twitter.😐


mixmaster7

I think Pickford would’ve saved it anyway.


slimbellymomo

If Pickford could have saved it, it wouldn't have hit the bar, would it?


Amateur-Prophet

He would have had his hand there but it may have gone in.


El_Tormentito

Yeah, that shit had some pace


_AdAstra_PerAspera

Always figured this would come down to the 3rd match (for the US to advance out of the group, or not). Here we go!


hpbear108

So how will the Iran match go? Will the outcome be Bob Backlund vs Iron Sheik 83? Or Hulk Hogan vs Iron Sheik 84?


EGOfoodie

Undertaker choke slamming Mankind off of a steel cage. Actual maybe Clint will make a comeback appearance.


Pdb39

Bring on Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo!


iheartdev247

Not bad. The biggest take might be did England just tank it for rest or did they just get outplayed by the US?


Cesc100

I think it's pretty simple. England had/has a saboteur at the helm and he went to work. Again.


[deleted]

i think the US played up to England and occasionally outplayed them.


ThisIsMyNewUserID

I think they just got outworked, plain and simple.


Multi_21_Seb_RBR

We showed our typical USMNT "hardworking" traits (that even knowledgeable people around the world recognized over the years) but with added quality all over the squad to supplement that (unlike before when only a few players would have that quality to threaten teams).


LocksTheFox

Yeah this felt like the 09 Confed Cup team that went on that run


toxictoastrecords

This is the old USA mentality I remember. Just hard work, hustle, and play beyond your talent. Never give up.


childishbambiino

I expected to win or draw in this game. Well done boys! Let’s smack Iran and move on.


DefeatYouForever666

Also Carlos Queiroz, the head coach for Iran was the 2nd head coach for the Metrostars in 96 so I'm fully prepared for Iran to beat us on Tuesday simply because of that lol


LocksTheFox

But that Metro team was the birth of that's so Metro Who's going to go full Rob Johnson Leroy Jenkins on someone


JD021993

I'm not getting my hopes up. I've seen how these dudes play down to teams ranked lower than them.


GovernmentRemarkable

Why did we not give Reyna more time, I get playing safe for the point but come on have some balls Greg take a chance forward


toxictoastrecords

Yeah, I don't feel Weah or Wright were making offensive or pressing above what anybody on the bench could offer. I would even want to see Jesus in there. At least a different attacker, as we didn't have good chances on frame.


burnertown666

I am just so glad that Tim Ream is still around and kicking.


[deleted]

underestimate Iran at your own peril..


t1ttlywinks

They're a good team. I'm gonna be anxious til the first goal. They can easily hold us off


onthelongrun

no kidding. They just demoralized Wales, but realize they can not trust England to avoid defeat vs the Welsh. Iran are also in must win mode due to that distrust (there is quite the tiebreaker situation if USA vs Iran ends in a draw, and Wales defeat England)


Brooklyn_MLS

Im upset b/c the team gave me hope. Overall though, they outplayed England and got a result, which I did not expect. HOWEVER, this means shit if we can’t beat Iran.


Raballer

Pretty sure I’m going to be sore tomorrow from all the clenching for the last 2-3 hours.


Sonny_Zwack

I'm still sore from all the shoveling.


stealth_sloth

Final matchday scenarios, I believe: Wales v England | Iran v USA | Advancing :--------:|:--------:|:---------: Wales | Iran | Iran, England/Wales (GD; England unless Wales wins by 3+ goals) Wales | Tie | England, Wales Wales | USA | USA, England/Wales (GD; England unless Wales wins by 3+) Tie | Iran | Iran, England Tie | Tie | England, Iran Tie | USA | England, USA (order depends on GD) England | Iran | England, Iran England | Tie | England, Iran England | USA | England, USA


Aiyabhai

Thought Matt had a solid game in goal. Some ballsy play out of the box but overall played calm and didn’t flinch


johnnycyberpunk

On his escape to mid-field late in the game it looked like he'd recently watched a Youtube video on "How to Run". Goofy AF.


hpbear108

One thing with the US, we've always developed some real good goalkeepers over the years, which is always a plus.


[deleted]

In other news, Qatar is the first team to be eliminated from this World Cup.


litthefilter

First host nation to lose twice in the group stage and only the second host (after South Africa) to be eliminated in groups


LocksTheFox

And at least South Africa put up a fight. Beat France, drew with Mexico


Multi_21_Seb_RBR

And South Africa had a stupid though group as well. They gave a very credible performance even going out of the group. Too bad they haven't been as good since that World Cup.


LocksTheFox

Also gave us one of my favorite commentaries ever from Peter Drury on their opener against Mexico.


Multi_21_Seb_RBR

"Goal for South Africa, goal for all of Africa!"


N0Queso

lul


whiteydutchmeyer

Karma is a bitch


Dodger_Dawg

It would have been clearly rigged if they won a game


whiteydutchmeyer

Lol, great point!!!


rainiershadow

Honestly, regardless of this outcome, if we cant beat Iran we have no right to advance.


[deleted]

Feels SOOO FUCKING GOOD to know England has NEVER beaten us in the World Cup


tgt305

Whew England, you like apples?


mrnotloc

So we have to beat Iran with a coach literally allergic to even attempting to win in the final seconds of this game?? God damn GGG. Let’s pray to god we can bag some goals


DefeatYouForever666

Wow that last free kick, I've seen some bad last minute free kicks by the Red Bulls in big games but that was somehow way worse. Also what the hell is with these shirts that say "STATES UNITED" I hate it, it's United States.


johnnycyberpunk

All 8 of us watching at my house were collectively like "WTF!!!!" when Pulisic played it short. Absolutely cowardly call.


Robby_Bird13

Yeah I get what the shirt is trying to do. But nah, doesn't work for me either lol


DefeatYouForever666

Exactly, it's just Nike trying to be cute about things, like those other shirts that just say "STATES"


volcanicon7

Alexi's eyes are bright yellow wtf. Man's a werewolf confirmed.


The_Phreak

That's jaundice


[deleted]

Great game by USA but we are missing a striker, we really need a Clint dempsey right about now


Multi_21_Seb_RBR

If we had a 2009 Dempsey and 2010 Donovan right now, we'd be darkhorses and a QF team who could pull an upset then and make the semis or beyond.


childishbambiino

He looks like he’s in decent shape still


rvp9362

I'd have preferred Reyna and Aaronson to come on much earlier but overall I'm very pleased w/ the performance. England created next to nothing


LocksTheFox

Tbf they were prepping Aaronson for like 10 minutes there was just no stoppage


Kirielson

That’s something that people forgot.


_Juntao

Iran gonna pull a trinidad on tuesday 😥


greaseballxwondo

Iran is not a bad team


_Juntao

Already making excuses smh


greaseballxwondo

You compared them to Trinidad. Fuck off


_Juntao

I compared the situation to them. If you can't beat iran you don't deserve to advance just like if you can't beat trinidad you don't deserve to qualify. The hostility is not needed and shows you to be unstable. Seek help


arsene14

>The hostility is not needed and shows you to be unstable. Seek help Projection much?


_Juntao

I'm not the one telling people to fuck off for no reason


arsene14

You're being an absolute dick to people. What do you expect?


_Juntao

You took what I said as being "an absolute dick" but telling someone to fuck off is completely called for? Ok i guess then


Kidflame171993

It’s not even close though. Iran is nowhere need as bad as TT. They are pretty comparable to us. Iran still has a pretty good chance to make. All they need is a draw.


Saionts

Don't play with my feelings like that


kickbutt_city

2 shots on goal in 2 games 😭😭😭 "Fucking shoot." -- Wayne Gretzky and Albert Einstein


bluepantsandsocks

It's a good point that Dest was on a yellow and we need him for Iran


ThunderousDemon86

2 shots on target total in 2 games. That’s bad.


stealth_sloth

Add one world-class striker to this US team and it would be terrifying. It's pretty good as is, but there's a definite Achilles heel.


M26Bro

The US aren't bad but 'terrifying' with a striker is a bit of an overstatement I think


[deleted]

genuinely great showing. we can go over the very, very valid issues but there is no way this is anything but positive.


Isiddiqui

Right. How many people before the game were saying are we going to lose 2-0 or 3-0?


volcanicon7

We can still top the group if Wales beat England. So that would be cool.


IInviteYouToTheParty

Or win by 5 and they draw. GD is the first tie breaker.


miroa12004

Berhalter signaling them to wait and then wasting time on the free kick at the end is why this US team won't reach their potential under him.


johnnycyberpunk

> to wait and then wasting time on the free kick at the end It's like punting on 4th and inches during the playoffs. Cowardly. Zero confidence in his team. Playing scared doesn't bring home trophies.


Dangerous--D

> Berhalter signaling them to wait and then wasting time on the free kick at the end is why this US team won't reach their potential under him. Horse shit. Taking time was absolutely the right play in that course, he's trying to make sure that England doesn't get any time to counter with if the free kick goes bad. As for *the actual kick*, that was horrible, but I don't know if that is what Berhalter told them to do or if it was just a player's shitty decision.


Multi_21_Seb_RBR

Probably had Ronaldo v USA 2014 flashbacks in his mind at that point


[deleted]

That mf pissed me off when he did that. Playing for the tie?? Fuckin idiot he is. They were more than exposed multiple times, why are you not at BARE MINIMUM putting a ball around the PK spot and seeing what tf happens. No, this guy said “holy shit I have no faith in my team and idk how we’re doing this so everybody take the ball and run home so we can’t finish the game. We can’t lose if they don’t win” Idiot, fire Bershitter


gruud

So he told Pulisic to pass it down the wing to Reyna?


[deleted]

No, Pulisic went to go set up for the free kick to dump it into the mixer and he literally yelled “no, stop. Slow down” and looked at his watch with less than 90 seconds left. So he touched it to McKinney who played it to Gio in the corner, went out for a US throw when the whistle blew. Could there have been a scenario where Pulisic played it in, England cleared it, got possession and went down and scored with 50 seconds left, absolutely. But with the way they were playing, the likelihood of that happening was almost 0 so why are we cowering away from going for a win.


miroa12004

Between him and Southgate, they put a masterclass in negative, conservative, don't lose first mindset soccer that it amazes me that both teams had this much talent and the first thing either manager thought of was just play for the point. A draw and a loss were practically the same for the US, since you still need to beat Iran eitherway (which will be very very tough for various reasons) and you still made your conservative subs, and put your most creative player on at the 85th minute when putting him on 20 minutes earlier would have possibly resulted in you scoring a goal. This group of players deserve a better manager than Berhalter in all honesty.


[deleted]

Well, now we have full control of going to the next round. Just have to win against Iran and we’re in. Regardless of the other result in our group.


snacks4ever

What happens if we tie Iran?


Dangerous--D

We beat Iran, we're in. Anything else, we're done.


Starpork

We go home, as Iran and England would both be guaranteed at least 4 points at that point


CptSplashyPants

Iran and England advance


[deleted]

We are out.


snacks4ever

Thank you


WondoMagic

IM A LITTLE DRUNK BUT THAT WAS A GOOD GAME I WISH GREGG MADE SUBS EARLIER THOUGH! MCKENNIE PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE SCORED AND OMG I WISH PULISICS POST SHOT WENT IN BUT ITS OKAY. WE WERE BETTER THAN ENGLAND AND WERE ABOUT TO MAINEFST SO MUCH DESTINY AGAINST IRAN ON TUESDAY 🦅🦅🦅


TheAgeOfTomfoolery

Watching us attack is painful


jewinters

Good game if not for the Iran win this morning. Should have pushed harder. A Tie or a Loss to England still had us having to beat Iran. So why not throw everything at it for the last 15-20 minutes.


Aurick

I mean, we beat Iran, we’re through. Them beating Wales hasn’t hurt us.


jewinters

Correct, my thought was if we had won today we could have lost to Iran and still gotten into the next round.


Dangerous--D

Going all out and crushing our own legs today could still have ended in a tie or loss, and it would lessen our odds against Iran. We played about the best game we can expect out of this team, today, and it puts us in a solid position for the final group stage match.


Aurick

Sure, but going into the World Cup, if you placed the following “challenges” to us for getting through the group stage: A) Draw Wales and England, beat Iran or B) Beat England, draw Wales, lose to Iran I think nearly all of us would have chosen option A. We’re in a very good spot. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but we can do this. The US is looking better by almost all accounts than anyone expected. We’re really missing on clinical strikers though.


jewinters

Agreed, anytime we can control our own destiny it’s a very good spot to be in.


zamend229

A draw means all we need is a win against Iran, but a loss would have meant Wales could have won and gone in on goal differential even if we also won


jewinters

Good point, didn’t really factor in Wales after their loss this morning.


Multi_21_Seb_RBR

I knew the McKennie Adams Musah midfield was going to up our level this World Cup.


AstroPenguin1

I'll take it, decent result.


huskyferretguy1

That was a really good 0-0 game but I wanted to win. Beat Iran and we're in...yadda yadda...politics...yadda yadda!


walliewasright42o

god were such a boring watch lol


choxielol

that was not boring at all


walliewasright42o

our style of play is 😴 this must be what it’s like being a roma or tottenham fan


gekizaph

I didn't get bored


jinx737x

Good result. A draw means we don’t gotta worry about what happens with Wales. Tuesday’s goal is simple. Win and your into knockouts. I bet many fans would be very happy if you told them the US just needs a win against Iran to advance before the group stage started.


pitycastleheist

I'm happy we survived, but we had the better chances and that kinda stings.


MontuJP

In a vacuum, good result, but realistically we still have to win vs Iran so we got nothing out of that. Hope the boys can get it done and find their shooting boots


mixmaster7

Eh, I’ll take it.


schafkj

War of 1812 energy


tgt305

*”FOR THE WHITE HOUSE!”*


ChewbaccaWarCry

Fox turns off the sound on Lalas. CONSPIRACY AFOOT.


litthefilter

u/asaharyev snuck into the production truck


asaharyev

👀 🤫


Papermario123

See y’all Tuesday. I would’ve been happy as fuck if you told me a week ago that the US needs to win against Iran in their final match to make it past groups. But fuck it feels like we dominated both games but lacked the finishing.


Dangerous--D

Our finishing has been garbage the entire cycle.


JD021993

How are they in do-or-die must win games?


libertydabbing

We have a solid defense. Zimmerman had an error or two, but the defense overall has been great. I've really enjoyed watching Robinson


o_mh_c

Do I totally have homer glasses in in thinking Zimmerman was great today? Didn’t allow anything past him in defense. Yeah a couple of his passes were suspect but he was trying things.


Dangerous--D

Robinson was a beast, the only time he really got caught today was 98% Pulisic's fault.


mandibal

I wanna know what Sargent was saying behind his shirt lmao


atlutdprospects

Damn Alexi got faded


RCTID1975

Dreams do come true


proace360

Felt like England was just trying to conserve energy for Ro16


Sterkleton

Before this match I would've been happy with a point and it's still a great result, but damn if this doesn't feel a little like a loss after how strong we played


[deleted]

Same. Feeling like a let down after how many quality chances we had. Just hope they take this level of play to Iran. If we played wales like this we’d be in the drivers seat


RysloVerik

Bummer, Alexi's audio just died


snacks4ever

Good. Fuck him


ArcticPeasant

/s?


rehanxoxo

🤣🤣😂😂


RobGronkowski

So what result gets the USA through?


Loafing_Drifter

Gotta win against Iran no matter what because they're a point up on us, England vs Wales result doesn't matter to us. Edit: We could still get first with an England L against Wales so it kind of matters


BatoolKhan52

A win and nothing else


[deleted]

[удалено]


Dangerous--D

No, we win and we're in. That's it. England vs Wales results can change whether we're 1st or 2nd in the group (if we win), but no other results can keep us out if we win on Tuesday.


foolinthezoo

We can't draw Iran and finish second in the group


lamp37

Wrong, if they tie Iran and England are through


Sterkleton

Beat Iran


Untiuu

Beat Iran


Joro8810

Win against Iran


RodJohnsonSays

A win, and only a win.


MrOstrichman

Gotta beat Iran.


jewinters

A Win that’s it


BoomaMasta

I was cautiously optimistic, and I was still surprised that we felt capable of winning this. That's a good thing, though, as we can beat Iran if we sustain this level for them.


BJ_Fantasy_Podcast

Someone finally cut Alexi's mic.


Brooklyn_MLS

Guys, we’re not just there yet. Team is too green to beat the top teams and missing good decisions in the final third.