FIFA World Cup 2022

[Bobfoc]

2 minutes ago, Captain Kirk said:

Mainly want Netherlands to win, due to American chants at football. 

I have this picture in my mind of the fan reaction to an American World Cup win being like if England won it, only even worse.

[Captain Kirk]

Late runners I can get standing in the box for that long with nobody picking him up is criminal.

1 minute ago, Bobfoc said:

I have this picture in my mind of the fan reaction to an American World Cup win being like if England won it, only even worse.

Couldn’t deal with either. 😂

[Meacon Keaton]

2 minutes ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

Wow. Terrible defending. Jedi Robinson didn't even look to see he was wide open.

I blame the Midichlorians.

[The Buscher]

Like 5 times so far the FOX announcers have said “the winner of this game will go on to face Lionel Messi and Argentina in the next round” before having to add that they need to beat Australia first.

[gunnar hendershow]

US winning this match on fair play tiebreaker if we score two more.

[Szumi]

4 minutes ago, Captain Kirk said:

How does Zimmerman play ahead of Carter Vickers? 
 

American defence is absolutely atrocious.

Walker Zimmerman has done zero wrong today. Not at fault for a single goal. 

[The Kraig]

1 minute ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

Walker Zimmerman has done zero wrong today. Not at fault for a single goal. 

What a bizarre name. All I can think of is this.

[Adam]

Find a striker and get a head coach who can organise better, and I think this USA team might actually be a danger in 2026.

Pulisic, Weah, Reyna and Aaronson are all quality young players who should be even better by then. They need a top striker to feed off of and I think the team organisation and tactics could be much better, but you can see the talent in there.

The defence was solid in the group stage as well, just not today.

[Captain Kirk]

3 minutes ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

Walker Zimmerman has done zero wrong today. Not at fault for a single goal. 

Aye but he’s still pish.

[Szumi]

1 minute ago, The Kraig said:

What a bizarre name. All I can think of is this.

I think he sounds like a personal injury attorney or something of the nature

[Captain Kirk]

1 minute ago, Adam said:

Find a striker and get a head coach who can organise better, and I think this USA team might actually be a danger in 2026.

Pulisic, Weah, Reyna and Aaronson are all quality young players who should be even better by then. They need a top striker to feed off of and I think the team organisation and tactics could be much better, but you can see the talent in there.

The defence was solid in the group stage as well, just not today.

They played a toothless England, an old Wales and Iran. Scotland’s defence would do alright against that and we won’t even qualify.

[The Kraig]

Just now, Szumi - A Polack said:

I think he sounds like a personal injury attorney or something of the nature

I was thinking more a geriatric superhero, but that works too.

 

I've liked Weah, I hope he develops and makes it into the host team squad in 4 years.

[Szumi]

1 minute ago, Adam said:

Find a striker and get a head coach who can organise better, and I think this USA team might actually be a danger in 2026.

Pulisic, Weah, Reyna and Aaronson are all quality young players who should be even better by then. They need a top striker to feed off of and I think the team organisation and tactics could be much better, but you can see the talent in there.

The defence was solid in the group stage as well, just not today.

The bizarre thing is Gregg left our best striker for running in behind to stretch defenses at home. With Pepi in the form of his life and our best performing ST in WCQ!

[Adam]

2 minutes ago, The Kraig said:

What a bizarre name. All I can think of is this.

Zimmer is German for room, so it'll be a European surname. Those walking frames are named for a bloke named Zimmer themselves.

[Bobfoc]

I don't want to be patronising, but I can't imagine I'd be all that devastated by this if I were American. Football is the fifth most popular sport in the country and the national team is still reasonably competitive against teams representing countries that live and breathe the sport. Most other nations' fifth sports probably don't even have professional teams.

[Adam]

7 minutes ago, Captain Kirk said:

They played a toothless England, an old Wales and Iran. Scotland’s defence would do alright against that and we won’t even qualify.

A "toothless" England side which scored 9 goals in their other two games, and quite a handy Iran side whose two best forwards play for Porto and Bayer Leverkusen. USA did well in those games, multiple clean sheets are not easy to achieve at a World Cup.

[gunnar hendershow]

2 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

I don't want to be patronising, but I can't imagine I'd be all that devastated by this if I were American. Football is the fifth most popular sport in the country and the national team is still reasonably competitive against teams representing countries that live and breathe the sport. Most other nations' fifth sports probably don't even have professional teams.

Making it out the group stage is the expectation for us. It's what it is. My old coworker always would ask me why, with 330 million people, we don't have talent greater than countries with 5% of our population. And while it is the 5th most popular team sport (auto racing and golf are likely both higher on the pecking order if you include all sports), the World Cup is watched more than the World Series and Stanley Cup Finals. It's also level with the NBA Finals. So there's just so much attention on it, and our women's team is historically the best ever. More people play soccer as kids than they do nearly any other sport, but why is there not a world-class, generational player that we've ever produced on the men's side? So it gets somewhat annoying our men's team can't seem to get past this one particular hurdle.

[The Kraig]

8 minutes ago, Adam said:

Zimmer is German for room, so it'll be a European surname. Those walking frames are named for a bloke named Zimmer themselves.

Well, yeah. But it's a bit like calling your kid Wheeler Honda. It's just a name that makes me smile.

[Meacon Keaton]

5 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

I don't want to be patronising, but I can't imagine I'd be all that devastated by this if I were American. Football is the fifth most popular sport in the country and the national team is still reasonably competitive against teams representing countries that live and breathe the sport. Most other nations' fifth sports probably don't even have professional teams.

It's a heat-of-the-moment devastation for me. It's never fun to lose when you just lost.

That said, I went in thinking 2-0 defeat. I came into the tourny thinking England and Wales would move out of the group and we'd already be home. So it hurts now, but yeah, we are a country that still isn't prioritizing our best athletes to the sport but I think it's clear it is getting closer. And I think we are definitely on the right track.

[Szumi]

This was definitely where I expected us to go. We didn't overachieve, but we didn't underachieve either. 

It's a very young team, and a core that will be better come 2026. Hopefully by then, we will have a better core of CBs and a halfway decent ST.