The Soccer Thread (Version 13) — Winter World Cup Edition

I'm certainly no soccer expert, but even I could see the U.S. was outplayed and outcoached against Portugal. We were lucky to advance this year.

 

They gave up one goal the entire tournament. One goal.
I've never seen a team in any sport that didn't play hard do so well on defense.

If you want to say they sucked, fine. Their offense, their tactics stunk, fine.

But way too simplistic to say "they didn't try hard" when they gave up one goal in four games.

 

It sucks that it's this simple but US coaches are judge on World Cups and Olympic medals. He had a crack at two and didn't even reach the final in either. With the next Cup being on home soil and the Olympics to follow, change had to come.

 

they did play hard against Sweden. Peppered the Swedish goalie. Got unlucky, and also faced a good goalie on that day.

They played awful in the group stage. Vietnam didn’t score any goals in WC. Portugal only scored against Vietnam.

I watched and saw what I saw. A youngish team needed a better coach, and they needed to play harder earlier in the tournament.

 

The USWNT gave up one shot on goal in the entire group stage. One.
The USWNT took 62 shots, second highest of all 32 teams in the group stage.

Only 14 were on target. That was a problem.

So they literally allowed one shot on goal in the group stage, and took the second most shots. But no effort was given. Okay.

 

Agreed. Pool play should have been a slam dunk. Instead, they barely made it.

(Sigh) All this thread needs is YF coming back to ask if one of the Williams sisters or a WNBA star could join the team.

 

The US women were 3-2-5 in major tournaments under Andonovski with no championships, which should be enough to force a coaching change for a team with that level of talent and expectations. He managed the bench poorly. Whomever replaces him has to start building immediately for the 2024 Olympics.

 

We weren’t outplayed vs Portugal. They did absolutely nothing until injury time. We obviously should have created more chances and scored, and the setup/subs weren’t ideal, but it was barely a game until the shot off of the post.

 

Two subs in the 91st minute vs. Portugal. WTF

 

Hey, at least, Alma is not saying they should have spent more time practicing than kneeling or being woke.

 

The 27 World Cup host won’t be announced until May next year.

 

Forgive me for being presumptuous. If the USA puts in a bid and since it will be 24 years since it last hosted, or in this case co-hosts, I find it hard to believe it won't be here.