soccer soccer soccer

[Rex Buckingham]

what a delivery by Gio

[Transmogrified Tiger]

270+ minutes across concacaf and zero open play goals, seems about right

[imb]

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Sargent looks like a USL player with the ball at his feet today, I don’t get it

[imb]

Sargent looks like a USL player with the ball at his feet today, I don’t get it

 

you could literally say this about the entire 11 tonight lol, just brutal. I guess maybe not reyna.

 

These guys are just nowhere near in sync. No one knows what anyone else is doing

[wolf stansson]

Jamaica level in Mexico City

[UMFan83]

How bad is 1 point here?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

How bad is 1 point here?

 

Tying on the road is fine, but the road games don’t really get easier and you miss the chance to pad your margin for error.

[bukie]

How bad is 1 point here?

Better than no points, which is what they managed against T&T last cycle.

 

Effectively, not getting a win here means they'll need to get some results against Mexico and Costa Rica.

 

CONCACAF gonna CONCACAF though.

[soccer10k]

In the previous 6 Hex's, it took an average of 15.2 points to finish 3rd and 13.2 for 4th. Extrapolate to 14 games and you've got 21.2 and 18.4. I'm guessing it will be a bit more since we're bringing in two worse teams, so we've probably got to get to 22 or 23 for 3rd. Could obviously be less though.

[stitchface]

that was not good. contrary to what someone else said though, El Salvador may be the third best team in concacaf and this was one of the tougher road tests. awful game to watch.

[bukie]

[wolf stansson]

We’ve never won a qualifier in El Salvador, so the result is a positive in terms of getting the point. That’s not to say we couldn’t have won. Could have and possibly should have.

 

Couple of those headers could’ve gone in from Robinson & Pefok.

 

Dest is still a liability in concacaf. Tyler Adams had to shift over just to cover his turnovers and lack of commitment in challenges. He was absolutely terrible. Add to that, Konrad was paired with him on the left, and has all the same liabilities. Last major gripe was the choice to play Reyna wide and Aaronson centrally. GGG should’ve flipped that. Reyna is much more physically capable of standing up to the roughness.

 

Either way, nothing to be worried about. Just some light frustration.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

We’ve never won a qualifier in El Salvador, so the result is a positive in terms of getting the point. That’s not to say we couldn’t have won. Could have and possibly should have.

 

Couple of those headers could’ve gone in from Robinson & Pefok.

 

Dest is still a liability in concacaf. Tyler Adams had to shift over just to cover his turnovers and lack of commitment in challenges. He was absolutely terrible. Add to that, Konrad was paired with him on the left, and has all the same liabilities. Last major gripe was the choice to play Reyna wide and Aaronson centrally. GGG should’ve flipped that. Reyna is much more physically capable of standing up to the roughness.

 

Either way, nothing to be worried about. Just some light frustration.

 

Agreed. Beyond their defensive disinterest, having Konrad and Dest on the left with Aaronson inside meant that no one was particularly interested in getting to the left touchline, and the central dribbling became real predictable. I think Dest on the left is more palatable in a 3 back, where he has more defensive cover, more license to gravitate centrally, and is more likely to have a different formation in front of him(5-3-2 or 3-4-2-1) to make that flank more dynamic. Probably should've just played Lletget over Konrad at the least to get Aaronson out of the middle.

 

But even with the player selection and player performance being uninspiring, they got a road point, which is all they really need for the first road qualifier in front of a raucous crowd. 3 teams dropped home points yesterday, so beat Canada and take your shot against Honduras, who is not in a great competitive cycle, isn't at full strength on top of that, and will have heavier legs than the US. That will be our last chance til the final game @CR to play on the road in the 3rd match to take advantage of depth/rotation, so while 5 points would be fine, they'll definitely have missed a significant chance to breathe easier.

[stitchface]

We’ve never won a qualifier in El Salvador, so the result is a positive in terms of getting the point. That’s not to say we couldn’t have won. Could have and possibly should have.

 

Couple of those headers could’ve gone in from Robinson & Pefok.

 

Dest is still a liability in concacaf. Tyler Adams had to shift over just to cover his turnovers and lack of commitment in challenges. He was absolutely terrible. Add to that, Konrad was paired with him on the left, and has all the same liabilities. Last major gripe was the choice to play Reyna wide and Aaronson centrally. GGG should’ve flipped that. Reyna is much more physically capable of standing up to the roughness.

 

Either way, nothing to be worried about. Just some light frustration.

 

Konrad seemed like the only one who could run with the ball - the midfield looked awful to me (I missed the first 30). I am wondering if they should just make Dest a forward?

[imb]

last night it seemed like dest and konrad were the only ones with any creative juice. maybe a mistake to have them on the same side. it seemed like mckennie did ok in midfield but his strength isnt really linkup, or at least it doesnt seem to be, i havent watched him a ton and he wasnt doing it last night. so you have dest and konrad basically acting as double wingers on the left, no one covering for dest in a back 4, and the midfield mainly just chasing the ball.

 

more than anything it just seemed like guys were not comfortable with each other yet. you'd see sargent drive 40 yards up the pitch and then dink a little pass to no one because he had no idea where his support was. And there was another couple times that happened, cant remember with who, where a guy is making a drive into the box and he just kind of gets lost trying to figure out who was where to pass to and got dispossessed.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

more than anything it just seemed like guys were not comfortable with each other yet. you'd see sargent drive 40 yards up the pitch and then dink a little pass to no one because he had no idea where his support was. And there was another couple times that happened, cant remember with who, where a guy is making a drive into the box and he just kind of gets lost trying to figure out who was where to pass to and got dispossessed.

 

The two that come to my mind from the second half

 

- Sargent got on the ball with space in the middle, and drove to the 18 on his left(eventually passing sideways for someone to turnover), and he never looked dangerous the entire sequence. Whether it was his left foot, general confidence, or lack of understanding of his teammates it was a really disheartening sequence

 

- Pefok taking the ball off the center back and then getting crossed up with Aaronson on who was running where, eventually misplaying the pass for a turnover

 

Hopefully more time and a better field give them better connectivity.

[stitchface]

what bbct said seems about right and agree on being out of sync and bad touches. The field seemed really small too. Sargent needs to shoot the damn ball.

[Rex Buckingham]

Steffen has COVID, maybe saving Gregg from himself a bit by forcing him to play Turner.

[UMFan83]

Any word on Pulisic yet?

[wolf stansson]

Any word on Pulisic yet?

He trained. Gio did not. No word why.

 

Steffen getting Covid sure seems like Turner’s big chance.

[stitchface]

Probably doesn't make sense for Gio to play all three games anyway.

 

What a farce in Brazil! The idea that a country can decide not to allow players from certain other countries seems problematic - for instance, can Paraguay say they aren't allowing any players from Europe due to COVID? Would certainly level the playing field. Seems like Argentina should have complied but the absurdity of interrupting the game 5 minutes in is a bit much.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

At least Pulisic is back. Sounds like McKennie violated Covid protocol.

[wolf stansson]

McKennie having disciplinary issues again. This is a consistent problem for him at Juve and the national team. Inexcusable in a qualifying cycle.

[UMFan83]

Not liking the start so far. Aren’t able to get anything going with the ball and have allowed a couple of scary counters

 

What the horsefeathers is Dest doing out there?