Just listened to Kane and Southgate interviews. They both described the US as "athletic" and they are correct. The speed really gave them problems offensively and defensively. Even when England had the ball and had a little space, it was quickly closed down. Some of these guys, like Jedi Robinson, I get tired from watching him. Like it legitimately makes me a bit uncomfortable to see him make a dead sprint all the way up on offense and then sprint all the way back. How is he only playing at Fulham? Dude is a total beast.
My England USA Thoughts-what are yours?
- Thread starter Fk_Pitt
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A lot of the Brits are with you. We are irate about Gia not playing and they are irate about Foden not playing.
I have a friend who loves Man City. This guy texts me all the time about Foden being the best 21 year old in the world. I’ve been giving him some crap about Southgate not playing him saying If he were that good he’d be on the field. It’s another example of young Mason Mount being the golden boy and plays ahead of gifted players. Mason just must fit the profile that every manager he plays for values. Mount has played for Lampard, Tuchel, Potter and Southgate. And all 4 insist on him being central to the squad. Even yesterday there were people on social media saying Mason was the MOTM. I don’t know if these people are serious or just trolling at this point.
By the way, I thought Graelish made an impact when he got on the field yesterday. Maybe that was just his fresh legs. But probably to your point, maybe Foden would have been that much more dangerous.
Ok, Owts comment earlier about Matt Turner is spot on. Everything about that guy makes it so easy to root for him. What a great story, a great teammate, and he loves his country.
I think Tyler Adams is my favorite player right now. He has to be the most important player.
But I respect the hell out of Tim Ream. Being 35 years old and seeing him live his dream with his limited athleticism, it’s awesome to see.
McKennie has the most personality on the team. Love that about him. And I think he can still get better as a player. Hopefully his club career continues to give him opportunity to shine and improve his game.
Musah might be a star by the time 2026 rolls around.
Hopefully Dest’s offensive abilities are better in 2026. He may be pushed by Scally or others behind him.
Not sure Jedi Robinson can run like he does for 4 more years, but man if he declared for England instead of USA, I’d be starting him at left back over Luke freaking Shaw.
Are we still going to have the same concerns about the #9 heading into the 2026 WC?
Finally, saw this on twitter today, and it actually describes my feelings today best…
I think Tyler Adams is my favorite player right now. He has to be the most important player.
But I respect the hell out of Tim Ream. Being 35 years old and seeing him live his dream with his limited athleticism, it’s awesome to see.
McKennie has the most personality on the team. Love that about him. And I think he can still get better as a player. Hopefully his club career continues to give him opportunity to shine and improve his game.
Musah might be a star by the time 2026 rolls around.
Hopefully Dest’s offensive abilities are better in 2026. He may be pushed by Scally or others behind him.
Not sure Jedi Robinson can run like he does for 4 more years, but man if he declared for England instead of USA, I’d be starting him at left back over Luke freaking Shaw.
Are we still going to have the same concerns about the #9 heading into the 2026 WC?
Finally, saw this on twitter today, and it actually describes my feelings today best…
I said this before and I will repeat it, this World Cup is a chance for pulisic to shine and show his worth. If Chelsea doesn’t see it or believes tactically he shouldn’t ply as much, sell him and let him be a key player elsewhere. He deserves minutes. He played better than
Saka, Mount, and Sterling. Hell, Even more effective than Kane. England showed early signs of how to beat the US, but Saka especially really caused problems for their own attack by playing so poorly. Second half subs for England again showed how to beat the US. But they continued to move away from the attack that was working. Maybe fear of the US, but there were times you could see England about to attack and poor play ruined it.
Mount was average at best, one great shot and that was about it.
England better start getting it together or it will be an early exit next round.
Saka, Mount, and Sterling. Hell, Even more effective than Kane. England showed early signs of how to beat the US, but Saka especially really caused problems for their own attack by playing so poorly. Second half subs for England again showed how to beat the US. But they continued to move away from the attack that was working. Maybe fear of the US, but there were times you could see England about to attack and poor play ruined it.
Mount was average at best, one great shot and that was about it.
England better start getting it together or it will be an early exit next round.
This is my life as a chelsea fan. After every match where we fail to score goals, all we hear is how great Mount was off the ball and his incredible work rate.
But at some point isn’t the job to help create and score goals? He’s negotiating for a 300k per week contract and just turned down 200K. Shouldn’t elite production figure in? This is why part of me wonders if we will ever win again if he’s leading the team.
What we get at Chelsea is 5 straight starts and 5 straight games of unproductive play and Pulisic starting on the bench. Mounts the 1st player on the managers team sheet penciled in before every game. Then in the 6th game he scores a goal or contributes and he “proves the manager right”. Then the cycle starts all over again.
That, and it was a hard-fought match. Both teams were trying to score. Lots of chances, but slightly better D.
Grealish sucks. Total garbage. That said, after watching him mangle chance after chance for City, I figured he would somehow beat the US.
I just face-timed my 81 year old Dad who lives in Florida. He has taken a liking to the sport because of his grandkids involvement in it. We debriefed yesterdays match over the phone and he asked me if I liked that “goulash” guy from England. He said every time he got the ball you held your breath because he was drawing fouls. I laughed…first because he called him Goulash, and second because I told my Dad he’s the biggest diver in England and I was holding my breath too, especially when he’s around the penalty area.
I'll tell you how. He has all the endurance and pace in the world. His crossing and his touch can be rough plenty of times. If he can really nail that part of his game down, he'll be so much more special.
I think Matt Turner is putting to the rest who's #1 between the stick for the foreseeable future. He still is iffy with the ball at his feet but you can see the confidence and improvement and that comes from being at Arsenal. It'll be interesting to see what Arsenal do with him in the future. Loans? Or...have him eventually take over for Ramsdale
What Tim lacks in his physical ability, he more than makes up for it with his smarts and how he reads that ball. Plus he has a very respectable outlet ball when he uses it. This is learned from plying his trade in England between the the PL and Championship. He's just so under appreciated by the Fulham faithful because...well...he's a Yank.
What is crazy, is how the core of this team are still babies. After this year, we have 2 more WC cycles to watch this core play. Very exciting times.
I was pulled back into the center with Berhalter after yesterday, then you posted that Wynaldo clip and it absolutely infuriates me. Can Gio file a 1 time switch with FIFA? Captain Dipshit could be starting to tread in water with this situation.
When I was watching that match yesterday I was thinking about the people who say something like "there aren't any Americans that would even start for England" or "there are only a few Americans who would even make the English roster" and I was thinking about how simply wrong that was.
They don't play the same formation so it's not an exact comparison, but Pulisic is better than the guys that England started at his position. You'd have to be insane to think that Adams couldn't/shouldn't start over Declan Rice. While I get that his age is a limiting factor, just for the right now neither Stones nor McGuire are playing better than Ream. Weah is every bit as good as Saka. Reyna is too. Is Shaw actually better than Robinson, or Trippier actually better than Dest?
England has two big advantages over the US right now. Turner is coming on, and I think Pickford is good but not great, but right now Pickford is better. And then of course the huge advantage of Harry Kane over whomever the US is playing up top. But I think that if you traded the US strikers for the English strikers and made no other changes I'm not sure the US isn't the better team. It would at least be very close.
He's got to go as soon as the World Cup is over.
He reminds me all the time of my neice's old high school coach. When they can put out on the field talent that is better than their opponent they get results. When things are going bad and changes need to be made they have no idea what to do to fix things. That second half against Wales being a perfect example. That game was crying out for the US to make changes, and he waited way too long and never really changed the way they were trying to play. And in the end it cost them two points that would look really good in the standings this morning.
My opinion, if they get eliminated, sack him. If they make it to the knockout round or even quarters, sack him.
I’m gonna push back a little. Adams is a Johnny come lately and Declan Rice is going to be a 100-125 million transfer in the summer. Leeds just got Adams on what 10-20 million transfer? Adams was brought in at Leeds to replace Calvin Phillips who was sold to Man City for 50 million. The thought at the time was that Adams could never replace what Phillips meant to Leeds. But he’s exceeded expectations. And Phillips backs up Rice on this England roster. If you were to ask the top 10 sporting directors in football to choose between Rice and Adams, with money not being a factor, who would they take? I still have to say most if not all take Rice. 1 month ago Adams was considered half as good as a guy who backs up Rice on the National Team. But I’m with you. Tyler Adams can help any team win in the very least and his stock will rise after this World Cup. I’ll take an attack of Sterling, Kane and Saka over any attack we throw out there. But I think Sterling is incredibly overrated and I prefer Pulisic…I think. But Saka AND FODEN are both better than Weah. McGuire is a jabroni but I’d take his corner kick presence over Zimmerman. Stones and Ream might be a wash. One thing for sure is Reece James would have made a huge difference yesterday if he was the England RB. Chillwell as left back too. Both are injured.
I am of the opinion that Declan Rice is the most overrated player in the world. Every single telecast one has to hear how much he is in demand by the Big 6 teams, and I still have yet to see him do anything special.
I saw your post right before mine and gathered we had a difference of opinion on this one. I’m not saying he’s horrible, just that I don’t remember ever hearing a guy pumped up so much by the announcers every single match that disappears for long stretches as much as Rice does. There are many matches where other than the plaudits it seems like he never even touches the ball.
It’s really not that. I love what Adams brings and some at Leeds are comparing him to N’golo Kante. No one would ever mistake Rice for Kante.
I think what we are seeing is these English players are over valued and over hyped.
Would Mount, Rice, Sterling, Bellingham be 100-150 million players if they were American? Not a chance.
Getting back to what some of us were talking about yesterday with U.S. players not being taught or able to get off a quick, powerful shot off a pass, look at Messi’s goal today. OK, it’s Messi, but it’s also the process. He was outside the box. He knew what he wanted to do before the ball arrived. His first touch was perfect. He didn’t just settle the ball at his feet and then try to figure out what to do. With his first touch he perfectly put the ball one stride in front of him and at precisely the right angle so he could take one full stride with his right leg and then power the ball toward the corner of the goal with his left.
Ochoa is an excellent GK but he never had a chance. And, it was all set up by Messi thinking shot before the ball got to him and his first touch putting him into position to get off a quick, powerful shot.
As long as American youth programs emphasize settle, settle, settle…pass, pass, pass, we won’t produce players able to emulate that.
Ochoa is an excellent GK but he never had a chance. And, it was all set up by Messi thinking shot before the ball got to him and his first touch putting him into position to get off a quick, powerful shot.
As long as American youth programs emphasize settle, settle, settle…pass, pass, pass, we won’t produce players able to emulate that.
As a long time hockey aficionado, this is interesting to hear. Because there was a prolonged period of time when Canada specifically and then the US started focusing more on preventing goals rather than scoring them. That is when the Euro skilled guys starting to come over and be amongst the top scorers in the NHL on an annual basis.
That is true of coaching in so many sports. It is "overreached" in many ways, taking "team" and "defense" over emphasizing the god given skills of some players. The NHL still does this, it is why those teams with scoring threats on their bottom 2 lines tend to do well.
That is true of coaching in so many sports. It is "overreached" in many ways, taking "team" and "defense" over emphasizing the god given skills of some players. The NHL still does this, it is why those teams with scoring threats on their bottom 2 lines tend to do well.
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