World Cup 2022

If it weren't for injuries to Pogba, Kante, and Benzema, France would be a favorite to defend their title.

Their attacking front is just scary.
 
Things just definitely got more interesting for the US. No one excepted Iran to beat Wales.

I'll be in BGO chat this afternoon for the USA v England match at 1pm Eastern for anyone who might be interested.
 
Things just definitely got more interesting for the US. No one excepted Iran to beat Wales.

I'll be in BGO chat this afternoon for the USA v England match at 1pm Eastern for anyone who might be interested.

Good luck to the USA today. I will be cheering on my friendly neighbours to the south. I would suspect that it is safe to say with the Iran victory, that any form of points for the USA would be a positive result today. If I am not mistaken, that would put them in a "control your own destiny" situation vs. Iran in game #3, correct? As in, win and you are in vs. Iran. Or, would a Wales possible upset of England throw a wrench in that?
 
England defeated Iran 6-2
U.S. tied Wales 1-1
Iran defeated Wales 2-0

That probably means nothing, I guess, but…

I’m also concerned about the amount of yellow cards the U.S. is carrying forward and how that could effect aggressiveness.
 
Those concerns are totally valid.

I think our World Cup comes down to this game today. We pretty much have to have a result against the #5 team in the world.
 
I had to work today but watched on my phone. Two things really stuck out at me. Although the younger, less experienced (and probably less talented) US team outplayed the Brits, they did two things that I think have held US soccer back that kept them from a huge win.

The first is, they showed an inability to finish. We had several opportunities for likely goals but our forwards sent the ball soaring over the top post instead of keeping the shots low. That is SO American soccer. I saw it thousands of times growing up and you'd expect starters on a World Cup team to be able to give shots like those a chance by not leaning back and sailing them. To have one player miss two likely goals doing it - oof.

The second thing is we seemed content to boot balls away when we were able to defend successfully or intercept/take away balls. One of my select soccer coaches harped on this constantly. His mantra was 'you can't score without the ball, you only get so many possessions, you never give the ball away willingly'. There were a bunch of times today where we regained possession of the ball only to give it right back to England with sloppy kicks, poor passes, or simply booting it away.

I don't want to take away from a great effort. They fought hard. But just couldn't finish those plays.
 
I’m not sure what to think about this game. Through 2 games the U.S. has scored 1 goal and allowed 1 goal. Iran has scored 4 and allowed 6.

The wild card, unfortunately, is the political tension. Is it unreasonable to project that the Iranian players will be playing under the threat of personal and/or familial punishment if they lose?
 
I think anything is possible. Under any circumstances I tend to think this game is a bigger deal for the Iranian team than the American players. How much difference that makes on the field I have no idea?
 
If FIFA rankings are to be believed this is a game against two teams very close in ability. The US is currently ranked #16 in the world while Iran is ranked #20.

Make of that what you will.
 
I'm ready for any network but FOX to have the World Cup.

Shocking.
 
I wanna see them play a lot more free-wheeling in the Knockout round. Too much deliberation and passing in the goal area. If you are withing 20' of the goal, fire a ball into the box. Good things will happen. We also have to improve vastly on set pieces - from throw-ins, to corners, to indirect and direct kicks. Hopefully, having achieved their primary goal of getting out of the group, they play with a little more abandon. That's the only way we go further with such a young inexperienced team.

As Rocky said...

 
Pulisic has been taken to the hospital following his first-half injury.
 
I wonder if he doesn't have 'torsion'. One of the most painful things you can experience - basically, one of your testicles gets twisted and blood supply cut off causing swelling and excruciating pain.
 
Messi for Argentina and Szczesny for Poland are putting on a show right now. Holy cow this is a good match.

So far Szczesny has saved a penalty from Messi and corner from De Maria that was totally going in. He has 9 saves in the half - WC record for saves in a game is held by American Tim Howard who saved 15 in one game against Belgium in Brazil.

Messi is playing like a man possessed with multiple shots on goal.
 
Things are getting crazy in Group C - with 20 minutes left in the final group matches Poland and Mexico are level on points, goal diff, and goals scored. If these matches finish like this, the tie will be broken by fair play points which means that at this point even a yellow card carries huge importance.

At the moment, Poland would advance by virtue of having received only 4 yellows in the tournament against 7 for Mexico.
 
Argentina and Poland advance setting up a possible US-Argentina meeting in the quarter-finals if both teams can win their Round of 16 matches.
 
This gem from a high school track buddy …


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Yeah, not sure I am buying that but also not sure what his motivation would be to lie about it.
 

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