The US really lack a physical presence at centre forward.
I think theyâve certainly got to try someone not named Josh Sargent on the forward line next time out. He brought so little.
I didnât realise until today that the American Weah is the son of the Liberian George Weah. What a player he was!
Gio Reyna sitting on the bench having to watch Jordan Morris come on as the final sub was just insult to injury in this mess.
I havenât been as down on Berhalter as many of my Yankee Doodle soccer compatriots, but Iâm OK if heâs done managing the national team as soon as the final whistle in the match with Iran is sounded.
The Iran match had like 14 + 10 minutes of stoppage time too, right? Not sure what the refs are on about.
Also, never count out Bale when he is playing for Wales.
Well, that sucked. Assume England blows the doors off of us and Wales. Itâll come down to how both nations deal with Iran.
the 1-1 result was deserved by both. Good and bad.
Now need to try and get a result against England.
So many wasted crosses. That combined with the awful ref & now weâve got to pummel Iran to move on.
Wales will fight a brave fight against England, perhaps.
lol yeah I mentioned it upthread. He scored some wondergoals back in the day for AC Milan, during the old Channel 4 Football Italia days. Cracking player
Get used to it: the commentators suspect itâs something the referees have been asked to count more accurately this tournament. The England match earlier had 24 minutes total.
What was weird about that match is that there was 14 minutes of added time put on at the end of the first halfâŚand then in the 9th minute of stoppage, the referee was like âYeah, all right. Good enough. Halftime.â
This US team remind me a lot of Leeds Utd in the Premier League. Start at a million miles an hour, aggression, high workrate, close down everything. But like Leeds normally do they really looked to have run out of steam after the break, very leggy in the second half a noticeable drop off of intensity.
No, there was definitely 14 minutes of stoppage time in the first half. The clock was on 59 minutes when it stopped.
That first half stoppage time was well deserved too, given how long they worked on the Iranian keeper after that collision.
Yeah, it was the second half that felt as though it had too much.
Ah - was not aware of that. But a positive thing. Though I think a better thing would be to implement rules like in handball where the clock is simply stopped when the game is stopped. Drop the need for a judgement call by the referee and just let them play for 90 minutes.
Yeah, there have been some discussions that way. Though I think theyâd have to drop it to 80 minutes.
On the subject of the aborted protests, Iâm ambivalent.
On the one hand, one can argue that a yellow card is a small price to pay for showing support. Some argue that would be a small price, but what then? Presumably the player would be forced to change to the official armband, or risk a second yellow. Basically, the team would be throwing away the match (and basically the tournament) for the sake of making a symbolic statement that likely would be censored from TV. Is it worth it? The Danish FA have also indicated that they were threatened with being sanctioned to lose a match, if they did not refrain from activism prior to their match. Worth it?
I donât think there is necessarily a right answer to that. Itâs easy to castigate their bravery, but itâs also a position the players shouldnât be put into - sacrificing four years of work vs a symbolic gesture. The players and the sport are basically being taken hostage by FIFA to ensure the political narrative they wish to promote is the party line, and the party in the wrong here is FIFA.
On the plus side, I suspect FIFAâs outrageous reacion is doing more damage than a few rainbow-colored armbands ever could.
I see your point and I think I agree.
the other thing that occurred to me: letâs say Harry Kane takes a yellow for wearing it. And refuses to remove it and takes another at some point. Who benefits today? Or may potentially benefit in a future match? Potentially, IranâŚwho have their own monstrous issues when it comes to human rights and equality and LGBTQ communities.
100% agree. The armbands would likely be forgotten, but now FIFA has this on their ledger of corruption regarding this World Cup.