OT: Nations League Final, USA v Mexico
Consider this an open thread for anyone watching. I'm mostly interested in the thoughts and analysis of the people here who know what they're talking about.
Mexico struck within the first minute of action. USA answered in the 27th minute, but Mexico has been the clearly better team.
The US is very sloppy in possession, and it seems most of their attacks have ended by poor touches or lack of understanding, rather than stout defense by Mexico.
[delete... didn't realize I still had this account]
thank god for VAR
And Zach Steffen. Huge save at the end of the first half.
I kept seeing VAR praised on twitter. I honestly thought that was a player for the US until I googled it. I should probably watch some soccer.
I'm mostly interested in the thoughts and analysis of the people here who know what they're talking about.
Pretentious soccer fans are awful. Pretentious American soccer fans are the absolute worst. Hard to analyze USMNT tactics since they tend to begin and end with:
The US is very sloppy in possession, and it seems most of their attacks have ended by poor touches or lack of understanding
Not sure if you're calling my comment pretentious...but it was intended to be self-deprecating, since I don't know anything about these guys except Pulisic.
I'll take it back then. Still, even on rereading, it sounds more like you're trying to exclude the opinions of the unwashed rather than asking for the wisdom of the experts.
McKenzie needs to be subbed off at half, he looks frightened on the ball & has had multiple turnovers.
Hopefully the kids are feeling more sure about themselves, they got blitzed to fall behind early & fought back to equalize. Now we need a more consistent 2nd half with some better balls in the 18 to take the trophy
Well he just saved our bacon there! 2-2!
That was McKennie, not McKenzie.
My bad, misread your post.
Yep Weston McKennie has been good all game & could have multiple goals. More importantly he's had a grit about him looking like a future US Captain
To be fair Mckennie did not get off to a great start either but really grew into the game and wound up being MOTM (or close to it, hard not to give it to Horvath and Reyna was also great). Same could be said for Acosta (though you will get killed for saying that by USMNT twitter because Acosta plays in MLS).
Bob and Doug?
I'll show myself out...
I’m watching on Univision. It’s the only channel I could find it on. They just flashed “ANTI-DISCRIMINATION PROTOCOL STEP 1” on the screen. What the hell is going on?
I'm not exactly sure myself, but best I can gather is the crowd started singing an anti-gay chant. I couldn't actually tell what they were saying, so I don't know for sure. My guess is it's a common chant though, given that there is an entire protocol in place to address it.
I wish we would stop doing the chant. It was funny at first, many years ago, but gotten really old now. BTW, it is not really meant to be that offensive, and it is more of a cultural thing but kind of hard to explain.
IMO, it is more like "you are a pussy or whimp" and not so much to do with sexual orientation. Unfortunately the same word, used in a different manner, can be much more offensive and that is why there is a sanction threat.
It is in pretty bad taste and has to stop soon.
I love that the fans harass the other keeper. It's a fun thing. I just wish they would choose a different word.
Solving the problem is easy. Tell the fans every time you hear that slur you will issue a card. First time you hear it, the Mexican captain gets a yellow. Second time it’s a red. Let the fans watch their team play a man down, because of their stupidity, and it will end. They will move on to a different word.
Here's the release of it, it is brand new https://www.concacaf.com/news/concacaf-launches-what-s-wrong-is-wrong-anti-discrimination-campaign/
Also this is on the CBS Sports channel in English
PENALTY!
Looks like they reviewed the third player that was tackled on that drive towards the goal.
Sucks that we had to spend a sub on our goalie.
Maybe not...!
To be clear it wasn't a knock on Horvath, just seeing players go down, like McKennie holding his knee, and worrying about if we had another injury when we were out of subs.
Holy crap, was NOT expecting that VAR to come back with a penalty. I thought it was marginal.
Gorgeous strike by Pulisic. Impossible to save that placement in the upper corner.
Did Reyna just get hit by a bottle while celebrating?
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL!!!
Pulisic!!!
This game has been absurd- 10 min of stoppage time for OT 2 would probably undersell it
OMG WHAT A SAVE BY HORVATH!!
Will go down as one of the great moments in the rivalry
HOLY SCHMOLY HE SAVED IT
Watched all but a few minutes. Pusilic is legitimately special and the offense looks better than it has in the past. The USMNT look very dangerous when they have the ball and are attacking in the last third of the field--more than I can ever recall. In the past they've used workrate and guile to find goals--this unit looks more skilled and capable of creating them. Unfortunately the defense is shittier than ever--there's no nice way to put it. They look unskilled as they always have--the giveaways throughout the game, especially at the beginning. The goalkeeping is a step below Howard which hurts as well.
Beating Mexico anywhere is a good win, although they clearly didn't have the run of play. I don't see anyway with the octet format this cycle that they don't make the World Cup. I don't harbor a lot of hope they get beyond the group stage.
If they develop some defenders, 2026 could be very, very interesting for the USMNT. But that needs to start happening now. And the guys on the field in the back aren't those guys.
I thought it was Golden Goal rules, apparently it wasn't over after Pusilic.
That hasn't been used since the early 2000s.
I wish this was true, but Pulisic's touch has abandoned him the past 2-3 months. He literally failed to keep possession today until the 45th minute. If there's a stat tracking his passing by half, it would be grim first half. He was better second half, but that's when he had space to turn and run. Gio or McKennie are going to take the captaincy from him if he doesn't improve quickly. OUTSTANDING penalty kick though. World class. But in his current form, he'll rarely start for Chelsea next season.
Two things I think you should pay attention to with Pulisic's game.
First, every time he got on the ball he would have multiple players from El Tri working hard to win it back from him. This is a deliberate tactic by the Mexican coach, Tata Martino, to keep the ball out of Pulisic's possession.
Second, watch off the ball for how the players move to create space for Pulisic to pass. You could tell there is a lot of room for improvement. This also seemed like a problem for Gio Reyna & McKinnie as they often put passes where they expected teammates to be or head towards. Once the chemistry builds with these players it can take the US attack to a completely different level. There were some great moments last night in this regard, but there is the potential for so much more.
If there are three people on him, all the more reason to identify that and make a quick one touch pass to eliminate those three players. There is no reason to start a match, like he did yesterday, turning it over 6 straight times. He was just doing too much and not doing it well. Gio and Weston were experiencing similar treatment, but they stayed within themselves and played it one touch or demonstrated elite ball control. At the level we expect Pulisic to be, "There are a lot of people around," just doesn't cut it except when he's trying to shoot. Especially with the support he has. If only someone would create an all touches video for him from last night. It would be mostly ugly, especially early on, with a handful of brilliant moments. But he's a Chelsea contributor. The expectations are no longer about having a few high points in a CONCACAF match. He's already being outplayed by Gio and Weston, and they're mostly just taking what's being given to them.
And I agree on the spacing. It's horrible. We pass and watch or simply don't move as a team to create diamonds.
Yeah, I agree with this and think it's mostly him trying to do too much without full trust of teammates yet. Dest does the same thing.
I don’t know if I’d say their defense is that bad, just that their style of play accentuates problems because of the turnovers. John Brooks is amongst the best CBs the US have had and the full back pairing (Yedlin and Dest) are historically way above what I’m used to, at least. Agreed with your point on Howard though, I’m still not completely sold on Steffen (great to see Horvath with a memorable night though!).
To add to this defense of the, uh, defense, while there’s no doubt McKenzie was poor yesterday, it was also his second(?) competitive match with the USMNT and his first match against Mexico. Those are new levels. To not put his head down after his first minute or his first forty-five minutes shows some resiliency and you can find room for optimism there.
What style of play is that? I'm not talking about banging the ball down the field and it ends up going to the opponent. They can't string together consecutive passes in the back against a team that pressures them. They don't have that skill as a group and frankly never have since I started watching--it's always a damn adventure. They've always made up for that somewhat with workrate, but that only gets you so far.
They play waaaaay faster than they ever have, IMO. Seemed like the US of old would just sit back and try to counter attack or score off a set piece against better opponents, now we have the attacking talent to play a bit riskier with possession. Will lead to more goals for and likely more goals against, but in the end more of the former I think.
One thing to remember (in regards to them not getting out of the group state at WC) is that most of these players are 18-22 years old. The World Cup is a year and a half away. For players that age a LOT of development can happen in that amount of time. Fingers crossed.
HORVATH!!!!
Huge save on the PK. He played well.
U-S-A! U-S-A!! U-S-A!!!
"I'm not crying, you're crying!" - Clint Dempsey
He's a national treasure. The camo tuxedo jacket had me laughing.
And the shades!
“The future’s bright” - @clint_dempsey pic.twitter.com/l1YZNtRDXM
— CBS Sports Golazo (@CBSSportsGolazo) June 7, 2021