• The KillerFrogs

2024-2025 European Football Thread

Purp

Purp

Active Member
Still a head scratcher that Ream started again. Give me CCV with Richards every time. MRob and McKenzie are ahead of Ream for me too. He's too slow against fast forwards. Commentators were all over his nuts, but he made as many bad plays the last two games as he did good ones.

Scally has been outstanding the last two matches. Huge upgrade to Dest defensively and he's made some nice slalom runs with the ball too. Could very well have been a 2-1 win bc of his play-making in the 2nd half. Dest is so dynamic offensively it's hard to take him off when healthy, but I think Scally has to get serious consideration any time we play an elite left winger.

Everyone else for me was good, but not great. Puli had some great plays, but he had just as many others that were sub-par. It says a lot for me about Brazil that we just played decent with 9 guys and our two best players were a defender and GK. Columbia are far more impressive to me than Brazil right now.
 
dawg

dawg

Active Member
Chongo94 said:
I think most thought as you before the game. I was very surprised by that performance as well.

‘Course….this isn’t the Brasil Brasil that most of us grew up with too.
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Imagine the response if you'd have told a Brazilian back in 2002 that in 20 years they'd roll out a midfield with players from Villa, Newcastle, West Ham, Wolves, and Fullham.

True, this Seleção isn't a vintage anywhere near 2002, but I'd have gladly taken a draw before the match. We'll find out in about a month whether Colombia is legit, Brazil really isn't back, or football bloody hell and all that.
 
K

kaiser soze

Active Member
Team looked pretty solid, though I only watched 60 mins before cutting over to 8 minutes of good Luka then 40 of whining and fitness shortcomings.

Glad to see Adams get on the pitch. Said it before, but I really want to see GGG roll out a 3 man back line so Adams, McKennie, Musah, Reyna, Weah and Puli can all play simultaneously. Ream to the bench with Scally, Richards (or CCV) and Jedi in back. I don't think there is a difference maker up front yet from the 3-4 choices.

Edit: how did that missile of a Musah strike not make it in of the crossbar and ricochets. Allison must be living well.
 
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Purp

Purp

Active Member
kaiser soze said:
Team looked pretty solid, though I only watched 60 mins before cutting over to 8 minutes of good Luka then 40 of whining and fitness shortcomings.

Glad to see Adams get on the pitch. Said it before, but I really want to see GGG roll out a 3 man back line so Adams, McKennie, Musah, Reyna, Weah and Puli can all play simultaneously. Ream to the bench with Scally, Richards (or CCV) and Jedi in back. I don't think there is a difference maker up front yet from the 3-4 choices.

Edit: how did that missile of a Musah strike not make it in of the crossbar and ricochets. Allison must be living well.
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Seriously. Every replay I saw made it even more mysterious how it didn't go off of Allison's back and in. It just hit him and fell straight down. Such a heavy strike. Shameful it wasn't rewarded.

I saw the ESPN article for player ratings and it made it look like we'd gotten blown out by St. Kitts & Nevis. Puli and Turner earned 6/10 and a couple guys rated 5/10 while everyone else was a 2-4/10.

Scally got a 3/10 and I thought he was our best player all night. They must have been watching a different game. The only times Vini Jr. was dangerous were when Scally got caught upfield on counter-attacks and whoever would rotate over for him (usually Richards and sometimes McKennie/Gio) either didn't get there in time or wasn't as capable a defender. He made several probing dribbles in both games this week too. I was very impressed with him. He gets at least 8/10 from me and maybe more.

Turner's 6/10 grade I think is fair. He made some behemoth saves, but his poor distribution led to their only goal. Richards didn't do him any favors on that one either, but if Turner makes a decent pass that chance never happens.

I thought Puli was more a 7-8/10 simply because he was our most dangerous offensive player and gave Brazil fits all night. Almost all of our offensive chances started with him. He was very good.

Like I said last night, I think everyone was good, but nobody was great outside of Scally. Puli and Turner were very good, but the rest of the team were average except for maybe Pepi (never heard his name until he was subbed off). When everyone is playing well this team could beat anyone. Berhalter, I'm afraid, isn't the guy to cajole that out of them all at once. That's why he's got to go.
 
Chongo94

Chongo94

Active Member
Purp said:
Seriously. Every replay I saw made it even more mysterious how it didn't go off of Allison's back and in. It just hit him and fell straight down. Such a heavy strike. Shameful it wasn't rewarded.

I saw the ESPN article for player ratings and it made it look like we'd gotten blown out by St. Kitts & Nevis. Puli and Turner earned 6/10 and a couple guys rated 5/10 while everyone else was a 2-4/10.

Scally got a 3/10 and I thought he was our best player all night. They must have been watching a different game. The only times Vini Jr. was dangerous were when Scally got caught upfield on counter-attacks and whoever would rotate over for him (usually Richards and sometimes McKennie/Gio) either didn't get there in time or wasn't as capable a defender. He made several probing dribbles in both games this week too. I was very impressed with him. He gets at least 8/10 from me and maybe more.

Turner's 6/10 grade I think is fair. He made some behemoth saves, but his poor distribution led to their only goal. Richards didn't do him any favors on that one either, but if Turner makes a decent pass that chance never happens.

I thought Puli was more a 7-8/10 simply because he was our most dangerous offensive player and gave Brazil fits all night. Almost all of our offensive chances started with him. He was very good.

Like I said last night, I think everyone was good, but nobody was great outside of Scally. Puli and Turner were very good, but the rest of the team were average except for maybe Pepi (never heard his name until he was subbed off). When everyone is playing well this team could beat anyone. Berhalter, I'm afraid, isn't the guy to cajole that out of them all at once. That's why he's got to go.
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I didn’t think we were great great but given how they performed against Colombia, they were great. But that espn article was crazy…chick must’ve been having a bad day or something when she wrote it.
 
Purp

Purp

Active Member
Chongo94 said:
I didn’t think we were great great but given how they performed against Colombia, they were great. But that espn article was crazy…chick must’ve been having a bad day or something when she wrote it.
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Yeah. Her standards are so high she'll be alone her whole life. She'd turn down Thor for a date.
 
M

Moose Stuff

Active Member
Purp said:
Still a head scratcher that Ream started again. Give me CCV with Richards every time. MRob and McKenzie are ahead of Ream for me too. He's too slow against fast forwards. Commentators were all over his nuts, but he made as many bad plays the last two games as he did good ones.

Scally has been outstanding the last two matches. Huge upgrade to Dest defensively and he's made some nice slalom runs with the ball too. Could very well have been a 2-1 win bc of his play-making in the 2nd half. Dest is so dynamic offensively it's hard to take him off when healthy, but I think Scally has to get serious consideration any time we play an elite left winger.

Everyone else for me was good, but not great. Puli had some great plays, but he had just as many others that were sub-par. It says a lot for me about Brazil that we just played decent with 9 guys and our two best players were a defender and GK. Columbia are far more impressive to me than Brazil right now.
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Agreed on Scally.
 
Purp

Purp

Active Member
This was an informative read, but #4 fascinated me. I'd never heard of this set-piece coach and that the federation hired him. Maybe he'll be our secret weapon. Surprised Berhalter made such a move for a guy like that.

www.espn.com

Ranked: The top 5 factors that'll decide the USMNT's chances at Copa América

The USMNT has looked far from convincing lately. As Copa América begins, here are five questions the U.S. must be able to answer if team wants to go far.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
dawg

dawg

Active Member
Purp said:
This was an informative read, but #4 fascinated me. I'd never heard of this set-piece coach and that the federation hired him. Maybe he'll be our secret weapon. Surprised Berhalter made such a move for a guy like that.

www.espn.com

Ranked: The top 5 factors that'll decide the USMNT's chances at Copa América

The USMNT has looked far from convincing lately. As Copa América begins, here are five questions the U.S. must be able to answer if team wants to go far.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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Set piece coach, if he knows what he’s doing and can maximize the squad’s abilities, can be a tremendous asset.
 
Purp

Purp

Active Member
dawg said:
Set piece coach, if he knows what he’s doing and can maximize the squad’s abilities, can be a tremendous asset.
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Set pieces used to be a strength of our side. We've been anemic under GB on set pieces. This could level us up big time. McKennie is a monster in the air. Richards is solid too. Same for Jedi. We should be able to be dangerous on corner kicks, but we almost never threaten. Hope this guy turns things around.
 
Chongo94

Chongo94

Active Member
Anyone watching the English Copa coverage?….is Carli Lloyd pregnant? Cause if not….well, anyway.

Venezuela is up a man and still goes down by one goal at the half to Ecuador.
 
Purp

Purp

Active Member
Chongo94 said:
Anyone watching the English Copa coverage?….is Carli Lloyd pregnant? Cause if not….well, anyway.

Venezuela is up a man and still goes down by one goal at the half to Ecuador.
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I'm not sure if she's pregnant now, but I think she had a kid in the last year or two.
 

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