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Napoleon

By Napoleon
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RamjetFDO
RamjetFDO

Forget who asked what was on CP10's undershirt:  

alincoln
alincoln

To be fair to Lalas, almost all of the Mexican fans at the game live in the United States and some are Americans.  It's almost impossible to overstate the insecurity of the average Mexican soccer fan

Ted Lange
Ted Lange

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Braff Zacklin

Braff Zacklin 13399

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Just now, Trey3216 said:

I’m not disagreeing, I just understand that sub I guess

I don't. Ferreira at best is a false 9, so even if you sub him for Pepi, you're trading out a striker for another winger/withdrawn forward. Bring him on 10 minutes sooner and let them work together. They've been practicing and playing together for years. It's worth a shot.

We were lucky as fuck to take a point there. Jamaica deserved the full three. For once, I don't blame Gergg. He started the lineup most of us wanted, he played the formation and tactics we wanted, and he even (mostly) subbed how we thought was best. Players just didn't perform today, particularly in the second half.

Also credit to Jamaica for pressing the entire match and not just looking for a counter. A bad call kept them from taking three.

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8596

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14 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

Yeah, I did not see a foul on that play at all. 


The left arm was the one that may or may not have fouled.

The ref was staring at that left arm and started to blow the whistle well before the ball even got to the goal line. 

The TV cameras had ZERO cameras coming close to the angle of the ref. The production budget for cameras & crew for this game was only beaten out in the "Who has the smallest budget?" by the field crew. That field looked like 8 games had been played on it today.

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Trey3216

Trey3216 15325

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11 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

I love Kate Abdo, but I wish that she would stop calling Canada…

“Cana-der”

I bet she says Ameriker as well.   That’s pretty common if you’ve never met English folks. 
 

and if you go to the NE, they say Wudder instead of water and other similar dialectical idiosyncrasies 

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

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1 hour ago, Trey3216 said:

I bet she says Ameriker as well.   That’s pretty common if you’ve never met English folks. 
 

and if you go to the NE, they say Wudder instead of water and other similar dialectical idiosyncrasies 

Law of conservations of Rs baby, you cannot create nor destroy and R, just move it around at random.

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dieucla98

dieucla98 2931

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Lucky to get a point there. I thought both FBs played poorly, Robinson particularly so. 

McKennie not being in the lineup was felt big time, imo. When he's in there, we're almost playing a 4-2-3-1 with McKennie as the fake 10. Without him, we just didn't have that link from the middle 3 to the front 3 very consistently. 

He'll be needed vs Canada. In 2022... Oof.

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UDontKnow

UDontKnow 10439

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29 minutes ago, dieucla98 said:

Lucky to get a point there. I thought both FBs played poorly, Robinson particularly so. 

McKennie not being in the lineup was felt big time, imo. When he's in there, we're almost playing a 4-2-3-1 with McKennie as the fake 10. Without him, we just didn't have that link from the middle 3 to the front 3 very consistently. 

He'll be needed vs Canada. In 2022... Oof.

McKennie needs to learn to be aggressive without getting carded. Adjust to CONCACAF ref shittery.

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alincoln

alincoln 2364

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January will obviously be huge.

Canada: @ Honduras; USA; @ El Salvador

USA: El Salvador; @ Canada; Honduras

Mexico: @ Jamaica; Costa Rica; Panama

Panama: @ Costa Rica; Jamaica; @ Mexico

 

Somehow, Canada has not traveled to Central America yet.  4 of their 6 remaining fixtures are in Central America plus home games against the USA and Jamaica.  Good luck with that.  I'd be shocked if they keep the top spot and their undefeated record intact.

The US has a huge opportunity next window with home matches against the two bottom teams and the big road match against Canada.  7 points should be the goal.  The US needs a cushion because the final 3 games are brutal: Mexico (A), Panama (H), Costa Rica (A).

Mexico has its difficult games at home and will be looking for all 9.  They have had a very tough schedule so far and also finish with a manageable slate in US (H), bottom Honduras (A) and El Salvador (H).  Mexico will qualify.

Panama should get 3 against Jamaica but this may be the closest they get to the Top 3.  

 

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TXSG8R

TXSG8R 3355

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Posted (edited)

Posted this in the wrong thread, so I’ll repost here.  
 

So are we really a McKennie injury/card away from being completely ass in the midfield?  Was Musah just gassed from the previous game or maybe a little rattled against Jamaica with it being a road game?  Was the pitch really that bad that it took us completely out of our game?  
 

I thought Busio was ok, but he definitely didn’t boss the middle like McKennie.  Musah didn’t have any explosive runs or even much in the way of hold up play to help the attack build. Very quiet game for him. Adams was non existent, but with Antonio lurking it’s understandable that he was cheating to our box.
 

Robinson had a horrible game. Plenty of runs down the flank but his service was abysmal. I think Jamaica made the decision to give him those runs because of how poor he was finishing them. Outside of Weah’s hot start to the game he was relatively quiet as well. It seemed like we got locked into running the left side through Robinson and took him completely out of the game. Again, that may have been by design from Jamaica, and that sucks that we couldn’t figure that out.
 

Aaronson was his usual energetic self but offensively he couldn’t make that final pass. Pepi was quiet but he had no service to work with all night. CP seemed to make the same run most of the night (check to the line, square cut and get fouled) and overall there wasn’t a ton of creativity or interchange up top. Again, not sure if they were spent from the Mexico game or just that weak mentally after Antonio’s goal.
 

We sorely missed McKennie, but I think even having Dest or Reyna as subs for this game would have made a difference. I’m wondering long term if we should stagger McKinnie and Musah to ensure at least one is fresh on the field.  Maybe start WM and Busio and sub Musah for Busio at the half.  Next game give Musah 90 and swap Busio and WM at the half. They need to figure out how to keep that energy from the Mexico game up formore than one game a cycle because the WC schedule won’t be any easier to navigate.

Edited by TXSG8R
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LurkingHorn

LurkingHorn 1044

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24 minutes ago, alincoln said:

January will obviously be huge.

Canada: @ Honduras; USA; @ El Salvador

USA: El Salvador; @ Canada; Honduras

Mexico: @ Jamaica; Costa Rica; Panama

Panama: @ Costa Rica; Jamaica; @ Mexico

 

Somehow, Canada has not traveled to Central America yet.  4 of their 6 remaining fixtures are in Central America plus home games against the USA and Jamaica.  Good luck with that.  I'd be shocked if they keep the top spot and their undefeated record intact.

The US has a huge opportunity next window with home matches against the two bottom teams and the big road match against Canada.  7 points should be the goal.  The US needs a cushion because the final 3 games are brutal: Mexico (A), Panama (H), Costa Rica (A).

Mexico has its difficult games at home and will be looking for all 9.  They have had a very tough schedule so far and also finish with a manageable slate in US (H), bottom Honduras (A) and El Salvador (H).  Mexico will qualify.

Panama should get 3 against Jamaica but this may be the closest they get to the Top 3.  

 

Having Mexico and Panama play each other will be nice. Hopefully we can finally get some distance from 4th place at that point. But I agree, 7 points is a must this next round. I want no part of having to win 2 of those last 3 to qualify. 

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

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52 minutes ago, alincoln said:

January will obviously be huge.

Canada: @ Honduras; USA; @ El Salvador

USA: El Salvador; @ Canada; Honduras

Mexico: @ Jamaica; Costa Rica; Panama

Panama: @ Costa Rica; Jamaica; @ Mexico

 

Somehow, Canada has not traveled to Central America yet.  4 of their 6 remaining fixtures are in Central America plus home games against the USA and Jamaica.  Good luck with that.  I'd be shocked if they keep the top spot and their undefeated record intact.

The US has a huge opportunity next window with home matches against the two bottom teams and the big road match against Canada.  7 points should be the goal.  The US needs a cushion because the final 3 games are brutal: Mexico (A), Panama (H), Costa Rica (A).

Mexico has its difficult games at home and will be looking for all 9.  They have had a very tough schedule so far and also finish with a manageable slate in US (H), bottom Honduras (A) and El Salvador (H).  Mexico will qualify.

Panama should get 3 against Jamaica but this may be the closest they get to the Top 3.  

 

The key will also be who loses in the next round as well. The Panama and Costa Rica wins last night didn't allow the gaps to open as well as we would have liked. We absolutely want Costa Rica to start losing games now Their next 3:

Costa Rica: Panama, @ Mexico, @ Jamaica

If they drop points, we should start to see a bigger gap from the full up drop zone.

 

Assuming that the US gets 7 next round (WDW), we should be fine. That would put us at 22 points with 3 to play. That means the only teams that can catch us would be those at 13. To get there, Costa Rica would need to get 4 from their games, which could be a tough ask. Jamaica needs 7 and El Salvador would need to win 3 (not possible if we beat them).

We should also realize, winning the group - COOL, but also not the objective. We just need to finish top 3. And thus we should start to root for Mexico and Canada to start winning games, pushing down the teams from 4 and beyond. If we assume your scenario, Panama is held to 3 and we get 7, we would be 4 points away from qualifying for the World Cup.

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

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1 hour ago, TXSG8R said:

Posted this in the wrong thread, so I’ll repost here.  
 

So are we really a McKennie injury/card away from being completely ass in the midfield?  Was Musah just gassed from the previous game or maybe a little rattled against Jamaica with it being a road game?  Was the pitch really that bad that it took us completely out of our game?  
 

I thought Busio was ok, but he definitely didn’t boss the middle like McKennie.  Musah didn’t have any explosive runs or even much in the way of hold up play to help the attack build. Very quiet game for him. Adams was non existent, but with Antonio lurking it’s understandable that he was cheating to our box.
 

Robinson had a horrible game. Plenty of runs down the flank but his service was abysmal. I think Jamaica made the decision to give him those runs because of how poor he was finishing them. Outside of Weah’s hot start to the game he was relatively quiet as well. It seemed like we got locked into running the left side through Robinson and took him completely out of the game. Again, that may have been by design from Jamaica, and that sucks that we couldn’t figure that out.
 

Aaronson was his usual energetic self but offensively he couldn’t make that final pass. Pepi was quiet but he had no service to work with all night. CP seemed to make the same run most of the night (check to the line, square cut and get fouled) and overall there wasn’t a ton of creativity or interchange up top. Again, not sure if they were spent from the Mexico game or just that weak mentally after Antonio’s goal.
 

We sorely missed McKennie, but I think even having Dest or Reyna as subs for this game would have made a difference. I’m wondering long term if we should stagger McKinnie and Musah to ensure at least one is fresh on the field.  Maybe start WM and Busio and sub Musah for Busio at the half.  Next game give Musah 90 and swap Busio and WM at the half. They need to figure out how to keep that energy from the Mexico game up formore than one game a cycle because the WC schedule won’t be any easier to navigate.

 

No real surprise, like many teams, their play goes the way their midfield goes. We have seen in many times at the professional level.

That said, I think Busio will be a fine sub for McKinnie once he gets more time on the field with the team. He has shown to be a key cog in what Venezia is doing, once he gets it with the US I think it will be the same.

CP10 will be fine, once he rounds in to better form and can go a full 90, he will cover the left side and take care of this.

Additionally we still have Gio Reyna sitting on the sideline waiting to get healthy. Once he does that, we have a lot of pieces that can be plugged in.

Let's see how this team rounds out as qualifying continues, I think players will start to click over the next 6 games.

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

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32 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

The key will also be who loses in the next round as well. The Panama and Costa Rica wins last night didn't allow the gaps to open as well as we would have liked. We absolutely want Costa Rica to start losing games now Their next 3:

Costa Rica: Panama, @ Mexico, @ Jamaica

If they drop points, we should start to see a bigger gap from the full up drop zone.

 

Assuming that the US gets 7 next round (WDW), we should be fine. That would put us at 22 points with 3 to play. That means the only teams that can catch us would be those at 13. To get there, Costa Rica would need to get 4 from their games, which could be a tough ask. Jamaica needs 7 and El Salvador would need to win 3 (not possible if we beat them).

We should also realize, winning the group - COOL, but also not the objective. We just need to finish top 3. And thus we should start to root for Mexico and Canada to start winning games, pushing down the teams from 4 and beyond. If we assume your scenario, Panama is held to 3 and we get 7, we would be 4 points away from qualifying for the World Cup.

BTW - there is a way for the US to clinch in the next cycle, but it's pretty tough and not likely:

1. The US would need to win all 9 points, this is a must as it would put them at 24

2. Panama has to drop all of their points

3. Costa Rica must drop points in at least 2 games

4. Jamaica would need to drop points in at least 1 game

3 and 4 are likely. 1 is possible, I'm not sure winning in Canada is going to happen. And I also don't see 2 happening.

 

Get 7 and we should be in great shape.

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The Dog

The Dog 43771

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8 minutes ago, Bottlecap said:

Do we know which confed the intercontinental would be against for CONCACAF? Oceania? CONMEBOL?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(inter-confederation_play-offs)

Still TBD - one of CONMEBOL, OFC, or AFC (South America, Oceana, or Asia). It appears after the teams are set they do a draw to see who plays who.

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

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I'm glad they are drawing after the teams are determined, not before. Pre-determined opponents took a fear of actually falling into the playoff. When Mexico ended up in the 2014 playoff, there wasn't much worry they wouldn't make it in when they knew it was going to be OFC (New Zealand), just as Uruguay knew they would beat whoever came out of Asia.

But if there was a chance that it could be Mexico v Uruguay, the playoff would have been worrysome.

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ztejas

ztejas 43244

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6 hours ago, alincoln said:

Panama should get 3 against Jamaica but this may be the closest they get to the Top 3.  

 

Maybe. Jamaica looked a lot better with the West Ham cat in the lineup. They aren't great but they aren't a walkover for 3. 

6 hours ago, TXSG8R said:

So are we really a McKennie injury/card away from being completely ass in the midfield?  Was Musah just gassed from the previous game or maybe a little rattled against Jamaica with it being a road game?  Was the pitch really that bad that it took us completely out of our game?  

Not necessarily. McKennie's current form is near world class - especially when it comes to work rate and covering a ton of ground and cleaning up other guy's mistakes. So, when he's absent we really feel it because however you rate Busio the drop-off isn't ideal. I mean - JUVE has looked worse as of late when he isn't out there.

That said it isn't really an excuse for us to be that poor when it comes to creating through the middle of the pitch. Musah was okay. Tyler just isn't really a box to box player and closer to a true back than a guy that can serve as sort of an AM at times. Busio is talented but much more of a finesse guy than McKennie. He doesn't bring the same physicality and edge to the position that Weston does.

Dest could have helped a lot of that last night. Especially since Jamaica wasn't particularly dangerous down Antonee's side - we would have been able to hide him a bit on D. 

Reyna helps a lot of this, too. 

I think another issue is that while Pepi is great at making runs and creating in the box he doesn't offer a lot outside of that yet. He isn't tracking back and winning the ball back towards the circle or orchestrating anything beyond a first touch in the right direction. (Someone who is really good at this is Lukaku - he can hold the ball up just outside the box and wait for options on either side - Pepi doesn't have that in his bag yet). 

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Knoxtnhorn

Knoxtnhorn 5928

Posted
Posted (edited)

I wonder what the process is by which Canada and the US announce where the next set of games are to take place...

Say Canada chooses Toronto.  We play in NYC, travel a few hours WNW to Toronto, travel a few hours E to Boston.  Easy on the legs.

In the meantime, Canada would have to play at Honduras, fly all the way back to Toronto, then, fly all the way back to Central America.  

Seems like a nice advantage if we're able.

Edited by Knoxtnhorn
Geography and directions.
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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

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Posted
1 hour ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

Going to be cold as fuck in nyc in January. Bring that shit back to Dallas or Austin

We play Honduras and El Salvador. Fuck yeah we should play them in our coldest locations. Fuck, let’s play in Lambeau! Fuck playing where either of them can have a home field advantage. 

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I wonder what the process is by which Canada and the US announce where the next set of games are to take place...

Say Canada chooses Toronto.  We play in NYC, travel a few hours WNW to Toronto, travel a few hours E to Boston.  Easy on the legs.

In the meantime, Canada would have to play at Honduras, fly all the way back to Toronto, then, fly all the way back to Central America.  

Seems like a nice advantage if we're able.

I love the Boston idea, I don’t see us playing here. We have turf. 

Maybe they could put grass in for that one?

Other issue is the games would surround the Conference title games (Thursday before and Wednesday after). 

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8596

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21 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

I love the Boston idea, I don’t see us playing here. We have turf. 

Maybe they could put grass in for that one?

Other issue is the games would surround the Conference title games (Thursday before and Wednesday after). 

 

Play in BUFFALO!!

Lake effect, bitch!

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Dutch

Dutch 4464

Posted
Posted
On 11/17/2021 at 9:59 AM, Captain Ron said:

I'm glad they are drawing after the teams are determined, not before. Pre-determined opponents took a fear of actually falling into the playoff. When Mexico ended up in the 2014 playoff, there wasn't much worry they wouldn't make it in when they knew it was going to be OFC (New Zealand), just as Uruguay knew they would beat whoever came out of Asia.

But if there was a chance that it could be Mexico v Uruguay, the playoff would have been worrysome.

This.  It puts way more incentive on finishing top 3 and auto-qualifying.  If the MNT had a playoff vs Oceania to get through to Qatar? No big deal.  A playoff vs CONMEBOL? Yeah no. I'd want no part of that.

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12789

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Posted
18 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I wonder what the process is by which Canada and the US announce where the next set of games are to take place...

Say Canada chooses Toronto.  We play in NYC, travel a few hours WNW to Toronto, travel a few hours E to Boston.  Easy on the legs.

In the meantime, Canada would have to play at Honduras, fly all the way back to Toronto, then, fly all the way back to Central America.  

Seems like a nice advantage if we're able.

 

Here was our timeline for the first 4 games

 

Schedule announced June 16
https://twitter.com/Concacaf/status/1405020575790215169

Canada location announced July 4
https://twitter.com/USMNT/status/1411805758061228037

Jamaica location announced July 22
https://twitter.com/USMNT/status/1418372790068076546

Costa Rica location announced July 29
https://twitter.com/USMNT/status/1420761027159810056

Mexico location announced July 28
https://twitter.com/USMNT/status/1420384654427893762

So hopefully before the end of the month we get the Jan-Feb window locations?

 

 

 

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ztejas

ztejas 43244

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Posted
3 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

I think with Chelsea he is in the right system to develop those needs. 

Maybe. We countered a lot to win the CL. This season it seems we've settled into just choking teams for possession and breaking down the D ad nausem until something opens up. Which is why Pulisic being patient and picking his spots to basically come in as a 9 off the ball is so effective. 

If he were to go to say, Barca, I think he'd have much more opportunities off the break to hone his finishing. But - he's also at an age where guys kind of settle in to what they are. And what he is right now is a wing that is extremely versatile, good on top of the ball and off of it, and who could find minutes at literally any club in the world.

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