World Cup 2022

soccerdad72 said:
That was a very CONCACAF-y match last night, pitch, ref, players, etc.

Of course, the argument from the Latin American supporters is to point out the Minnesota qualifying game, so it's kind of hard to argue that one.

Horvath pretty much blew his 3rd string goalie spot on the roster last night, I think. Not that he was ever likely to see the field in Qatar anyways.
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A closeup of Horvath's eyes during that goal>

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www.espn.com

World Cup 2026 host cities confirmed: What you need to know about the 16 venues

From Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, here's what you need to know about the chosen cities for the 2026 tournament.
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For the most part no surprises other than the nation's capital will not be hosting any games. European countries cannot wrap their heads around this but the fact is the FedEx Field situation was so bad they were talking about playing the games in Baltimore and doing all the other activities in DC.
 
Crusaders said:
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Squad for the two tune-up games in a couple weeks against Japan and Saudi Arabia. Last action till the World Cup
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Attacking options outside of Pulisic, Aaronson and Reyna look pretty bleak.

Defense leaves a lot to be desired as well.

Kinda hoping the US loses these next two matches so it forces Berhalter into making considerable changes for Qatar.
 
Sargent has had a tremendous start to the season for Norwich, albeit they were demoted to the Championship for this year. Still its encouraging.

Pepi finally scored in Germany. Would be nice if he started a run of good form
 
So far so bad against Japan, USA looks like they are sleep walking. What a poor effort in a key tune up.
 
Yuck, that was one of the flattest performances I have seen from this side in quite some time. How many times did they just turn the ball to the Japanese team? This team has a lot of work to do if they want to get any result in their group.
 
I don’t know why they stuck with Berhalter through qualifying and the WC. There are way better coaches whose style matches the talent we have
 
Japan is probably a little better than Iran and a little worse than Wales who the USA will both face in Qatar.

It sounds like based on how the US played today we shouldn't expect to get out of the group.
 
I'd take Japan over Wales, probably. Wales is a bus-parking side that'll hope for a Gareth Bale set piece to score or assist most of their goals. They're not high on talent.

That said, today was flat out pathetic. They were pretty fortunate it was only 2-0
 
If they don't make the semis disband the program and give the women the money.

The state of the US mens soccer team is pathetic given the resources available in America.
 
The problem isn’t a lack of resources, there are massive structural problems at the ground level that are mainly the cause. With MLS becoming more heavily involved with youth development, those issues may dissipate over time
 
Can anyone tell me what is going on with England? Supposedly the players are not happy and there is some sort of internal turmoil going on with their national team, specifically their lack of goal scoring.
 
By the way most of the world is hating on this world cup, not only is the location stupid but the calendar change has really thrown off a lot of national teams. This thing is ripe for an upset champ and I can see something crazy happening in November not only on the field but off the field.
 
They should change the saying to Death, Taxes, and England hating their manager

Qatar obviously bribed the hell out of FIFA to get the World Cup. It’s been a disaster since day one and nothing was really done. Slave labor couldn’t deter FIFA from the course. Must have been beaucoup dollars
 
Crusaders said:
They should change the saying to Death, Taxes, and England hating their manager

Qatar obviously bribed the hell out of FIFA to get the World Cup. It’s been a disaster since day one and nothing was really done. Slave labor couldn’t deter FIFA from the course. Must have been beaucoup dollars
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The USMNT might be going down the same path, Twitter is really hating on Berhalter during this friendly with Saudi Arabia. When is the last time they scored a goal?
 
I don't know why they even bothered to schedule "tune up" games if they were just going to sleepwalk through them anyways. I can't imagine they learned anything from these last two games that will help them going into the World Cup.
 
Auggie said:
The USMNT might be going down the same path, Twitter is really hating on Berhalter during this friendly with Saudi Arabia. When is the last time they scored a goal?
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Possibly, but Berhalter is a genuine mismatch for a team that's very much made for pressing forward in an old school English style. He's a pure, MLS-style, conservative, defensive coach. The results are speaking for themselves.
 
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Another very uninspiring performance by the USMNT. I don't think the team's confidence could be lower going into Qatar.

The good news is that are a lot of injured players who missed out on these friendlies who can definitely change the dynamic of this team - Musah, Weah, A. Robinson, Carter-Vickers, Richards - not to mention an omitted healthy Pefok.

Based on what we saw from these past two friendlies though, it's hard to see our form turning around rapidly enough where we get out of our group in November. Berhalter has his work cut out for him.
 
So which side is the chalk to win this thing? Here is the top 5 currently from odds makers:

England has a very active gambling culture so they may higher just because of the early action coming in from the pubs. The next 6 are all Euro sides and you have to go to 12 to find the next non-Euro team Uruguay at +5000. The real money will be spent in the days leading up to the 1st game so this will probably change.
 
Auggie said:
So which side is the chalk to win this thing? Here is the top 5 currently from odds makers:

England has a very active gambling culture so they may higher just because of the early action coming in from the pubs. The next 6 are all Euro sides and you have to go to 12 to find the next non-Euro team Uruguay at +5000. The real money will be spent in the days leading up to the 1st game so this will probably change.
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Brazil and France definitely have the most raw talent from top to bottom. Brazil seems to be in pretty good form right now while France is coming off a very disappointing stretch of Nations League fixtures (1W, 2D, 3L).

England has a well balanced squad but is coming off an even worse Nations League run (0W, 3D, 3L).

Otherwise, a lot of it will come down to match-ups in the knockout stages.

Brazil seems like a pretty discernable favorite to me. Belgium would probably be my dark horse if I was aiming for a bigger return on my bet.
 
Auggie said:
www.espn.com

Four big questions about Gregg Berhalter's USMNT before 2022 World Cup

The World Cup is barely a month away and there are more questions than answers around the U.S. men's national team. Here are the important ones.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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I really wish US Soccer had moved on from Berhalter during qualifying. He's so clearly not the guy who should be in charge. He's so bad I have very little faith in this team making much noise, which is sad because they're a skilled young team capable of pulling off some upsets. We're talking about a guy who was fired from a second division Swedish club for a lack of attacking play.

It's ok to be married to a system but it's foolish to stick with it when its a mismatch for the talent available.
 
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