I still can't believe Mexico wasn't playing with a man down for 86 minutes of the match. That was just absolutely atrocious.

Early in his FIFA career, this ref was a typical CONCACAF ref, reluctant to call any VC or to put any team down a man. His MO was lots of diving, lots of rolling and screaming for fouls but he never called real violent conduct. Over the years he had improved and mostly stopped putting up with the typical BS. Last night he reverted to form. The first elbow was at the minimum a whistle and stern ass chewing. It easily could be yellow. 2 minutes in? It needed the yellow card but I can see a whistle and a verbal ass chewing. The second 2 minutes later was straight violent conduct. Thats an easy send off. If you whistle on the first you probably dont get the second. Because the first was ignored you get the second.

The interesting thing is what happens if there is a VAR. The standard says the VAR can initiate a review if they believe there is an "clear and obvious error" resulting in a red card and send off. And this is a pretty "clear and obvious error" for missed violent conduct. But the ref doesnt even think its a foul. Remember no whistle on the second elbow either. The VAR says "wait I think its its a red card, go look". So the CR goes and looks, and his choice is let it go or red. According to the standards he cannot issue a yellow card. I bet $10 he doesnt issue a red on review either, because that means he has to own up to the elbow and send a player off at 4:00.

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I'd really like to see him and Pulisic get some time together....maybe even with Zusi in support.

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You lost me with Zusi. After the last WC watching Zusi get dispossessed time after time I don't ever want or need to see him in a play making role again. Great guy and a great warrior for the USMNT, but his lack of speed or possession skills make him a real liability.

I said 'maybe'

Eye opening report on Jurgen's planning/preparation.

http://sbisoccer.com/2017/06/gonzalez-hails-arenas-preparation-criticizes-klinsmann

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According to the defender, it's a far cry than the preparation levels under previous head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. According to the Pachuca defender, Arena's presence has been a steady one thanks to how straight-forward he is with both his lineups and tactics.

"I was relieved that I knew that early, for sure," Gonzalez said, according to Goal USA. "I've had three weeks to prepare for this game. It's just a different environment, and a different mentality you can take when you know three weeks out when you're going to play, how you're going to prepare.
"Sometimes with Jurgen you wouldn't know until the day of the game," Gonzalez added. "It's just stressful, so with Bruce here taking that kind of approach here, it's been helping out a lot."

Gonzalez was deployed as one of the three centerbacks, joining Geoff Cameron and Tim Ream in the center of the defense. Gonzalez and Ream were two of seven changes to the starting XI, giving the USMNT a vastly different look than the group that took the field against Trinidad & Tobago.

The former LA Galaxy defender says it was all by design, and that the group has been preparing for Sunday's match throughout the two weeks. There was nothing thrown together hastily. Rather, it was all deliberate, and Gonzalez says Arena is the one to thank.

"Going into the last game (in November) it was a maybe that we were going to use a 3-5-2," Gonzalez said. "We didn't know until a couple of days before the game and then it was just thrown out there. Now we had two weeks to really prepare. One team was preparing to play against Trinidad in a 4-4-2, and the other team was preparing in a 3-5-2. We've been playing this now for a few weeks and so that's the reason there was a lot better understanding tonight, and the reason it worked for us tonight.

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titanmaster_race said:

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I still wish the team would have sat on their hands those last few minutes against Panama and let the putos drown while we went to Brazil.

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100% agree. At the risk of getting too 'Ender's Game' here... that decision doesn't just win this war. It wins all future wars.

The enemies verja is down?

aggie kid said:

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Can we at least agree that, as bad as things would be if Mexico failed to make a Finals, it'd be orders of magnitude worse if the US lifted the trophy first?

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What do you mean "if"?