Wales national team most resent match results:

Nations league matches in September:

0-1 loss to Poland - played in Wales at Cardiff City. Wales out-shot Poland 13-5 and out-possessed Poland. Lewandowski played and assisted on Poland's goal.

1-2 loss to Belgium - played in Belgium. De Bruyne and Batshuayi both scored and both assisted each other's goals. Belgium looks to have played a best 11 lineup

June: four Nations league matches and their WCQ playoff vs Ukraine:

1-2 loss to Poland
1-0 win vs Ukraine to qualify for WC
1-2 loss to Netherlands
1-1 draw with Belgium (also had a 1-1 draw with Belgium last November to get to WCQ playoff)
2-3 loss to Netherlands

In March of this year, they beat Austria 2-1 and drew with Czech Republic 1-1.

I think Wales will be a messy game. We will be lucky to win but if not I'd atl east hope for a tie. Iran is sneaky good apparently but I'm hoping we can beat them handily

What makes the Wales game so interesting for me, and why I am getting more and more excited every day building up to it, is I truly have no idea what to expect from us.
We don't know what sort of tactics we will employ, what the lineup will be like, will our young studs feel like they can play free or will they be tight...
I think the expectation is that Wales will look to sit back and counter on us, beyond that I dont know about Wales really.

Id like to see us come out with a more attackign lineup, in terms of players selected..Id like to see Pulisic play within the team and not feel the need to take everything on. He is very dangerous when he plays that way, which is just him getting on the ball in space on the opponents side of the field and running at people and making himself available off the ball. It also requires the rest of our team to be moving off the ball WHEN Pulisic has it, and providing options. He will attract defenders in numbers anytime he is driving forward, and players need to be brave enough to make those moves for him.

PatAg said:

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We don't know what sort of tactics we will employ, what the lineup will be like, will our young studs feel like they can play free or will they be tight...

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unfortunately, there was one intl window in September for all of these national teams to get some friendly WC warm-up action in.. and what we saw from USA's tactics and lineup vs Japan and Saudi was..... not good.

oh no said:

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PatAg said:

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We don't know what sort of tactics we will employ, what the lineup will be like, will our young studs feel like they can play free or will they be tight...

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unfortunately, there was one intl window in September for all of these national teams to get some friendly WC warm-up action in.. and what we saw from USA's tactics and lineup vs Japan and Saudi was..... not good.

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We were missing 2 starters and a possible starter in the September window:
* Musah
* Jedi
* Weah

akm91 said:

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oh no said:

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PatAg said:

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We don't know what sort of tactics we will employ, what the lineup will be like, will our young studs feel like they can play free or will they be tight...

---

unfortunately, there was one intl window in September for all of these national teams to get some friendly WC warm-up action in.. and what we saw from USA's tactics and lineup vs Japan and Saudi was..... not good.

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We were missing 2 starters and a possible starter in the September window:
* Musah
* Jedi
* Weah

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we were also missing two of our best CBs in Miles and Richards and still are missing them in Qatar...

...I wonder if Long and McKenzie were so bad in both September friendlies that Greggg named a guy to the Qatar roster that he had barely called throughout qualifying (Ream).

I think us getting out of Group B depends on the Zimmerman-Ream or Zimmerman-CCV pair not getting beaten on counters and not giving the ball away centrally. I don't think I want to see Aaron Long try to play on the left side again. He's Zimmer's backup on the right side and sparsely used in Qatar if at all.

Quote:

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...I wonder if Long and McKenzie were so bad in both September friendlies that Greggg named a guy to the Qatar roster that he had barely called throughout qualifying (Ream).

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There's some truth to that. Also Ream is in great form right now. And he's paired with Jedi, which is a huge advantage.

well, yeah, Ream makes so much sense and should have been an obvious call-up. I guess the last two years when we were winning concacaf nations leagues cups and concacaf gold cups and through 4 windows of world cup qualifying--- Fulham was in championship where antonee was needed and Ream wasn't .. and we had Miles Robinson and Chris Richards coming along nicely. but now, we're missing guys while Ream is an EPL regular starter with our best left back and has some huge utility if we want to try a 3-man back line again. I question why Ream, who is already across the pond, wasn't brought in for the September friendlies vs Japan and Saudi.

oh no said:

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well, yeah, Ream makes so much sense and should have been an obvious call-up. I guess the last two years when we were winning concacaf nations leagues cups and concacaf gold cups and through 4 windows of world cup qualifying--- Fulham was in championship where antonee was needed and Ream wasn't .. and we had Miles Robinson and Chris Richards coming along nicely. but now, we're missing guys while Ream is an EPL regular starter with our best left back and has some huge utility if we want to try a 3-man back line again. I question why Ream, who is already across the pond, wasn't brought in for the September friendlies vs Japan and Saudi.

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It's like how many licks does it take to get the center of a tootsie pop.

Absent from the World Cup for 64 years, Wales insists: ‘We are still here’

Music, culture, nationalism and football collide in this gem by @DaveSheinin
https://t.co/WXoyfw5279

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) November 18, 2022

Gregg's approach to building the roster since we qualified seems to have been "bring a guy in once, take a look at him, you learn what you need to know, maybe call him up in November" rather than "bring a guy in enough so that not only you learn what you need to know, but his potential teammates can get used to playing with him"

Ag Since 83 said:

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Gregg's approach to building the roster since we qualified seems to have been "bring a guy in once, take a look at him, you learn what you need to know, maybe call him up in November" rather than "bring a guy in enough so that not only you learn what you need to know, but his potential teammates can get used to playing with him"

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At certain spots, yeah. Those areas where the core was already identified I think he worked to build consistency and cohesion.

oh no said:

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PatAg said:

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We don't know what sort of tactics we will employ, what the lineup will be like, will our young studs feel like they can play free or will they be tight...

---

unfortunately, there was one intl window in September for all of these national teams to get some friendly WC warm-up action in.. and what we saw from USA's tactics and lineup vs Japan and Saudi was..... not good.

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I'm not sure if you think you were countering my post with this statement, but if anyting you reinforced it.
What we did in those games did NOT work. So that makes it much more likely we alter our approach.

Need to bump my 1:30 meeting to either 11 or 3. Not going to miss it.

For what it's worth the Referee has been announced. It's the host country representative Al-Jassim.

That sucks…

Mathguy64 said:

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For what it's worth the Referee has been announced. It's the host country representative Al-Jassim.

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Hopefully its not a Coulibaly repeat situation

Mathguy64 said:

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For what it's worth the Referee has been announced. It's the host country representative Al-Jassim.

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Question for the ref, is this a "host country gets a ref regardless of rank/stature" type deal like with teams?

Pahdz said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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For what it's worth the Referee has been announced. It's the host country representative Al-Jassim.

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Question for the ref, is this a "host country gets a ref regardless of rank/stature" type deal like with teams?

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They have been grooming him for this for several years. I believe he did the Gold Cup on an exchange a couple of years ago and we have seen him.

Either this match or the England one we were getting him.

What I want to see:


Turner

Dest, Zimmerman, Ream, Robinson

Musah, Adams, McKennie

Reyna, Pulisic

Aaronson

I am pumped beyond maximum pumpability!!!

Prepare for disappointment. No way that is our starting 11 against Wales.

Let's do this boys

Up to 11. On repeat. LFG.

GAMEDAY!!!!

MORE HATTTTTTT!

I think gregg goes with Sargent up top, just cause he is a stubborn ass. But, I think Sargent is our best man up there and will do ok.

a welsh man was asked if he would have sex with a sheep for $1000. the welsh man said "sure but under three conditions."

first, the sheep shouldn't have any diseases obviously

secondly, I don't want anyone i know to hear about this

and finally, give me a week to gather the 1000 dollars for you

Messy game with an all Middle East officiating crew. Thinking 2 to 1 with enough cards that we are missing at least two for Iran.

dallasiteinsa02 said:

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Messy game with an all Middle East officiating crew. Thinking 2 to 1 with enough cards that we are missing at least two for Iran.

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I would've love to see an all Middle East officiating crew in a match between 2 latin teams. That would be fun.