He was off 5 or 6 times, which is frustrating. I'm going to temper my disappointment in his showing with the fact he was playing out of position. He's a right winger and was played on the left all night, so that's on the coaches.

zgolfz85 said:

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Hank the Grifter said:

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tysker said:

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Hank the Grifter said:

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deadbq03 said:

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And if anything… I'd argue it helps grow interest in the sport. It's good for average Joe to see that famous people like soccer and want to be there. It puts it on the same pedestal as major playoff games in other sports.

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LOL. This is the equivalent of Taylor Swift showing up to the Knicks game with her make a wish friends in those tshirts. They don't give a rip about the sport. It's just something to show up to and be seen. Oh, I'm sure they're rooting for the team to win but ascribing anything beyond that to "they like soccer" is a pretty good stretch.

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Which ones? Will Ferrell is a partial owner of LAFC. I saw several USWNT legends
Brad Pitt and Ashton Kutcher have been seen at lots of USMNT matches over the years

I'm wondering if that was the FIFA feed? Like were people in Turkey (edit sorry) Turkiye wondering WTF is that guy?

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Ferrell, Kutcher, and Pitt might as well be Bogart, Brando, and Gable to anyone young enough to be influenced by their attendance at a soccer game.
Sorry man, I've been hearing for 50 years that soccer was just *this* close to blowing up in the US.
It ain't gonna happen. And showing celebs at marches DEFINITELY ain't gonna make it happen.
Just show me international hotties like they used to in the good ol days when doing crowd shots.

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if you can't see the insane rise in soccer popularity since 94, you're a ****ing smooth brain. It was never going to be an overnight thing. You think NBC/Peacock just wants to lose hundreds of millions voluntarily because soccer isn't popular here? No, it's become a very profitable entity. They do roadshows around the country for Premier League Saturdays with tens of thousands in attendance. It's getting there, just takes time. Like 94, this WC will create waves for decades in American soccer. We'll continue narrowing the gap. For now, just enjoy being the rare underdog, while we can just automatically pencil ourselves into the final in most other sports.

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Well this smooth brain would love to see soccer become something we can legitimately compete in on a global level consistently.

However, if you'd read my post and aren't a smooth brain yourself, you'd see that I said I e been hearing this for 50 years. People thought 50 years ago we'd be THERE by now. Soccer just exploding and being on par with football and baseball in this country. It's not. Nowhere close. And no, I don't think there's been some exponential growth since '94. The folks watching MLS are the same people that would have watched it 50 years ago. Just calling it as I see it. I don't really have a dog in the fight.

carl spacklers hat said:

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He was off 5 or 6 times, which is frustrating. I'm going to temper my disappointment in his showing with the fact he was playing out of position. He's a right winger and was played on the left all night, so that's on the coaches.

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He played on the left a bunch for his club a few years ago, so it's not unknown to him.

deadbq03 said:

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carl spacklers hat said:

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He was off 5 or 6 times, which is frustrating. I'm going to temper my disappointment in his showing with the fact he was playing out of position. He's a right winger and was played on the left all night, so that's on the coaches.

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He played on the left a bunch for his club a few years ago, so it's not unknown to him.

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That may be true but anytime you play a player out of his current position you run the risk of them not playing well. If you watched the first Belgium, Troussard was playing right wing instead of left and looked pretty poor. He also looked poor on the right for Arsenal when he player there in limited minutes last season.

No question. And that may have been the reason for the poor performance. My point was more on the perception that this was a poor coaching choice… he previously established that he can play there for his club and do it really well, so while it comes with risks, it's not out of left field.

I'll also just say this though about Weah… I'm not sure he's really grown up much since the Copa red card… he very nearly got into deep trouble in that Germany friendly, so I honestly just question his attitude and commitment and would be inclined to say that's the main problem. Happy to be wrong but that's what I see.

Weston has grown light years since the Weston Gone Wild days… Gio seems to have grown up and atoned for past sins. Weah, not so much

CCAg95 said:

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Vox Clamantis said:

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tysker said:

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fig96 said:

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bagger05 said:

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Silvertaps said:

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Curious the difference Adams, Balogun, Richards, and Robinson would have made had they played.

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Had we started our normal defenders I think we win easily. That was where the biggest difference was to me. All of the Turkish goals came from really bad defending.

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We also saw a huge difference in the attack when Pulisic came in, if he was combining with Jedi on the left they would've caused havoc.

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The gap between Weah and CP was concerning.
The gap between Dest and Scally was concerning
The gap between McKenzie and Richards/Ream was concerning

For such a fluid game I was more impressed by Berharter's cohesion and surprised Gio disspeared

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I was pretty disappointed by Aaronson and Gio's form. I thought they'd be lighting it up out there. They got pretty handily abused and outmuscled.

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This was my take. The defense was bad but on offense Weah was non-existant, Aaronson had lots of bad touches & passes and Gio held the ball too long constantly. Berhalter was the one player that I developed a better opinion of from this game.

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Nonexistent would have been a marked improvement for Weah. It seemed like he was consistently conceding the ball with every touch. He even botched a throw in directly to the opposition.

Weah's presence was definitely felt.

Edit - cutter beat me to it. Should have finished the thread before posting.

deadbq03 said:

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No question. And that may have been the reason for the poor performance. My point was more on the perception that this was a poor coaching choice… he previously established that he can play there for his club and do it really well, so while it comes with risks, it's not out of left field.

I'll also just say this though about Weah… I'm not sure he's really grown up much since the Copa red card… he very nearly got into deep trouble in that Germany friendly, so I honestly just question his attitude and commitment and would be inclined to say that's the main problem. Happy to be wrong but that's what I see.

Weston has grown light years since the Weston Gone Wild days… Gio seems to have grown up and atoned for past sins. Weah, not so much

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Dest still makes me nervous he is going to do something stupid and get a red.

Yeah me too. He's worth the risk though.

I am glad that he's basically a pure attacker in Poch's scheme - it reduces the chance he'll have to do something dumb defensively.

Hank the Grifter said:

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zgolfz85 said:

---

Hank the Grifter said:

---

tysker said:

---

Hank the Grifter said:

---

deadbq03 said:

---

And if anything… I'd argue it helps grow interest in the sport. It's good for average Joe to see that famous people like soccer and want to be there. It puts it on the same pedestal as major playoff games in other sports.

---

LOL. This is the equivalent of Taylor Swift showing up to the Knicks game with her make a wish friends in those tshirts. They don't give a rip about the sport. It's just something to show up to and be seen. Oh, I'm sure they're rooting for the team to win but ascribing anything beyond that to "they like soccer" is a pretty good stretch.

---

Which ones? Will Ferrell is a partial owner of LAFC. I saw several USWNT legends
Brad Pitt and Ashton Kutcher have been seen at lots of USMNT matches over the years

I'm wondering if that was the FIFA feed? Like were people in Turkey (edit sorry) Turkiye wondering WTF is that guy?

---

Ferrell, Kutcher, and Pitt might as well be Bogart, Brando, and Gable to anyone young enough to be influenced by their attendance at a soccer game.
Sorry man, I've been hearing for 50 years that soccer was just *this* close to blowing up in the US.
It ain't gonna happen. And showing celebs at marches DEFINITELY ain't gonna make it happen.
Just show me international hotties like they used to in the good ol days when doing crowd shots.

---

if you can't see the insane rise in soccer popularity since 94, you're a ****ing smooth brain. It was never going to be an overnight thing. You think NBC/Peacock just wants to lose hundreds of millions voluntarily because soccer isn't popular here? No, it's become a very profitable entity. They do roadshows around the country for Premier League Saturdays with tens of thousands in attendance. It's getting there, just takes time. Like 94, this WC will create waves for decades in American soccer. We'll continue narrowing the gap. For now, just enjoy being the rare underdog, while we can just automatically pencil ourselves into the final in most other sports.

---

Well this smooth brain would love to see soccer become something we can legitimately compete in on a global level consistently.

However, if you'd read my post and aren't a smooth brain yourself, you'd see that I said I e been hearing this for 50 years. People thought 50 years ago we'd be THERE by now. Soccer just exploding and being on par with football and baseball in this country. It's not. Nowhere close. And no, I don't think there's been some exponential growth since '94. The folks watching MLS are the same people that would have watched it 50 years ago. Just calling it as I see it. I don't really have a dog in the fight.

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Might go take a peak at attendance numbers for MLS, thats not true at all and would probably surprise you.
and soccer as a whole is definitely on par with baseball/basketball, and I would argue has passed it if you are counting people watching the European leagues.

It will be hard for MLS to ever truly get even with the Premier League and Bundesliga, since I dont foresee them allowing MLS to join Champions League ever.

RAM700BA said:

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I hate how these USA broadcasts spend time zooming in on celebs during the game. The people who would care about that are not watching and the ones who are watching do not care.

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Unfortunately this is actually the Fifa World feed, Fox and FS1 dont control it.
They probably would still do it, but they would likely be better about when they do it.
Its insane the World Feed is missing live action to show that, they 'should' have a better broadcast