GatewayRedbirds.com

6-0. I like soccer again.

thrill wrote:Quick update:
1) in a must win qualifier, the US is up 3-0 and it's not even half time.
2) the US looks like they actually enjoy playing soccer again.
3) As good as you might have heard a Christian Pulisic is, he's probably better.
4) Bruce Arena has twice the balls Klinsy had.

That truly was a tremendous performance by Pulisic. Amazing, really, that Dempsey (an all-time favorite of mine) had a hat trick and I came away from it awed by what Pulisic did. Bradley looked excellent as well back at home in defensive midfield.

We all knew it would happen eventually, but it's kind of surreal to look at an 18 year old from Pennsylvania and know that barring some bad luck, he is going to be holding up champions league trophies and helping lead, not just play for, a mega club like Barcelona or Manchester united.


I enjoyed this, in which the 86 year old dean of American soccer writing, Paul Gardner, takes a flamethrower to the [expletive] king, Jurgen Klinsmann (and briefly touches on the manager worship that makes the premier league so very, very stupid these days).

https://www.socceramerica.com/article/7 ... arena.html

thrill wrote:Quick update:
1) in a must win qualifier, the US is up 3-0 and it's not even half time.
2) the US looks like they actually enjoy playing soccer again.
3) As good as you might have heard a Christian Pulisic is, he's probably better.
4) Bruce Arena has twice the balls Klinsy had.

I'm gladly eating crow...

USMNT plays Panama tonight. It's on stations that I don't get. Another win and we're going to forget anything bad happened to start the hex.

This Pulisic guy might be a decent player one day.

Game recap - http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchc ... team/recap

Hex standings - http://www.espnfc.us/world-cup-qualifyi ... f/64/table

Remaining hex matches:
Trin & Tob (home) -- June
Mexico (away) -- June
Costa Rica (home) -- Sep
Honduras (away) -- Sep
Panama (home) -- Oct
Trin & Tob (away) -- Oct

If we can take care of business against Trin & Tob home and away, beat Panama at home, and at least draw against Honduras on the road (14 pts total), then we'll probably make it, even if we lose both games against Mexico and Costa Rica. A result against either of those teams almost certainly secures a WC spot, and I think that's likely. A draw in Mexico is more than possible and if we're not good enough to beat Costa Rica on home soil then we won't have much hope in the WC anyway.

Baloy and Torres are 450 lbs of pure bull as a center back tandem and that little guy just shoved them out of the way like nothing. There probably isn't a more physical pairing anywhere in soccer that I can think of and he just clowned them. Pulisic's fire and heart are next level.

thrill wrote:Baloy and Torres are 450 lbs of pure bull as a center back tandem and that little guy just shoved them out of the way like nothing. There probably isn't a more physical pairing anywhere in soccer that I can think of and he just clowned them. Pulisic's fire and heart are next level.

He's so calm. Bradley's calmness with the ball as a young player always impressed me, but Pulisic's attacking creativity is so far beyond Bradley's. I didn't get to watch Donovan enough as a young player to be able to make the comparison. The similarity between the in-his-prime Donovan and the 18-year old Pulisic is real. Donovan said it great the other day -- "he is so far beyond what any of us were at his age." (Referring to Donovan, Dempsey, & Beasley). Might be our best player now and might already be the best US player ever.

Can't wait to get Wood, Yedlin and Johnson back. Don't know what the ideal 11 will be, but we're much better with those three in there than we are with them out.

(How can you sit Dempsey for Wood now? Wood was incredible... and now Dempsey is on fire. Good problem to have, I guess.)

thrill wrote:Baloy and Torres are 450 lbs of pure bull as a center back tandem and that little guy just shoved them out of the way like nothing. There probably isn't a more physical pairing anywhere in soccer that I can think of and he just clowned them. Pulisic's fire and heart are next level.

That first touch by Baloy wasn't the best, but everything after that was Pulisic simply outmaneuvering them.

I've only seen highlights of him, which is obviously going to show the best, but Pulisic's first touches seem to be magical.

Pulling in this pass from his right foot onto his left and immediately putting it back on his right is pretty nifty.