Pre-match: USA vs Uruguay Copa America group stage 7/1 2100 EST

I've always wondered what it would be like to do the same thing on the right side with Dest in your right wing McKennie spot. Playing musah as basically a left back sounds extremely risky. The 10 field players look like our best option. How to arrange them is another question. Though I would probably put arob back in his usual position first . Like the idea of moving him up. Just not for this tournament.

 

Yeah if we win it’s a fairly good chance we advance. The harder part is going to be actually beating Uruguay.

 

Absolutely. His value is on D, not O. If we are behind, what does bringing him in do? Start him, hope you can get 60, but if it is only 45, there are moves you can make.

If we have a lead, move Musah back & put Cardoso in. If we need a goal, move Reyna centrally and sub in Sargent/Wright/Aaronson/Tillman and get more offensive.

 

Weah had a top speed of 33.21km/h, which is average for a winger. Aaronson had top speed of 34.18. Balogun was the 3rd fastest player in Ligue 1 with a top speed of 35.97. If there's a desperation for pace on the wing one of those two could played there. Malik Tillman is listed at 33.8. I'd personally rather see pace up top with Balogun and Pulisic in a 442. Pulisic at forward would allow him to run and defend less.

 

I hadn’t seen those stats. Balogun does look freakishly fast.

 

With the Gregg in charge and the fact that he is liked by the players I believe this match is very hard to predict. They have the talent to beat Uruguay but they have the coach that lost to Panama. There is also the issue of the players not knowing exactly what went wrong in BOTH earlier matches and they may do more of the bad stuff and less of the good because they are receiving directions from the broken GPS in Gregg's head.
I want the USA to win by multiple goals but, even if Uruguay phones their match in, the USA players may well screw things up before they realize that they are playing a disinterested team.

 

If Uruguay plays their "bench", those players will not be phoning it in. They will give it their everything to show Bielsa that they should be starters.

Who knows, we could see a Copa ?1995? Argentina scenario again. But I doubt that will happen with Bielsa in charge. Also, since the groups are clustered on different brackets, it may be in Uruguay's long term strategic advantage to eliminate us now to avoid a possible rematch in the semis.

 

The personnel is spot on although I might go Johnny instead of Adam’s bc he knows the South American game, but I’d do 4231. Need to defend the cbs. Look at Panamas goal, right in the middle at the top of the box.

 

UCL and Bundesliga publish top speed info. Balogun's numbers came from a Ligue 1 article.
Fastest players - where does Kylian Mbappé rank? (ligue1.com)

 

Gio takes Weah’s spot.

You bring on Musah for Gio.

—————Balogun—————
Pulisic————————Reyna
——Musah———Weston——
—————Adams——————
Jedi—————————Scally
———Ream——Richards———
——————Turner————

 

What is it with everyone wanting MMA? It’s nuts.

MMA only worked against certain opponents, mainly England, and failed miserably against the Dutch. You could say it was fatigue, it was, but it was also the fact that the Dutch are better at passing around players than England, and Uruguay are even better than them.

And, MMA relied on each MMA being at top performance. Adams is not, Musah has been inconsistent, and McKennie has been inconsistent or non existent. Plus we relied on wingers with speed and high work rate. Reyna would be isolated up high and wide forcing him to come back, ruining the shape and boxing us in.

But we all know Greg is going to do it anyways. Perfect send off.

 

It's 2024 not 2022.

MMA is not the same! Adams is not the same, Musah is not the same. Even McKennie seems to have lost it of late, the fire you saw in him when playing for the NT is diminished.

MMA worked in great part because it was novel. Now everybody expects it, even if with other players: a fixed DM with little responsibility pushing the ball forward (Adams), an utility guy shuttling between covered the open wing and accompanying the B2B (Musah), and a B2B to distribute it close to the trequartista spot to the sides or try a shot if he found open space (McKennie).

Now we can't afford a safety-pin like Adams playing alone to cover the CB pair. We need TWO guys there, because our CB pair is weaker than ever, our keeper is shakier than ever, and our SBs are wingbacks.

The moment you need two guys covering the back line, all the effectiveness of the MMA triad is gone. If you have Musah and Adams stuck in front of the defense, Weston is not enough to generate chances going forward!

 

Reyna is not a 2-way player and is better suited being forced upfield to work in transitioning the ball from the midfield to Pulisic and Balogun. That is optimal. The idea that Reyna should be a deep lying playmaker is ludicrous at this stage in his career. Maybe later, but you are asking him to do things that he cannot do right now in an effort to beat an excellent Uruguayan team, which is a fantasy from a hallucination.

The other option is Cardoso, who although is a favorite of mine (as you can see if you look at my other posts about him), lacks the speed and the explosiveness to perform at Adams’ level and lacks the physicality to perform at McKennie’s level. Both of those things are critical against Uruguay.

 

Berhalter comes out firing all eight-cylinders to get an early goal and defend it. Bielsa is going to know that, and is going to prepare to hit in the counter during those early minutes. He's going to tell them to wait at the back and just hit on the wings, specially on Scally's side because he's slower.

Berhalter needs to know Bielsa knows him well and the moment he sees Uruguay is waiting, he has to smell the trap.

 

I don’t think you understood my post. Reyna shouldn’t be a deep lying playmaker, and with MMA he’d be used as a high and wide winger, which he is not. This isolates him because MMA will not get him the ball. We should be playing a 4231 with Reyna in the middle of the three.

 

I seriously doubt that they are worried about facing us in the semis. They should rightly be focused on being the best they can be for the Bra/Col QF.

Yes, technically they are not through, but they are +8 in GD relative to Panama with one game left. With more goals scored AND a head to head win. Realistically they'd need to lose 9 in GD on the last day not to go through. That is not gonna happen.

So, I think we have a decent shot vs Uruguay's B team to get a result. Not do I think Panama necessarily romp Bolivia minus Carrasquilla.

If we win, I think we get through.

 

I still think our best hope is to send Uruguay to the wrong stadium in KC, accept our 3-0 forfeit win with grace, and take our chances.

That gives Uruguay a rest day and leaves them in first place, if I’ve calculated correctly - barring an extraordinary scoreline in the Panama-Bolivia match.

I see this as a win-win for the teams, and no losers beyond the tens of thousands of ticket holders, and perhaps a few million more fans worldwide. Yes, diplomatic relations might suffer, but these are extraordinary circumstances.

 

Yeah those first two performances were terrible and we were incredibly fortunate to even advance out of our group.

 

That’s fantastic.

 

Reyna in front of cardoso and adams. Aaronson out right. Puli left.

 

Speaking of which, the stadium looked pretty full for Uruguay-Bolivia, two teams without a big expat population, or population in general, or mass appeal to neutrals (in general). Anybody know the attendance? I guess there were enough pure soccer fans that wanted to see this quality Uruguay team. I certainly would if the game were close to me and not ridiculously overpriced.

 

According to TM, over his Champo career Josh Sargent played a bit over 1.1k minutes out wide. He had 2 goals (one off a corner) and 2 assists while playing wide. That’s .16 G/90 and .16 A/90.

 

In the Liverpool version of this it was Gini Wijnaldum in that spot with Robertson pushing up. It’s not really a LB spot, it’s a LCM spot bet that player is much more tucked in.