Scholarship table
We never really did any prediction stuff for the world cup in this thread. Before we get too far into the tournanment, does anyone have any fun predictions or put any shekels down on any futures? The horse I backed the most was Belgium, with some money on them to reach the quarters, semis, and final. For the odds, I like their golden generation to do the late blooming thing we saw with Spain and to a lesser extent, Portugal. I also have some shares of Ecuador as far as the quarters and Denmark to the semis.
Are games being shown on Fox all day?
I was scrolling for this. There weren’t many surprises. 5-3-2 shell for Wales. After working to get the first goal, you put your foot on the gas instead off taking it off of the gas. Wales, as expected, changed tactics, personnel (Moore) and alignment which meant more direct play from them, a little less possession for the U.S. (which was fine) a little more defending from the U.S. (which was also fine). But it created several counters, opened space, and too often the final third connecting pass wasn’t good enough, quick enough, or even taken at all. Lots of pulling back, and playing to hold on for 75 minutes. Sometimes you get the result for which the way you play the game. Overall it was fine, but the opportunity was there to play for 2 or 3 to zero, etc…before possibly conceding a goal.
Pulisic was really not good in the second half. He had a great motor all match but needed to be better. Jordan Morris coming on basically signaled they were fine with a draw.Penalty was the correct call, that was beyond stupid by Zimmerman. But holy SH** was that referee awful and worse as the match progressed. Inconsistent, no clue what constitutes a yellow, stopping play for cramps. Give me a break dude.
I’m not sure who else would take set pieces but pulisic ain’t it. He struggled during qualifying too. Extremely wasteful. Aaronson should start over mckennie against England. Mckennie injured and not up for the challenge. Loved what Jedi brought. Constant running, strong in the tackle and positionally solid. Yedlin looked very nervy coming on. Would prefer scally. I know he’s young but he’s played so well for monchengladbach. Also didn’t agree with the Sargent substitute. Loved his work rate and Haji couldn’t replicate it. Also different changes were needed and a like for like up top did nothing tactically for us.
I'll stick with my opinion on Gold. He'll be in foul trouble within the first eight minutes.
The mighty Germans go down! Wow
On Saturday my Munich taxi driver taking me to the airport said this was a weak German team by historical German standards.
Is it just me or has ESPN engaged an AI to write the game story
And the biggest storyline will still be what happened during the pregame photos.
What happened?
That’s great. FIFA has been exposed heavily