Cape Verde?
I assume he meant France. But that’s more because of wagering for me.
USMNT vs Paraguay Gameday Thread - World Cup 2026
- Thread starter Chitowncy
- Start date
I assume he meant France. But that’s more because of wagering for me.
I wanted to go as obscure as possible. Would have said Croatia, but I don't think it gets as obscure as Cape Verde.
I know this is the smart move, but, man, the fan in me wants to keep a foot on the gas and ride momentum as far as we can. We're so much better playing aggressively, and confidence goes a long way.
I’d worry about the confidence impact of dropping the Turkiya match and not winning the group. Our team is so much deeper than we’ve ever been. Sitting some of the key players isnt exactly conceding the Australia game.
The constant movement and runs dragging defenders out of position, alongside the suffocating press, was like watching those peak Poch Spurs teams, was really fun to watch for me.
I'm not sure it is a smart move - I think I'd rather take advantage of playing Australia next and ensure we win and ensure moving onto the knockout round instead of what we do all too often: FAFO.
Christian Pulisic just confirmed it’s his left “calf area” — but he didn’t sound worried.
“I’m staying positive, I don’t think it’s anything.”
“I’m staying positive, I don’t think it’s anything.”
I'm all for managing yellows and resting those that need it. I'm not ready after one good match. Some teams can do this, but I don't think we have that luxury.
We're only guaranteed so many games, and I've seen higher ranked teams bounced too many times.
It's being reported Pulisic was subbed out as a precaution and there's no injury.
Good - if we're going to make a run, we'll need him.
Good - if we're going to make a run, we'll need him.
That was the first soccer game I’ve watched since sitting on the bench in high school over 20 years ago. I guess I picked a good one. All in on the World Cup now I guess.
Played soccer most of my youth (yes, for Iowa State too) and on to Div III/II/I. The play making was good (not great), but the shots were beautiful. Some lapses on defense. Several lapses on the Paraguay side. What I'm seeing more and more are the long space passes; something I'd always prided myself on. But, that takes two people on the same page at the exact same time. The U.S. did it several times. The short game touches were, again good, but not great. All together a gratifying game, but still leaves me cautious against better teams.
That starting XI can/will be able to create chances against pretty much anyone. Pulisic/Balogun/Dest are good enough to compete on the world level. Tillman/McKennie as well are very good in different ways creating chances. I think they should be able to handle Australia fairly easily.
The bigger concern going forward into tougher matches and bigger games is depth and the back line IMO. The midfield depth is pretty awful as far as I’m concerned. If you lose Tyler Adams for a game since got that silly yellow, or to injury (he’s always been injury prone), they’ll look pretty rough as Berhalter/Roldan can’t do that job really. Sucks that Musah fell off a cliff and didn’t even make the squad, because they could really use 2022 World Cup Yunus Musah.
The backline is just going to continue to be shaky. The depth is fine I think actually, just that Richards and Robinson are good but the rest of the options are mid. Relying on an ancient Tim Ream is just not ideal at the highest level. Richards should get better though as he gets back from that injury. He’ll need to be a star for this team to go far.
The bigger concern going forward into tougher matches and bigger games is depth and the back line IMO. The midfield depth is pretty awful as far as I’m concerned. If you lose Tyler Adams for a game since got that silly yellow, or to injury (he’s always been injury prone), they’ll look pretty rough as Berhalter/Roldan can’t do that job really. Sucks that Musah fell off a cliff and didn’t even make the squad, because they could really use 2022 World Cup Yunus Musah.
The backline is just going to continue to be shaky. The depth is fine I think actually, just that Richards and Robinson are good but the rest of the options are mid. Relying on an ancient Tim Ream is just not ideal at the highest level. Richards should get better though as he gets back from that injury. He’ll need to be a star for this team to go far.
You have to play to win the next match and see how it goes. Problem of course is that there is never a good time to rest players in a tournament. The only game that might lack some importance is the third group game.
My only qualm with Poch last night was not getting Tyler Adams off the field when we're up 3-0 and he's on a yellow. Unless we beat the breaks off Australia we might not get another opportunity that good to rotate Adams out and blood whoever his backup is going to be. Caveat is that Poch has all the fitness tracking data and we don't. I just worry with Adams being an injury prone player over his career (knock on wood). Still wish an additional midfielder had been brought along. If we don't trust Roldan in that spot, we should have brought Morris, and if we took five central midfielders, then Tessmann.
I’ve barely followed USMNT since 2022, but I was absolutely SHOCKED to read that Ream would captain the team and anchor the back line
I remember we’ve been complaining about Ream as a weakness on the back line since about 2010. Does a player like him really get better with age? I guess we are finding out
I guess the hope is that the team around him is much better and our defense will be asked to do less (seems to be true that we can play a much more aggressive style now, and don’t need to rely on packing it in and waiting for counter attack opportunities)
That guy has had a managed 139 wins over 351 games. Marsch has been fine, not exceptional or anything, but burned any chance of managing the US after his tantrum after not getting hired in 2022
Disagree. Mostly as I expect Turkiya to be sitting on 6 points also headed into the last match. Winning the group is the important thing. With the expanded field, the difference between winning your group and not is bigger than it has been in the past. Win your group and the round of 32 sets up nicely with a 3rd place qualifier with Belgium in the round of 16. Get 2nd and it’s a 2nd place team (probably Egypt) with likely Argentina in the round of 16.
So if you can get a result against Australia without Adams, I think you do it. But, that also depends on what Turkiya does in their first two.
Yellows get wiped out after the group stage. So short of a guy getting a red, we’d be at full strength against Turkiya and the round of 32.
