***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

[mj4cy]

 

[twojman]

The good: the ideas offensively and pressing effectiveness. I've watched a lot of USMNT and I was expecting much less from our backups. At times our press was disorganized, but that's to be expected with the rotation.

The mid: winning our individual battles, loose balls. As the guys on the Scuffed podcast say, you need to dominate your space. I thought we did a lot better job in the second half than the first, where at times we looked timid. Perhaps a result of so many guys making their first start/appearance of the World Cup.

The bad: low block and transition defense. Switching off on the final possession. I almost put transition defense in "The Mid" category as we had some nice moments but we shipped three goals. We just aren't very organized in the low block and don't have the talent at the back to consistently erase opportunities in transition. The talent can't be fixed, but we will need to improve our organization to go deep. We will need to absorb pressure in a potential quarterfinal with Spain or a team of that ilk.

I'm not worried about the last goal. Looks like we switched off a bit waiting for the whistle. Turkey created next to nothing in the second outside of the final possession (0.07 expected goals). Still excited about this team!

Trying to remember but I think a poor/delayed first step by a US defender and then not the greatest angle allowed the 2nd turk goal.

I try and preach to my players that there is not a lot of time as you advance in age and skill level, every single moment/movement matters. The way your body is shaped, what you've scanned in the past 10 seconds and what you anticipate makes a HUGE difference. With my younger players I call it a cheat code. You can get a head start on your opponent just by doing those little things.

 

[Cyhig]

United States were being gracious hosts allowing a visitor to go home happy

 

[jdoggivjc]

I know Norway is kind of playing this like we did last night by sitting cardholders and are already looking ahead to the knockouts... but holy hell France is terrifying. The goals they've scored they probably would have scored even if Norway was playing their starting lineup.