For those of you who pull for underdogs, this is a dream matchup.
The US will be without Jermaine Jones, Alejandro Bedoya and Bobby Wood. DeAndre Yedlin will be back. I hope Jürgen Klinsmann gives some serious thought to starting Christian Pulisic and perhaps Darlington Nagbe.
Please share your keys to the game in the comments. Go USA!
Baud
⚽??⚽??⚽??⚽??
Alex
On the plus side, their is a 3/4 game that USA can also lose in this weekend.
humboldtblue
If Michael Bradley’s nipples in that tunnel lineup are any indication he will light the path to a generation defining victory.
Cacti
The key to the game will be for the winning side to get more balls into the back of the net than the opposing side.
You’re welcome. ;-)
raven
Well, let’s see if it’s worth staying up and extra hour.
Alex
@raven: Messi will probably score early enough to make it worthwhile.
humboldtblue
I just hope they forget the 60s and 70s for two hours.
Steeplejack
I realized that quite often I’m a lukewarm USA fan, because I find some of the players mildly unlikable. Not a problem tonight, because they’re the underdog, which is always a plus for me, and somehow Argentina is even more offputting. Go USA!
raven
@Alex: Dunno, I get up so early that I can hit the dvr and catch it then.
Randinho
Who’s marking Lavezzi? Claude Rains? Ball watching, an AYSO level fuck up.
SRW1
@Cacti:
Now it starts to make sense!
humboldtblue
Oh boy.
Onkel Fritze
Sorry, boys. This is gonna hurt.
raven
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin’
Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya
At seven pm a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it’s been good t’know ya
dedc79
Bradley looks like he’s trying to get an assist . . . on an Argentina goal
humboldtblue
Sweet mother of left feet …
raven
It’s sure more exciting than those bullshit games today.
Steeplejack
Had to go back and catch up on the DVR a bit. I think I’ve seen about-to-be-roadkill that looked less surprised than Guzan on that goal. Not that he was getting any help.
dedc79
So far the highlight for the US is dempsey elbowing one of the argentina players in the throat…
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
How do you stop that?
Steeplejack
Holy shnikeys, that was a goal! Hats off to Messi.
JCJ
That was sweet.
Bostonian
@Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again): Apparently, jumping in the right direction doesn’t work.
Steeplejack
@Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again):
Yeah, just no.
humboldtblue
Well, it is Argentina, at least it’s not the same side of the bracket as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, England and prolly Portugal. Marc Wilmots is a genius and goddamn this could be ugly.
Bostonian
Nice flop to end the half.
SRW1
@humboldtblue:
Losing strategically is an underappreciated art.
Steeplejack
Gonna have to go check the finale of Person of Interest now that it’s halftime. It’s going on the DVR, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to tear myself away. And USA is not looking promising in this match.
eclare
Pulisic in!
cmorenc
Argentina would be the better team even without Messi – but without him, this might be one of those games that are still 0-0 at the half even with Argentina dominating possession (which they seem quite capable of doing even without him).
But with Messi – two amazing goals exhibiting his skill as the best in the world, and almost a third where Messi weaved through 3-4 US defenders like they were cones.
cmorenc
…and the roof falls in on the US before the 2nd half is even four minutes old, and Argentina proves Messi is far from their only quality attacking weapon. The only question is how much Argentina wants to further embarrass the US before pulling it back to save themselves for the Copa final on Sunday.
Steeplejack
Okay, Person of Interest it is.
Paula
… ugh.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Cacti: I literally heard this.from a coach or player with an Eastern European accent back in the days of the old MISL. Live on TV, c. 1982.
Bostonian
At this rate Argentina will run out of subs
Onkel Fritze
Wow, these security guys really aren’t allowed to look behind them, are they?
Steeplejack
I think my (mild) animus toward the USMNT is because in their media interactions some of the players come across as way too cocky for the
stumblebumsunderperformers that they too often are on the pitch. Their dribbling has been atrocious in this match. Argentina are taking the ball away from them at will.And yet I can’t quit this match. It’s entering the car-wreck zone.
Onkel Fritze
@Steeplejack: I’m pretty sure the world isn’t going to end on POI.
Steeplejack
@Onkel Fritze:
It’s the goddamn series finale. I have been with it from the start as it got better and better, and even though the flame flickered a bit toward the end of the penultimate season, I want to see it go out on a sastisfying note. The signs this season have been mostly good but not infallible.
Onkel Fritze
@Steeplejack: I know. I’m expecting a happy-end, mitigated by who else is going to die. Hope it won’t be Bear ;)
Steeplejack
@Onkel Fritze:
With you on that!
I keep worrying that he doesn’t get enough walkies. LOL.
Steeplejack
Fuckity-fuck-fuck. Argentina’s fourth goal, off abysmal ball handling by USA.
ETA: Comma added for micro-precision.
Bostonian
Heckuva job, Birnbaum
Paula
So does this performance get Klinsmann fired or nah?
pseudonymous in nc
The gap in quality’s obvious: comfort and time when in possession versus feeling harried and passing badly even when not under direct pressure. The US hasn’t given up and mentally fucked off on their holidays like Mexico did, but there’s a ceiling to their capabilities that they run into again and again, and it’s not something that’ll be fixed with a new formation or a different starting 11 or a new manager. It’s a generational task. (And to be fair, Klinsmann knows that, and knows that he’s laying foundations most of all.)
@Paula: Nah, that’d be daft. Argentina are the FIFA #1 ranked team, and they’ve played make-a-statement football tonight.
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
@Steeplejack:
It looks to me like my high school team. We’d prefer to bomb passes down the fanks, but if that was gone, we were toast.
Hopefully we’ve got kids coming up who learned better dribbling and short passing skills playing futsol.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Paula:
He had a bunch of dead parrots on the pitch. That can’t be all his fault.
Steeplejack (phone)
@pseudonymous in nc:
Pretty much agree. It was unrealistic to expect an upset, but did USA have to look that bad?
pseudonymous in nc
@Steeplejack (phone): Argentina weren’t taking prisoners tonight. They could have played in third gear and the US would have looked better, but they came out tonight with the intention of making a statement, and having Chile or Colombia shit themselves about the final before they even play their semi.
But yeah, 0 shots, 0 on target is a sad stat for the Americans.
Steeplejack (phone)
@pseudonymous in nc:
Well, I’m pining for the fjords. Lemme see what the Nats are doing in L.A.
Tripod
@pseudonymous in nc:
Jurgen is a tactical oaf and locker room poison. If they chain him to a solid bench coach (Low) he can’t fuck stuff up too much, but he’s not a good coach, and far too many in US soccer fandom are dazzled by an German (or English) accent.
Klinsmann and his tactical sounding board Bertie Vogts are stuck in 1994.
Cacti
Disappointing tournament for CONCACAF as the host federation. US and Mexico both got dragged by top shelf CONMEBOL sides. Costa Rica didn’t make it out of group play.
Tom65
This was always going to be Argentina’s game, but the US looked like a U-12 team. I didn’t even know Dempsey was out there until he was subbed out.