Comments

1. Yedlin was very good today. I think 2nd best player is a bit high of a rating, but it’s much closer to reality than the picture painted by the posters on here. He was certainly in the better half of performers on his team.

   On Man U’s goal, he was probably the 3rd or 4th most culpable Sunderland player. He should follow that runner for the rebound, yes, but it’s very unlikely he gets there anyway. The attacking player always has the advantage on those short rebounds because their momentum is already going forward while the defender is facing forward and has to turn and recover. The initial shot should be closed down better, there were multiple other defenders watching that rebound, and the keeper needs to parry that shot further away or out of bounds. Also, that was an extremely difficult, excellent finish, even if it looked easy.

   Other than that play his 1-on-1 defending was mostly excellent. And he was asked to do an awful lot of it. I think I remember two times he let a cross in that he could have done better preventing. But that was like 2 out of 20 times. He was left isolated out there a lot against Man U’s two best 1v1 attackers in Martial and Depay. Sunderland’s right wing was slow to rotate back and help.

   Even aside from the overall positive defensive performance, the thing that has me the most excited is how well he picked his spots to go forward. For me, that has always been the weakest part of his game. He loves to and excels at going forward, but he has mostly been terrible at discerning when it’s more important to keep his team’s shape in defense.

   His time playing and training in the PL seems to be helping this aspect of his game immensely, which is all we can hope fore. This is where ‘experience’ with top-class play really is helping him, even if most people throw that term about with no real meaning behind it…

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2. Whoscored.com rated Yedlin as 2nd best player on the field for both teams today. Judging from some comments here I would have thought that he was second worst. Really don’t get it. Why are some people prejudiced against US players?

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   • He wasn’t terrible but he did get a yellow for diving and he did get burned for a goal. Those are facts. Not that hard to believe since he’s known for having the best seat in the house for the opponents goals.
     As far as the second best….. Not even close.
     Let’s be honest, this Man U team is better known for not being able to score in a house of ill repute and Sunderland players with 10 defenders inside the box. Hardly an heroic outing for Yedlin.

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   • It’s honestly getting harder to even follow the National team sometimes. Everyone is so quick to hype certain players when people have barely seen them play. Then once they do play everyone wants to destroy them after 10 minutes if they don’t score, or happen to be on the field when the opponents score. Just tired of the over reactions, good and bad but more often negative.

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3. CP22 I thought was pretty impressive, had a few slips but overall nice work. Yedlin was good, these negative comments don’t reflect the game he had. He held martial except on one play and it wasn’t all his fault. Best game at rb I have seen from him so far

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4. Yay Yedlin…

   But still… SUNDERLAND…….L…….O…….L…….

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5. Survey of various player ratings for Yedlin ranged from 6 to 8 with 6 most common. Not bad

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6. blah…kinda disappointed to not see miazga on the bench today. may just not be fit yet.

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   • now terry off injured

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7. Overall, a decent performance by CP. I think he’s better on the left wing (surprising speed!) for now, until he gets a bit more experience.

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8. How was Pulisic? I couldn’t watch because Comcast straight up refuses to even offer FS2. I would pay for it but Comcast doesn’t want to give me that option.

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   • A mixed bag. Lost his footing a couple of times in the box but other guys were slipping as well. His defense actually stood out to me today! For a small guy, he recovers well and has a knack for getting his leg in at funny angles to poke it away, like Holden used to do. Showed good pace, and ran a circle around one defender. Also had a really nice cross that was almost headed by Reus in the box.

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     • ‘leg’…’funny angles’…’like holden’…NOOOOOOOOO

9. Can someone update on how Pulisic is looking?

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10. And the kid can tackle too??!! Nice

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    • Really had a chance to do something there, like his fight to keep with it tho

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11. Dang. Dortmund scores. Not sure if Pulisic comes in with Dortmund up.

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    • He’s on 64th min

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    • Nevermind!! CP ON!!

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12. I guess all’s well that ends well for Yedlin. How has Cheatin’ Bob been doing in France?

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13. Personally, considering the Premiere League is one of the top 3 leagues in the world, I am thrilled that Yedlin is getting minutes, and learning. His play was better than I expected. He watched the ball on the goal, yes, but that’s usually how goals are scored. It’s extremely common at all levels. Many times you get away with it, because of a bad touch or by a great play by a teammate. Truth is Minnone needs to put that ball out of play. Tough save no doubt. But one he could have done better with. So many had a hand in that one. That’s why you don’t want to be under attack for long periods of play without possession. Eventually one of these will happen. Yedlin was better than many have said on these boards in the past, so he is improving. I don’t expect him to be world class. He still has much to learn on both sides of the ball, but he is improving.

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14. LeHavre beat Metz 1-0, which now puts them and Bob Bradley two points off a promotion spot.

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    • Yeah, that’s assuming three teams get promoted from the French second division, but if only two get promoted, Le Havre is still eight points from that spot, but with a pretty light schedule down the stretch, it is possible.

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      • http://www.espnfc.us/french-ligue-1/story/2800790/number-of-ligue-1-promotion-relegation-places-to-remain-same

        French high court ruled that there will be 3 pro/rel spots, so they are right in the thick of it.

      • The courts may have ruled in favor of not changing for this year, but what if French league one says, ok, you are forcing three teams down this year, but next year we implement our plan, and only one gets relegated. Does French league 2 take that offer, or do they stick with the plan, and accept two relegated teams from the top division?

        I’d want my French league 2 team in the top two. This season!!!

    • This game was actually on my TV, though I was watching Sunderland – Man Utd on another channel.

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15. Apparently, Yedlin is under the impression that his move to England was so he can watch soccer games from inside the field.
    A yellow for diving? I thought that was something only South Americans did.

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16. pulisic, morales (again) on the bench; brooks starting.

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17. Yeah, outside of being caught ball watching on the goal, which you could say about the entire defense, Yedlin’s defense was pretty good today. I would guess you see him start again next game.

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18. anyone who expected yedlin to come out on top against martial is delusional.

    i thought he did pretty well against him, considering he’s not a very good defender. it’s not really a career-ender to get carded for a dive, and as someone else pointed out, he only proved he belongs in sunderland’s team as he followed suit in ball-watching on the man u goal.

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19. Everyone is so negative. No one points out the number of times he shut down Martial. Sunderland is under pressure pretty much for 45 minutes.

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    • I thought his one on one defending looked improved. Showed flashes of what he gives going forward. No one thinks he’s the finished product but you have to give him some games to see if he can continue to grow.

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    • Totally agree. Yedlin played well. Shut down their left flank for most of the game and looked dangerous in his limited chances to get forward. He made two mistakes (and one is really on the whole Sunderland defense) and that’s all anyone sees. Not sure how being a USMNT supporter could be any fun if you’re always so negative about it.

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      • This must be your first time on SBI. Welcome

20. Yedlin proved he is Sunderland quality as he and the rest of the Sunderland back line stood there watching Martial. Yeesh.

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21. That was a bad sequence of events for Yedlin. First a TERRIBLE dive that resulted in his yellow card and then his man getting behind him for the follow up goal

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22. Ouch

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23. Yedlin with the yellow for diving and seconds letter he gets caught ball watching while Martial scores.

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24. yedlin starting. up against martial for the time being.

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    • He’ll be back in MLS sooner rather than later. He got caught ball watching on the Man U goal.

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      • i can only dream that every player who’s ever been caught ball-watching played in mls.