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Champions League woes continue for Tyler Adams and RB Leipzig

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For 66 minutes, Jesse Marsch, Tyler Adams RB Leipzig looked like they might secure the crucial victory they needed against Paris Saint-Germain to boost their chances of keeping alive their hopes of playing in European competition after the New Year. A costly mistake, coupled with PSG’s quality, erased that dream scenario though, dooming the Leipzig contingent to a painful defeat.

Tyler Adams committed a costly turnover in the 67th minute that sparked a PSG counterattack leading directly to a Lionel Messi equalizer, and by the time Messi converted a panenka penalty kick just seven minutes after that, Adams and Leipzig had watched their hopes of an upset in Paris disappear.

For Adams, the moment was a painful one. He was in the midst of a solid performance, but when Achraf Hakimi put him under pressure, Adams appeared to anticipate a foul call and proceeded to lose the ball, which immediately sparked a PSG counter. There would be no referee’s whistle to stop the play and Kylian Mbappe and Messi did the rest, erasing Leipzig’s 2-1 lead.

The eventual defeat leaves RB Leipzig without a single point through three group stage matches, four points behind third-place Club Brugge. Advancing to the Round of 16 was always going to be difficult for Marsch’s squad, but their loss to to Brugge on September 27 made a knockout round place all but impossible, and suddenly made even securing a consolation place in the Europa League knockout rounds a longshot.

Leipzig will get another chance at PSG on November 2, when the French giants visit Germany, and if Marsch and his team can take any consolation from Tuesday it is in the knowledge that they weren’t very far from earning a result at the Parc de Prince.

The good news for Adams and RB Leipzig is they return to action on Saturday against last-place Greuther Furth before kicking off DFB Pokal play next week against lower-division Babelsberg. Leipzig has fashioned a four-match unbeaten run in Bundesliga play, and a win on Saturday could help them climb a step closer to the top four, which could ease some of the mounting pressure on Marsch, who came under scrutiny for the team’s slow starts in Bundesliga and Champions League play.

Comments

  1. I beg to differ. This is a total Ricardo Clark moment. he receives the back pass and his touch lets him down, he then tries to toe poke it back to teammate and mishits it; allowing a goal in the process.

    People always link Adams to Mckennie but McKennie is a clear level ahead of Adams. I’m almost ready for Musah starting > Adams tbh…

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    • I respect your legal opinion but I disagree. all 6’s lose the ball in bad places because thats where they play the whole game. having adams on the field is the difference between the US being a decent team and a disaster. Mussh’s gonna be incredible but he’s so young. McKennie is turning out to be kind of a head case. He comes back from an expulsion and endless press about Juve not wanting him, and decides that’s the time to get a rebel hair dye-job. read the room, right?

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      • I’m more sold on Adams than Mckennie. Even though I think they both are at the same level and need to improve. When a US player in europe has a club game I watch as many full games as I can. When I watch Mckennie I get a bit frustrated. Whenever he receives a ball he’ll immediately one touch one pass to another player. You could tell when he gets the ball he doesn’t have the confidence and calmness to receive the ball, dribble forward, asses the field and make the smart pass. He needs to improve on his dribbles and gain confidence to reach the next level. He also totally avoids 1v1 situations with the one touch one pass maneuver, that’s another thing he needs to improve on is his dribbles in 1v1 situations. In his game today against Zenit I don’t think he touched the ball in the first 20 minutes. It looked like his teammates never have him as an option A to pass the ball to, like if there was no option whatsoever then they’d give him the ball and he’d one touch one pass it. It was like his teammates have noticed his weaknesses and don’t have full confidence in him. The good thing is that he’s young and is a work horse. He still found ways to almost score today! He always finds himself at the right place at the right time and that’s just natural instinct, but in order to reach the next level he has to strengthen those areas of weakness. Adams has similar weaknesses but tends to be more bold and moves forward when he can. And I’m talking about club performance too, when they play in CONCACAF they tend to play more forward and bold due to lower level of competition. I think Aaronson and Adams could benefit from gaining a bit more muscle. Adams give away today I think could’ve been avoided if he had been a bit stronger. Busio has been making strides with Venezia I think his ceiling is higher than Mckennies, each game he keeps getting better and more confident.

  2. I thought his foot was kicked from behind. He’s so solid and dependable, there’s no way he’s that inaccurate with a ball like that unless he’s fouled. I’d blame that one on the ref.

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    • agree it looks like he got clipped from behind, but he didn’t sell it. in that situation, maybe needs to immediately grab at his foot to let the ref know? weird game soccer on things like this, tough moment

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    • I’m not on board with DLOA above but Adams has had some pretty bad turnovers for the Nats of late. I believe it was his poor pass that eventually led to the Panama corner goal. He’s still our best 6 and puts out plenty of fires but he’s not perfect in possession.

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  3. not sure if i’d really call that a purposeful pass or “mistake.” he’s falling over perseverating about the interior options and the ball just kind of sprays. he should just have gone backwards to the open defender, that’s the real mistake. while i think a mid who constantly passes back lacks positive things to add to the attack, this one is the common sense exception. just do the simple, safe thing.

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