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USMNT Player Ratings: Adams, Ream and Weah lead way in draw with Wales

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  1. In my opinion, Pulisic was basically the only creator with the box to box players out there. There was only so much he could do but was able to feed Weah with a great weighted pass for the goal. He was also consistently hacked the whole game. I think Pulisic had a very good game in general. The only criticism I have was his set-pieces. He was just horrible at them, and he has been horrible at them for a long time now. The other criticism I have is that he should have made that professional foul for a yellow card near the end of the game instead of having Ream do it. Regarding Zimmerman, he was defending well until that bad tackle from behind. I have no idea why he did that.

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  2. adams, weah, turner, no real surprise they showed up. i thought dest defended well for a change. pulisic had an off day other than an assist with just the right tough on it. ream was solid mopping up but didn’t have to man mark a ton. i thought the AM passing was horrible, i thought sargent was in witness protection as was wright.

    zimmermann i am befuddled why. he two footed into the back of the guy. it wasn’t mistimed. it wasn’t to a side. it wasn’t a poke tackle between the legs. he had help, he had the guy back to goal. it was kind of like a professional foul or payback in style but no reason for it. MLS is a tough league where he has to defend serious strikers — and is viewed as doing so better than 99% of the other defenders — so i don’t want to hear that malarkey.

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    • Did he just not see Bale and was going for a big clearance? That’s the only explanation I could come up with.
      —————————————
      As for Pulisic, there’s a comp out on socials of US in transition in 2nd half there are a number of times Pulisic and later Aaronson just don’t play the runners in or do it too late. Weah is just repeatedly wide open to be played in as the LB has no idea where he is. Each time CP either holds it or passes wide to Musah or Robinson on the our left and most of the time the weight is off and takes the runner out to wide allowing Wales to set up. I’m not saying it’s all on Pulisic but it was more than just set pieces that were deficient. The blue print was there get CP central running at the backline play the ball behind Neco Williams, Weah puts it away. Christian never went back to it. It was there all day.

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      • to me it was always you’re playing ball, only if you can, and you have to factor in he’s in between that, and you only clean someone out like that either outside the box as payback or professional, or if you in the box are burned and chasing and it’s the 85′ and that’s the winner if you let it happen. you give the penalty and see what your keeper can do. this, he’s a good older player but back to goal and you have help. there is no rush, there is no payback, there is no desperation. but it looked desperate. maybe the moment got to him. he said bale moved his leg but that’s always a calculation and not a certainty and you err on the side of him showing too much ball, particularly back to net. back to net you’ve done the first part of your job. he wasn’t going to clear it very far studs up. personally i quit even doing between legs poke tackles when they changed the rules on tackling from behind. too easier to either call the studs in and of themselves or for the guy to dive and that kind of tackle usually creates contact even if you think you got ball first.

        one of the sneaky things i would occasionally try, particularly with strikers who leaned back, is something i learned watching basketball centers.
        what hoops centers call “pulling the chair.” they put a bunch of body weight leaned on you. you abruptly back away and let them fall. but that gives them space to turn if they are in contact with the ball. it’s a risk reward on how much you think they are focused on you as opposed to the ball.

    • Zimmerman said in the post-game interviews that he did not see Bale coming across. Bale put his foot in front of Walker and drew the foul despite Walker playing the ball. Smart move by Bale maybe some tiredness from Zimmerman in not seeing Bale coming. But it was fast.

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  3. Greg Berhalter a zero for the horrible STATES shirt he wore. Black and white with zero patriotism. I hope he doesn’t wear that shirt again in this WC.

    I’m tired of Nike being the Team kit sponsor. Nothing patriotic about how Nike is these days. This a time to feel pride in your country. Nike has grown stale.

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    • Nike has done nothing to single out its home country – the US of A. We have received the same Nike WC platform shirts in every world cup dating back to 2002.

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    • i thought the jerseys were a worse atrocity than that but i am not getting too wound up because they just signed in 2021 what i assume is about a 10 year deal. i would say the work came off complacent and weak. england has a jersey that looks a little like ours, in our own group. i don’t think some competition would hurt but we are committed into the 2030s barring they go kanye level crazy.

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  4. This might be the first player rating I’ve ever read in complete agreement. Maybe a little nicer to Aaronson than I would have been, but 6 is fair. I expected him to do more, with less lost possession, but 6 pretty much is the mixed bag score, so it fits.

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