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Socceroos vs USA 2026 World Cup match thread 🇦🇺 🇺🇸

Good point made on a podcast that Volapto turned a lot of players as did Bos once or twice against Turkey. We should combine the two.
 
The Burgess Ream strong handshake makes sense that Ream probably took Burgess under his wing as a young defender at Fulham.
 
One thing Herrington might give in these types of games is line-breaking passing out of the press.

For Colorado - a rebuilding (i.e. not-great) MLS team that is often pressured - they have decided to play out of the back all the time - no matter what. And they have given Herrington the keys to the car to start it all come hell or high water.

He currently is 2nd (!) in MLS in passes (1,143) with a 95% accuracy. Obviously % is helped by a lot of short build passes.

Not saying he’s been perfect - but he’s getting a crazy amount of reps each game. He can deliver line-breaking passes into space or feet for forwards.

Even attempting those types of passes can force a team back (and would force Robinson/Dest/attacking wide players into relentless sprints trying to track back each time).
 
Marmot said:
One thing Herrington might give in these types of games is line-breaking passing out of the press.

For Colorado - a rebuilding (i.e. not-great) MLS team that is often pressured - they have decided to play out of the back all the time - no matter what. And they have given Herrington the keys to the car to start it all come hell or high water.

He currently is 2nd (!) in MLS in passes (1,143) with a 95% accuracy. Obviously % is helped by a lot of short build passes.

Not saying he’s been perfect - but he’s getting a crazy amount of reps each game. He can deliver line-breaking passes into space or feet for forwards.

Even attempting those types of passes can force a team back (and would force Robinson/Dest/attacking wide players into relentless sprints trying to track back each time).
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Agree with this!
 
Pop inexplicably dropped the 2 scorers, while Poch went w/ 2 strikers against a bunker. They stepped on each other's toes & it's not a good strategy against an organized d. Wide play's better. Pulisic would have provided it. He was a big loss.

The US earned a ton of set pieces for territorial dominance & Australia conceded some unnecessarily sending balls into touch. Then the supposed crooked ref was looking for a reason to find an infraction. Chalked off the goal Schwarzer said was legit. Didn't impact the play.

The hand ball would have been a smash and grab. Just 2 guys jumping for a pop-up that had 0 chance leading to a goal directly and you're not going to arms to side. I'm not for gifting goals, regardless who gets them. You should have to earn them, unless the opponent has intent/total recklessness. Reffing just needs to be consistent. Didn't give US a borderline one either, nor should they have.

The US shouldn't have went so negative in the 2nd half. They didn't do it against Paraguay. Went away from what worked. Sat back, made defensive subs, which actually downgraded them in the dept/overall, and let Australia in the game a bit. Surrounding had some uncharacteristic bad touches to sabotage chances. Unaesthetic win in the end, but they ain't all gonna be pretty.

Of course the US were going to be favorites at home. More talented team, w/ the crowd buoying them and a consistent WC history outside Europe (6 for last 6 advancing from group at least). Not disrespect, outside over the top comments from random pundit(s). Bending over backwards for bulletin board material, which ironically validated US confidence.

Paraguay's going to be a battle. The US made them look bad, as the win over Turkiye, down a man even, evidenced. Two scrappy teams here. W/ that cancelling out, Enciso may be the x-factor. But you only need a draw, though. Good luck.
 
Just watched the second half. This fight and effort was needed in the first half. I just hate how our urgency came too late and the problem it's rushed and a half chance. Everything or nothing play. Had we started aggressively and calculated a match plan then we may have had a better chance.
 
Watching the first half again in detail. It's not exactly the case that Velupillay and Leckie did much wrong but more so they just didn't do enough. They made some errors but there was also a bug lack of involvement.

If we're going to start players who are fresh then we need to set a goal of getting the ball to them very often. Many touches and drawing of fouls.

Our possession blueprint is so ad hoc.
 
JS96 said:
Watching the first half again in detail. It's not exactly the case that Velupillay and Leckie did much wrong but more so they just didn't do enough. They made some errors but there was also a bug lack of involvement.

If we're going to start players who are fresh then we need to set a goal of getting the ball to them very often. Many touches and drawing of fouls.

Our possession blueprint is so ad hoc.
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I dont think our possession blueprint is changing under poppa. It takes a few seconds to jump from our defensive shape to an in possession shape, so any team that squeeze at all dominates territory and posession early (even teams ranked 50 to 100 below us like nz, curacao and indonesia)

Then when the press gets tired we look better

Only reason turkey didnt look as dominant early was because their press sucks

Paraguay will be interesting since i have no idea if they will press
 
grazorblade said:
I dont think our possession blueprint is changing under poppa. It takes a few seconds to jump from our defensive shape to an in possession shape, so any team that squeeze at all dominates territory and posession early (even teams ranked 50 to 100 below us like nz, curacao and indonesia)

Then when the press gets tired we look better

Only reason turkey didnt look as dominant early was because their press sucks

Paraguay will be interesting since i have no idea if they will press
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We look very at home in transition when the opponent is resetting. We need to force turnovers and go.

Hannover successfully did this where the coach said we don't have the skills to break down an organised opponent so we had the 10 second rule of going forward as soon as we got the ball in midfield and it was amazing. We have the players to do it.
 
There was one moment where Metcalfe first time a curved back to goal pass to Irankunda. He overhit it. Had it been a bit softer it would've been perfect.

I noticed how much our subs pressed and the midfielders got much more vigorous.
 
JS96 said:
Just watched the second half. This fight and effort was needed in the first half. I just hate how our urgency came too late and the problem it's rushed and a half chance. Everything or nothing play. Had we started aggressively and calculated a match plan then we may have had a better chance.
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<Ctrl> C
<Ctrl> V

Popaball
 
Just thinking though...

If we play a high intensity game against Paraguay and play our better form of Popaball from the start, maybe Popa deliberately sacrificed the USA game to protect our best legs for the game that he decided we could win.

Maybe he actually had a holistic vision of the competition rather than a single game mentality.

Not sure Popa has that in him - he has not demonstrated it before but I am just wondering if he has evolved a bit.
 
RIMB said:
Just thinking though...

If we play a high intensity game against Paraguay and play our better form of Popaball from the start, maybe Popa deliberately sacrificed the USA game to protect our best legs for the game that he decided we could win.

Maybe he actually had a holistic vision of the competition rather than a single game mentality.

Not sure Popa has that in him - he has not demonstrated it before but I am just wondering if he has evolved a bit.
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Too much credit for Popa. 9 of the 11 starting players were the same as the first game. Not really protecting our legs. And the 2 guys who missed were probably the 2 that we could least afford to miss. As someone else said, the Turkiye game was the best of Popa and the US game was the worst of Popa.
 
JS96 said:
I'll admit I thought Velupillay was worth a start but he just didn't get the ball or put in the work rate.
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Why is Velupillay worth a start? If he played and starred for Hanoi FC or FC Jakarta would you say the same thing?

The A league is a crap part time semi pro park football league. The best player in the A league isn’t as good as the worst player in the Bundesliga 2.

Just because Nishan and Leckie destroy teams in the A league, it doesn’t translate to the world stage. In the A league they have time to trap the ball, look up, asses their options, have a cup of tea, reminiate on their decision, and then decide if they want to dribble part their opponent at 15kmph or pass it. In the World Cup, they trap the ball, look up, and realise they have already lost the ball.

You can never judge a player by how good they are in the A league. Look at Kuol and Arzani, huge A league talent - absolute plodders by global standards. I can’t think of a single A league player who starred at a World Cup. They have all been absolutely awful.
 
rusty83 said:
Why is Velupillay worth a start? If he played and starred for Hanoi FC or FC Jakarta would you say the same thing?

The A league is a crap part time semi pro park football league. The best player in the A league isn’t as good as the worst player in the Bundesliga 2.

Just because Nishan and Leckie destroy teams in the A league, it doesn’t translate to the world stage. In the A league they have time to trap the ball, look up, asses their options, have a cup of tea, reminiate on their decision, and then decide if they want to dribble part their opponent at 15kmph or pass it. In the World Cup, they trap the ball, look up, and realise they have already lost the ball.

You can never judge a player by how good they are in the A league. Look at Kuol and Arzani, huge A league talent - absolute plodders by global standards. I can’t think of a single A league player who starred at a World Cup. They have all been absolutely awful.
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That’s just the thing, last season neither of those players even destroyed anyone in the Aleague
 
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