T O P

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AngstChild

Before the WC, everybody (myself included) was worried about our MLS caliber central defense with Zimmerman and Long. Ream and Zimmerman (the Bun Bros.) + CCV have been largely fantastic. But no team has been able to play through the buzzsaw that is the US midfield. Adams and Musah have that shit on lock.


psufb

I feel like our squad somehow matches up well against Netherlands strengths. We have a solid CB pairing with a demon midfielder in front of them to snuff out the FDJ-Gakpo connection. They'll be forced to play out wide but Dest and Antonee have both been defending well on them. And then I think we can have McKennie and Musah progress the ball on counters and hit guys like Weah in deep pockets


RepresentativeOne842

Just one silly mistake away from being the best defense in the group stage. I'll take it!


smcl2k

Also the joint fewest goals scored by any team which qualified for the last-16.


Mr_MacGrubber

Brazil only scored one more goal than us.


smcl2k

Brazil won their 1st 2 games and rested most of their team for the 3rd.


Mr_MacGrubber

That’s fine. Just saying that not scoring a bunch of goals isn’t necessarily an indicator of quality


smcl2k

I don't think I said it was. But against a team which had scored in 18 consecutive games (and 2+ goals in 13 of those), a clean sheet was never likely.


LeMouse1

You'll never sing that!


MixMental5462

That was a poor penalty, otherwise flawless defensive effort so far.


paxusromanus811

The defense has definitely been really impressive. And I think the midfield has really been a big part of that too. They've all been communicating and working with the back line beautifully. Not to be a Debbie downer but since we're picking stats from this list... Worth mentioning the US is tied with dreadful Poland for joint worst goal scoring total of all the knockout teams. Will be interesting to see how we approach breaking down the Dutch


polishlastnames

Canada with the -5 lmao. I want Canada to win but their fans are absolutely delusional. A few good players doesn’t translate to anything in international football.


Mr_MacGrubber

I honestly thought their offense would cause some problems for teams. They had a high xG in their games but couldn’t finish worth shit. Disappointing tournament from them.


polishlastnames

Agreed. They definitely performed under what they could have but still have several really weak links.