He's one of the few Americans that have actually played in the Premier League. Can this guy carry the United States team to victory? Are they more than just Christian pulisic? And I know that they qualified here, but over the past couple of years in international play, they've been pretty inconsistent and have been disappointing. So how are they going to do? Are they set up to have a good run in this tournament?
Moving on, they have a flashy attack. I mean, there's no way around that. You have Arsenal's, Bukayo Saka, arguably one of the most exciting young talents coming out of England in recent memory. After the Euros last year, he absolutely propelled to Stardom. He's just sensational. And anybody that's watching this tournament should keep a close eye on him whenever he plays. On top of that, you have Manchester City's Jack Grealish record signing
You. Now, another person that I would be looking out for on that team is Phil Foden of Manchester City. Again, a very young player. Some would say that between him and Bacio soccer, those are the two most exciting young English players at this point in time. So definitely look at him. He has got a tremendous talent for controlling the ball in front of goal, and when he wants it to be somewhere, it's going there
The only thing that I really think is working to their advantage here is that these other three teams have not been performing at the level that they are capable of. Certainly not the English national team. But again, I'm not really fancying Iran here. They certainly are the underdogs and in the world of global football that we are in right now, the amount of stock that's put into leagues in England and Italy and France, it's just so much higher than the rest of the world
phil spade
@Phil · 2:43
And I don't know if that's a thing in soccer as much as it is in other sports, but he doesn't have to expend as much energy and all he has to do is just kind of hang around the goal. Not offside the course, but hang around the goal and just wait for the ball to come. And once he gets that boot on the ball in front of the net, he is very, very efficient at putting it in the back of the net
Look, I'm not a big fan of the English national team, but moves like that certainly don't endear me to them in any way. So I thought I'd point that out here. You cannot take politics out of this World Cup and there's just going to be some people who are willing to put their money where their mouth is. And this was a very, very clear example of that
phil spade
@Phil · 1:30
Now, maybe I'm not giving whales enough credit there, but it just felt like the same aggressiveness was not used in that second half. Looking at both these teams, like I mentioned, I thought the play was a little sloppy in the middle of the pitch and I think England is going to take well advantage of that. And I think I honestly do not think England will have a problem with either one of these teams
Hey, Phil. Yeah, this game was definitely filled with that rawness. I think a lot of people have been talking about, at least on the part of the US national team, they, you know, they're feisty. Like I said, they are problematic. But the the one thing that really does stand out for me me, is that this is a team that does not have a lot of World Cup experience. And the penalty call, what a tremendously awful tackle to put in
phil spade
@Phil · 2:03
Well, Taylor, tomorrow is the big one, the US. Against England. There's been a lot of hype for this game in the United States. A lot of people are talking about, hey, it's Black Friday. It's a day that most people are off unless you work in retail, and a lot of people will be tuning in to watch this game. A lot of Americans are excited about this game. They're coming off that one
phil spade
@Phil · 2:40
Massive development here with huge implications for Group B this morning. Iran taking down Wales red card in the 86 minutes on the goalkeeper hennessy proves to be fatal for Wales, just sending that country into misery. Iran capitalizes on the 98 minutes with a goal, adding another one and just sending Iran into Euphoria. They are on the precipice of advancing for the first time ever in the World Cup. You know, there's people in this country just absolutely losing their minds
What's going to be the difference here, I think, is the midfield and how well the US manages to retain possession of the ball and get it into that final third. Christian Pulisic, I don't really think he's firing on all cylinders, frankly. I do think he's a remarkably overrated player
phil spade
@Phil · 1:31
And both teams, I thought they played to win, but then in the second half, I kind of felt like they started backing off probably about the 80 minutes mark, and I was okay with that. I am more than pleased at walking away from England. Nil. Nil. Just never more nervous than I was in the second half, especially last maybe 20 minutes. Especially the last ten minutes. I thought the US
phil spade
@Phil · 2:53
So if the US. Wants to win this game at all, it is pretty common sense that they will have to find the back of the net. But if they want to win, they're probably going to have to do it two or three times. Now, judging on what I've seen from the first two games, they need to get a lot better at passing. They need to get a lot better on defense, especially in the middle of the pitch
However, if there is a winner in the Iran versus USA game, wales must beat England by four goals. That is the only way that they can do it. All right, so this is a bit tricky because really anything can happen here and I think that this US team has as many chances as they may be creating, as fast as their players may be, they're not doing it quite yet
phil spade
@Phil · 2:42
But it's going to be very tough because Shaughnessy, their main goaltender, went out in the Iran game with a red card, which means he's ineligible to play in this match, which means Danny Ward comes in
phil spade
@Phil · 1:29
Has got to get defensive and really protect that 1 million lead if they want to advance here. So I'd expect the US. To still put the gas on the pedal, try to get that second goal. But I think what you hit the 70 to 80 minutes mark and then you really got to go defensive. Pulisic looks like he's okay. He was down for quite a while there
Now going forward, I really think that this US men's national team is a likable bunch of players, but they need to figure out how to score goals. It is a big problem and I can see them getting absolutely destroyed later in this tournament because they sure create a lot of chances but they don't score enough goals. And when they're creating chances, all of their players are committed super high up the pitch
phil spade
@Phil · 3:38
But when I look at some of these European teams and I look at who they're facing next netherlands. These guys are 6ft, 180. I mean they are bigger teams. And I saw this when I went to Indiana University. The football players were like a foot less taller than the players at Michigan and it was just a different ballgame at that point because they didn't give up anything on speed and that was the only thing that Indiana would have to go with