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Group B: England, Iran, United States, Wales (England and USA qualify)


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2 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Grealish is a brilliant guy. Made that boy's life.

Can’t not like him after that. Really nice how much he seems to care about his family and disabilities too. And I’m not really that disgusted by the Almiron comment anyway. Funny as some of the comments since have been though ;)

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1 hour ago, Interpolic said:

Definitely should have named a 3rd striker, mind. Rashford isn't one and Wilson is injury prone. There are players in that 26 who won't get near the side all tournament. 

I'd suggest, if Kane AND Wilson were crocked we'd go with a front 3 NOT the traditional England no9 scenario. 

We deffo have the players. 

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10 minutes ago, Groundhog63 said:

I'd suggest, if Kane AND Wilson were crocked we'd go with a front 3 NOT the traditional England no9 scenario. 

We deffo have the players. 

 

Yeah but it's unnecessary. Could see the wisdom with a 23 man squad but you should use those extra 3 places in a 26 for positions where you anticipate issues, plus more attackers are generally needed anyway as most subs made are in the attacking positions.

 

It's an oversight by Southgate who probably thought it was enough to include Rashford, but Rashford really doesn't perform well there and is much more useful out wide. 

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On 21/11/2022 at 19:09, ponsaelius said:

The worst thing about the World Cup is seeing takes on social media from Americans who only watch football once every four years. At least the equivalent people in the UK end up talking about soldier's wages when we lose, rather than that the US would win if they picked a load of NFL running backs.

 

:lol: I mean, we would. If desperate kids saw soccer as much of an escape from hell as the NBA and NFL can be, we'd be fucking Brazil.

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11 hours ago, Mike said:

 

:lol: I mean, we would. If desperate kids saw soccer as much of an escape from hell as the NBA and NFL can be, we'd be fucking Brazil.

 

There's no doubt whatsoever that more people playing football from a young age instead of other stuff would drastically improve the standard. Although it's definitely not as simple as more athletes and money = success in football like it is in certain other sports which rely more on pure athleticism or have less global competition (e.g. many Olympic disciplines). There's clearly an intangible cultural element that manages to produce great technical footballers in certain places. E.g. Croatia making world cup finals with a tiny population, while China flounders about in qualifying despite hundreds of billions spent and millions of active players.

 

My point however was more on the absurd takes that you could literally re-train existing athletes in other sports and put them in the US team more or less overnight. Which genuinely exist unironically.

 

 

Edited by ponsaelius

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Does the MLS do academies a la Europe and South America or does it do it college style like other American mainstay sports? It’s pretty telling all your good and more technical players are still the ones that grow up abroad. You’d be fucked if you weren’t yuge fans of war.

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As of like 8(?) years ago they started doing academies. College soccer is 80 minutes long with unlimited subs and only lasts a few months. Basically a non-entity at producing players 

 

There are plenty on this team that came through MLS academies. A quick look and I think it's 10, including Reyna, Adams, Aaronson, and McKennie. Definitely seen more talent coming through since they made the switch.

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Fair but Reyna and McKennie were both still polished in German academies. Obviously it’ll grow massively over time but sort that and you’ll be set even if the better ones are creamed off by European clubs as per the two mentioned. Giving fandom is new and nationalism is yuge I assume the league and system will always be about what the national team wants more than the clubs but as Germany have shown recently when you go too far down that road it backfires as everyone plays the same and produces the same type of player.

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Philly’s academy is the probably the top talent incubator amongst the MLS clubs. Aaronson is the big success story, his younger brother just signed for Frankfurt, McKenzie at Genk, de Vries at Venezia, and the senior side includes the likes of McGlynn, Sullivan, Craig, and Sorenson who could all get moves to Europe in the next season or two.

 

edit: forgot about Dallas. They’ve churned out a bunch of decent players as well.

 

 

Edited by Tomato Deuce

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4 hours ago, ponsaelius said:

There's no doubt whatsoever that more people playing football from a young age instead of other stuff would drastically improve the standard.


FWIW, Soccer is the most played sport under the age of 16 in America. 
 

I’d argue that the academies need to step up and offer the path out that NFL/MLB offers.

 

But there is still such a wildly different culture/out that a lot of “inner city kids” aka POC see as an outlet with the NFL in particular. We’re just sending kids into modern day gladiator games with the promise of money. It’s insane. 
 

Once we figure out the equation to this, we’re winning a WC in years, not decades. 

 

 

Edited by cubaricho

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I would stick with the same starting eleven, take Kane off after 60 mins and get Calum on.

If we are a couple of goals up it would be an idea to bring on rashford for counter attacking pace...

Get another few players without minutes on to the pitch at 70 mins or so.

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