The Official 2022 FIFA World Cup Thread
 

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YOUNG AMERICANS
The USMNT was by far the youngest team to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, garnering valuable experience going through the rigors of World Cup qualifying. Through 14 qualifiers, the USA Starting XI came in at an average of 23.82, almost two years younger than the next closest team, Ghana at 25.67. Together, the other 31 participating teams averaged a Starting XI age of 27.5 through qualifying, nearly four full years older than the U.S. Sources say this is one of the youngest, but most talented teams the U.S. has ever fielded. While they may not win the world cup this year, they may garner the experience needed to make a serious run on home soil in the year 2026 when the World Cup comes back to North America.

2022 USA World Cup Roster

FORWARDS
Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas)
Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders)
Christian Pulisic (Chelsea)
Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund)
Josh Sargent (Norwich City)
Timothy Weah (Lille)
Haji Wright (Antalyaspor)

MIDFIELDERS
Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United)
Kellyn Acosta (LAFC)
Tyler Adams (Leeds United)
Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo)
Weston McKennie (Juventus)
Yunus Musah (Valencia)
Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders)

DEFENDERS
Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic)
Sergiño Dest (AC Milan)
Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls)
Shaq Moore (Nashville SC)
Tim Ream (Fulham)
Antonee Robinson (Fulham)
Joe Scally (Borussia Monchengladbach)
DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami)
Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC)

GOALKEEPERS
Ethan Horvath (Luton Town)
Sean Johnson (NYCFC)
Matt Turner (Arsenal)

Players should boycott because the stadiums were built with slave labor.

Not watching til women get paid as much as the men

Day after Thanksgiving against England will be fun. Will be the most watched soccer game in American history.

It is hard to get a read on this team but I think we are really sound on defense which gives us a good shot in these games.

I worry about where turn to for scoring if Ferreira starts and is not having an impactful match.

Excited to see Gio Reyna go to work though he has been healthy and effective playing for Borussia Dortmund lately.

Gtfoh

Do pansexuals care about gender assignments?

I'm going to watch the England one. Just because of the pure hilarity it would be if we beat them at their own game. A game we barely care about. It would be great.

Really hoping Reyna has a good tournament he deserves it.

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Qatar kills homosexuals

One thing Qatar has tons of is money and sand and Falcon stores. They should live nicely until they get booted in the opening round.

Good times!

He's been starting for Dortmund now correct, post injury?

Hoping he has the stamina for a full 90.

Yep

I don’t know anyone on this new generation squad except McKinney and Pullisic.

Are they as good as the Landon Donovan/Clint Dempsey teams?

Surprising number of supporters of the EPL team I follow feel this way, claiming they won’t watch it or will only watch England begrudgingly. because of Qatar. Was a little surprised to see that sentiment.

No

They could be. They have the most big time club experience in history and it is not close. They seem to have the requisite American moxie when they are on. But it is still hard to tell what their identity is.

They have talented parts but it is hard to tell in what way they will coalesce and be impactful on any given night.

They have a few players that can put in moments of greatness that lead to goals but there are concerns at the striker position.

Going to be interesting to see how it all pans out.

It's going to come down to if we can win one 1-0 because we don't know how to score yet. I think two draws and a win puts us through.

I wouldn’t say no. Our team is the youngest of the tournament and in a sense, the dark horse, Cinderella of the tournament as well.

As England fans are saying, they think our team is up and coming, but they think we aren’t there just yet, and think the best we can do against them is a draw. Which has a lot of other country’s thinking we won’t be relevant until 2026 until all these kids that are 22-24 on this team are 26-28.

I personally think our team is better, we have a lot of guys playing overseas against top competition, even our secondary guys like Sargent are the starters for their teams in the EFL which isn’t anything to scoff at. When our backups are playing for teams like that and starting, it’s promising.

How hard can it be? Just throw out some NFL cornerbacks and give them a week to figure it out. USA 22-0 then.

I’m hoping Canada and the US can get a few upsets our draw is pretty hard but the teams we are playing are on the the older side I think our speed in attack can give them some fits .

David is scoring at decent clip in ligue 1 and if Davies is healthy he can give anybody fits on the wing .

Just hope they don’t get embarrassed lol.

I don’t think our draw was that tough. Remember 2014 with Germany, Ghana, and Portugal? Now that was tough.

Wales and Iran are both ranked beneath us and we always seem to match well against England no matter what team we bring. We should be able to get 2 wins.

This is why im not a fan of Ferreira personally. Unpopular opinion but I’d rather see Sargent out there over him.

Not to mention Sargent plays in the EFL and they are talking about our starting forward playing in the MLS. I’m just not a fan of the guys that are playing in the MLS for a number of reasons but in these big games, they seem to just fall off. When they are playing friendlies or all the qualifying matches against the weak concaf they look good, but when they go overseas and play these top teams, I’ve always preferred our guys that are already there day in and day out either playing with or against these other elite nations players. When you are home playing in the MLS and playing concaf teams, you just don’t ascend like you should imo.

Yeah this was about as good of a draw as the US could have hoped for

I am sure there is an easier possible draw but not that many. I mean it's the World Cup. Having Iran and Wales with you? Can't ask for much more.

Arent the US and Wales pretty comparable?

USA #16
Wales #19

https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-rank...dateId=id13792

Have no idea. Tell me about soccer like Im 12 so I can learn.

Wouldn’t be the first time. We are undefeated against England in all non-friendly competitions. 2 wins and 1 draw. England fans are by far the worst fans in the world. I love when they get all upset about calling it soccer when they were the ones who started calling it soccer in the first place to separate themselves from rugby football. I can’t wait for that match. I hope we kick the shit out of them.

Wales is not bad at all. Thought WC draw wise...its a good draw.

Talking about the Canadian group lol Belgium and Croatia.

It would be annoying if Garreth Bale trots in and ****s our shit up.

He certainly made an impact in MLS Cup.

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the world cup group stage is pretty much a crapshoot for middle of the pack countries. however with the way we've looked lately, i wouldn't be shocked if we don't advance. i think people underestimate iran a bit.

overall it should be a pretty wide open tournament. a lot of people seem to think argentina or brazil will win, but those two have become such bed shitters in modern times that it's very hard to feel confident picking them. denmark is a darkhorse to make a deep run imo.

It looks like Jurgen Klinsmann was right.

Seventeen of the 26-man roster plays overseas.

**** the MLS.

**** the hipster American soccer fan that defied Klinsmann.

LMAO Honestly had no idea you people existed still.

Guy let CONCACAF run a train on us and you want more of that. I had to stand there and watch Mexico beat us on our own soil in Columbus. He came in shitting on American soccer but ended up doing things the same exact boring way except without the wins when it mattered.

Hell the guy almost got Hertha Berlin relegated from Bundesliga what a joke.

https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/us...munich-germany

Round of 16 showing in 2014 is optimal results. Don't shit on it.

Then what happened. Don't blame MLS because JK thought he was a better coach than he actually was.

It is honestly fun hearing your perspective I literally thought you people were gone. It has been years since someone had the balls to try and convince another human JK does not suck.

He doesn't suck.

World Cup champion as a player and third-place World Cup coach. I wish I had his life.

I know I’m a homer since he’s a KC kid, but Erik Palmer Brown should be on this roster. He starts at CB in Ligue 1 and has been starting overseas for awhile now with a lot of good experience. I wish he could have gotten to the World Cup this year to build some experience for 2026. I don’t think Berhalter gave him enough of a chance.

I wonder if we are planning on using Weah or Reyna at Striker at all? I really don’t like anyone else. Obviously you want guys playing in their natural positions, but I feel like I trust Reyna to get us a goal way more than Ferreira/Sargent/Haji Wright. You can’t start him and Aaronson both at CAM. Weah did look really good as a RW, though so I don’t think you move him to Striker even though he has played it in the past….I don’t know…still so many questions and we really shouldn’t have to question things this much at this point. Hope somehow Haji Wright can continue his good form I guess. I don’t trust the form Ferreira is in at all.

Just happy to be in it again is the main thing. Will be rooting for the rest of CONCACAF as well. Hoping Canada has a good showing. Was happy to see Davies injury wasn’t as bad as they originally feared it would be.

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We were ranked higher than Croatia a few months before the group draw (which I thought was a joke) but yeah I would rather have England and Wales than Belgium and Croatia, and it’s not close. However as another poster said, Iran is a dark horse in our group for sure. But as we all know, every team in the group stage is a threat minus Qatar.

Those fifa rankings don't mean dick. Belgium has been ranked #1 for like a decade and they haven't won anything.

Croatia still has talent, they're just getting old I believe.

Is Pulisic still the LeBron James of 'soccer'?

I think this team has a much higher ceiling than the Donovan/Dempsey teams. They are so young, talented, and playing in great leagues. If they ever find a good to great striker they are going to be a top ten team at worst, likely higher.

Jurgen Klinsmann wasn't given a fair shot IMO. He was bringing a European style of play to the American team. It didn't catch on as quick as they liked, and the team wasn't winning like they were 20 years ago. Unfortunately he didn't have the star players like the teams in the mid to late 90's.

It made no sense to bring back Bruce Arena (who sucked the first time) to suck, YET AGAIN. Instead of letting it play out for a little while longer, you bring back something else that was worse. It's almost in comparison to not letting Spags defensive scheme setting in place, and then bring back Bob Sutton. Not to that degree, but you get my point.

Maybe I am biased because I am German, and love watching the German squad.

I am glad Klinsman is gone because he is not American. No non-American should be able to hold a position on the National team.

Half the players are barely American lol

Exactly, a few of them weren't even born in America.

When have you ever heard someone say that?

Was it qualified with "USA soccer"? Because hes one of the best USA has to offer but he sure as shit isn't going to be in any discussion of the "LeBron James" of the sport.

Klinsmann was not a good manager, but the 2014 team that drew Portgual and lost that wild game to Belgium and the young Kevin DeBruyne was probably the best team we've ever had. It's hard to rate a lot of middling teams against one another, but if you asked me to pick one US team to win one match I'm picking that one.

Unless they grew up in America (if not born here) they should not be eligible.

Pulisic wanted out of Chelsea because he wasn't getting enough minutes

Sargent's team was relegated, although you could say there's still some good competition in the Championship.

Really, who is getting significant minutes in a top league?

Adams and Aaronson, Robinson, McKinnie. That's it AFAIK...

I can't post links here but go on YouTube and search "Pulisic shirt Pawn stars"

I believe....I believe we will...I believe we will get our shit pushed in!

this. WAY higher ceiling.

We havent had this much talent, top to bottom on the roster, probably ever.

May not show it fully until the next WC (ok, fine.....us soil for that one).

and who was even rostered overseas in the donovan era??

Donovan was (for a hot minute), and Tim Howard........

Well with what you named, and adding pulisic, that’s 5, but you’re also missing our goal keeper Matt turner who starts for arsenal, that’s over half the starters playing overseas…. Then we have our ST and CB being stars in the MLS so that’s 8, I forget the other 3 that are presumed to be our starters, but our team is mostly overseas tbh.

Can we sign Erling Haaland for the WC?

**** that, you want us to lose forever?

Force Tyreek Hill, Kodarius Toney and Mecole Hardman to play soccer.

Win 2024 World Cup easily.

I guess I missed Turner since he definitely does not start for Arsenal and has not made a league appearance this year.

LMAO

Really all the US would need is Kevin Durant in goal and someone to score a couple goals in group play. I don’t think anyone would ever score a goal on Durant with his size and athleticism.

That is basically the same thing as saying the Chiefs should not have any players that were not born in or have grown up in Kansas City.

Joe Scally starts pretty much every game in the bundesliga.

No, its not. It's not even remotely the same. Chiefs are a pro team. United States soccer is a national team.

Bring in Kareem Hunt

this thread went well thanks guys

Anything that makes me lol literally always gets a thumbs up from me

Huh? He started the friendly against numberg in the summer and has since recorded multiple clean sheets in his recent starts with arsenal? I don’t follow arsenal but I had seen him playing on some highlights and the information I just provided was from a quick google search

As a match going Chelsea and England supporter from London I am going to be pretty much the oracle of this thread in the coming month. I'll begin by saying that Pulisic looked promising in his first Chelsea season but he's turned out to be a JAG and is not the person you yanks should build your team around going forward.

:skip:

He’ll still end his career with more international trophies than anyone on England will ever see so he has that going for him.

England are perpetual choke artists

Congrats to him then. That's the equivalent of being a Falcon and winning the NFC South once or twice while getting whooped in the playoffs.

No…that’s more appropriate for an England comparison. You know the team that has won every single friendly against the US, but has yet to get anything more than a draw when they face off against us in a match that matters.

Arsenal’s goalkeeper is Ramsdale, who is England’s third choice goalkeeper. Turner is Ramsdale’s backup.

Really weird take. One draw and you're spouting this? I'm surprised to hear this on here because it reeks of a Raiders loser mentality. You're supposed to be the United States of America - the big boys who only accept the best. Even though 'soccer' isn't one of your main sports it's absolutely cringe to brag about meaningless wins against third world countries and one single draw against us.

We have a draw and a win against England in the World Cup. Do you know anything about soccer bud?

You’ll be the oracle of this thread??? Get the **** out of here kid. You don’t even know anything about the history of your own squad LMAO:LOL:

As I said, a proper loser Raiders mentality. You're using a result from 1950 (lmao) to justify your non relevance.

As if being the soccer version of the Chargers is any better. All hype- no glory. Good luck!

Also, I’ll allow you to use any year to re-establish your relevance if you can find the last time you beat us in anything other than a friendly. Wars included.