The Official 2022 FIFA World Cup Thread

[TripleThreat]

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)

[POND_OF_RED]

Originally Posted by Hark Clunt

the literally were in the european final last year and the semis in the prevous world cup. i'm not fan of them, but the idea that US fans can unironically talk shit about them is just so ****ing cringe.

Maybe you haven’t been following along from the start of this thread but Womble has been an unrelenting English prick who tried to come in and instantly act like he’s some sort of footballing royalty because he is a Chelsea fan from England. He’s deserved every reminder he’s gotten about Englands shortcomings against us and the rest of the world.

[Womble]

Originally Posted by POND_OF_RED

Maybe you haven’t been following along from the start of this thread but Womble has been an unrelenting English prick who tried to come in and instantly act like he’s some sort of footballing royalty because he is a Chelsea fan from England. He’s deserved every reminder he’s gotten about Englands shortcomings against us and the rest of the world.

[Womble]

Originally Posted by POND_OF_RED

Maybe you haven’t been following along from the start of this thread but Womble has been an unrelenting English prick who tried to come in and instantly act like he’s some sort of footballing royalty because he is a Chelsea fan from England. He’s deserved every reminder he’s gotten about Englands shortcomings against us and the rest of the world.

[TripleThreat]

Jesus what an insecure woman Womble is. Must be smashing that post reply key to get his GIF out that he's already posted 2 pages ago.

This dude's truly adding nothing to the thread - No romper room?

[Womble]

Originally Posted by TripleThreat

Jesus what an insecure woman Womble is. Must be smashing that post reply key to get his GIF out that he's already posted 2 pages ago.

This dude's truly adding nothing to the thread - No romper room?

I'm adding a lot to this thread by calling out your bare faced lies and delusions. In an age of post-truth it's up to keyboard warriors like me to uphold integrity and righteousness.

[|Zach|]

Bummer to be done.

Netherlands was well organized and unforgiving. They had 4 chances and put away 3 of them.

Good cup run overall all by a young team that has a lot of soccer to play. We have a midfield that is only going to get better we need a striker and 1.5 🤣 new people on the back line.

I have been drinking since 7am it’s been a long day. Just came up against a really good side.

[|Zach|]

I am fine if someone else takes the helm going forward but the amount of shitting on the job Berhalter does is silly when you look at the state of the pool and how joyless and terrible US Soccer was when he took over. If we played exactly the same with a manager from Europe they’d be praised for the level of football we played.

[TripleThreat]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

I am fine if someone else takes the helm going forward but the amount of shitting on the job Berhalter does is silly when you look at the state of the pool and how joyless and terrible US Soccer was when he took over. If we played exactly the same with a manager from Europe they’d be praised for the level of football we played.

I mean let's be honest here, we keep acting like we make some weird huge progress each time with some new manager year in and year out. We consistently make worlds, and we consistently make the Round of 16 just to get knocked out from some other favored team. This result was no different than the past 30 years. If anything we've gone backwards from the team from 1950's and our 2002 team that went to quarters.

Who do you blame us not having a #9 on? The development of soccer? That's bull. As I mentioned earlier, imagine having Pulisic and Reyna feeding balls to Donovan and Altidore in their primes? We came into this tournament without a true #9. We change our starting #9 every game except one. That's a coach who had no idea coming in what he was getting from our strikers. That's a problem. Going back to Zimmerman was a mistake. His replacement wasn't much better but when we are here praising a 35 year old slow Ream for being the best player defensivily on our line, that's alarming as well.

Not trying to come hars on you Zach btw, I like your takes, but I'm not happy with Greg. I'm also not happy at how unconditioned some of our players are/were compared to these other teams. Why is Pulisic playing a full 90 every game but our other top players aren't?

[|Zach|]

You might be a little too deep in the frustration of this loss if you don’t see the strides this team has made from where it was.

….I mean.

They didn’t make the damn tournament last time.

Greg did every thing we asked him to.

Win trophies.
Best Mexico.
Win the gold cup.
Get to the WC.
Get out of the group stage.

We build from there. Are there things you can be frustrated with? Sure. But he did all we asked.

[TripleThreat]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

You might be a little too deep in the frustration of this loss if you don’t see the strides this team has made from where it was.

….I mean.

They didn’t make the damn tournament last time.

Greg did every thing we asked him to.

Win trophies.
Best Mexico.
Win the gold cup.
Get to the WC.
Get out of the group stage.

We build from there. Are there things you can be frustrated with? Sure. But he did all we asked.

No - 2018 was a complete failure and was a shock to the nation. It was comparable to Italy not making the world cup this year.

We are consistently a team that makes the World cup and loses in the round of 16. Are you forgetting when we were put in a group with Portugal, Germany, & Ghana and we advanced? Were you born in 2010 or something? I'm genuinely confused. That was something to be proud of.

This year we were put in a group with an OLD Wales, and Iran, along with England. Our group stage was one of the easiest of the tournament. Pretend we drew Ghana/Germany/Portugal instead, like we did in 2014? We probably don't advance.

So again, I'll admit I liked what I seen from our team, and I'm optimistic of what they will do in 2026, but that has nothing to do with Greg, it has everything to do with the fact that all of our young players will all be 25-28 years old with another 4 years of league play under their belts.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by TripleThreat

No - 2018 was a complete failure and was a shock to the nation. It was comparable to Italy not making the world cup this year.

We are consistently a team that makes the World cup and loses in the round of 16. Are you forgetting when we were put in a group with Portugal, Germany, & Ghana and we advanced? Were you born in 2010 or something? I'm genuinely confused. That was something to be proud of.

This year we were put in a group with an OLD Wales, and Iran, along with England. Our group stage was one of the easiest of the tournament. Pretend we drew Ghana/Germany/Portugal instead, like we did in 2014? We probably don't advance.

So again, I'll admit I liked what I seen from our team, and I'm optimistic of what they will do in 2026, but that has nothing to do with Greg, it has everything to do with the fact that all of our young players will all be 25-28 years old with another 4 years of league play under their belts.

You can’t see the team perform at or above expectations and not credit the manager at ALL.

I disagreed with his team choices and with his subs but he’s certainly taken us upward in general. And to be honest the team has basically no quality subs to work with.

We can argue about his limitations and if he could be the boss of a contender but you can’t say he didn’t basically do the job here.

[TripleThreat]

Originally Posted by Razaele

You can’t see the team perform at or above expectations and not credit the manager at ALL.

I disagreed with his team choices and with his subs but he’s certainly taken us upward in general. And to be honest the team has basically no quality subs to work with.

We can argue about his limitations and if he could be the boss of a contender but you can’t say he didn’t basically do the job here.

Musah just turned 20 a few days ago. He was 16 when we last attempted to qualify for the world cup....

If we had this team this year, and didn't qualify, and then in 2026, he qualified and made it to the round of 16 with the same squad, sure, credit all around for Greg.

Except that's not the case. This is a brand new team, the youngest team dam near in the tournament. He took a team of talent to the tournament and didn't execute on either the offensive or defensive side of the ball where/when it counted the most. The entire USMNT reddit thread will agree Greg shat his leg this tournament.

[Baby Lee]

Messi delivering!!

[POND_OF_RED]

I’m sick of the “playing with house money” mentality of US Soccer. If we want to get to the next level we absolutely have to make the move to a new coach. There should be no questions about it. The US didn’t come close to overachieving at this World Cup.

We had so many questions at striker and for him to leave Pepi at home should absolutely be seen as the mistake it was.

The entire World Cup buildup he never gave Erik Palmer Brown a chance to fit into the rotation. EPB was the captain of the 2017 u-20 cocacaf squad that won gold. He won the ****ing player of the tournament as a defensive midfielder (meaning he can pass pretty well off the back line) and then was on best XI lists for the 2017 u-20 World Cup. He’s steadily been loaned to better teams in Europe and now he’s been starting every game in Ligue 1 at CB where he just got a new contract. He’s been healthy his entire career….he has 4 ****ing caps for the senior team….what the ****? It may be more than Berhalter, but we’re not getting our best players into the lineup and that is coaching to me. Shaq Moore over Joe Scally…does Greg even pay attention to the form his players are in?

I’m thankful that Greg got us back to where we were, but it’s time to shed the complacency of the underdog role and move onto something better.

[POND_OF_RED]

Would love to see Messi win it all. He’s the humble superstar the sports world needed to balance Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic being complete world class douche bags.

[Eleazar]

I don’t think anyone has a complacent attitude about where the US is. It’s about being realistic about the talent level currently on the team. The talent level has gotten better but they are still outclassed beyond the group stage. Exiting the group stage is a realistic goal for them.