if my math is correct, only 5 US players who played in WC vs Germany

yeah man

That's why I roll my eyes whenever I see someone comment that our opponents aren't at full strength. Guzan and Fabs are our only starters from these friendlies that get considerable time in a big European league. Our 12th man is an amateur. An amateur.

Cameron, Jones, Dempsey, Besler, Altidore are as important/more important to our squad as Reus, Neur, Robben, Muller, etc.

We are without our top 2 forwards and replace them with a Stanford Sophomore and Bobby Wood. Germany replaces Muller and Reus with Hermann and Gundogan, two of the more consistent players in the Bundesliga.

This whole myth that the USA is beating everyone's B and C squads is horse shite when we ourselves are playing with a B squad at the very best. It appears that our younger players are playing like they "don't know any better"

They aren't intimidated by the Germans or the Dutch because they haven't been beaten by them for ten years. They're just out there busting their arse on the pitch and getting results because of it. Don't look now, but our younger players are showing some semblance of both talent and savvy.

You can see it in our opponents body language the last two weeks. The scweinsteiger gif is funny, but you can tell the thought running through his head was something in the neighborhood of "did america learn how to play football?"

The look on Martins-Indi face when Morris bodied him up and turned and left him behind was one of "who the frick is this guy and what just happened"

grrrr
i am forever getting evans and davis mixed up
thx

so only 4 played in both games

the wc starters
Howard; Johnson, Gonzalez, Besler, Beasley; Beckerman, Jones; Zusi, Bradley, Davis; Dempsey

Bedoya and Yedlin came on as subs

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The scweinsteiger gif is funny, but you can tell the thought running through his head was something in the neighborhood of "did america learn how to play football?"

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lolno
You're reaching a bit here.
I would guess 1,000 other things that might have been in his head before that one.

Watching it live, I thought it was a "How did you miss that?" expression.

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That's why I roll my eyes whenever I see someone comment that our opponents aren't at full strength. Guzan and Fabs are our only starters from these friendlies that get considerable time in a big European league. Our 12th man is an amateur. An amateur.

Cameron, Jones, Dempsey, Besler, Altidore are as important/more important to our squad as Reus, Neur, Robben, Muller, etc.

We are without our top 2 forwards and replace them with a Stanford Sophomore and Bobby Wood. Germany replaces Muller and Reus with Hermann and Gundogan, two of the more consistent players in the Bundesliga.

This whole myth that the USA is beating everyone's B and C squads is horse shite when we ourselves are playing with a B squad at the very best. It appears that our younger players are playing like they "don't know any better"

They aren't intimidated by the Germans or the Dutch because they haven't been beaten by them for ten years. They're just out there busting their arse on the pitch and getting results because of it. Don't look now, but our younger players are showing some semblance of both talent and savvy.

You can see it in our opponents body language the last two weeks. The scweinsteiger gif is funny, but you can tell the thought running through his head was something in the neighborhood of "did america learn how to play football?"

The look on Martins-Indi face when Morris bodied him up and turned and left him behind was one of "who the frick is this guy and what just happened"

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Well said.

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It was the quintessential "not bad" facial expression that accompanies shock

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Yep. It was a really nice move to set up the shot

It is an interesting scenario....

Germany's top players > USA top players

But, Germany has such quality depth, the people who step in to replace Germany's top players are still better than pretty much anything the USA can field (including our top players)


.....yet, the USA still beat Germany with players with less quality than Germany's 2nd string.

May we also be honest in saying that Germany can field an entire second 11 and the team could compete as a top 10 team in the world. Germany's depth is absolutely ridiculous....and we still beat them.

It is a head scratcher...you would expect the drop off to be even more noticeable for the USA but our guys busted their asses and put together enough to win.

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The real joy from these wins doesn't come from beating the powerhouses that we did, it comes the fact that we did so with such unknown and young talent.

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This is the key for me. Jordan Morris, a kid out of Stanford, hits a screamer with the outside of his foot after just coming on the pitch in a 1-1 tie with the #1 country in world football like it is NBD...only to be followed by Mr. Wood showing world class quality on two touches and bombs the winner from 20 out.

Wait, who is ahead of Ozil on the depth chart? The only change I would make from their WC final lineup is Reus for Kramer (since Reus was injured) and Gotze for Klose (Muller up top).

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Wait, who is ahead of Ozil on the depth chart? The only change I would make from their WC final lineup is Reus for Kramer (since Reus was injured) and Gotze for Klose (Muller up top).

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That's what I tried to do, as well. Wasn't sure where to play Reus. Decided to replace Ozil with Reus and leave the midfield relavtively intact. I feel like Ozil is slightly out of position in the formation Die Mannschaft uses.

ETA: Point still stands. Germany could field a fantastic team even if their starting 11 ceased to exist.