re: United States of F#ck Yeah v. Chex Cereal | 1:15 p.m. CDT (NBCSN)

I can't find it but it was an article grading all the players on their WC in its entirety. Had something in there to the effect of "accurate passing in his short cameo against Germany"

What I remember most about his World Cup performance is that he was too slow to stay on camera. He was always jogging in from off screen.

i only watched the first half so i can't give any full match ratings, but i though green and gyau both looked bright. thought green handled the physicality very well in the first half, though he may not have in the second. admittedly, it was my first time watching gyau, but i thought he had a gervinho-ness about his game (both in the good and bad sense). he got in really dangerous positions and played a couple of decent balls and a couple of awful ones. for me, getting in those positions is the hardest part. hopefully he will develop a bit in his final ball delivery and become a useful player for us.

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Giving Gyau the same grade as Shea and Green is preventing me from giving a shite about the rest of those grades.

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Shea was terrible, but I honestly don't think Green was AS terrible as people are making him out to be. I also don't think Gyau was as good as people are making him out to be.

Green is always going to be playing under the microscope because of the way things went and his goal at the World Cup. Halfway through the first half, people were giving Green props. He started out playing physical, and I saw several people compliment his vision. Plain and simple, he just doesn't have 90 minutes in him yet at this level. Hell, I don't think he has 45 minutes in him. As the minutes wore on, he started giving the ball away more and more. He looked especially bad playing deeper centrally when Shea came on, and that's a big reason I think people are hating on him. I don't know if he'll ever be the player that thrives there. That's why Zelalem needs to get his shite in order. It doesn't help that everyone on Earth hyped him up to be the next American god. We hyped him up way too much. I think with actual Bundesliga minutes under his belt, he'll show some real progression. He's still really young and lacks real minutes. As he progresses and gets more confident, I really think he'll become something great. When he's not trying too hard, he makes good shite happen. He showed that at the World Cup. He made smart, dangerous runs. He just runs out of steam pretty quickly. I'm not sure he's ever played 90 minutes at that level of competition. When he's comfortable, he looks dangerous. His highlight reel from last season in Regionalliga shows how good he can be. Just keep him off of set pieces for a good long while and keep giving him minutes.

Gyau has an advantage in the fact that he wasn't hyped up as much and wasn't on the World Cup squad. He's exciting to watch, especially when he beats a man down the sideline, but he had a ton of terrible moments as well. To be fair, I loved what I saw from Gyau, but he wasn't miles ahead of Green. He also had the luxury of staying in his best position. In fact, there were a lot of times where Shea was getting blasted for doing things people were loving from Gyau. There were multiple times when his lack of control over his pace lost the ball because he was putting his touches way too far ahead of him. Mind you, Shea hasn't ever progressed past these things and makes plenty of other awful decisions that Gyau doesn't. I think Gyau will get better and better, again, with real minutes against top-tier competition. There's only so much you can get from experience in the developmental leagues.

Both of them could make plays, but when they try to put the final ball in, it looked terrible. Gyau had a great ball in that Jozy didn't play well, but that wasn't the norm. They try doing way too much to make the play, and in the end, they lose the ball or put in a terrible ball. It looks like they're thinking way too much. This is just something that comes from playing in the lower tiers of football. At that level, they can still make plays because they're better than most of the people they play against. The team we played is magnitudes better than anyone they've played at that level, and the fact that we pulled out the result is pretty awesome. We just subbed the house, took off most of our players with real experience, moved a ton of players around, and watched them try to handle a team playing against the Dutch next week in a meaningful match.

I think we're in awesome shape that we have two players with so much raw talent who have the potential to play at extremely high levels. For the first 30-45 minutes, we flat out dominated. Mix looked excellent in a central playmaker role. I can't say enough about how much I loved what he did. He was a big reason that we looked so good in that first half, along with the god that is Fabian Johnson. When Julian was moved more towards that position, it was glaring. Bedoya had a great match as well. The attacking and control of the flow of the game is something that was very different to what we've done in the past. If we successfully transition into a very proactive, attacking team and our talent doesn't all implode, we're in a very good position to make some major waves in the next few years. I've wanted to see us ditch being so reliant on reactionary play and start dictating the game more, and it looks like we're going to really start to move towards that. As long as I don't see Brek Shea much more, I'm very excited about the future.

I genuinely think Jurgen has a vision for this team that he really wants to see come to fruition. It says a lot that he's setting the goal to a semi-final. It was also pretty awesome to hear how he wasn't just happy with getting out of the group and that the team could have made it further. I like seeing us with the attitude that we're not just a group of "try hards" who can punch above our weight. I want to see us go out there with the attitude that we can beat anyone and dictate any game. In the first half, it looked that way. The Czechs took over against a tired, young, inexperienced team in the late stages of the game and made them look much worse than it really was.

I hate Wilbon so much. Screamed about Jurgen saying we should go for semis. Said we should expect more because we have all the resources. Slow down, dumbass. We are still building the resources.

Wilbon also told Klinsmann to "get out of America" when he said it wasn't realistic to think the USMNT would win the World Cup. It's pretty obvious he has no clue about the game.

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Wilbon also told Klinsmann to "get out of America" when he said it wasn't realistic to think the USMNT would win the World Cup.

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Wilbon said this when Klinsmann had the audacity to criticize the Lakers for paying $24 million a year for injured and aging Kobe Bryant. All Klinsmann was doing was questioning why American GMs offer salaries based on past plaudits rather than future prospects.

The sad thing is that Kobe Bryant had a far more reasoned, if not faulty, rebuttal to Klinsmann.

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Wilbon should never be allowed to discuss the sport again. He has no idea what the hell he's talking about. It's not even that difficult to understand. I wish someone would just say, "Bro, it's like March Madness on a global scale. Get over it." Not every team that makes the tournament is going to win it. Every team has different expectations. Sure every team wants to win, but it's unrealistic to say "If we don't win, this run was terrible." The hypocrisy in sports when it comes to soccer is disgusting. In college basketball, it's all about loving the Cinderella teams and dramatic runs. Talk about trying to take logical steps, and you have people yelling at you.

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Completely agree. You hit the nail on the head about the hypocrisy in other sports.

If man doesn't want to like something, he will make sure he doesn't like it.

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If man doesn't want to like something, he will make sure he doesn't like it.

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This is the most accurate description of America's dislike of the sport. Because we sucked at it for so long, a lot of people just went with "Well, it sucks!" Now that we're getting better, they either push back as if we were trying to change America into a communist country or try to get on board and demand we win. Half of the new fans have no idea what they're talking about. I have two great anecdotes to prove this.

The first guy is a complete moron, and he's one of those vocal people who shoves their opinions down everyone's throat. Four years ago, he actually wrote a long arse attack on me personally and tagged me in it on Facebook during the World Cup as a fake arse soccer fan (even though I had been watching or playing matches in some form for over 10 years at the point) and that the sport was terrible and shouldn't be on television. Luckily, some friends of mine jumped to defend me. Four years later, he was all over the bandwagon telling people the same things I defended myself with ("Even if you hate the sport, you should still support your country if they're competing") and had all of the shite going. I found out he'd been playing FIFA and understood the game a little better now. I didn't even call him out because I'm an adult and shite. I just thought it was funny how once he played a little FIFA and understood the sport, he was all in. When he hated it, everyone should hate it. When he loved it, everyone should love it.

The second is a story about how guys in America who have never played constantly complain about how players just "roll around the whole time when barely touched". I invited a bunch of dudes to go play one afternoon, and some of the newer fans were saying that shite. Stuff about Bastian Schweinsteiger being a huge bitch and that there's no way it hurt. After one major kick to the shin (without any inserts or anything), a few slides into ankles, and several feet stepped on by boots, not a single one of them felt that way anymore. It was a lot LESS physical than usual and the play was pretty shitty, but they enjoyed it overall.

I just think it's funny how now that it's getting popular, people who have never played are suddenly experts on the sport. If you can't tell me anything about formations, rules, or anything else, arguing about the game with me is just plain stupid.

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English, please.

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You're right. I know I should have gone with "sippin' that haterade", but I toned it down to go with the semi-serious vibe of the post.

Just watched (on Live Extra ipad app, so yes, the replay is up) the first half.

Really impressed with Mix. Thought he was the star of the first half. He took on a ton of defensive responsibility, had some key tackles, and passed well in each third. Plus the pressure and setting up the total.

Green looked alright. Handled most on ball challenges well, didn't care to do anything but fall on aerial duels.

Gyau is fast and direct, but doesn't offer much on the ball. Had some tidy touches to break free but has poor touch at full speed.

Solid from everyone in the back 4. Fab is a stud. Brooks had a goofy moment or two as always but was good.

Watching Jozy's hold up play annoys me because it wasn't there in the WC. What if...