Post-match: USA vs. Brazil - June 12, 2024

Paredes doesn't play midfield. It's something we have to work on because I actually think he could play well there in terms of finding attackers (not so much dribbling but it would improve, anyway).

I'm surprised by a lot of the comparisons in this thread of players with different skills. We need a variety of skills. Paredes is in competition with A Rob for now. He's not ready for attacking wing with the senior team. That is why he is going to Oly.

Personally, I think Weah, Aaronson and Paredes all start in 2026, along with Gio, Adams, Johnny and Pulisic. I have doubts about the remaining 4 spots.

 

Both Aaronson brothers and Parades need to build up body strength. Like what Alphonso did in Bayern.

 

My brother in Christ, Alphonso Davies has a vastly different body than the names you just mentioned.

 

Paredes hasn’t played in the back with the Nats, I don’t follow this line of reasoning. He’s played on the left and right wing and for some reason central with the youth team.
Once again, it’s as though your watching the team in a parallel universe.

 

19 minutes extended highlights version from uboob.

For all the talk of the play on the goal, go to 4:26 (15' on the game clock) for the play where musah gets dispossessed to launch a break on goal for brazil. Lucky for us, Brzil's shooter had a mate wide open unmarked near goal on his left and took the selfish shot instead. But where is Scally on that one? People criticized him on the goal but if you look you'll see that the 2-3 build that Berhalter wants has him totally out of the picture. Brzl has a 4 on 3 attack. Continue watching as Turner saves and throws ball to Musah on our left who goes to Ream who switches to Scally who is now pretty even with the back line and wide open (more like a 3-2 build) and a very nice possession ensues but Weah gets dispossessed trying to dribble to the top of the box, Brazil counters and Turner saves. On the next build, Scally, again, too high to find and McKennie won't move to give Arob a passing option (get yourself a real 8 Gregg, ffs, man) so the ball ends up back at Turner's feet, McKennie fails to tactically foul the interception and goal Brazil. So, minutes 15:00-17:00 game clock, a tutorial for every top 8 team in the world to beat Berhalter ball.

 

We're trying to develop his skills. He is ambidextrous, is a smart passer who works tight triangles well but is used to having more time in the lb position with the touch line helping him out. We need to quicken that mind and get it used to looking both ways in traffic so we can use it for profit.

 

We made Ronaldinho say this

1801989429919207837 is not a valid tweet id

 

Agree...Aaronson is too small and gets muscled off the ball too easily. He's decent in space, but in any kind of traffic, you know he's going to lose the ball and be unable to get it back.

Any type of "duel" for control of the ball he's going to lose.....

 

Paredes has had 22 starts at LB/LWB in his career. He has 15 starts in left-sided attacking positions. He has 4 starts in right-sided attacking positions.

I don't see the difficulty in wrapping one's head around the idea that he could fill the void in depth at left-back for the National Team.

 

just to continue with the hilite vid above - look at the pass McKennie makes at 19:36 on the game clock. If Berhalter is wondering why he didn't get any job offers in Europe, he should look at that pass. Anyway, continue watching as Scally's subsequent cross gets cleared out and watch as Musah misses his tackle and stands there watching from the rear as Brazil counters

Look at the work done by Balo, Johnny, Richards at 73:34 of game clock. Johnny's technique is just high level stuff. Unfortunately Richard's nice pass goes to McKennie who shows why Allegri wouldn't use him in crowded spaces altho in this case the space is hardly crowded and he is dispossessed anyway. Rodrygo ends up with the ball just feet from the post near goal and Richards and Turner show how you use teamwork to stop a goal and Rodrygo shows Brenden how he should have shot when Brenden was equally near goal with little time to execute a shot. I've never seen Brenden shoot without pulling his leg wayyyyyyyyy back, giving everybody time to block his shot. In poker it's called a "tell".Brenden needs to look at Weah's WC goal, also goals by Chiesa at Juve and the way he looks like he is always going to shoot with the way he moves on the dribble which means you never know when the shot is coming. I get the feeling Brenden will have a lot of opportunities to poke a goal in from short distance. Another one to look at is Gundo's goal v. USA in Germany friendly. You don't always have to flex the hip, flexing the knee can be enough at close distance

b.t.w., for those moaning about Ream and speed, look at 84:30 on game clock as Ream and Richards each cover fresh strikers on the break - look how fast Ream's feet are moving. He's as fast as Richards and that positioning......and that's in heat and humidity after playing 84' vs Brazil. Pretty amazing.

 

He could. But having watched most of his matches with Wolfsburg I don't think left-back is the best use of his skills. I think ultimately with the USMNT he will push Weah for the right forward spot.

 

Wolfsburg have tried Parades in inverted attacking positions. It hasn't worked, thus far. It could in the future. We'll see.

 

Don’t be silly, it’s not difficult, but it hasn’t happened yet kid. He hasn’t played there with US kid.

 

They were headed towards relegation and really needed Paredes doing his chance creating stuff at lb as a sub late in games. They changed their manager and got clear of relegation and we saw some build right, play Paredes more centrally off the ball more from his lwb position. It had the mixed results expected from a young player doing new stuff for the first time. Looks good for next year at Wolfsburg for Paredes. His story is yet to be written.

 

Apropos of nothing, methinks people have taken far too much out of drawing perhaps the worst Brazilian squad (from a talent perspective) in my lifetime of over 50 years.

 

Ok, big guy.

 

Last year, when Germany had been in a deep funk, they still crushed us. Hell, Germans view the period of the 2002 World Cup as a low point in the program, yet we celebrate having played them 'evenly' in the Quarters. Small victories.

 

In the second half. It was 1-1 and close at halftime

 

Within the last year the deeply funked Germans beat France twice and the Dutch once.

 

Before their recent win over France, Germany had gone 5-8-8 and fallen to 13th on the elo. That's a deep funk for a Manshaft to be in.

 

FTR: I'm not sure there were more or fewer opponent fans against Brazil than against Colombia. I just think against Colombia, there was a lot less to cheer for.

 

Though most those games are pre Nagglesman who is probably the best coach in the tournament.

I also I thought it was notable that the 21st century analysis rated them as with the best roster in the tournament. And that some of the recent top 100 player lists had more players for Germany than any other country (this is obviously much more subjective of course).

The emergence of Wirtz and return of Kroos are also big deals. As is Havertz really settling into the 9 role for both club and country.

 

Coaching matters. Great to read that.

 

Obviously just a friendly but this is a Brazil squad who started Vinicius Jr (who is one of the top candidates for the Ballon D’Or this year), Rodrygo (who starts regularly for Real Madrid), Raphina (who starts regularly for Barcelona), Lucas Paqueta (who Man City was on the verge of purchasing before the gambling scandal), Guimaraes (who led Newcastle to the top 4 the season before and who Arsenal and Man City are circling), Alisson (who many consider the best goalie in the world), and Marquinhos (who is the starting center back and captain for PSG). Off the bench they brought on players like Endrick (the next massive Brazilian star) and Martinelli (who often starts for Arsenal). Just a friendly but this is not a team that’s lacking in talent versus almost any other country in the world.