Dean Smith

I'm old. It's much less physical today then it was in the "old days."

True but it makes absolutely no sense.

I know various groups are working the concession stands as a fund raiser. Not sure how that works.

It doesn’t sound like It was a miscommunication. The phrase that seems to have been used is “role will be limited.” It appears to be blame on both sides but Greg why would you do that?

I find it hard to believe that GB expects to be back the way he threw Gio under the bus. There seems to be blame to go both ways but you can’t coach a team that doesn’t trust you and no one’s trusting him at this point. He has to go. And why would you tell one of your very top players your role will be limited?

Japan all time worst shootout, making only one of 4 pens. Spain - hold my cerveza.

Flo Balogun - 21 years old Has played for both US and England youth teams. Also eligible to represent Nigeria. Currently playing for Reims in league 1. 8 goals in 15 appearances this season. On loan from Arsenal. Good finisher, good techinical ability, can take people on off the dribble and has a very high work.

He is young in his defense, but I think the frustrating part of his game is his decision making. He seems to make up his mind on what he is going to do before he catches the ball and it leads to ugly plays. He plays hard, that's a fact. Like all of us he will learn with time and hopefully stop with the fouls and the out of control dribbling. When he knows he is going to attack the basket when he catches it, whether its there or not, his ball handling makes Lat look like Curly Neal.

If you watched the games before Walker came back like I did, I'm afraid to say they did NOT learn how to play without him. Really hope they don't have to for the rest of the year because they are becoming kind of fun watching them with him.

That was Van Gaal’s strategy. That’s what I said. I just don’t think we got carved up. For all three goals you can point to a very simple defensive mistake. We didn’t take our best chances. If we were clinical we had at least three goals as well. Van Gaal is miles better than Gregg. (Not being disrespectful - can’t spell his last name) Blind is 30 something. Couldn’t run with Dest or Weah but we spend 90% of out time trying to go down the other side?

It broke. They did nothing special. Last goal had 5 defenders guarding 3 and our FB was ball watching, had no idea what was behind him. That’s a U12 mistake. Pulisic and especially Wight missed sitters. Out managed. They knew we would struggle in possession to break them down so they allowed us to have the ball and hit on the counter. While our manager finally put Aaronson and Reyna on the field together but knows so little about his own team that he had them each playing the other’s position compared to what they do for their clubs? Need a 9 badly. Google Flo Balogun. He’s the obvious answer. Throw the kitchen sink at him to convince him to play for the US and remind him Harry Kane ain’t going anywhere.

If you can play Reyna 7 minutes then he’s fit enough to play half an hour. And he says he’s 100%. Really strange situation going on there. Lots of contradictions. He has to get real time vs Iran. England quickly picked up on Zimmerman’s lack of technical ability. They laid off Ream but started pressing Zimmerman second half. You have to have the players with the technical ability if you want to play out from the back. Ream’s fine but the other US center with ball skills got left at home. Adams did a nice job of checking to the ball to help him out but he still gave away too many dangerous balls in our third. Adams was a baller but Turner for me was man of the match. After just part of a season with Arsenal and he’s dribbling out of his box. His distribution has improved drastically. This performance just makes bottling the Wales game even more painful. It’s must be the Husker fan in me that makes me fear for the worst against Iran. The Wales game proved being the better team is no guarantee of the result. And the tie means we go home. I fear for the worst and hope for the best.

I think they are quite a bit ahead on goal differential. That’s the first tie-breaker

I take it you’ve never seen Southgate manage before then. He doesn’t have a different strategy. And like Greg, he doesn’t believe on playing all his best players at one time either. English players outclass their manger but so do ours.

I’m not using hindsight. When the team was announced I felt Jordan Morris should be back home and if Gio is at 80% he starts. Whatever Morris’ strengths are, he’s simply not good enough to be on the national team. Sargent on the bench and Pulisic as a false 9 and Gio out wide. Brooks is our best ball playing CB. I don’t know what he did to Greg to get on his bad side but he should start with Ream and he’s not even on the team.

Jordan on and Reyna 0 minutes is criminal. Reyna at 80% is miles clear of Morris. Back line should be Ream and Brooks.

This isn’t club where you go get players to fit your system. National teams need to find a system where you can get you best players on the field. That includes Musa. You have to find a way to get him on the field with Weston. Aaronson, Reyna, Pulisic, Adams, and probably Weah. Won’t happen though. Our manager is almost as stubborn as Southgate. I don’t think either has ever put their nations best team on the field. We’ve had injuries in the front half but Brooks sitting at home and Long on the roster is almost criminal. He wants to play out of the back and then loads the roster with center backs that have no technical ability. Jordan shouldn’t be anywhere near this team either. Anyone of the young 9’s would be a serious up grade and a needed plan B.

Say what you want to about last year's team, they had the ability to beat anyone on a given night. This team just is not good offensively and they don't have the ability to score consistently against power 5 teams. You can stop watching if they fall behind by 10 because with their limited ability on the offensive end it's like a 20 point lead for a normal power 5 team. They play hard I'll give them that but they are not fun to watch.

2 fouls in 30 seconds or so

That’s the problem with a lot of refs. If something looks awkward and/or unnatural they blow the whistle and then make up the call. Looking awkward isn’t against the rules.

The way the rule always read was a step in a half. That's how layups have been shot since the beginning of layups. Right side would be right-left and release before the right foot comes down again. The only difference is the Euro doesn't go in a straight line. And technically, the step count doesn't start until you' ve gathered the ball but that would make a refs head explode.

Why? You get a step and a half on the way to the hoop - the Euro just doesn't go in a straight line. You are correct though that refs see something new and immediately blow the whistle because something had to be wrong there.

Yes and KC is one of the cities.

England is in our group and you only have three group games so 1-4 is not possible?