Who stood out, who struggled for USMNT in Qatar | Pro Soccer Talk: 2022 World Cup | NBC Sports

terms of the very young American players, let's rate them at the World Cup. You went to a pro

soccer

talk

on nbc

sports

.com and gave your rankings and ratings out of 10 for these players and their performances in Qatar at the tournament. Who were the stars for you, uh, that

stood

out and would you

talk

about maybe players that you want to see a little more. I know there are a couple in particular that people in the comments will get upset about, but also players who could have done a little more, but on the positive side of things to begin with, who

stood

out for the USA. , yeah, I mean, you gotta even with his mistake on the first goal, a pretty big mistake, uh, Tyler Adams was phenomenal and it's not just the Leeds fans that are going to be backing us here or the people in the Red organization Bull uh thought it was exceptional.

I didn't hear a single one and you know you go from coverage to coverage, you see different Twitter feeds from different nations and most coverage of any US game mentions it. at least, and he was sweeping the stats here for me, playing all 360 minutes, 11 tackles, four interceptions and 90 passes, whether the US had possession or were harassed, so I love Tyler Adams, there other players that could be Spotlight, but I actually want to pick that guy, another guy with recency bias that could hurt your ratings because he missed that opportunity today, and that's Christian Pulisic. I thought he really etched his name as someone we've obviously had flashes with. in the frying pan, I guess that's what you could say, no one can be as flashy as him, but you're not going to leave this tournament or any tournament in the future hearing his name mentioned as one of the greats in the history of the program, uh, and not agree with that.

He showed the toughness of him, he was eliminated 11 times, only two players have been eliminated more in this tournament and I honestly thought he was close to Sensational. I agree with that 100 and I'll tell you about another play that really stood out to me, Tim Murray. uh it was sensational uh you gave it an eight out of 10 in your ratings and I agree with that and maybe even give it more because I think the reason the United States made it to the last 16 was because of its strength. They were on the back foot in group play, only giving up one goal and that was a penalty kick in the first game for a late mistake by Zimmerman and Rheem barely made a mistake.

In the last 16 they gave him some deep passes, which wasn't like him, but you know, even when he got caught in one-on-one situations in that game, the Easter tour and Shepard and now and I, I'm really happy for him. and you know it might not, that might be his only walk-in appearance, uh. but he certainly made himself proud and gave us the opportunity to advance far. They advanced to the round of 16 and that was because the defense was very solid and a shout out to Anthony Robinson. At left-back, his Fulham team-mate, right next to him, thought he had a sensational tournament and of course, right at the end, Dunfries got loose at the back post and buried him.

I don't even blame Robinson for trying to cover with a dangerous man at the penalty spot, it was a perfect ball. to the back post grand final it happens uh sure but I thought those two were excellent you talk about Tyler Adams and Christy and you get sick and I would even say Tim Wire also had his moments throughout the tournament and I thought he did too It was very good, but yeah, there are some really good ratings in there, Nick. I really enjoyed reading that article, probably on the site. I really liked how everything went.

You made me guess the way everything was formatted and you did it right. who

struggled

a bit, so should we go to the next section? kind of who had problems and someone we wanted to see more of, and more in Qatar, maybe that's probably the best question to start with, yeah, listen, look at Giovanni Reina. and I realized that the metrics break down to say that he is a very similar style player to Brendan Aronson. I think the metrics say that and I love Aaronson. I really love him, but I think the metrics say that because Rain is still 19 years old.

Smart, I felt jealous watching the Argentina game afterwards, as there was a play with Messi. I mean, obviously it's a mess, but with McAllister and finally, uh, Julián Álvarez, he was cutting into traffic and something that I don't think we really saw at all. except a little bit against Iran and a little break and a guy turns the other way and there's an intermediary so it's not just a one-two and that second pass then he finds it and I thought we were missing that, I thought Reyna provides that. and I was screaming for him and that's why I finally know we're going to talk about this later why I'm afraid I'm not afraid of Burhalter leading the team.

I fear that he will lead the team in another big tournament because I think he is the last one. adapt to the obvious because he is him, he hasn't erased that stubborn streak from him, but it's going to work, yes, but oh my God, we've got 45 minutes put into Queen like that to me it was so damning because it's either going to work. and we're going to think, well, you could have won the group then or it wasn't going to work and it was like you didn't know what you were doing and you got scared, so yeah, I would like to have seen more of Brendan Aronson.

Also, um, I just think it was a way to shoehorn him into this team on a regular basis, like we've been talking about the false nine situation. Could you play ballistically more centrally or weight and just put it in? I think he's been having such a great season for Leeds United, he should have played a lot more than he did in this

world

cup and I also think you know when we talk about players who

struggled

, you mentioned it before Western McKinney was right, it had its right moments. but he just this Fitness hasn't been there with Juventus.

You did well to get to the World Cup in as decent shape as he was. And he had some great performances against England. He was very good, but he had a great Miss. Against Iran he also made a very good change, but you know how great a player he is, you talk about him a lot and rightly so, and that seemed like it was something really key for us that he wasn't shooting at everyone. cylinders, he is a player whose role will dictate how you judge him and the role of him. I think what they asked him to do and again I would love it, as much as he was critical of Berhalter.

I think he knows the game and I would love to know his opinion on it. I think they told Weston to come out and mix things up and I think when you give that role to a midfielder then it has to be someone who gets into the box and scores for you and he didn't and that can be tough because he got two three very good touchdown passes. I think he had, I'm sorry, opportunities to score. I think he had five key passes. These aren't bad numbers, but when you have that kind of freedom. Think about players who have that kind of freedom and maybe a bit more attack, but those players Kevin De Bruyne against that at Manchester City, right, David Silva had that opportunity at Man City.

Bernardo Silva sometimes has that opportunity in Portugal and if you are going to be allowed to be self-employed, then you have to justify the fact that you are not earning the minimum wage. Yeah, no, definitely, um, let's move on to talk about who surprised us the most, good and bad, with his performance. To begin with, this may be harsh but a little bad. Matt Turner wasn't terrible, but he didn't really take advantage of his opportunity as the USA's starting goalkeeper. I don't think, I don't think there's one under, if Zack Stefan wants to come and play a couple of friendly games after this tournament, he still wouldn't be 100 sure who should be the starter, is it so hard for me or am I just looking at things like, oh, he's a little shaky when he comes out with his feet and we'll pass him behind because as a shot stopper he's very good, but I felt that there were some shaky moments throughout this

world

cup for him.

I think he's actually getting better in possession, but I mean this is where you're coming from and you're rightly evaluating him as a goalkeeper against all the other starters in the tournament. My expectation for him was that he would be an excellent shot stopper, which he really was after the first game and continue to improve in possession, so to me we were looking at Matt Turner who was better than in the past, but he still has a ways to go. to go, um and so on. I don't think you're wrong to say that, but if you understand what I'm there, I thought you know what that is, that's what I expected from a player who does it again, there are those, these great men in Blazer shared it.

That's cool, did you see the video of him talking about where you're going to be after college? He's probably an investment banker. His career has grown so much, he learns quickly and my hope is that Arsenal love the moving ball. The goalkeeper will definitely do better and how do you write the bright side of things? I think he took advantage of his opportunity at school to go against Holland. I think whenever he came in he didn't do anything wrong and against England and the United States. It is possibly the best exhibition of the entire tournament. It gave them a focal point and I think it was a really positive World Cup for him, showing that he can be that man at the top if he delivers and if you know he holds the ball.

So he likes to pull a sick wire, hopefully Rainer and Aaronson can escape from him. And I think it was a big step forward. No disrespect to Josh Sergeant or Jesús Torreira, they've played different roles at different times, but me. I would love to see Haggy Wright get a chance moving on, so I was surprised because we haven't seen many of them in the USA jersey, obviously scoring goals for fun in the Turkish Super League, but that was a good conclusion for For me, I think it's very positive that there are others that you want to go over quickly and you have players to give a special mention to Eunice Moosa.

I guess he was really good, yeah, thanks for mentioning a lot of players are going to be that good. I mentioned earlier on the show that recency bias will make you think about the mistake they made against Holland, but I mean, either Yunus Musa, you just mentioned the right turn 20 four days ago, four days ago, this midfielder starter could come back intact and be in his prime or even just outside his prime and going up in Musa's case, yes I thought the way he carried the ball forward was excellent, just a little more dedication from him, McKenney and the others. about knowing where they're supposed to be when they're in transition and Clint Dempsey made it clear that this team, four and a half years before the next World Cup, may not need to qualify for that they probably won't, but they haven't . decided that even to qualify for the local World Cup they had to participate in the Copa América or they had to put together their own tournament and it's not that he believes in the cup, but you know what I mean, like the US women.

USA put together the cup that she believes to make. the best teams play each other, we can't keep doing it against the Kaka capsule because there were still a lot of bad habits in this team because they could get away with it against Granada, yes definitely, I think the last thought for me on this is Obviously, a lot of these American players have now put themselves in the showcase for a potential big move in January. I think with his performances, you know, maybe not in January, but in this kind of year ahead, I'm thinking about Tyler.

Adams I'm thinking about Anthony Robinson, I'm thinking about Eunice Musa, I even said you know Des to have a chance somewhere else if he doesn't play for AC Milan so yeah I think it was a really positive World Cup for so many players, so yeah. Head over to Pro Soccer Talk on nbc

sports

.com and check out Nick's four player ratings from Team USA and how they fared in Qatar because there were a lot of positives and some negatives, but overall a very good performance and a good set. of progress for this young American team