11 Comments

Excellent match by our young squad last night. Really impressed by the quick goal at the start of the 2nd half—just what we needed. I also thought McKennnie had a good game.

Regarding Pepi’s height: 6’11? ¡Muy alto! Peter Crouch would be jealous.

Expand full comment

Christine, you just beat me to the 6'11" joke!

Expand full comment

Yeah!, and Pepi plays like he is 10 inches shorter

Expand full comment

It’s been corrected now, Grant was on it.

Expand full comment

Just became a paid subscriber, and I wasn't disappointed. Great story as always, Grant.

I'm curious about what clicked at halftime. In the first half, play from the US seemed really slow and didn't create many attacking chances. That completely changed in the second half. Was it just a difference of getting more vertical and putting good crosses into the box?

Also, what did you think about Weah and Zardes in their 20-plus minutes? They seemed to create pretty well.

Expand full comment

Thanks! I do think players like Musah and Dest started being more daring in their forward runs on the ball right out of halftime. And moving into space gave them a better chance to be more dangerous with crosses and shots.

Expand full comment

Thoughts on the back line? I thought Zimmerman looked really good, and really helped cover for Dest and Antonee Robinson when they got forward. He also looked good eating up space and pressing forward.

Expand full comment

Zimmerman was terrific. Impressive game from him. Thought Miles had a lot of misplaced passes, especially in the first half.

Expand full comment

The biggest *positive* surprises for me were Zimmerman and Arriola. There are comments on Zimmerman below, but I thought Arriola's work rate was fantastic - he disrupted, created chances, and generally looked dangerous going forward.

Expand full comment

Great game report.

Where do you think Aaronson goes after Salzburg?

Expand full comment

Thanks! If I was a betting man, I'd say Leipzig.

Expand full comment