Just beat Iran and you are through.
Well yes, obviously. Not sure of your point.
Not mathematically, but probably. Wales might upset England, you never know…
So beat England and beat Iran
That would guarantee it!
Senegal’s keeper Mendy in much better form today than in the Holland game. Qatar showing that they can play football, too, though they’ll lose the game.
ETA: well, very fine goal for Qatar.
I totally missed the Wales v Iran game this morning (I didn’t realize it was so early) and unfortunately, I was informed right in the middle of the Qatar v Senegal of the result, so now I’m watching the match, but only when they’re in the Welsh half of the pitch.
I can’t wait for the England v USA match later on. I’m going to head out on the town and hit this huge sports bar to watch it. That should be fun; especially if we win.
Can the US go all out for a win today? Maybe I’m reading it wrong, but I see very little benefit from a draw. The only thing I can think of is to keep England motivated to play hard against Wales in the 3rd match.
Yeah, I was trying to run permutations while watching this, and I think 1-0 Iran might actually have been the optimal outcome for us (USA), as opposed to 0-0. Basically, assuming we don’t get a point against England, we want to be as close as possible to controlling our own destiny on match day 3. Meaning, we have to assume we’re going to beat Iran. So who cares if they have 1 vs 3 points, we will (in this hypothetical) have 4. But Wales having 1 vs 2 points is huge, as now if we lose to England and beat Iran, Wales not only need to beat England to move ahead of us, they also have to edge us in goal difference. This closes out some other possibilities, like advance-with-two-further-draws or something, but those were never very likely to begin with.
As for the (Wales vs Iran) match, I don’t often cheer for Iran, except when that sentence continues with “…ian women to win further rights”. But I gotta say they played their hearts out and absolutely deserved this win. Hopefully the fact that they have been doing things like refusing to sing the national anthem means this doesn’t come off somehow as a win for Iran-the-theocratic-douchebag-state as opposed to young-dynamic-people-of-Iran.
Hmm, I was thinking with Iran-Wales 0-0, assuming England beats Wales, that would leave the US open to a draw w Iran since they look good on goal differential, the first tiebreaker (assuming the US doesn’t lose to England by what, 4?).
But I may be vastly underthinking it.
They are the reigning Asian Champions, a tournament where they beat South Korea and Japan on the way to the title.
That was awful- our boys aren’t going to get past the first real contenders.
But the last two matches of each group will be played simultaneously, will they not*? Assuming that England beats Wales and that the draw with Iran will not be upended by a late lucky punch may be stretching faith beyond reasonable tactics and strategy. Particularly since the USA shoud beat Iran on any normal day.
* I mean, we all agree that we want to avoid a repeat of the Schande von Gijón / the disgrace of Gijon in 1982, right? And even FIFA understands that.
I know, but in their first match against Ecuador, they played like a third tier league team.
US - England is one of the few games I have the opportunity to watch live
I’m watching now and England has not yet scored, but is dominantly controlling the ball down on the US end.
The commentator just called Pulasic an irritating rash,
And McKinnie misses.
Some good movement transition play by the US. They have fire power, and this US team can move the ball down the field quicker than any other American squad I’ve seen in my life. They operate at a different speed. My concern is their center backs and goalie. And also their fitness at the end, as they are working much harder than England so far (at 26 minutes in)
USA looking stronger the past 10 or so minutes.
Has the entirety of Al Udied Air Base decamped to the match? The US seem to have greater support.