USA stalemates England
November 25, 2022
When Iran scored two injury time goals to beat Wales earlier today, it rendered the US game versus England mostly moot. We say "mostly" because a US win would give them a leg up in the final game against the Iranians; in that case, a tie would be enough to see them through. A tie or loss against England, however, would result in exactly the same outcome: the US would need to beat Iran to advance.
So, what do you do if you're Gregg Berhalter? Do you heavily rotate against England to keep the team fresh for what is likely to be a must-win finale? Nope! Berhalter kept ten out of eleven starters the same (including captain Tyler Adams, of course) and even took too long to make substitutions (alas, still no Aaron Long).
And yet, it mostly worked... well, sort of. A scoreless hard-fought tie against one of the tournament's favorites can actually be seen as a very good result. Other than the opening minutes of the match, the US was even with England in every area of the field. Alas, that finishing touch was not there, so the US enters the group stage finale with just one goal to its name.
And they will need to score at least that many to advance. But hey, if someone told us that the US will enter the Iran game knowing that a win will see them through, we would take it, right?
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