THE GOLDEN GENERATION DID THEIR JOB - THE USA IS OFFICIALLY GOING BACK TO THE WORLD CUP
You think I give a shit about the result of this match? Absolutely not. It meant nothing as long as we didn't give up 6 goals. It was that simple. Qualifying was a 14-game season and we did enough in the first 13 to kind of do whatever this match. That's all that matters.
I said it in the blog earlier. Shout out this group of guys, all young and most going through their first round of World Cup qualifying. Because everyone associated with the program fucked it up last time around, it fell on them to figure it out. It fell on them to live up to the hype and relatively easily qualify for the World Cup. I say that because if you get to the last match and only have to lose by 5 to still qualify you did your job.
That's all that matters. Finishing 1st didn't matter. Just top-3. There's no advantage to finishing first in qualifying. We all go into the draw which is this Friday at noon Eastern. We'll see who is in our group. We'll start to plan our World Cup parties, which is really the best part of the World Cup. It's an underrated party. It's an underrated bar day by far. I'll go to bat on that.
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As for the US? Well, it's time to figure out who is the No. 1 goalie. Personally I think it should be Matt Turner, but you need to sit down and come up with a determination and let these guys know. Then it comes down to figuring out who to play up top. I still want to see some false 9 option and get our best players on the field together - specifically Reyna and Pulisic. If not that, then go ahead and likely play Pepi up top. Either way, gotta figure that out. Our back feels locked in with Dest, Zimmerman, Robinson and Robinson. Love that four. Adams is also a lock for the starting 11 if healthy and then you have McKennie, Musah, Weah, etc. My point is we're in a good spot.
Step 1 was complete. We're going to Qatar. Remember the World Cup (because FIFA is corrupt and stupid) will be in November and December. Good news is kickoffs will be 6am, 9am, noon and 3pm Eastern. That time works. We're back where we belong though. We're back in the World Cup. Now it's time to get out of the group ... again. We've gotten out of group stage in 4 of the last 6 World Cups we've been in.