USA's only option was to win (no dependency on ENGvWAL) and although they didn't get an early goal they did get a late first half goal thanks to future star finally showing up and putting his body and soul into the play giving USA a 1-0 lead in the 38'. But Christian Pulisic suffered a bad injury (either he getting kneed in the stomach/groin area by GK while he braced himself on the GK's groin) and left the match at halftime.
All of USA's effort was marred by poor touches and bad decisions, especially in the last 15 +9 (actually ten) minutes, and while you can blame fatigue considering how hard USA played, a good number of these misfires were coming from subs Shaq Moore and Haji Wright. Luckily, like E2-Costa Rica did against E4-Japan, they constantly challenged IRN players just inside midfield (not letting them get too deep in USA's end) forcing IRN to play backwards at times. But going into a defensive shell does mean lots of IRN possession and when IRN did break through, strong shots not on frame hurt them (USA GK Matt Turner was only credited with one save (FIFA updated: 2) though several shots got past him).
There were two instances in the +9 stoppage time where IRN wanted a handball and a foul, but luckily both plays weren't 50/50 calls so no call was the obvious correct call. Add to that this ref let a lot of physical play happen (there were 4 yellow cards ( with 1 to a IRN bench player and 1 to IRN for shirt pulling not a tackle) but could have easily been 8 or more), no way he would call those fouls. Boy the stress though!
ECU became one of the few teams to win their first match (16%) and miss the R16 (in current 32-team format) while SEN became one of the few teams (11%) to qualify when losing their first match. Since USA returned to the WC in 1990, this was just the second time they advanced to the R16 while winning (lost in '94, '02, and '14 but still made the R16) in the same fashion as 2010 (Tie-Tie-Win). NED's Cody Gakpo has scored in each of the 3 matches as NED is unbeaten in their last 18 (13-0-5).
Had to work but got to see the Pulisic goal in-between meetings and the most of the second half wearing my authentic 2010 USA Home jersey, the same one USA wore when they beat Algeria to advance in 2010. I think I do have the 2002 USA Home jersey that they wore when they beat Mexico in the R16 in 2002. LOL, if USA somehow beats NED, I do not have a 1930 jersey when they made the semifinals. Need advice which jersey to wear if we get there. Beat NED first.
In the pool, points are now coming in bunches, up to 16 a day for the next four days. 27 entries got the max of 16 points while Kona Coast Uno (89th-Tied, 25 pts) only got 7. In Group A, 108 picked NED and 46 picked SEN to win while 108 got NED and 68 got SEN in their Round of 16 bracket. In Group B, 92 picked ENG and 81 picked USA to win while all 109 and 82 had USA in their R16. 37 got all 4 matches correct while 50 got all 4 R16 teams correct. 4 got just one match correct and 10 got just 2 of 4 R16 teams. Cicero, DDubs, Kankleiscious, and Walloon are tied for first with 35 points while World Cup in December is last with 21 points.
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