Christian Pulisic, Antony Robinson, Jesus Ferreira discussed on Caught Offside
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There's anything we saw from the midfield we didn't really already know. I think we've been generally pleased with where has developed and made himself a character in the site. Christian Pulisic will get to Robinson for me was the big winner tonight definitely. Just in general, in the importance of his performance. If I was criticizing the midfield, if I was going to do that, I would say that often a lot of the good things that happened happened when desk has the ball or happened when our two fullbacks out of the ball. As good as that midfield is our full backs getting forward, creating overlords wide, creating one tools, linking the player doing all that stuff. It's really, really important to this site in the way it's set up. And the way they give with. And so when Robinson is playing as well as he is, that stands out to me. He has made himself into one of the most indispensable players on the team. I know that's potentially big statement, but the reason I say it is you could go through almost every other position on this team and say, okay, well, if this guy got hurt at that spot, there's someone behind him who maybe isn't quite to that level, but not far off. The exception potentially being pulisic, although God forbid, this is not me willing any injuries. I'm just saying injuries are a part of the sport. Even if he got hurt, you know, Brendan aronson is probably cover for him. And I think he's brenton may not be Christian Pulisic. You know, I think political's the best part of the team. But I still think we're a damn good team with Brendan aaronson in that spot. Antony Robinson is one of the only ones where I think if he's not there, there's a problem. And you can move desk over to left back, but it's not his natural position. Anthony Robinson is excellent in that role, both in defense, his speed, his recovery speed, and what we've seen in attack, huge goal tonight was the difference, huge goal against Honduras, got them back in that one, just after half time. So he's quickly risen during this qualifying period as being one of their most important players. So he was probably my big winner tonight. Man of the match and everything else that I just said. Tim weill also, down the right side, he seemed to be the guy for especially in that first half who was probably giving El Salvador most of their problems. Yeah, and I thought we could have made more of that. I think that pass was on nearly every time. And look, it's not intricate play, but it's a little clip all over into that into that channel and just let them run at it. And the couple of times that he did it, they looked dangerous. And I don't think I don't feel we exploited that enough. Look, he had the flick header that on a different night for our scores and it's an assist for way. In the second half, he had the shot that led to the goal on a different night where the goalie wasn't as sharp on that one. It's a goal. So on a different night, he's got to go and insist and we're not that far off from having that conversation. So all in all, he was in good form the last set of qualifiers. I thought, for the most part, I felt like that still continued tonight. And then one other one, now this is not me saying that this was a great night for this guy, but I do want to just give you a sneaky interesting stat on Jesus Ferreira. Okay. Not necessarily one of my winners of the night, but JJ Jesus Ferreira is the second American to create four chances in a game this qualifying round. Antony Robinson is the only other one who's done it. He did it against Jamaica. Only two guys in this qualifying period for the U.S. have created four chances in a game. And Jesus Ferreira tonight was one of them. So creating a challenge. He didn't finish the show. So he created the goal was one. His two chances, and then what was the. I don't remember the fourth. Okay. All right. I believe everything that I read. So there you have it. So I figured out what at least put that in there for the people saying, why is he playing tonight? Certain corners might look at his performance and say, if he could just finish a little better, which maybe that'll come, but it's not like he was a waste of space out there. The losers tonight, JJ. I don't see any losers. Well, I mean, if you're going to be this loser. If you're going to be this black and white, if you're going to be this cruel shall I say. Christian Pulisic was poor. Running into blind alleys holding up the ball too long. You are a big body language guy. I think I really feel strongly about body language, especially from your leader and captain. Yeah. And you believe in sports a lot and you before the game said, look at his face. There was a quick shot of him warming up. And he looked uncomfortable or upset irked. And who knows? Someone might have farted for all we know. It might have been nothing. And you know in that clear night here, that's going to be? You're going to notice that. Yeah. And his performance was it was emblematic of that kind of nondescript. Even afterwards on the bench when he came off, no one likes to be taken off, but I think he realizes you could realize if you are Christian Pulisic. Hey, I got two more games to come. I need to come off. Now, I can't stay for the whole game. And the big ones on Sunday. But even the shots of him on the bench, he was wrapped in a towel. But the headshot was framed around the towel. So he looked like almost like a child. Again, context is important. It's freezing cold. It's not crazy to think you want something covering his head. No. The warmest place was on the field running around. The minute you stop running and then you get caught. But it just like I said we hold him to a high standard and he was not he didn't stand out tonight..