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Bonisile: Hello guys USA won, Belgium four. This game I think I think four one, first of all, is fluttering to Belgium. Let me just start there. I think the reaction though will match the score line because yes, there was some frustrating things that this young team did. And I say and I say young loosely. There are a lot of younger younger players in this team, you know, than we've seen in the US before. And and of course, I say young team, but like there's an there's a veteran was almost forty years old, who was also culpable for one of the schoolboy eras we saw in this game, and that is Tim Ream. Tim Ream was, you know, a guilty party for one of the gifts that the USA wrapped up nicely in bubble wrap and put together in a male to ship to Belgium. Okay? So of the four goals Belgium scored, two of them were blunders. But like the most blunderous things you can do in a knockout game when you're trying to advance. Right? The keeper with Ream and then and then the last goal ⁓ playing out of the back to make it, you know, in garbage time, to make it four one for Belgium. The other two, like in any goal, you can always find errors. I think the other two I'll give Belgium some credit, you know what I mean? Like the the opening goal and and the decalare header. Like those those two goals, ⁓ I'll I'll give a bit more credit to Belgium, you know what I mean? Because you can y with every goal you can always find a defensive error. So I'm not gonna be that you know, With my criticism of the US team. However, I do think the USA were caught by surprise. And I think most of us were caught by surprise by Belgium's selection. And I think before all of us, you know, I mean, so many people have already gone in on the USA team and you know, you know, Polisic is catching a lot of it at the moment. you know, a lot of the American former players, f even the women's former player Carly Lloyd, who's been on commentary in the US for Fox and and and in you know, it's been she's been a pundit, sorry, not commentary for Fox. you know, everyone is going for Polisic and everyone is talking about how the Dreadcard galvanized Belgium. All of those things are true, but I also think What we saw early on in the tournament was a USA team that that obliterated opponents with high pressing high energy and finishing, right? Causing chaos, forcing errors, or of you know, forcing opponents to do errors, and then you'll capitalize on that. What usually happens when you're playing against teams that don't have good quality in the back and you press as well as the US have been pressing because they have a good coach in Porchitino who coaches pressing really well, you are able to benefit like you did against Paraguay, like you get it like you did, you know, in the earlier games in this tournament. But Belgium, as much as they've been unconvincing in the early parts of this tournament, they can keep the ball better. You know what I mean? They they they can they're they are a little bit more
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press resistant than any team that the US had played thus far in the tournament. That's one thing. The second thing is that when you make errors, Belgium has the quality to punish you, unlike some of the other teams. And the big thing that Rudy Garcia, the Belgian coach, French guy, who coaches Belgium right now, the big thing that he did was to do something I was hoping the Portugal coach Roberto Martinez would do, which is into the youthful players in your team who can give you legs, who can give you pressing, who can match the US's physicalities. Yeah, the US is a very physical team like Canada, but the US plays with a bit more quality and when they have the ball. And it showed in Spurts during this game, by the way. But they don't have, you know, an older guard or like a ⁓ a metronome per se, a person who's gonna dictate the tempo of the game. So they're a bit one paced, the US, in a way. You know, and I'm I'm not I'm not coming at them. I'm just looking at the makeup of the team. They have good players, you know, all of whom are all around good midfielders. But none of them are like pass you to death type players. And so if you Belgium and you pick a team that can match the US for energy and for physicality, you have a very clever troussard to to manipulate and pull strings and and so you've sacrificed Dil Browner and you've you've sat down and overweight kind of aging Lukaku. And don't know why Doku was on the bench, but Doku is also on the bench on this game. And so as you you've you've basically Selected a team that's really motivated. And and yes, you play with Amadou Onana, you gain more you gain more physicality in midfield. Unfortunately for him, he has to leave the game 20 minutes in. But you can see already in that first 20 minutes that Belgium is here to play. They're gonna be in your face, they're gonna match you for physicality, and they have the quality as well. And Tillemans is the best midfielder in out of the two teams when it comes to running a game. And then Trossard is also like the most, you know, most manipulative, dictate tempo winger in the out of the two teams. ⁓ He's 31 years old. So you have like you've lost some of your experience, but you still have a lot of experience. And in gold, you have Courtois, who's 35 or 30, mid-30s now. And so, like, if you think about it, the USA ran into a Belgium team that was motivated by the red card situation. But at the same time, on a football level, Belgium would probably the most quality that the USA have faced in this in this World Cup. I thought the USA were gonna win this game, even without Follery in Balogun. I thought Balogun or not, but the USA were gonna win this game because of what I had been seeing from Belgium. And unfortunately, I think the USA team also walked into this game thinking, Yeah, we got this. I think. I think they forgot that they had played Belgium in March and the game ended five two in favor of Belgium. Now, you know, the scores in football don't tend to repeat themselves, you know, game to game, but March is not too long ago. But yeah, most of us, including including every USA fan that I listened to on T V or on podcasts or everywhere else on the streets, everybody was very confident that this team was going to handle business and take care of Belgium, send them home onto the next round. But when you make mistakes like Reem and and Freeze and and you know and and I don't remember who were some of the defenders who were involved and some of the shenanigans, but like, you know, the team was not gelling yesterday. They c they the lights were brightest and a lot of them shrank. They shrank when the lights got brightest. ⁓ I do sympathize because I do think ⁓ there's a lot of quality on the Belgium side that a lot of people didn't maybe respect leading up to this game. ⁓ didn't see Rudy Garcia doing something that I think a lot of coaches need to learn from, including Carlo Angelotti, one of the greatest to ever do it. You know, the Neymar move is what killed Brazil. I know Neymar scores the penalty, but it killed Brazil against Norway. Because when you then have to play with No Neymar and Vinnie, that means you're playing again with I with a team that keeps the ball as well as Norway. That means now you instead of being one down against the ball, you're two down when you add Neymar. You know, and and and You just have to trust your younger players in some of these situations. And and Belgium did it and it worked. And now they're in the quarterfinals. But Team USA, they were fun in this World Cup. They had a great run. I I am not going to, you know, go too hard against these boys. They did the best they could. ⁓ until a couple of individual errors. You know, indiv and individual errors and in the brightest of moments can be deflating and I could see it in once the team had to chase the game. They were deflated. You know, they scored to make it one one and conceded immediately. Two one. They were on le level terms level terms for, I don't know, maybe I don't know, I I don't even know how long they were level. It was very short. It was boom, boom, two one again. So that said, the tournament continues without of the hosts ⁓ in quarterfinal round. Congratulations to Belgium. We'll see them in the next round. Please like, hype, subscribe, guys. ⁓ Your is appreciated. Cheers.