Euro 2020, round of 16, day 1: There be Dragons

Tangled Up In Red

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Throw me a bone here .. has Italy played poorly or has Austria played far better than anticipated?
I'd say more the latter than the former, but Italy struggled with quality chance creation today (based on my loose match viewing).
According to FotMob, they created 26 (?!) chances, but only 2 big chances.
 

ninjacornelius

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The various xG models say that Italy were about one goal better, which seems right to me. For as much as it looked like Austria wrested control of the match from Italy at various points, they had far fewer scoring chances. Hell of a match from them, though.
 

Silverdude2167

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I did think at the time that Austria's goal reminded me of Julian Green's. But the USA was getting battered and needed Tim Howard to stand on his head to take that to extra time; I don't think the parallels with last night's game go that far.
Ahh that game...the set piece near the end was the best thing I have ever seen and if Clint just had a softer touch that game was going to penalties.

The correct team won, but man we were so close to still advancing on the back of a Howard's legendary performance.
 

speedracer

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Ahh that game...the set piece near the end was the best thing I have ever seen and if Clint just had a softer touch that game was going to penalties.

The correct team won, but man we were so close to still advancing on the back of a Howard's legendary performance.
JJ hit a volley that was thisclose to going in as well after Green's goal.

Michael Cox wrote several pieces on the USA 2014 World Cup campaign saying effectively that USA sucked when they tried to bunker down (not just against Belgium but trying to protect leads against Ghana and Portugal as well), might as well try to press and attack. Indeed after going down 2-0 and having a fire lit under their collective ass they took the game to Belgium (and yes, Howard did have to stuff a couple dangerous counterattacks). I think this might have been true about Austria a little bit as well (and not just in ET -- looked like pressing worked better for them for large parts of 2H as well).
 
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coremiller

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Also of course the USA would have won the game in normal time if Wondo hadn't Wondo'd his big chance in stoppage time.

Looking back at that game, how on earth was a 19-year-old Divock Origi starting over Lukaku as the center forward for Belgium? I doubt that made much sense at the time and it seems even crazier in retrospect. Lukaku destroyed the U.S. defense in extra time after he came on.

Also, I'm amazed how many Belgian players are still in their squad seven years later. Eight of the Belgian players who played in that game are still key players for them (Courtois, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Mertens, Chadli). The US doesn't have any starters left from that team, and the only players in the 23 who still feature are Yedlin and Brooks.
 
Ahh that game...the set piece near the end was the best thing I have ever seen and if Clint just had a softer touch that game was going to penalties.
Man, I totally forgot about that set piece - I watched that over and over after the fact in much the same way that I watch the Julio Jones 4th quarter sideline catch in the Super-Bowl-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named. (As for Wondo's Wondo-ing, I'd just repressed that, not forgotten about it.)
 

Dummy Hoy

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Also of course the USA would have won the game in normal time if Wondo hadn't Wondo'd his big chance in stoppage time.

Looking back at that game, how on earth was a 19-year-old Divock Origi starting over Lukaku as the center forward for Belgium? I doubt that made much sense at the time and it seems even crazier in retrospect. Lukaku destroyed the U.S. defense in extra time after he came on.

Also, I'm amazed how many Belgian players are still in their squad seven years later. Eight of the Belgian players who played in that game are still key players for them (Courtois, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Mertens, Chadli). The US doesn't have any starters left from that team, and the only players in the 23 who still feature are Yedlin and Brooks.
In 2014 that idiot Wilmots was in charge. Dembele, Wiesel, Fellaini was his preferred midfield coming into the tournament, he was starting Kevin Miralles up front in qualifiers, looking at Origi and Januzaj too. Just a mess, he got a bit lucky that KDB and Mertens broke out that tournament.
 

Senator Donut

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Also, I'm amazed how many Belgian players are still in their squad seven years later. Eight of the Belgian players who played in that game are still key players for them (Courtois, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Mertens, Chadli). The US doesn't have any starters left from that team, and the only players in the 23 who still feature are Yedlin and Brooks.
Twellman just brought it up during the broadcast, but those Belgian players who were young stars in 2014 represented a golden generation and there hasn’t been much talent since them to displace them. Conversely, the US best players were older and this current generation of young stars has displaced that generation as well as the weaker age cohorts who followed Donovan/Dempsey/Howard.

The question remains whether this current US team represents a golden generation or a permanent talent shift due to proliferation of academies (plus the college safety net to catch late-bloomers) and a general increase of interest in the sport.
 

Dummy Hoy

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Twellman just brought it up during the broadcast, but those Belgian players who were young stars in 2014 represented a golden generation and there hasn’t been much talent since them to displace them. Conversely, the US best players were older and this current generation of young stars has displaced that generation as well as the weaker age cohorts who followed Donovan/Dempsey/Howard.

The question remains whether this current US team represents a golden generation or a permanent talent shift due to proliferation of academies (plus the college safety net to catch late-bloomers) and a general increase of interest in the sport.
this has been an overplayed trope for a few years. Belgium’s back line is old and that’s a concern, but not only do some of their most important attackers remain world class, there are some pretty good players coming through. Not Kevin DeBruyne good, but enough that I think Belgium will remain a fixture at international tournaments for a while.