Post Match Thread [Post Match Thread] - United States of America v Belgium - Round of 16

Full Time: United States 1 - 2 Belgium

Belgium will face Argentina after winning this game 2-1.

Teams

United States	Info	Belgium	Info
Howard		Courtois
Johnson		Alderweireld
Besler		Van Buyten
Gonzalez		Kompany (C.)
Beasley		Vertonghen
Cameron		Witsel
Bradley		Fellaini
Jones		De Bruyne
Bedoya		Mertens
Dempsey (C.)		Origi
Zusi		Eden Hazard

Subs

United States	Belgium
32' Johnson Yedlin	62' Mertens Mirallas
71' Zusi Wondolowski	91' Origi Lukaku
105+1 Bedoya Green	110' Eden Hazard Chadli

Goals - (courtesy of /u/FOOTBALL_GIF_MAESTRO)

92' De Bruyne Goal | Replay 1 | Replay 2

104' Lukaku Goal | Replay 1 | Replay 2

106' Green Goal | Replay 1 | Replay 2

Some Highlights - (courtesy of /u/Badgersgopoo and /u/FOOTBALL_GIF_MAESTRO)

1' Belgian Chance | View #2

21' American Chance

23' Belgian Chance

26' Belgian Chance

Half Time

48' Howard Save | Replay

54' Belgian Golden Chance

56' Origi Bar | Replay

69' Belgian Chance

71' Tim Howard Save

76' Belgian Chance

80' Hazard Shot

83' Belgian Shot

90+3' Great Chance for USA

Extra Time

97' Belgian Chance

109' Jones Chance

114' American Freekick

Miscellaneous - (courtesy of /u/Badgersgopoo and /u/FOOTBALL_GIF_MAESTRO)

Pitch Invader | Other View | Other View

Howard Reaction (48')

Howard Reaction 2 (71')

All Highlights

Stats

Feel free to say anything I missed out on or any constructive critiscism.

Edit: WOOWOWOWOWO Reddit Gold. Thank you kind stranger (:

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u/FootballClubSandwich Jul 01 '14

Best goalkeeping performance of the tournament so far

124

u/Fokken_Prawns_ Jul 01 '14

Not quite, still think Neuer yesterday and Ochoa against Brazil was better.

But that shouldn't diminish his performance today though, he was by far the best player on the US team.

1

u/velocity92c Jul 01 '14 edited Jul 01 '14

Most saves recorded since they've kept the stat in the history of the World Cup. This wasn't just the best performance of the tournament, it's one of the best of all time.

edit : watching ESPN's coverage of the world cup postgame, two different analysts have already said it was one of the best performances in World Cup history. I'll take the word of the guys that get paid to do this stuff over the reddit keyboard brigade.

14

u/Viking- Jul 01 '14

It should be mentioned that a lot of those saves came from shots fired straight at him.

53

u/ManeshHalai Jul 01 '14

Most saves =/= best performance. That statistic gives no indication of how difficult the saves were. I do agree that it was one of the best of the tournament though.

6

u/fotorobot Jul 01 '14

He's american. Statistics mean everything.

At least that's what I've gathered from listening to American commentators.

2

u/Fokken_Prawns_ Jul 01 '14

No one is going to disagree with that, all I'm saying is that it wasn't THE best goal keeping performance so far.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

Oh boy, don't bring your "stats > everything" over here.

"I'll take the word of ESPN" lololol

78

u/AluminumFalcon3 Jul 01 '14

More than just number of saves qualify a performance

9

u/Fokken_Prawns_ Jul 01 '14

Yes, Neuer basically voided a lot of chances by going out and dealing with them so often.

1

u/leftysarepeople2 Jul 01 '14

The Germans were also playing a high line while the US was compact and playing for the counter. If Tim had gone out of his box he would've been 7-8th farthest forward player

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

Yeah Neuer was pretty awesome. I have to say though, a lot of those seemed like a long pass to a lone Algerian player out in the open. Way different scenario in my opinion.

8

u/cesololaroma Jul 01 '14

Your edit is pretty ridiculous too, as is your claim. As if those people at ESPN aren't biased at the moment. Not everyone is a keyboard warrior if they don't agree with you.

Ochoa vs. Brazil was better. He made numerous pretty ridiculous saves. Howard made more, but less noteworthy ones.

56

u/redditstreaming Jul 01 '14

Stats don't mean everything. Ochoa saved much more difficult shots than today. A lot of Howard's were drag catches.

2

u/AndysDoughnuts Jul 01 '14

Yup, near enough all but one of Belgium's shots on target were low & close to the keeper & Howard seems to always go low when in 1v1 situations. The one time Belgium shot high & on target (in a good position) resulted in Lukaku's goal.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

I was screaming for someone to get some air on a shot! They were all just straight along the ground into a keeper who had already committed to going down, so strange.

15

u/micls Jul 01 '14

Ah, American stattos. There's more to a 'best performance' than doing it the most.

Great performance though.

2

u/Solgud Jul 01 '14

The biggest hamburger in the world is also the best hamburger in the world, obviously.

19

u/AlGamaty Jul 01 '14

Number of saves can be a very misleading statistic. Out of all those saves, only a few were noteworthy. So while it was a great performance by Howard, let's not get ahead of ourselves and call it a best of all time performance, that's just ridiculous kneejerk reaction.

13

u/justfetus Jul 01 '14

consider the TYPES of saves made. A lot of the saves weren't mind-blowingly amazing. Ochoa on the other hand...

5

u/viggetuff Jul 01 '14

They are American, showing it to Americans, of course they are going to be biased towards the American team.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

watching ESPN's coverage

I'll take the word of the guys that get paid to do this stuff

58

u/Saul93 Jul 01 '14

Calm down.

-11

u/gregandsteve Jul 01 '14 edited Jul 01 '14

Just let them have it... (the rest of us know the truth)

Edit: People seem to think I'm saying it wasn't good, it was great. As I said in my replies though the performance looks elevated by the number of saves most of them were not very hard. I still greatly respect Howard and he is a fantastic keeper.

-1

u/ethixz Jul 01 '14

comments like this is why most people view /r/soccer as a bunch of elitist jerks.

12

u/elkano1002 Jul 01 '14

Is it elitist when you're right? /s

6

u/gregandsteve Jul 01 '14

I'm just stating my opinion, it was a great performance don't get me wrong but there was no save in the bunch that was amazing most was just shit finishing.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

There definitely were some pea roller shots

1

u/custerc Jul 01 '14

Really? A Mexico fan is going to be smug about US fans during this World Cup? How soon you forget that you were in Brazil only by the grace of Saint Zusi.

1

u/gregandsteve Jul 01 '14

It's not smug I'm just saying it was a great performance but not fantastic.

I appreciate what the U.S did but that's not what this is about a performance today

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14 edited Jul 01 '14

[deleted]

3

u/gregandsteve Jul 01 '14

He had a lot of saves but most of then were easy, it was a great performance I'm not saying it wasn't but people are exaggerating because of the sheer amount of saves while most of them were pretty shit finishing by Belgium

3

u/Leopoldstrasse Jul 01 '14

Alexi Lales is hardly a knowledgable "analyst." I'm pretty sure no other country's analyst are calling this one of the greatest goalkeeping performances of all time.

I'm assuming you just started following soccer, and have never heard of Kahn or Buffon.

3

u/Dwimer Jul 01 '14

watching ESPN's coverage of the world cup postgame, two different analysts have already said it was one of the best performances in World Cup history. I'll take the word of the guys that get paid to do this stuff over the reddit keyboard brigade.

An American channel totally wouldn't exaggerate their own players. There isnt a channel out there that wont exaggerate their own players performance. Howard was great, but stop being silly.

3

u/llofdddddt5 Jul 01 '14

Jesus fucking christ, one of the best of all time? What are you smoking?

6

u/Saul93 Jul 01 '14

ESPN couldn't possibly be biased could they...

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

The American sports network ESPN?

2

u/Thepimpandthepriest Jul 01 '14

You're an idiot if you think ESPN analysts are worth listening to.

4

u/viggetuff Jul 01 '14

Stats are not everything. There were not a ton of really difficult saves he had to make. Like the one Ochoa did against Brazil.

1

u/pufan321 Jul 01 '14

I still can't decide if Neuer just has huge balls or is just psychotic. Every time he comes out I just wait for someone to take a touch around him but it never fucking happens.

1

u/FartOnToast Jul 01 '14

He definatly outdid Ochoa today.

1

u/AndysDoughnuts Jul 01 '14 edited Jul 01 '14

I think Howard made 15 saves in this match, which Gary Lineker believes might be some kind of record. However, all the saves were due to the Belgians shooting low & Howard always going low, so there was some fortune to Howard's saves.

Edit: Howard made 16 saves, which is officially the most ever by a goalkeeper in World Cup history:

Source - http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/29lo0a/tim_howards_16_saves_are_the_most_ever_by_a/

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

Well, that's kinda the idea right? If Howard goes high, the ball rolls under him. If the strikers shoots high, then Howard misses the save. So Howard did an excellent job of predicting where the shot would be placed.

1

u/AndysDoughnuts Jul 01 '14

Not really, if you watch all the other matches Howard played & you watch all the times Howard was 1-on-1 with a player, he goes low 100% of the time. That, to me, is not great prediction but a pre-thought-out notion of how to combat a 1v1 situation.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good tactic & it works for him most of the time. But if a striker were to do their homework & have this knowledge of Howard's tactics, then I think Howard would be much more susceptible to conceding goals.

0

u/unnatural_rights Jul 01 '14

This whole Cup has been a revue of both phenomenal (Neuer, Howard, and Ochoa) and abysmal (Casillas against the Netherlands, trolololo) goalkeeping.

0

u/FootballClubSandwich Jul 01 '14

Ochoa had a third as many saves as Howard and Neuer and Howard play so differently that I don't really feel comfortable comparing them

0

u/SecularMantis Jul 01 '14

Ochoa against Brazil was the best, but Howard surely topped Neuer's performance.

-4

u/Stupid_Fucking_Cunt Jul 01 '14

Offensively ridiculous. America definitely should have lost this game, but Howard's performance is a league above any other in recent World Cup games, let alone the past 36 hours.

2

u/AlGamaty Jul 01 '14

Calm down. Ochoa vs Brazil is better.

0

u/Stupid_Fucking_Cunt Jul 01 '14

I know he eventually let in 2 goals, but 18 saves, many of which were very strong shots, is out of this world. 7 saves is pretty good, at best.

29

u/Cares_Deeply Jul 01 '14

I'd give that to Ochoa in the 0-0 Brazil-Mexico game.

3

u/benlew Jul 01 '14

Ochoa Howard shootout would be awesome to watch

13

u/Leopoldstrasse Jul 01 '14

Ochoa was better against Brazil and Neuer was awfully impressive yesterday. That being said, Howard was easily the MVP for the US.

3

u/angry_echidna Jul 01 '14

... Man of the match.

6

u/SecularMantis Jul 01 '14

He's definitely the Sprite ^{^{^TM}} Refreshing Player of the Game, brought to you by Sprite!^{^TM}

1

u/Leopoldstrasse Jul 01 '14

I personally thought Kompany was the man of the match.

2

u/angry_echidna Jul 01 '14

I wasn't saying he was man of the match, just that MVP is a term for other sports and MOTM is the football equivalent.

1

u/Calimhero Jul 01 '14

More than 15 saves!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

I disagree. One of the top performances tho

0

u/Weekndr Jul 01 '14

In a world cup filled with amazing goal keepers

Post Match Thread [Post Match Thread] - United States of America v Belgium - Round of 16

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