Davey Newlove Sports Blog

I got to watch the in KC tonight. I really want to like Tony Vitello, but right now the Giants are a poorly managed team. Mix that in with a huge mistake to not invest in pitching during the offseason and you have a team that’s painful to watch.

With that being said, I don’t want to see the Giants give up on the Vitello experiment yet. He should get at least 2-3 seasons. The Giants just need to do better with free agent investment to hold things down until these young kids develop. The future for the Giants is exciting, but the present is frustrating.

Truth

My wife and I fake met Lamine Yamal a couple of years ago when we did a tour of the FC Barcelona museum. Rooting for Spain to win the

Djed Spence has had an absolute breakout tournament in this World Cup. He has shown his top quality abilities that he has. It’s a little surprising that he’s not the normal starter for Tottenham. Udogie is an incredible left back when he is healthy. Porro has also shown his top quality helping lead Spain to the finals. Right back and left back are the 2 position that Spurs are full of quality at.

The red card for Embolo was correct. He was already on a yellow and then he went down in a clear simulation. The rule for a yellow for diving was put in the game to dissuade players from diving which happened a lot more often before the rule was implemented. Unfortunate for Embolo and the Swiss, but it is the right call

I’m still working on getting over the heartbreak of the crashing out of the . Here’s my post match thoughts on the USA v Belgium match.

1. The US continued their struggles against European squads. Every time we come up against them we seem to lose ourselves and crumble under pressure. That was evident tonight. The lads played their worst performance of the tournament at the worst possible time. Hopefully the federation can find the root cause of the problem and rectify it over the next 4 years.

2. Self inflicted wounds cost the US greatly tonight. The first goal was avoidable. 3 US players stood in the box watching the ball land and fall to Belgian players. The second goal saw the US get caught sleeping just seconds after pulling the match level. The third goal was an absolute howler from Freese as he completely misplayed the ball and failed to clear it while he was well outside the box. That goal was the real backbreaker that took the wind out of our sails. All 3 goals could have and should have been avoided.

3. Tillman was fantastic once again tonight. Even as many players on the squad struggled Tillman shined. He scored another goal on a great free kick (with a little help from a deflection). He was all over the pitch in the attack and on defense. I’m glad he chose to play for the US as he is a high quality player.

4. Pulisic was really off his game tonight. I’m not sure if it was the pressure that Belgium was putting him under or if it was the pressure of the match in general, but he was far off the quality we all know he has tonight. I can’t imagine being in his shoes with all the pressure to be the one star for the US, but I really hope that he can figure out how to play with that pressure at some point in his career. He’s a fantastic talent. Disappointing from him tonight.

5. The Belgian defense did a fantastic job at neutralizing Balogun. He couldn’t seem to find the space that he had found in the past. I get that this was more difficult competition, but the US needed to find different ways to get him free. The service they were giving him was quite poor as well. Hard for Balogun to shine if he doesn’t get fed.

6. I thought Reyna was quite good off the bench tonight. Unfortunately it was too little too late for him. I wonder how much different the match could have been if he had started. I felt like he really got after the Belgian players and added some good creativity to the attack. Glad that he will have at least another World Cup cycle in him.

7. This loss really hurts, but I feel like this tournament has created a soccer movement in the US that will only help grow the sport in this country which will help lead to better quality players coming into the USMNT. One future player to watch is 16 year old Cavan Sullivan at Philadelphia right now. He will make a move to Manchester City when he turns 18. Hopefully there are more like him coming.

Next up: The USMNT will now begin preparing for the next World Cup hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The now gear up for the World Cup next year in Brazil. Hopefully the ladies can bring the Cup home next year!

So disappointed right now. The played their worst match of the at the worst possible time. I’ll do my post match write up later, but for now some whiskey to help with the sadness