The form of our opponents and how I feel about them.

[LANCESBI-CYCLE2]

I'm not going to mention much about England, regardless of form it is their match to lose and they still have the most quality out of any team in this group. We just have to hope we're at our best. However, they still have creative issues through the middle and maybe we can hope for a draw.

Wales is the team that I believe we have the best chance of beating. Since Bale has arrived in Los Angeles he has been rather average, and the rest of the Welsh team is in pretty average form. I do fear that their goalkeeper could be the difference though. Though to be honest, Wales always looks average but they still manage to be better as a unit that individually (kinda like us).

Finally since I live here, I think I have a pretty thorough analysis of the US. The US has some pretty talented players in their first ever world cup and they are highly dangerous and kind of underrated. The US has had a striker problem but now they have Jordan Siebatcheu doing well in the Bundesliga (he's basically what we hoped Azmoun would be), Josh Sargent as the second highest scorer in the Championship, Haji Wright who is the best striker in Turkey, and they might call up Folarin Balogun, one of the best players so far this season in Ligue 1. Yunus Musah, Giovanni Reyna, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, and Brenden Aaronson have all had great performances in La Liga, PL, and UCL recently and I think they will be the difference. Pulisic and Dest have been in so so form, and Antonee Robinson their best left back, has gotten injured recently. Chris Richards, imo their best CB, hasn't gotten much minutes with Crystal Place either, so it seems maybe the defense can be the weakest point right now. At goalkeeper they seem a bit weak at the moment, with Steffen being injured, and Turner not getting many minutes. The US is a pretty polarizing team in the eyes of many tbh. If they show up at their worst they can miss out on the ko rounds. However, if they show up at their absolute best, I think they could be a surprising team.

Now we have appointed CQ, and this makes the group even more difficult. I hope his return allows to scrape by. Maybe what we couldn't do against Spain and Portugal last time, we can do against a weaker set of teams. However, I wouldn't say we are clear favorites if at all against the other two teams.

[perspolis#1]

The US definitely is on the up.

Reyna and Pulisic as creative outlets with athletes like McKennie and Musah in their midfield make them tough to counter.

So far their biggest issue has been striker(looks like resolving) and slow CB pairings/GK. Im more confident with CQ against Pulisic and Reyna dribbling because space will be at a premium.

[LANCESBI-CYCLE2]

Yes, Reyna is definitely the player that the team must watch out for, imo the best American. He can break lines with his passes so the team must set out to outmatch the midfield and him in particular with hard defending. The midfield just completely outmatches ours in athleticism and at least with CQ back, we know we'll approach the game more intelligently. In short, we must play like a better version of a CONCACAF team to frustrate them.

[inarsenewetrust]

US in this WC remind me of morocco at last WC. A team technically superior to us but weaker in both boxes.

And with a significantly less experienced coach at this level.

England I think can be gotten out. See hungary, see performances of some of their top players vs a team like dinamo, etc. And their players are certainly not firing on all cylinders so far this season, a good number of starters even struggling for game time.

Wales is a bit of a wildcard. Weaker on paper than the others but possibly the best chemistry. These are the type of games that we usually struggle to figure out how to approach (bc we actually may be on even footing technically, but if we open up we could get exposed...) But their star players bale and ramsey look totally past it for what its worth. Best guys on their team are defensive, Rodon in good form in france, Davies getting surprising trust from Conte and tottenham.