The Daily Dirt, June 22: Love Will Tear Us Apart

So, how is everyone feeling this morning?

Frustrating loss for the US last night. Argentina is the best team in the world, and they played like it. Even a strong US performance might not have been enough to get the win. However, the US played too poorly and made too many mistakes to have a semblance of a chance.

Giving up goals early in a half is a huge issue. Lacking a cohesive tactical identity in a match like this is a huge issue. Not even getting off a shot, not a shot on goal, but just a shot period is a huge issue.

There was a lot of talk after the game about learning a lesson from this. The disappointing part to me is that a lesson should have been learned after the Germany game in the 2014 World Cup (no shots in that one either), the Belgium game in the Round of 16 (if Tim Howard hadn’t been incredible, the scoreline would have been like the Argentina game), the Jamaica game in the 2015 Gold Cup (getting blitzed on home soil), or the Mexico game in the 2015 CONCACAF Cup (thoroughly outplayed and slow to react tactically to it).

Historically, the USMNT is not a team that is often blown out. They have typically been a team over the years that pulls off some upsets and plays top teams well. Take a look:

Strong teams will rip you to pieces if you don’t have a strong game plan. The US was too often stuck in between pressing and defending deep in numbers. It never seemed like most players were on the same page, and it resulted in huge gaps all over the field. Again, even if the plan was strong, Argentina still could have won this game. However, the performance the US provided last night just made it easy for a team that doesn’t need any extra help.

Argentina is a great team, but this USMNT and this regime has to show up in these games. They didn’t show up last night. For most of it, they didn’t look like they belonged on the same field.

Born in the USA

What was the tactical plan last night for the US? (Armchair Analyst)

Lots to improve moving forward (Planet Futbol)

Looking at the positives from the tournament and what’s next for the USMNT (Soccer Insider)

Might the New England Revolution finally be making progress on a new stadium? (Boston Globe)

Earth Song

Croatia with the epic counterattack to beat Spain and top the group:

This also helped:

Iceland is not satisfied, they want to stick around for a while at the Euros (Yahoo)

Portugal needs a result against Hungary to have a chance to advance (Sky Sports)

For Ireland, it’s win or go home against Italy (RTE)

No more Zlatan for Sweden after Euro 2016 (CBS Sports)

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

Braves win 6th in a row thanks to Jace Peterson (Talking Chop)

"Of course I'm on the hot seat.” - Thomas Dimitroff (The Falcoholic)

Music Midtown lineup announced, tickets on sale Friday (Music Midtown)