I've seen this on other forums for fans to talk about... what are some of your unpopular USMNT opinions? I'd say mine is Sunil Gulati extremely under appreciated around these boards
I've got a lot. 1. Matt Besler has performed better than any NT player the last two cycles. 2. Jones needs to go. Completely past it. 3. Its a joke that Rimando's in contention for a spot. Klinsmann type error. Rimando's a below average MLS keeper. 4. Birnbaum isn't one of our 8 best CB's. 5. Hamid needs to start at keeper in March, regardless of how many NT starts he has. He's the best keeper we have. 6. Zardes and Bedoya both don't deserve to be in our best 23. 7. Chandler's NT struggles are no worse than Brooks and Johnson's. 8. Agudelo is our best striker. 9. Erik Palmer-Brown needs to be considered to fill the #6 spot in March, if Cameron isn't fit. 10. The only position where Cameron should be first choice is #6. He's bad at CB and bad at RB. 11. Williams and Morales are fringe players, and won't be more than that for the entirety of their footballing careers. 12. Hyndman and Zelalem will not combine for 10 caps, so we can stop talking about the two of them. 13. Altidore should not start. Too ineffective at anything other than poaching to start. 14. Current Arena is the second worst coach we've had since Sampson, first being Klinsmann. 15. Feilhaber was underrated by Klinsmann, but he's overrated by big soccer. 16. Kljestan doesn't play well enough to play for the NT. 17. Nagbe helps, but he's not as good as some think. 18. For a previously uncapped player prior to January, I can't defend Villafana getting minutes. New players gotta earn minutes. 19. Bradley's a bottler, but the mistake to make him captain was already made. Pair him with Cameron, and hope he's not terrible. 20. We'll qualify 3rd out of CONCACAF, and then get finish last place in an easy WC group.
Its all good, there's a reason its "unpopular opinions" not "unpopular facts." My opinions on them are long documented, and I think my opinions are holding up pretty good, although I wish my opinions on them weren't holding up.
My unpopular opinion is that Hyndman will have more than 10 caps but won't be the captain for the USMNT.
Ok, I'll try one. I am fine with "Losing" Rossi. If he didn't want to play for us, than I don't want him either. Same with Subotic. I don't have anything against either but only want players on the team that want to play for us.
1. Michael Bradley is the best 6 in the USMNT pool and he's underrated by the US fan base. Everyone sees him complete a couple nice passes vs Serbia and praises how lucky we are to have him. Never mind the 3 times he gave the ball away because he has a poor first touch or the 4 times he made awful passes. If Bradley played as bad as he does there would be petitions and pitch forks. 3. Omar Gonzalez. Don't know if this is unpopular or not but I never want to see him suit up for the NT again. And it sucks cuz I like him. I just don't think he's good enough. 4. Assuming Brooks is 1, and Cameron is 2, we have no 3rd best CB. At least not yet. Everyone we've tried (Besler, Birnbaum, Orozco, etc) is good for 1-3 horrible mistakes per game that should lead to goals. I thought Zimmerman looked good but it's tough to give too much praise to him for a good game against lowly Jamaica. 5. Zusi wasn't that bad. He wasn't great, but neither are the other options. I'd rather have him over Chandler any day of the week. 6. McCarty wasn't as great as everyone wishes he was. His pass completion % was on par with Bradley most games and McCarty often attempts safer passes. He also doesn't read the game as well defensively. 7. We shouldn't start the same lineup every game. If we were Argentina or Germany, maybe. But we aren't and we don't have 11 of the best players in the world. So we should play matchups and play speed when we need speed and defense when we need defense
Here's mine: The most important and consequential goal scored by the USA at the 2010 FIFA World Cup was Landon Donovan's early 2nd half strike against Slovenia:
Subotic did. WrongAgain was the problem here. Rossi...I agree. He never had the interest and he has paid the price. His Italy career<<<<<<<<<<what his US career could have been.
And the Italians found him too American. My unpopular opinion is that the USSF (the OP did put US Soccer on the table, after all) should "urge" MLS to phase out the teams in Canada, thus providing a strong core around which a league may be formed there and permitting three more cities in the States United to enjoy first division footy.
JK had to go and probably after the Gold Cup. But on balance he was good for our program and was beloved by many players, especially youth. Agreed. Those who believe MLS is "roughly comparable" to X first division league are blowing rainbows out of their arses. It is getting better but is tripping over its own feet with self imposed rules. Until we see a MLS team in the Club World Cup on a regular basis, it will never get any respect abroad.
Your boss was coach, and it was leading us down a path where we wouldn't qualify for the WC. Maybe a fresh approach can help?
No, Hamid has earned the starting spot for the NT. Thats the point. He's the best GK in MLS, Villafana can't even get off the Santos bench, and sometimes was even playing for the reserves. Surely you can't think those are the same situation?
39 caps for Besler, you'd think he's made these "1-3" horrible mistakes per game? Where are they? Any evidence of them?
First highlight. Ball watching at 11:47 Not every one leads to a goal so they don't make the highlights but that's the type of stuff I'm talking about. Yes he has 39 caps, but do we really have a deep CB pool to choose from? Even with the 1-3 mistakes I'd still say he's one of the top 4 CBs we have. But you can't ignore those 1-3 mistakes if a better option comes along