I'm just an American soccer fan. My son is in a MLS youth development program and plays on a regional travel team. I'm a former MLS season ticket holder and a current USL ticket holder. My good friend plays in the NPSL. I'm personally invested in seeing the sport grow and strengthen in the United States. I also watch a shit ton of European soccer and have supported Newcastle United since 1999.
Ideally fans should evaluate players based on performance, need in the NT, and how they work within the NT's system, not based in the league/club where they play or how much they are getting paid or what was their transfer cost. Ideally they'd also stop making excuses for them when they play badly. We've really excused A LOT of terrible play by our guys in top leagues, specially Pulisic, Brooks, Yedlin & Miazga. It's almost a no-no to criticize them, even when they've had lousy games. It's important to be honest because only by being honest we can evaluate if a guy has what we need or it's time to try other options. We can honestly say Bradley has not shown enough in MLS in 2018 and this year in the CCL to be called. We should be able to say the same about anybody when it's warranted, even Pulisic.
This is a fallacy. this assumes that every single player peaks and grows at the same time. There was major article published about the Belgians, in that their secret was that they treated late-bloomers the same- way as the early-bloomers so they created two different camps. Your making the assumption that Morales never made any personal growth over the years and his current form should not be considered because he was not as good as 4 years ago. Christian Ramirez is a perfect current example and yet Morales is still not here.
It's really borrring to watch USMNT games with Robinson because any Western Hemisphere team is going right at Robinson all game. Edit: We have to start using the names Antonee and Miles because both are Robinsons and one is stumblebum and the other (Miles) is aces, as you can see from tonites game Atl v. Monterrey.
Well, no. LIke you pointed out, Bradley and Gonzo there and Weah and Sarge not there is the problem. Bradley and Gonzo are NOT on any "A" game because: gonzo can't pass. we don't want that anymore. those days are over. did you watch Robinson against Monterrey tonite? I counted 3 different times that Univision guys raved about his play - "partidazo" was a typical comment. Gonzo is in the rear view mirror. we don't want him contaminating the kids. As far as Bradley is concerned, the guy makes $5m a year ffs. When is too much too much instead of "not enough"? How much greed is too much? Trapp is basically Bradley in a younger version with a leg that can still perform. Now let's get on with it and find the next guy in line for the job and stop going backwards. Weah and Sarge at another youth camp is like treading water during an Olympic gold medal event. They need high level play. We can't afford to dick around with goal scorers. The currency of soccer is goals. No country has a surfeit of goal scorers. We have to cultivate them and encourage them as much as possible. Let's say they go to u23/u20 camp and perform well. Ok, then finals come along and their clubs don't let them go and suddenly we look at a team without goal scorers. What have we achieved? We have done more harm than good. Neither the senior nor youth team has benefited. Somebody please tell me I'm wrong.
That's great and all, but if your invested in seeing the sport grow and strengthen in the United States than you would be one of the first ones to acknowledge, a contract was signed to 2022 that allows a third party to control certain aspects of USSF such as marketing and the CEO of that third party is also the MLS commissioner. Which creates a major conflict of interest. MLS interest and soccer interest has always spiked the most with a successful USMNT team. The Success of the USMNT is more important for the growth of American Soccer than MLS success. But, my issue is that they way its legally binded is that MLS representatives have more power than they should on USSF matters which presumes MLS success was the driving force all these years when it wasent.
But even if the mitigating factors come into play, it still dosent prove there wasent certain conflicting tactics/agendas going on up to that point. If they feel the pressure they will change their ways. Changing their ways to appease a fanbase does not erase years of agendas. For example, If a caught on-video murderer does the act and after a 40-year prison sentence and good behavior and a deal for information, is released and is a good normal person for the rest of his life. it dosent change the fact that he was caught murdering someone on video and is a murderer.
Blame the Fed. The GC is around the corner. And, it's not like GB is innocent in all this. We all knew he was the hire forever. I'm sure he did to. He had some say in when he was brought on.
have to love the posts that say people aren't good enough without stating who should be called in their place. people insist McKennie is automatic after being subbed out in a 7-0 loss to ManCity. really? so who is he going to beat in Qatar when we get to the quarterfinals? nobody. but oh, boy, if only we would call up Holmes in the Championship. people were heavy breathing over Kekuteh Manneh at one point. nagbe never loses the ball. etc. etc. we aren't going to beat anybody because we have "world beaters". we will beat them because we have a good team. France didn't have more world beaters than Belgium. They beat Belgium because they had a better team. That includes players and coaches who put the right team together. They didn't even bother using Dembele and Martial. Where are all these "great" players that should take the place of the guys Berhalter called up? Sure, Bradley is a total corruption, no doubt. Gonzo is there as a distraction from Bradley. Otherwise I don't see the big problems with this selection. We will find a left back at some point, we just don't have one yet. Sarge and Weah should have been called up instead of indulging the fantasy that they will win the Olympics. So they got 4 players wrong. The other 19 are justifiable in some way. Heck, the biggest mistake is Sean Johnson. Picking gk's who make spectacular plays and don't make the plays they should make is amateur hour. Welcome to Caleb Porter's strike out in the Olympic qualis. But I doubt SJ sees a minute against Ecuador and Chile anyway. He's really there to give credence to all the heavy breathing among the gk coaches who thought they had the next Tim Howard. Mission accomplished. All hail Berhalter. I cant wait to see how this selection does against the stepped up competition. Hopefully we don't muddy the picture with Bradley and McKennie but ….go ahead, Berhalter, make my day.
McKennie played at RB, I don't really care if he was subbed out or had a bad game. To act like that's par for the course for his season is ridiculous to even suggest. I've seen you constantly whine about players getting called up(Acosta) or whine when players don't get called up(Delgado). Lovitz sucks. Baird isn't international quality. There are better options who have been named in this thread numerous times. I'd rather have Holmes called up to gauge his quality than see Roldan lay another dud for the USMNT.
Oh, please, vexco. McKennie played rb in the fh and came out playing rf in the second half. When rf proved as ineffective as his turn at rb he was subbed out with dispatch. You're stuck and you're steaming - I get that. Of course I whined about Acosta getting 23 call ups to senior team only to get dumped unceremoniously, when I had been calling for that ever since this youth call ups.
Disappointment and rage, though, are two very different emotional responses. The first is reasonable, the second is ridiculous.
I'll ask the same question to you: do you see nothing that raises even an eyebrow about potential biases? Also, I recall that your (reasonable) perspective was not to worry too much about MB/WT as deep-lying playmakers as it was only a few posters who were talking it up on BS and there was no true evidence for it. When does it become an issue in your mind? Thanks.
I didn't know the SUM/USSF contract expressly indicates that USSF will be directed by SUM! That's incredible work from SUM. You've convinced me that Don Garber is directly in charge of Berhalter's player selection.
And what is his current form? Lost his starting spot? Have YOU ever watched him play? I don't give a shit if a player peaks at 22 or 35. I have never been one of the people on here claiming so-and-so is too old at 28 (and there definitely are idiots that think that and have written it on these boards in recent months). You like Morales, Berhalter doesn't. It's not crazy.
For all your talk of wanting to discuss tactics systems and analysis, you do an admirable job of directly avoiding these topics
We need Besler, Zusi back. Howard needs to be in this group to provide leadership. 2014 squad forever.
Hmmmm. I think the points are more justifiable than (1) the Robo-bob/MB nepotism and (2) the LD vs. JK wars that we've been through.
Sorry I missed those in all the ranting earlier. I’ll look at them in a few and see if they are anything new or just just more attempts to complain about two players
Then why the F&×# do you constantly compare the quality of leagues. It appears you do it to justify leaving off non-MLS players. Sure some guys have had rough seasons abroad, but your assessment isnt close to reality. Pulisic season has suffered because he is leaving the club. Having his minutes cut may have affected his play. However, when appropriately comparing him to the players in the pool, he has played better than any attacking player. Brooks might have made some mistakes but has generally played well. Miazga had one bad game after impressing and new coach went a different direction. Now he is leading team in the championship that is in a relegation battle. Your comments on these players are just lies. The difference for players like Bobby Wood is that unlike MLS, you arent guaranteed a spot and there isnt parity so you can end up on the bench and when playing lack the service you need. I think you said in another post that he "sucked". It is odd that Bundesliga teams would sign players that suck and if Wood sucks, most of this roster sucks. You judge players abroad much more harshly than these average domestic players. I will respond to that last sentence in another thread. It is very ironic.
Having Brazil go after you all game and only getting beat once is huge accomplishment. Antonee showed huge potential in that game.
I don't think Suyuntuy's posts are lies but rather they're strongly framed by his reference point. I think it's true that our pool is sub-par compared to the world's best and I think that's the general frame that Suy uses. How many of our major league players would make the squad for a top ten teams? I'd argue only CP is likely and not as a starter. So it's not unreasonable to criticize our players as below that threshold. Where an issue exists IMO is that he doesn't really comment on MLS players and therefore they don't get an even higher level of distain (relative to the world's elite). If he used B2/MLS/Championship (which is the base level for most of our pool) as the reference point for our players, there would be a very different perspective on Brooks, Miazga, Wood, CP, WM, Morales, TA, etc.