https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_McBride just to remind everyone what character is in soccer and the US ... before Dempsey and before Donovan there was the man we would frequently see with blood on his face and head and he just played right through it .... guts.
Remember down in panama for 2018 WCQ, when Jones put in a decent performance on the passing side of the ball, but he moved like he was 50 years old on the defensive side of the ball. The was the last time we ever saw Jermaine Jones. Chile in a friendly, just did the same to Bradley, only worse, as they made him a traffic cone on several occasions. Bradley is still in this team. Golden royalty membership to the old-boy brass has its perks for sure.
J. Jones and Dempsey brought that leadership on the big stages. Dempsey's goal against Ghana was the goal that set the tone for advancement in the 2014 world cup. JJ's leveler against Portugal (correcting a nervy mistake and getting the US on the front foot with an absolute stunner of a goal on a ballsy shot) was the goal that raised the bar. That's what leadership looks like. JJ was outstanding in 2014...he gave one of the US' best tournament performances of all time in my opinion. JJ's calling out of Morris for abstaining from Europe was also what leadership looks like. It says, hey, we have standards here and you aren't holding your end up.
Absolutely. This generation needs a McBride. Of all the players I have seen in the pipeline, that looks to be Timothy Weah. Weah and Tyler Adams have some real potential to lead. They just need to make it happen on the field. Too many US players think that its okay just to show up and not make a mistake. That's not enough. That's the bare minimum, and that's not winning soccer. Leaders put their stamp on the games. Leaders turn the game in their favor.
Weah absolutely strikes me as a guy that plays for himself. Maybe it’s just me, but the majority of these younger guys seem more concerned with their club career than advancing the NT. There is no passion for the crest anymore. The days of Donovan, Boca, McBride, Mathis, Hejduk... gone. The 90’s-2014 had guys who left every ounce of energy they had on the field for the USMNT. Outside of Pulisic, I don’t see much heart at all from this new crowd.
After Gragg's March Camp I was convinced that he was not the coach to lead us on the upcoming WC qualifiers. However, I have now flipped my opinion and now I strongly believe that his hands have been completing tied and he has zero choice but to build another NT around Bradley. As a consolation prize he was allowed to bring in Trapp / Zardes.
So on top of keeping Mike, we also got Trapp & Zardes in the bargain? I can barely repress my enthusiasm.
If your name is Michael Bradley, or you play in MLS, or have played in MLS, then you're disqualified.
first off, why isnt pulisic blamed for our failure to qualify? he was a 17/18 year old winger who was essentially a peripheral player on a VERY veteran team (to say the least) who still managed to outproduce every other player on the team in less games. thats such an asisnie question. why not use absolutely not a rb zusi or completely immoblie at that point tim howard? going so far the other way with pulisic is absurd. to address leadership- and i could make the same case for our last three managers as well (counting sarachan)- berhalter has his guys. the next non-bradley/trapp player to get a minute at the 6 under berhalter will be the first. that spot is a mortal lock and everyone knows it. and more often than not one of those two has been wearing the armband. now include zardes (and gonzalez to a lesser degree). thats 4 players berhalter is making clear will not be challenged for their spots in the team. the other players know that. how can you expect a player with a guaranteed spot to have the same hunger, or drive, as someone playing for their spot? whos going to rally around that? to answer the original question- how can a player who is gifted a spot, and frequently the captaincy- command the respect of his teammates who earned their place on the team, some in fact played out of position to accomodate that captain? its a miracle we arent fighting each other on the pitch like the bad news bears. we dont have leadership on the pitch because we dont have leadership on the bench. its hard to band together when there are different rules for different players.
Perhaps the players have noticed callups are no longer based on merit for the most part. And in that case enthusiasm would diminish. Add in the anti-American sentiment expressed by people like Arena, Landon and Howard, which multiple players took issue with, and the program is a mess.
Donovan and Beasley were great at that age but were surrounded by good veterans. The 20 year olds now aren't surrounded by veterans of the same quality. The 18-22 year olds are the best talent on the team now and the missing generation isn't helping them. We just have to wait for them to fully mature and take over. I think in a year 5-6 of the U20's will be on the full team. Will have to wait until all the Olympic qualifying and hopefully Olympic games are over. This Gold Cup came at an unfortunate time. Were this next summer the timing might be perfect.
I think Pulisic is doing a great job countering this and leading the charge to push yourself at the highest level. Other players right behind him in age have talked about his words.
Leaders? We don't need no stink'n leaders. After all we have ... When he fails to get reelected maybe The Donald will take the job as GM and put this ship right. It can't be as poor as what we have now. Maybe Hope Solo should have been elected US Soccer President. She could not get the men's side any more screwed up than it is now. When the system is sick you can often fix it by using some form of cure but when it becomes gangrenous often the only remedy is amputation. It "might" be the best thing that could happen to fail to get out of our group at the Gold Cup. That would be such a total failure that, maybe, people would realize that the whole men's system is infected with the failure gene and take more than cosmetic steps to get totally rid of the failures from the top down. Another analogy is that you cannot build a solid house if the architect, contractor, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, inspectors and most of the laborers are all incompetent self centered drunkards. The US men's soccer program is like the house that was built by the above and they even perched it on a foundation of watery sand. Maybe we should just accept that we are doomed to remain a poor to bad soccer nation and adopt maybe Mexico as the team to follow.
Maybe we're just bad at this game by nature. The entire "just wait until our U-20 takes over!" spiel is an old one.
I still remember in that Bolivia friendly last May, Weah picked up a knock fairly early on, and I was disappointed because I assumed that he'd take a sub with it being a very meaningless friendly even by friendly standards (interim coach, C team opponent, etc.), and we wouldn't get a chance to assess his play. However, he refused to be subbed, ran his butt off the rest of the game, and was rewarded with that goal in the 2nd half. It might not have been a smart move for his career in the big picture to play through injury, but I knew at the time that that's the sort of guy I want wearing the US jersey.
Maybe. I’m just used to hearing that my generation is full of “snowflakes”.... by the generation that freaked out about razors blades in candy bars and satanic cults in public schools.
Sorry, this "Blood & Guts" McBride trope is way overcooked. There's much more to "character" then getting your head bloodied.
True. If blood and guts was all that was required the Mike Tyson would be Pope. As I said earlier we really do not have any leaders that are worth much of anything and we are unlikely to develop any as long as we are being ruled by the current retarded regime. Unfortunately there is really no way out of our problem because the people doing the hiring are set that what they are doing is right. There is no one in any leadership position at US soccer that has any idea how to fix the problem mainly because they are the very one that created the problem. We thought that replacing the leadership at US soccer would fix the problems but what really happened was that the people replace were replaced bu others that were from the same pouted pool. Our current "president" is really the same as the old one and so on all the way down the pool. I do not see a cure except time and the time required may be a long one. I am beginning to believe that we may not fix the problem before 2026 and we could easily be the lowest finishing hosts ever at the World Cup. At least we have Canada and Mexico to make up for our record setting performance. There is one hope: As we progress through coaching failures it is possible that someone may unexpectedly prove to be really good. The problem there is that a truly good coach might piss of so many executives that he or she gets fired before he or she can do any good. We do not have any mechanism to replace the actual problems all we are able to do is replace the stupid leaders with other stupid leaders and hope that someone stumbles on the solution.
Sure there is much more to character than courage, determination, honesty, and loyalty to a cause. There is, for the example, the audacity to come to a yawning standstill of utter indifference in a moment where all around you need you to come through the most , and then make sure afterwards to rig history and The System to make sure that you come across as utterly blameless.
Leadership is also sacrifice for the common good. McBride was amazing at that. So was JJ. Spirit, drive and character in training and during game time. He was always a leader. Bradley’s time has come and gone. We had leaders in the past because we had to band together due to our lack of technical ability. We had to rely on fitness, character, and leadership. Head bloodied simply means giving it all for your teammates when you had to,
But some people have actually called for Alejandro Bedoya to be back on the roster after dismissing him with the "old!" group a couple of years ago. You'll notice that the criticisms of roster selections here on BS have almost no consistency other than opposing whoever the current coach selects.