Berhalter should have pulled him at some point. Instead he asked Fredo to stop Mexico in the middle third, while carrying a yellow. He couldn't very well foul Lozano on the break and the result was a goal. The alternative would have been a red card. Generally I don't like playing a noob a full 90' because injuries happen because the brain gets taxed and a noob is more likely to be dealing with too much new stuff at a time when he wants to make a big impression and tries "too hard".
Interesting, I just saw a quote from the Italian manager about Balotelli. He said 29 should be a player's peak.
Sunil's major weakness was his insane infatuation with Jurgen. Who knows, if JK had thought his leash was no looser than Bradley's he might have reflected on it a bit more carefully before allowing his private feelings for Donovan override the good of our team in WC14, But, away from that, Sunil acted fairly judiciously in his choice of personnel and in gauging the time he allowed for them to prove themselves. The current state of nepotism the USSF has allowed to unfold is substantially more troubling than anything Sunil was responsible for.
It was late in the game. I've seen good players miss a pen because the air has gone out of the tires. Sarge had the fresh legs.
Nope. He threw over Bob to hire JK and then let him leave off Landon with no push back. A real boss would have told him to either fix that quietly or get embarrassed publicly.
Klinsmann was a better coach that Berhalter. Which is something that’s completely astonishing to me because I though JK was really poor.
Yeah, there is also no room for criticizing MLS or advocating for change. Such is life as an American fan,
The Good: Egg gave a try to the tiki-taka from the back. It's fashionable for every coach 'new' to the USA to give it a try, see it doesn't work, and move on. So he may move on, too. Klinsmann did. The Bad: Almost everything. This is a team that can't pass unless the other guy is ten feet away and behind. That's on the coaching, these guys play as if they had just met. We often had two of them on the same spot, interfering with each other, while there were huge areas on the sides with no one there. Also, the defending is pathetic. There were moments when Mexico had up to three unmarked men in our box. Three. The Ugly: Our pool is a lot weaker than some think. That we got players in top Euro leagues doesn't mean they are top players. Guys like Yedlin and Morales are there because weak teams in strong leagues have to save money in certain positions. From all the "prospects" we have, the best (Sargent, Dest, Weah) can at best aspire to become average role players in Top 5 leagues in clubs trying hard to avoid relegation. Our current crop only has three notable names: Adams, McKennie & Pulisic. And none of those three is ever going to be able to carry a team on his shoulders. We need at least ONE thinking man on the field to make the transition from blackboard to game possible. Even the best managers in the world are going to have trouble when their men cannot think on their feet, and Egg is far from being one.
2. why was Ronaldo's job #1 helping Marcello on defense? Answer. It wasn't. 6. Incomprehensible. I've defended Trapp but that was indefensible. Just look at what Trapp is looking at. 8. Boyd is likely late because he sees we've got numbers then realizes Trapp is letting his man get behind him. b.t.w. I'm a Morris over Boyd guy.
Bad: Unmarked men in box - Well, if they high press and we fail at passing out of the back, logically they should have three unmarked men in the box because they are just a step or two away. Isnt that down to the offense? Ugly: Amen. Would add that club's have the luxury of taking players with faults who have strong points to their game because they practice together all year and learn to cover for their mates' weaknesses and the ownership has cash money to hire 'complementary' players who deliver the balance to the squad. I like managers who can describe a situation with one sentence. Tata says of Berhalter's plan:"It takes time". Those three words carry a lot more meaning than Berhalter realizes. In his post-game presser Tata said (sort of speaking to his 11 game with no losses streak): "There may be lapses of concentration but Mexico always played the game the way it wanted to play." (paraphrase)
I was just stating facts. I wouldnt put much blame on Pulisic, but it has been a pet peeve of ,one for a while to give the appearance of covering or double teaming and them do nothing or make things worse. All through the Hex, Bradley drop down and over pursue to double team an attacker to just take the other defender out of they to get beat. No idea what Trapp was doing on the play. If I was forced to guess, I'd say he was doing nothing. Boyd should have been deeper, marking the wide attacker. If he were, he would have been in a better position to pick up Chicharito one he saw him coming through unmarked. Edit to add better video. The live angle and especially the first replay show he is higher up the field than other midfielders watching the game/ball.
I'd add that even our three best guys are in a precarious situation. McKennie and Pulisic are already playing in teams that could be better without them around, and RB Leipzig doesn't miss Adams. I'd be surprised if in a few months all three are still keeping their spots.
When you get players together for 8-10 days at a time every two months or so, implementing a system that is complex isn’t going to work. International soccer coaching is about identifying a simple system that suits the available talent and then executing it extremely well. I don’t think anyone would say what Mexico was doing last night was overly complicated, but it sure was executed extremely well.
Dire outlook but not unreasonable. On the Univision broadcast there appeared to be some agreement that "USA qualifies but not if they play like they did tonight". I've said for some time that we don't qualify if our competition has competent management. Obviously that is asking a lot about concacaf management's improvement which hasn't been great. However, past results don't predict the future. In this age of fast, free flowing communication and an improved league in the USA for concacaf players, it wouldn't surprise me to see some outliers step up. We kinda saw that in GC.
It's time for some honesty. The system in place doesn't work. Nepotism is bad, cliques are bad. The USSF right now is much less diverse (as in diversity of ideas) than it was back in 1994. Also, the system in place is obsolete. Our coaches are stuck in 2006, at best (some are still in the 90s). The most modern idea Berhalter has ever spoused was the RB-as-2nd-DM stuff that was popular over a decade ago. It's a culture of entrenchment. I have a suspicion (cannot confirm, since I've been away from all that for over a decade) that there is a sort of political aversion to having the federation taken over by "Hispanic ideas," to put it a certain way. That'd be a reason to hire anyone but a Hispanic manager, too.
They are not anti-Hispanic. Here's something to ponder (I believe NYTimes still gives you a free read or two before paywall comes up). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/16/...basketball-owners.html?searchResultPosition=1 Try to think of it as beyond black and white.
per rigli on the Uruguay pre-game thread, here is our midfield for the game with Euros heading home after Mexico game: Sebastian Lletget Paxton Pomykal Cristian Roldan Wil Trapp Jackson Yueill This could putatively be our midfield in a final game of the hex with quali's on the line.
It was the wrong three midfielders. See my thoughts on the lineup release. We needed to have Lletget at the start. Then again, I'm not certain that Morales at the 6, as I wanted, would have been good.
You have gone a bit far. I don't know what you see to tell you that Dest and Weah are future jobbers on relegation battlers.