7-0 Win including a Weston McKinnie hat-trick. Discuss! https://www.espn.com/soccer/table/_/league/concacaf.nations.league
Really annoyed we couldn't break that Barbados record. That was only a 3-0 game at the break. I really thought we had it at halftime. I guess getting one more goal than Canada helps if Goal Differential comes into play (though I really hope it doesn't) McKennie was awesome, Morris was awesome, and Yueill was awesome. Sargent made some nice runs, though the finishing wasn't great. Pulisic got his consolation goal from the spot, but he really seems like he needs some confidence and I'm not sure this game gave him that. Same could be said for Boyd. Center Backs had some sloppy moments, but boredom can do that. Lovitz had some really nice passes, but also had a ton of time and space to deliver those. Fairly meh performances for Cannon and Roldan. Guzan had nothing to do, though he did do a good job on judging the angle of one shot and not allowing a needless corner. It was nice running up the score, but Tuesday is what matters.
McKennie and Morris were absolutely outstanding. Yuiell was great. Cannon was good. Sargent was alright. everyone else sucked. I was really high on Boyd at first, but he’s very low on my pecking order right now. And, Arriola only does good when teams are better than us. Roldan was invisible. So, was Lletget. Miazga, Ream, and Guzan weren’t tested but were sloppy at times. Pulisic was very poor.
Not much to say considering that Cuba is probably as bad a Men's team as Thailand was a Woman's team. One negative was that our corners were absolute rubbish. Drive the damn corner across...
Yueill needs to be ahead of Trapp. I would take him ahead of Bradley too at this point. Lovitz and Roldan aren't USMNT quality. Not even at the speculative level. I'm glad to see Morris have a year of good soccer.
Wow. Nations League Fever! 6 posts 2 hours after the game. 3 of which are referencing the lack of posts. I'm still excitied ANYTIME our NATION plays. Well kinda. Anyways. Cuba defense was ?????????????????? ouch. Morris gets another MOTM. He's now I guess lock starter status? Mckennie also obviously killed it. The rest can't take much from this match. The Canada Match is BIG. BIG I TELL YOU. HHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
Wanted 10. And it is going to take a LOT MORE than that to convince in the long run, but I'm good with a glazed donut every once in a while...
There’s a good piece over on mlspropaganda.com by Bobby Warshaw about the team beginning to execute Berhalters vision. He talks about the intent to put the opposition in a bind by isolating their defenders in half spaces where they have to make quick choices between at least two options and are always on the back foot reacting to an assertive offensive set. It has become apparent to me that McKennie, Cannon, Ream, and Morris are probably the first to really start getting their heads around this. They are the group to consistently find ways to execute. I am surprised, but Pulisic still floats in and out of games a lot while the aforementioned group is making things happen. Berhalters approach is really bright (reminds me some of the NBA’s Don Nelson teams), and its quite ambitious. Will he be able to teach these conceptual binary decision flows to enough of these guys to have them flourish and culminate in a World Cup? That is yet to be seen. But I tell you what, it’s fun to see someone finally brave enough to demand that the program change its mentality from fast break soccer to putting the opposition under pressure in their own half. Its a super ambitious project.
Thailand's women's team is actually ranked the same as Turkey's men's team (currently 39th). I can't imagine watching qualifying for AFC or CAF.
lol. We played a minnow’s minnow and you use it to laud Berhalter’s system? Are you Gregg’s mom? we’ve historically never had problems when minnows cede time and space to us as Cuba did. Furthermore, most of our scoring plays were direct. SMH
Next go round, I want to see: Ledezma Llanez Miljevic Soto Mendez Cardoso Hamalainen Ferreira Araujo Dest if he’ll play. Sandler if he’ll play. And any other dual-national I forgot. One big negative about that game is that we didn’t cap-tie anyone.
Eh, it was Cuba. Morris looked like a world beater. McKennie was a super star against a back line with most of their starters defecting before the match. Pulisic looked quiet, corners were taken horribly. For a player that’s somewhat rotating in a Bundesliga squad, Sargent needs to finish better
I posted my thoughts in the match thread so sorry in advance to anyone who is reading them twice! It's hard to take away too many positives because Cuba is very bad but it is possible to tell who didn't stand out or even struggled a bit. Pulisic, for example, did not have a great game but he was literally dribbling circles around Cuba at times and obviously had the quality that stood out so I don't judge him too harshly. Tim Ream is an excellent LCB for the USMNT. He is so smooth on the ball and he ALWAYS leads our players where he wants them to go. He can be our LCB for the entire Hex for me. Jordan Morris has put himself in the auto-starter category. I believe the advanced line of four should always include him, Pulisic, and McKennie when healthy. I'd like to see Weah get the next shot at being the fourth as soon as he's healthy. A player in the Ledezma mold probably fits best but I'd rather see Holmes and Lletget get their chances before him. Daniel Lovitz is an awful left-back. We had 10 guys who were head and shoulders above Cuba and then we had Lovitz who looked like he'd fit right in on their team. Seriously, he is in contention the worst LB I've ever seen us play and there is some pretty stiff competition at LB. His passing when he had time and space was fine. The second he had pressure he either played it back or errantly forward. Also, he has more crosses blocked than anyone I've ever seen. If not for the Cuba defender temporarily forgetting what sport he was playing, that cross for a pk would have been blocked too. Robinson and Hollingshead should both in the next camp and so should Lichaj if Ream stays at LCB (which he should). Jackson Yuell has sort of won me over. I was fully prepared to hate him for being the next suburban soccer legend pushed on us as the cerebral savior of the USMNT but I actually like him. He's more athletic than Bradley and Trapp combined. Though still not a plus athlete, at least he won't be a minus against CONCACAF Hex teams. But the thing I really liked was how adventurous his passing is. If we want to play a "regista" this is a must. He understands how to pace a game so much better than Bradley. At this point, I'd be fine heading into the Hex with Yuell as Adams backup at the 6. Adams will win us games there. Yuell won't lose them which is more than I can say for his competition. Sargent is better than Zardes. We already knew that. He didn't have the type of performance that leads me to think he's better than Altidore yet though. Connected well and made great runs including one where he got in front of the keeper that led to McKennie scoring. Still needs to finish. Roldan was pretty anonymous considering how much action every other advanced player was getting. Something about this guy and the USMNT just doesn't click. Lletget immediately became involved when he entered which is more of what I'd expect. Stu Holden's propaganda for Michael Bradley is disgusting. It's literally straight out of Goebbels textbook. I assume it's in his SUM contract that he must absurdly praise Bradley "x" number of minutes per game because he kept talking over the other announcer who was trying to comment on the match just to heap praise on MB90. McKennie is very good. He's a midfielder unlike any we've ever had. I'm still not sure what his best role is but he's a fantastic player. I actually enjoyed the game. It was nice to see us do what we should. Now, I'm ready for MB90, Zardes, and Ream at LB to resume against Canada and all of the goodwill from tonight to immediately disappear.
I thought Puli did a good job demonstrating why he's glued to the Chelsea bench. I hate Lamps slightly less after last night.
Yes it was Cuba and they were awful. Crappy, However you want to state it. But sheesh I swear what did some of you expect? We dominated the match from start to finish. Dominated in every aspect. No team plays perfectly for an entire 90 minutes. But the few things errors we made last night were minor and did not lead to dangerous situations. To me the best overall thing was that we continually made runs in behind the defense and the passes to those runners were mostly spot on. Great timing and communication. So again not sure what y'all expect. I was delighted with the performance last night.