Classy coach. More from him in English here: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017...major-hit-panama-left-wondering-what-happened
I don't know which big soccer discussion is more boring a) is Pulisic better than Donovan or b) should Pulisic play centrally or on the wing. I wonder what happens when the a) argument is definitively decided. Do they give the winner a trophy or a blue ribbon? As for argument b), why would you want him not centrally or not on the wing? didn't he feed Altidore from the wing on his goal?
I didn't see the whole game but I have only two comments that I think have much import: 1) Yedlin made a huge difference. I've had a crush on Yedlin since he came under the tutelage of Benitez at Newcastle. Stay healthy, Dre, we need you. 2) is somewhat connected to 1) because consider for a moment that we will be facing teams in Russia who have Yedlin difference makers in all positions. this means we cant afford to "get by" with a midfield which we are not satisfied with. We cant talk about motivating Nagbe so he plays like "the player we all want" or "expect that Acosta will develop" or that "Bradley has his faults but we don't have a replacement"l that midfield was an embarrassment and I saw that as somebody who has been saying we need to keep Bradley in there and use players like McKennia and Delgado to cover up his faults and cover him with an extra cb for more defense. So, my reaction is --Rowe-(Fab)----McKennie (Zardes, Williams)---Delgado(J.Gonzalez)---arriola(Adams) ---------------------------------EPB (Bradley, McCarty, J.Gonzalez) My personal choice: ------------------McKennie--EPB---Delgado, with Zardes for offensive sub, J.Gonzo, Bradley, McCarty in the rotation Rowe, Arriola, maybe Adams if he grows up, for wide mids (DaBoy in our thoughts if he can get back in time). I'm hoping a committee of Cameron, Besler, Howard, guzan, Pulisic, Wood, Morris, Altidore get together and sit down with Arena and suggest that we are all wasting our time in Russia if we don't have a wholesale change in midfield.
I always thought that was supposed to be a reggae skank. But, I'd like to see him do the patented Frankie Step-Over Love me some Frankie, Go Bruins!
I'm going to talk about went wrong since we all know what went right. Nagbe and Bradley gave the ball away too easily. Do you think Mckennie will still be playing for Schalke if he routinely made those types of errors? To me, experience is overrated when it comes how a player plays NOW.
That one idiotic turn over by MB when jozy was down injured was the entire book on post Roma Bradley.
Donovan's entire game was go early and beat man to the spot. He had some shake to him early but his pace made him neglect his dribbling. That being said, at full chat we have never had a better player with the ball at his feet.
Howard - Nice game from Timmay. Not a lot to do but he did well well needed. Villafana - Not a factor for the most part. That's ok i guess. I guess. Besler/Gonzo - Shaky. OK we pitched a shutout, but these 2 tried their best to get Panama one. They weren't terrible, but certainly should look at alternatives. pretty bad Yedlin - Locked down the RB Bradley - Pretty bad. Certainly didn't do anything to shut the haters up. Nagbe - Meh Arriola - Liked it. Needs to finish, but other than that he's a gamer Pulisic - He's a revelation. Probably safe to say US GOAT already. That said, he needs to make sure he doesn't try to do it all himself. 1st half he screwed up or missed 3 chances to put guys through. But.... thank god for this kid. Wood - Baller. It doesn't always produce, but what a worker. JKs biggest (only?) lasting success. Jozy - Brought it tonight. Those little lay offs were sublime. McCarty - Had a good shift. Dempsey/Bedoya - NR
Donovan was always under control. Not the case with Pulisic but Pulisic is a forward, Donovan was a midfielder. That's why I don't compare the two.I don't want my forward under control. I want him to go berserker.
I think we broke Panama. Lots of infighting, Bolillo unhappy with the players, some players unhappy with Bolillo, and worse some players are mad at other players. They may lose the game in CRC.
Against CR in Panama. After that game, they should be unhappy. They were totally unprepared and lost the game in the first 10 minutes or so. The Honduras v CR game is tomorrow. If Honduras get a result, they might overtake Panama if Panama lay another egg in the final game. p.s. I think Australia beats either Honduras or Panama. what do you think?
The first question is: how do you reorganize a beat-up squad that lost 4-0? WTF do latin people think? Seriously, what is going on in their minds? Besler. CP. Jozy. Wood. Arriola. Nagbe. Took extremely hard fouls. CP in particular was brutalized every single time he touched the ball for a 20min span. BA's best decision was to take him out of the game early. But Panama was battered? In one sequence Wood was literally kicked in the balls in front of everyone, went down and the ref? You deserved it.
When you strive to be impartial, both sides criticize you as having sold out to the other side. I've been a harsh critic of the Bradley-Nagbe pairing in midfield, something others are finally picking up. Also, I was a harsh critic of Fabian Johnson as a LM, something many are only noticing in the last months. I'm not pro-MLS nor pro-Europe. I just give my opinions. However, we have many soccer fans in the USA who are not fans of American soccer. They're, above all, fans of El Tri, the Three Lions, or Germany. Those people are our Fifth Column and would love to see American soccer fail. Our top professional league failing is a wish of theirs.
OK, but your "analysis" smacks of bias and a faulty premise. What matters the most is how well individual players are playing, both with their clubs and with the national team. Club form is not the be-all-end-all. Novakovic playing for Telstar in the Dutch 2nd Division won't get called up, and neither will a USL Bethlehem Steel loanee like Derrick Jones. Why? Because we certain benchmark levels of play that matter, independent of the location of the team. National team form matters, which is why guys like Chandler, Corona, Roldan, and Williams don't have guaranteed spots, because they're either spotty (Chandler, Corona) or don't have much of a track record with the national team (Williams, Roldan). Once again, there's some examples of players on both sides of the Atlantic in similar positions. Because it's not about where someone is from, or where they play (unless it's at a prohibitively low level), but what they bring to the team. Examples: Chandler, Williams, Miazga. Those are 3 European based players that could easily be better than Zusi, MB/Nagbe/Bedoya/McCarty/Acosta, or Omar/Ream respectively. Morrow, Roldan, Ramirez. Those are three MLS-based players that could easily be better than Zusi, MB/Nagbe/Bedoya/McCarty/Acosta, or Altidore/Wondo respectively. Not every player can get a callup. Not everyone on here, nor Bruce, would agree with the examples that I've given. Not every example is guaranteed to pip some other, more-experienced player for a spot. But it's extremely tiresome to keep seeing your posts constantly harping on "European" players. How about just analyzing individual players and their performances, rather than crafting scenarios in which you can try to discredit or weed out as many European-based players as possible?
Besler performs better than all of them for the NT. Chandler performs better than all of them at the club level. I'd agree Pulisic is #1, second is up for debate. Certainly wouldn't say its Yedlin or Brooks, maybe top 5 for those two.