It's not just the negativity, though. Let me put it this way: I miss @sidefootsitter. Sure, he's a curmudgeonly pessimist, but he knows his stuff. I don't have an ignore list, but I probably should, because there are at least half a dozen names at this point whose comments I just scroll by without reading. They frequently bad-mouth the team, they don't offer any insight, they write from ignorance but express themselves with absolute certainty, and they comment all the time.
One clear advantage that Arena had in this match was a healthy DeAndre Yedlin. He had only started 2 of the previous 8 Hex matches, which were the victory over T&T and the draw at Azteca in June. Yedlin missed the September 2017 matches due to injury. Yedlin missed the March 2017 matches due to injury. Yedlin missed the November 2016 matches due to Jurgen Klinsmann starting Timmy Chandler over him.
I love LD ... but it wasnt an issue of "style." Landon simply didnt have the dribbling ball skills to go 1 v 1. So I would much prefer a guy who can do both (push it past a guy and dribble past a guy) than a guy who must do only 1 because that is all he has in his bag.
I can agree the job Bradley was tasked with is hard. Pulisic is pushing the problem because we have to build our attack around him, anything else is jut plain stupid. When we do that, it exposes Bradley. It isn't so bad against the Panama's and T&T's of the world, but it poses interesting questions going forward.
I think they just got cocky. They saw we were in poor form, saw CR beat us on our turf, thought they could do the same. My only complaint is that we let them get away with kicking Pulisic out of the game. We should have taken it out on one if their players, even if that meant a guy like McCarty or Villafana getting sent off. Not even so much for revenge but to give any future opponents who watch that tape something to think about before using that strategy (which every CONCACAF team for the next 3 cycles will try).
What they'll see watching the tape is a team that can easily be goaded into playing a man down. What they should have been doing was working the ref for persistent infringement....pointing out that he had been hacked down 5 times in the first 15 minutes
ok i'll take the bait.... pulisic is a bit better finisher than donovan, but donovan was a better passer. remember confederations cup 09? a healthy confident charlie davies and donovan behind him, maestro of the counter attack, great passing. hopefully pulisic, in time, can add more of that to his game.
Put Danny Williams or J. Cameron, and sit Bradley. Problem solved. The fact is going forward, this team needs to build around Pulisic and if Bradley can't sit behind Pulisic and provide the necessary support, he needs to sit.
I bolded your concluding point because I am in the portion of USMNT supporters who is still open to the possibility that Bruce will deviate from his "I must use established players" philosophy once we qualify. That is the question I have the most interest in. Another is: Did Bruce account for the specific opponent/venue/context of this match in putting Bradley at the base of the diamond, or does he think this is a template that could work in a WC group stage match? We shall see.
GCam at the base of a diamond would be even less effective than MB as the former can't cover the amount of ground the latter can.
Like the pass to Altidore last night? He also creates a ton of passing chances on Dortmund. Perhaps Donovan is a slightly better pure passer, but Pulisic's dribbling creates way more opportunities to open teams up with a pass.
I doubt we will play that way against better teams. See how he adjusted in Azteca, for example. The lineup worked great against Panama, but it won't work against the Germany's of the world. Too much space in the middle. Our biggest weakness now is our lack of bite in the midfield. I'm hoping Mckennie can help out with that.
Of course, Klinsmann ditched Yedlin in favor of Chandler when he went to Newcastle in the Championship. Yedlin's decision looks brilliant.
Save for at least three direct passes to Panama in the defensive end that a better team would've scored three goals from. Aside from shit passing he was great. james
http://www.flashscore.com/match/d6p5PYQE/#match-statistics;1 says we had 56% of the possession in the first half. Univision said 38.7%. That's a giant difference.
Bradley's not going anywhere before Russia. Yes he brings a host of issues but Arena will lean on him. The captain isn't getting dropped.
The notion the player pool sucks, we slipped because of MLS, and all these minnows are legit better now is an insufferably negative and seriously askew point of view. The view that management has sucked and some players aren't consistently motivated is a positive one. Means there is plenty of potential that is believed to be untapped. Much more positive than takes from nihilists and those who are easily satisfied. Because results have been far below standard for a couple years now. Won last 3 hexes, and even in supposed struggle of '02 finished w/ a couple more points minimum. Not to mention a-team GC debacle, and shameful performances at Guatemala + not in not recording a shot v. Argentina. Apparently they couldn't have been much better because of what we were working with to some. It keeps taking their backs up against the wall and being lambasted from fans + media to actually show up in a game: middle of Copa, 4-0 Guatemala, 6-0 Honduras, 4-0 Panama. So performances like this if anything reinforce that it needs to be done more often like in a passionate footballing nation. Just should be mostly informed and unbiased critiques.
Yedlin really changes things for this team. He dealt comfortably with situations that would have been nightmares if Zusi was back there. He also manages to pass cleanly out of those spots rather than hoofing it.
This video is too funny. Entendemos la frustración de los jugadores en estos momentos, pero no es la manera de tratar a los colegas periodistas. ¡ESTO ES LAMENTABLE! pic.twitter.com/EDMq7VSE9V— COS (@COSPanama) October 7, 2017
On replay last night the holdup play from Jozy and Wood was exceptional. Pulisic roaming underneath, even Arriola a time or two really opened up the attack in transition. This without question is how we must play going forward. No exceptions. I care not home vs away, heavy weight vs minnow, you put Jozy/Wood up top and Pulisic underneath at the 10. Previously when stuck out wide Pulisic was begging for someone to play off. Link options. Not last night. Last night we had Jozy swinging right and Wood swinging left which meant two targets to play to, one on either side, then Golden Boy was following and hitting the space that produced. So Arena can go more defensive or more attack minded in midfield, depending on the opponent but the front 3 should not change. I'm happy that's at least one key Arena finally unlocked. And Jozy was motivated last night. Another factor is it was noticeable our front 3 are 27, 24 and 19 with Arriola(22) chipping in. We didn't look old. These guys worked their asses off last night, dropping deep, pressing, holding up and then sprinting back towards goal to join in the attack time and time again. Arena really needs to consider what that means, we were vastly improved when we employed essentially 19-27 yr olds in the attack. For me that means we need to add a younger player with more energy/work rate next to Bradley. I'd add, our most athletic younger player in Yedlin is also quite a threat if allowed to join the attack. That's yet another reason to put a more physical tackler next to Bradley. Without it, he was pinned back and rarely got forward last night. So put a Williams or McKennie next to Bradley in the midfield and you unleash the Yedlin threat as well.
exactly who do you have in mind? bedoya? johnson- who as a midfielder for us is as toothless as bedoya? nagbe? zardes? i think arriola is clearly our best offensive winger/outside mid right now. weve got two question marks in lletget (who isnt an outside mid) and saief but no one else gives us remotely the attacking presence arriola does. not to mention he puts in as much work as any of those guys and he looks a good tandem on that side with yedlin. and my final point is hes far from a finished product. decision-making, crossing, shooting can all improve but even without that- i see him as a lock starter with no real argument against. whos being kept out that im missing?
and just to chime in on donovan/pulisic its pulisic for one- to me- very obvious reason: he fights for it every single match. donovan, for the most part, showed up for us when it mattered, and is possibly our best player ever to this point- but you cant say with a straight face that he gave the same effort pulisic does consistently. im talking game-to-game here- landon floated through a LOT of matches for us. so comparing pulisic to a guy who, about a quarter of the time, should be compared more to nagbe? thats a pretty easy call for me. a body of work is the only thing between pulisic and obvious, best ever usmnt player.
Very ironic coming from you. You're always pushing for the guys based in Europe to be called, even when not in good form. I take Villafana over a half-arsing Fabian Johnson, or Zusi over an indifferent Chandler. The actual results are on my side, whether you like it or not.
If I were a Rapids fan, I'd be mad at Howard. He played much better for the NT than he does for his club. When was the last time he came out like that to close the angle, in MLS?