What you had described are the jobs of the coach and the captain. These guys know how to play at their clubs, but once they get to the NAT team, they suddenly became U12 kids and forgot how to play soccer. Why, because we got a SHITE coach, and a worse captain.
'Lack of urgency' issues can arise when players know the team don't have to win. How hard to attack? How much to bunker? Apparently, the players also disagreed with Arena's tactics.
Time to dust this one off from Nick Hornby, FEVER PITCH. "Football teams are extraordinarily inventive in the ways they find to cause their supporters sorrow. They lead at Wembley and then throw it away; they go top of the First Division and then stop dead; they draw the difficult away game and lose the home replay; they beat Liverpool one week and lose to Scunthorpe the next' they seduce you, half-way through the season, into believing that they are promotion candidates and then go the other way ... always, when you think you have anticipated the worst that can happen, they come up with something new."
I'm not a fan of Bedoya, but his comments on not qualifying are absolutely calling out the players, tactics and Bruce. He's 100% spot on, imo. "You can say whatever you want -- I'm not the most skillful, not the guy that's going to do stepovers, go one-vs-one. But for me, sitting on the bench, watching the guys not really getting stuck in and that I didn't feel that proper energy out on the field -- we were kind of complacent. It was lethargic. We got ourselves in a bad situation and paid the price for it. "We let our country down, we let our teammates down, we let our families down, and we let ourselves down," Bedoya said. "It's an utter disappointment. The first half was pretty embarrassing."
This match needed more Bedoya. More Dax. Hell maybe more Alan Gordon! Bedoya is right. The most painfully obvious thing watching that game was that there was no energy/fight/heart. Say whatever you want about why it wasn’t there the fact is those games require those specific qualities. They’re never going to be pretty.
He's right. We had 3 players actively fighting to turn the game around: a 19 year old, a 35 year old and a RB. Yedlin, Pulisic and Dempsey are the only 3 that can hold their heads even remotely high after that shower. Dempsey outshot both starting forwards combined in 1/4 the game time on the field!
As I've said before. This game should have lined up with 5 in the middle or 5 in the back. Bruce should have approached this game like his life depended on 1 point. It was coaching malpractice, right up there with Klinsmann's 2014 World Cup roster.
A whole era of soccer in America started in Trinidad, with "the shot heard around the world." How fitting for it to end in Trinidad as well. Because this is just as historic. We'll be seeing the effects for years.
🇺🇸 @PhilSchoen's reasons #USMNT failed to qualify:1️⃣ Complacency2️⃣ Age3️⃣ @MLS pic.twitter.com/7Cxocxxpi1— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) October 13, 2017
I'll also add Panama were in a similar situation in their away game against us. The coach set them up to attack when just getting a point was paramount. The uncertainty led to their getting cut to pieces. Arena's starting the same players from the Panama game was uncharacteristic.
Yep, was thinking along those lines. Our guys expected the Trinidadians to just let 'em win, after all they were already eliminated and dead last, nothing was going to change that. So they were playing the B-team? We just have to show up, alrighty then! It was perfect karma.
I think this isn't necessarily an American problem. Although, it rears it's ugly head here more often. Zidane was never considered a great prospect until he was in his late teens. And was never really a part of their national youth teams. Different sport, but my oldest is really into swimming, he was never the best swimmer, but was never the worst. The past year or so he's started to develop physically and started to compete with and beat swimmers that would regularly beat him. Parents would come up to me and say what happened to him? They weren't able to grasp the concept that kids develop at different times. Luckily in swim, like track, it's an obvious meritocracy. Soccer on the other hand doesn't handle the late bloomer very well.
They thought the REAL qualifier was Panama. One they blew them out they ass-umed they were in. They weren't. If you don't take any WCQ game seriously you are cruisin' for a bruisin'.
The worst of it all is that we deserved this, we deserved this hard. Bunch of arrogant tossers we are, always whining about the cow pastures, the terrible conditions, the poor infrastructure, the ugly smelly rival fans. As if being poorer than us were an indictment of their morals! Our players taking pics going to the beach the day before, all smiles, after taking pictures horsing around making the water on the field look as if it were a river, always criticizing everything about everybody else. And our fans who cannot praise our players without being derisive to their teammates, inflating kids who have not even played a real game, always thinking we had the God-given right to go to the World Cup because The Lord is on our side. We deserved this SO HARD. As they say, if someone hates you, it's their problem. But if everybody hates you, it's your problem. And it's time to take a deep, serious, impartial look at yourself. The fact that people were celebrating our elimination not just here in the region, but all over, that speaks volumes.
Days later and it still doesn't get any easier...still seems surreal. Probably won't get better until after the WC. I still can't believe we didn't go into T&T playing for a 0-0 draw. Just inexcusable. At least Arena is gone, but as he's shown in the aftermath his arrogance knows no bounds. From his tactics (we haven't even thought about T&T) to his player selections (Gonzo over Cameron, no FJ are you f-ing kidding me), hubris and smugness pervaded everything he did. He thought he knew better than everyone else and was shown to be a fraud and embarrassment. Good riddance. Gulati should have the decency to step down immediately as well, or at the very least publicly announce he will not seek re-election in February and will let his successor hire a permanent coach. He needs to be held accountable - this is on him more than anyone. The buck stops there. His words and actions following this humiliation have been nothing short of disgraceful. We weren't eliminated by an errant shot that hit the post - what a load of BS. He always has an excuse and it's always someone else's fault - no wonder him and JK got along. Bradley too should retire from national team duty, or be forced into retirement. His lack of urgency was despicable. Where was the fire, the passion, the competitive spirit? He lost it years ago when he went back to MLS for the $. In recent years everything came too easy - unquestioned starter for club and country, 90 every match, fat paycheck...never had to fight for anything. This is his legacy now - captaining the side to a legendarily poor performance in the hex. I guess we shouldn't be surprised - he captained our side to another embarrassing low, 4th place finish in the GC and loss to Jamaica on home soil. I truly believe we need to invest in a proven foreign coach who has no attachment to MLS or anyone in the player pool. Someone who's shown to get more out of less. We obviously need to build around youth - we should field a very young team, the core of which can stick together through the '19 GC, Olympics, hopefully CC, and finally Qatar. We need to get a killer instinct when dealing with CONCACAF - respect your opponent by taking them seriously and trying to destroy them, be it Haiti or Mexico. Give the armband to Pulisic immediately - it's his team now. Build everything around him. I feel absolutely gutted for him - he deserved better. So did all of the fans.
For the sake of argument, let’s say that FIFA had produced irrefutable evidence that Joseph Lamptey had received a bribe in order to make calls that would benefit one or more teams. It doesn’t follow from this that the U.S. should not submit a protest and request that the Panama-Costa Rica match be replayed. I merely used the Lamptey example of an instance in which FIFA had ordered the replay of a match based on a referee’s error. And I did this to try to suggest that if the U.S. were to submit a protest and ask that the Costa Rica-Panama match be replayed, there is a chance that FIFA and/or the Court for the Arbitration of Sports (CAS) would rule that the match be replayed. The 2005 World Cup qualifier between Uzbekistan and Bahrain is another match that FIFA ordered replayed. Moreover, even if there were no chance that FIFA or CAS would rule that way, the U.S. still should submit such a protest and request. For one thing, it will show that we are standing up to a grave injustice, which, among other good consequences, may result in better refereeing in the future and/or greater use of Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR). In fact, just yesterday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino argued that the first goal that Walter Lopez awarded to Panama against Costa Rica on Tuesday night, which may have contributed to the U.S. not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, supports the use of VAR. According to Infantino, “When you play a World Cup qualification game and that game is decided by a major error of interpretation by the referee, which can happen because they're human beings like everyone else, then it is time to rectify things. When the whole world has seen it in just a few seconds and the only one who hasn't is the referee, not because he doesn't want to but because he's forbidden from seeing it, and it could be corrected then I think we should move with the times and take a step forward." Here is a link: http://www.espnfc.com/blog/fifa/243...infantino-backs-var-after-phantom-panama-goal Be that as it may, this does not support the view that the U.S. should not submit a formal protest. First, it’s important to know what was said. Maybe Lopez did not ask the right kinds of questions or get answers that were grounds for him to award Panama a goal. Moreover, even if Lopez did everything right, the AR clearly made an enormous mistake. He signaled that a goal had been scored even though he did not know that the entire ball had crossed the line, and, as I said, this mistake is at odds with the very essence of soccer and could have prevented the U.S. from qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. In other words, the decision by the AR is relevant to whether the U.S. should submit a formal protest. When I read FIFA Laws of the Game 2017-8 (The Laws), I overlooked The Practical Guidelines for Match Officials (The Guidelines), which is attached to Laws of the Game 2017-8. Or, if I saw it originally, I forgot about it. Thanks for bringing up The Practical Guidelines. Here is the relevant section of the chapter entitled “Positioning, Movement and Teamwork:” Goal/no goal When a goal has been scored and there is no doubt about the decision, the referee and assistant referee must make eye contact and the assistant referee must then move quickly 25–30 metres along the touchline towards the halfway line without raising the flag. When a goal has been scored but the ball appears still to be in play, the assistant referee must first raise the flag to attract the referee’s attention then continue with the normal goal procedure of running quickly 25–30 metres along the touchline towards the halfway line. On occasions when the whole of the ball does not cross the goal line and play continues as normal because a goal has not been scored, the referee must make eye contact with the assistant referee and if necessary give a discreet hand signal (p. 180). First, did the AR do the proper movement? I don’t know. In the replays I’ve seen, I can’t tell. Since the AR apparently believed that a goal had been scored but that the ball was “in play” in the sense that the ball was not in the back of the net, then what he is supposed to do raise his flag to attract the referee’s attention and then run quickly 25-30 meters along the touchline toward the halfway line. Let’s assume that he did this. And here is what it says in the chapter of The Guidelines on “Body Language, Communication and Whistle:" The beep signal system is an additional signal which is only used to gain the referee’s attention. Situations when the signal beep may be useful include: • offside • offences (outside the view of the referee) • throw in, corner kick, goal kick or goal (tight decisions) (p. 189) Hence, I was mistaken when I said: “In fact, [in the Laws of the Game] there is no explicit mention of the AR’s role when it comes to determining whether goals have been scored.” Although arguably The Practical Guidelines are not technically part of the FIFA Laws of the Game 2017-8, they are physically part of the very same document that FIFA had published. And the page numbers of The Practical Guidelines are in sequence with The Laws to suggest that The Laws and The Practical Guidelines are part of one document. Here is a link to The Laws 2017/8 and The Guidelines: http://www.the-afc.com/uploads/afc/files/IFAB-laws-of-the-game-2017-2018.pdf However, the fact that The Guidelines say what the AR should do when “a goal has been scored but the ball appears still to be in play” and that the AR may use the beep signal in tight goal situations doesn’t mean that the U.S. should not submit a protest. A goal wasn’t scored. And either the AR, the referee or both made egregious errors that are at odds with the essence of soccer. And a replay would be a fair remedy. And one thing that neither The Laws 2017-8 nor The Guidelines says is that the AR’s judgment on whether a goal is scored is the final judgment. On the contrary, The Laws make it clear that the referee is the one who decides whether or not a goal is awarded. Hence, The Laws say: “Each match is controlled by a referee who has full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match” (p. 61) And: “Decisions will be made to the best of the referee`s ability according to the Laws of the Game and the ‘spirit of the game’ and will be based on the opinion of the referee who has the discretion to take appropriate action within the framework of the Laws of the Game” (p. 61) And: “The decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, are final. The decisions of the referee, and all other match officials, must always be respected” (p. 61, emphasis added). It’s not like in baseball in which the first base umpire has the final authority to determine whether the batter has swung or checked his swing. I didn’t mean to suggest that, at the time he made the call, I believe that the AR did not know that the entire ball must cross the entire line in order for a goal to be fairly awarded. But my point was twofold. First, the U.S. should try to find out what happened in the conversation between Lopez and the AR. Maybe the AR didn’t know the rule at the time. It’s possible. People forget things. And in the case of the World Cup qualifier between Uzbekistan and Bahrain, the referee’s not knowing the rule resulted in an error, and FIFA ordered that the match be replayed. Moreover, even if the AR did know that in order for a goal to be fairly awarded the AR must know that the entire ball must cross the entire line, I know that he did not have knowledge that entire ball had crossed the entire line, because I know—and other who have seen the video or who were there know—that the entire ball did not cross the entire line. And it’s important for the AR not to signal that a goal has been scored if he does not know that the entire ball crossed the entire line. After the AR signaled that the ball had crossed the line, Lopez went over to talk to the AR. I watched on video replay the meeting between Lopez and the AR. It was short. There were three discreet instances in which one communicated with the other. In the first two instances, Lopez said nothing. The AR told him things. Then, in the third instance, it looked like Lopez said something, but then the picture from that camera—abruptly—was no longer visible on the recording that I have. But for the sake of argument, let’s say Lopez and the AR had the kind of discussion they should have had. It is still important to know what was said. A goal was mistakenly awarded that might have contributed to a team not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. Also, as you suggested, let’s say that Lopez and the AR had worked together before. That doesn’t mean that U.S. shouldn’t file a protest. Sometimes people who have worked together before still don’t follow procedure in the way that they should. In fact, sometimes familiarity results in individuals being too cavalier when it comes to following proper procedure. For whatever it’s worth, in an article on goal.com, the former Spanish referee Rafa Guerrero said that the match should be replayed. According to the article from goal.com, "FIFA does have recent history when it comes to the calling of games to be replayed on the back of contentious refereeing decisions. "'It would have to have the match repeated,' former Spanish referee Rafa Guerrero said. ‘What's more, FIFA should force them to play again. There is already precedent for it.'" Here is a link: http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/coul...-save-us-world-cup-/qh5y2zutif9e1p8flpx7eooaz