Pre-match: 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group Stage: USA vs Guyana

Adams and McKennie have great reps as to being able to cover a lot of ground but this is asking too much of any player(s). Why are their talents essential to covering for a non-defensive, slow #6?

 

...and now playing like he is sleep-walking around.

Seriously, my 2 favorite things watching MB90. How he tries to get back on defense and get into his defensive crouch 5-10 yards off of his mark and, two, watch whenever one his teammates are taken down very hard or worse. The player is suffering in pain on the ground and his only concern will be to grab the ball and start preparing for the upcoming set piece that he, of course, will always need to take.

 

If we can't score at least 2 goals before the half and finish them off...

 

Oh, but the true nuclear disaster sits in the background, at 15,000.

 

They are better than Guyana. Think we will get 9 Tuesday night?

 

Man, I'd take one and be happy. The worst part about it though would be the idiot coaching staff sitting smugly after a 1 or 2 nil win against Guyana saying how great the effort was and how pleased they were about the chances they generated and how good the team was at getting into good positions.

 

Well, when Holmes got injured, after Lletget got injured, there were two guys from the 40 to choose from to replace him (unless you consider replacing an AM with a striker, in which case you could bring Sargent in). One was Nagbe, the other Mihailovic. I like Nagbe, personally, but do see that Mihailovic is much more aggressive in combining in the final third. We're down to 3rd and 4th choice options at the position due to injury.

 

If the US suffers a striker injury in the next 2 days, who will Berhalter call?

1. Christian Ramirez
2. Josh Sargent, 10 days into his summer vacation.

Even though it would be unpopular, I would clearly expect Ramirez to be the guy.

 

That excuse only works if you were handed the 40 man roster. But when you have 6+ months to come up with 40 players as a pool, and then you basically end up with the 23 that faced Panama in January, that is a failure.

And the answer is Sargent.

Nagbe shouldn't be on the 40 because he is being blacklisted, correctly. But you need to have found anyone that could actually contribute positively. Aaronson, Davis, Morales, have not even been looked at. Pomykal is better than 50% of the CMs on this roster now.

 

You'd think he would avoid using non-MLS mediocrities like Omar and Ream if this was the case. Both could easily be replaced with similarly talented MLS mediocrities.

 

Maybe it's Sargent who should be getting the call, but would Berhalter really call in a European player (like CCV, Robinson, or Sargent) who has been on summer vacation for 10 days if this US squad suffers another injury before the tournament in the next 2 days?

I'm skeptical.

 

If Nagbe were being blacklisted he wouldn't be on the 40 to begin with. Aaronson looks promising, but is 18 and has 12 games as a 1st division player. Don't know who Davis is. Morales wouldn't be a replacement for Holmes even if he were on the roster. Again, Berhalter had his 3rd and 4th choice options to choose from to replace Holmes. It borders on the ridiculous to complain that his 4th choice option isn't your 4th choice option.

 

Yeah I remember that Gold Cup very well. Going in, the roster looked astonishingly weak and any reasonable observer would have to have been seriously concerned that we would be able to show decently with some of the mediocre vets and untried youth out there. Happily, we managed to scrape our way into the finals (despite almost losing to Haiti and needing ET to beat Panama), though once there Mexico exposed our lack of quality and beat us badly.

At first this story gave me some hope because it looks very similar to what we're dealing with now, basically an identical level of concern beforehand but in that case followed by a run to the final (though a horrible final). But upon reflection it's a really depressing comparison because in 2009 the reason the roster was weak was that those were almost all second-choice players (a couple exceptions: Davies, Dolo). It was the roster left over because the top-flight players had just been to the Confeds Cup.

I realize others have made versions of this point, but still I find it singularly concerning. If the *best* roster we can feature is about on the same level as the second-string roster we fielded in 2009, well ... ********. Hard to find a clearer indication of programmatic decline than that.

 

There were quotes in later interviews that make the two claims contradict one another.

 

Are you implying that Jamaica and Venezuela are on par with Cuba?

 

Jamaica may be close to Cuba talent wise but Venezuela Is a much better team. No comparison

 

I don't think I belittled his skill in that regards at all. I said he is a decent dribbler who is well at maintaining possession. Sounds like you vehemently agreed with what I wrote in the first place. He adds nothing to the future of this team.

 

Why is he being blacklisted for missing a friendly? That's petty.

 

Sorry... I shouldn't have quoted you. it was just a general comment about nagbe. I agree with your assessment and find it sad that I would have chosen nagbe over the player to replace Holmes.

 

Why are Chandler and Johnson being black listed? I guess I should add Moralles, William's, Wood, etc.

 

It doesn't border on ridiculous to complain that his 4th option is awful if you feel there are better players who could've been looked at during this period.

 

Sure, it was just Jamaica and Venezuela at home but OK.

 

I think the difference between players like Nagbe/Morales/Williams and somebody like Chandler is that Chandler is an excellent player with a proven Bundesliga career who should have had a lock on the right back position since Cherundolo retired, 75+ caps, multiple World Cups, maybe even U.S. captaincy, etc.

Instead, Chandler is the biggest bust in U.S. national team history.

 

both are likely MLS players by the end of 2019...heck, one already is...

plus omar is a former teammate of GB @ LAG...GB has clearly shown a penchant towards nepotism/croneyism AKA if he has any history with a player they are "in"

 

Nagbe should play further from goal...he would be perfect in Trapp and Bradley's spot.

He's not an attacking mid..that's fine....but he's great at adavancing the ball in the middle third of the field...which trapp and bradely both suck at. he faster and a better defender than both trapp and bradely ....

AND guess what ? he plays there in MLS, too.

just like Nguyen and Fielhaber too....(both also better than WTF90 and MB90)