MLS Flavors of the week: 2019 Edition

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by Sombrerito, Dec 20, 2018.

  1. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    gogorath repped this.
  2. IndividualEleven

    Mar 16, 2006
    Manneh with a nice assist to cap another strong effort. Went 84 minutes.
     
    adam tash repped this.
  3. rgli13

    rgli13 Member+

    Mar 23, 2005
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    both were already marking. would you prefer a goal off a slipped pass if one of them left their mark?

    bradley/mckennie were overrun, there were (by my count) 4 attackers in the box (not counting dos santos). the time for aggressively stepping to the ball to stop play was 5 seconds and 15 yards earlier.

    eta: why is this in mls fotw?
     
  4. IndividualEleven

    Mar 16, 2006
    Lewis with another goal. Should be a part of Olympic Qualifying.
     
    50/50 Ball repped this.
  5. bsky22

    bsky22 Member+

    Dec 8, 2003
    If Bradley's man hadn't allowed his man to easily receive the ball or if he was able to put any kind of pressure on the ball, the goal scorer would never have gotten the ball.

    The fixation on the player that scores shows either a naiveness about the game or just an agenda. Bradley was crap defensively throughout the game. I expect 20 yo to make mistakes, not 30+ yo. Maybe there would be people that would go after Bradley if their roles were swapped, but they would be just as wrong as those blaming the goal on mckennie. At least five players could have done things to change how that play went down. Each of them need to learn from it and do better.
     
  6. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    Weston is a better player playing at a higher level. He doesn’t get a pass for being young and he should have been tracking back as he should know that having an attacker running at Bradley is very dangerous for the USMNT.

    The point remains is that McKennie/Bradley is a poor pairing and one of them should be replaced.

    Weston is a rangy, risk taker who is quite good at winning balls (but obviously doesn’t win all of them). He needs a player similar to him who can be depended on when Weston goes forward or one of his aggressive plays doesn’t pan out. The worst partner for him is a conservative back passer with limited defensive abilities and terrible range.

    I wonder if Berhalter also sees this and if so, which player stays and which goes.
     
  7. thedukeofsoccer

    thedukeofsoccer Member+

    Jul 11, 2004
    Wussconsin
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Mueller is going to have a tough time being consistency impactful w/ Orlando. They have about 1 MLS starter caliber player in their back 6-7. Can't win the ball and build-up worth s**t. He has to come back to the ball and help build-up themselves. Almost all their quality is in their front 3-4. It's like a child they plucked from Disneyworld put together that team. Got yanked early and the commentators didn't get it either.

    Toye has that swag, mobility, and nice technique. He's something different from what we have in the pool otherwise. Could really be an asset to the NT in the near future if he keeps it up.

    Hollingshead contained Minnesota on his side, was smooth playing the ball out the back, didn't bomb forward as much as forward but you know has that capability, and he's elite in the air for fb. Really an unsung hero for FCD and his national team shots are especially overdue w/ our lb situation.

    A well taken one, and also had a joint game-high 4 key passes. Unfortunate to not have an assist in there. Low cross to Shinyasaki on net but he shot it right at the keeper. Had another slick move to the end line and lay back into the box that Mezquida couldn't finish.

    He's still very inexperienced. People shouldn't be down on him for nat'l team performance. Still hasn't had much of an opportunity, and shouldn't have been included, yet. Maybe a long-term investment.
     
    OWN(yewu)ED and 50/50 Ball repped this.
  8. manq360

    manq360 Member+

    Jun 17, 2009
    Portland, OR
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I know some of BS members did not like Lewis being called in, but I can see why. He impressed me yesterday with not only his goal, but how active he was. I hope that he continues his run and appears again for the NT.
     
  9. GoBigBlue88

    GoBigBlue88 Member+

    Feb 11, 2009
    Club:
    AC Milan
    Eh, I don't think anyone argued the call-up. People are just waiting to see Lewis do something well, at the international level, other than "run fast in a straight line."
     
  10. thedukeofsoccer

    thedukeofsoccer Member+

    Jul 11, 2004
    Wussconsin
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A lot of people argued the call-up, understandably, because he hadn't put enough of a sample in to prove himself in MLS.

    And he got limited opportunity around the Gold Cup. 1 game, against a team inferior to the ones he plays in MLS so means little either way in terms of translation to "int'l level". Before that, in bench chances, he played little like you described to warrant the specific criticism. He was a danger man off the dribble with change of direction.
     
  11. bsky22

    bsky22 Member+

    Dec 8, 2003
    Who is giving him a pass? Hopefully he will learn from his mistake. I have no hope whatsoever that Bradley will change anything about his game. He has been an auto starter since mckennie was 8 yo.
     
    Namdynamo, btlove, yurch10 and 1 other person repped this.
  12. 50/50 Ball

    50/50 Ball Member+

    Sep 6, 2006
    USA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Brandon Servania is sure looking like a guy who is going to have a say about those penciled in lineups.

    Are we going to see an all FCD academy midfield for the USMNT at some point?

    I wouldn't be shocked to see PP, Wes and Servania on the field together for the U23s. We're going to be like store brand Spain where 7-8 out of 11 players are from 2 teams.
     
    wixson7 and Eleven Bravo repped this.
  13. 50/50 Ball

    50/50 Ball Member+

    Sep 6, 2006
    USA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Toye being 6-3 is nice too.

    Lewis actually has some dribbling ability which is rare in our pool.
     
    gogorath repped this.
  14. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I’m sorry but why would we send Wes to the u23’s?
     
    btlove repped this.
  15. thedukeofsoccer

    thedukeofsoccer Member+

    Jul 11, 2004
    Wussconsin
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    He shouldn't be at qualifying, and I don't think he'd be released anyway, but we should be trying to win Olympic gold and I think have an outside chance if a strong team including Wes is brought.
     
    gogorath and 50/50 Ball repped this.
  16. jaykoz3

    jaykoz3 Member+

    Dec 25, 2010
    Conshohocken, PA
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    He likely got yanked due to it being Orlando's 4th game in 11 days. They're trying to manage players minutes during a busy stretch of their season. That said, I agree that Orlando's roster construction is not good.
     
  17. jond

    jond Member+

    Sep 28, 2010
    Club:
    Levski Sofia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Shea might have just torn his ACL.
     
  18. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Should we send Adams and Pulisic too? No those 3 are part of the core of our Senior Team.
     
    btlove repped this.
  19. thedukeofsoccer

    thedukeofsoccer Member+

    Jul 11, 2004
    Wussconsin
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yes, yes we should. It's a matter of a prioritization at the time. The early rounds of World Cup qualifying don't even start until after the Olympics. The Olympics is #2 priority for me in the cycle, unless we play in Copa America 2020. You could still make the case it's #2 because they could win it. Neymar prioritized it over Copa Centenario.
     
    50/50 Ball repped this.
  20. ChambersWI

    ChambersWI Member+

    Nov 10, 2010
    Club:
    AC Milan
    I think Lewis was also nursing an injury going into the Gold Cup wasnt he? I'm sure if he keeps this pace up he will get more chances
     
  21. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Copa should def be the priority. Neymar only did that because the Copa he skipped was a bs money grab for the Fed being played in the US and the Olympics were being held in Brazil and I believe they had never won it. I don’t want to burn these guys out. Let them stay with their clubs or play senior games. Let the u23s that haven’t broken thru yet get the opportunity to make a name for themselves.
     
  22. thedukeofsoccer

    thedukeofsoccer Member+

    Jul 11, 2004
    Wussconsin
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Hyndman is on for Atlanta in the 67th minute.

    Roldan has been a monster today, reminiscent of his 2017 play when he was the top domestic player. And he performed well against Mexico + Jamaica, the two toughest games of the tourney. But games against opponents of Guyana's ilk are more reflective he's not up to the caliber for "int'l play".

    Morris is struggling on the wing. But he does come up with the game-leading assist there. So still has his big moments there. That's not his position. No need to throw the baby out w/ the bathwater just because Seattle acquired Ruidaz when Jordan got hurt.

    Miles Robinson is hitting a bit of a rough patch, as everybody does. You should be allowed to do so w/out being discarded even if you play in MLS. You're still human there.
     
  23. AutoPenalti

    AutoPenalti Am I famous yet?

    Sep 26, 2011
    Coconut Creek
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Morris just acquired an assist from the wing just as you said that.
     
    wixson7 repped this.
  24. thedukeofsoccer

    thedukeofsoccer Member+

    Jul 11, 2004
    Wussconsin
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I know. I was editing that in. He still has his moments on the wing while being largely invisible otherwise and botching opportunities because he's still largely one-footed and can't take opponents on. The big moments he has, there would be more of them if he were centered in front of net. So why don't we just do that instead of saying he's canceled for life now?
     
  25. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    His hold up and touch isn’t good enough central (tho to be fair that hasn’t stopped 3G from using Zardes). His speed and strength will get him into good situations but he isn’t good enough and we should be looking for a different profile of player. I wouldn’t say never call him up either but there are others who should be given looks.
     

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