The difference is the first three you would list have proven their worth on the country field. They have the CV, yes, but their foundational status truly tracks to play in the shirt. The 4th guy is wish fulfillment. Like Berhalter the bench back, he has his one big moment off the bench as an injury sub, he was the CB heir apparent, but honest people would acknowledge that he got his chance to step into the role from the world cup through GC/playoff/Copa on up through the Costa Rica game. He imploded. A key thing a team with a bunch of expeditionary players -- like we have -- needs to get past to find objectivity -- is that we cannot buy our own headlines, we need to pick the best XI on the field and not just favor resumes. The difference among the bunch is the first ones translated resume to field. Since we seem all up our own resume butts I expect this lesson to get learned in the future as we get ever more expeditionary and get to the point we have so many players abroad snobbery is not useful because their resumes all cancel out. My argument is the resume should get you in the door as scouting but then you earn it on the field. If you have bad games I don't want to hear resume.
Why would we treat Brooks the same as Long? Brooks is a 26 yo veteran who has shown he can play at the international level. Long is a 3rd year professional who has broken down almoat every time he has face competerion against levels of play higher than MLS. There is good chance that Long is just another over hyped MLS player.
You put them in context for Long but ignore context for everyone else? No one cares about GA/A if the player himself isn't the one being beaten. You keep pounding on the CR game but please let me know the other games Brooks was the issue on defense. There are some, but not very many. Keep in mind we rotated players around Brooks a ton. Brooks is sorely missing from this team with how Berhalter wants to play out of the back.
Also, you can't really believe this can you? Apparently you can't have a poor run of form when you started getting caps a year ago?
when did he "show this" and was it against any better of a team than his advocates rip on long for dominating? https://www.transfermarkt.us/john-anthony-brooks/nationalmannschaft/spieler/124732 brooks once scored in a world cup, just like berhalter the backup once had a moment in the sun. that objectively was the only 45' he played all tournament. he didn't have to show he could handle it for real because he only had the cameo. in his GC -- which people pretend never happened to deride players with mere GC experience -- they finished 4th and Jamaica got at him. we go to CA 2016 the next summer, and we finish 4th again and Argentina exploits him. 5 months after that qualifying starts and he gets reamed by CR in the second qualifying game. 3 of the 4 goals. he then gets hurt/out of fashion. brought back last year, gets reamed by England, Colombia, Brazil. i can show you goals he allowed in these games. he then doesn't get beat in the Ecuador game where they parked the bus this March, which didn't feel like Ecuador and isn't much of a player test. i am genuinely interested when he ever established his bona fides and locked this puppy down. it's instead like berhalter 2002, who had his moment in the sun, but was a career backup, and got torched so bad in pre Germany 2006 friendlies he didn't play a minute in his last world cup. a legend nonetheless exists around him because of the moment -- which was "saved" or have we forgotten we lost. but anyone with a memory knows this was the era of Pope and then Boca, with even Agoos preferred. that you have a legend is not an appropriate stand in for earning the job, he was given it early last cycle and lost it. he has never strung big games together like the B.1 player he is. without getting into this sort of lame snob argument of who can we "assume" is better -- which is not how actual soccer works -- he has never thrown down the gauntlet and seized the position by sustained good play including against the sort of high quality opposition his advocates hypothesize he was made for. there is a reason he is trying to fight his way back in. pulisic and steffen are not outside begging back in. that might have something to do with this thing we can call "playing well when used....."
if you want my blunter assessment, like jozy, he has a body which misleads. he looks like he should be a gooch man marking tank. but he grew up, my guess, a lot of passing and zone. he is slick on the ball but prefers marking air ie playing zone. he is slow to react to man situations and basically a touch back in a big man's body. his fans like him because he's slick on the ball. but last cycle our story is leading the hex in goals but also allowing 13 goals for a mere +4 GD. there is a trade off and i think for this type right now it's negative. i don't even mind a slick back, but the level of defense has to go up to advance. if he came back tomorrow and could man mark with his body type i would probably be a fan. but that's counter factual to date. you'd think this would be the sort of coach where backs would flower but oddly for a career CB he seems to repel man markers. when he came to town chad marshall headed out. he instead prefers parkhurst types who are smart and composed on the ball but not athletic or physical enough to handle the level. and when he does make a final they are down 2 goals in 10 minutes at home.
like i said before, i think we are going about things backwards at many positions. you should find the ones who can play their positions right, and then from that list, identify the ones who have hybridity or against-type features that win a sort of tiebreaker among competent position players. we instead seem to chase the "unique types" first and are then befuddled why they can't hack their actual position eg dest robinson brooks bradley zardes. it's because you're picking 9s, 6s, backs, for something else besides playing their position first. we also have developed a bad tendency to lock down as starter the first semi-interesting thing we see, and then fill the bench with favorites, as opposed to identify 30 or so good players and then sort from then the best to start, where the starters are the best performers and the bench is exciting just slightly less so. we don't take enough time to sort team from pool, and starter from bench, and we assume our conclusions on players. this and straight favoritism explains 6-10 players who shouldn't even be on the NT, and even starters. last, as repeatedly discussed on here, we're not tailoring a system to players, we're forcing it onto them. not only did the system pre-exist GB's run through the roster -- meaning he didn't sniff the talent and then design something to it -- and couldn't have given the chronology. he also doesn't even maximize a 433 anyway. that last part isn't discussed enough, since the discussions tend to break down into critics vs sycophants. if you locked down this formation beforehand but hired someone else, they wouldn't arrive at anywhere near this roster, still. part of it is the system misfit but some is this is not even who most people would call up for the system. the coach is simply weird. i say this because if god spoke to him and told him to try some should-be more fitting system i think he would manage to make that weird too.
i understand the arguments about backs who get forward, forwards who defend, 6s who pass. setting aside if the people involved actually do those tasks, if the players can't handle their positions you basically bake basic positional flaws right into the cake. i think that is far more dooming than whether it's as pretty or counterintuitive as you might wish. when you play Diego Costa, he doesn't take it like, hmmm, interesting, your back can get forward, he looks at it like, wow, you don't take defending me seriously, do you?? and at least part of that is the counter-acting oddity they offer tends to disappear right when their flaws get picked apart. if we're picking for gimmick upside you might at least require that it still shows up against brazil or mexico who will exploit the flaws.
Your analysis on Brook's shortcoming (which he certainly has) is heavily weighted towards performance in the last cycle and discounts his weekly performance against higher level opponents where he is more effective, which you label "club snobbery". I think that having to play behind slowing-before-our-eyes Bradley who was moved to DM during the last cycle was a huge contributor. Bradley is exactly the wrong type of DM to put in front of Brooks. If we had a strong two-way player acting as central "partner", it would actually put Brooks in a situation where his strengths would be augmented (and he has elite ones) and his deficiencies would be offset. Bradley as DM actually does the exact opposite. To wit, look at how Long looked last year with Adams vs this year with NYRB. It's night and day.
"some, but not very many?" ignorant statement, not my problem. Jamaica GC semi 2015 he is #6 getting beat for header goal 1 Panama GC third place 2015 his man gets the cross for their goal in a tie that goes to PKs US-Argentina CA 4th place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idbDNF-F5ek mark scores goal 3 and he's oblivious, ineffectual mop up goal 4 CR WCQ Nov 2016 abused all night and on the hook for 3 goals ****disappears for a while, then comes back********* US England 2018 just stands there on goal 2 as the runner comes in to shoot, beat to the near post for goal 3 US Colombia 2018 lets James turn and shoot around him on goal 1, marking air goal 2, allows crosser to turn and cross goal 3 US Brazil 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rp5f0TdG0w marking air again goal 1, foul for the PK goal 2 your ignorance of the product you are selling is not me cherry picking. this is the sequence of games leading up to him disappearing then the three games he played in 2018 before disappearing again. the GC 2015 and CR games eliminate the idea that this is a glitch related to level of play that fixes itself within the supposedly "easier" region. if the sales pitch is you are the big league player for the big games then maybe show it occasionally.
re my analysis is weighted towards this cycle, this is the current team playing, last cycle didn't qualify, and i think that's rubbish if you watch the video i just laid out across two cycles. you simply don't watch defense close enough to know wtf you're talking about.
so your cute little argument was, but just because he's on the field doesn't mean the goal is on him. often enough, it actually does. video shows it. the team as a whole averages less than a goal a game allowed when long plays. so you're trying to saddle him with a bunch of theoretical goals that can't be happening if the team pitches shutouts in half your games, and then still averages less goals against than brooks defenses in the off games.
Your hate of this player is impressive. To go through all that. Plus, to lay 100% blame on him for every goal is incredible. In the Jamaica GC semi, the first goal is not on him. The USA is zonal and he can't do anything but foul from his position. The player in front of Mattocks simply doesn't attack the ball or contest at all. That guy is Alvarado, FYI. Plus, what is Guzan doing? No American ever shows up for a third place game. Yes, @CR in 2016. The whole team was poor. Brooks was poor. Did you lose a substantial amount of money on this game or something? It is a little obsessive haha. I don't care much about Sarachan friendlies. Trapp is a team captain for Berhalter and he just leaves Lindgard in the box for the first goal. Brooks actually stops Wilson with a good tackle in the box. Villafana is so impressed he neither gets the loose ball, bothers to mark anyone, and especially doesn't pick up Arnold, the opposing FB, who scores. Brooks is the only one even alert to Arnold, but that is not his guy. Your Colombia video doesn't work. But if I remember right, James scores from outside the box on a spilled ball or a pass from inside the box. Sorry, if your CB is defending there, in that situation, something is wrong. Amazing how many of these "Trapp is beat" goals you are assigning to Brooks! On the Brazil game, he is marking "air" because there is no Brazilian to mark. He is playing the cross and preparing to take on Costa is he rounds Robinson. As an aside, for how this goal is discussed, Costa never gets around Robinson, and the cross is far over Brooks, who is in position, and then on the foot of the scorer. Amazing cross. Now, this is where you must be trolling. Or like I said, you bet on a game where Brooks did do something to lose you a ton of money. Or maybe Brooks stole your girlfriend? Something is up. Trapp fouls for the PK. It is actually unnecessary because Brooks is in position. But we know Trapp was overwhelmed by the game and he was called for the contact. It was very soft, but it was not on Brooks. To say Brooks gives the foul for that PK is just exposing a bias, not cherry picking, but simply bad analysis and poor comprehension. Maybe, if you hated Brooks so much, you would just assume he fouls for the PK? You need to step away from John Brooks. Go outside, get some sunshine.
He played 2 games in the Hex. We didn't qualify with other defenders. "Ignorant statement" - shows 5 games out of 37 caps. Okay, cool. No one is advocating for him because he scored in a WC. We got 4th in an underperforming GC when people actually thought Brooks was solid and Alvarado was the issue at CB. They were right(at the time). Brooks was one of our best players at the CA, period. We don't qualify for the WC and he only plays 2 out of the 9 games but somehow you'll use this as proof of his failure????
But didn't you just post that in the Berhalter era, Brooks as 0 ga/90 and Long is one of the higher? Long in his last three games, is at 1.6 ga/90. Take out games against teams ranked under 50 by FIFA, and January games, and games where Brooks is also playing, Long is at what, 1.8 ga/90! Almost averaging 2 goals a game. Is Jamaica even a top 50 team? If not it is 2.0 ga/90 for Long.
he's played 12 games total. in the 6 games where we did allow goals Peru 1-1 Yedlin's goof up Italy 0-1 Trapp goofs up and leaves a mid open, some responsibility but they wall pass the whole defense Venezuela 0-3 https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/video/1534709315772 unusual formation, goal 1 is on steffen, goal 2 he's beat but in position and it takes an unlucky deflection off the post, which the other defender (CCV?) doesn't react to at all, goal 3 is offsides but he does back into the net Jamaica 3-1 not his guy Mexico 0-1 https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-07-07-mexico-vs-us-mens-national-team/recap he covers his man but no one covers the runner Mexico 0-3 https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-09-06-us-mens-national-team-vs-mexico/recap dest gets megged goal 1, not his fault, keeper distribution error goal 2, not his fault, goal 3 is maybe a little bit his but he gets caught having to try to mark 2 guys on the break morales hands them Uruguay 1-1 again, a mid sticks him in a 2 on 1 situation, he shares some responsibility to a defender, the difference between him and Brooks is obvious. long is the vast majority of the time goal side where he belongs, and the goals he gives up often involve numbers situations and him playing an offsides trap and then having to react back out to try and close down the wide player.
your games bore me. your math is complete rubbish. we allowed 2 to brazil 4 to colombia 3 to england, and i even broke down the video that many are him personally. even if you played some sort of math game and dropped the 2 goal loss on what planet does 4+3+0 = 1.6 avg?????? it's a 2.3 avg. and most of that IS HIM PERSONALLY. tossing out common games removes Ecuador 1-0 this year. the difference being that's the only decent game/win brooks has in like 2-3 years whereas it merely pulls a jenga block from a win/shutout streak for long. ok, don't count this one, don't count that one. blah blah. implication being long is made to look better by GC 2019 and the other schedule. funny thing being GC 2015 didn't flatter brooks. so maybe this whole "but the fifa ranking" thing is more a rhetorical weapon and gameplaying stats filter than a real adjustment to the levels they can handle. there's zero proof brooks can handle concacaf, HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT? i decline your filter because your guy has never played well enough against concacaf to deserve the free pass you want to hand him. you don't get to hand jamiaca/panama/costa rica a game and then pretend to be above it all. "but they weren't top 50 blah blah blah."
since people are kind of revising this, this is the only game brooks plays, for a half, in the world cup. he has the goal but he also fails to get over to the man on their equalizer. it was the group of death but ghana finishes dead last and is eliminated. that is the sum total of his world cup. the goal is nice but klinsmann didn't put him right back out there the rest of the time. and when he elevated him as heir apparent next cycle, i documented the sequence and the costa rica game gets his coach fired. disappears, returns, trio of games i just showed. didn't magically get better. if you want to hang your hat on ecuador parking the bus this march that is a pitiful basis for judging OUR defense. they didn't even try.
kind of like this is basically the end of berhalter's career right here this is back when lousy games bore some, what do they call it, shame this is back when coaches could connect the dots between nightmares and that chili they ingested for dinner, and quit eating chili
re the argument that playing next to tyler adams flattered him even if i bought this argument, isn't this a unique exception to such claims ie HE WOULD BE PLAYING WITH THAT SAME GUY AGAIN cause i think the argument you are trying to make is "he won't have him to bail him out," except that's not really true, is it?? outside of NYRB. this is, "let's get the band back together." last year NYRB were 33 GA = sub-1 G/g NYRB's GA is up significantly this year but then as i explained, the idea he was flattered by a companion player is less compelling when he is back together with same as either a DM or RB i think this underlines a club snob flaw of obsessing about club form and making out of context arguments on that basis and then ignoring that in the country context that very issue might reverse itself similar club form idiocy is horvath, who won both his games in august with 1 GA before being benched. as with weah who scored when played, we are benching a keeper who played well, basically mimicking their club. an ape could do that and would save us on coaching bananas i mean salary.
you don't get to say, "we didn't qualify with two other defenders" when you start the two losses to start the hex that got that coach fired at that point. he helped dig a hole and was tossed into it with his coach and a few other players. i think part of what is at play is the attempted rehab of the germans by the club snobs. FJ and chandler have also been mentioned. no one tends to acknowledge what they looked like around when they disappeared when the coach got fired. the fact that your guy got shelved after playing part in the worst start to the hex i can ever remember is not some sort of "not my fault" recommendation. one reason i threw in some 2014 analysis as well as after is it's like time froze in 2014 for some of you. some players have sucked ever since. some players were elevated to prominence as heirs apparent after brazil, were not up to the gig, and that's why we're here. put differently, that you were ditched in a prior performance purge to try and save that qualifying run doesn't make you look better. last i remember of FJ is forcing us to make a back sub in OT and then we give up the regional playoff loser and have no subs left. that p*ssed off his soon to be fired coach who wasn't happy -- AND THAT CRITIC WAS A GERMAN CLUB SNOB TOO. it's ok to admit B.1 players can have bad nights or even careers. i realize arena is now anathema but i think he was accurately talking about at least one player when he ripped on entitled players with attitude issues.
It was a friendly tongue-in cheek satire of your posts where you base everything on GA/90 in some subset of games. Funny that you got upset about it. I enjoy everything you write; except when you go on these weird Brooks obsessions. Even if he is not great, there is nobody clearly better. And don't worry, he will be hurt anyway. Long has been out of form for NYRB and been sub-par for the USMNT. He will probably bounce back. I clearly said, under Berhalter, and then you list a bunch of Sarachan friendlies. Whatever. Ecuador was probably the best performance for GB so far. It is no coincidence that that is the only game Brooks and Adams have played. Most think Long's best position is, "next to Brooks". When Brooks or Ream are not in there, Long's lack of passing skill is highlighted.
when i say he is marking air, this is a CB who is not back to the endline to cut off the cross about to come in down his line, but who is also not in front of net marking a man coming in. he is not deep enough but then outside the 6. marking no one in no man's land. i am sorry but this is a basic thing defenders will immediately get. as a CB he is neither on the crosser nor on the crossee. when a guy is running down the line you should either be marked in front of net or at least trying to get back in the way of the cross. jogging back behind the play off to the side marking no one is a waste of time. he is not even in his zonal spot, which i think is all he really does anyway, is stand in the line and head balls hit right at him. to put it in terms a forward would grasp, this is like a player either making corner flag runs (not near post, but corner flag) when you need a target to cross to, or who when playing target and in receipt of the ball starts dribbling backwards 10 yards into the mids like a scrub HSer.
Well, I guess that explains it. It isn't that you bet money on the CR game in 2016 or Brooks stole your girlfriend. He is German and that is why you want him out. Now that we all understand, carry on.
The cross goes right over his head. Why would he be on the endline? Costa is not at the endline? He is perfectly positioned to defend anything but a perfect cross. The cross goes over Brooks and Miazga then lands on a foot. It is really incredible. I doubt Miazga even thought it was possible; but he should have been tighter. Brooks can't do anything more on the play than he did. I get it, he is a German to you. You want him out. Wherever he was on the play, you would want him somewhere else. Like back in Germany with his German friends speaking German.