Eh, going to Bayern isn't a guarantee of anything. Cuisance left Gladbach for Bayern because Gladbach would not guarantee him a starting spot. So, he's starting for Bayern now.... Bayern II in the third division.
One of our old posters, who takes pictures, recommended a good drinking game to go along with that on FB. I shan't give details as I don't want to be "political" here....but it was pretty funny.
It’s my fault. I witnessed the debacle in person. I also witnessed the Gold Cup final in person too. The real blame though is with by bladder. In both games, the game winning goal was scored as I was on a bio break.
It's not a guarantee of anything, but Bayern seems willing to work Davies in and give him minutes, which is pretty darn good for an 18 year old from Canada who came up through MLS. Meanwhile, Pulisic was bought by the Chelsea front office without any consideration as to what the manager (Sarri at the time) wanted, and then Lampard came in and favors Mason Mount, who he had on loan at Derby last season, and Callum Hudson-Odoi, both of whom are younger and English. Lampard doesn't seem too concerned about rotating Pulisic in and getting him minutes at the moment. Of course it's early, but I've had a feeling since he went to Chelsea, Pulisic was going to end up getting lost in the shuffle and either loaned out or sold down the road. Chelsea always likes to buy up talent without regard to input from the manager. Now EPL managers can change at the drop of a hat, but I think he would have been better off going to a club where he at least fit into the plans of the manager when the transfer was arranged.
Hey now. Plan 'A' saw Yedlin get open and deep with the ball 3 or 4 times in the first half to cross to the 3 front line guys who were all making runs into the box. That none resulted in goals isn't the system's fault!
I don’t think it’s a “shoot the messenger” hate. IIRC, didn’t he sit on the story until nearly the last minute, despite knowledge of it well in advance?
I really don't recall. He certainly ended up breaking the news before PSV and the league would have wanted as it gave time for #STC to ramp up and have a presence during our playoff run (on national TV) that year. It's a relief to not have to care about the details any longer.
My take on Berhalter is this: As a Crew fan, none of this surprises me. I remember early 2014, Gregg’s first year in charge. We had errant back passes, Steve Clark couldn’t find his feet. It seemed really disasterous. But Gregg worked with the team and adjusted his tactics. The next year we made it to the final, in 2017 we beat Atlanta. My point is that Berhalter’s approach allows the US to compete with global powers. Up to this point, the best we’ve ever done is quarter final in 2002 WC. Is that good enough? Maybe time for a different approach? This country won’t get our best athletes in soccer anytime soon. Maybe Berhalter system can get the most out of who we have. I think the national team fan base really has no clue about long term strategic growth and just simply over reacts to every friendly that happens by.
In Nashville, at bbCon: The Conference for Social Good. To be honest, I didn’t watch the game, I was watching the Democratic Debate, but I’m thrilled for the Nationals. I love Max Scherzer, Strasburg, Rendon, and Zimmerman among others. I’d much rather see them in the World Series then the Cardinals. So between the inspiring sessions of my conference, and one sports result going my way I had a very good Bryce Harper’s 27th birthday, thanks for asking. To bring the thread back on topic, the only blemish on the day was that Gregg Berhalter has failed up and is now making the USMNT unwatchable like he did my beloved Columbus Crew for so many years. At least the media and fans are coming around to what some of us were pointing out years ago.
Terrific interview with Bruce Arena over on The Athletic. Touches on a bunch of topics, including pro/rel ("most teams that get promoted go right back down; what does that tell you?") but his comments on Berhalter and the Nats are pretty pointed. He's a bit careful, but you don't have to look too closely between the lines to see where he thinks the problem is: SS: The national team is going through a bit of a strange moment right now. As you look at it from the outside, what’s your sense of how things are going? BA: I don’t think things are going great. I think there’s an inexperienced staff and it’s going to take them a little bit of time to get more experience and understand the international game, understand the profile of a player who can contribute at that level. They’re learning that. And then how do you create a national team environment? I still think that they’re a little, they’re not certain about that. They’re coaching a national team like it’s a club team. SS: When you say that, do you mean that in terms of system they’re trying to play? BA: System, daily routine, on and off the field, all of it. SS: How different is it on the club and international? You’ve done both, obviously. BA: It’s very different. You don’t have those players the 300 days a year they’re with their club teams. They’re coming to you, you’re not changing their habits, you’re not changing how they play. You’ve got to have a system of play, of course, but they are who they are, and coming into a five-day camp, a two-week camp isn’t going to change them a whole lot. SS: Do you think in general it’s good to simplify a bit on the national level, for those reasons you just lined out? BA: What do you mean by simplify? SS: Well I guess how I would put the way the national team is going right now, is that they’re trying to fit a lot of square pegs into round holes. BA: I just think you have inexperienced people there kind of getting a little confused. It’s like you’re watching Manchester City play or whatever and think that that is the equivalent of how you play with a national team. You have a collection of, in theory, a collection of talented individuals, and you’ve got to make them into a team in a short period of time. You can’t reinvent the wheel. https://theathletic.com/1297260/2019/10/16/bruce-arena-interview-usmnt-revolution-mls/
Bruce Arena really "has no clue about long term strategic growth and just simply over reacts to every friendly that happens by."
The issue with this is it seems like Berhalter's system requires complete buy-in and massive cohesion that he is having trouble building with the shorter training camps of international breaks. Now I'm not saying it's impossible and these guys should be able to play out of the back. But we really should be seeing improvement by now, not losses to Canada or any Caribbean island. It's also worrying that his system is easily broken by a high press by teams that are decent at best and is very prone to long scoreless streaks vs competition of all sorts. Which are things that happened to Gregg in MLS too. I think there's some legit reasons for concern.
It's that he's been posing as a hard hitting journalist for years while choosing to spout bullshit over actually doing his job. Now that everyone is turning on Soccer House he feels safe to be critical. Whoop-dedo! Of course, he's not alone. Twellman and Holden being more cheerleader than analyst and Lalas with his brown nosing hot takes. All four have been an embarrassment for some time. Not sure who takes them seriously anymore when we all know they are lap dogs groveling to do the peanut butter trick on their masters.