And there's the inferiority complex worn on your sleeve as the over-reaction to when we fail with a good majority of American-bred players, as is natural when you're the US national team. Everybody on that list grew up outside the United States. If that was the answer, Jurgen wouldn't have gotten canned off a last camp roster that was 1/3 foreign-bred. Also struggled toward the end of the '98 cycle when Sampson had a mindset not too dissimilar. Last time I checked, the US had their best World Cup where they would have made the final w/ better luck when they had a rotation w/ players who grew up in the States except for Earnie Stewart. Speaking of whom, how about he's allowed to do his job as gm, or does it better. That means not hiring the impending CEO's brother, who does things like force-fit a bad style for the pool. Maybe that's the actual reason for problems, as well as other examples of cronyism, and conflicts of interest on the board to prevent the manager from simply calling up the best 23.
Sarachan was not a good tactician. He would basically call in the players, set up a hopeful shape, then send the players out. Any reasonably good coach should have been able to get better results than Dave did. Gregg is getting much much worse results. The Peru team is better than Canada and Curacao. Dave beat a Mexican B team. Sarachan was not qualified, but he was better. That is telling. Sarachan did it with players that Gregg hasn't even given a shot. Sarachan did it without Pulisic for the most part. Gregg is all about Sunk Cost Fallacy in the players he uses. But, time for ES not too worry about his own Sunk Cost Fallacy and make a chance. Any reasonably good coach should at least be able to do better than what Sarachan did. Gregg can't.
for contrast, in 2011 BB lost GC, got canned, and we made 2014 and lost in the knockouts. that's because we didn't sit around letting the wound fester trying to convince ourselves against objective reality. if we drag a$$ towards the hex that is repeating the Arena scenario where you dig the lasting hole before making the change. i know the "win everything" obsessives are like all these games matter, and that makes us conservative now on coaches and players for fear we lose the next one trying something different, but we're not getting results, even before we arrive at quali, and then we're burning time waiting for a magical switch to flip. what REALLY MATTERS is moving towards a fix by quali. you are running out of window to alter trajectory before GB impacts where we start and our ceiling.
Agreed, the U.S. needs to prioritize ball-winners first in midfield, not silkiness. Roldan used to be one, but I don't know what happened. He's literally almost half the man he used to be. I noted that about Corona. It jumps off the page when it comes to Pomykal. He's been carrying a nagging injury lately, but should have played much more at last camp and been an option at least off the bench for this one. This is one reason why I have an affinity for EPB. He could be that destroyer 6 in lieu of Adams. He killed it for Tab in the u-20's. Has been misused as a cb by club coaches, imo. Very pedestrian there, dropping his stock.
The great mystery of the post-Couva world is how, after two years, we have never seen an Adams/McKennie double pivot? We have three and a half games where someone other than Bradley, Trapp, or Yueill have played the 6. This is a midfield that was possible to play in March: Adams/McKennie/Holmes This past window we could have tried: Morales/Holmes/McKennie or Holmes/McKennie/Pomykal Does Canada (or Jamaica or Curacao or Mexico or Chile) waltz through a midfield of Morales/Holmes/Pomykal? It is all built around Bradley. He slows down our counter attack, he doesn't stop their's, he allows free entry to Zone 14. Where are all the diagonals?
I'm not a boomer but IMO anyone would be damn proud to have that statement be characteristic of their generation's thinking.
You're missing the obvious facts. Players simply stopped caring nor wanting to play for this fake. Winning 50/50 ball is all about hunger and desire, not necessary about skills. GGG is beyond under qualified for the job and is way far out of his depths.
Of course, it is also possible that The Boomer Generation had this statement characterize its thinking: "Chill this Groovy Weed, Man!"
A note on the MLS problem. Canada played 7 MLS players, including the whole midfield that dominated the game. The MLS curse only applies to American players I guess.
It is a mystery why we're not seeing more of Morales and Pomykal, while continuing to put out mediocre players like Roldan, Trapp, and Bradley. Adams & McKennie should be locked to the midfield going forward, under a NEW COACH.
When a scrub MLS player sends a hospital ball to Zlatan, he probably doesn't challenge for it. Then he dresses down the player to play the correct ball. The USMNT is in a weird place where their best players are young. Lovitz sends a hospital ball to Pulisic. Pulisic doesn't dress him down. The older players are the problem, but the younger guys seems to be deferential to them as they probably are to same age players at their clubs. We saw Holmes dress down Roldan for a poor touch once. Haven't seen him since. In a NT setting, both sides are motivated to play for the crest. The extra motivation needs to come from competition. But we have seen with Gregg, that certain players will get called again no matter how poorly or ineffective they are. What has it come to, when Twellman is reporting that TFC brass are openly mocking that Lovitz is a regular for Gregg? Who is the player we would think of as playing balls to the wall in the past 6 months? Duane Holmes, in two cameos. Has Roldan ever shown that fire? But Gregg is comfortable with Roldan. Comfortable...
I hope you're right. Coaching is relatively easy to fix; a declining talent pool is not. One kind of related point is that given the Lost Generation, many of our most talented players lack the kind of international experience that is necessary to succeed at this level. Nor are there many players in their prime who can claim that experience to lead the team and guide them. CP has a lot of caps but is still relatively young. Our best teams were balanced. Consider WC02, we had young firebrands in Donovan and Bease but also vets who played on the successful 94 squad (and the unsuccessful 98 squad). Point being the team suffers from a dearth of players who are both playing well and experienced (MB is very experienced but on the decline).
It's because they don't have guys playing in the Premier League or the Bundesliga like we do. We have better MLS options, but the idiot keep calling in mediocre US MLS guys.
The winning goal was set up by pass from a player from the Scottish league. A league deemed below MLS by most. Canada's winning goal was scored by a player that has played a good chunk of the year on a team with Chris Richards. But that team is deemed not good enough to qualify Richards for the USMNT.
Been thinking about this A LOT. Man oh man so many people hated him and couldn't wait to complain about how terrible he was. Welp, the grass is not greener.
Several people have suggested this. Please stop it. Then we would be stuck with Michael for the next four years. In case no one noticed, the team played totally different when he was not in the lineup. Yes, it was Cuba but the team came out of the starting gate ready to play. I have been saying this forever...its MB that is a good part of the problem. Holden can go on and on about the fact the young players listen and respect MB...I emphatically do not believe it. Yes he was an ok player years ago, but people seem to think he was the best player we ever had in midfield. Not true, just the longest, and it appears it will continue to happen. How do we know that there was not another player who would have been ahead of him? We don't because no one ever got the chance. And, it is still happening. Yes Adams is hurt, but even before that he was not displacing Bradley and he should have been. I have said this about Nagbe and his decision not to play for the nats. I truly believe if we had a different coach (which is another large problem) and Bradley was gone, he might be more amenable to play. No wonder Pulisic was about ready to cry and Gregg could not console him. He must be very unhappy playing with some of the non-skilled players on this team and trying to fit into the stupid-a$$ system that Gregg thinks will make our team rule the world. Also notice the difference in McKinnie's play. Every one says he is inconsistent...has it ever been checked to see if when he plays poorly Bradley is in the lineup? I'm too lazy to do this. On another note, I have really taken a liking to Morris, but we need some other speedsters. David and Davies on Canadian side killed us with their speed. What...no one in American soccer can run fast? Sure we also need skill, but take Frankie's case. He started out with only speed and developed into a nice little player. We sorely miss the speed of Donovan and Beasley, to name a few. No wonder Dest is not interested in our team. In the next few days he will probably come out for the Netherlands...and no one could blame him.
This is a pattern from the past Hex too. MLS players on other CONCACAF teams seem to outperform the ones we play. The one constant in all this is the way we set up our midfield. MLS players far away from the midfield have generally performed best (Morris, Arriola, Long). There is something about our midfield in the past four years that lets it be dominated by players that are not as good in the same league...
I guess you’re right. If it isn’t the greatest honor a player can have then we should just quit. Players should quit showing up. Fans should quit watching. Just shut the whole program down. Jesus.
Grant Wahl's take: The USMNT and US Soccer remain stuck in crisis mode. Did anyone learn anything from failing to qualify for World Cup 2018? Column: https://t.co/txFE1BSItY pic.twitter.com/mlZ8NaYr86— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) October 16, 2019
I think one pf the problems also is that the older players can't play quickly. I know Cuba wasn't as good as Canada but there was a lot of one touch and movement from the the younger players in that game while bring in Bradley, Long and Yedlin slowed things down. Time to take the plunge and get players that are all on the same page even if they are younger and unproven. At least the team would play better as a whole. No longer have faith that Berhalter will do anything close to that. Lovitz playing both games destroys my placeholder theory. Feel sorry for Lima. He looked decent when he came on and might have been better than both Lovitz or Yedlin but never got a shot. He could be an older but similar and less talented version of Dest on the left but we got Lovitz both games.
This this this a million times. I wasn't a huge fan of Dave's 4-5-1, but at least that put Mckennie and Adams together in positions that let them play to their strengths. Mckennie / Adams double pivot with Pulisic playmaking in the central channel would be a solid experiment.