Given the Tickets/Travel thread is pretty dead .... I always like the "for those that went, how was the atmosphere?" question. (disclaimer: this post is about the atmosphere/crowd, so look away if you only want to discuss other stuff) Been several years since we had a 'meaningful' away game, forgot how much fun they can be. Last night was amazing! About 100 or so of us in the corner of the stadium. Loud, sang the entire time, and tons of beers and laughs. Good to see old friends again. AO ran the drums and overall section organization, pregame, etc. A group of Sammers providing good filler when things slowed down; those guys are definitely always up for it. Great stadium to walk to bars/restaurants, concessions had look/feel of high school football stadium. Beers were big and cold!! Typical songs as always, but will say there was a 5+ minute rendition of one that just got louder and louder each time... I love those moments. The group was committed, atmosphere was definitely tense, felt like an away Hex game. Outside of the result of course, it was a solid section.
Honestly he lost me the first time he moved a Top Bundesliga central midfield player to right back so he could invert him and play Will Trapp in midfield. There is no excuse for that. Way overthinking things on day 1 was the only red flag I needed. I can't picture a scenario in which he is successful.
A few thoughts: - If your preference is industrious and dependable MLS guys who lack talent, then play a style that doesn't require them to be technical and sophisticated. - So many players that just aren't at the level when we have a fair share of talented youngsters. -A complete lack of any kind of real plan. We have enough deficiencies in our player pool, and he thinks the inverting backs and playing through Lovitz and Yedlin is the way forward? - No idea how to use the quality pieces we do have. -His press conferences are the worst! I mean the worst! He says nothing in a million words.
We had a good car that was coasting on fumes. Now we’ve come to a stop without a gas station in sight.
When is the last time since Klinsy a manager really infused our team with talent? Really tried to find new/young/exciting players? I am no Klinsy fan, but he did stick with Brooks/Alvarado (two young up-and-coming CBs who were both poor initially). One worked, the other didn't (though Alvarado is apparently captaining a top Mexican side, but surprise, can't get a call-up). He stuck with Wood nonstop, and I couldn't stand it. That turned out to be the right decision, even if Wood has fallen off the face of the earth at this point. I think he brought in Pulisic. He built the one and only midfield MB was a part of that actually worked. He brought in Morris when he was at Stanford. What did Arena do? Rode with old Lions and missed the WC. Brought in no new talent. What has Egg done? Rode with old Lions and MLS mediocrity. He's unearthed no new talent. I think the only guy who did anything interesting was Sarachan. Sure, he came in at the "right' time which allowed him to experiment. But Egg has had a year to experiment and has ended up losing to Canada. He is using players that are either required (Weston/CP) or simply not good and/or underperforming (Trapp/MB/Guzan/Jozy/Sargent/Boyd/Roldan/Lovitz/Ream/Gonzo). As someone else said, only Morris has outperformed general expectations. I would take Klinsy back in a heartbeat at this point, and I was ecstatic when he was canned.
Berhalter brought in Boyd, who hasn't worked out, and Dest, who may not work out. He also brought in Morales after years away, and it's tough to tell if he'd have been back if not hurt. Miles Robinson is another guy who had not been called in until Berhalter. Duane Holmes was brought in as well, and I'm not sure he had been previously. Berhalter's stubbornnes on positional designations has kept him out of more rosters, but he did call him in. Yeuill came in and took Trapp's job. Lima was Berhalter add. Cannon was a Berhalter add. The world is not full of a ton of US eligible talent that isn't already in the pipeline. I'm not going to give him credit for Sargent, but despite the bad choice in the Gold Cup, Sargent has played most of the minutes since. It looks like Pomykal and Aaronson may get more chances. But still -- that's at least SEVEN new players in less than a year not previously brought in, plus Morales back, Sargent in more, cups of coffee for some more youth. I'm not in love with all of them, but Berhalter gets a bad rap for not changing his group. His like of Lovitz and Roldan cost him, but Zardes and Trapp have lost spots, Mihailovic is gone, Omar Gonzalez is gone -- you know, a ton of players people told me would never be out of the roster. Please don't let this be 100% about Michael Bradley.
Ok - I brought up Brooks/Alvarado/Wood/Pulisic/Morris. These were all (maybe outside Morris?) inserted pretty much into the starting lineup. Every player you mentioned is a periphery figure. If Robinson/Morales/Yeuill/Sargent were put into the starting 11 and told to sink or swim, I'd take your point a bit more seriously. Even bringing up Aaronson/Pomykal, who played what, 15 minutes between them? Ok, good on you Egg!
Respectfully, this is not true. There are US eligible players in MLS who are better than needed to beat Canada. Canada had exactly 2 special players. They played two part time starters from TFC, a bench rider from Orlando and a bench rider from TFC. Canada beat us with guys who aren't better or more experienced than our guys. We have multiple 11s worth of MLS players who can get the job done versus this level of team. Sapong/Morris/Ebobisse Arriola/Delgado Corona Yuell/Bradley Lleget/Nguyen Dax/Roldan Hollingshead/Lima/Morrow-Opara-Robinson/Long-Cannon
wrong. Berhalter brought him in as a RB even after all the crap before it. the question was why wasn’t a McKennie/Adams tried and I simply pointed out it wasn’t only injury as Berhalter has him as a RB for the gold cup and didn’t use him as a DM in March. it was only this week when Gregg stayed that Adams is a DM and not a right back. He even waffled last week
Okay. Boyd - Sunk, I suppose, at least relative to expectations. Dest - Swam, but maybe doesn't want to swim in our pool. Yeuill - Rotation. I'd say treading water. Sargent - Late, but he's started 3 of the last 4 Cannon - Swam, but not the fastest in the pool. Lima - Eh. Long - not young, but he's been a plus. Apparently, he also pulled in Johnny Cardoso to the U23 camp. I truly think he's made a mistake not bringing in Holmes, and some of his choices are awful (Roldan, Lovitz). But he has brought in new people, and including some players people were barely looking at. Not all of them worked out. His teams have been younger than people say. (And I'm not giving Klinsmann credit for Christian Pulisic. Good lord.)
If you focus too much on the pool and roster decisions, then you're missing the overriding points that... 1 His system sucks, and it's never going work in a national team setup when players have limited minutes with each other in camp. 2 When that system fails in real time during games, Gregg's got no ability to adjust. Pool is just fine today -- even with injuries. The coaching is clearly the problem. What are we doing?!
The most depressing part is that they know this and do not care. The small population of fans like us add up to jack shit. One Mexico friendly and they are bucks up and could care less what soccer needs like us say because we are basically useless to them (monetarily speaking). These ********tards have a wheel of a cash cow in the form of Mexico. As long as they keep coming here to play they will laugh all the way to the bank.
I like Grant a lot, but he's not a dumb guy. He no longer works for Fox, and therefore doesn't have the self-interest involved in promoting the US for his bosses.
i think i disagree- you can easily make the case that berhalter should be fired before even getting to actual game management, system, tactics, etc. theres a large segment of the fanbase that blames the players, believes we dont have the player pool. and thats a valid argument...in theory. the thing that sets berhalter apart from klinsmann or arena is that he doesnt even use the best talent in his own preferred...mini-pool. arena was heavily mls reliant as well, while klinsmann had zero respect for american soccer (hence the "germericans"/any and all dual nationals). they at least used the best talent available (with, obviously, a few exceptions as anyone would have). there was a really good article posted a couple of weeks ago (i want to say it was nbcsports) that broke down how berhalters selections (not individually- wholesale, his core players that hes relied on and built around since january) arent the best available players in mls. and not by close margins. but honestly, do we need a statistical breakdown to know that bradley isnt one of the best cms in mls? at least arena has the excuse that that generation was aging/had aged out already. berhalter has multiple alternatives to bradley, but insists on not only using him, but building the team around him. but really- is there ANYONE who believes lovitz is the best american lb in mls (without even needing stats)? is baird even one of the top five wing options? trapp? mihailovic? the most obvious warning sign omar gonzalez? so while i completely disagree with those saying we dont have the player pool to be any better than we are/only marginally better- berhalter doesnt utilize the best talent available even in his own preferred end of the pool, if you will.
Dude, we have far better talent than Canada and everyone else we have been playing other than Mexico. We look like a disorganized clown show inside of a dumpster fire against teams like Curaçao. It’s not the players, Jays brother is an objectively average MLS coach.
He could be misleading people but sounds like Herdman said that he will use the box midfield against the USMNT again in Orlando. He said he doesn't want to talk about it in great details. Interesting guy to listen too. That's one of his strength, great communicator and a huge believer in sports psychology. Players have bought in.