News: 2018 Other Teams Discussion Thread (spoilers)

Just a thought about your point, which is very good. I think the "fragility" comes because so many of these players are in supporting roles with their clubs. Even Pulisic is sitting on the bench in Dortmund and when he was getting minutes he wasn't relied upon to be the difference maker. Think back to the 2002 WC team. Young, a large number of MLS players, but the difference was that they were relied upon to be difference makers for their clubs -- Donovan, McBride, Mastroeni, Keller, etc. Maybe they weren't in the "top" leagues, but they learned resilience and that "extra" to make a difference in a competition. The current team is composed of spectators with the exceptions of the GK's. I think you could put the a starting 11 drawn entirely from MLS and it would perform better than this group. As high a "potential" ceiling? Probably not, but the whole point is winning games, not demonstrating potential. Remember Iceland qualified for the World Cup -- no one on that team would ever be considered in a Best 11, but they played well as a team and were resilient. The new coach should heed that as he puts together a squad to compete and win.

 

The U20 USMNT beat Mexico 2-0 tonight for the CONCACAF Championship. Tab Ramos has been the coach. At least he knows what he's doing. Can't say that for the rest of USSoccer management. Both teams (and the 2nd place finishing teams in the last round robin: Panama & Honduras) will be in the World Cup next year in Poland, and in any other Pan-American tournament.

 

I don't think we had great defenders, certainly not Lala (aka Mr. Self Promotion) or Blaboa. I think our team orientation was defend first, defend second and then defend some more. Except for maybe Tab Ramos, our midfielders were all auxiliary defenders. My memory is that we mostly scored on the occasional counter or set pieces.
Truly good forwards are probably the rarest thing in world football. We will finally have arrived as a soccer/footballing nation when we can consistently develop good forwards.

asitis

 

lol@nj

 

MPF

asitis

 

FTRB

 

I think Diego sums up my feelings perfectly .....

Diego Maradona with one of the greatest post-match interviews ever. pic.twitter.com/jIJuF2Ppyv

— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) November 26, 2018

 

The unalloyed joy I felt seeing the potential tieing goal wiped out for offside was just like the time Geiger waved off Kenny Cooper's PK.

 

On the high side ... NJ got their asses handed to them last night by Atlanta. I have to think that Atlanta can go to the swamp and defend a 3 goal lead to take the stress out of watching the MLS Cup final.

 

The Athletic reporting Zach Steffen to Man City for $10M in January. Good for him. Met his Dad before the playoff match in Lot H/I, the whole family was there. Nice guy and nice folks.

 

He's either gonna get loaned out or be sitting on the bench.

 

Can somebody please explain to me what allegedly smart people see in Zach Steffens?

 

... and David Villa is gone ...

guy couldn't pronounce David correctly anyway

 

Not surprising. Villa had checked out earlier in the season anyway.

Schweinsteiger, who also seemed checked out for most of the season, is coming back. That's good news for the Eastern Conference because he sucked badly last season. The only place he can still play is central defense, IMO, but Paunovic seemed reluctant to play him there.

 

He's young. He's a good goalkeeper. He's one of the best in the league. He's young.

 

True, true, false, true.

Aced it!

 

https://www.dcunited.com/post/2018/11/28/academys-griffin-yow-called-u-17-usmnt

And he scored off an errant pass against Portugal yesterday -

(Facebook link) -

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=727532254289531

 

nj fans throwing crap at atlanta players setting up a corner.

nj players yelling at their fans to knock it off.

nj fans yelling back at their players.

And we thought this match wasn't going to be worth watching.

 

I can never get tired of that!
MPF baby!

 

I think the Metros used MPF for two seasons. I can't remember which years. One year they were giving out red plastic derby hats. We won up there and I remember wearing one on the walk back to the bus. I know I brought it home, but I have no idea where I put it. It probably got crushed and my wife threw it out, but I'd love to have it now.

asitis

 

Last half hour of Portland-KC was riveting. Valeri has a motor.

 

He had 15 goals and 5 assist in 26 games this year. He also burned us in the games he played. Two games vs us, 2 goals.

One of those games was late in the season.

 

MLS really lucked out by not having a smaller market in the cup this year. Filling Atlanta’s stadium is going to be very good for optics.