Pre-match: 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group Stage: USA vs Guyana

As one of the loudest voices clamoring for the return of Cameron, I'd like to add to what others have said. My biggest problem with the way Cameron has been used on the national team is that we never got to see him play the 6, you know, the position he was playing in the EPL in the 16/17 season while Bradley was jogging to take corner kicks and partnering with Nagbe who was really struggling to connect passes through most of the qualifiers. It was obvious he was frustrated at Bradley joining the line of the central defenders because one of the games, I forget which one it was, he was actively stepping higher than Bradley and playing some nice balls at the right time to spring attacks rather than wait for captain backpass to get him the ball then drop back to take it off his foot. The fact that Cameron stayed on the bench in Couva after not playing the game before is a joke and we all knew it at the time. He made a mistake, he was always prone to a mistake or two a game but he also dominated in a way none of our other central defenders did the other 89 minutes of it. And, that wasn't even the position he was playing for club most of the time he was doing it! Maybe sacrificing for the team is a bad thing if you play in Europe?

All that being said, I don't think any of us have an issue with Cameron staying off the USMNT. I certainly don't. What I do have an issue with is Cameron being left off the team and Bradley, Gonzalez, Ream coming back to represent the old guard. Those aren't the guys I want having any influence on the younger generation. He is better than all three of those guys right now (not to mention Will Trapp), any arguments to the contrary are foolish and can be remedied by watching them play at their clubs. Give me the return of Besler, Cameron, Lichaj, etc who I don't believe have the stink of Couva all over them or go all young plus a few older experiments like Morales, etc.

tl;dr - This current roster has neither the right young guys nor the right veterans leading them and that's my biggest problem with this whole situation.

 

Hey I'm with you. Just explaining the MO here, to deflect from this current roster and team performance by bringing up one error 3 years ago, and how current players are the right ones.

 

almost as telling as trying to force him backwards at all, is that it's not a true fullback role and thus at best semi addresses that position. i think there has been a lot of fanboy gimmick argument and not enough discussion of how we've had basic competence problems at the wing back spots which an advanced RB -- even a talented one -- would be undermining even as they try to address. be like if you found a LB finally but then decided in infinite wisdom to a similar positioning gimmick. we should fix the basic issue with a vanilla solution before attempting varying it to get cute.

i am actually open to moving players like McKennie backwards to fill need areas until we can develop, but the first midfield domino moving them needs to be a superior choice who will do great in the midfield, and then with our crap defense we might try just doing our jobs before turning it into a circus act. when you are losing 3-0 or 1-0 you fix the basic losing, goal-allowing problem before trying to leverage the attack.

ditto a team as bad as us showing up with 3 backs.

there is a certain arrogance (now unearned) in approaching our problems as a missionary quest to grow beyond how we used to play, as opposed to shoring up competence such that we can qualify. i could understand this talk from a world cup quarterfinalist.

 

Absolutely true. Brooks, Cameron, and Besler were the only three that should have seen the field in a meaningful game. To add to your point, if we play Besler in Couva with his club central defender partner at the time, Ike Opara, and play Cameron at the 6, we go to the World Cup. It doesn't have to be Opara, that's just an obvious example. I remember people at the time wondering why we played Gonzalez against a fleet of foot Trinidad and Tobago team without a real heading threat. I don't fully blame Omar for being put in a no-win situation but the arrogance of the coaching staff to throw him to the wolves is what's absurd. And the worst part is our current staff may even be more arrogant, I hope they learn...

 

Not really. In American football the offense and defense aren't on the field at the same time...

 

Tyler Boyd doesn't play on the right.

 

We also have run defense and pass rush to consider.

 

I would think all would know this group's MO. Four years ago, the most egregious inclusion on the roster was a young center back who was breaking through with America. He was derided over and over again and excuses were made for Gonzo over and over with claims that he was the best center back in MLS... like that means anything. No idea why one player was needed as a scape goat when the whole back line was a mess. Ream was probably the least guilty of them all, but that doesnt say much. Alvarado has grown as a player but hasnt had a shot since JK was canned, but Gonzo is a mainstay.

 

Dislike Donovan all you want, just remember his last act was qualifying us to what may be the last 32-team world cup we ever attended.

 

Did I have a mini stroke the other night or was he not playing on the right against Venezuela??

 

Since when does where a guy generally plays make any difference on the US team?

 

False. He's played on both wings in Turkey too.

 

I thought Meszt means something different.

 

Mmmm.... Both Turkey wings....

 

That was Egg doing his thing. With club, Tyler Boyd doesn't play on the right.

 

And the best chance for the US to qualify for 2022 may rest with the FBI. If you have seen the latest news on Qatar 2022, you know that it looks like FIFA is now seriously considering moving it, based on newly discovered evidence of corruption. USA/Canada/Mexico could get moved up.

 

No. You're still wrong. 1+1 =/= 3 just because you keep saying it over and over.



Two goals in the first 42 seconds are from him playing on the right.

 

Hasn't played on the right recently. He's the kind who cuts to shoot, inverted foot winger. There was a discussion on the All Whites forum about it: he's never as effective on the right.

 

What a switch! He's played on the right as recently as Venezuela, so I'm confident he's done it recently enough! He's good with both feet regardless.

Unless you forgot about his goal with his left for Tondela:

 

Just because Gonzalez regressed hard doesn't mean anyone was wrong about Ventura Alvarado being a god awful terrible defender.

 

Lol. So apparently he plays on the right then. And Adams is a RB. Glad we are continuing this trend of not playing guys in their best positions.

 

Well said

 

The one that Qatar won?

Yeah, sure.

Asia's Confederation is awful. Worse that CONCACAF.

 

One major quibble is this. This just doesn't work. If the past few olympic cycles have taught anything, it's that it's damn near impossible to build a coherent team for the U23's period. In camps, you only get some domestics. In qualifying, you only get some domestics, and if we ever qualify again, suddenly we get the bulk of our Euro based guys, maybe. There's literally zero coherency to the Olympic qualification and tournament whatsoever. I get why it might theoretically be worthwhile, but the pragmatic reality of club play means that you will NEVER get your first choice guys and that quite often you will never even get all of your second choice guys so you get a weird amalgam of Jerome Kiesewetter's, Boyd Okwuono's, Fatai Alashe, Gboly Ariyibi's w/the more familiar names like Steffen, Hyndman, CCV, Jordan Morris and WFT. I count literally 10 changes between the starters and the bench in the qualifying round and the third place playoff game. Pining any kind of hopes on these guys playing together cycle through cycle is beyond silly. U17 to U20, there were literally 6 total players that continued from the fall of 2017's U17 WC, to the Spring of 2019's U20 World Cup. Six freaking guys. How is that integrating anything? And I don't have a problem with it btw, I'm just kinda calling b.s. on the idea that these guys are holding hands as they traverse through each age group together until they slowly integrate into the senior team when Michael Bradley retires at age 46 from the national team in 2035 or whatever.

It's a great idea in theory, but we know in practice it just doesn't work that way because U17's fall off the map while others climb onto it by the U20's, and because the U23 process is by and large a total s show because clubs don't have to release players by Fifa mandate for literally any of it and usually don't save the Olympics itself, and I imagine there were will be fewer releases, not more, over time for the Olympics itself

 

A missionary was eaten by 2 cannibals, they got a taste of religion...