Fair point. I was specifically looking at the final choices. Let’s see what the starting lineup age is.
Canada or someone else will probably win one of these sooner or later. Given Mexico's disarray and our rebuilding, it's possible they win. It wouldn't surprise me.
Very likely that these guys, if cut, head to the Jason Kreis U-23 Olympic camp. That we are a) actually trying to prepare for that and b) giving time to these guys in full camps and friendlies, even if they aren't in the Gold Cup, is a good thing. Lewis was just added to the Jamaica roster so maybe he's back in the picture. Or maybe he's not but Colorado decided they won't use him Saturday so we called him in for the game before sending him to the U-23 camp. So a case of "anybody can play left back?" Gee, imagine the reaction on this board if we were considering moving a young Bundesliga standout from his normal position to an outside back position.
Depends. If guys like OG and Ream start... Besides which, this Friendly is for "experimentation". It's the Venezuela Friendly that is going to tell us what the GC team will look like.
Goalkeepers (3) GOALKEEPERS (3): 12-Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 7/0), 22-Tyler Miller (LAFC; 0/0), 1-Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew SC; 9/0) Creditor: Steffen, Horvath, Johnson Ives: Steffen, Horvath, Johnson dhc1: Steffen, Horvath, [ ] largegarlic: Steffen, Horvath, [ ] 11Bravo: Steffen, Horvath, Johnson Duke: Steffen, Horvath, Guzan Individual11: Steffen, Horvath, Hamid Central Defenders (4) 3-Omar Gonzalez (Toronto FC/CAN; 50/3), 23-Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 5/0), 19-Matt Miazga (Chelsea/ENG; 13/1), 13-Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 29/1), 5-Walker Zimmerman (LAFC; 6/2) Creditor: Brooks, Long, Miazga, Ream Ives: Brooks, Long, Miazga, Ream dhc1: Brooks, Long, Miazga, [ ] largegarlic: Brooks, Long, Miazga, Ream 11Bravo: Brooks, Long, Miazga, Carter-Vickers Duke: Brooks, Long, Miazga, Palmer Brown Individual11: Brooks, Long, Miazga, Carter-Vickers Central Midfielders (5-6) 14-Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER; 10/1), 4-Michael Bradley (Toronto FC/CAN; 145/17), 8-Weston McKennie (Schalke/GER; 8/1), 15-Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 10/0), 6-Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC; 16/0) Creditor: McKennie, Trapp, Adams, Lletget, Roldan, Bradley Ives: McKennie, Trapp, Adams, Lletget, Roldan, Bradley dhc1: McKennie, Trapp, Adams, Morales, [ ] largegarlic: McKennie, Trapp, Adams, Lletget, Pomykal, [ ] 11Bravo: Trapp, Adams, Lletget, Roldan, Nagbe Duke: McKennie, Trapp, Adams, Lletget, Roldan, Mihailovic, Boyd Individual11: McKennie, Trapp, Adams, Bradley, Boyd Outside Back/Wing (5-6) 2-Nick Lima (San Jose Earthquakes; 3/0), 16-Daniel Lovitz (Montreal Impact/CAN; 4/0), 20-Duane Holmes (Derby County/ENG; 1/0), 7-Paul Arriola (D.C. United; 22/3), 21-Tyler Boyd (Vitória Guimãres/POR; 0/0), 18-Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids; 4/0), Creditor: Yedlin, Arriola, Garza, Lima, Lewis Ives: Yedlin, Arriola, A. Robinson, Lichaj, Lovitz dhc1: Yedlin, Arriola, A. Robinson, Johnson, Chandler, Holmes largegarlic: Yedlin, Arriola, M. Robinson, [ ], [ ] 11Bravo: Yedlin, Arriola, Lima, Johnson, Robinson (not sure which one) Duke: Yedlin, Arriola, F. Johnson, A. Robinson Individual11: Yedlin, Arriola, Robinson (not sure which one), Lichaj, Holmes Attackers (5) FORWARDS (6): 10-Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 25/10), 17-Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC/CAN; 110/41), 11-Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders FC; 27/5), 9-Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew SC; 44/7) Creditor: Pulisic, Altidore, Zardes, Morris, Ramirez Ives: Pulisic, Altidore, Zardes, Morris, Novakovich dhc1: Pulisic, Altidore, Zardes, Weah/Sargent, Wood largegarlic: Pulisic, Altidore, Zardes, Weah, [ ] 11Bravo: Pulisic, Altidore, Zardes, Novakovich, Weah, Sargent Duke: Pulisic, Altidore, Zardes, Morris, Novakovich, Weah Individual11: Pulisic, Altidore, Zardes, Novakovich, Mueller, Sapong MLS players in squad (underline): Creditor: 14 Ives: 11 dhc1: 5-8 largegarlic: 8-13 11Bravo: 9-10 Duke: 10 Individual11: 9-10 Berhalter: 16 I'm not crying, you're crying.
Given that he called in 16 MLS players, who would you characterize as “real surprises”? Is 16 within the appropriate range for you or does it seem a big strange that 70% of the roster is in MLS?
Based on the player positions listed in the roster announcement and based on 3G's system. -------------------Zardes/Altidore----- -----Boyd------------------------------------Arriola---- ---------------Pulisic---------McKennie----- ------------------------Trapp----- ---------------------------------------Adams------ ---------Ream--Miazga---Long-------------- -----------------------Steffen-------------
After his performance vs Jamaica, it would be shocking to put Trapp in the highest usage position for the team.
He's 3G's boy. Also that formation from the Jamica match didn't play to Trapp's strengths. I'm not arguing he should be a starter in the team. Ideally, Adams starts there.
Couldn’t we take his Jamaica formation and make it work with Adams and McKennie instead of Trapp and Yueill? Add pulisic as well but unclear for whom
Considering at the time of that quote, people were just assuming that Boyd and Holmes wouldn't be there I would mention those two. I'm also surprised that Sargent wasn't included. I know he didn't do much yesterday but I am still surprised. I thought FJ would be included but wasn't. I don't know why...I know he didn't play any of the last 6 games in his season and didn't even make the bench the last 3. Injury? Form? Personal? I have no idea. Did it have any impact on his being left off? I don't know which means I can't make a conclusion. For me, the biggest disappointments (on the roster) are including Gonzalez and Ream. I would replace them with Miles Robinson and someone else (not particularly impressed by CCV even though he is from Europe...does that make me biased?) I Would replace Morris with Sargent. (I am sayng this with the understanding that Bradley adn Trapp are a given at this point in time). I would replace one of Bradley/Trapp/Roldan with Morales. My choice would be to remove Bradley. Not sure but, even though he has been playing in Mexico, I assume you are counting Gonzalez as MLS. this means I would remove 2 mls players and one Euro player; replacing them with one mls player and one Euro player and one undecided. as far as your percentage question. That is a pretty big...not necessarily. Take a look at what I said just above this...that doesn't really change the percentage much....especially if you take into account that the three keepers are mls (unless you are counting steffan as euro...which I doubt). Either way, I expect that the starting lineup will consist of more than 30% Euro players. Do you doubt this?
-----------------------------Altidore----------------- ------------Boyd-------------------------------Pulisic---- ------Robinson----Adams---McKennie-------Arriola----- -----------------Ream----Miazga----Long--------- -----------------------------Steffen-----
We'd get shredded up the wings. We're probably screwed on the left anyway this tournament due to where our outside back pool is at, but at least "The System (TM)" with Adams on the right shores up a seriously weak lateral defense on one side of the field.
I think that if we’re fielding 70% of our starters who are minor league players, we’re not going to be very successful at the World Cup. We should have no more than three non-spine guys on the field IMO and those three should be all-star candidates.
With the players on the roster, I'd be OK with something like... ..................Altidore Boyd.......................Holmes ..........Pulisic..McKennie ................Adams Ream..Miazga..Long..Lima .................Steffan Not having very many top players should make lineups easy, but we all know Admas will play right back and the whole setup is going to be something screwy.
I think you finally hit on something. This game Is that what your question was? Is that what I said? I assume you have the lineup set. I'm curious...what is it? I assume three to start would be Pulisic, Adams, McKennie...probably Steffan too so we have 4 more Euro major league players and 2 more that come from a combination of mls and euro minor league. (If you counted Steffan as mls before, you can't count him as euro now just because he was just loaned to B1.
Robinson is a good orthodox left back. CCV played left back in a cup match against ManCity; he did well in his matchup with Raheem Sterling. Ream should be OK as an LB/CB in Berhalter's system, though I'd prefer CCV in the role.
I’m still waiting for your “real surprises” on this roster. You mentioned Boyd and Holmes before moving on to wasn’t included. Do you now sit back and say’”I nailed that one!” I’d note that dlokteff can certainly pay himself on the back for his prescience. My guess is that Holmes and Boyd will play a very modest amount and it will only be the obvious Pulisic, Adams and McKennie who will represent non-MLS players although I think it’s possible he’ll sit Weston quite a bit.
I'm watching the game. Holmes was ace. Maybe 3G could start him at amid and Pulisic on the wing or vice versa.
-------------------------Wood/Altidore/weah/Sargent-------- ------------Boyd/Holmes -------------------------Pulisic---- Johnson--Adams--McKennie--chandler/Yeldin- -----------------Miazga----Long--------brooks----- -----------------------------Steffen-
Ok. I didn't "nail it". does that make you feel better? did you put Boyd on your list of players that Berhalter had in his pool? How about Holmes? If you can say that Boyd and Holmes were in his pool than they certainly don't meet the criteria of surprise. If you don' think they were in his pool, they definitely meet the criteria. Either way, I expected more, so I didn't nail it. I thought that was clear but I have now said so as clearly as I can. I think there were two surprise additions and at least 2 surprise negative omissions. (the negative omissions weren't really part of the prediction but if they equal or surpass the positives they hurt my prediction).
He was the only one that I think was positive overall. Lot of not so good and several big negatives. biggest negatives in my opinion were Mihailovic (who I like) and Trapp. I think that Mihailovic isn't ready yet but may be later and Trapp is lacking.