Rooney understands the adage, let the game come to you. Not sure Acosta does. We'll be more dangerous if Senor Rooney brings in more players.
Maybe we're over-reacting a little to one game, playing a makeshift lineup, against one of the best defensive clubs in the league. Losing Fisher has hurt us a lot on offense. The team is adjusting but can't completely compensate. Steiber's talented but at times seems a little soft. A handful of times he had the ball taken from him with little struggle. If he gets the start on Wednesday it will be a big (and maybe last) opportunity for him to show he's a potential starter for us next year. Early in the seaon I foolishly predicted Asad would be in USL next year. I regret that because he's got real talent. He seems to be a little emotional though. When he makes a bad play or two he literally hangs his head, and it seems to take him a while to get back in the game. He's still young, though, and has a huge upside. Senior Wayne won't forget those great moves Asad made, and will be looking for him.
Missing Arriola was huge because Stieber simply isn't as dynamic a player. Arriola has leather lungs and continually moves and makes darting runs into the 18. Stieber is more methodical and just doesn't appear to want to get stuck in the way Arriola does. Stieber also wasn't helped by having a stiff like Robinson behind him because I'm sure he wasn't sure when or if Robinson would overlap and my guess is that Ben told Stieber "defense first" when Robinson was paired with him. If NDL can start tomorow, I think Stieber will be more active offensively. As for Asad, he's fine. Don't worry about him.
Asad was great on the ball, but he isn't as well integrated into the new Rooney attack in terms of the passing and movement. He is important to our attack though. Steiber hasn't improved his game with Rooney's arrival particularly. I haven't looked at exact stats before and after, but maybe he just didn't react as well to spot starting and coming off the bench?
D.C. United’s Chris Odoi-Atsem has Hodgkin’s lymphoma - The Washington Post #dcu #mls #Terps https://t.co/vGB2LJQrdE— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) October 16, 2018 Well wishes to COA
News Release by DC United and captain Wayne Rooney - https://www.dcunited.com/post/2018/10/16/stay-strong-chris?autoplay=true
I think with Rooney coming in and have to play & produce right away, he might not have had as much time to work into a whole team perspective, so picking Lucho was the best choice of who to focus on building understanding with. That said, I would expect by now that Rooney's relationships with the rest of the midfield and attack should be more developed.
I'm completely fine if Greg Berhalter gets the job as the USA coach except that it means Trapp and Steffens are going to be the #6 and #1 for the next generation, when it's patently obvious that Canouse and Hamid are each far better at those positions. (And Tyler Adams is better than either at #6.)
I think someone was criticizing his defense. The crisis is that with the team getting better it is harder to find a legitimate reason to criticize players. It was much easier in the past. Now we have to stretch for reasons to criticize players like Asad.
For the national team or at the club level? Hamid has been the best goalie in the league, hands down, since his re-arrival. The only competition right now IMO is Stefan Frei. Would you trade Hamid for Steffens? I wouldn't, unless there was *A LOT* of TAM. I don't really get the fascination with Steffens who seems like an adequate but not extraordinary keeper.
I don't watch enough of other teams to really know, but all the people who do watch seem to prefer Steffen... maybe he gets the nod cause he's as good as Hamid, but younger and with more upside? I think Hamid has been instrumental to our resurgence along with Rooney and Canouse, but It's hard for me to say that he's hands down better than Steffen. Some might take him over Steffen, but my guess is that almost all of those people wouldn't be feel that strongly that Hamid is better. I wouldn't trade Hamid (not that we even can if we have him on loan, can we?) for Steffen, but that's more for emotional reasons than him being clearly better.
Hamid's main problem all along is that he picks up a nagging injury frequently. At least once a season. Thats barely acceptable for a club striving to be at the top. But you can't have that as your Number One National Team GK. Maybe if he's been healthy for 2-3 months and you need designate a back-up. But not as a starter.
I think this is true, but it's also a shame. The national team is a really different animal, IMO. You can't count on continuity and familiarity, so you have to fall back on chemistry, communication, and the ability to work fluidly in whatever system you're in. There should be no #1 anything, unless you have a Messi or Ronaldo on your team. I can't think of a single situation where that's true for the US, with the borderline exception of Pulisic. Whenever the keeper with the best save percentage in MLS is healthy and available, I would hope we would strongly consider bringing him into camp for meaningful games, and let the chips fall where they may.
So team I'd take Hamid. National team, no. It's a different animal. US has to have a stout goalie that doesn't screw up to be competitive. Maybe he's different now, but previously on the US he looked too jittery.
I think the argument you're making is that Hamid makes more spectacular saves but Steffens is less likely to screw up. I don't really buy this line of thinking. For one thing, Hamid isn't 18 anymore and I can't think of any significant brainfarts since his return. He's a mature goalie at this point with good fundamentals, who's also a world class shot stopper. The one flaw in his game is that he's too often injured, something he can't control. Perhaps you could argue that he's too aggressive but I think that's a feature, not a bug. Furthermore, I reject the argument that you need a steady GK, rather than a extraordinary keeper who might screw up once in a blue moon. France won a world cup with Fabian Barthez FFS! It's such a small part of the job. I want goalies that stop goals. Everything else is secondary. At any rate, Hamid's distribution isn't that poor; this isn't the 18 year old version of Hamid anymore.
Stout is not the same as steady. Too me it's a combo of impenetrable and unflustered [emoji16] It's opinion but since your buying I got more. Let me know...
Twenty good distributions might not lead to one goal, but one great shot stop prevents a goal. It's not an accident that w're now rarely conceding more tha one goal a game, with the same defense that leaked goals throufh the first half of the season.