We will need MLS based players to cover certain North American based games; especially these inane non-FIFA date friendlies. Opara seems good enough. He reads plays well and broke up several in the box that Trapp, Polster, Zimmerman, and Morrow were nowhere near reacting to. I agree he doesn't pass. I haven't watched him enough to see if he can run, but he probably gets by with reading the game more than reacting. Good in the air is useful.
Outside a few spots in the second half and that breakdown at the end of the first when Hamid saved things, an overall solid defensive performance by a bunch of role players looking exactly like a bunch of role players. There was no one out there for the US that looked like they were veer able to do anything to create. No skill, no creativity, no dangerman anywhere to be found. A lot of hustle and hard work made them difficult to break down for Bosnia-Herzegovina, but no one ever looked dangerous. Apparently there are no decent American strikers in MLS. This is exactly why Jozy has gotten cap after cap and is likely to get back on the field before all is said and done. Did y'all get a good look at what else gets thrown out there if you leave Jozy out of the domestic bunch? It's a pretty ugly batch of attackers available. Even if you start throwing in the European brigade, after Pulisic, the cupboard is staggeringly bare of attacking talent.
Not really from the game, but who knows from the actual camp, my guess is no. Morris is the only one pushing close to the 23. But the game was so poorly managed with formations and selection that it's hard to get anything real substantial, which was always going to be the case. No direction for the team, so a C team camp was bound to be directionless and it was. As far as Rimando over Hamid, it's Rimando brings a calm demeanor and is very consistent. So if you had to go to your third keeper, you knew exactly what he was. Hamid has mental lapses, and is worse in possession, and injuries. He is most like Howard in that his athleticism can bail him out, but can also lead to poor positioning.
I learned that there is no downside to playing the kids that are 17 ish to 23. Virtually no one older is much better and the kids seem to play better as a unit. A lot of us thought this was a good chance for U23 only and this game proved it. From now on U23's only with very few exceptions. Let them get better and take their lumps. We''ll give them a break if we see the potential and forgive some youthful screwups. Coaching pick needs to be on board with a big youth push.
I disagree. The truth is the truth and we need more people laying it on the line. If the US is going to be a consistent top 15 to 20 team we are going to need ballers and the domestic development system is just not producing enough. Look at where even MLS is now sourcing its young exciting talent. It is not from domestic development. There was this myth that had been created by the GOB over the last 5 years that this was the most talented US player pool and Klinsmann was wasting it. Thankfully nobody of sound mind buys into that nonsense anymore.
I don' think the office types of USSF, or whoever they are, will or want to let the program go threw growing pains. Most uninformed would think this is a meaningful game and a loss is just another dagger in the back of the game in America. But that is just where we are. We need to struggle to get back to where we were. We need to try new, not tried already. They see dollars at stake, not future growth. This is not going to be easy. Not on the program and not on the fans. I agree, there should not have been a Zardes, Morris or Agudelo out there. I don't care if we win or lose, I want to see change and giving a chance to so called up and coming players. How will they know what they need to change by sitting. I hope they play a lot more friendlies. I just hope they change the roster.
As someone who watched Adams every week last season, that's an accurate take. He needs at least another full season of MLS play, preferably while having the keys to the Red Bulls midfield, before he's ready to move abroad. He's six months younger than McKennie, and as with Wes and Pulisic in recent years, we've seen how much a player can develop over that stretch of time. As always, don't read too much into someone's January camp play. Do, however, read way too much into the coach's tactical setup. Sarachan is a dinosaur.
There are two different points so I'll address the first one: our domestic development system is better than it's ever been. This is why the best programs in the world are actively recruiting here in the US. CP, McKennie, JoGo, Carelton, et al are the tip of the spear. There seems to be a lot of back-n-forth about who gets credit for it and, quite frankly, I don't care as long as there is an increasing number of talented youth. Most will fall by the wayside but we're on the right path as is shown by our increasing competitiveness at Youth tournaments. Shout-out to Clint Eastwood, USS97531 and others who track our youngsters and keep us informed.
I think our pool is the deepest its ever been as we've cleared the Ralston line by a good margin. Where we have lost a lot is in the GK position where we had a crucial advantage for decades. I personally think that JK's decision to play an attractive/attacking style was inconsistent with our pool and his lack of stability on our back line was baffling but he gets a lot of credit from me for overachieving at 2014 Brazil (where we were much more conservative).
Not going to bother analyzing this match. It would take 5 minutes for a person with zero soccer experience to dissect a gameplan by a US manager who has been coaching for 40 years. Yes, 40 years of coaching has given him this much sophisticated knowledge of soccer. I'm more worried about sinister forms of racism and cronyism that seem to have taken over the USMNT. It is nothing overt and I am sure to those doing it not even overly malicious. Take a look at the US coaching bench. Then take a look at the lineup. Do it a few times. You see coaches building a team that looks like them. You see coaches building a team that looks like a high school football team. Not a single latin player makes the cut. I think by a large margin latin players by ratio to the population play football. Not one is represented. Why is that? Pretty simple: they don't embody and emulate any of the values central to their coaches. They have skills the coaches do not value or understand. They don't mesh with the 'gameplan.' Plus they look different. Might even sound different. This is now pretty widespread across positions of power in the US. If you look at the board of directors of any VC funded company and then look at the VC firms funding them you will find white guys, some asian guys and some indian guys. Not much else. Black players have been playing sports long enough in each discipline for white coaches to be comfortable with them. But Latins? Not really. So you have Hackworth: not a single west coast player. not a single latin player getting serious reps. His teams play a cover 2 and a wishbone offense. He can't coach latin players. He doesn't know what to do with them. Tab Ramos: the master of the US version of the tiky-taka, the rinky-dink. He is a latin guy of sorts and he plays some latin players. Or does he? He tries to hybrid some kind of blue collar latin style. However, his team is still getting completely overrun in the midfield. He had 3 Latin players of sorts on his team and I think one maybe two saw minutes. Acosta being the most memorable. Last night Rubio came in late. Arriola was there at the half. And you know what? If they don't play to script, they wont play again. So you have coaches who dont value latin players, can't manage latin skills, don't accept any break in the script and ultimately decide to play football that resembles a remedial U12 AYSO style. This is why we don't just need to change the top, but get rid of the old. It is time for a soccer revolution in the US.
I'd like to give US Soccer a big FU for this 9:45 start EST. You got a PR problem and desperately need to repair relations. A little goodwill would be nice. I didn't watch since I got to be up at 5:15 am. You have a dead weekend, why Sunday at 10 PM? I never expect a good match, but I do enjoy that first match of the year with sun and warm looking temps. I was in Mike Winograd's office on Friday for a meeting, should have asked to speak to him and complain about this to a USSF candidate.
Until you change that word "hope," to you taking control of the decision making of putting players on the pitch or at least dictating which pool of players to select, it is not going to happen. You also need to find the coach who can manage a midfield that can pass forward, think itself out of a simple 1-2 press. Then no. It is not going to change.
As bad as this might sound, I want to see a nut head like Mourinho coming in and just blew everything out of the water. Fire all the existing staff, and calling out shit that needs to be called out. The current staff has been in place way too long that they had regress significantly, rather than progress. You need new USMNT leadership, new U21, U17, U14 leadership, etc. All of the guys currently associated with US soccer needs to be given the pink slip (Sarachan, Ramos, Hackworth, Rogen, etc....all of them need to go). The US program needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.
He also has the potential to learn it by running the show for RBNY for 2,500 minutes this season. Last year was his first run with a first team playing mainly wide. RB is expecting a lot from him this season in the middle of the field.
There's unquestionably a wave of youngsters on the way...................that will be here sooner rather than later. The current state of the USMNT is a reflection of past development programs. The scarcity of international-caliber 28 year olds is reflective of the developmental programs in the early-to-mid 2000s. The homegrown initiative and development academy only started in about 2007, and some clubs are still figuring it out. Heck, how many MLS clubs have been founded since 2007. I think the answer is 11............basically half the league. And folks are expecting them to develop players as if they're 100 year old Bundesliga clubs? Pulisic is an outlier in terms of being Bundesliga ready as a 17 year old. However Kellyn Acosta leads to Weston McKennie leads to Tyler Adams leads to......and the ball keeps rolling. Its picking up steam. The prospects are coming in terms of quantity and quality. We just need to be a little bit patient with it, and keep ramping up our investment.
Colossal waste of time. What good is it to see known quantities like Morris, Zardes and Morrow? It's a weak roster but why not play the youth? The main focus regardless of who is the coach should be youth. Perhaps we need to revaluate January camp. Maybe we need to make it U-23 only. Polster isn't good enough this level. Roldan looks like he might be stuck with the US. Probably should've chosen El Salvador. He's not good enough. Bunch of robots. No creativity.
Woah... I fear this team will have great difficulty getting out of the group stage in Russia. ... In all seriousness, I thought Rubin came in and immediately looked like the sharpest, most creative player out there. I just wish I didn't have to wait 82 minutes to see him. Will echo what others said about not seeing enough new blood.
Demand more mediocre MLS-lifer fullbacks. Hurray. At least throw Acosta in there and not freaking Morrow.
It wouldn't be a bail out, it wasn't a 50/50 challenge, not even close. A two hand shove on a player who took body position away from you isn't 50/50. It was a flat out bad call. You should also consider that he wasn't the one who was supposed to be defending that player to begin with. He came over to help out a teammate, so to blame him for that sequence is ridiculous. It's also absolutely not his fault that Zimmerman made a clumsy challenge afterwards.