No. WTF was Berhalter doing looking down his bench at Mihailovic and Trapp instead of Green and Morales?
Currently watching Lovitz get torched by f-ing Toronto FC. Does anyone other than Berhalter believe that Lovitz is one of the 14 best players with a USA passport?
Dude, calm down. Old man getting angry. Find me where I've defended Lovitz or even Roldan (who hasn't been uniformly bad). I've advocated to see new LBs and Pomykal in those two spots. So why are you yelling at me?
Not old, not angry. Did you not watch the Gold Cup final? Who were the subs? Please stop with the straw man arguments. Others did yell at you for that. LOL.
You're absolutely angry, as you're swearing at me. I had a very long and involved discussion with someone else, and that discussion did include Julian Green, amongst other folks. There's no straw man there -- we went back and forth on it. You can't barge your way into a discussion between other people, decide what it's about and then label straw men. You don't get to define what other people are talking about when you weren't part of the discussion. Of all the dumb arguments on this board, this is my favorite. Oooooh, "others yelled at me for that?" Shocking in this groupthink riddled group of wannabe internet bullies. Oh, gee, that's compelling. I imagine it's one of the folks I have little respect for and have ignored. And adding LOL to an internet argument is shorthand for "my opinion is dumb." It's like an easy reference tag. Just a tip for you.
Again, about four European based players that would certainly have been a part of the 23 were injured just before the cup. So why didn't he bring in more European players to the 40? You might say. Well, MLS is more amenable to allowing their players be called up unofficially by the USMNT. Only 23 can be officially called up. You are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Lovitz was high man on WS for Montreal except for Bojan who scored the goal. I guess they don't count torches on WS.
I wouldnt call the bias of calling up and playing crap MLS players a molehill. I dont know what you are even trying to say with this second paragraph. The March camp and GC are official dates. It was never an issue getting European players in the past. If anyone didnt want players called in for the March games, it would be the MLS teams who are just starting their seasons and have actual games during the break. Again, there are many more than the four injured players that are better than players who got multiple caps this year. These players have been systematically ignored. Again, he got about half the roster wrong. By your reasoning, does he go with Lewis in September since Weah is injured?
does anyone have a quick synopsis of why gregg is so obsessed with diagonal balls being played by his #6?
Most probably know my hypothesis (get MB the caps record), but I found this Twitter thread interesting (with about 10-11 videos). (should warn you to listen on mute, a lot of these clips come with the offensive goal kick chant)— ol velasquez (@away_goals) September 5, 2019 I didn't watch the game, but the first bunch with our most dangerous chances bypasses MB entirely. In fact, it seems the only time he touches the ball are the examples of our "slow build up" that simply doesn't work. Someone more tactically astute can likely explain the rationale (maybe it's supposed to be useful against the lesser CONCACAF teams?) but it seems like it failed completely against Mexico.
it seems to my uneducated brain as setting yourself up to fail. having that arrow in the quiver of passes is one thing, but saying 'this is what we do in this position' seems like it just makes it easier to have the opposing manager blow it up
also that great @away_goals thread just illustrated how dumb it is to sacrifice defensive bite for a few diagonal balls when mexico basically is setup to allow your keeper to hit the diagonals
Further, we've had these "long diagonals" for the last year, with either Bradley or Trapp. I do remember a nice ball or two from both (pointed out by Egg fans "proving" the benefit of these balls) over a dozen or so games, but I'm pretty sure they've led to zero goals. So we have these guys that don't play much, if any, defense, who can hit (generously) 1 nice long diagonal a game, that doesn't turn into a goal. I'd say I'm missing something, but the overall results lead me to think Egg is the one confused.
I think we ought to first think of what our opponent likes to do before we lay out our squad. Off the top of my head, I’d guess that they will try a mid/high trap, hoping that we build out of the back and forcing turnovers near our third. Otherwise, they will look to build primarily through the wings and find cutters. We need to have a specific tactic to thwart Lozano as well. Thoughts on what Mexico is likely to do and how we should prepare for it?
To me, it has always seemed that Gregg wants a variety of alternatives from the back. Ream is there to provide the ball down the line, Bradley to provide the diagonals, Long provides direct passes down the middle. The dribblers where Pulisic and McKennie. Cannon interacted with Boyd or Morris to dribble down the right. Against the lesser CCAF opposition this was ok and occasionally got to the point of great. Against Mexico, not so much. Ream was locked down by Pizarro. Bradley had Dos Santos on top him continuously. Cannon had troubles breaking out. Pulisic was able to break out but was not able to provide a final ball. The direct ball to Altidore was the one that worked a lot. In the postgame interviews Berhalter indicated that he wanted to wrest some control back from Mexico. That is why he took out Altidore. Meanwhile, the players, in particular Altidore and Long, thought that they should just rinse and repeat the long ball as much as they could. So basically, that game the players and coach did not see eye to eye. This makes me very curious about how Berhalter will react. I know that he has prepared a lot of tape with the players on things that should be changed/improved/avoided.
To quote Berhalter, He wants to "disorganize the defense". I guess he is trying to do that by rotating players (really movement) and quickly changing the point of the attack.
this argument at best vastly overrates the MLS players he did call. to me you have to go down a long list of prospects, and ignore history, to still be calling trapp/roldan/omar/mihailovic/zardes/ream/etc.etc. it's a list of 5-10 people who shouldn't be on the team. that long a list and several outside options got shut out. we were playing in June and July, who was held out for club reasons????????????????
If Berhalter doesn't care about defence at the 6, and is so concerned about the long diagonal, why doesn't he just play Abby Dahlkemper?
Yes, plus if the defense gives up a couple of those diagonals on the front foot of a winger then wide defenders are liable to start cheating outside by a step or two which helps open up things in the middle. It isn't everything but the more options you have to work at a defense, the better off you are.
i’ve gotten a lot of thoughtful responses but it’s still hard to understand how that is the primary factor since it seems undeniable another quality team would be setup to deny that kind of 6 enough time on the ball to do anything but send out the most hopeful kinds of diagonal balls.
If they focus on the 6, then somebody else is getting time and space. Hopeful diagonal balls are not helpful.
Ideally there'd be other ball-handlers along the backline and in central midfield. A 3G oriented lineup if he were to play 433. ------------------------Sargent------------ ------------Boyd-----------------------Pulisic-- ------------------Morales------Lletget----- -------------------------Trapp ------------- -----Dest-----------------------------------Cannon---- ----------------Brooks--------Long--------- ------------------------Steffen---- Morales, Pulisic, Steffen, and Brooks are leaving after the game. McKennie can get the Uruguay match. Lletget would be the extra ball-handler in central midfield. Both he and Morales would act as 'bodyguards' for Trapp. Pulisic would link midfield and attack. I don't think Trapp should be a starter in the team. But The System calls for that type player.