Pre-match: Guatemala vs. USA, March 25, 2016

I think Klinsi, taking into account his pets, could try this

-------------jozy
--------finlay-----gyassi
----fab------Bradley---bedoya
--ream--besler--bbaum--poodle-

Brooks, Yedlin, Morris,Miazga et al will be with u23's

Prefer Finlay on right and Gyassi left but Fab will go bananas if we stick Gyassi ahead of him again.

 

Who the hell is Poodle?

 

Mix? Chandler?

 

Uh, I don't think Mix would like to play RB.

 

Yeah but he's got the most poodle-esque look on the team. The hair, obv.

 

Jozy Altidore F 6-1 175 11/6/89 Boca Raton, Fla. Toronto FC 90/32
Gyasi Zardes F 6-2 175 9/2/91 Hawthorne, Calif. LA Galaxy 20/3
Bobby Wood F 5-10 165 11/15/92 Irvine, Calif. Union Berlin (Germany) 14/4
Alan Gordon F 6-3 190 10/16/81 Long Beach, Calif. San Jose Earthquakes 2/0
Clint Dempsey F 6-1 170 3/9/83 Nacogdoches, Texas Seattle Sounders FC 119/48
Andrew Wooten F 6-0 180 9/30/89 Worms, Germany SV Sandhausen (Germany) 0/0
Aron Johannsson F 6-0 165 11/10/90 Mobile, Ala. Werder Bremen (Germany) 18/4
*
Fabian Johnson M 6-0 155 12/11/87 Munich, Germany Borussia Moenchengladbach (Germany) 42/2
*
Michael Bradley M 6-2 185 7/31/87 Princeton, N.J. Toronto FC 110/15
Darlington Nagbe M 5-9 165 6/19/90 Monrovia, Liberia Portland Timbers 3/0
Lee Nguyen M 5-8 150 10/7/86 McKinney, Texas New England Revolution 8/0
Mix Diskerud M 6-0 150 10/2/90 Oslo, Norway New York City FC 36/6
*
Alejandro Bedoya M 6-0 160 4/29/87 Weston, Fla. Nantes (France) 43/2
*
Danny Williams M 5-10 175 3/8/89 Karlsruhe, Germany Reading (England) 16/1
Tony Tchani M 6-4 185 4/13/89 Bafang, Cameroon Columbus Crew SC 1/0
Jermaine Jones M 6-0 170 11/3/81 Chicago, Ill. Unattached 57/3
Perry Kitchen M 6-0 160 2/29/92 Indianapolis, Ind. Unattached 1/0
Wil Trapp M 5-10 150 1/15/93 Gahanna, Ohio Columbus Crew SC 1/0
Kyle Beckerman M 5-10 165 4/23/82 Crofton, Md. Real Salt Lake 51/1
Alfredo Morales M 6-0 163 5/12/90 Berlin, Germany Ingolstadt (Germany) 12/0
*
Matt Besler D 6-0 170 2/11/87 Overland Park, Kan. Sporting Kansas City 30/0
John Brooks D 6-4 175 1/28/93 Berlin, Germany Hertha Berlin (Germany) 18/2
*
Geoff Cameron D 6-3 185 7/11/85 Attleboro, Mass. Stoke City (England) 37/3
Matt Miazga D 6-4 185 7/19/95 Clifton, N.J. Chelsea FC 1/0
Steve Birnbaum D 6-2 180 1/23/91 Newport, Calif. D.C. United 2/1
Omar Gonzalez D 6-5 210 10/11/88 Dallas, Texas LA Galaxy 30/1
Ventura Alvarado D 6-0 165 8/16/92 Phoenix, Az. Club America (Mexico) 13/0

*
Brad Evans D 6-1 160 4/20/85 Phoenix, Ariz. Seattle Sounders FC 26/1
DeAndre Yedlin D 5-8 150 7/9/93 Seattle, Wash. Sunderland (England) 29/0
Michael Orozco D 5-11 160 2/7/86 Orange, Calif. Club Tijuana (Mexico) 21/4
*
Brek Shea D 6-3 180 2/28/90 Bryan, Texas Orlando City SC 34/4

Tim Ream D 6-1 165 10/5/87 St. Louis, Mo. Fulham (England) 20/0
Jonathan Spector D 6-0 180 3/1/86 Arlington Heights, Ill. Birmingham City (England) 34/0

*
Tim Howard GK 6-3 210 3/6/79 North Brunswick, N.J. Everton (England) 106/0
Brad Guzan GK 6-4 210 9/9/84 Homer Glen, Ill. Aston Villa (England) 41/0

Bill Hamid GK 6-3 225 11/25/90 Annandale, Va. D.C. United 2/0
Sean Johnson GK 6-3 215 5/31/89 Lilburn, Ga. Chicago Fire 5/0
Luis Robles GK 5-11 180 5/11/84 Fort Huachuca, Ariz. New York Red Bulls 2/0


**

pretty much everyone thats been called up since last summer
so, i put in bold 24 players.
not many options for width

lots of Mids.
R.CB, looking good.

any restrictions on call ups ?

no U23s, they have their own game.
do we pull Miazga away from Chelsea?
any other euro guys more important to their club teams, than this match with usa?

 

He'll call up Williams but start Mix at d-mid. This won't hurt us this round. At Copa America or during the Hex it will.

 

United States 'frustrated' by Jermaine Jones suspension - Klinsmann
http://www.espnfc.com/united-states...tates-frustrated-by-jermaine-jones-suspension

Nice work, you silly decision makers at MLS.

 

The combination of the Jones suspension and the fact the u23 matches are on the exact same FIFA dates does make this prospectively interesting in terms of call-ups.

It would also be cool to see a new keeper, but given everything else I can't imagine that would happen (and frankly is probably not advisable, just would be cool from a viewer/fan standpoint).

Oh, and I'm guessing poodle is Yedlin, what with the sort of poofy flat top thing he has showcased before (but I don't think anymore).

 

That was my guess, but they have Yedlin being with the U23s.

The mystery continues.

 

Sry, "poodle" doesn't refer to a secret person, just a generic term. Was putting out a lineup based on who Klinsi likes rather than one I would pick myself and I have no idea who he likes at right back. He plays Yedlin as wide mid. He played Birnbaum against Canada. He was so crazy about Beasley that he called him out of self professed retirement. He shoved the position down Fab's throat. He has played Orozco there for one game in Jan camp because Orozco was only released for one game.

You can see the confusion, I hope, and appreciate the resort to " poodle ".

Edit: I realized later it should be Gonzo at cb and Birnbaum at rb, I guess, which is how I made it on ASN starting xi http://americansoccernow.com/matches/152/starting_xis/13806

So that settles it: Birnbaum is a poodle!!!!

 

------------altidore---wood----
----nagbe----mix------------bedoya----
---------------------bradley---
--fab-----besler---cameron----orozco--
-----------------howard---

A flat 442 with Bradley playing a 6/8 role. Mix will play more of a pivot role.

For the Guatemala match, I'd like to limit the number of cold weather natives coming in from Europe to start. During his MLS years, Cameron played in Houston. Bedoya is from South Florida. Wood is from Hawaii.

I'm guessing Yedlin will be with the U-23s; if not, he can start the 2nd match in Columbus.

 

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing their players such as Thibaut Courtois (Belgian), Eden Hazard (Belgian), Gary Cahill (English), John Terry (English), Pedro (Spanish), Cesc Fabregas (Spainsh), and Diego Costa (Spanish) will have national team friendlies to prepare for Euro 2016. The Premier League won't play during that time.

Let's say the seniors lose at Guatemala and the U-23s lose 3:0 or worse at Colombia where it would be very hard to win the aggregate. Would it be possible to give up on the U-23s at that point and move some of them to the game hosting Guatemala?

 

4 points in these 2 games pretty much locks it up for us, even 3 puts us in great shape. Guatemala is bad, so we should fine in these

 

This doesn't answer your questions, but looking at the list you compiled I am surprised how tall all these guys are...

Only these 9 guys are below 6':
Robles 5' 11"
Orozco 5' 11"
Bekerman 5' 10"
Trapp 5' 10"
Williams 5' 10"
Wood 5' 10"
Nagbe 5' 9"
Nguyen 5' 8"
Yeldin 5' 8"

Out of all the guys you listed here the other 29 are 6' or taller... this is one tall pool of players.

 

-----------JA--------------
-------DN-------AB-------
FJ---------------------DY (or if anyone can actually whip in a cross they go here instead)
--------MB----GC---------
----MB----JB------(Ream, Orozco, Miazga, Omar, Evans... take your pick)

CD first sub... If AJ is somehow healthy and productive he takes Nagbe's spot. Zardes doesn't sniff the pitch.

 

The back 4 can really be tall...

Ream (6'1) -- Brooks (6'4) -- Miazga(6'4)/Gonzalez(6'5) -- Cameron (6'3)/Chandler (6'1)

 

This ain't anyone's fault but Jones. I can't believe anyone is complaining about how this is unfair. No one else from the Revs attacked the ref that night. I get that this is causing frustration for him, for JK and his future, but it ain't anyone's fault but his. Anger management classes, Jermaine. A much better use of your time than complaining about the fairness of this ban.

 

If we can't get 6 points out of this pathetic Guatemala, we should be taken out and shot.

 

You know 4 points would be championed because "that puts us in great position to advance from this (mighty) group and it's tough to win on the road in CONCACAF (even though world beaters T&T just won there)". 3 points would be rationalized as not bad for the same reasons to lesser degrees.

I think if his adopted son JJ isn't available because MLS is being "ridiculous and incompetent again" for suspending him several games for pushing a ref twice, then we'll see Kyle Beckerman back in central midfield again, with Cameron still at CB in spite of what he was doing when healthy at Stoke. Can't see how much better that midfield functions in there with Bradley, Cameron, and no Jones; as it did vs. Panama in '13. Has that dynamic returned since?

I'm guessing he'll go with close to this lineup/formation:

--------Zardes----Jozy----------
Johnson------------Bedoya---
-----------Bradley--------------
Ream----Beckerman---Orozco
---------Besler-Cameron-------
------------Howard--------------

subs - Wood, Yedlin, Dempsey/Ajo

Which will have solid possession, but lack teamwork in the wide areas offensively, have limited ideas how to break thru centrally, bungle plenty of chances up front, and be susceptible on the counter. 0-0 or 1-1 scoreline.

 

Beckerman? really???? that ship hasn't sailed?

he's been trending down for a long time now and was not good in recent performances.

here's an idea: how about the lineup is picked based on current form???

 

4 points is how many we got against Guatemala last cycle. 3 points would probably get us to the Hexagonal, but would be very disappointing. I'd give a grade of B+ or better (depending on how the games went) for 6 points, a grade of C+ for 4 points, a grade of D for 2 or 3 points, and a grade of F for 0 or 1 point. With 6 points, we would clinch a spot in the Hexagonal in March, rather than having to wait over five more months until September. We last lost to Guatemala in 1988, and we have 16 wins, 6 draws, and 5 losses all-time against them. If you give 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw, that works out to exactly 2 points per game.

 

You realized that was a prediction, not a preference, right? I made it clear what I wanted to happen was about the opposite.

Last cycle Guatemala didn't lose to Trinidad and Tobago at home. They beat Jamaica. This is a worse team.

And in a way it's using Klinsmann's own underwhelming result previously to lower expectations. We played them in a qualifier on the road under Bradley too and beat them 1-0.

Drawing against this Guatemala team, even on the road, would be a poor performance in isolation. Just like in isolation drawing 0-0 at T&T was mediocre at best, even though we were still in good shape to qualify. That shouldn't even be an issue at this stage.

 

This is America, where we conflate height with ability