I acknowledge that. Fab removing himself in extra time is the difference with the other instances of other players pulling out.
JK frequently blamed his players even when his tactics, training, and personnel were likely culprits. Why is he suddenly credible here? Because? In place of Johnson's name, inserting most other NT players' names would continue to make the statement true.
He's been quite good as a LB. However, there is a reason why even JK, who was all rah-rah about the guy at first, ended up barely using him in midfield. And, frankly, our soccer media is pitiful. Their idea of "game analysis" is producing a bunch of numbers. In that table you can find Brooks at #3 --go watch the CRC game again and tell me right now he's our third best player.
The reason Fab was used at LB and RB was because we were very poor at those positions and are still pitifully poor at LB. As for your comments on our media, well as bad as they might be they are an order of magnitude better than the tinfoil hat stuff on BS.
Real analysis has little to do with numbers. If your successful passing rate is 90% but most of your passes are lateral or backwards, and you're one of the guys in charge of creativity, you're not doing your job. If you're playing as a wide attacking mid, and they score you high because you dribble through players, but in the end lose the ball close to the corner flag, they have no clue what they're talking about. You have to watch the game and understand what each play means. The soccer media in the USA often does not. I bet you if 'Gladbach gets relegated and Fabian stays there, you won't be seeing him in the Top 10 any time soon, even if he plays exactly the same. Our soccer media is a reflection of the fans: blinded by hype, unable to analyze a soccer game properly, and grading players based on their EA FIFA rating.
The conversation over USMNT commitment was subtly resurfaced in an ESPN article by Jeff Carlisle. The below quote is from Bruce Arena, and though this thread has been discussing Howard's POV I thought this thread was better than the one about BA's infamous American-ness quotes. Mods, feel free to move if I'm judged to be wrong. http://www.espnfc.us/world-cup-qual...ic-was-grown-in-the-united-states-bruce-arena "You really have to have a passion about doing this. We're fortunate in that we have a group of guys who want to be here. There might be one or two guys that don't, but for the most part these guys want to be here." In an article on the development of Christian Pulisic, this sure came out of nowhere. Anyone know if this has been cleared up in comments elsewehere?? Who on Earth is Bruce talking about? Does "here" mean in the current camp, or in the US pool in general? Why does this mysterious accusation of lacking commitment keep arising? Let the rampant speculation begin...
I'm not sure it's really anything more than Bruce thinks one or two of his players weren't giving it their all that afternoon in practice or something like that. Just a coach thinking, "Man, that <insert name> really should've gone after that 50/50 ball a little harder". Granted, coaches usually don't mention it in public, but Bruce was chest-pounding and ranting a bit in that presser - see earlier statements like "Don't piss on our system, which everyone wants to do". So maybe he let his lips run a little fast. But I don't think it's anything more than idle stream-of-consciousness. I seriously hope not, anyway. I thought this whole "commitment" conversation was buried and over with. As a national coach, calling players' commitment into question can only turn players against you.
Not naming names makes it polite enough in my book. Burning bridges is fine when you've already made up your mind you're not calling them up again, and Bruce only has a year left as the NT coach anyway. So, just keep your eyes peeled for who doesn't get called. Or the slightly better for PR, who happens to develop recurrent little nags at around NT duty time.
A diplomatic delivery for sure, and context innocuous enough. Just hard to shake the feeling that the residue from the "Strauss article era" remains. As fans we invest a great deal of energy and passion into supporting our club, so it's natural to be at least curious about who among the player corps isn't up to passion par. Friday's victory in San Jose did a lot to erase concern over lingering discord within the team but comments like this reinforce the suspicion that commitment level among a select few was problematic. I can't help but wonder who the offending party/parties are and if our hypotheses have been correct all along. Not to distract from the positive current trajectory of the team, but to put to bed a conversation that's been haunting the team and its supporters for years.
I don't know about that. Let's say Bruce is specifically thinking of a guy who's in camp right now, and that's who Bruce is talking about. Not naming names saves the guy from public scrutiny, but that guy will still know what Bruce is saying, and that Bruce is talking bad about him in the press. The guy won't be happy about that. Now, if he really doesn't care about being here, obviously this is a non-issue. But what if the guy actually does care? Hearing Bruce say that about him - that's just gonna piss him off. Okay, so Bruce never calls him up again and then retires in 2018. Burns all the bridges. Well, here's the other problem - that Guy, unless he happens to be incredibly unpopular, probably has friends on the team. Or, at least, there will be some guys on the team who think he got a bum rap. Those some guys are gonna be less comfortable with Bruce afterwards. And probably, there'll be other guys who think that Guy deserved everything he got. And those Other Guys are not gonna be as comfortable with those Some Guys. Point being, anytime a team airs dirty laundry in public - even anonymously - it creates stress. Points of division and possible breakage among the team. And if Bruce really does retire in 2018 (which I personally doubt), then whoever comes next is going to be handed those issues to deal with. If you've got dirty laundry, deal with it in private. Best not to hang up the skidmarks on the front lawn and just say, "Well, I'm not saying whose skidmarks these are." Club teams have this kind of stuff all the time, but a national team is different. Club teams might not like each other, but they've still got to go out every week and work together for their paychecks. So you try to beat it out and just don't talk to each other after games. But a national team is a unit that really only exists for a couple weeks at a time. Team cohesion is tough to build with such limited time. You really don't want to have to deal with those kinds of problems. And right now, there are bound to be hangovers from the Klinsi era. No doubt that there are still conflicting opinions on Klinsmann among the players - that needs to be removed. My hope for Bruce is that he can step in, be the steady old hand, smooth out the team's stresses, and push all the ill will from the Klinsi era into the past. Which is why I'm really, really hoping that Arena isn't actually picking out anyone specific on the team right now.
You can hope all you want, but it would be surprising if Arena's comments were simply idle chitchat, or even part of a {misguided, imo} motivational strategy. Tucking these comments in between important qualifiers could really backfire, so I'm hoping along with you that no one - and certainly no player in Panama right now - was the target of those remarks.
Bruce is clearly feeling his oats. Not sure the timing of this set of comments was the best. In fact not sure these kind of comments need to be made at all. Thing is, there is now a pretty lengthy string of comments from a wide variety of people associated in one way or another with the old-line USS people and commentators along these lines. There can't be this much smoke without some fire here.
If a player doesn't want to play for us, they should just retire from international play. Just because you can represent the US at the international level, does not mean that you need to do so. Maybe maximizing club time and money for your family is most-important for a player. That's fine, don't risk injury playing for the US. But don't come and not try your hardest. That's not the kind of effort that should be on display with the national team.