I was trying to figure out how we can have one of the best teams on the planet, in the women's team, and one of the worst, in the men. (Worst might be too strong of a word, but play along) The Federation tries to ignore the women's team and treats them as second-class citizens. Maybe the men should demand equal treatment because what they are getting now isn't working! On another note, the flat back 5, wow, it just screams excitement. This will really draw in the US fans who think soccer doesn't score enough goals during a game.
Well, we can barely hang on enough to go toe-to-toe with Italy or we can lose 4-0 to England... The reality is the reality: we have to play a realistically defense formation - wether a conservative 5-3-2 or a conservative 4-2-3-1 or a conservative "empty bucket" 4-2-2-2 against teams that are better and faster than us. That's just life in the big city. Yesterday's back 5 would have been a reasonable idea if we had put more speed in at least one of the wingback slots. DY on the right. CP would have been better at the RAM and a moderately decent hold-up player like Wood/Jozy/etc. paired with Sargent. But this team is going to have to revert to 30-40% possession and bunker-counter style against better teams until we figure out a possession based game. And with the pressing that both England and Italy did, we just do not have the feet to hold the ball, sadly.
When your attack is predicated on Reggie Cannon and Shaq Moore (a one footed player playing on the wrong side) being able to bomb down the touchlines, receive a pass well and then serve in a cross against Italy, well, you saw how that turns out. Pretty naive tactic from a manager completely at sea. I mean the guy can probably run a good training session, and can probably speak in an educated fashion about soccer, but there is a massive difference between someone who knows soccer and someone who can manager a group of players to play at high level. This is probably why very few organizations (Cornell Univ. and Chicago Fire) have offered the guy a head coaching role, outside of, of course, the organization at the pinnacle of the sport in our country. Amazing.
I thought it was telling when Sarachan admitted that he misinterpreted the fed's directive that under no circumstances should he use Romaine.
I wonder if the 4th official said something to Sarachan after Cannon got skinned and should have gotten his second yellow, that they needed to remove him from the game. No other real reason to pull Cannon at that point. I think that's a good gentleman's rule for friendly games. No one wins in these almost useless games if a team goes down a man, so if your player should have gotten a second yellow he should be substituted at the next opportunity. Obviously if there is violent conduct, red cards should still be issued, but for two yellow card worthy incidents, I think it's reasonable to require the coach to substitute that player. Off topic, sorry.
That our current coaching is a joke is clearly true. But that doesn't change the fundamental reality: until we make the transition to a new generation of players who can physically and technically enact a possession or build-out-of-the-back game plan against top competition some of our strategy is going to have to be good, old 2000's style defend and counter with speed. We kind of have the speed, for the most part, with CP, Yedlin, Sargent and and a few others. We sadly lack a true physical CF who can get their head on the ball consistently (and has a decent all-around game) and we lack the tactics (and we don't have the same level of keeper, but Steffen (and/or Horvath) look like they may get to a reasonable international level. But we do not have enough players with strong enough technical ability to play these teams toe-to-toe in a possession oriented game with the current roster.
Yeah, I just saw that. Unfortunately after I just had my typical salad for lunch swimming in romaine.
Sorry, maybe it wan't the right moment for a Romaine joke. I admit I haven't been following every call-up for every friendly that closely, but my impression is that Gall was called up but not used (or under-used) several times in the Sarachan era.
In middle school. we call it an orange. I explain to my players if they make a rash play they ill have to come sit out and my assistant explains to them about being reckless. Of course being middle school after a bit they can come back in.
We have a larger player pool of Women than all of Europe combined. We also have the most professional Women soccer players. We have college programs that produce far more American soccer talent than anywhere else in the world, period. The NWSL has some of the best Women's professional teams in the world. The USWNT has historically operated like a club team, so that we've maintained a professional Women's team despite multiple iterations of Women's soccer leagues folding, meaning most of the time, outside of a select few countries in Europe, we play against semi pro and amateur players.
I wouldn't bet on it. I think the USA and Mexico are still the best of a bad bunch. One-off results for Costa Rica, mixed with some crap results, is not making me think they're going to vault over the US/Mexico.
Yup. And let's face the facts. Most countries don't really care about women's sports and don't put much money into it. Most of the attention and resources goes into the men's game and people don;t care about the women outside a hand full of Countries. The United States also has a huge advantage with things like Title IX. in College sports That helps women's sports immensely in general which is part of the reason we kick arse in most Olympic Sports too.
I also would put my money on USA and Mexico as per usual if I were a gambling man (which i am not.) I am just saying both teams are vulnerable and I could see another team step up. Heck , we have seen Panama and Jamaica make it to the Final recently. Would not shock me to see someone out of the blue again.
2.5 years in the international game is a long time. Back when I wrote that in 2018, Italy were indeed toothless and going through a dark patch. Their recovery started in the summer of 2019. New blood, new ideas.
I think they suffered from American type arrogance as in "qualification is automatic....." Berardi,Chiesa, Bonucci, Verrati, Immobile, Barella (6 players) who started vs. USA also played today v. Belgium and won. Not sure if somebody additionally subbed in to make it more but those are some strong players p.s. edit: Sarachan began subbing like crazy and lost at the death while Italy were playing in front of a spirited diaspora, played in Ghent of all places. Horvath was huuuuge.
Immobile was out for the USA friendly, they played Lasagna as their starting striker --he's barely played for them since that time, and I think against the USA he had his second or third cap.