Bayern players and US players have commented on JK's lack of tactical preparation. Perhaps JK added more prep-work in the run up to the WC. Pulisic alluded to the need for a 'plan'.
Yes JK is gone, but the MLS poster bias against him is not. Maybe a forum could be added to MLS forums called, MNT for MLS Fans. This is the USMNT forum. It's been over 2 years since Klinsmann was replaced and every thread is pockmarked by drive by posts shooting poorly aimed and tendentious bullets at him. In this thread, first @largegarlic with his thoughtless crack, then @dougtee with this gem: berhalter being able to explain what he expected in a simple, concrete terms seems beyond what anyone got from klinsmann where you had central midfielders trying to decide what to do on the fly? If you want the conversation to end, stop blaming everything on the one manager who had no MLS or US cred. Maybe we can get a bona fide manager next time instead of letting the USSF think we failed because the MNT wasn't the advertising arm of MLS.
I don't believe either of the posters you mention are MLS fans. I've never seen them post in MLS forums.
Actually I feel sorry for Berhalter. He's in an impossible situation, trying to put lipstick on the pig that is US Soccer. Everyone knows the team flat out sucks, has an ever decreasing number of fans, and has a worthless federation running it all. At the same time, that same federation is trying to change the subject to avoid addressing their own gross failures in leadership. I've already written off 2022, and I can see 2026 is going to be an epic embarrassment for the program. We may end up being the only national sporting team that represents the USA that everyone will actively root against. That's quite a feat.
I don't know that. It's a young team, and it's pretty good, with a great deal of potential. After the WCQ failure, we were ranked #27 by FIFA. Now we are ranked #25. We've given the young players a number of valuable friendlies to get good experience, and our FIFA ranking has been unaffected. Pulisic, Weah, Carter-Vickers, Sargent, McKennie are all special players. Jonathan Klinsmann is the young, up-and-coming goalkeeper that we've needed. So what if some friendly results didn't go our way? We've got 4 years to get this team ready for the World Cup and I think we're in much better shape than people realize. I think this team will meet or exceed what was done in 2002.
So what? I used them as foils for my thoughts. Furthermore, I don't regret it. I have grown weary of the mindless, casual trashing of a manager who is over two years gone. There is little doubt in my mind that part of the problem in unbiased assessment of a manager's success is the perceived disloyalty one manager had toward MLS. It wasn't even true, he was just doing his job and that rubbed Garber the wrong way. Now we all pay the price.
Remind me which US players commented on JK's lack of tactical preparation? Did you forget Cameron and others lambasting Arena's tactical ineptitude and players like Jones agreeing? Your comment about increase in pre-work is odd given that the "Road to ..." video I referenced was on the Guatemala match which was in the summer of 2012. I can understand the meme about lack of tactical work while the GOB was trying to get rid of Klinsmann but 2 years after he is gone I would hope that we would deal with facts. The fact is that there was an unbelievable amount of tactical multi media collateral and analytics prepared and reviewed, usually in the 3rd session of the notorious 3-a-days. Those sessions were typically not led by Klinsmann but covered tactical concerns presented on the training field that day.
He's a major reason why we didn't make the world cup - which led us to Gregg Berhalter. Many of us want to see the anti-Klinsmann. A tactician who knows the strengths and weaknesses of his players. I mean Arena knows tactics - but he lost his ability players. I think we have that with Gregg Berhalter. He seems very good tactically and I really like how he talks about creating and exploiting space and mismatches. I feel like we rarely even got that with Bob Bradley, whom I consider to be our best manager in the modern world cup era.
Let see how well this does at level that isn't Swedish 2nd division league and MLS (15th ranked league behind the Ukraine and Greece league). I'm not saying it will not work, but he ain't in Kansas anymore.
His glide path is very easy. We might play someone good in March, but otherwise maybe Mexico or Costa Rica will be the toughest competition for the next 12 months, maybe four years...
Not making the WC didn't lead us to Berhalter. The conflict of interest embedded within the USSF/SUM/MLS relationship took us to Berhalter. All hiring is speculative, and the only thing an organization can do is gamble. But most organizations try to take good gambles, ie make sure the resume of the applicant fits the job description, a reported success at previous positions, etc. The USSF/SUM/MLS did do the due diligence, they just weren't looking for a manager that offered the best resume for a successful international team manager. They were looking for a manager they could be assured wouldn't expose any rifts in the cushy relationship between the MLS and the MNT. They were looking for a tractable leader the MLS owners would approve of and SUM could use as a good salesman (must speak English) for its products. The public relations arm of the combine has done a bang up job, not only in getting an unqualified international manager (who apparently loved Arena's 4222 when he played for Bruce), but actually getting the MLS fans of the USMNT to believe it was a good pick.
That is the best summary of the pick I have seen to date. The fact that some fans would accept that level of mediocrity from our next manager after missing the World Cup is mind boggling.
Yep. The fact that Klinsmann was a colossal disaster doesn't mean that all international manager options are unsuitable for the US. Even worse, it was USSF who made the worst decision in US Soccer history by doubling down on its man in December 2013. As bad as Klinsmann was, USSF implicated itself with piss poor decision-making.
Man, I'm truly sorry for making an offhand reference to he-who-shall-not-be-named a page or two back. Without making that same mistake again, I would like to say that if you check my posting history (but I'd hope no one is that unencumbered with more important things to do), you'd see that: 1) I've never been enamored with the choice of Berhalter. I would have preferred an international manager with a track record of success (if any would have considered the position) or other MLS options, specifically Martino or Marsch. But I do think that now that he's the guy, we should be optimistic and look for positives (until we have reason to do otherwise). 2) I'm not blindly pro-MLS. I think that if you're interested in the future of the game in this country, you have to want MLS to be successful (however you define that), but that doesn't mean you have to support everything the league does, and it doesn't mean you have to favor MLSers for USMNT call-ups. I've said multiple times that as a rule of thumb (allowing for exceptions), the best US players should go to Europe, and the best starting 11 is likely to be all (or almost all) Euro-based players fairly soon.
There is plenty if you just watch the player play; I illuminated it to you in my posts in this thread. Zardes, like Jozy, needs a system to be built to his strengths for him to succeed at striker, especially as a lone striker. If you disagree, then make a better argument. This is basically an assumption, and one that is not logically consistent. And this is not Zardes' "normal self"; it's the best goal-scoring season of his career.
After last fall I didn't think I would ever fell less enthused about US Soccer than I did then. Surely new hope would come. Then the "year adrift with Sarachan" and GGreggg happened. I was wrong.
This thread really should be about Berhalter and what we can discern about his coaching style, maybe player preferences, and so on. It should be fact based as much as possible, and when it's speculation - as math teachers used to tell you "show your work". (Greg plays Will Trapp, therefore he thinks Will Trapp is the American Iniesta fails this requirement.) I'm reading the back and forth about JK and Arena and I'm DYING to jump in... but what's the point? We have a new coach who will - shock of shocks - do some things well and other things poorly. He has shown himself to be capable of learning and self criticism and tries to be analytical about the game. Does he do that well or poorly? Will we see a rigid approach from day one, or will he grow and adapt? THOSE are the types of things we should be talking about. He's here, he's our guy, we all want him to succeed whether he was are pick or not. So let's do what we can to figure him out. And drop the talk about the dear departed...