LA Galaxy Flavored USMNT in 2015

I strongly disagree about holding off on scoring in these situations.

First off, a friendly simply means that the game is a one off with zero consequences for losing beyond the loss itself.

It's not actually supposed to literally be "friendly".

The reason why teams test out tactics is because the consequences are minimal and it is seen as an opportunity to see if certain approaches work. This is why teams may be less effective in friendlies: because the tactics didn't work or a fresh player was tried who didn't perform.

It is not because either team isn't trying to win.

Secondly, those decisions are made by the coach, not the players. For the very purpose of testing out tactics and other changes, it is important that your players (and opponents) perform professionally.

What if TnT decided "We're not coming back, let's try that 'outside the box' strategy we've been thinking about"? Or more likely, give a new player a shot?

The value of that pursuit is diminished if the other team decides they're 4 goals ahead and it would be unsportsmanlike to keep trying to score.

Thirdly, you hurt analysis of performance by "going easy". If a team loses 3-0 when their overall play warranted 7-0, what lessons are being learned? Conversely, You go four goals up and the other team pulls two back. Is it a defensive issue? Or lack of effort? Have those goalscorers made a case for future consideration? Or do we ignore the two goals because the other team took the foot off the gas?

How about this scenario? The scoreline is looking humiliating, so you stop trying after the 70th minute. Suddenly the opponents score a couple against your switched-off defence. As the team tries to regroup and compose themselves, a third goes in. Rattled by the turnaround, a final goal is conceded and you've thrown away a four goal lead.

Then there are considerations about individual career, records and such. In tournament play of course you need to score as much as possible because if you don't and somebody else does, you run the risk of losing a GD tiebreaker.

That's another reason: you want players to learn to pay together in preparation for competitive games. This again is diminished if (barring tactical considerations) you don't speak minute 91 like minute 1.

 

You are arguing against something that I never said. Of course teams are playing to win. However, as I said, winning is secondary (or perhaps tertiary, if you consider keeping players healthy a goal in friendlies).

Those decisions are made by both the coaches and the players, which is why I mentioned both in my posts. As to your second point, teams change their tactics for all kinds of reasons throughout any match, and I never said that they should not try to score... I just said that there are ways to modulate your game. Sometimes that means deliberately making it harder on your players to score by having them work on difficult tactics and/or skills. That doesn't mean you're not trying to score... it just means that you are using this opportunity to work on different aspects of your game.

Once again, you are confusing "going easy" with modulating your game. For instance, how many times have we seen teams that are tactically unable to kill a game? The Timbers were a prime example of that in their second match against Dallas in the playoffs. They lost all composure and started giving away the ball in the midfield, and going straight to goal instead of putting their foot on the ball and cycling it around. That's a skill that this particular match was perfect for the USWNT to work on.

In addition to that, any coach that is too stupid to analyze his team's performance beyond the numbers on the scoreboard should not be coaching.

I would say that in this scenario you learned a lot about the ability of your players to concentrate and close out a game. Once again, it's about controlling the tempo of the game. Learning to slow down the pace without losing your intensity. See my example of the Timbers above.

I'm not even sure what you're saying here, but let me just say that in the Australia-v-American Samoa match that I referenced earlier, one Australian guy (Archie Thompson) scored 13 goals. It was his second ever performance for Australia, and he got dropped in the next match, and (after a few more games) didn't get called up for nearly four years. That was in WC qualifying and followed a 22-0 thrashing of another hapless opponent in Oceania. Would you say that that performance reflects well on Australia and Thompson? I don't think it does.

Just to be clear, I don't have any problems with Christen Press' hat trick against TnT, taking a 2-0 score to 5-0, but I do think that the US could have changed up their tactics a little and tried something other than kick and run once things got out of hand (although I've gotta say that Lindsey Horan's long passing was spectacular).

Just to wrap this up, please go back and look at my first post on this subject. The players' performance on the field was just part of my objection to the overall unprofessional feeling that I got from the match. In some ways I felt like the players were sort of put in a no-win situation here. They're playing an under-manned opponent in a sub-par facility with horrible reffing in front of 10k rabid fans. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

Sorry to derail the thread. I'll shutup now.

 

Sorry, but in that time of the game, the team should not switch off but work on related tactics (e.g. work on maintaining possession for long periods of time, and attack and pull back if there isn't a real chance like Barca does), because there are real games where these tactics become necessary.

 

You have countered my arguments with strong and well-articulated points.

BS is no place for that....

 

That would be loverly.... but, so far, Abramovich has shown no signs of being a stupid man.....

 

I would much rather have Jill Ellis coach the men's team than JK.

 

He'll likely now take credit for building a culture where people care enough about soccer to express onions and put l pressure on the coach.

 

Sounds like the perfect coach for Seattle.

 

Wonderful. Another chance for a JK-led Nats to embarrass the country.

 

I thought I was pretty passionate about soccer but your post makes me realize I've fallen well short of the mark -- I've never expressed onions once! Hell I haven't even put l pressure on a coach. But trust me, I'm gonna work on both for the new year.

PS - Anyone know where I can find a cheap l pressure gauge so I can measure how I'm doing? And - apologies for yet another newbie question - but from where should I express the onions??

 

If you have to ask then you are not up to the job.....

 

Fair enough.