LA Galaxy Flavored USMNT in 2018

good post MP, however you mention a visionary and at least from my limited perspective, I don't think this visionary currently exists.

does any feel there is someone out there that would be a visionary at this point?

My opinion, I don't think this visionary is American, I do think, if one is out there he is either in Latin America or in a European Country toiling away in a second or third division and won't be identified till a Country does it's due diligence and takes a chance on that person and I don't see the US taking a chance like that or having the talent to do their due diligence.

I do hope for the best but not expecting much at this point

 

Let's discuss Republic of Ireland game - did anyone see it? I watched the double header USA then Galaxy game on ESPN. I really wish my teams were better, but could have been worse.

First of all, Taylor Twellman, my god. The man talks and talks but analyzes nothing. He's here to hype all the young'ins and repeat what people are saying on Twitter.

I thought the US put a bunch of attacks and good chances together, which is impressive for a team that barely knows each other. Captain Will Trapp, to me, performed well at d-mid and did a great job distributing. Tim Weah once again was an exciting, interesting player to watch.

 

A visionary would be nice but I don't think it's required. We just need a good coach. JK wasn't a good coach - not even close. And Arena for whatever reason hasn't been great the last few years.

It's just one example but even with our crappy start we still only needed a tie against T&T to get to the WC. We are on the road and on a wet field so it's pretty obvious that you don't panic and suddenly stop your regular pattern of rotating fresh legs when you have two games with a short turn-around. And since you have the better team all you have to avoid is giving up an easy goal. So you instruct your team to stay compact down the middle the middle of the field and keep numbers behind the ball. Don't let your players get spread all over the field like we did. Finally you sure as hell don't move Pulisic away from the goal and force him to play a wide midfield position in road game on a wet field. Pulisic is a relatively small guy who strengths are quickness and lethat finishing. He's a guy that scored every time he played forward in the Hex. So obviously you keep him up top, closer to the goal so a) he has chances to score, b) will keep T&T's back line honest and busy and c) so the slightly built 19yo isn't forced to slog up and down the wet field trying to win 50-50 balls from bigger, more athletic Trinidadians who were playing like they have nothing to lose.

In fact Bruce positioned Pulisic exactly wrong throughout the Hex. He played him up top when we were at home and as a midfielder on the road. But when we are at home we spend more time in the final third and so even as a mid Pulisic would have been able to concentrate on scoring goals, which is his god given talent. But when we are on the road the team is naturally on their heels a lot more and the game is more physical for us. Midfielders have to spend more time and effort playing defense and trying to win those physical battles - all the things that are not in Pulisic's wheelhouse. I thought Bruce would figure this out eventually when Pulisic kept scoring as a forward and looking mediocre as a road midfielder. But he never did and that was a big mistake.

So yes the players made the on-field mistakes, not the coach. But that is exactly why the coach should be training and instructing them to stay more compact -- so that they can cover for each other and swarm the ball in numbers so T&T never gets a real chance. And that's why you bring in some fresh legs so they can win the physical battles and make the recovery runs when necessary.

So JK got our whole program off track. Then Bruce screwed the pooch on an absolutely vital game we had no business losing, making mistakes on on everything from player choice to positioning to tactics. So imo -- at least for the qualifying part of the cycle -- we don't need a visionary. We just need to avoid shooting ourselves in the foot.

 

Twellman, when a player took an immediate shot: "should have taken an extra touch there"

Twellman when a player took an extra touch: "should have shot right away there."

 

IIRC, the US started Trinidad in a 4-1-2-1-2 with Pulisic as the AMID and Nagbe and Arriola on the wings. Pulisic did not move to the wing until the 2nd half when Dempsey was brought in for Arriola. This was the exact same line-up and positioning as they played in their 4-0 win over Panama. IMO your criticism of where Arena lined up Pulisic is factually incorrect.

Furthermore, I frankly can't recall a single game where Pulisic played forward. You should take this opinion to Dortmund. Obviously, they have been playing him in the wrong positions (Right Wing primarily and Attacking Mid secondarily) for years. I confirmed this on TransferMarkt. But perhaps they can get away with it in the Bundesliga which is not known for its physicality. There is of course the possibility that your opinion in at this case is just flat out wrong.

 

Yes, I was really enjoying watching Tim Weah. Very exciting.

 

Well I'll admit me being wrong is always a possibility. I wish I could say the same for you.

But let me clarify a couple points. I was saying that playing Pulisic as a wing is fine when playing a game that your pretty sure your team is going to get the best of it. That would apply to the US vs Concacaf at home and Dortmund playing anywhere. In those games the team will tend to be further up the field and Pulisic will usually get a lot of chances to receive the ball in and around the box which maximizes the impact of his particular skill set. But when the US is playing a Concacaf game on the road - and especially on a crappy, wet field - those games are almost always ugly physical battles. Our possession is seldom very good in these games and a lot of physical defending is asked of us. It's even worse on wet crappy fields for smaller skilled players since those games often end up being more physical slugfests than the more technical dribbling and passing games we tend to get at home.

Now in the T&T game I know Pulisic was far from the goal most of the time. I'm pretty sure he started out wide but I know for a fact he ended up there for most of the game. I saw him try to win physical battles in the midfield against the taller, stronger T&T players in an often boom ball game and I saw him predictably not doing well. I also remember the many times he received the ball way out on the touchline and at least thirty or forty yards from the goal. That is a waste of his skills. Many times he did beat his first man but all that got us was a meaningless twenty yards farther up the field where he was met with more defenders and invariably closed down and had to pass back or get dispossessed. The only time he was effective were the few times he decided to move to close to the center front of the team where he should have been the whole time.

And if you think the US wasn't way too spread up and down the field in T&T and faced many too many unnecessary 1v1 battles because of it you then you don't know soccer. It also was a mistake for Bruce to suddenly abandon his usual practice of rotating players more when they played on short rest. The consequence of that decision was a lethargic game by us despite this game being one of the most important the US has ever played.
Look I'm a Bruce fan in general and have sung his praises the many years when he's done well. By the same token I feel I have a right to call him out when he's done a really poor job preparing the team for a game. Which is exactly what happened at T&T.

 

I wonder what happens next year. Do we bring back in the likes of Altidore, Bradley, Johnson, Cameron, etc, or do we just commit to some of these younger kids?

 

I sure hope not. Except maybe Josie if he's on a tear in the league just before a tourney…

 

My disagreement with you, is solely due to your criticism of Pulisic's starting position (attacking mid) and final position (right wing). In my opinion right wing is where Pulisic should have started. The Trinidad left fullback was Triston Hodge a 23 year old 5' 7" tall player 3 inches shorter than Pulisic. who barely made Toronto FC II. When switched out to the right wing, Pulisic scored the USMNT's first goal almost immediately (the 47th minute) on an assist from Nagbe. Late in the match after Hodge had picked up a yellow card, Trinidad substituted him out. I agree that when he beat the first players marking him (regardless of his position), he often had to deal with a much bigger center back, but that is the way of things - Center backs are noted for being big and physical. It was up to Altidore and Woods to either tie up the CB's or get space. The fact that they and many others played crappy games is not due to Pulisic being out on the wing.

 

IMO, the 2019 cup is not important enough to bring in a bunch of older players for last hurrah. I would focus on getting caps for the players who will be at peak age for the qualifying in 2020 and 2021 and the cup itself in 2022. Give them a chance to develop their own chemistry. Consequently, I don't even think Josie should get any more callups. Bruce went with a lot of the old guard who were already long in the tooth in 2018 and most will be too old for 2022. Some are even questionable for 2019: Some of the ages of field players for the summer of 2019 are shown below:
36 - Dempsey
34 - Cameron
32 - Bradley, Bedoya, Zusi
31 - Fabian Johnson, Tim Ream
30 - Altadore, Gonzales, Danny Williams
29 - Nagbe, Corona, Tim Chandler

 

My error. I knew that and didn't think to check, just being lazy. No slur intended.

 

I'm not going to get into a long back and forth about this but I just pulled up his action map from Opta and it verifies my memory of the game. Pulisic spent most of his time out wide on the right side, far from the goal. The very few times he ventured to the center (mainly the first couple minutes of the 2nd half) he was immediately successful, scoring our one goal.
Btw the two octagon shapes on the right side are fouls he suffered immediately after beating his mark badly. All we got out of his skillful dribbling feat was a long distance free kick that amounted to nothing. If Pulisic had been played closer to goal then his dribbling moves would have put T&T in real danger of giving up a dangerous close range free kicks, a pk or let their big centerback try to handle the quick agile 19yo (the last being something you claimed happened, but didn't because of Pulisic was seldom within 25 yards of their cb).



And as far as the team being way too spread out and unconnected here is the first picture I found of the game. Note the big open spaces everywhere. We are in a must tie game, two goals down but still we are putting zero pressure on the ball. Nagbe looks to be on a leisurely walk and our right back Villafana is potentially seconds away from facing a no-win 2v1 situation. If the T&T player simply continues to dribble toward him Villafana will be have to simultaneously protect against the dribbler making a cut inside to attack the box and also protect against a drop off pass to the completely unmarked winger. If the winger gets the ball he will have a wide open path to get behind our defense inside the box and a dangerous cross or shot will be soon to follow. That is why well coached teams are never this disconnected - it just gives opponents to much time and space to work in:



Now I have to get back to my real work!

 

Arriola's comments about being too tired are the most damning indictment in this game. I think the gaffe was not rotating the squad and changing the line-up and formation, which was perfect for facing Panama at home, but not so much for T&T away, especially after going down a goal.

 

According to CoG, Lletget was called up for these friendlies, but LA Galaxy blocked it. Thoughts?

 

I'm wondering what Lletget has done to deserve that call up first off, but I am glad we declined. We are already thin depth wise, so losing Lletget would have hurt us more.

 

Well, well. Validates everything I thought about the Klinsmann years, FWIW. I'm sure my confirmation bias is hard at work, but what an entitled bastard. So glad that era is behind us.

Two interesting things stood out to me - 1) Kyle Martino's comments about how disorganized practices and game planning were, based on reports to him and his own observations. The same stuff we have heard about JK all along, including from his Bayern Munich time. 2) Kevin Payne's extensive insider role as a confidante of Gulati's, and his willingness to admit that his advice supporting JK's contract extension was wrong in retrospect.

I don't agree with those criticizing the anonymous players. They are in the best position to know what's happening, and yet if they speak up they automatically alienate 1/2 of the fan base. That is a no win situation, but they should speak to their captain and others in authority honestly and with the expectation that their confidences will be honored. In business, sometimes a 360 degree review is employed for a board of directors to understand the effectiveness of an executive with all his constituencies, including outside partners and employees. Some similar process is clearly called for in the case of a NT manager. And this is what good reporting is all about - shedding light on an inherently secretive and closed situation, where everything went wrong in the end.

 

I know this is a dead horse to most of you but I can't stop myself. This is a mlssoccer.com report about our masterful, confidence-inducing 4-0 thrashing of Panama, a game where Pulisic gave Panama fits and scored the first and ultimately game winning goal:

"BACK IN THE MIDDLE: After playing him on the right side of midfield in the US’s last two qualifiers, coach Bruce Arena shifted Pulisic back into a central attacking midfield role to start Friday night. The move so flummoxed Panama that, by the 26th minute, coach Hernan Dario Gomez made a tactical sub and switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-1-4-1. Arena's tactics also influenced Mexico boss Juan Carlos Osorio into a first-half substitution at the Estadio Azteca in June."
​

As many pointed out after that game "Christian Pulisic did whatever he wanted tonight." This was the same Pulisic who had begun to get a bit of heat from both fans and the press alike after a couple of lackluster performances as a wide midfielder. To me it was clear that his lack of physicality/size/strenth was getting exploited when he was tasked with running up and down the field repeatedly. But many observers blamed the player and failed to see notice his misuse. But at least after the Panama game you would think it would finally be clear to everyone - Pulisic needed to be nearer the goal to maximize the utility of his gifts. But Bruce had it in his often stubborn head that Christian just had to play right mid when we were on the road, a move that still seems completely wrong-headed and costly to me.

So there. Is the horse breathing at all anymore?

 

Yes, because you don't seem to believe that Pulisic started at attacking mid against Trinidad just like he did for Panama. I looked but could not find a starting lineup that showed him on the wing, every one I saw showed him at AMID and Arriola on the right wing.

I can't seem to find the same Opta map that you presented (I am not suggesting any deception), but I would love to see a heat map not just a passing map. Especially since he played right mid in the 2nd half (I believe this is confirmed by your passing map).

Note: He scored the goal after moving into the middle outside the 18 when the US had Dempsey, Woods and Altidore all in the 18. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the Trinidad left back is marking (poorly) Altidore.

🇺🇸GOOOOAAAAL🇺🇸
It's the kid, AGAIN! @cpulisic_10 out here looking like Mes...a promising young prospect! #TRIvsUSA pic.twitter.com/99n0vlxO9f

— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) October 11, 2017

 

Pregame starting lineups are notorious for listing players in positions they don't end up playing. And the Opta map (https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...-and-tobago-vs-us-mens-national-team/boxscore, bottom of page) shows all of Pulisic's passes, dribbles, interceptions, recovery runs and fouls so his heat map would look the same. In any case I actually watched the game and paid close attention to his positioning because it was already a pet peeve of mine that Bruce had kept moving him wide on road games. And as I mentioned in my previous post the only time Pulisic was in the middle was the start of the 2nd half and that was more by happenstance than plan. He made a pass, cut in for the return pass and a couple of plays later he found himself in the middle and very quickly scored. After that he returned to ineffectively trudging up and down the right touchline for the most of the rest of the game. A game where we desperately needed another goal.

But why am I debating a game I actually watched with a guy whose argument is based on a pregame lineup graphic? Someone shoot me now.