Which is why I think they were there to learn the new USMNT tactical system. The coach is not in place, but hopefully that doesn't hamper that. The staff was in place and was picked by Stewart and probably GB and hopefully can teach the team and Kreis the system. Some of these players will be in Olympic qualifying, some of the players in USMNT camp holdover from Camp Cupcake will be also, and then probably a bunch from the current U20 pool. With so many teams making the MLS playoffs, most teams will probably be alive in October. So, that will be a problem with MLS players. But I think the time for a full time U23 program is here. We have players in that age range popping up all over multiple leagues. As an example, Miles Robinson in MLS, CCV in the Championship, EPB in Holland, Richards with Bayern U19, how do you judge the relative talent of these players? The easiest way is to have them in a U23 camp together regularly.
Why do you consistently throw the word hate around, when nothing HHF said includes that word? Does the fact HHF doesn't yet rate Adam's as highly as JJ over a career qualify his opinion as "hate"?
Well he also said today that he had enjoyed playing in the center with the US, but he left me with the subtle impression that he preferred being out on the wing.
We? You have been trashing on every american when any obstacle comes in their way in Europe Puli, Wes, and Adams is pretty special for american u23s. i assumed you were were waiting for another special snowflake in MLS. The league continues to be a ball and chain for our national team. Talent that stays in the league is just wasted.
Like I said, I recall him saying that he liked to play centrally over the last couple of years. he could have changed his mind or his pr folks may have influenced him. I wish i could find the interview.
It was in an interview with Twellman. TT asked Pulisic if he prefers to play as a "#10 or on the wing". Christian chose #10.
Ok, so that's *one* guy (I love JJ btw). But, was he doing that stuff when he was part of the USMNT, or before it. If all of that was prior to his joining the USMNT, I stand by what I said.
In fairness a good portion of people in their thirties, let alone twenties or teens, are largely culturally illiterate when it comes to American, or Western Film preceding the eighties and in some cases even the nineties. Trying to connect to pre-seventies films is a pipe dream for many (especially pre-color films, which just breaks my heart). Kinda sad as most of the great film dialogue ever written was circa the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. People just really miss out. My currently dad's introduction to classic Hollywood Film for me when I was a junior in High School back in '91-'92 (following introducing me to Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke and the Beatles a year earlier)involved a three week tour de force of "The Graduate,", "Midnight Cowboy", and "The Godfather,". What I'd give to be able to see The Godfather, or especially The Godfather Part II again for the very first time. There isn't an amount of money lol, and I'm not swimming in it, needless to say.
At the end of the 08-09 when he was consensus best CM in the BuLi and got German NT caps was when he declared for the US so scratch his first 2 seasons at Schalke. His last 5 seasons he was a US player. In fact 12-13 which was his 2nd best season as a Schalke player and when he made 2nd team best XI was also WCQ Group and WCQ Hex 2014! With Jones as a US player, Schalke finished 2nd, 14th, 4th, 3rd, 4th. We made the UCL Group stage 4 of those 5 years only missing out when JJ had a falling out with Mad Dog Magath and went out on loan to Blackburn. We finished 14th that year!
I'm not a conspiracy person, I just think this is lazy, know it all, b.s. journalism. This is, "let me learn those ignorant fans something about the guile and intelligence Bradley can bring to bear in the midfield for a young and inexperienced team." It's just ridiculous. There is a reason that so many of the teams that show up at the World Cup are sitting in that 22-29 range, rather than 31+ age. Sure there are teams that trot out a handful of thirty somethings but that's nearly always because either there aren't any other options, or the 30something is a superstar that's irreplaceable on the roster, even in a potentially faded, inferior version to his twenty something former self. What you don't do is drag out the corpse of a players career that's five years past its sell by date. This isn't 2012, or 2013, or even 2014, we're less than 9 months away from 2020 and Bradley hasn't been his best self in nearly what, seven years. And these fools think he still should own such a key spot because of what exactly, "veteranness,"? It's embarrassing. Creditor should be ashamed of actually posting such a ridiculous pile of manure on SI. It's total horse ---- and he knows it. There's a reason eventually a Madrid moves on from a Ronaldo, Barcelona moves on from a Xavi, a Pirlo goes from painting gorgeous renaissance era quality passes across many an Italian soccer field to collecting a retirement tour check in New York City. Even the great ones have to say goodbye and Bradley was never a Pirlo, Xavi, or Ronaldo, he was our tireless workhorse w/a bad attitude that got waylaid by a career weakening injury years ago and never was the same. The press needs to quit trying to sell this horse bleep to the fans. The only people buying are the people who aren't interested in reading soccer journalism in the first place, the rest of us know these arguments are about as convincing as a bottle of Robert Mondavi these days.
This argument would carry more water if it wasn't for the fact that most of us were arguing from a standpoint that: #1 they probably wouldn't be released for this in the first place (and btw, at least in my case I added an addendum of: unless part of the reason they weren't called in was that Berhalter secured promises during his Euro Tour w/various clubs). and more importantly #2 What chance did these guys have of being released for the Olympic qualifying matches or olympics? Nearly all of us taking issue w/it care about 10,000,000x more for those call ups than some random March Call up months and months before qualifying when the chances of those players being released again is virtually nil, and just as importantly, what are the chances that Sargent and Weah are released for the Olympics 15 or 16 months from now? This was every bit as relevant, which is why most of us have mentioned it both here and the youth forums. If Sargent and Weah remain on trajectory a year from now, Bremen and PSG (or whomever PSG loans or sells him too) are highly unlikely to release them for an olympic tournament being played during their preseason and/or possibly the start of their regular season. So again, not really inclined to suck it, as most of us knew these guys might be called up for this, and viewed it as irrelevant and wrongheaded regardless. If you've followed the youth teams at all you'll be familiar with the epic problems we have getting anyone released from their big clubs in Europe for tournaments potentially taking place at any time remotely connected in any way to the regular or preseason unless clubs view the opportunity as more valuable (sales window?) than extra time with the big club in the preseason etc.
Good point, the release these guys got for the tournament preceeded the hiring of the <expletive> coach. So how seriously are they actually taking this <censored> to begin with? Not much.
Except for the fact that no team in the confederation would qualify for Japan if they couldn't get more than 1/3 of their top available players released for qualifiers in the first place. It's one thing if we're bringing our A side, it's another thing entirely if we've got a trickle of 3-4 top players and a bunch of B/C caliber guys at best, even w/the much greater depth we have now. Unless I'm mistaken, no team in the region has a harder time getting players released for youth tournaments than we do.
We finished up media roundtables with #USMNT players at their hotel. Weston McKennie said irony of him playing right back for Schalke and Tyler Adams playing in MF for RB Leipzig wasn't lost on them, given they are the reserve from their NT roles. 1/— Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) March 20, 2019
True, Mexicans keep their youth at home longer so they get the MX teams to release the 21-22 year olds. That's also because their league is good enough to develop them past the basics.
Of course THHF is (unsurprisingly) not telling the entire story here. Over the course of those 5 seasons Jermaine made a grand total of only 60 league starts (with a further 9 sub appearances). In Schlake's best season during that period (2nd place in 09-10) Jermaine didn't play a single match! In only one of those seasons did he start more than 20 matches (23 in 12-13). Not sure how a player who played so little could be the "platform for the most recent Schalke golden period" as THHF contended above...
98% of the conversation about Adams at RB, in the media, is a discussion (more usually a giving of divine wisdom) about how he will function when the US has the ball. However, historically the USA only has the ball, against Mexico and other decent teams, 20-40% of the time. Maybe that will change, but it isn't going to be 80-20 for the USA. Funny how nobody wants to discuss that part. They might allude to Adams, "breaking up plays" in transition. That will happen. But we are not going to be on offense 98% of the time. How much is he going to gamble against a team that is already having most of the ball? If he does gamble and miss, what happens? Does Morris fill in at RB from the wing? Is Miazga now in space against a winger and overlapping LB with Trapp trying to help? We've seen that before. We saw against CR that they got the ball to their winger in the vacated RB pocket. Just that player was poor and even when he drew Trapp out the middle and passed it to an open teammate in Zone 14, nothing of quality could be done. But I don't think that happens more than a few times against Ecuador and Chile before Adams stays home longer and gets back sooner. I would say failure looks like Adams in the RB position watching helplessly, in the 4-4-2, while teams get the ball around MB/WT and isolate Brooks 1 v 1. McKennie will drop in and help, but he will be on the right side too. Whether it is Lovitz or a CB at LB, there will also be the opportunity to get behind them with pace. Failure could also look like Adams just pinned back most of the game.
Thank you. So Adams is playing at the second highest level of any CM in USMNT history - And GB wants to play him at right back. Crazy. The positions write themselves: ---------------------F ---W-----------------------------Puli ---------------McKennie --------------------------------Adams --------Whatever Donkey GB wants to play FB-----------CB-----------CB-------------Yedlin. GB can choose whatever FB he wants to be the attacking fullback. If he's going to play Yedlin as a friggin' wingforward, surely he must think Yedlin can handle attacking fullback. For me, I would use McKennie and Adams as a double pivot, with maybe Lletget as the Amid, or Puli. Puli's not a 10, but him at 10 is better than MB/WT at Dmid. But, even using Berhalter's system, Adams at RB doesn't make sense.
In a vacuum, I find the hand-wringing over Adams playing out wide histrionic because he did have a really good season there, it's where his best offense comes from, and that's where Leipzig has him venture out when they have the ball. But to wit, to have him inside on offense, outside on defense is pretty counter-intuitive. And yeah, I do think it's intent is to cater to Bradley/Trapp. We've been catering to a cm favorite - Bradley, Jones, Trapp, etc. - for a decade now. And a lot of talented players + in turn probably the team has had their impact blunted because of it. Think back to under Mike's father he would have Holden out of position wide too because his son liked to play box-to-box as Stu did. Then Cameron would play at cb and rb instead of cdm because Michael wanted to be a 6 then and a spot needed to be reserved for Jones by Klinsmann. It's an albatross.
Interesting. I thought his preference was to play centrally in the CAM role, when he was asked this exact same question a year or two ago. Did things changed for him?