Top 4 American teams in the East. 1. Philly--have been giving minutes to Trusty, Real, Freese, Fontana, McKenzie, and Aaronson 2. DC--Arriola, Pines, and Durkins 3. Atlanta--Robinson, Bello, and Vazquez 4. NYC--Parks and Sands Top 4 American teams in the West. 1. LAFC--Blackmon. Should be noted that Latif Blessing arrived via the expansion draft. Kaye came from the USL. The big midfield acquisition, Andre Horta, got shipped out. 2. LAG--Efra and Araujo. 3. Seattle--Ocampo, Leyva, Morris, Roldan, Bwana 4. Minnesota--Dotson, Gasper, Toye. Should be noted Toye is competing for time with DP striker, Rodriguez. That's a pretty solid group to start with, imo.
Long was coming off a long injury recovery. Once fit, he was the answer to a lot of problems. Cannon made Tata move the much hyped Pizzaro. I am a league agnostic. I want performance in the US shirt. The MLS defenders handled business. They get practice against very good attackers, that's one of the only advantages of the imported forwards in MLS. Mexico didn't have a winger better than what Cannon sees regularly in MLS. It is the simple truth.
no. what happens in concacaf is irrelevant even if FIFA is trying to segregate all confederations amongst themselves to benefit and continue European hegemony. its the Wolrd Cup level that matters....and, considering that, many of the players are far too inadequate to be garnering the level of inclusion that they are.
the MLS defenders were okay, Cannon was decent....Long hasn't shown he can advance the ball at all.... they were the only MLS players that were decent....the rest are just not up to the level of players like Pulisic and Mckennie. bradley, zardes, lovitz, arriola, morris, roldan, trapp even altidore all wilted under real competition. No MLS player was a difference-maker vs Mexico and none of them ever will be vs a team as good as Mexico or better. time to move on from those guys, imo. Steffen's distribution was pretty poor, but i'd keep him around..... Moving forward, the entire backline was pretty bad playing out of pressure...any team that can high-press even slightly well will likely beat this version of the USMNT. That rests on the midfield as well as the backline....players like arriola, bradley and his pals....are not capable of performing under a high press and maintaining adequate possession that can turn into danger/chances. it simply will not happen with this cast of characters....but I expect ggg to soldier on with his pets.
The terrible misfit shot aside, I thought Jozy was very strong in his hold up play and provided a good release valve to offset mexico’s press. Once we started to build out of the back, we lost our momentum.
Here, via Opta, are MLS's top passers in the opposition's half; Nagbe is a perennial leader in this stat, which IMO is a useful metric in re attacking possession. I'd contend there's still a marked need for him (or someone like him) on this USMNT. pic.twitter.com/w1KA3qBDow— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) July 8, 2019
I mean, yeah, I would keep Jozy around for sure...of all the MLS players he at least offers something. But he has about 60 minutes of fitness in him...which is just crazy. He's too muscular...needs to lose about 30 pounds....if he could press on defense, the team would be a lot better off.
I'd play him in Bradley's spot. work-in lletget and nguyen and you'd have a great possession midfield that can create chances.....but, no, we can't have nice things.
the current defensive midfield has zero defensive bite....and they cannot play out of a high-press! If you think the mexico b-team was bad...wait for european or south american a-teams.........in real competition not friendlies.
Lee Nguyen is OLDER than Bradley............ Lletget hasn't been able to stay healthy. When Healthy, I agree he should be part of the National Team squad. This is a huge problem for the US overall. Going back to the 2010 and 2014 cycles, the Men's team always had an edge to them. Everyone knew that they were going to be difficult to defeat, and they made opponents work for it. That hasn't been the case since the 2014 WC. Now whether this is due to players aging out, a "lost generation" of players, teams no longer "fearing" the USMNT, players in the pool being disenfranchised with the NT setup due to shifting philosophies, or a combination of all factors I do not know. What I do know is that Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, Jones, DeMerit, Bocanegra, Howard, Beasley, etc. played with an air of confidence and a chip on their shoulders that has been absent since the 2014 WC.
Well said. I actually do see these traits in a few of our younger guys--McKennie, Pulisic, Adams, Arriola, Miazga, Weah, Cannon. But as long as Passive Mike is on the roster, even if he's not wearing the armband, he's going to be setting the tone for the team.
Jozy's miss it's one you see from forwards. I saw worse from Brazil-Argentina in this Copa America. He didn't miss by much. Gregg misplayed the second half. No need to sub Jozy unless he asks for it. Have him stay high and bring Zardes to run around pressing. Jozy is a 90 minute player for TFC. He went 90 back-to-back right before coming to camp.
Yeah................Jozy is 29. People act like he's 36. And he IS the best forward we have in the pool right now in 2019. We all hope that we have some forwards emerge from the U20 pool like Sargent, Weah, and Soto. But they're not there yet. Sargent has scored two professional goals, and one was from 6 inches out. Would I have called Sargent to the Gold Cup squad? Yes. I would have carried Morris as a winger, and dropped Jonathan Lewis. Lewis served no role on this squad.
If you don't put Lewis on in the 80th minute with fresh legs against Mexico, there was no point of bringing him. Sapong or Dax would have been more useful yesterday. He didn't bring a smash and grab type sub to this tournament. It's like he never considered that he might need to go route 1 late. GAM, Gordon, Casey, we have usually in the past had a big bodied forward handy for this stuff.
Long had one of his best defensive games last night and the only real test since the Venezuela match. Sure he was coming back from injury, but not sure why that would cause him to get pulled out wide, lose marks, get turned by dribblers, and apply weak pressure on a shot inside the box. I pretty sure he had a rough go in the CCL as well. Getting practice against good attackers is a simplistic and naive argument about the experience MLS defenders get playing in the league. A defender doesnt face an attacker, but a team. The imbalance of MLS rosters mean there are weak links in opposing teams. This group of lesser attackers employ a much less tactical attack making it much easier to read the game. The defenders in MLS, including GKs, receive much less scrutiny on their play relative to the top leagues in the world. Dealing with this added pressure forces players to be much sharper. Shutting down Villa and Giovinco didnt prepare Miazga for the EPL or Eridivisie. He was asked to improve his game or just seemed not good enough. It seems a shame to not learn from that experience and just claim how tough it is in MLS. Miazga looked much more comfortable on the ball last night and fewer back passes to Steffen. Long would benefit greatly from getting into a tougher environment.
He absolutely manhandles CBs. Many top CBs are closer to 200 lbs. How do you figure a 174 lb guy is going to be a hold-up forward?