Can't get with you on that one. Nothing about New Joisey or the scum that's cute. I'll be an Iceland supporter next summer,
How many guys on the Panama MNT play in MLS? Tons. I don't hear anyone in their camp griping about whether MLS stunted their professional growth. They're busy making hotel reservations for Russia.
The difference is that Panama is starting from a base level much lower than the US and their ceiling is lower too.
Iceland's success IS cute. But: Iceland doesn't cause cancer. Iceland is not a waste of vodka. There has never been, to my knowledge, Iceland Playoff Fever. Sorry to disagree . . .
For me that's the biggest issue...Bruce had 6 months, including a Gold Cup, to bring in new players. He brought in a few (Arriola, Nagbe) but there was no accountability for poor or ineffective play, certainly no sense that you had to fight for a place in the team and Bruce didn't seem to ever hold himself accountable. Old, soft and unmotivated. The league is not the issue, but is Howard the best American keeper in MLS? Is Guzan? Is Besler the best center back in MLS? Is he even the best on SKC? Surprise surpris, Nagbe is the same for Nats as for Portland - lots of flash and possession, very little end-product and a liability on defense. How many times do you need to confirm that?
and to vent some more...lack of accountability is an issue throughout US Soccer and MLS. I'm sorry but how does Ben Olsen still have a job? The most maddening thing last night was the total and collective lack of effort. Everyone has bad days, days where your touch is off, you're a split second late on everything, but I always told my high school players, even on days like those, the one thing you can do is run. Run and eventually the game will find you. How many times last night did a ball bounce between two US players, winnable for both, but neither moved? How many times was a ball cleared from box to sideline without going out, but without ANY US player trying to track it down? On Jones' goal, there wasn't a defender within 10 yards, maybe 15, while he was in possession for multiple touches in the final third. On Jones' free kick, Howard was playing defense alone outside the box on the end line after blocking the shot, bundling the rebound and kicking it down the endline...not one defender ran to help, not one. Seriously thought to myself in the first half, "did somebody drug the team?" then thought, "is the game fixed?" then thought during minutes 25-45, "WhyTF isn't Arena making a sub?" If there was ever a game for a 1st half sub, last night was it. I cannot remember any game of importance where a team showed up so completely unprepared to compete. At least Brazil played Germany for 22 minutes.
The team had plenty of talent. The tactics were fine. I think it gets down to the mental make-up. There are a lot of relaxed/casual guys on the field last night. You need some assholes on th field to stoke the fire. Despite his passing failures, Jermaine Jones got the blood boiling. Every great team has at least one. Who played that role for this squad? Bradley has been a relatively quiet captain. He had more fire pre-armband.
There's a lot of general validity to all these posts, but they don't completely explain that terrible performance again a team of players at just above amateur status. I wonder how much the bad field got into their heads - players worrying about getting hurt from the field conditions or an out-of-control tackle from the relatively unskilled opponents, and unconsciously deciding to play it safe. They also seemed to underestimate how much they'd need to simplify their game in such conditions. They didn't seem to recognize that to keep possession passes had to be to the feet, and that fancy dribbling just doesn't work. I would have liked to have seen Dax McCarty out there playing with his brand of toughness.
I listened tonight to Arena and Gulati's comments; they live in a state of denial. Arena was saying that there are no excuses (OK) but that the system works well (really??). Gulati said that you can't throw everything away and change everything just because a ball went two inches wide rather than two inches more inside (WHAT???) - I guess heads won't roll then...
They've both got their heads so far up their asses, they need glass navels to see where they're going.
We've lost games we shouldn't have lost, some badly. Some at home, some abroad. There's just no rhyme. We know these guys give a damn. Why did they look so lackadaisical every other game? Answer that in a way that's honest and actionable, and we'll have gotten something useful out of this debacle.
The lackadaisical response in that game was due to the fact there is/was no accountability on that team. Bruce never asked for it. Bradley never asked for it. Dempsey never asked for it. I won't even get into Altidore. Only Pulisic did but he is what, 19? No one was ever worried about their jobs out there. Couple that with Bruce failing to recognize tired legs BEFORE the match and you get shit show.
[ It all started with oranges, juice boxes, and everyone gets a trophy regardless of how you actually fared, everyone who passes the physical become a hero. Not exactly raised to be Spartan Warriors and far from being held responsible for their actions on and off the field. Oddly the women's program is about as advanced success wise as you can get, I guess they have the nads the US eunuchs are lacking,
Jack Warner is giggling his ass off. ("This [defeat by T&T] is the beginning of the end of U.S. football") Consider that some of the FIFA development money sent to T&T might have gone towards pitch improvements, possibly including the stadium in question. Instead it when towards improving Mr. Warner's Swiss bank accounts. So, his greed may well have resulted in a double payoff for him.
well, I agree with the sentiment that they are soft but you realize the participation trophies stop at like age 7, right?
I don't think the "my job's safe, so I don't have to try." argument works to explain this. Nobody's going to Russia. We can all agree that Arena was conservative with his lineup choices - causing him to play some favorites over others who might deserve consideration, which is understandable or not, depending on your point of view, given the time constraints and goals. But that doesn't explain why the whole team sometimes just seems to be chasing the game - for the entire game - or not aggressive. And then sometimes, they're absolutely on fire. But there's often been a definite disconnect between what was on the line and the level of observable urgency. Is it the opponent, the crowd or lack of, poor squad rotation, heavy practice legs, weather conditions, what they ate for supper, travel, lack of preparation, what? I mean, we've heard several times after big results that the team was especially well prepared. Are we getting shell shocked? Were we just not prepared for this match? Is it sometimes just coaching hubris or a lack of time and resources? Or is there some other set of common factors that tend to drag us into the gutter? Personally, I think one factor is, we've developed a bit of a glass jaw. In the BB era, we regularly spotted the other team a goal and came out ahead. I think the "grit," to use a loaded term, has been coached out of us over the last 8 years. I think another factor in the Arena era is his ability to be blindingly brilliant one moment and then just blind the next. He's great preparing a team, but he's not quick enough to make and communicate changes if things go sideways early, and the team's watched that film one too many times. And then, I think there are environmental factors. TnT was played in front of basically no crowd. There was no energy in that stadium. Second worst is when you're playing at home and the crowd is cheering for the other team. I think it was a real letdown after Orlando. That, the short turnaround, and the wet conditions argued against playing the same lineup, but that's what they'd prepared to do. That was just coaching scared from beginning to end. So for me, it comes down to the coaching. I am a huge admirer of what Bruce has done over his career, and unlike Klinsmann, he's a true coach But he's failed this team in some critical moments in that role, and we need better going forward. There's some hope we'll get that.
I can't remember anything that has happened since last November that pissed me off more than that island pimp. ESAD Jack
I didnt even realize Geoff Cameron was on the bench. When i didnt see him in the starting lineup, I assumed he was injured. Another bad move by Bruce. Besides playing with two wingers, two strikers and 1 cam, away from home, in a game where a draw would have been good enough
Really I hadn't realized? I find it a trite statement and totally off-base in looking at the failures of youth soccer. First, participation trophies are for rec soccer. Rec soccer serves an important purpose, to get young children exposed to the game in a way that is enjoyable so they keep playing. The main developmental purpose is to provide fans for the game, because more fans = more money = bigger game. So I have no problem with trophies and orange juice. For most of us sport is an avenue to a healthy lifestyle and lessons about improvement through effort. You think at competitive levels there is not enough focus on winning? The pay for play model is all about winning, winning tournament trophies so the coach can prove he's good to those Potomac parents who know nothing else about the game. And if you're a star player who can win tournaments, you're gonna get treated like a star, instead of having that greater vision constantly pounded into your head - you're good now, but need to get better because you're not good enough for the highest level. How many clubs or coaches tell their U14 stars they need to leave the team they are too good for and play U16 or U18? How many exceptional technical players are passed over or benched because of a more physically-advanced player who can help us win NOW? The best decision I've seen for player development was establishment of the Development Academies which emphasized development over winning, less games, more comprehensive training. That started in 2007, so a U13 player in that first year would be 22 now. Look at how many players who spent formative years NOT obsessed with winning there are who have been brought to high level European sides for development or are on the nation team that fall in that 22 and under age range; Emerson Hyndman (Fulham, Bournemouth, loan to Rangers) Weston McKennie (Schalke) Mukwele Akale (Villareal) Haji Wright (on loan to Sandhausen, on the books at Schalke) Paul Arriola (went to Tijuana, not Europe) Nick Taitague (Schalke) Matt Miazga (on loan to Vitesse, signed by Chelsea) Christian Pulisic (Dortmund) Joshua Perez (on loan to Livorno, on the books at Fiorentina) Erik Palmer-Brown (loan to Porto, signed by Man City) Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen) We have never had that kind of number of kids going from the US to top flight academies in Europe, until this first cohort of Academy trained kids arrived. now we need more to the players have to fight for scraps at every level, including the national team, no matter how good they are. My big wish for the USMNT is that Christian Pulisic goes into the 2022 WC thinking "I better raise my game or I may not start."