Nations League A, Camp 2, Canada/Cuba, Nov. 15/19

This is an opportunity to hold a October/November camp to drill these guys on the system.

 

What's gonna bug the shit out me is when we only beat Cuba by a goal or 2 because we're completely incompetent away from American soil

 

Main things are, other than Dest committing hopefully and being cap tied, I want to see Ledezma, Llanez, and Mendez. If Soto is healthy, I want to see him too, and for non cap-typing reasons too. In my opinion, he’s as good as Sargent, but he’s in a shitty club situation and could benefit from the confidence boost. Next up, I would seriously look at Miljevic. Add in there Ferreira, but again, for playing reasons.

Other than cap-typing, I still would like to see the integration of Aaronson and Pomykal.

I might even consider Ebobisse and Toye as subs, over Zardes.

 

Are we playing them in Cuba? For some reason I thought I read it was being held in a neutral country's venue, somewhere in the Caribbean...

 

The latest Scuffed podcast had a good list of players who should NOT be called in anymore.... Zardes, Trapp, Lovitz, etc. probably a few more I'm not remembering.

I'd like to see the car keys handed over to Pomykal, I don't care how little experience he has at this level it's freaking Cuba and Canadian mostly MLSers.

Also give guys like Keaton Parks and Antonee Robinson another look.

 

Good post. Honestly, Ledezma needs to be the next youth call-up. He's very good and plays a position of desperate need for the USMNT. If he hits, a lot of pieces fall into place.

Your take on Soto is interesting. I haven't seen him play as much as others but my impression is that he's a great poacher with a clean touch but never seemed as natural off the ball as guys like Sargent and even Weah. He's a bit of a throwback which I love and I think he'll do well but I think guys like Sargent, Weah, and Ledezma can all be elite European pros. With that said, totally agree that I'd take all the forwards you named plus Sapong over Zardes.

I also love Servania and Hollingshead from FCD. Both those guys should be here in January and I'd argue maybe Hollingshead should be here in November.

Some roster turnover would do this team a lot of good.

 

Main things we need to see is that this team is shedding its old skin and moving this new generation forward. People can say, we need old guys to do that. But we don’t need Daniel Lovitz to teach Christian Pulisic how to play ball. Let’s face it, the next generation of leaders needs to come from Pulisic, McKennie, and Adams. This is their team. Holding onto the past is what got us in 2018.

 

Correct. The game is in the Cayman Islands.

The Canada/Cuba game there had intimidating attendance of 420 souls. Capacity of stadium is 3,000.

 

I’m calling in 30 if it’s me...

GK Steffen, Horvath, Johnson
RB Yedlin, Cannon, Lichaj
CB Brooks, Miazga, Palmer-Brown, Carter-Vickers, Alvarado
LB Dest* (Lima), A. Robinson
M6 McKennie, Yuiell, Morales
M8 Pomykal, Aaronson, Lletget
10 Pulisic, Ledezma, Green/Miljevic*
RW Morris, Sabbi, Llanez
FW Sargent, Soto, Ebobisse, Toye
LW Holmes, Ferreira

vs Canada
Holmes———Sargent——--Morris
————Pulisic——McKennie———
——————Morales—————-
Dest/Arob————————--Yedlin
————Brooks——Miazga———-
——————-Steffen——————
Subs:
Pomykal (Morales) 70...McKennie to CDM
Lletget (Holmes) 60
Soto (Sargent) 80
Unused: Horvath, CCV, Lichaj, Ebobisse

Vs Cuba
Sent home:
Pulisic
McKennie
Morales
Steffen
Brooks
Miazga
Yedlin
Dest*
Holmes
Morris

—————Sargent—————-
Ferreira————————Sabbi
——Pomykal——Aaronson——
—————-Yuiell——————-
ARob—————————-Cannon
———Alvarado—-CCV————
—————Horvath——————

subs:
Green/Miljevic. (Pomykal) 80
Llanez (Ferreira) 60
Ledezma (Aaronson) 60
Unused: Johnson, Palmer-Brown, Lichaj, Toye

 

I don't think you can send anybody home. The Cuba game is still a must win and quite possibly by multiple goals. You'd like to think the above basically Olympic squad would get that done, but I think you got to keep the A team there.

edit: unless you are thinking we don't beat Canada. Then yeah, send everybody home .

 

At this point, I fully expect Canada to beat the US in the US. I have no confidence in Berhalter or the sick joke of a federation that is USSF.

 

Eleven Bravo, I like your line-ups. Realistically, though, unless Gregg has an epiphany of giant proportions there will be some of the old, slow players. With the MLS cup over, Bradley, Altidore, Zardes and the rest of the usual GGG players will be called in. I can only hope your are right and I am wrong.

Being a Portland fan, I would like to see Ebobisse get a chance as he got better as the season progressed. The rest of you line-up looks good...too bad it won't happen. How many more caps does Bradley need now?

 

Berhalter must really hate Cobi Jones... Because surely he can't Like Mikey that much........

 

Cobb had 164 and Bradley is at 151. He needs 14 more to take the record. Once he has that they’ll then push for him to be the all time most capped player ever and get him to 185. Then he will get a fair well game.

 

I think the problem you will run into is that the noobs you cite will be told they have to learn the system. They wont have a Klinsmann who tells them "go out there and express yourself and feel free to talk tactics on the pitch".

How will you know if they are any good? All you will know is if they fit the system. It's why monarchies are rare these days. They just don't get the best out of the population at hand,

 

.

OMG...we will miss the 2022 WC. I am getting too old for this. When Bradley started his career, I certainly did not expect him to outlast me. LOL.

 

It is sad.

Ream, Lovitz, Bradley, Trapp, Roldan, and Zardes have been made to be the leaders of this team, and all of them are not good enough and there are superior alternatives in every position.

Ream? Any coach can look at the player pool and see, Miazga, Brooks, Carter-Vickers, Palmer-Brown, Alvarado, Long, M. Robinson, Zimmerman, and eventually Richards. That’s NINE defenders who are legitimate intentional contenders. Hell, I’d still call up Tim Parker and maybe some others before Tim Ream. What’s the point in calling in a player who is going to be on the decline of his career in 2022 when we have players at least already on his level and who will be entering their peak years in 2022? It just shows a complete lack of foresight. Yet, Berhalter takes it a step further and makes probably our 10th best center back in the player pool the captain of the team!!! Holy hell! What an idiot!

Lovitz! I get left back isn’t very bright. But damn, move Lima there. Play this promising young seasoned professional in the Championship there. I’d much rather have Eric Lichaj there. And he’s not even in my top 5 MLS left backs. Personally, I don’t think Hollingshead is going to be the savior of the program, but nobody except Berhalter thinks Lovitz is a better left back than Hollingshead. On any day of the week, I’d take Aaron Herrera over Lovitz. That’s how ridiculous his Lovitz call up is. What Berhalter doesn’t understand too is that Lovitz creates a gigantic problem on our left flank that imbalances our whole team.

Bradley should have been dropped permanently after Couva. Any coach that calls him up after that failure needs to take responsibility when he continues to play in the same way he did that night. What message does that send to the young guys? Hey guys, we just experienced the biggest humiliation in this nation’s soccer history and the main culprit of that failure is going to teach y’all how to play soccer! If I’m Pulisic, I’m thinking, thanks but no thanks, Mikey. More so, leaders develop when they’re forced to become leaders. So, how is Berhalter developing Pulisic, or the next guy to lead this program? It’s like keeping an old boss around who got fired for incompetence.

and Trapp... let’s just call him not good enough to even be Bradley. Why was he wearing the armband for so long? At what point does a coach think, man, I don’t think this guy is even good enough to be on the team. I certainly don’t want him to be the captain of this team. If anything, he’s just the captain of the lost generations

on Roldan... I’m glad he got his shot. His MLS performance proved that he needed a shot. But he’s got his shot, and he sucks at the international level. He’s like an untalented Alejandro Bedoya. Yeah, he’ll run around a lot, but he can’t keep up with the pace at this level. Yet, he’s the #10 in our program??? “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”

Lastly, Zardes... I’ll say this as someone who has long been his greatest defender. It’s time to give up on him. He’s not going to offer ANYTHING. I mean, he’s not even Brian Ching, Taylor Twellman level where Ching at least was good at hold up play and Twellman just was mostly unlucky at the international stage. Rather, when he comes on the field, I feel like we’re playing down a man but yet there’s this object running around and getting in the way. Hell, I’d play Ricardo Pepi before I’d play Zardes again. But, Berhalter insists that Zardes is the man that’s going to take this program to the next level. Well, no wonder why we are playing like we’re a top 75-100 team.

The bottom line is the number one problem with Berhalter is his selection of who is core leaders of this program are. It’s one thing to try out a Roldan here or there. But it’s another thing when these players keep getting shots in places of players with more upside, and those players are meant to be the leaders of this team. Well, no duh, our team is only going to be as good as the backbone of our team. Which, built by Berhalter, is downright terrible.

\Sorry for the rant. Still upset with seeing the program in such disarray.

 

That’s alright. But I want to see Llanez, Ledezma, Ferreira, Soto, and hopefully Dest all play. Maybe even Miljevic if he’s worth a damn. More so, I’d like to see Horvath get a game. And if Antonee Robinson isn’t the first choice left back against Canada then I want him starting against Cuba regardless. Make that the same for Cannon too.

 

This is such a crap-tastic idea that it has the stench of something the USSF would actually do.

 

There are a number of posters here who pointed out that Berhalter’s MLS heavy roster construction and his “System” were both easy to predict and terrible ideas.

conversely, there were many posters who said at least one of the following:

- it’s ridiculous to complain before something actually happens (roster construction)
- it’s too early to tell (terrible play)
- even though it’s a historically unprecedented percentage of MLS players under Arena and Berhalter, there’s no preference
- or my personal favorite, that the USMNT N&A is a terrible forum because of all the posters voicing these USSF/Berhalter/MLS bias critiques
- it’s a bold forward thinking idea

it would be nice to at least see some posters admit they were wrong or at least that others were right in calling out the emperor’s nudity.

 

if I recall correctly, my main points early on was that it may not have been the end of the world to select Berhalter but that it was an absolute disaster that it took over a year to select him. If we had some growing pains early on because the coach wanted to blow the team up and rebuild, I’d been okay with it. Nonetheless, I feel like Sarachan actually succeeded in accomplishing that goal. Yet, it seems like Berhalter has regressed from Sarachan.

Moreover, I don’t mind a new coach experimenting early on in friendlies and going through some growing pains. So long as it’s easy to see the big picture. I can’t tell what Berhalter is trying to do, and it seems like neither does his players.

To me, it’s the absolute defeatism that’s seems deeply infected in this team. There’s no bite or enthusiasm. Everyone seems confused and like they don’t want to be there. That’s the culture he’s created. And it’s headed for disaster. From a result standpoint, I don’t think he should have been fired from losing in the Gold Cup final. But the signs have been troubling and the LoN should be enough evidence to fire him now.

 

Perhaps one needs to publish: "From Optimism to Nepotism: The Decline and Fall of the USMNT, 2010-2019"

It could be dedicated "To General Egg and his Brother, without whose inspiration this book could never have been written."

 

It is not the talent pool, it's the lack of being flexible. The players clearly don't have the freedom to express themselves. They are too young / naive / or too passive to question it, which might be why this group is called in..... do not question authority, accept it.

Against Canada we saw something Berhalter has never done, and at least he tried.

He brought on a second striker (Zardes) No one talks about this. DID ANYONE NOTICE THIS, HAVEN'T SEEN IT MENTIONED.

All Berhalter has ever done before is make like for like subs winning or losing, his plan is garbage, he's starting to notice.

Adams / McKennie is the Jermaine Jones / (prime) MB90 of this era. This right here should be the foundation.

 

well stated. The frustrating part is that if Adams/McKennie is the foundation, it’s crazy to replace injured Adams with someone who is the complete opposite in bradley/Trapp. It doesn’t make sense not to find a poor man’s version and not a complete opposite.

my guess is that he doesn’t view Adams/McKennie as the core and really wants trapp to regain his form and if not, Bradley will man the regista.

 

That is what I am saying, his tactics are failing. The second striker brought on in the Canada game proves that he sees that a change is needed. Regardless of what he says publicly about anything.

he's never done that before, made a tactical change in a USA game. that to me speaks louder than anything any pundit or current player / coach says.