Pretty much everyone played well except for Horvath. McKennie was MOTM. Adams good and fun to watch. Acosta steady. CCV solid. Brooks & Miazga seem like polished vets. The US is in good shape in central defense. Glad will get a shot in January Not young but Sapong was effective
Things we learned that we already knew: Promising talented young players are a better play than known mediocre veterans. "Experience" is currently trading at 10 cents on the dollar. Bruce Arena is a weirdo for going on TV and talking how the US needs to integrate young players when he was the guy who was in charge of integrating young players less than 30 days ago!!!
We were noticeably more athletic, more focused on sound defensive structure and had much better intensity than our last game. Our set pieces were much better offensively as well. Night and day actually.
I want to see more Sapong. Our strength is in our up and coming middies, obvioulsy. We have a bevy of solid young defenders, I think. Hamid should be the number 1. Horvath is a head case which is a bad sign for a keeper.
Loved the intensity. McKennie had a debut to remember, and looks like a guy who can help us now and in the future (AND ALSO IN THE PAST, BRUCE!!!!).
I was not able to watch. Did fox put Bruce on tv to share his opinions? If so that is just awful on so many levels.
McKennie MOTM. He's already a difference maker, should be one of the first names on the team sheet, he's earned it. Great performance, we were the better team with a team with nearly no experience. Even if Portugal's team had little experience, they still are better than us, and its impressive that we could play them even or maybe even outplay them with this caliber of squad. Horvath was atrocious. It wasn't just the goal, it was just about every time he was sprung into action. Hamid was the far better option, and showed well in his half. Yedlin was good, he dealt with some tricky wingers well. Miazga gambled a little too much for my liking, and he lacks pace, so its not a good combo. Brooks played really well, nice showing. Lichaj struggled some with the pace of their wingers, and was let down by his lack of a left foot many times, not a LB, but also was fine enough. Williams was hit or miss all game, some nice plays followed by some really poor plays. Acosta was the second worst player to Horvath, looked bad and very selfish, lack of awareness. Agudelo showed well playing out of position, combined really well in the final third and put in a good defensive shift. Adams worked hard, and did well defensively, but another player out of position, he doesn't add much going forward. Sapong battled well with the center-halves, also had a nice assist. Carter-Vickers was fine. Other subs didn't really play enough to assess much about their performances.
Yep. It was like some weird twilight zone where he was talking about how Miazga and Brooks is the US's best centerback pairing and how guys like McKennie and Adams need to get integrated with the team.
Saw the game from about 34 minutes on..... Not a lot of fluidity to this game - some moments, but nothing to write home about. That said, a 1-1 draw at Portugal, no matter that it wasn't their best is a good result and I'm glad the people on the field can walk away with that. Would have loved it if it was a win, but the result was probably fair. Liked McKennie, liked CCV and I thought Yedlin was very, very good. Acosta seemed to disappear in the second half (even before he was subbed out!) but he had a strong 1st half. I've heard a lot of support for Gooch on these boards - my view was 'meh'. He did a couple of nice things and he made a couple of mistakes. Worth another shot, but not a huge game changer --- from what I saw today which, to be fair, is a small sample size. Horvath made two HUGE mistakes -- one cost a goal, the other should have. Not a good start for him.
I’m mostly worried about Horvath mentally. I get it... it sucks. But even the best goalkeepers in the world have made that same mistake. However, what the best goalkeepers in the world don’t do is hang their head in defeat. On that note, I can forgive one bad performance in a meaningless friendly, but he has got to do better.
My first views of McKennie, Sapong, CCV, Horvath. Very impressed with the first 3; Horvath's howler unfortunate. Four quick differences comparing this younger team against the WC squad: Effective high press -- maintained for a whole half Much greater comfort on the ball in traffic and against pressure (surprise!) No instinct to pass backward when under the slightest pressure Greater energy and speed (yes, Captain Obvious) imho, the team would be better served by 'retiring' (and I say this as a 50+ yo playing in senior leagues) and giving these players nice sendoffs: Bradley Dempsey JJ Howard Guzan O Gonzales Zusi Wondo Adding Pulisic, Wood and Cameron to the team that played Portugal today and starting Gonzales in goal and you have the makings of a pretty good start of a squad for 2022.
I’m really hoping we aren’t looking at Adams and McKennie like they’re special. I think they’re both good, but I’m hoping we are looking at this like we need to play the kids because the new generation of players is just better than the previous generations. 5 years from now, the U15 players will be 19 and 20. That means players like Konrad, Pynadath, Busio, Reyna, Bello, etc could be at the level that McKennie and Adams are at now. If we also get the other U20 and U17 players who haven’t had a chance to prove themselves with their clubs, like EPB, Taitague, Ferreira, Carleton, Sargent, etc., and even half of them are able to integrate with players like Yedlin, Pulisic, Brooks, and some of the other young but good players, I really believe we will have a roster that can compete with anyone. Hopefully, in 2022, we can look back at right now as evidence that those players are capable of playing at the top levels, and hopefully, they are. There needs to be a constant influx of young talent into the senior team and if you don’t perform, you need to be replaced. We need to break away from the idea that every guy who was good in the past is going to be good until he’s 33.
Well Horvath makes just about a howler a month, hence why he just lost his spot in Belgium. So it shouldn't hurt him too much.
Yedlin keeps getting better. He is one of our better players now. I like what Adams showed. Seems like a better version of Nagbe.
We could have had three debut goals for Carter-Vickers, Wes, and Adams... but for a ridiculous save and the crossbar.
Pretty good game/performance in the end. Really devolved most of the 2nd half after our press stopped getting home, given we couldn't build up, but when the press did get home first half saw some good transition game. The intent was there, precision inconsistent. Defensively the team was solid all game and had their emergency lights on. Horvath didn't, and screwed them to not keep a clean sheet. It's a one-game sample in a friendly. Basically we learned some guys who we should finally drop or keep retaining for more opportunities to see if these guys are legit. Strong retain sentiment on McKennie, Sapong, Adams, Williams, Miazga, CCV, and Hamid. Clear drops are Horvath (for time being) and Agudelo. I'd pretty much perma-drop Agudelo. He's had enough opportunities. I'm convinced he doesn't have the mentality, mind, or physical tools for this level. Others who played I'm pretty much on the fence about. The issue of not playing kids/effectively new players late in qualifying is a myopic and silly one to focus on when it comes to not advancing. No manager would have played McKennie, Jogo, Adams, Horvath, etc. that last camp. Zero caps and very limited pro sample providing major proof and poise questions. It was also 1 game. We also lost at home v. Costa Rica, Mexico, and never got more than a point on the road. That meant much more collectively to not qualifying than the one game v. T&T. Wouldn't have even needed it otherwise. Issue was never integrating the more seasoned "prospects" (Miazga, Roldan, Rowe, Sapong, Morrow, Hamid, etc.), properly utilizing those already in the pool (Cameron, Besler, Fabian, Williams, Dax, Guzan, Feilhaber, Kljestan, etc.), and deploying sensible tactics like 2 d-mids last 2 camps, a CAM at times, Pulisic there or true a-wing, not a 3-man back line v. Mexico, etc. Those were the practical solutions and I'm fully confident we qualify easily if we employ them. The alternative of just playing the "kids" would have been much more tenuous than that.
It was a wide open affair -- not really reflective of the intensity or game planning of meaningful matches, so take everything with a grain of salt. But it was nice to see some urgency to get the ball forward. Only Horvath and Dwyer confirmed to my eye that they aren't really quality at this level. At least not now.
Haha... well, I’m expecting some of those kids not to develop. At this point 2 years ago, I was really high on Durkin but I’m not nearly as optimistic now. But I think McKennie and Adams showed a lot in this game and I think some players like EPB, CCV, Gonzalez, Ferreira, and Taitague could prove to be at or near the same level as the two who played today. If we can get even 4-5 players from each U20 squad to be not just solid, but really good NT contributors, we should be really good. And like I said, I do believe the younger kids are just better than the 23-27 year olds were when they were young. Plus, I think there are more top level players. Of course it’s all roses right now because I thought we were going to get rolled
Just amazed at the performance. Wow. That was special. No it wasn't Portugal's Euro winning side, but it did have a handful of those players, and it's a legit bench as well. I'm stunned. I expected us to be shellacked, and instead, not only weren't we shellacked, but it took a horrific howler, and/or the crossbar to keep us from winning the match. Add in that this was a US team that was essentially a bunch of defensive midfielders, and a forward or two and the defense. Eventually subs provided some winger skils to some extent but the team didn't really have any creative wheel running the show, and they still played excellent. Mentioned it in the PBP thread, but there's no doubt in my mind w/these kids we would have qualified. Man, we could gave rolled out essentially the best and brightest of our program under 25 years old, and qualified. We went with the geezers and slackers instead, and are at home. That's a bitter pill to swallow, but knowing that we're going to turn the page to this generation really gives one high hopes for the future. We have a lot of talent in the midfield coming up aged 16-23, we've got a couple of interesting forwards, and loads of talent on defense. We could be running out our best NT since the summer of 2002 by around 2020. If these kids can stay healthy. My one concern is that I have little doubt (especially if we stay in the MLS, or the program with the Head Coach hire) we're going to see Bradley, Altidore, and a lot of guys we want to have seen the last of come next spring in this potential tournament (or collection of friendlies). I don't have an issue at all with guys I'm sure put their all in, and weren't infected with complacency, guys like Dempsey, and Wood, Bedoya, and Besler etc. But I'm going to be pissed when I see guys like Bradley, and Altidore, especially if Bradley is reinserted into his typical role and captaincy. They need to make way for McKennie, Adams and friends, and sit the blank down. I can't speak to Cameron because I'm not sure if he fits, and he's old at this point anyway in terms of 2020 and 2022 (wonder what would have happened if we had had Cameron playing instead of Bradley in central midfield against T&T and say Miazga at CB?) Really, really excited after this performance. I seriously expected us to be completely overrun, totally unable to possess the ball. Instead we were quick to intercept passes, consistently won 50/50 balls, closed out chances, and in general, we're faster, hungrier, and better than my wildest expectations. Amazing. Imagine a bunch of these guys with Pulisic, Wood, Wright, Taitague, Sargent etc. The future is looking brighter and brighter if they can stay healthy.