Rob Stone: US Manager shortlist is Ramos, Tata Martino, Marsch, Berhalter, Friedel, Osorio & Vermes.

Arriola played in that match? I didn't even notice. Huh, not as old as I'd thought. Thanks for the info.

 

That squad looks ancient in 4 years. Hold CP and Yedlin and FLUSH the rest.

 

The only things I noticed in that game, after 7 months are:

1 - Gonzo put the ball in our own net, and put TNT up 1-0
2 - Howard forgot to wear his contact lenses, and allowed a shot from 35 yards out to sneak pass him. TNT up 2-0
3 - Pulisic pulled a quick goal in the 2nd half to put us within 1 goal of a tie
4 - Captain America took his sweet time to walk to the corner kick, to ensure that the clock runs out and we won't make it to Russia

 

I don't even want to see most of them next year.

 

Complicated. I agree with some of the sentiment but reality is you can't just vote the older players off the island and play kids regardless of professional experience or how well they play for the same national team. Beckerman and Jones literally got too old and got canned. But their replacements weren't a pimple on them. Bradley held out, but at a certain point that's not his fault. He was what we had left. None of the experienced professionals stepped up and pastured him.

I mean, to me, based on what I saw, if we run Roldan or McCarty or Gooch or Kljestan or Feilhaber out there instead, it ONLY GETS WORSE. Those people would not have scored from 40 yards in Azteca, and they to be blunt, kind of sucked when they got their chances.

Now, this cycle, we are starting to see some kids emerge. But they were not emergent, or in some cases even signed, in summer 2017.

I am with you on this as a long term concept. There should have been a new trio back in 2014 much less 2017. It takes basic "+4" math to figure out who can't possibly be part of the next world cup run. But the notion of weeding out old farts in part depends on having a next man to stand up. I think people are in a dream world on the state of the midfield last summer after some players got hurt.

Now, the backfield is more interesting. But that's another story.

 

We need a manager who declares form the beginning:

"I'll inevitably ruffle some feathers because I intend to field the best team always consistent with culminating in the WC 2022."

With a declaration like that, I do not expect the same person to say about the last game of the hex "of course the players we will play in the WC Finals in Russia will be different than the team we bring to Trinidad but right now we just want to ensure qualification".

I want the coach before the last game of the hex to say "these guys better win it because otherwise we would be the worst team in Russia anyway and what's the point in going?"

 

I believe the set up was a little different.

--------------------------------------Wood----Altidore

-------------------------Nagbe------------pulisic---------Arriola

----------------------------------------------Bradley

etc. etc.

 

He MIGHT have done better, but give credit where it's due, that was a thunderbolt.

 

I believe that you are correct. Even a worse tactical setup than I remembered!

 

Same. The inevitable result of failing to qualify, no manager, and a long time before competitive games.

No, I'd like to clinch qualification long before the last game. I'd like the coach to be experimenting during the last game, because we've already secured qualification at that point.

 

It was not. Howard we nt to sleep on that one

 

Which isn't actually inconsistent with what I said.

 

Hadnt he been looking asleep in Colorado as well?

I'm looking at Japan taking it to Colombia at the moment. They are playing some confident soccer. I'm not sure how to quantify that. Can anybody quantify what Japan is doing?

P.s. - they'll need to add some wrinkles around the 18yd line to go deep. Too many one-two's, not enough one-two-threes.

 

I'd be confident too if we were playing a man and a goal up. Since minute 3.

As you see, Japan's a team that often has nice passes, but no end product. They've had a lot of Brazilian and Italian influence IIRC...

 

As a Ghanaian-American, I am watching Morroco stink it up and thinking how did we let these guys get here before us, same way I feel about Panama but when you look at the way Iceland, Senegal and to a lesser extent Portugal, you are seeing 11 guys playing for themselves and the shirt. Portugal have CR7 but the whole team is built on D and working together, Tunisia held England out til extra time, it is about a system, tactics and a brothers-in-arms type locker room. That is what the coach needs. So the reliance on old players was dumb. I would have dumped Bradley and gone with Dax. I would have brought in D will, and maybe Dwyer was the call. If we want that system, you call in those type of players and a coach that can make it work.

 

Here's an idea. America is drowning Mexicans (you know, Mexican Americans), Mexico is ripping Germany a new one. Could it be that maybe we are calling in the wrong ones? JoGo, Delgado - no, no, no. but Alvarado, Corona yeah yeah yeah.

 

Are you related to Delgado? I've never seen a post of yours that doesn't mention him...

 

No. I'm not related. Yes, you've seen many posts of mine which don't mention him. What's your point in lying?

 

i.o.w., the 4th post above your post is a post of mine which doesn't mention Delgado.

Why is everybody here so desperate all the time? Go out and get laid ffs. Pay for it if you have to.

 

Lol, someone can't take a joke.

(Psst, it's you!)

 

To be fair that red card and penalty didn't come out of nowhere. They created it with an attack that would've likely profited if not for the handball.

 

Juan Carlos Osorio never visited Jona Gonzalez at home. That was Dennis Te Klose and Gerardo Torrado. Osorio met with Jona at the Monterrey training grounds once he had filed his one time switch. The closest contact Osorio had with Jona and family prior to his switch was a phone call to the entire Gonzalez family (with Te Klose and Torrado in tow) to assure him he would have a bright future if chose Mexico but that a World Cup spot would not be guaranteed.

 

I agree that at the start of a cycle we can play more kids and there is no downside.

However when the games start to count, you have to turn to the best available players within your system. That may mean that last cycle someone like Bradley comes back if the next generation fails to impress. If you want to "not qualify" even more emphatically last time, run Dempsey, Bradley, and Howard off in service of indefinite "youth." There is a reason a set of veterans were brought back. We all know for periods of time each was either voluntarily or involuntarily sidelined. There were openings. They were not exploited. The new generation could not beat out an older forward with a heart issue; an older mid losing his range; or a goalkeeper becoming less dominant. We can name specific names who had chances, Guzan, Acosta, Nagbe, Morris, etc.

This is not some reflex defense of experience, it's that at a certain point we have to make fairly definitive talent evaluations and play to win. This is what we have that is pro ready. This is how they stack up. If Pulisic is better he plays. If Bradley is better he plays. The real problem was in oil terms we were drilling dry holes looking for talent. This is why so many of the "but why didn't" arguments really end up being like, go to some even older trendy idea (Feilhaber, Kljestan) or some kid who at the time was not even professional or just getting started (the current crop).

To be fair, previous teams have taken Green type risks. But they usually don't bet qualification on it, they roster them on the 23 once we're off to the big dance. And betting on a whole pile of kids would have been a big bet.

The one caveat in here is that I felt like we undermined our transition this past cycle by playing to win every regional tournament we entered, with the exception of maybe the group stage of the 2017 Gold Cup when it was pretty much too late. The time to take risks is the front half of the schedule up through the start of qualifying. You can maybe even fudge that a little depending who we qualify against. But that is when you can leave Bradley home and basically run an open audition. And to me maybe that open audition should last on into the knockouts.

But the reality is that like your college or HS team at a certain point we have to field a lineup for real and that may involve starting upperclassmen we wish would get beat out and even if the freshman class is interesting you aren't going to start all freshmen, except for the ones literally already better than their forebears. If you want the team to change freshman x has to (a) truly have the goods and (b) display them in a game in looking better than frustrating senior y. I mean, when I was a freshman in college, I was frustrated as someone's backup, and a lot of people were like how is he starting ahead of me. But when I finally saw the field 3 games in I dominated the game and made my impression and that's how I started pretty much every game for the balance of my years. Moping that it's "obvious" is not how this works. You get your call, you either blow the doors off or not. And in assessing blowing doors off, be mindful Bradley was still knocking in 40 yard shots in Azteca, even if he might struggle in some other area. The bar was never as low as some seem to want to suggest. We need more excellence.

Even if the coach sees the future in the underclassmen no sane team, during the regular season, operates on the theory that the upperclassmen just go sit the bench without a fight.

 

I see this as a symptom of the rudderless ship we created. At the time this was happening a lot of the organizational chart you would task to be the one to make this trip were lame ducks, not hired yet, temporary caretakers, etc. That being said, as with the "I can't fire Jurgen and hire Bruce, I am in the hospital" stuff, surely we can get our crap together sufficiently where someone stays on top of such things and take care of them.

That being said, if he's a holding mid I don't see that as some huge loss. I see some people coming up who can play there. That and I think practically, once the lessons are learned, get over it already. Does Germany beat themselves up over our recruits? Iceland? etc.

And while I think as with Subotic we should learn some lessons, on the other hand, having acted like you were committed, I lose some respect when you flip sides over perceived passion levels in recruitment. I don't want to reflexively back the "loyalty" thing to where we ignore interested dual nationals, but I want people out there whose dream is to represent us. I mean, that CR game away was the most pathetic, we quit, thing I have ever seen in our jersey. I don't want people with that attitude playing for us.

 

They are playing a TEAM sport in a committed, prepared and unified fashion. If you know anything about the Japanese culture and mentality, it should be that those qualities are valued above all.