Saw today that Tata's contract runs thru 2018. Just a two year deal. Opens up the possibility to take over next cycle.
Tata's style depends a lot on accuracy in the quick short passing for defending, his cool "triangles" that are not really working with Atlanta. I have a feeling it wouldn't work with the NT, short & ultra-quick passing is far too South American. And yeah, always had the feeling his job in Atlanta was grooming to be the NT coach.
I can appreciate when your last coach loses the team in the middle of WC qualifying that calling in the ex-coach who is a good motivator makes sense. Arena might well be the right guy for 2017. But I'm more and more doubtful that he's the right guy for 2018. He's definitely not the right guy beyond that. .
Since Arena took over: - 0-0 vs Serbia - 1-0 vs Jamaica - 6-0 vs Honduras - 1-1 vs Panama - 1-1 vs Venezuela One great result. A whole lot of "meh" otherwise.
Ok. MAYBE if we are going to be 3-5-2 the Zusi "experiment" makes SOME sense. Not sure he has the stamina and speed to run the right flank, but he is a good deliverer of the ball if he manages to do so. But as a straight up FB......Nope.
For the peep(s) who suspect Bruce Arena is getting a pass, check out the match day thread. Here is an article about Jurgen the day he railroaded, er fired (if you suggest Arena is doing the same stuff, you might want to get in touch with reality). http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/gallery/jurgen-klinsmann-usmnt-manager-fired-112116 1. Historic losses 2. Playing players out of position 3. Rifts with players 4. Feuding with most everyone 5. Tactical misfires 6. Communication problems 7. Fans turned on the team, if they even showed up 8. The World Cup is in doubt Here is a list of some of the historic firsts suffered under Klinsmann (ask yourself, "Has somehow Bruce gotten a pass for this stuff?) http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/gallery/11-awful-usmnt-milestones-set-under-jurgen-klinsmann-111516 I would also add that Klinsmann had an extended period of grace when he was first hired mostly until qualifying in the group stage was in jeopardy. Here is an article where, after our first qualifying defeat in Honduras Klinsmann recognizes Concacaf was a bit different than he suspected. http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/66/u...nn-says-concacaf-is-tougher-than-people-think Following this particular loss, we also lost to Jamaica for the first time ever, tied Guatemala and needed a last minute goal in Antigua to insure qualifying. And despite exceeding expectations in the World Cup, things got worse after that. And certainly, anyone could see that it was not a particularly awesome performance last evening. Hopefully, things will click better in the qualifiers. We will see.
Post match . . . https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017...rt-pulisic-makes-most-limited-scoring-chances the Match: “At times we played well, the final product wasn’t very good,” On Pulisic: “he played very well, there’s no question about that." Qualifiers: The proof will be in the pudding, but Arena ultimately sounded upbeat about his side's prospects. “Come Thursday we’re going to find out, but I’m optimistic,”
Let's hope he is right. We NEED him to succeed. But......he IS getting a pass both on here and in the press.
Outside of Honduras we've looked impotent for the most part, not threatening, a tactical mess going forward with the attack cut off from the defense, players out of position, and an extreme reliance on Pulisic to produce a moment of magic. Jurgen didn't have a more matured Pulisic and actually got the team as a whole and collectively to threaten more than what we're currently seeing. Take out Pulisic and the Panama and Venezuela matches are losses. Panama outplayed us in the run of play and it was only Pulisic jumping on a ball, beating two defenders to set up Clint for a tap-in that saw us get a point. And again yesterday, I don't think we even produced a SOG outside Pulisic skipping away from pressure and firing it thru three defenders for the goal. Seems Jurgen lost the locker room with a few lifeless results at the end of his reign but the squad overall now is playing worse than Jurgen's typically did. And if Jurgen had a far more matured Pulisic with 43 BVB appearances this season and 10 UCL matches under his belt which he could have plugged in, his version probably looks better than the current. We'll see, I hope for the sake of the squad we get it together but Jurgen handled El Tri fairly well and I have little confidence this trip to Azteca is going to go well. Pulisic will be swarmed and then what? Was actually shocking to see Pulisic needing to drop to 8 and even DM space to get a touch last night. Even as a 17 yr old against Mex in Columbus Jurgen got him on the ball in space a number of times. As an aside, how does Morris keep getting called in and Christian Ramirez doesn't even make the Gold Cup prelim roster?
Klinsmann lost any momentum he had against Mexico after the two home losses. His team would've been slaughtered at Azteca this time around. Of course, Arena's might be as well, but I'll wait until that happens to panic. Friendlies are meaningless. Arena has coached two games that matter thus far, and at least came away with vital points. Qualifying ugly is pretty much the only route after the K-Man's shitshow start to the hex.
Please explain. How is he getting a pass? I understand that we are good enough to have been able to get 6 points from the last two qualifiers but 4 out of six was enough to begin the turn around. Getting six would not have been a gimme. Draws on the road in CONCACAF happen. They have happened to every coach we have ever had (to the best of my knowledge) and I assume they will continue to happen for quite some time. At some time we will get to the place where a draw ion Panama, Honduras, etc will be seen as an absolute failure but I don't think we are near that point yet. That being said, if we get anything other than a well deserved win against T&T, he will deserve criticism but any result in Mexico will be a huge positive. A poor loss in Mexico will be a negative and deserve criticism.
The scary thing is that for all we know the Candy Man could be on the way back to the youth ranks at Dortmund. I think we're a pretty average team. And that's not entirely the fault of the coaches. We have Pulisic, then Brooks and Cameron, a few guys that can have turn-back-the-clock moments. And then a lot of average.
It was explained above by another poster: "....Since Arena took over: - 0-0 vs Serbia - 1-0 vs Jamaica - 6-0 vs Honduras - 1-1 vs Panama - 1-1 vs Venezuela One great result. A whole lot of "meh" otherwise....."
For me, Serbia and Jamaica were only important for what they allowed Arena to do preparing for Honduras and Panama. by themselves, While I suppose it is possible that he didn't learn anything (that would make them failures), I think the overall results against Honduras and Panama were good enough to warrant a passing grade. I would rate Honduras as a very good result but not necessarilay great. I agree that Panama was probably "meh" but taken together, I think that Honduras and Panama were good. When you consider the direction that we were going I don't think there is any other conclusion to take away other than Arena has turned the program around (at least temporarily). Venezuela, to me falls in the same category as Serbia and Jamaica and is also similar in the sense that on paper we should have murdurlized them. As a fan I would call it a disappointing result but the games that matter come later this week. Anything less than a win against T&T would be a serious problem and then I would look harder at Venezuela. Assuming that we win against T&T, the Venezuela result becomes unimportant and getting a result against Mexico in Azteca becomes a bonus (like it usually is). Overall, I would rate Arena's tenure as good (maybe par for the course) with one wait and see what happens in the next two qualifiers. Holding off of criticism at this point is not something I see as a "pass".
Klinsmann also got a pass in the beginning. There comes a time when enough is enough. Bruce 2.0 isn't near that point yet.
I'm not happy with the result - and I'm still unsure whether Arena was the best hire. But c'mon - it is WAY too early to be making judgments on him just yet.
If the rest of the hex is one great result and the rest "meh," we'll qualify, which we weren't on track to do under JK.
Arena: 1W-1D-0L, 7-1 goal differential in meaningful Hex matches this cycle. On target. Klinsi: 0W-0D-2L, 1-6 goal differential in meaningful Hex matches this cycle. Very poor, arguably embarrassing. Appeared to be losing the locker room. Arena: 1W-2D-0L in 3 drab friendlies. Whatever. Is he finding a lineup and player combinations? How important is this? Klinsi: Was the genius of many friendlies with his superb 5th and 6th subs winning matches (at Mexico, at Holland, at Germany). How important was that?
Yeah, weren't those friendly wins in Germany and the Netherlands right before we got embarrassed in the Gold Cup? I'd trade every one of Klinsi's historic friendly results for one ugly win against Mexico or Costa Rica in a game that counts. Arena may yet flop hard in his second stint, and he'll be judged accordingly if he does.
They don't have the same time table on which to judge. Arena was brought in to immediately fix the issues and qualify for the WC. And I don't believe based on what we've seen so far, that there aren't major questions to be asked. It's not just recent form and results either, there's questions about things like the GC prelim roster where somehow Zardes and Morris are on it, a combined 2 goals and 0 assists in 1815 mins this year while Christian Ramirez, 8 goals and 1 assist in 1172 mins can't even get a look.
Did someone on here actually say "the team is playing worse now than under Juergen?" Wow, that's complete nonsense. More organized. Much better defensively. Left back issue settled. Players in the right positions and competing for time in their positions. The Venezuela game was a warm-up friendly. I expect we'll see a much better I didn't love the experiment with the diamond midfield of Bradley behind Pulisic, but I did love the experiment with the 3-5-2. I see that as a real possibility in the USA future given our wealth of talent at centerback and our lack of talent at fullback. Cameron-Hedges-Brooks could look pretty good in a couple years.
I figured this would be posted somewhere but didn't see it... http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1616...rhyme-or-reason-for-many-us-call?ICID=HP_BN_3