i think we see eye to eye. i just tossed out a couple competitive games we wouldn't get blown out of, the level i think we need. but i do think there is something culturally askew or biased in the european/americas focus. the tv-driven snob obsessions. i would like to see us play asian and african teams too. i think they have plenty of teams our level and would pose unique challenges. we need to see some variety to prepare for it. and we need to play away, period. you can play neutral sites in places like london or paris fwiw. mexico plays most of its games abroad, by playing here often. (mind you, friendly crowds....almost home games....) at least one circular argument i hear is the travel regs, but the travel regs don't say we can't go there, it just says stay in a region or just a short flight across the regions. that does not deny us asia, it just means we'd need two games there. duh. i don't think the plan would be one game in tokyo or doha next game in london or LA.
Logical and true. But not what Earnie and Gregg have been trying to do. How they go forward is the big question. I've seen little to suggest Gregg will change and even less that Earnie will. But even if we keep all the crappy bench players and continue the dumb Greggy-ball, if we just play defense like we did against Canada the second time and not like we did all year before that, we will be much better.
With Cupcake in Qatar, we should be able to schedule any Asian or African team we want. They will still be B teams, but they should be better than Panama B. We will probably get Sweden B and Qatar. I don't know how many Qatar players are in Europe, there first team would be a tough game for our Cupcakers.
Prolly when the Fed didn't do a search after Arena walked away, just plugged in an executive's brother, who was unqualified. Then waited a year and a half to make the announcement, so that they could save a year and half's salary - at the expense of giving Mr. Unqualified Brother time to work in his system, of which 10 months and one real camp from WCQ's he now says "this win means nothing. We have a long way to go." Great. 10 months into the announcement of your hire and "we have a long way to go." Why should we believe that we'll be ready in 10 months when WCQ's start? What are the chances? 50/50? And, his boss is "Pleased." So, ya, when the Berhalter hire was announced.
i think we should have the personnel to cope with fast or difficult opponents short of the elite. i am not sure dest is that guy now. i am not sure long is that guy long term. they are better than last cycle but then GB puts out guys some nights i am not sure if they are upgrades from last time. being half enlightened is only half comforting.
Whatever happened to Fabian that he shouldn't even be considered as part of the depth chart? Antonee Robinson who, IMO, is a clear upgrade over Lovitz couldn't even get a start in a legit match with the U-23s.
It's only interesting in the sense of the Chinese curse: "may you live in interesting times." It's interesting in the way a bankruptcy lawyer would find a case to be "interesting." The manager himself, 2 1/2 years from end of the previous manager's term, is saying we have a long way to go. It's been 2 1/2 years since Arena. WCQ's start in 10 months. And we suck. That's interesting. It's not a matter of being on my lawn. It's a matter of an elephant crapping on my lawn and no one looks like they want to clean it up. Just an elephant handler standing there saying "yeah, that's a big pile."
I wasn't able to watch the game and just saw the highlights this morning, but I think that ANY comfortable win on the road in a non-friendly game in CONCACAF is a good win. We've had plenty of nail-biters on the road in WCQ against teams that weren't any better than Cuba. That said, it's not like Berhalter is totally off the hot seat for me after winning these two games. I was of the opinion that he should go if they don't make it to the final of Nations League, so he's bought himself a chance to make the minimally acceptable bar for standard of performance, but he hasn't gotten over it yet.
Mex will beat us home and away. This team will lose, not draw, another away match or two. And, it's not inconceivable that we get drawn at home (or lose) vs. teams other than Mex. We could very likely end up 4th and losing the playoff with a South American team.
That's not at all inconceivable to me. However, unlike last time when I think Costa Rica was clearly better than us and we proved to be basically on par with Panama and Honduras, this cycle I think the non-Mexico group of CONCACAF is a bit weaker. Road wins will be tough, especially if El Salvador and Honduras are both in the Hex. Jamaica this cycle is better than TnT was last cycle and going there obviously caused us plenty of problems. Bottom line for me, if we fix our defensive scheme like we did against Canada, play a functional midfield that includes Adams at the 6 and Lletget or a Lletget-like person at the 10, I think we can limp to second place with 16 or so points (4 home wins, steal a road win and a draw somewhere). Keep in mind we hadn't finished with less than 20 points since the 2002 cycle before last time. If we start Lovitz, Bradley, and Roldan, maybe LD can make blanket cheer for North America commercials when both Mexico and Canada are playing in Qatar and we aren't...
nope, this was a fixture with qualifying on the line and roldan lovitz et al were still around. camp cupcake is an ambiguous signal -- or at least has been in prior cycles. maybe they are being tried out. maybe they only start because of the limits on access. but starting the second game here says i trust you and see you as the second best LB option, both of which are dubious. we have better options at keeper, back, mid. well, let me blunt, even if they were considered "even," you should call them to assess whether that is reality. i also think people need to consider whether the seemingly more enlightened attack of canada game was on purpose or forced by our table position or something he came up with while he awaited the return of bradley. a running theme with him is that he seems to take steps backwards as soon as we start to move forwards. the net result of being that dialed on the roster is we will arrive to the fall and they will either be healthy or not, and good enough or not, and that will be that. there won't be much room for injuries or learning.
you're overlooking that a significant part of the game 1 versus game 2 difference was a better attack that they had to take seriously. that and they moved their wing/forward to back and did us a huge favor. i say this because if you pair a better defense with roldan mckennie bradley or the like, i think it's still an exercise in frustration. maybe not as leaky, but no better in the attack. i believe a lot in the value of better offense as part of your defense. that if i am on their end they can't press and are too busy defending me to test my defense.
i fear we are just repeating lessons on players like guzan bradley roldan yedlin trapp brooks ream lovitz zardes. part of being a good coach is not being snookered by isolated games, of seeing through to some consistent truth that holds across games. we seem hell bent on convincing ourselves some shaky players are better than they are and in search of any old game to support it.
There's a weird perception that winning on the road in CONCACAF is easy. Between the pitches and the crowds, it never had been for anyone. In WCQ, no one really ever racks up points on the road. Not Mexico at their best, and not the US at our best. You get some, but the route to winning the hex usually goes through home match domination. I think some folks think 6-0 scores are assured, but you can look through history and see that the home pitch advantage in WCQ is really big -- I'd guess close to 1.5 goals; so a home and road swing might be 3 goals for a better team. Win 3-0 at home, tie 1-1 on the road and so on.
morris stood out. sargent looked better in the sense he hustled back on defense and tackled more. he also sniped a couple but that should be well duh. arriola remained productive. boyd looked better in that he seemed more interested in combining with others as opposed to get to the line and whack it in, which he is nothing special at. roldan did nothing for me, ditto morales other than the nice volley (albeit right at the keeper). i would prefer cannon over yedlin as the more precision instrument. maybe if he moves people get over the bizarre distortion of thinking playing for newcastle makes you better. lovitz was underwhelming. guzan looked decent but personally i don't think he should be higher than 3rd choice. dead balls went back to crap. a lot of balls into the first defender.
I hope I'm wrong. GB just seems to be the embodiment of stubborn incompetence. He's got a ton of time and work invested in his "system" and his player selections. His dogged attachment to "the group" …. I just feel like we're not going to get any better at playing his "system" between now and when WCQ's start. Do you think that this team, as it is presently constituted, playing at its present level, would qualify? We're going to get concacaf'd. This is how it's going to go. We're going to play in San Salvador, or Tegucigalpa ….. we're going to do our "build from the back" crap (where the CB's have the ball at their feet way more than the wing players). Every time we get past the top of the circle, we'll get fouled. Some times we'll lose the ball. Sometimes we'll get the call. Every free kick will be back passed, and back passed, and we'll end up starting all over again with the ball at the keeper's feet. That will be every.single.possession. We'll lose the ball deep in our end, trying to build from the back and give up a goal. Or two. It just feels inevitable.
misleading. you go back to the 90s-00s and road LOSSES were rare. we would typically lose to CR away, and maybe one more game, sometimes mexico, sometimes not. what has changed is road ties and a loss or two became several road losses, and we even breached at home. this is a similar sort of dumbing down of expectations as what GB gets in other areas, and it doesn't reconcile with past history when we did qualify, and it doesn't help us get there. the model is 4 points from everyone except CR. the only constant away has been CR loss. mexico is actually routinely in play for a point. everyone else if they actually win it's rare and they throw a parade. we may work for it and score in the 90th off a free kick but one reason we routinely qualified is decent road form. any talk that promotes seeing road losses as ok doesn't return us to how we used to do things. you are right in terms of the history, but if you look close at that history it would be like we finish 7-2-1, with like 2 road wins, a road tie, and 2 road losses. last cycle that eroded down to 3 ties and 2 losses.
for example, in 1998 we won 3-0 at home vs canada, vaguely familiar to recent events, but also won 3-0 away. suggesting i should be ok with 0-2 away is basically pre-MLS think. i get that we have become more "generous" in away games last decade eg guatemala and trinidad but that also parallels going back to the pack in terms of qualification. i should also point out that choices between open tactics and more controlled, and whether one is drilled on dead balls, make a difference in getting the results. my concern when i hear some of the snob talk is they want to do things that help you win 6-0 at home but don't help you down 0-1 75' into some road qualifier. i vividly remember a game we were down 0-2 to ES and jozy came on as a sub and got a couple headers over their wee little defenders and it was ugly but effective. there needs to be that tool in the toolbox sometimes. [ed: 2009 was when that happened and the second was hedjuk]
Here's why I'm hopeful: I'm thinking on two discrete timelines: WCQ and the actual World Cup. They have different standard of play. We do not need to be WC ready by this time next year. In terms of qualifying, the things that give me hope: We have enought talent even in the pool that Berhalter calls in to qualify; Many of the other hex teams look to be in down cycles except Mexico (Costa Rica, for example); I truly do think that as much as Berhalter wants to experiement with possession, the Canada game and his history tells me he will be pragmatic when needed. I fully acknowledge that injuries, bad luck, or arrogance could upset that and will be waiting on pins and needles for the gameplan of our first WCQ. If we approach it like this last Canada game, I am much less worried. As for World Cup, when we have to play much harder opposition, I am less hopeful but still more than most. Why? First, it's three years away. And second, what will make or break us (other than injuries) is not gameplan but how our current young stars develop and which of the U20 crowd breaks through. Much of the other elements are immaterial -- I understand that some people think Michael Bradley is going to Qatar, but I think the only way he's going to Qatar is if our young players completely flop. And then it's immaterial anyway. Berhalter has made some indefensible decisions, namely recently around Roldan and Lovitz. He has not done a good job of implementing positional play and a possession system, even given the pool and the time. We look bad. He has not focused enough on defense and transition yet, though there is still some time (needs to start now!). But... He's also brought in Dest and started him immediately. He brought in Boyd, though that hasn't been as successful. He's given Sargent a ton of time to wrest the job from Zardes - and Sargent hasn't taken it yet. He may be way too focused on a passing 6 for many of us, but he also brought in Yeuill to overtake Trapp and eventually perhaps Bradley. And he's been coaching through a really rough spate of injuries to many of his top players. It's not an excuse for the lowest of the lows -- this is just CONCACAF. But it still affects everything. In short, I think this team, barring severe injuries, should and will qualify for the World Cup. And then three years from now, we'll how we'll do. How we do will be determined more on how players like Pulisic, McKennie, Sargent, Adams, Pomykal, Llanez, Richards, Dest, Robinson, etc., all develop than on tactics or player selection.