If people want to look at the game as a lesson, look at the changes Canada made from last game. Each one was a mistake. Berhalter should now sit down and ask himself why the efficacy went up when he replaced Captain America with the silent assassin, Yueil. Earnie should get Berhalter a midfield whisperer.
Will do the usual in-stadium report.. Ok, I'm such a sucker for USMNT games.. as frustrated as I've been the past few years, it never ever gets old watching our boys and signing with the supporters. Never gets old. Pre-game: AO had their normal party at Broken Strings brewery. Good setup, good but mellow vibe. Stadium is in a part of town with tons of bars a few streets away. AO gave away free black shirts as part of their pseudo protest. Stadium: fantastic stadium for watching soccer. Supporters section is safe standing, no bad seat, great sightlines. Was obvious it was empty, depressing for sure but dark and mist during game made it less obvious. AO section: top notch, just really good and mostly due to organized/large drum section. Cool setup they have right in the middle of the section, not at the bottom. 2 capo stands helping out. Standard songs. But everyone in good voice and committed to being involved. Really solid vibe, and the reason I keep dragging my ass across the country. "AO protest": strangely not promoted or discussed before hand. First 15 minutes were silent, no drumming or singing. Took me a while to realize it was planned, but it was kinda strange. Made for a very quiet experience. Not sure it was even noticed by USSF so not sure the impact unless they made more press about it. Gregg post-game: the drama that I love. Following the Toronto apology, was curious to see how it would play out. Gotta give him kudos. Was obviously preplanned but felt genuine, all players stayed in center circle and Gregg walked over first by himself to the top of the box, and received a fairly positive reception. An easy token gesture but one that he needed to do. Just cant imagine if we lost, the crowd would have attacked him. Overall......for those that dont go to many games (home or away) it really is special to see the national team live regardless of friendly or opponent. Its special. And $28 tickets helps as well.
Did this guy seriously bring up Julian Green in this thread and then complain about other people posting about him? What a goofball.
Anything to hype up MLS and drag down the European-based players. We all have our own biases on this forum. Some of us just double-down more blatantly. As far as the game goes, here's what I've learned. Berhalter (and Stewart) hopefully was served a slice of humble pie by adopting a style of play that suits this team well. It is good to win a game where Pulisic and Adams weren't playing and McKennie was not as good as we've seen him play. I do hope Schalke Weston starts playing for the USMNT. US Soccer should NOT take this as meaning all is right with the world. There's still an awful lot of work to do. I'm sure that Gregg will want to return to "Sorry-ball" against Cuba. If he wants to do that up 2-0 or 3-0, fine. Get the lead first by pressing the hell out Cuba. Wear them out. I hope USSF looks at the empty seats and realizes there is still a big problem with confidence and trust in the federation. The structural issues are still there, and they will continue as long as Jay is in charge (and let's be honest - he's in charge right now).
Ok...watched the game this morning, first chance to post and glad to see that BS has devolved to it's classic back and forth! That said, my comments: We don't possess well. We did NOT build out of the back much at all. We countered out of the back a few times, but building out of the back through the midfield was largely absent. Per #1 above, with a 3, 2 and then 3 goal lead, we were totally unable to just 'kill off' the game. Hence the 34% possession statistic. Just crazy. I get that sometimes with a lead you allow the other team possession as long as it's not dangerous, but you need to show some composure on the ball at some point. Zardes to me was much more of a target forward. My view as that he's taller and more physical than Sargent, hence the start. That was important because we were lofting balls out of the back to him. I think Twellman was saying he got the start because GGG thought he was 'hungrier' than Sargent. Whatever, I think it had more to do with the knowledge that a target was needed. How many times was Gardes targetted from 30+ yards a way with a ball to his head or chest at about the 40 yard line? IMHO - a lot. Also, surprised at how far back Zardes played -- he was all the way back to the top of our box at times. Nice defense, but then we had no outlet when we regained possession. I did NOT like Ream at left back. He got skinned a couple of times and turned the ball over as well a couple of times. Some nice passes out of the back, yes, but sorry, not pacy enough. I, for one, love the idea of Dest and Yedlin as our outside backs. Pacy, relatively skillful and can bomb forward. Just love it. Not sure why GGG has such a block at those two as our wing defenders. The game would have been VERY different if Brooks had received the yellow he deserved in the first half and if the ref awarded the PK for Canada that he could have. (COULD HAVE). We could have scored more goals, yes, but Canada could have too. In regards to McKennie, we'll just have to agree to disagree. I love Yueill's grit and tenacity, but McKennie is just as good defensively and much smoother on the ball. It does matter knowing how the players around you move off the ball and what they do with the ball - Westin and his teammates are not always on the same page. Is that his fault or theirs? Frankly, I tend to lean to the latter rather than the former. Great win. Kudos to the team (coach, included) for exorcising those demons, but count me unconvinced that the team has fundamentally turned a corner. Okay, one more comment -- Twellman was talking about how Gregg took responsibility for not getting the team in the right emotional state before the last Canada game. He went on to say that wasn't Gregg's job. Sorry, it is - and it is also his responsibility to pick the captain that helps maintain that state during the game and call out people who don't live up to it. Yes, these guys are professionals, but so is the coach.
If that's their fault and they are too stupid for Wes, he should sit on the bench till he gets equally stupid.
I’m not seeing what everyone else is. We abandoned the absolute failure of a “System” that we have been wasting time on, only to revert to the same stripped down, sophomoric Arena ball that couldn’t qualify last cycle. How exactly was this game anything other than a demonstration that we have not progressed an inch since Couva? We should be pressing and playing at a high tempo, under the command of one of the very many coaches in the world that know how to implement a legitimate system of that nature.
maybe it is picking at nits, but beerholder is a "professional" only in the sense that he gets "paid" but it is in name only
A story -- I have played in an over 50 league against an opponent, call him Joe, who always tore us apart from his position in central midfield. He was someone we always needed to account for and sometimes even man-marked no matter where he was on the field. If we shut him down at all the entire game got more even. We then were on the same over 60 team for a bit and he seemed to have almost no effect when he was on the field. I was shocked. I talked to one of my teammates who knew Joe and had played with Joe. His response was, in effect, if the players around Joe don't know how to move off the ball, there's not much Joe can do. The team he played with in Over 50 he has played on for 20+ years, once we, collectively, began to 'get' Joe's vision (i.e. better soccer movement) the team played better. My point is that it would make NO SENSE whatsoever for us to bench Joe so he could dumb down to our level, it makes much more sense for other people to play up to his level. Sorry, while I'm not a Eurosnob, if someone is starting at Schalke, as a team, it would behoove those players in MLS to try and step up to his level rather than asking Westin to step down to theirs. Now, does that mean his shit doesn't stink? NO -- he made a couple of bad passes/decisions IMHO. He also made a great lead pass to Dest (after winning the ball, btw) and then followed that pass into the box to try and get on the end of a pass. Dest took a reasonable shot and missed, but my point is that McKennie busted his ass on the play. And, by the way, Zardes was well behind the play. We can all pick out situations that cast a player in a positive or negative light, I get that. However, on the whole, I like having McKennie on the field for the USMNT more than most of the other players we put out there last night.
Wes isn't Ronaldo, he makes the team marginally better. If he can't figure out how to play with the rest of the team without making stupid passes to opponents or getting invisible for long time he shouldn't play. Fortunately, I think, he knows that and will ajust his game.
Wes is easy to play around. If they make him a cb, the offside rule will be a support for his game, which it isn't in midfield. I'm a big fan of Dest so I want him to have a better midfielder to play with.
I hope that his teammates know that too and will adjust their game as well. I look forward to CP and Dest and Wes and Brooks on the field at the same time. And yes, I agree, Wes is no Ronaldo. He is also no Bradley or Trapp either.
This is red herring. And just to make it clear: Wes was the worst player on the team in this Canada game and was poor in the previous game as well.
The results is a bit more flattering than it should be. The way I see it, there were 2 reasons for the us winning this game. 1 - Canada did not show up. They look timid, scared, clumsy, and unorganized. It was not the same Canada team in Torronto. Herdman disappointed in this game. 2 - Bradley. Did you notice the speed? If 3G has any sense of soccer smart, he'll never call him up again. As soon as Bradley shows up on the pitch, this midfield is the weak point; he slows everything down and everyone has to cover for this deficiency. This was also apparent during the Sarachan era, without Bradley, the team looks fast and speedy.
LOL. One of the funniest things I've read on here. MB ... slowing down the offense for the past 3 years ... or more.
The game itself was quite MLS-ey. Both teams looked bad at passing in midfield, and the positioning was off, with two players often getting in each other's way, more so for Canada. The Good : In several sequences we were able to come out of the back playing, passing the ball quick enough not to put the keeper at risk. Dest looks like the real deal. The Bad : For the most part was a return to the usual, but since the region is weaker than ever, Arenaball can be enough to make it to Qatar this time. The Ugly : It's been several games under Berhalter where our "Europeans" look, for the most part, uncoordinated with the rest and rather ineffective. McKennie was hiding from the ball when the other were trying to move forward, and Brooks was lucky not to carded, although his second half was better. Stock Up : Dest, Morris, Zardes, Yueill, Lletget. Stock Holds : Ream (good first half, not so good second), Long, Guzan, Brooks, Yedlin. Stock Down : McKennie, Arriola, Morales, Boyd. I'm not sure I want to give Fredo another shot. I don't understand why Tyler is still there, we've seen enough of him already.
The players showed some pride and the Canadians were naive. Berhalter put out a lineup that at least cared. He still needs to go right away, but I am reassured that the skeleton crew that took the field had the stones and the skill to smack down any thought that our Northern neighbors can challenge us.
I haven’t seen this mentioned really, but the tactical shift was not because Gregg listened to BigSoccer...it was because the early goal threw Canada’s game plan out the window. No longer did the US have to keep possession, the could just wait for Canada to make a mistake.
We can sort out the roles in defense, and even midfield, and create a strong core that could take us through the hex, but we desperately need strikers. Morris is a much improved player and it is hard to hate Zardes, who leaves it all on the field, but is not good enough. Sargent is not ready and may never be. We need pure scorers! Dempsey is the closest we have had to that. Something about the way our system works seems to discourage the selfish, glory-seeking mentality that a true striker needs. If you don't shoot, you don't score.
We'll just have to agree to disagree here. No more back and forth on this from me. That should be reserved for a Wes thread, not a post game thread. Go Nats! On to Cuba. Given our first Canada game, that's not a game we should take for granted....
Clint Mathis was maybe the only US striker who had that real F**ck you attitude and crazy quickness to shoot at will. We don't have players who grow up with the street game.