Michael Bradley letting Falcao run right past him.. 🐸☕️ https://t.co/fbUoBVmcQn— DMV Soccer (@DMVSoccer96) October 12, 2018 Welcome back, Captain Bradley. One year later, not much has changed in terms of performance or results.
No creativity and no possession, but thats not anything new. This is the back line many fans think will be our best back line this cycle, and they got ripped apart by Colombia. Might be time to rethink that.
Apparently all of South America knows we have no real left back. And thx MB, hope you enjoyed watching the game. We didn't get a cross in until 60'. I could be wrong, just seemed like that. That was one of those games where we looked like an Eastern European in the NBA. Way too mechanical as opposed to those guys that were playing school yard and fast breaking all around us. Very pissed. But BW scored and Dave used more than 2 subs, so we is progressing.
MB's postmatch comments really rubbed me the wrong way. Don't piss on the fans and tell them it's raining.
Why? Colombia rips almost everyone apart AND we played an MLS lifer, a guy coming off a down 18 months, Michael Freaking Bradley and "Not too bad" Green centrally. They had ZERO support. Sure they didn't cover themselves in glory, but when you're playing one of the best teams in the world AND you're playing a midfield that bereft of talented possession oriented players you're going to get shelled. If anything bothered me, it was taking off the few technical players we had THEN inserting the young kids trying to make an impression. You can't throw on Sargent and Nova with a bunch of scrubs and expect anything at all. That was super frustrating. If our top mids and Pulisic are healthy in November, then we'll see how that defense works. With these guys in place it's kind of ridiculous to expect the defense to shine like stars against a team like Colombia. When the lineup came out many, including me, were laughing. It was farcical. The fact that we scored two goals with that lineup, and beautiful goals at that, and that Colombia needed some absolutely glorious finishes to score half of those 4 goals is something worth mentioning. Colombia was fantastic, and we were a mess, but all in all, how are you gonna judge a backline at fault when they've got a midfield, forward 6 that has like two guys that can actually hold onto the ball for more than 3 seconds.
I'm beginning to worry that Robinson is a younger, faster Castillo--consistently dangerous going forward and consistently sucked out of position on defense. He needs to have that stint with coaches like Big Sam and Benitez that Yedlin had to make him sort out how to defend. He's still young, doesn't have much competition at the position, and has faced some pretty good Brazilian and Colombian players, so I'm not giving up on him yet, but still...
Weah is a carbon copy of young DMB. Fast, intelligent, confident. We need forget everything and start Weah, Sargent every single game. Wood and Altidore aren't getting better. Miazga, Brooks isn't a good pair. The rest of field players except for Yedlin are no more than temporary plugs. We still have no LBs. Hopefully CP, Wes, Adams and Amon can take all midfield positions. Trapp isn't good a good defender, but he is way better than MB.
Basically a bunch of nonplussed "it's a learning experience, we have to stay positive, blah blah blah..."
Something like that. I, too, wonder what the hell this program thinks it's going to do about its future. This could be a valuable crucible/test/team-building experience. Instead it's an expensive scrimmage against one of the more dynamic attacking sides in the world. It's been a year, people...
I have to attribute the CB's looking lost because the LB was never there and the 6 was directing traffic or giving anyone in front of him 10 yards and a free pass to turn and distribute. Rodriguez had more of an escort than pressure. Perhaps it was naive coaching trying to have the LB going forward immediately. without feeling the game a little. Maybe it was bad coaching that led to the LB doing what he did.
Colombia's so good that they haven't performed anywhere close to well in either of the two major tournaments they play. They are ranked 16 in the world. They are a good team, but they are not among the top teams in the world. We should not think its good to give up four goals to Colombia. The problem is that almost the whole team is scrubs. There are problems all around the field. This team is years off of being able to compete on a consistent basis with top teams, regardless of any improvement in talent we have at the younger age groups. Also, the two goals we scored are not because we played good attacking football against Colombia. This team does not possess attacking creativity, the ability to keep possession or goal scorers.
Brazil, Ireland, etc. should already have done it but hopefully this game punctures any Sarachan/roster complacency. Obviously a lot more work to do on tactics, selection, the defense is a mess. How crazy do you have to be to say stop at Miazga Brooks after we lose 4-2? I am sure people will point at Robinson and he deserves it. But everyone on that line sucked. And Robinson was at least getting assists. People on a basic level do not understand why this team sucks. This team sucks because it ships 2 goals to pretty much everyone, TnT, CR, Brazil, Ireland, on and on. You cannot do that and expect to win much.
Total lack of leadership. From Cordiero to Stewart to Sarachan inexplicably still being around to Bradley giving a terrible effort. Why would anyone care about this side right now?
#1: Perhaps I didn't couch it perfectly. Once you're done listing France, Germany, Belgium, and Brazil, but that next tier? They absolutely belong there and are one of the better sides in it. If you think they're about 16th, I don't know what to tell you, I'd slot them in somewhere in that 6th-10th area, then add in that they have several wonderful attacking players, and you have a total recipe for disaster. #2 Nobody thinks it's good to give up 4 goals but context is kinda relevant, don't you think? #3 If you don't think those goals we scored we're beautiful goals, I'm not sure what to tell you. I agree we didn't play technical, creative, beautiful soccer. We did score two beautiful goals, though, inspite of the lack of creativity on the field (for the most part).
People like to talk about Copa America but we didn't beat a team there save CR that went to Russia. That we have a few of these kind of games now should be puncturing any easy balloons on how this is just put some obvious set of players out there and it will take care of itself. The XI save Steffen or Pulisic is not obvious at all. What style this team should play is not obvious. I couldn't even say who should be in the pool because we aren't rotating enough bodies in to get playing time beyond the consensus candidates. Until the second half I didn't see what the idea was on how to create chances. We were literally that thrown together. I have little faith in the defensive coaching they are getting because Robinson is still not correctly closing down a crosser, but is also being run back out. And Miazga and Brooks are not tight to their men. They need to get a good coach in quick because this doesn't look organized and the selection is a foot dragging homage to the last cycle. I feel like this is going backwards, not forwards.
the team only gave up 6 goals in the last 8 matches before this one....less than a goal a game is pretty damn good..... none of the defenders covered themselves in glory in this match but the defensive problem in this colombia match started in the midfield, imo. there was no steel in the middle of the formation ...and it made all the difference....plus, robinson was getting torched....colombia attacked him all night and it worked.
I don't get why we depose the president and interpose a GM and then start bringing back the players. The org chart BS should be way behind player churn in terms of methods to turn around a losing program. This team is starting to look more and more like the end of last cycle with a sprinkling of new obvious people like Weah. Last cycle didn't work. You change everything but the core players. WTF is happening here.
people need to chill on the Saief-bashing, imo.... for one, he's only started 1 match with his club this season, iirc.... plus, he obviously has no chemistry with his teammates and has never played before with most of them.... I like his energy and approach and think in his case the confusion and missteps are more about group dynamics and cohesion than his inability to play the position well.... with the right coach and instruction and setup...he will play much better.