That's another good point: if Brooks get injured, CCV is starting to look like a decent cover for him. Imagine how good we'd have looked had they got another red!
I just do not believe it's Wes though. He hasn't looked immaculate at Schalke, but he needs a defined role. There was zero instruction at CM to start the game. Dang I've been away from YA with some personal stuff going on. Thanks letting me know!
I don't think WT90 has done anything to earn callups against good competition. Tonight, against a very experimental side, he was one of the worst players on the pitch. Moore and Lichaj were also top-3 terrible.
Many of them just went to yell and scream. They don't care to understand roles and tactics. Trapp isn't one of the predesignated call ups that they accept. Therefore, they dislike what he brings without even understanding it. It only reflects poorly on them. They sound like toddlers who don't get their way. Trapp is not effective with the type of approach we used in the first half. I think anyone who has watched his game in MLS would be able to realize that. He plays a certain type of role in a certain type of formation. He's a useful player, if you want to play a game with a deep-lying playmaker. He's a big help to our possession game, and building out of the back in that role. If you want to play this pressing approach, you might as well just sit him on the bench. Also, the pressing approach was a complete disaster for the whole team. Trapp was not the only player who looked out of sorts. It was all of them, but some of them are immune from criticism. Trapp is one of those who aren't.
This is the truest thing you have ever written. People dismiss how young these guys are, that we are expecting to lean on. Honestly, it probably won't be until 2020 before they have enough chops to go out there and perform at a level that we are good with.
If the World Cup was today, Full 23: Steffen Miazga Brooks Carter-Vickers Yedlin Robinson Adams McKennie Pulisic Weah Altidore 5-2-1-2 Bench: Guzan, Hamid, Palmer-Brown, Parker, Lichaj, Moore, Sargent, Green, Acosta, Zardes, Delgado, Lletget
All I have heard since we got eliminated was how good our next generation is.... You would hope they are not all defensive mids.
Good stuff. Green changed the game. Much better with only 1 of McK or Adams. I wish that were not the case. Both are promising players. But we need more possession. You forget how smart Ardes is. Weah is smooth but would like to see him up top. Steffen has made me forget goalkeeping worries. The new CBs are a strength.
To add to this, I will say this was my #1 complaint with Kellyn Acosta, when he was getting all those minutes at dmid. He just got pushed around too much at that position.
If we're going with a 3 man central midfield, then it should be ------McKennie-------Adams-------- -----------------Pulisic-------------------- ----Weah----------------------find an attacker--- ------------------Jozy--------------------- If we need a destroyer -----------------Acosta----------------- -----------Adams-----Pulisic-------- ------------------see above for 3 man attack If it's a 2 person swing mid -----------Adams------McKennie-------- --Pulisic--------------------------------Green--- ------------------Jozy------Weah---------------
Sorry folks I know many people enjoyed this but I think Miazga acted like a jackass. This is the first time I've seen #18 from Mexico. And, he was the most interesting player on the pitch tonight; leaving behind The USMNT defense 90% of the time he had the ball. Miazga shenanigans are more a sign of a frustrated player embarrassed by the superior level of an 18 year old kid than a display of superiority. Miazga brought his gym membership and height, #18 brought superior skills. Now let's talk about this god awful bring game instead of silly antics...
Trapp isn't international quality. Being tidy on the ball only is not something that will be great to a US team. See Gringo Torres. He's fine to have in the pool but he can't be regularly starting for us.
Put an attacking modfielder anywhere near them, preferably in front of them and then see how they do. In a lot of ways this is a throw back to the beginning of the klinsmann era. Flood the midfield with dmids and b2bmids and no creative mids. Complain about a lack of creativity and attacking intent.
I mean I realize we don't have Pulisic out there - but there's not a single cenytral attacking midfielfer with a bit of creativity among the 320M+ Americans we could have played there?
I thought he's shown a bit better defensively in the past few months. You can play McKennie there as well.
Trapp got better, but don't think he is good enough. Acosta as a wide player is a failed experiment and maybe even Acosta as a regular full team call up IMO. I haven't been all that impressed with Adams, but he got a goal and if he gets some playing time at a high level he could still improve. Zardes, probably has a place in the team. He is not a footballer by any stretch, but good things happen when he is around the box. That Antonee, man what a cross that guy has, if he can learn to play defense he will be hella good. Miazga is now LEGEND in my book. Never rated him much, but he has grown leaps and bounds since he left MLS. Green, maybe flatters to deceive, but is a better wide player than Acosta or Zardes and maybe even Weah, although Weah probably has more upside. I don't think Weah is much of a defender, and needs to play forward IMO. I have a hard time working Green into my line-up playing central if a healthy Pulisic is available. Backline looks solid and CCV should have a role. Keeper looked pretty good to me.
Steffen - does he not know that the only way the us was going to score was if mexico was either out of position or defending a setpiece??? his lethargy on distributing the ball was mindboggling. easily fixable, though....i assume. Lichaj - I like his attitude but dont think he fits on the left. Moore - still green but has potential. i like his attitude and approach to the game but wouldnt include him on an official roster at the moment. CCV & Miazga - good defensively. CCV is underrated defensively, imo. MM - dont like the scuffle he caused - was out of line...but it was the catalyst for the win in a weird way - I do like his competitiveness for sure. Trapp - putrid first half, decent second. his positioning and movement off the ball were really bad, imo. the whole team struggled with showing for the ball and moving together to create passing outlets for each other, especially in the first half...but i thought trapp was especially bad at this in first half ...way too timid. it was weird how he was closest to the forwards on defense in the 1st but then was so passive when the team had the ball...must have been confused by the coaching instructions. but he did better in the second....i dont think it is a coincidence that the team came to life when an attacker replaced one of the 3 dmids. i also didnt like how he seemed to want to kill off the 1-0 lead and got super passive after the goal while the rest of the team wanted to go for a second, probably from DS. Green - he really needs to work on his final ball and not wasting opportunities. i think he has it in him...but at the moment it is a big weakness. if he can improve this he will be back in the big 4 leagues, imo. overall, really like his style of play and approach in this game...just want that final ball to be there and it wasnt. AT ALL. Strategy - the commentators touched on it at halftime - showing for the ball was horrible for the team in the first half. too deliberate. team was only moving for the ball after they should have already been there. still need to realize that when you have an athletic team with speed USE IT. they let mexico get back and setup on defense every time....then they often backpassed and killed chances to break - makes no sense. i'm assuming a real coach will fix this. Sarachan's comments about possessing at halftime were way off mark - it is the kind of possession that matters - its not being cleaner on the ball it is moving on and off the ball TOGETHER to create shots/goals/chances/etc. said it before, say it again, too many dmids...only need 1 (if that) not 4!! McKennie - hasnt looked good last 2 games - i think he and adams and trapp are redundant. he's clearly good enough for this level but the team needs not 3/4 dmids. i think he would look way better if there were less players that overlapped with his skillset on the field with him. richie williams - his fingerprints are all over the worst parts of these last few games. i hated how he submarined those youth squads and im seeing a lot of the same BS in this team that he did. how the hell s this dude so high up in USSOCCER????? playing dmids at winger. playing cms at winger. playing 4 dmids at once (hmmm he was dmid too, once? wonder if that is a coincidence??) playing players out of position
Miazga trolled a little, boo hoo. Mexico lost their heads and in short order got a red card. Mission accomplished, I say. All the better, I see Miazga knows some Spanish swear words. Maybe if he points out how tall he is compared to most of that team, their fans will stop screaming "********!" every game. Llanez was good, though his best moment was against Trapp, arguably the worst defensive 1 v 1 defender on the roster. And Llanez was looking for calls all night against the bigger, stronger Miazga. The first time, he got a soft foul called (that FK that Mexico sent into row Z), but after that, Miazga handled him well, including the moment that set off the trolling. I'm guessing Miazga had had enough and was looking to scrap. Lord knows that snoozefest was made all the livelier for it. Nobody was really hurt, no punching, just some chest beating, nothing wrong here.
The big winner is whoever captures that Miazga moment in a gif. Wonder if Onyewu was watching tonight