Well, that's 2 hours of my life I will never get back. The drop down in quality of the entire midfield from our starters, resulted in an absolutely hamstrung offense. Neither the left-wing nor the left fullback could make a cross to save his life. Why is Omar here? He's pretty much the only guy that gave up a chance. Ironically, we have an experienced play-by-play guy and 4 US internationals in the broadcast crew, and it's the English gal that comes closest to calling rubbish, rubbish. There is clearly an agenda here... Yeah I know, 11 changes, but it doesn't say much for our depth to throw that performance out there.
The first part he was speaking the truth. The second, he tried to stay out of trouble because he said something he shouldn't have. He's going to receive a call from the Federation in the morning.
That was one of the ugliest matches the US has ever won. That kind of performance gets you clobbered almost anywhere but in CONCACAF. We should strive to be a lot better than this and not accept poor play even if it wins. We cannot be this bad and respect ourselves.
When we failed to qualify for a World Cup. The young talent is great, but the players that are supposed to be in their prime are as bad as they've been in a long time.
We got the job done. [x] Rotated lineup [x] No goals conceded [x] No injuries [x] No yellow cards [x] Possessed much of the ball [x] Bonus: Scored 1 goal Berhalter and his team have managed this tournament perfectly. Now to win against Curacao with as little effort as possible, as the semi-final is only 2 days later.
This MLS level talent is just difficult to watch. I can't think of a single player that needs to start from this lot. Forward is the only position we are inept at producing that Altidore and Zardes are allowed to see the field.
Morris Did you just start watching this year? That’s not even in the top 25 of ugliest matches we’ve ever won.
No! Whatever you were doing, short of root canal, was better spent, and root canal would be about dead even.
I agreed with Landon about the fact that Jozy might’ve scored more in the first two games. He is still better than Zardes. This game showed how wide of a gap there is between McKinnie, Boyd, Pulisic, Bradley, and Arriola on one side and Roldan, Trapp, Mihailovic, Lewis, and Morris in terms of offensive creativity, passing, and touch. I think if Altidore has that behind him he would have buried a few.
I think it’s likely because he see Brooks as first choice LCB. And Long who’s first choice RCB as second choice LCB. So he wants to see Miazga who will battle for RCB there. Pure 100% speculation but it’s the only thing I can think of.
Thanks for saving me the time of typing out my analysis. You didn’t put a foot wrong here. I’m still nodding.
Everything I saw today reinforced my views on player quality -- we don't have a full XI yet and most of the backups are a substantial dropoff from the starters. I'm not sure how much farther Roldan's stock can drop, but not winning a single duel in the midfield (or that's what it felt like) is a good effort to do so. When so much of your buildup involves DM, Roldan and Johnathon Lewis, I'm not sure you can evaluate much. Despite that, we had some good chances and mostly kept Panama B from doing anything. Right coaching choice, I think. But not nearly as interesting as watching the A squad gain cohesion. I wonder if we will get the full A squad against Curacao or whether he will press his luck?
Oddly enough, I have been suffering from a toothache all day. And I will be seeing a dentist on Friday for treatment and a possible root canal, during the USWNT game. Are you spying on my thoughts?
We were very lucky today that the referee was incompetent. Omar could have easily had a red card for an elbow early in the match and later, I think it was Trapp, came in studs up into the knee of a Panama player that absolutely was a red almost anywhere else except CONCACAF and even here it is a red a lot of the time. We do not need to play dirty to win but we choose to because we are poorly trained and poorly coached and a lot of our players come from leagues like the MLS where thuggery is actually rewarded.
On Roldan- when he first suited up for the USMNT I thought he had the potential to develop into a reliable 2nd choice MF. It seems now that with every passing game he has struggled more. Tonight might have been his nadir. He has no quickness, lacks strength and is not technically dynamic enough to make up for his shortcomings.
The Good : We finished with ZERO goals against. Not since 2007 we manage that at the group stage. Yes, the field was expanded and the quality dropped a bit, but still it's a good thing. This game, Morris looked useful in the first half, after starting. That's rare from him in the NT. The Bad : Jozy scored a slow bicycle kick, but otherwise wasted several chances. That our #1 striker is between him and Zardes is worrisome, as is the fact that our #5 CB seems to be Gonzo. Mihailovic is not international quality, and Roldan may barely be. The Ugly : Even though we finished with 9 points and +11 GD, no goals conceded, we're still a hard to watch team. It requires dedication not to doze off. It's a practical style of soccer, following the book, relying on speed and strength, with far too many bad passes. Today there was no sequence like the one leading to the 2-0 against Trinidad. We did just enough, keeping our cards close to our chest. So has done Panama.
I’m happy Jozy was able to shake more rust off and get his goal. I’m surprised that Pulisic and Boyd didn’t create more in the limited time. But, we were in game management mode. Always love clean sheets. Still need decide who is going to lead in central midfield.
Of course. I am in the NSA and I use all the latest techniques. Bet you did not know that we can watch you by reversing the screen of your TV. That is it sends back to us at the same time you are watching. Even turning it off does not stop the reverse feed. You better stop what you are doing, NOW or we will post it to YouTube.
For all the complaints about Fox cheerleading, El Presidente bringing some brutal honesty to the postgame show.