Pre-match: USA vs Bosnia-Herzegovina; January 28th, 2018

... in his own net

 

It’s so fun to pile on!

So since we are at peak negativity and hate all things unless we can make fun of them, I’m looking forward to this match to see players who step into the opportunity. Because if the opportunity has ever been there, it’s there right now tonight.

And sit back with your beer of choice and enjoy this one, knowing that the country you live in, no matter it’s current state, affords you the luxury of the degree of passion you can afford to feel cool about. I’ll watch this game twice, like every other.

 

We need some more hype videos like this one

 

I completely forgot this game existed.

 

Zardes bashing already checked off the list. Hold for:

- No wonder Gonzalez switched.
- Remember that time Michael Bradley jogged to take a corner kick?
- Nice one Morris, go play with your dog.
- These players don't deserve to poop in the same toilet as Pulisic
- MLS, grrr, MLS
- Put in Adu (dibs on this one).
- Chandler would've owned this game
- I was going to watch the World Cup with my baby/grandma/college roommate/imaginary friend/Freddy Adu but Arena robbed me of the opportunity.

 

Love the little video of Roland and gang trying to do a juggle circle and struggling.

 

USA will have to stay home for the WC...still hurting...

 

So what's the point of these friendlies? Looking for new Donovans, Dempseys or recycle the old ones?

 

Are you people seriously that down right now? It's a new cycle dammit!

 

Lima
Lennon
Ramirez
Glad
STEFFEN
Maybe Rubin

 

Not really. you guys can keep saying it over and over but it is not true. The next cycle will not start until after the WC and we have a real coach.

 

It started when we failed to qualify for Russia.

 

Juggling has very little to do with the sport of football, and I've always said that. How often do you juggle the ball stationary more than twice at one time in a game? It's a very rare occasion, so I don't see what the point in practicing it is. The average player spends 10 times as long on juggling as they should. They would be better players if they worked on anything else.

 

Not a hater, but very much a realist. Whistling past the graveyard aint my thing. Tough road ahead and I will watch the game whether later on the DVR or live. Zero expectations helps prevent any more disappointment.

 

Glad some of these guys will get a run-out but there's not much to be learned when you're playing against a group of 3rd string Bosnian All-Stars

 

It took 4 years worth of material to make that video, unfortunately, we are only a few months out and the Portugal Friendly.

I’m more interested now than I thought I would be, but FS1 commercial today selling the game on Arriola, Morris and Zardes didn’t do anything to help it. The only thing that could see anyone buying is the hope for the next generation, but there is very little in this camp that will be part of that. I’ve seen line ups that include 30 yo Morrow, 29 yo Sapong, 28 yo Opara, 27 yo Hamid, 26 yo Zardes, Rowe & Ramirez, 25 yo Trapp & Agudelo. We are just under 5 years from Qatar which means those 9 players who have yet to show they would be an upgrade to last cycles players* will be 30+.

Players I’m interested in seeing... Steffen, Adams, Canouse, and Ramirez (* the one player that was ignored in 2018)

 

Nah... right now we're in Purgatory. One long grey bleakness "perfumed" by the stench of failure, regret, and despair. The cycle won't start until we take that first step onto the stairway to Heaven and can see glimmers of the distant light... and that can't happen until we know who will be our pilot on that climb.....
..... At least we ain't in Hell, like those poor bastards from the early 50's to the mid 80's.

 

We'll learn if they're better than 3rd string Bosnian All-Stars... which is not a given.

 

Hopefully this is one of the games that the future US coach will look into and evaluate and choose players or ignore...

 

Most fans are acting like Stan when he got his heart broken and became goth.

 

They did lose at Guatemala and T&T. Struggled v. Haiti, El Salvador, and Martinique. So I think something can be gleaned. The bigger issue is that we're not playing two Bosnian 3rd teams to provide a better sample than 1 game in which anything can happen.

 

Like I said, "keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better."

That doesn't change the reality that we have no coach and no meaningful games for some period of time. If it makes you feel better to do some mental calisthenics to imply this game has something to do with qualifying, carry on.

I will watch the game, but I am under no illusions about the value of this game/camp. It mostly serves to supplement the unfair MLS wage and maybe give a couple of extremely marginal players a look for the future.

It certainly has ********all to do with qualfying for 2022. I mean we don't even have a coach yet, so those players really aren't playing for a spot on the next WC. Different coaches rate players differently unless of course you are saying we are going to have another ML$ lackey for a coach. If that is the case then they can all kiss my arse. I will be done. I cannot abide croneyism. Even if i was so disposed I have seen where that leads to a couple of fans having a discussion about a meaningless game for a camp that ought not even be, and wouldn't be if ML$ paid the players fair wages.

Like I said I will watch the game tonight, but without any real emotional attachment. I will decide on my level of emotional investment when they decide what they are going to do going forward.

FTR this makes me no more or less a fan than anybody else. I am simply questioning whether I want to continue to support this cluster********. If they elect the SUM president (and laud their progressive credentials for hiring a woman) then you won't have to question my fanhood. I will no longer be a fan, and I will root against them until that person is discharged from their responsibilities, and the inbred three headed mutant that is MLS SUM and USSF are separated.

 

Every single game between now and the fall is like an extended wake. I cannot imagine a more pointless exercise that friendlies ahead of a WC we aren’t at.

 

For you, as a TV watcher on your couch. For the players, its very important to get a crack at the USA team, even in a friendly.