But But But Klinsmann!..... Great decision to take 5 steps back and hire Bruce Arena. CRC has a population of approx 4.5 mil. Lets say they have over 30,000 professional soccer players. When CRC wins against us on our home soil something is wrong. BTW... watch Mexico "surprisingly lose" to Panama tonight.
That was like the opposite of Arena's mantra of first touch, first pass, first score. At 0-0, the team played like they were 3-0 up; at 0-1 down, they played like they were tied; and finally at 0-2 down the team had some urgency. The team's passing was atrocious, and that may have been the worst center back passing I've ever seen. Arena gets a 1 out of 10. 7+ points in the last 3 matches is the only way to make up for this now. When you're getting beat, you've got to keep you're composure. The team is very fortunate that Dempsey didn't get himself suspended too, along with Altidore. Credit to Costa Rica for imposing their game plan.
Nobody got the heart to open the thread yet? Okay, I'll start: Is it too late to get Klinsmann back? Only partly joking. But, seriously, I did not see any (positive) difference in that game tonight
He would have been just as trash/indifferent as Wood, Johnson, Ream and Cameron. All magic Euro players who play in magical Europe where you are automatically better by virtue of Europe.
And why the F was Dempsey not starting. It's like Altidore has damaging pictures of Arena and is blackmailing Arena to keep starting him.
We're a pretty average team. We've been beating up on tomato cans. The first time we played a good team at near full strength, we got beat. We can still do it. EDIT: Well, OK, second time.
Pitiful effort across the board! From the stadium situation to the poor effort on the field. These guys deserved to be booed off the pitch tonight, and if there weren't so many Tico fans in attendance, they might actually have been.
Can wood and dempsey not play alongside? I don't know what Arena see's in Altidore. Only positive I saw from him was holding the ball up.
Awful performance. Awful tactics. Awful stadium selection. Awful crowd. Costa Rica is better than us. Point blank.
Altidore and Dempsey work really well together. Altidore, Dempsey and Pulisic hung 6 on Honduras in March.
Complete trash. Howard has to go. Cameron can be RB or stay in England. Ream has 4 nice plays then a brick. No thanks. Nagbe cannot play in the middle. Altidore has to shoot or sit. Awful. Johnson does not care even a little. Why play him. Bruce, your hubris just killed the us. Grow the f up. Just an absolute nadir.
At the minimum, whoever selected Red Bull Arena really made a bad mistake. It may as well have been an away game for the US.
Felt like a Klinsmann game. Howard blew it on that first goal, his distribution was miserable, and his #1 spot should be in question. Starting Ream was the wrong choice, but Cameron had maybe his worst game in a US shirt. Villafana was totally ineffective. Zusi was fine. Pulisic was bad, Johnson was worse. Nagbe had a typical Nagbe performance. Bradley was mediocre. Altidore had a chance and blew it, and that yellow was moronic. Wood was completely useless and should have been the first player off. Arena did a horrible job with the lineup and the tactics, and the subs were too late. Dempsey should have been sent off. Morris didn't have enough time to do anything, and Arriola was a panic sub. Overall: 2/10 EDIT: Costa Rica wasn't even that good, but they took their chances when they came, and we did not. EDIT 2: God, that ref was bad. Not in any particular direction, he was just awful in all contexts.
I'm not sure what your point is, I don't see anyone arguing Europe is some Harry Potter movie full of magic and wizards, but I'd suggest I've never seen the contingent of our better Euro players play so poorly at the same time. That's coaching. The setup was horrendous. Pulisic, Wood, Fabian, Cameron are not nearly as poor as they showed today. Jozy and Nagbe weren't good either. This isn't MLS v Europe. This is a team which looked terrible as a whole today.
#1 - Arena is at fault for pairing Cameron and Ream, two guys who had never played together before. #2 - The offense is about as good it it's going to be against a team of Costa Rica's quality that consistently put 8-9 men behind the ball. We had some good balls over the top, which is the only way you're going to get the ball past that many defenders. #3 - DON"T PANIC !!!! The rest of the schedule sets up fine for us to still finish third, as long as we win our home game against Panama and away to T&T, which we should. That would leave us on 14-15 points, depending how we do on Tuesday in Honduras. Honduras finishes up @ Mexico and home against Costa Rica. Even if they hold on to win @ T&T today and beat us on Tuesday to move up to 11 points, they would still have to get four points from those last two games to avoid finishing behind us on GD. Panama finished up @ USA and home to Mexico. Presuming they lose at Mexico tonight and win at home to T&T on Tuesday, that leaves them on 10 points. As long as we win our last two games they cannot finish ahead of us.