Venezuela beat Argentina 3-1 in Madrid playing a little person as their playmaker. Kid you not. Messi looked huge by his side. Guess not all the world is obsessed with physicality.
No, but a club can “theoretically” leave instructions to a player to only play a game and return to club. By the way, any word on McKennie?
Since it's a work in progress, I still give GGG the benefit of the doubt and needs time (year or so) to fully evaluate and align his system to the player pool. This was a good game for most home games against CONCACAF Teams who will bunker and counterattack against us. The good news is that the team continued to show an understanding of GGG system (Note: There were problems as many of you noted) with a new set of players. I was really pleased with Long, Adams (in a new position), and to a less extent Trapp. While I agree with the comments on Morris, I would give him time. He just started playing the same position with Seattle. It's a work in progress. Not sure it's going to work, but it's work giving a shot. McKennie was disappointing and did something stupid to get hurt. Sure, it's a new system, but some of the mistakes where of skill. Hopefully, he recovers and it was a blip. Please - No more Ream. I was fine with Zardes because I don't have a better answer up top at the moment. I was glad he took the shot and the GK was too slow to react. Looking forward to Chile. Should pose more of a challenge.
Sorry but you don’t get to read my posts saying something, then decide for me that I meant something different. You can honestly ******** off with that. I presented a valid argument. You even gave me a valid argument back in this post. But you couldn’t help telling me what I think/feel. Pathetic. Plus you even admit that you had YOUR OWN criticisms for the program. But I’m not allowed to because you’ll decide what my criticism ACTUALLY means. Is that the way we are going to do it? Why did you think we would beat Ecuador 5-0? I know you didn’t say that but you did say it “shorthand”
With all of these injuries/recalls I wonder if GGG will change the system at all? Or more of the same with different personnel? Either way I hope Chile puts out a strong team to test the guys. I really wanted to see more of Weston... who is confirmed out for Chile? McKennie and Adams seem certain. Are Trapp and Pulisic out too for sure?
Adams now in Germany, WM out, Trapp probably out anyways (the march towards MB's cap record), who knows on CP. This next game will be even more worthless than Ecuador, if for no other reason than Captain Lion will be roaming in the middle of the park.
Pretty big bummer. If we are going to stick with the system the players need reps, that much is obvious. Looks like we will have a large portion of our starters going into the GC with <90minutes experience playing in the new system.
The funny thing is City don’t play with a 6 that’s a distributor. They play with a ST, 2 Wingers and 2 10s that can also operate wide that are protected by the iron lunged 6. They don’t use a regista. Sometimes they’ll play Gundogan or De Bruyne there but it’s more out of necessity because Fernandinho can’t play every game. Player that’s closest to Fernandinho skillset is actually Adams. Go figure.
He buried the flubbed Zardes shot and was questionably called offsides. He had a couple other shots on goal and was pretty lively.
Bradley was awarded the Tidy Cat clean-up "sub of the match" award which augurs well for the Chile match in case Trapp can't go.
Been busy today. I was distracted and didnt want to give my thoughts until I re-watched. I am all for a possession oriented system, but think the player selection is way off. I didnt think Ecuador played us tough. I saw lots of positives, but struggled in the attacking third as American teams always have. This is the puzzle that we ultimately need to solve. Trapp had a game of a lifetime (so far), but wasnt pressured so still skeptical. Feather in the cap for both Berhalter (minus the silly player selection) and Trapp.
What do you mean by "player selection"? Are you talking about the roster or whom he chose from the roster or the positions people played?
Comparing the atmosphere of the Bundesliga in 1999-2001 to today is like comparing bananas and eggplants. You either understand that, or you don’t. And LD, at 20, was abusing some of the best defenses in the world on the biggest stage possible. CP likely wouldn’t even make the roster of that 2002 squad.
Bolillo also notes that it was not that Ecuador didn't want to attack, but that the USA came out pressing fast. That's something I noticed and I liked a lot: we didn't leave them time to step on the ball and do the "pausa." All in all, beating Ecuador is not a bad result.
Check the Ajax rosters that O'Brien started on. He would not be on the bench. I disagree that Reyna couldn't at least make that bench. Pope is a tough call, because he didn't test himself in Europe. Still, are BvB's centerbacks all that? Pope played very well against international competition.
What you don't understand is that LD couldn't break through at Leverkeusen when he was Pulisic's age. Yes, circumstances were difference, the Bundesliga was different BUT not any more competitive when it came to winning playing time. I'm not interested in rehashing Donovan's career. It's pretty clear you think he was the greatest thing to come down the pike since the Edsel. He was a very good player. He NEVER competed FULL-TIME in a top European league. That doesn't mean he didn't have the quality to do so. His storied career led him to other highlights. As far as "abusing some of the best defenses in the world....' that might remind you of Pulisic's great first swing through the Bundesliga when he was the talk of the soccer world. There is a difference between facing an international opponent one time and playing regularly against the same league teams. I believe you will find Donovan's productivity was less abusive in the later circumstance than in the one-off international games. He did always find a way to impact a game. That says a lot about his quality.
After thinking about a bit more actually things were really good. This camp has only been together two days. We showed extraordinary cohesion for that short amount of period. All told, we have won three in a row, kept three clean sheets. At the very least this tells us that Berhalter is imparting instructions well.
And Costa Rica just lost to Guatemala. The real one, with Navas and all, not the B team that played us.