USMNT: The Berhalter Era pt. 1/ World Cup 2022 /Controversy

I agree with your second point but not with the first.

Berhalter is not installing some wildly sophisticated, arcane, bizarro system of his own invention, the secrets of which only he can impart over months and years of daily training.

Instead, he's employing well-known tactics and strategy which any reasonably competent professional soccer player is, or ought to be, familiar with. Sure he has his wrinkles, every coach does, and yes, any decent coach alters the plan based on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the available personnel, but the bottom line is that Berhalter ain't reinventing the wheel here.

Unfortunately, as noted by others, everyone also knows how to counter his favored method of attack, and Berhalter has failed to figure out how to respond. I said to my wife as we were watching this last game that I felt a sense of deja vu; that team played identically to his Crew teams. Put yellow shirts on them and you wouldn't know the difference.

The problem with Berhalter is that he's a one trick pony and everybody knows the trick. Except, according to some people, the guys who are supposed to be executing it.

I do agree 100% about these stupid FIFA money games. They serve no purpose whatsoever, they get guys injured (like Morales, who will be out for weeks for no good reason) and then we have to hear Berhalter whining about how MLS teams are "impinging" on his apparently God-given rights. It's ridiculous.

Berhalter will never win anything in this job.

 

Not sure where this should go, but reports out of Haiti indicate that Curacao's other keeper, Jarzinho Pieter, has died in his hotel room the day before the Curacao-Haiti match.

https://www.goal.com/en/news/curaca...pieter-dies-aged-31/4x3alxttv2wl1a0m1tnacg0sj

 

Are you kidding me, we couldn't find a soccer stadium in the US to play a friendly in. This is a joke......

 

BUT JOE GAETJENS PLAYED IN ST. LOUIS!!!!!!

 

He did?

I thought he played in NYC....

 

I dunno...I pulled a 1950 WC star out of my ass. Half of them were from St. Louis. Figured I had a decent shot.

 

He was from Haiti---Papa Doc killed him...

He was working in the us and going to school at Columbia and said he was "working on citizenship", which was enough at the time.

 

I knew the Haiti part.

 

Dest lol.

 

Isn't that ironic, St. Louis gets an MLS expansion team and suddenly the USMNT has a match there. Thank you SUM for providing the USMNT with a shit stadium, crappy pitch, dead supporters and hollow atmosphere, and an overall horrendous evening of international soccer. This was obviously in the works for months. Well done SUM.

 

I know I'm a little late to this, but listening to the ESPN FC podcast from after the USA-MEX match, it was hilarious to hear Alejandro Moreno make the exact same complaints about Berhalter's coaching that @LaMacchia and I used to make five years ago on the Massive Report Podcast.

 

Because it belongs here instead of the sheep thread:

I've seen a few folks mention that kid from Minnesota, Mason Toye or something like that. What are the odds he gets a callup in January?

And speaking of January, if MLS starts a few weeks earlier next season, does that have any effect on camp cupcake? Seems like it would give players far less time to integrate with their MLS teams when they head back to them.

 

I've watched a bit of Minnesota this year and would love to see a call up for Toye. The kid has some raw talent that I think our national team is truly lacking.

As for the start of next season, I wonder how both of those affect those teams in the CCL as well.

 

I would imagine this topic has been brought up, but we were discussing the topic this morning on the way to Markus’ soccer game.

Is Berhalter the least accomplished USMNT coach (prior to appointment) in modern times? I have times where I am still in disbelief he was elevated to this position.

 

I'd rank Sampson much lower. He'd never been a professional head coach before being handed the USMNT job.

 

Wasn’t Sampson like an interim coach before that ridiculous Copa America run and then he got the job full time.

Though Sampson had no professional head coach experience, he worked his way up through the US Soccer ranks, was an assistant, and had a few impressive international results before being fully given the keys.

Gregg Berhalter was fired from a Norwegian club for his style of play being too boring, spent 5 years in Columbus without winning a single trophy, and was handed the keys to the car by his brother after the USSF declined to interview any other candidate.

Neither Sampson or Berhalter had near the credentials one would expect of US Soccer’s highest position. And it goes to show just how far our federation has to go, at least on the men’s side.

 

Thanks. I was too busy to look up Sampson (mister I screwed Harkes because Harkes screwed Wynalda’s wife)’s credentials.

 

Sampson was assistant USMNT coach for two years before being given the job. Before he was an assistant, he was a college head coach. That’s it. The guy was in way over his head, but the program, to say the least, wasn’t going to splash cash on anyone reputable back then. Berhalter’s appointment could be argued to be worse, in that the Fed seemed to barely try to look for anyone else and certainly could have afforded a higher tier coach.

 

What players on the USMNT would you like Trapp & Zardes to influence to play for the Crew?

maybe one of the young RBs ?

most of the guys we would like are too expensive.

 

Any player in the pool would make us better. So, all of them.

 

No one currently playing for the US is coming here... so yeah.