What's the USMNT identity?

We simply do not have the ball control skills of the Spanish or Argentinian players to play their styles of games. Heck, most of our players can't trap a god damn ball.

What we have is young players with speed. The system that best suit our personnel is the high press and quick counter. We need to finesse this style and execute it to perfection, and we'll look pretty decent on the world stage.

 

This shouldn't be that hard to understand. The drive to improve our developing players' ball-control skills must continue, but in parallel with the MNT playing to our current strengths.

 

Chile's style with better athletes. Will have to match their skill though but I think we're getting close.

 

I can see how people think the US should be a more possession/skill based country. I mean, we have a significant Latin population that already plays the game that way, and if you look at MLS the growth and improvement is at least somewhat coming from increased recruits from South America and inter-league play is always going to see MLS teams facing off more against Mexican and South American teams than Europeans.

I absolutely agree that the current players available don't have the chops for the possession/skill game against better teams. We'll need to defend, hit teams on the counter, run and run, etc... But I think there is a growing tension between the old guard Anglo soccer mentality and a large portion of people who play and watch the game in this country. I'm not at all sure we'll have the same answer as to what our style is or should be as things continue to evolve.

 

Not to mention that laying in the Spanish style demands Spanish referees, who protect attacking players much more rigorously than most international refs.

 

That is a bizarre quote to take from that article. You are surprised a smallish skilled 18 yo is going to have some adapting to the physical play of adults?

Who is focused on playing like spain or south american teams (btw. south american styles vary greatly just like europe)? I'd sure like players with their technical ability and creativity but dont think we should play like the generic style you are implying.

It is baffling that continue to think just focusing on defending is going to get us to higher level. You seem to want to get back to our roots of 1994 which is a pretty low goal for a country with our resources.

Our most successful world cup consisted of us defending and countering in 1 of 5 games. We only got out of our group because we punched an aging team in the mouth that didnt respect us. That goal from that decidedly not English/German Clint Mathis was also needed. That team included two of our best possession central midfielders of all time.

I thought Belgium was the best team at the world cup. Yeah, their team being tactical and physical helped, but would have just been an also ran without Hazard and de Bruyne. The French sat back and countered but also had Greizman and that kid.... yeah, we are so far behind France and many other countries that drop off.

If you want to give up and pray for a miracle by focusing on defending that is fine. I'd much rather on focus on getting better at all aspects of the game, especially the ones that we are extremely deficient in.

Your ideas are as much an enemy of the game in this country just like those MLS zealots.

 

Organized, defense focused approach = enemy of the game.

 

Take a look a the USA v Italy game. As soon as we grabbed possession in our end, Italy fouled. End of counter. They didn't want to let us in their end because they knew that a foul in their end would lead to a set play and score.

We must become better at ball movement by passing out of the back which stops that tactic. We can do it. We must.

 

Well, I think what gets missed in these discussions is the reality that all teams do some of both and all teams have somewhat different balances of these things. So sure, we do want to be able to pass in back when practical.

But, I think the Italy example makes little sense. For one, Italy is not terrified of the USA's incredible set piece abilities. Sure, set pieces are one of our better chances to score against teams better than us, but Italy was not quaking in their shoes at the US free kick takers. Also, spending more time on the ball in the back is basically the opposite of what you want to do if you want to get into the other team's half before they can foul you, had they been in a hurry to foul us before we could get close to them.

 

Oh, and lots of teams press us in the back to be sure, because we're crap with the ball in the back and we do need to improve. But, it is a weakness to hide, not a strength to highlight.

 

The leagues have two different styles. The Belgium team is influenced somewhat by the league style, but plays quite differently. Their national is succeeding because the players are primarily playing in England, Germany, spain, Italy, and spain. Belgium led possession of all their world cup games except for the game against Brazil and second against England.

what I took from the article was that the is a small, technical player who benefited greatly from his time at Barcelona, Fifa rules screwed him, and he needed to adapt to a different style but his technical abilities still met or exceeded the norm.

Gent's reserve team manager, Bart van Renterghem, is putting his players through their paces; Lederman's quality on the ball is evident. While he is the slightest player on the field, he has little difficulty dealing with the technical aspects of the session and shows off a potent left foot.

Even at the age of 11, Lederman's technique and vision simply dazzled their scouts.

"In Barcelona, everyone was treating Ben just like one of the kids," Tammy Lederman said by telephone. "He didn't get any special treatment so he didn't feel anything special or feel anything unique. He's a small kid who came to play here. That's all we wanted him to concentrate on."

 

Short passing/possession oriented game doesnt mean playing like spain. Germany plays a possession oriented game and Englands game is evolving. I havent seen anyone say they want us to play tiki taka.

Playing attractive soccer would do a lot to grow the game in this country and for the long term talent levels. If that ticks you off then I think you are being shortsighted.

 

Yep, convinced you are being shortsighted. It's all about winning today. I dont see anything about improving so we can actually compete with top teams. It reminds me of soccer moms and dads that ruined the enjoyment of coaching.

You seem to not understand that we dont have a current advantage in anything. Spain has better defenders than us. The players we have coming up are incredibly more talented than we are used to and most of them have gotten themselves in much better environments at much earlier ages. I'd rather they be allowed to play a style that they can and want to play instead of picking the eight best defending players and a striker and pulisic to counter.

 

This is nonsense. It was soft players and complacency.

I was disgusted by not qualifying and the way the team ended the Hex. The coach everyone wanted coddled the soft players, the complacency was obvious, and the ridiculous defensive approach to road games was sickening. My goal is for us to win the world cup. To do that we will have to be able to play a possession whether we decide to or not. I wouldn't have us play like Mexico because it wouldn't use the physical capabilities we have over them.

 

?

 

we played defensively and for a tie at Panama, Mexico, and Honduras. We came away with 3 points. Im pretty sure we could gotten more points if we played those games to win.

Arrogance and complacency is what beat us at Trinidad.

We played poorly throughout the Hex. Our GF and GA was inflated by a couple of games.

 

Being entertaining and more attractive grows it more than boring defensive soccer.

You must think we really suck and havent been paying attention to the quality and quantity of u23 players that we have. We would only miss Qatar due to the incompetence of the Fed, poor coaching, and interference from the league. That is the only reason we missed Russia and we will have a significantly more talented and deep pool. Being afraid of CONCACAF is is just stupid.

 

It seems to me that before we can answer this question we need to talk about who our core players are and whether there is a common denominator among them that points to a particular style working for them.