Maybe he thinks it's more important that would remedy his club situation and get off to a good start this year?
He's been directly at fault for at least two goals in the last two games. Defenders are judged on their mistakes. Unfortunately for Alvarado, he's made quite a few. I think you make some good points. He's got a good skill set and is still young, but he's nowhere near ready to face top competition. Its one thing to like his future, its another thing to think he belongs at this level.
Brooks has been at fault for a few of the late goals we let in before these Euro friendlies. Give Ventura some time.
I'm not sure who the German goal was on. Alvarado's spacing was fine. Did chandler talk to him or just let the guy breeze in? It seemed more on Chandler to me and Goal's player ratings said the same. Chandler has at least two lapses in concentration a game. I can say this - I've never seen the US pass out of the back as well as they have with Alvarado and Brooks.
One thing is for certain and that is how great we are passing out of the back. Instead of just sitting back and countering, we are finally keeping and retaining possession and creating chances. Something that was rarely seen in last year's WC. It is quite noticeable. In the 2nd half when we were just dominating. The Germans couldn't win possession. Great to see.
I wouldn't place the blame solely on him, it was both of them in the March friendlies and even the first Netherlands goal. The difference is Brooks is pretty consistent with his club team. Alvarado's had a rough season with Club America. No reason to write him off, but if we want our best side for GC, he shouldn't be on it.
I absolutely agree that he has proven that he can compete with anybody, today's performance was amazing. He bossed the midfield against the best team in the world. I know that the Germans did not have their A team and they looked "off", but to so dictate play against any form of the German national team is undoubtedly impressive. I am more than happy to have MB playing for TFC, but there should be little doubt that he could play for "bigger" European clubs. Can we just clone him?
I completely disagree. We just beat the Dutch and Germans with him. He's not only part of the roster - I would say he's in a tight fight for the starting role.
In my opinion, it doesn't matter what team was on the field. Bradley was bossing and the same couldn't be said about Ozil and we didn't have our best team either.
Blame can be found for both. Chandler's lack of effort to mark Mario once he had peeled off Alvarado and Alvarado losing him in the first place. I'd probably agree with you that our passing hasn't been better in a long time, but we've had players like Gonzalez and Onyewu as fixtures at CB for years. Omar is still a very useful player, just a very average passer, who doesn't pass the ball like Besler, Brooks or Alvarado. Its really not saying much that our passing has been better with those two back there. I'd be interested to see Besler and Brooks. Our two best passers of the ball, and although Besler and Gonzalez are probably the two best defensively, I want to keep seeing Brooks develop back there. Is that really your reasoning? He should start because he started in two friendlies that we won?
It was team breakdown. Mix took a bad angle and lost contain. Fab hesitated and didn't step up fast enough. Brooks left his man and didn't stop ball. Alvarado left his guy to take Brooks' man, which was probably a bad decision, because he likely would have run offside. Alvarado's guy was then open, and Chandler was too far to make a run/and/or too slow to recognize and react.
I wouldn't say Bradley is world class, but he was world class on the day. If he plays like that for another year or so, well there just aren't a lot any better. The Gold Cup will look a lot different. Germany came to play soccer, the opponents in the Gold Cup will come to survive. Now that the US has transitioned to the team that has to break the bunker rather than sit in it, it will be interesting to see if they can accomplish that, and even better, do so with aplomb.
Yes, I mean, how else do you get 50+ assists, right? And if such a statement does indeed require courage, then you have it. Though I may detect a bit of a shortfall in other areas.
Does anyone think Michael Bradley will ever try to ply his trade overseas again? It's great seeing him in MLS, but I can't lie, I'd love seeing him as a starter on a CL team, and I think he has that ability. I almost feel like he's wasting his talent in MLS, kind of like LD. He's in his prime. I want to see him try to be the best player he can possibly be, not that playing in the MLS has hurt him, as you all could see over the past 2 matches. But, he makes a shit ton of money. He obviously has no need to do so, other than to prove it to himself. If he even cares. If I was making $5+ mil a year, I don't know if I'd care.
It was a cool shot, but that was a shot set up for his left foot. Him using his right foot on that shot only shows that he's uncomfortable going to his left. If he was as comfortable using his left, maybe he could have curled it in. Not to take much away from him. He played well. Just using the outside foot there was totally unnecessary.
That outside of the foot shot with the "wrong" foot can be very useful in fooling a keeper. I don't think it shows anything other than he was creative in his approach to score.
Maybe I need to go back and watch it again, but from what I remember, I disagree. Taking an extra touch would have allowed the defender to get in on the shot. It's not as if Morris was standing there by himself. He took the quick shot that surprised the keeper. Guys like Suarez have made a career off of wrong-footing defenders and keepers by taking the shot quickly, before anyone is set, and doing it well. Morris tried what great players do, instead of trying to play soccer by the numbers like average players do.
Take a look at the video again. There was a defender with a foot stretched out trying to block the shot, and he needed more curl on the ball for it to have a chance of being on goal. I just didn't see his use of the off-foot as being necessary. But maybe I'm wrong.
He didn't need an extra touch. Just go for the shot with your left foot. He didn't position himself properly to do so. Anyway, this is nitpicking. He played well. And we won. Whatever.
That's a good point. I wonder how much of our last two results were that neither the Netherlands or Germany sits back at all. They're always in attack mode. When we face the CONCACAF light weights, and that's probably everyone outside Mex, CR and Honduras, they'll be bunkered and trying to survive. That's a different type of game. Still, the pace we have with Morris/Yedlin off the bench is quite an asset, a threat. I also expect Gyasi to convert more of his chances at the GC level.
Good then, you're the man to ask this: Who started that sequence with the great tackle and pass to Bradley??