The good news (for me) is that I'm going on vacation next week and will presumably have better things to do than find a stream of the Italy game, so this is the end of the Sarachan era for me. It feels liberating.
Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler The Sarachan era is the Berhalter era
Trapp has generally been solid, but clearly lacks the athleticism needed to man a 2 or 2 1/2 man central midfield. As I posted in the in-game thread, the Wembley factor seems to get to our guys.
Anything less than a full boycott of this program by the fanbase is unacceptable. I don't care if it doesn't hurt USSF financially and they'll just get around it. We have to do something as a fanbase to embarrass the leadership.
I’m keeping my money away from this program for the time being. Guess I’ll look into traveling overseas to watch some club play. Edit: Pulisic played better transitioning to defense in the second half. I was excited to see him putting in some more effort.
Wil Trapp was a massive liability. On the first goal, he left his area to play an insanely soft double team. Lingard used the space to get off an uncontested shot. On the second goal, in the area and within a few feet of the ball, instead of closing down the player on the ball, he again played soft, creating an easy angle for the diagonal ball and the second goal. McKennie was better in the second half, when he was doing more to control the game. The Adams sub was too late, and the excuse that he had “heavy legs” was bullshit. Trapp played in the same playoff game when Adams and the NYRB destroyed them, no? On a side note, Twellman and Darke talk a lot about Adams’s physical characteristics, but not much about how smart he is. It would come off better if they stop doing that (and less pigment-centric). Weah is not a winger. Wood is not a lone forward. Figure it the f$&k out, Sarachan. Pulisic is special. Sometimes we forget that.
These games were supposed to provide growth and they may down the line but now they just show how far off we are
Well, he doesn't play quickly or add anything to the offense. And the England offense overran him w/ regularity. Aside from that, he was solid.
Yeah, I'm something of a Trapp apologist. I think his passing out of the CM position is better than most other options, but he just really struggles defensively against quality opponents. Maybe he'd be OK in a 3-man CM with Adams and McKennie to cover ground and tackle for him, but then you run into the Bradley question of why you're building your midfield exclusively to make a spot for him. I'd be interested in seeing a 3-5-2 with Adams and McKennie as two-way CMs with Pulisic in front of them.
As some of my English ex-teammates might've said, we were absolute Shite. Resorting to hopeful and inaccurate crosses when England was making incisive passes and runs through our penalty area. Much like against Colombia, we just stand and watch guys curving the ball far post from the corner of the penalty box. Even worse, we really appeared slow and nonathletic compared to the English. A coach, a coach, my kingdom for a coach. Sticks Pulisic out on the wings where he is dependent on service from a nonexistent midfield. Brilliant! For God sakes, play him where he is playing Green. It would've been fun to have trotted out Dempsey for a farewell when they subbed Rooney. The really scary thing was, is that Rooney might still be our best center forward if he was American. Can we make an early New Year's resolution about not being shite next year?
Positives for me were Trapp, Pulisic, and Brooks. Trapp tidy overall and helped spring several breaks with some smart passing and one great tackle. CP looked a tad rusty in terms of conceding possession, but even so the talent and offensive drive is obvious. Several times you could tell English players were simply taken by surprise by CP's quick-step. Brooks did the best he could under constant pressure and trying to cover for the other defenders. As for the rest, obviously not good. I know Sarachan will take primary blame, but when your "major league" talent mostly looks as poor as ours did today, the uphill climb is huge regardless of the coach.
I just can't see the USA ever becoming an elite soccer nation at this point. The obstacles are just too great. Disappointment after disappointment.
I had to double take on this. How can you say Trapp was a positive? He was essentially responsible for the first two goals. At some point, being a OK passer in certain situations doesn’t matter when there are critical flaws on other aspects of his play.
I think our players looked disinterested. One year of useless friendlies coached by an outdated dolt hired by a federation that has neither a clue nor direction. How much effort can we expect from our players?
Sorry to pop in guys, don't usually post, England fan here. The main thing I took from USA is: 1. Transitioning from attack to defence was utterly non existent even in a friendly. But more importantly... 2. They really struggled with the pace of the game. They badly need the MLS not necessarily to upskill, but have more pace in the league to test players period for 90 mins. Until that happens and they can play with intensity and speed, the lack of technical skills seem irrelevant if they aren't keeping up period. 3. Don't seem to be united. There were some reasons to be cheerful. Weah worked for mismatches, seemed quick enough, Pulisic carried the can for the best he could... but after that there needs to be a rethinking of wtf they want in midfield especially and at CB. A slow defence, drop deeper and have better positioning. Or flood the midfield and play 1 up top to stifle and make it a fight to get to your defence. That open midfield and high line gets picked off by any side with pace.
Thanks for the to the point, constructive, assessment. Unfortunately these boards have been trying hard to make such heard by our USSF, and we get nothing but silence or mockery. It's a very low ebb for our national side.
Trapp: He can make passes and sometimes smart passes, but this is a very basic requirement for a DM (and team captain). he slow down the transition play, and not good enough to shield the backline. There are quite a few moments he had enough space to move ball forward but he stand over the ball for seconds and chose to pass back, or when he met high pressure he spent a lot of time to get out of it. In CLB he had same problem. CLB is a possesion style team but their built up play are pretty slow, when met high pressure opponents, they struggled cuz they cannot execute quick counter attack. Wood: one dimension forward who just kill our attack. absolutely no vision and team play intelligence, at all. I like Sargent cuz he has flair to make play for teammates, even Jozy has that tools, and why not try Weah there? Whoever is the next coach, please see it. Green: please end the experiment to use him on AMC. he doesn't belong there. He has no vision and creativity. I even prefer Pulisic to play this role rather than him.