Berhalter announces 23 player squad for the 2019 Gold Cup

First, I'd argue that Robinson's ledger with the National Team has been more bad than good. And I'd say Lovitz hasn't been bad ... he's been uninspiring and it's clear he's not good enough to do much. But Robinson's lows have been much, much worse. The Jamaica match ... he was horrendous. I still think he has potential, and I still would have personally brought him over Lovitz ... but that was a shitburger of a performance.

But aside from that, it's an interesting question -- should Robinson have to win the job? Should Sargent?

Should the younger, more talented player have to outplay the incumbent -- and an incumbent by sheer timing in Robinson's case -- to take a spot? Should we make them earn it or is potential enough?

There's two sides. Both could react by working harder, using this time to work with their club, they could be more motivated.

On the other hand, Sargent and Robinson either already are but didn't show it, and or will be very soon better than Zardes and Lovitz.

I'd take potential, especially since both would be backups. But I also have a hard time being angry about Robinson when he clearly did NOTHING to make Berhalter bring him. At some point, doesn't performance have to matter? And at some point, failure to execute at the National Level needs to be incorporated instead of just relying on the league the player plays in.

 

Vexco, you are the Jake LaMotta of BS. You really want some more ? Please, call it quits.

 

As others have pointed out, Coach Gregg seems to have chosen a roster that he thinks gives him the best chance to win now, rather than giving some younger players experience. So why were Chandler, Fabian Johnson, and Morales, 3 Bundesliga (mostly) starters, not selected? I can only think of one reason: SUM.

 

That's not what I'm saying tho, honestly. The question is more of why is Lovitz considered the incumbent when his first caps were January camp and due to the fact he plays in MLS? We're not talking about him unseating someone who's earned that spot. Lovitz wasn't put into the same position as Robinson yesterday.

 

I know you don't like Robinson but he's a better player than Lovitz.

 

That's fair as well.

Over all their performances, I would say Lovitz is safer and more likely not to be terrible. But Robinson has a much higher ceiling.

I agree that Lovitz shouldn't be given incumbency through luck of timing. And frankly, I welcome the day when we don't have someone the talent of Lovitz even in the consideration set.

 

Robinson is terrible and I hope Egg has had enough of him.

Holmes was our "Animal Mother" pushing forward when the rest were falling asleep.

 

Always rep Skankin' Frankie!

 

agreed, ^this is an important point. look at the roster in berhalter-vision:
_______________________________________

gk zach steffen, sean johnson, tyler miller

rb/cm tyler adams, nick lima

rcb matt miazga, aaron long

cb omar gonzalez, walker zimmerman

lcb tim ream, daniel lovitz

dm michael bradley, wil trapp

cm weston mckennie, christian roldan

am christian pulisic, duane holmes

rw paul arriola, jordan morris

st gyassi zardes, jozy altidore

lw tyler boyd, jonathan lewis
_______________________________________

the "depth chart", if you will, of the cbs is certainly arguable, im going on what berhalter has done as time has gone on.

you could also argue bradley/trapp and zardes/altidore, i defaulted to the worst possible option.

the rest is our sad reality. the only interest i have is boyd, who will seemingly get the lions share of minutes (with lewis as a "supersub"). i WOULD be interested in holmes, but i doubt he plays a minute.

offensive sub, you say? berhalters idea of attacking change is flattening the back 4 late, bringing on lovitz.

my only other thought on (the bs take on ) this roster is you think sargents omission is justifiable due to lack of minutes/sharpness? thats valid.

but what are your thoughts on the players carrying injuries? you ready to argue the sharpness of the mls players on the roster? or their productivity with all those minutes?

without looking at numbers id say zardes has a slightly worse international scoring rate than say...carlos bocanegra had. i know its worse than mix diskerud- just random examples. now take a look at sargent v zardes with the national team.

sarge has produced at this level- and he wasnt getting club minutes then either. donovan was ok for us while not playing in germany, same for bradley while at roma. pulisic was a reserve player this year and will be a month and a half out of season- anybody want to use that ridiculous (sharpness) argument for mihailovic over him?

you prefer whatever you think mls lifers bring to a kid thats scored at every international level hes played in, including this one? thats fine. just stop lying about it and making bullshit excuses.

 

Frankie had more heart/passion when wearing that crest than any 2 players on our current roster combined.

 

RB not impressed with Berhalter either

...as a defender?! 😳

Congrats on making the #USMNT @GoldCup squad, @tyler_adams14! 👏🇺🇸

🔴⚪ #DieRotenBullen https://t.co/OHDX3B8rvL

— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) June 6, 2019

 

The thing that really scares me is this system 'working' against the minnows of CONCACAF; and then watching above average to world class international sides pin Tyler to the back while our 'veteran' midfield gets annihilated. Of course Berhalter could use his secondary formation which worked so well the other night.

 

We'll shut out Guyana and all the SUM sycophants in the US soccer media will crow about Gregg's vindication. Matt Doyle will write a lengthy, anguished piece, sobbing he was wrong to question Sargent's omission.

Alas, Tata awaits.

 

LOL! Yeah CCV isn't very good dude. He doesn't have the body type to be an elite footballer, nor the foot skills. Neither of those will be fixed in a few years. He's a sturdy lad and will have a long career in the Championship and be remembered as a decent player for that level. Miazga, Long, Zimmerman, Brooks are all better. In a year's time, Chris Richards will be, too.

 

Would have been tough to find 16 MLS players 28 years ago.

 

Clearly MLS wasn't capable of producing players that could contribute 28 years ago.

 

Meanwhile, folks back in the soccer universes of Madrid, London, Munich, Paris and/or Barcelona reading the same comments, looking at the teams mentioned, and noticing how tough the bracket is being played up to be are getting their comic relief for the day (laughing their asses off).

The flaws/snubs in the final 23 man roster selection have been detailed in prior posts. I can't add anything to those. Honestly, a U.S. team should steamroll through this bracket. That our perspective is so warped that we see this bracket as a challenge speaks to the sad state of current affairs.

That said, rebuilding a team that left most of us here bitterly disappointed just a couple of years ago won't be accomplished overnight. GB at the very least deserves a chance to show us via the Gold Cup what his coaching can deliver and how it is making a change for the better.

 

He said it was pretty simple, that the Lletget injury caused him to only take 2 strikers (insane for a tournament) and that both Altidore and Zardes were ahead of him. I think the plan was always for Sargent to be the 3rd striker and play in meaningless games and be there for experience. Gregg seems to be the kind of guy who cares more about physical attributes than skill at most of his positions, and his system relies on that with 1-2 playmakers. Not sure adding Pulisic and McKinnie to the midfield will bring all that needed change from what was a horrid effort against Jamaica for a tournament that we should coast into the final.

I really dont think so, after Lletget went down I think he was always going to miss the roster, which is concerning since Gregg thinks its okay to take 2 strikers to a major tournament. Morris will be played on the wing but I guess could slide over but you bring 3 strikers 2 of which are oft injured and one who is pretty average, it could lead to a bad setup.

 

Now this is an amazing posts and what I love about us soccer fans and tin foil hat haters.

Morales started 16 of 34 league matches, in the last 9 matches of the season started 1 and managed to not get off the bench twice and failed to make the gameday squad twice...hardly an impressive run for the season.(basically he lost his starting spot) and he totalled one goal and one assist in league play(and the goal was in september).

Fabian oh what a great season he had. He made the squad in just 27 of their 34 league matches and started only 11. He also spent the last month+ of the season both on the bench and injured. His lone goal in the league...happened last august(first match of the year). Fabian had a terrible season there is just no justification for hm to be onthe roster.

Timmy Chandler...maybe he was the 'starter' you were thinking of because the other two aren't even 'mostly' starters. Oh wait he was injured almost all season and played a total of 16 minutes at the end of the season but he did manage to make the bench for three other matches at the end of the season.

if you are going to make an argument about players you don't know about you really should look them up first. Especially in Chandler's case it shows you are just throwing names out there.

 

in berhalters "system" we all see the a team and its grim. at least a more standard formation can scale up. what we used against jamaica, for example:

__________steffen
___long___miazga___brooks
yedlin_______________robinson
_____adams___mckennie
pulisic___(left attacking mid/wing)
_________(forward)

id take weah and sarge for the open spots and have zero problems saying that beats the hell out of what our current setup is/will be.

but we will never, EVER see that.

 

See that's the problem. The players aren't playing for that crest anymore. Gotta bring back the flying soccer ball.

 

Only if his job is to win the 2019 Gold Cup and nothing further. Even then, he has a plethora of CBs and wingers and one striker behind an injury prone one.

Sargent has been better in a USMNT shirt than Zardes over the past 18 months.

 

Only because the SUM cabal was influencing the Bundesliga to keep them on the bench. Mönchengladbach was totally going to play Fabian until they got a call from Garber telling them they'd cancel Dortmund's summer friendlies in the USA if they did.

 

Legitimately a good question. I mean Chandler and Morales I could care less about, but Fabian Johnson is so much better than crappy Lovitz and unpolished Robinson.