We have faced very little attacking from these two opponents and they still havent looked convincing. Why are you ignoring Long's performance against Venezuela?
Yeah, I found it a little disappointing that he picked up that yellow card last night when he didn't need to as he is likely to pick another one up along the way just in how he plays.
JJ approves. Must be the Schalke in him. (also let's not forget that pre-baldness Bradley used to have the same problem and it caused him to miss two consecutive tournament finals.)
you have to look at "how do i beat mexico" and build backwards, not "come up with a lineup to beat trinidad" and hope forwards. if you look at the way we play the first halves of games, the people we select, they seem to be done more for the latter than the former. fans conflate the two at their own risk. you are not going to beat mexico starting zardes at 9, and hitting crosses and diagonals for 60 minutes before settling down.
He and Pulisic are probably both a little frustrated at Concacaaf refereeing. Not the same quality at the BL. Unfortunately this is just a fact of life all of our younger players need to adjust to so that they don’t get carded for something that in Europe would be considered acceptable physical play.
don't overrate camp cupcake players or gold cup group play are like don't fight a land war in asia. should be basic institutional memory. do we have to relearn everything?
shy i want to see CP subbed out the moment a game has been decided...no point to leave him out there all game when youve already won.
There are plenty of people who are willing to argue almost any point on the internet without compensation. I don't assume SUM plants are the problem Who planted the guys saying that Wes and Lima were bad?
I get that folks are happy with a big win, but think if this game moves people that far then we are going to have some very big swings in mood from this tournament. I just rewatched the first half and things were pretty much as I thought with a couple things being a bit better. We moved the ball better in the attacking third the whole half than I felt on first viewing (I dont watch sober anymore). My focus was on the five central players in defense and midfield. The back two were very lucky that the T&T offense played into there strengths many long balls in the air instead of running at them or playing quick combos after the first pass. T&T still had too many chances. Zimmerman had a couple nice long diagonal balls but over hit some. In general, the two still are way too slow with the ball. Bradley was ok when given time and space and aweful when pressured. His first turnover came only 12 seconds into the game. Any type of pressure resulted in a back pass or a turnover. He still hovers on the center backs and often took up space that killed passing lanes to the attacking or wide mids. Pulisic was engaged from the opening whiste... he immeditatly won the ball back on Bradley's early turnover, made a run wide in put Ariola into space wide. He made runs wide and distributed well. He also had a couple of heavy touches that led plays being broken up. McKennie was even better than I thought. My man of the first half. He had a couple of errant passes or coughed the ball up, but immediately won the ball back or stopped play with a foul. He was all over the place and made many passes that led to opportunities. Just having him in midfield is going to make opposing teams think twice about hacking CP down. If we can get TA playing behind then, we are going to control the center of the park much of the time.
This. We really need to let him just boss the whole field. He's going to have to play a different game than he plays for Dortmund or Chelsea, simply because we we aren't those teams and don't have the same quality around him.
I beg to differ. You have to do both but soccer is too fickle to plan too far ahead. Charlie Davis and Stu Holden looked like 2010 starters in 2009 for example. I would. Lee can hit any pass Mike can and is harder to press.
Jozy is better than Zardes, Josh Sargent is better than Zardes. Zardes is awful at combination play with his teammates, Stu Holden even said it last night!!!! He doesn’t give us the best chance to win, I’m sorry about it, I know he’s a good guy but his touch is the touch of a CB.
Good win. Winning by 6 is always nice. I can imagine it was therapeutic for some of the players to bring out the ol battering ram. Even though this was a good result, there is reason to have concern moving forward. A strong argument can be made that Khaleem Hyland is the best player on Trinidad, by some way. Certainly, the most seasoned player on their team. When he was subbed at around the 15th min TnT were close, if not, slightly on top of the game. He actually hurt his hammy taking that shot that was at Steffen, fortunately. After Hyland, TnT is essentially a glorified Guyana. Before attacking me.....look at the roster. Molino and Joevan Jones started on the bench. You can make the case that Guyana actually has more quality in certain areas. Cyrus, who played at cb, currently plays at Juticalpa fighting relegation in Honduran top flight. Id take Guyanas cb pair of Briggs and Vancooten over them based on the GC play. I think the 5 goals in the second half came after the 66th min, after Morris was introduced. The pace and power made a difference when he came on. Once the 2nd goal went in TnT really had nothing to play for. At that point, the want for revenge from our guys and their lack of motivation contributed to the bashing. I hope our guys dont get overconfident. This was a poor team who didnt start some of the better and more experienced players. In addition to losing the best player early.
I don't know. Sargent lifting the Cup as captain would have been valuable. Seeing as how we were close without him.
If Wes played lcb he could provide attack from that side (which we don't see from Ream) when our right flank is being defended too well - by Marcelo, e.g. - or if we play a more defensive rb like Cannon who doesn't get forward so much. He dribbles thru mid pretty good and can hit those diagonal ground balls ; also he can get in the box and score with the ol' bean. Anyway it will have to wait til we see where he plays for Schalke this year.
Lee can hardly get off the bench at LAFC, and he's supposed to start for the USMNT? What next, Benny, because he hit a cracker against Mexico umteen years ago? Only a blind person can't see that Bradley is holding in place for someone else to come along and push him aside. Except...nobody out there right now is reliable enough to do it.
Yeah, I have been to a USMNT game, the crowd is there to drink and shout “P.U.T.O” during goal kicks. Not exactly a source of reliability. Wes’s play was a north of average but not the next Real Madrid purchase.
I just rewatched the match too and no beer goggles. Weston was even better than I thought - even after I was gushing over him last night. The commentary was actually pretty harsh on Weston as well. I'm not sure what their problem is but he was getting scapegoated for others a couple of times.
The commentators, especially Holden, sure seem to have an agenda. Some of the things said in the last two broadcasts have been absurd. It is if they have a narrative they are trying to push and looking for plays that come close to fitting it. They exaggerate poor plays for some players and ignore them for others. The same goes for good plays. If people believe they forced Trapp on us so we would nt be upset with Bradley, then they probably believe the same with Zardes and Altidore. It doesnt hurt when Holden keeps calling Gyasi, Jozy and then correcting himself to then tell us how great Altidore is. I learned long ago to take what any announcer says with a grain of salt during a USMNT game.