No offense to anyone out there from the other teams we played but first time this team faced Mexico. Outcoached in the 2nd half. Substitutions were something out of Benny Hill. Edit: First of the time for some of this team
I said it in another thread but at the end of the day Berhalter's player selection cost him the tournament. Were his subs bad today? They were not good. And some of that is on player selection and some is out of his control. Now I will say this, I thought way before he goal we needed to get Ream off the field. I get in the system he does what is asked of him but when we need him to provide something going forward he has nothing. I think the young players (McKennie for sure, but also Cannon, Miazga, and Pulisic) let the choppiness get to them and it took them out of the game. They calmed down after the goal but too little too late. Not gonna put the goal all on Steffen as the midfield failed on the goal but I dont think he had a good game. He didnt seem to have control of the defense and was not being aggressive attacking the ball. I kind of figured if Mexico were to score its be outside the box because Steffen just wasnt being a general that was needed. At the end of the day while some will look at Berhalter being outcoached, we also just didnt convert chances that were there. Is Berhalter the dope some make him out to be? I dont think so. HOWEVER the lack of familiarity with the pool before the gold cup bit him in the ass today. Some players are likely done with the Nats after this tourney
I find it astonishing that we still don’t have a manager who’s willing to sub out Bradley when he’s being beaten like a drum over and over. Martini targeted him and our response was to sub on a mid...to play right wing. Berhalter is the worst US manager in my lifetime.
cannon was a bright spot and wasn’t supposed to be at the gold cup. yet clearly he’s the best rb. player selection has got to get smarter and bolder while we wait for the young depth to gain experience. the hurdle for lb pro minutes before getting called in has to be absurdly low
Tata essentially pulled a page right out of the MLS playoff book. Against the Crew. Managed by none other than Trash Holder.
Altidore missing that chance in the first half was huge, and would have changed the game. You just have to make that shot. Got out coached badly in the second half. Not deep enough on this roster. Very surprised we didn’t see Boyd in this game. I was happy with the fight and intensity the team showed for most of the game. It was good to see that again.
I long for the day when Bradley retires from the nats. Calling him a traffic cone is unfair to traffic cones.
Jozy needed to go 90. Why didn't Boyd come on when we needed a goal? Lovitz as our last sub? What kind of coaching is that? Someone said it best. Tata made adjustments in game, Greg didn't know how to.
I'm immensely pissed off. Because it was there. It was there to be won. Mexico wasn't as good as we thought they were, and we were dominating in the first half. Yes, we didn't score, but we had the better chances, we had the better run of play - we were the better team. And the second half - it turns out that Tata knows how to make half-time adjustments and Berhalter does not. And not only does he not know hwo to make half-time adjustments, he made three subs that were pointless at best and actively damaging at worst. The game was there to be won. We could have won this. The team should've won this. Berhalter lost it. This defeat is on him. Screw it - I'm giving up my self-imposed one-year moratorium on criticizing Berhalter. He sucks.
I’m bummed about the loss but very hopeful for WCQ this cycle. Overall I think we exceeded expectations for the tournament—especially if you consider those horrid pre tournament friendlies.
Another positive is Arriola's workrate. Good lord, the guy puts his everything into everything. Any slight improvement in touch/control will mean a whole lot for this team. For all his faults, he makes up for it in effort. Improve, just a bit, please. We need it.
Specifically this game, Berhalter was coached off the field and made no adjustments once Mexico began piling on. His subs actually made it worse which is a bad indication for a manger. I'll detail player performances tomorrow I gotta work in the morning. You guys have a good night.
That Lovitz sub ended it for me. You sub in Lewis or Boyd, we at least have wingplay. But no, let’s sub in a fullback.
Luckily, the Women's performance this morning gave me such a high, that even this shit team couldn't bring me down . But, boy did they ever try! Poor finishing. A complete inability to raise our game to match Mexico when they raised theirs in the second half. Wasted corners and set pieces. Our building block young players disappear in the crunch time of the second half. Other coach makes changes to exploit our weaknesses (which are pretty much known to every fan, but not the coaching staff), results in a goal. Our coach makes changes which seems designed to hold onto our one goal loss. WTF?? And the commentators' panel bites their tongues. Doesn't even mention coaching. At least Holden mentioned there should've been an offensive sub.
I did not mind the Zardes sub, but the Roldan for Morris was puzzling when it was clear Bradley was getting worked over and over. Would have been nice to have had a Sargent or a Weah to bring on for the Jozy sub. He is not a ninety minute player.
Officially include me in the card-signing for Bradley. Bless his heart, he tried hard and made a few excellent passes. But he's just not going to cut it anymore. He used to have that little stutter step ball-winning defense. He definitely doesn't have it anymore, and was exposed badly tonight. Give him his testimonial and send him off.
If Lovitz for Ream wasn't an injury sub, thats a sackable offense imo. Berhalter really let our guys down tonight.
Zardes needs to not be on this team and if GB doesnt see that then he needs to go back to Columbus where he belongs. Take Bradley with you too Who else would GB add? Maybe one or two that were injured. This was our A team according to GB and we are nowhere near good enough. GB must make changes going forward. I hate the sight of a stadium more than half full of cheering Mexicans cheering their team. In friggin Chicago. Why are we always the away team when we play Mexico? We all know the answer to that.
This. It can only be a signal for the future. If you can't see quality, you're not a good coach. If you don't know how to build a team, you're not a good coach. If any of these choices have some deeper nefarious reasoning, shame on you. I am still hopeful for the future. I think our guys are quality, although we need a little fine tuning in selection and "system" approach.
Did you see how he was at first incredulous that Lovitz was coming on and then quickly spun it as an attacking move because Lovitz would take up a higher position.
Repeating the same dumbass mistakes which saw us fail to qualify last cycle. The major one being pinning back other mids to cover for Bradley. McKennie played as a dual 6. But Bradley never got forward to compensate as he can't. So we essentially had two players playing one position. So we're down a man in midfield and....overrun. That's why we couldn't get Pulisic involved. Playing Mikey prevents our best player from getting on the ball as the above creates a massive gap between the mids and the attack. We've already been thru this GGG, you schmuck. Did this guy even watch the last cycle? The attack.... Arriola tries hard but has little quality. Jozy quickly faded. Morris is cancerous in possession. Bringing on Zardes shows complete incompetence. Bringing on Roldan over Boyd shows complete incompetence. I wonder if it was mandated before the match that all subs need to be from MLS. Is Boyd another victim of the 2nd class citizen sentiment from our GOB network? Seems like it. Cannon is legit. The only hope from this mess is Cannon performed well enough to force GGG to play Adams at DM instead of Bradley.