So ahead of them lay the iceberg. Captain General Egg radios his Boss, Brother Lord Egg of Chicago House: "Ahoy there, Brother Matey, Ye who made me Captain of the USSF Titanica based on merit, and merit alone, no matter what the scurrilous masses may mutter, do you give me license to go full speed ahead?" Radioed back Lord Egg of Chicago House, to Brother Captain of the USSF Titanica: "It's taken three years of cunning and guile to make Machiavelli proud, but none can doubt that we rule as Lords, and truly the muttering masses can put it deep in that cloaca upon which no sol shall ever shine!. Damn the Rubes, Full Speed Ahead, Just keep doing what your are doing, Brother!" Roared Captain General Egg to his many minions and few men: "Yer see that glitterin' white mass, bright in the Sun? There be our shiny Vision, there be where all we planned lies. Full System Running! Full Speed Ahead!" And so The USSF Titanica sailed into History.
Sergino Dest, a teenager, starts at RIGHT BACK in the UCL and keeps a clean sheet. Reggie Cannon gets roasted by the Chicago fire 4-0 at right back. Sure, nothing to see here people, just the worst coaches at work in international football taking control of the USMNT.
HOWEVER, although I can't stand Berhalter, Dest plays for an excellent club with a seasoned coach. Not only does the USMNT need another coach, but also a slew of players as good as Pulisic, McKennie, and Adams. It may never happen in this cycle.
and again, that same club thought it served their interests to initially integrate Dest as a LB (where he played pretty well) until Tagliafico returned. The USNT doesn't have an equivalent of Tagliafico to return at LB. ATM it's a huge hole on the team someone like Dest can fill. Cannon has stepped his game up when he's played for the NT, and there are alternatives like Yedlin when he returns, or Lima who has never had as poor of a game as Dest in his debut. Lima is also the only other viable RB w/ significant experience playing LB. This continues to be an amazingly petty complaint. Clearly you could find a multitude of other issues to focus on when it comes to the current leadership. Gregg is indeed a poor national team coach judging him individually. That said, I think you would have looked for gripes about Marsch if the U.S. hired him before he could try his hand at European play, at which point chances have become much slimmer he'd actually accept the gig.
This. Gregg is outcoaching himself. Overcoaching is especially problematic with a national team that has limited training time. I think the Uruguay game showed some improvement on his part, though. Leaving aside player selection, he actually put together a lineup where everyone was playing approximately the same roles they have with their clubs. The open question is: has he actually seen the light, or does he return to his over-complicated system the next time he has a full strength team?
Klopp told the FSG executives that football was “more than a system,” that it was “also rain, tackles flying in, the noise in the stadium.” Most of all, he said, the Anfield crowd had to be “activated” by the style of performance, to spur on the team and vice versa in a self-amplifying cycle of exuberance. That is an excerpt (maybe a paraphrased excerpt) from the book on Klopp taking over Liverpool. That getting the fans behind the team and getting the team behind the fans is a key pillar of a successful team. Gregg has seemed to totally ignore this idea of activating the fans and has actually outright alienated even more fans. * Calling in Omar Gonzales * Giving major minutes to Zardes, Trapp, Bradley, Lovitz * Not integrating young talented players at all or quickly * Getting embarassed in high profile friendlies against teams the USA generally competes or dominates. * Getting embarrassed in a friendly versus Mexico * Using the second half of the GC Final as a training exercise rather than something to win * Continually looking lazy or disinterested in the recruiting of dual nationals I don't think fan interest or support in the team has ever been lower. It is lower than it was even after Couva. How can a new coach, who we were all thinking was taking over a rock bottom team, have alienated the fans even more? Obviously, because he is not interested in getting the fans invested. His first full roster as a coach was such a slap in the face to the fans. He gets to pick, but by bringing in Omar and Ream and a bunch of cupcake players and leaving off Weah, Sargent, and other talented young players was completely unnecessary. Insisting on playing a top world class talent out of position to play a player most fans don't appreciate also was a self inflicted wound. He also completely contradicted his most vocal supporters by abandoning the "system" everyone thought he was working on to play scared against Chile. Pre-GC friendlies were a disaster. In the new DC stadium, with fans having to pay the extortionist prices to see the team, and they did, they absolutely got played off the field by a Jamaica B team with USL players. The team looked even worse against Venezuela. The GC roster was hampered by injuries but leaving off Sargent was a completely unnecessary black eye. It really couldn't be justified in soccer terms, in the near term or long term. It also, again, elevated charges of nepotism as Gregg took Omar, Zardes, and Trapp and actually started Zardes over Altidore to start. The final, down a goal, 10 minutes left, and he subs in Lovitz. It has become a signal moment of the Gregg era already. Just wanted to work on things as the GC trophy goes to Mexico. Once September rolled around, again the complete disdain for USA fans. They play Mexico and charge $hundreds for people to watch. In a 1/3 empty stadium and there is zero PR for the game in English media. I live here, and nobody had any idea the game was going on, unless they spoke Spanish. Of course, what few US fans that paid $200 a ticket and showed up and sat in among the Mexican fans got treated to another training session. But one that was always going to fail. Beyond the stadium, this was a big game on TV. One of the highest viewed games of the year...on Univision. Nobody is even tuning in anymore. But the 400K that did, saw an embarrassment. Gregg's and USSF's defenders can say it was brave or whatever, do that against Uruguay. These are the kind of games, in prime time, against Mexico, when lost fans will tune back in and see if they should get involved again. Not only was the answer no, but many of the most ardent supporters have dropped out. Gregg has lost the fan base. It was completely unnecessary.
I have watched the US using my Sling TV subscription for a few years. I also use that sub to watch some other soccer. I have become so turned off by US Soccer's disinterest/inability to play winning soccer that I have chosen to cancel my Sling SUB until such time as the US looks like they actually want to win some matches. I will be content with what I an watch streaming delayed via my ESPN 3 sub that comes with my Spectrum internet and the addition of ESPN Plus. But I may cancel ESPN Plus due to the MLS being so bad. I used to believe that any soccer was good soccer but the USMNT has managed to prove me wrong. It is just too painful to watch the train wreck that they have become. The women do not play any important matches for a couple of years so I lose nothing there either. (I do not consider the Olympics an important tournament.) Two years of no Sling payments will save me over $1200.00 and that is not to be sneezed at. I save all that money and I really lose nothing at this time. Seems a good choice to me. Thank you US Soccer.
“Soccer is simple, but it is difficult to play simple.” – Johan Cruyff “In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.” – Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre “When your own fans whistle and jeer, then you have a big problem.” – Zinedine Zidane
I don't think you are alone. The Mexico game disgusted much of the hard core fanbase. Which was basically all that was left. "Friendlies" are not a big deal in South America and UEFA. Sometimes, our media types and pundits, try and use that attitude with the USMNT. It makes sense on a surface level. But it has never been that way. The USMNT simply doesn't play enough meaningful games against good opponents. Friendlies are not the same here as in UEFA. We then tend to over value good results against UEFA teams. COMNEBOL teams are actually more motivated to play us for various reasons. But "Friendlies" against Mexico are big games and generate media and eyeballs. Using such a game to purposefully fail is just not a good idea and has consequences. Also, if you are going to treat Friendlies like they do in UEFA, then you can't also half-ass the Gold Cup! Further, the whole idea of playing a certain way, but then selecting players in key positions that can't do it, is a particular mistake that Gregg seems to like to make. When Altidore was left off the roster, and if Sargent, "is not ready", then the suicidal POTB game plan had to be scrapped or modified. There is nothing good that comes out of making your fan base feel stupid for investing in the team emotionally. Jill Ellis used a similarly cooked up money grab called the SheBelieves in 2017 to try a doomed experiment. Maybe it was good for her to see it fail. Maybe she thought it would work. Either way, she almost lost her job because of it. She never again set up, purposefully to fail, in any semi-serious game (except maybe the friendly in France this January but she was well off the hot seat by then).
I do think that the Mexico losses hurt, but other than that the player selection quibbles are over-exaggerated. My beef with the USMNT is the culture/mentality of the team. It is weak-minded. We don't win 50/50's or second balls. We don't test our skills by holding the ball. We don't test our skills by attacking with the intent to dominate the other team into submission. We don't stand up to other players when they try to injure our players. We have zero mental game...we don't oust-smart, out-guile, out-wit, or frustrate anybody. I become uninterested in a team who does not fight to represent all of us who have come up through the sport in the US, especially those of us who fought to bring the sport into legitimacy in the 1980s and 1990s. To show up and get walked over and disrespected is a disrespect to all of us.
Correction: Cannon was not roasted by the Chicago Fire of MLS. He was part of a great team effort that narrowly lost 4-0 to a great team of football players. Dest played RB on an Ajax team that reached the semi-finals of the champions league last year that narrowly defeated a pretty a terrible Lille team that is not better than the worst pub team in Wisconsin. Is that better? Does that make sense? Is that more in line with events? Does that make sense? God help me if i have to listen to another american person clarify basic bullshit with Does that make sense? I will eat my hand. chomp chomp. Save the marketing dude. Dest at LB is a stupid move, along with basically everything US Soccer does these days. Don't believe me? Check the results.
Get out more. You sound angry and frustrated. The Fire sucked. Duh. But it was not Cannon getting roasted. Again, did you even watch the game? And since when does one game's result (in 2 different leagues) tell you about the relative merits of a single player on each of the teams in question? Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug.
Lol I am just stubborn. I have never used the ignore list and I refuse to allow anyone to get me there. I guess you could call me a glutton for punishment. [emoji1787]