Aaronson delivered, Sargent did some good things, Pefok was poor. I don't understand why we can't play two strikers, but that's the coach, not the players.
Pefok was okay for bodying...... Sargent was a visible upgrade that needed to be made 17 minutes earlier
Y'all can keep calling me crazy for requesting Altidore, but that's now 180+ minutes without a goal contribution from a ST. Pefok is a Benteke type. If he's not scoring, he adds nothing else to the team. That type of forward is fine if you have the type of system in place to create chances (i.e. lots of crosses), but that wasn't the case dead tonight. Dead weight. Invisible. Sargent is much better than Pefok about hunting the ball and bringing others into play. Sub was about 20 minutes too late to make a difference though. I still say a fit Altidore is the best of both worlds. Similar hold up and build up play to Sargent, but can actually put the ball in the net. I think we're seeing how much people took him for granted. Looking forward, Sargent should be the guy until Dike is ready, simply because he's a much better overall player the Pefok. However, the issue with him is that he's not been finding the net. That means you are reliant on goal threats from out wide to capitalize on the space he can make, and we haven't had that yet aside from a lone good moment from Aaronson. Pulisic is great, but I don't think he was 100% tonight. His quickness was there, but not his pace. He was not as impactful as I expected.
We need Dike for Honduras I have no confidence in any of these forwards to score. Why did Greg even bring Pepi if he wasn't going to give him a chance?
I don’t think Altidore or Dike are the solution to anything, but it’s Pepi time in the next game and Hoppe time next group. Aaronson had a rough game goal aside and our garbage midfield going forward couldn’t get the ball to CP.
Actually thought Pefok was fine tonight. I still maintain Sargent is the better player, but at least we got 82 minutes of Pefok to show everyone here that simply exchanging strikers won't lead to 2+ goals. This is a systemic issue, and until that changes, our strikers will continue to look pedestrian.
Pefok isn't good in this system where the striker has to do something besides score. We might as well call Sargent the Receptionist because he's a check-in merchant. The only thing he can do is drop deep, take a touch, and pass sideways before running around some more. If we could blend the two, we'd be in great shape. I don't think Pepi is ready or that we should throw him out there in Honduras, but next window we gotta think about Zardes or Hoppe, or stick Weah up there and see what happens. These guys aren't the entire problem, but they're a big part of it, just not good enough at this level.
Pefok maybe a better than average poacher but he doesn't have the athleticism/stamina to be a lone striker on this current squad.
You know what? I once again think if this team had Hoppe, we come away with 3 points today. Thats the sort of forward our team needs right now
These are exactly the kind of mid level CONCACAF teams that even Jozy's detractors always say he racks up all his goals against. The current crop can't even manage that, although I also blame the whole setup.
Of course. Then Hoppe comes in, and the team scores 0 or 1 goal a game (like they did the entire GC with him), and we move on to Zardes as the savior. Then maybe back to Altidore?
I'm gonna be brutally honest, I don't really know what Aaronson is. He's not a 9. He's not a 10. He's not a winger. I really see a lot of Mix Diskerud in his game. You can throw him in there as a second half sub to pop up in the box and create havoc. I don't see him as having a sky high ceiling at any one single position though. I think there's a solid chance that Caden Clark laps him as a 10 and Cade Cowell as a wing forward if we're talking long-term ceiling. To be fair, he has a good work rate though and was important for creating our only goal tonight. I just think I'm ready to pump the breaks on the hype train a bit.
I think he has the potential to become a useful winger. In the meantime he’s a great option off the bench in exactly the kind of game we had tonight where at the 60thish, not the ********ing 81st minute, you need to throw on instant attacking energy.
I think Berhalter got his CF assignments exactly backwards. Tonight was a night for Sargent, when we really should've gotten more out of the high press. Thursday night was a night for Pefok. And I would probably want to start Pefok over Sargent in Honduras, but he just put in an 80 minute shift...
He got no pressure on the center backs. We needed to pressure Canada into hoofs and giveaways, and that simply didn't happen. We should've started Pefok in the last game and Sargent tonight.
It is dawning on me that you are exactly right. I thought a year ago that he was about to challenge the incumbents. Now, still a useful dynamic player, but definitely a clear step below the top.
When an attacking player is primarily responsible for a goal, and is not at fault for a goal conceded (by poor marking on a free kick, for example) he has played at least decently well. He is never going to be the reason you lost.
Once again, Berhalter didn't give any minutes to his best striker on the roster. Not calling in Hoppe was a massive mistake. Why is Berhalter deferring so much to these players' club situations? Screw the clubs, we need to qualify. Pepi needs playing time. Talent should trump experience every time, but with Berhalter, he's too slow to react and he's a poor tactical coach, constantly sabotaging his player pools and starting lineups. Start Pepi next game. It's time.
For about 3 to 4 cycles we have had the majority of CONCACAF opponents play bunker and counter. We still have no clue how to actually create chances against a bunker. No one-twos in the box, no longshots, no decent crosses for a guy in the middle that's pretty good in the air etc., and no good set pieces to take advantage of when we are fouled. We have a true target forward that was laying the ball often back decently, but he's laying it back to midfielders that are incapable of effectively running at the defense when they get the ball. We have talented wingers, who always want to cut inside and never get to the end line. We're not a top European club team, we need to depend on our damn forwards to create chances, not our outside backs.
Well first I would say the bunker has felled every great soccer empire ever. It is what it is. Even the great Barcelona Tiki Taka teams were destroyed by it. I assume that is why the high pressing counter attack is so popular at high levels these days - teams aren't bunkering if they are in the middle of transition defense. But still, your second to last point is great and what I was thinking. Where the hell is our overlapping runs? Our underlapping runs? I'll take any type of lapping personally. With FBs like Robinson and Dest, and wingers like Pulisic and one of Reyna/Aaronson/KDLF - we should be bombing down the sides like it was 1944. But we don't; as you say Pulisic and Dest are content with killing the speed of every attack because all they want to do is stand on the ball and play like it's a Tik Tok skills video. It's painful and our attack is broken. I think other issues play into this but our two best players playing in a way that kills any sort of attack is a huge problem that GGG needs to fix. Hell, before the goal (which of course was a transition goal but did show the power of lapping thanks to Robinson) our two more dangerous moments where the two crosses by Aaronson (the one that was almost an OG and the one Pulisic hit off the post) - both of which came from out wide when Aaronson found some space. And I remember one of them came from a nice play from Llegt in the middle. I don't know how the other one came to be - maybe Dest helped, maybe not. But yeah, man are we screwed.
If he’d only forced the t/o that lead to the goal that’s a decent contribution. The fact that he started and finished the move is pretty special.
Pefok is valuable as a finisher if he gets service into the box. He didn't get service into the box tonight. We didn't generate enough dangerous chances to put him in a position to score. I agree with others who said Josh Sargent should have started this game, given that Canada was always going to sit back and play for a draw and we needed more build up play from our striker. In the old days, Jozy Altidore would have been really useful in a game like this...man I wish his career wouldn't have gone in the direction it has the past 4 years.