The US started strong, but fairly quickly slowed down. As always during the Berhalter Era, the team is prone to prizing possession over attacking. If it keeps happening, that's probably on the coach. Then we came out in the 2nd half in 5th gear, and looked so much better. I thought the subs were smart...Jamaica wasn't going to get 2, so save the legs of the key players. His selection of Arriola was panned before the game, including by me. I just felt that Arriola's defending prowess wasn't worth his dodgy attacking play, especially at home vs. Jamaica. But he was reasonable in the attack, which added to his D makes him a plus player. So credit to GGG.
Sure but there are only 5 subs and he did use 4. Can't sub out everybody. Plus its about 3 matches not 1. Suspect that the plan is to not start McKennie in one of the next two.
Only thing I'd say is maybe some of the subs were 5 minutes too late but thats a quibble. A more direct style was used and showed to be more effective. Hopefully that continues.
adams and acosta shouldnt play together. id go acosta/mckennie/lletet and then adams/musah/ldlt for cr (not that looking ahead is the best idea)
Adams and Acosta were fine together in the second half against Honduras. Main thing is if do, either Adams is the more advanced of the two, or they do more of double pivot with a more dedicated attacking midfielder like against Honduras.
No real complaints except maybe starting Arriola, but his hustle and pressing was effective, even though he can't score in a whorehouse. Started the midfield I wanted to see. I didn't watch the pregame, was Hoppe inactive? Because I would've liked to see him for Arriola for the last 10 minutes. Other than that, I thought the subs were well-timed and effective especially Weah.
Agree. There are probably situations where we might need to do this, but right now, with this roster, against Panama, really isn't one of them. It's Adams or Acosta at the 6. Musah, McKennie, LDLT all played well. Lletget is steady eddy, and Busio is playing well in Italy. We have plenty of 8 options on this roster without putting Acosta and Adams both out there. It's also worth noting McKennie and Musah aren't going 90 every game for club -- we can stretch their minutes.
Credit Berhalter for going with a fairly obvious starting lineup with a fairly obvious formation. Sometimes this game doesn’t take super genius “tactics” and super genius “nobody is expecting this” formations to get results.
Today's game was a ringing endorsement of the KISS principle. That would be Keep It Simple Stupid for those of y'all not in the know.
thats a solid point- what i should have said is we shouldnt intentionally play them together. we did manage to win vs honduras but i wouldnt remotely say thats a game plan we should be looking to replicate. in a more reasonable 343 i still think its a little defensive, but if we ever play a 4231 that could obviously work. but playing either of them at rb, or as an 8 for that matter, is best as a possibility should we need it rather than an option to aspire to.
The primary reason not to play the two of them at the same time right now is to provide cover at the #6 position. Panama isn't an opponent that we need set up overly defensive against. We can go there with our normal setup and get a result.
Would have preferred to see Hoppe at the 9 and Richards (if indeed Gregg worries about his CONCACAF experience level). Though de la Torre and Weah were both sharp. Would like to see more of all 4 of those. Rotation is good, and an investment in the future. Save Roldan (and IMO Arriola) for emergencies if they arise.
For me, easily Berhalter's best coaching performance. The defense was solid and well-organized. The team was obviously ready to attack from the opening whistle. The second-half adjustments were very, very good. I loved the Weah sub for Aaronson. We managed Aaronson's minutes to the point where Jamaica was starting to take frustrations out on him and brought on a guy that just torched Jamaica for fun in the last 20 minutes. The only real somewhat negative I can think of was that the attack slipped back into the Canada mode for 15-20 minutes in the first half. Probably not completely unexpected with a young team. I'm very interested to see how Berhalter rotates the team for Panama. If I'm taking a guess at a starting lineup, this is what I'm thinking. GK - Turner D (L to R) - Bello, McKenzie, M. Robinson, Moore (expecting Dest and Robinson to come on if needed) M - (L to R) McKennie, Acosta, Lletget (another good sub to take Adams off to protect his card count and keep his minutes manageable) F (L to R) - This is going to be tough. I'm going to take a guess with Weah, Zardes, Aaronson. I think Berhalter will go with more experience and with a more defensive lineup in Panama. Depending on how the game goes, I could see him wanting to go more attacking in the 2nd half. I don't want to run Aaronson into the ground, but I think he has to start in this game. If he tires out, bring Hoppe in for him.
Berhalter generally seems to always do better in the second half of games it seems. Also it very much seems that in CONCACAF at least, his strategy is to wear people down with subs. The five subs rule really is a game changer for the team with more depth.
Do we really need five post match threads? many ways Berhalter’s adjustment to switch the field more aggressively was a good one. It helped make attack less predictable and imbalanced the defense.
If you compare the quality and focus of the 4 threads I started to the 1 general post game analysis, the answer is an obvious yes.*. In these threads, posters can have a real back and forth because we are talking about one topic in each. In the general thread, that doesn’t happen. *I mean, according to Maslow, obviously we don’t NEED this thread. We don’t need bigsoccer. Hell, we don’t need soccer.