Acosta is a below-average MLS central midfielder. He's worse than Roldan, De La Torre, and Reyna in that role. The only justification for his inclusion in the squad is as an emergency replacement for Adams (a role that he isn't good at either). As an 8, using Acosta is basically inexcusable. He was useless against England and was worse today, and he's been terrible in that role whenever Berhalter has called on him.
Another note, we should have shot from distance WAY more often than we did. That goalkeeper was terrible today. We should have tested him way more than we did.
Parking the bus was absolutely the right choice. Scoring is hard in soccer. It's really hard for Iran to score in 10 minutes when we have everyone packing the back. It's that simple. Your best chance when the thing you need to do most of all is keep a one goal lead is to defend for all your life. Going all in on defense to kill the last 10 or 15 minutes of an important game is pretty much standard operating procedurre.
That is old horse and buggy thinking, circa US soccer prior to 2010. We need to rethink our approach. Mistaking a counter defense vs a bunker, parking the bus defense is the issue I have. Moore, Wright, Acosta subs who drop back immediately was our problem. What game did you watch? The moment we went that defensive we gave up dangerous crosses, a penalty call, and a few shots on goal. Reyna can play defense too, but has the ball skills to take it up field.
Yeah, when Acosta was sent in at the 8 GGG was basically rolling up into the fetal position and hoping our defense would hold.. The argument can be made that he was the only (logical) choice under the circumstances. My response would be that we have had an entire cycle of watching Acosta at the 8 and what happens to the team when he is inserted there. Yeah I know, he saved the game against the Welsh with his tactical foul, but the entire game changed when he entered. That play may not have been necessary if we had not completely lost control. He should not be anything but an emergency replacement for Adams. GGG needed to solve this problem long ago either with personnel and/or tactical changes. Instead we get MMA and hang on by the skin of our teeth when any one of them gets tired or injured. There is no way we should be folding up shop with 30 minutes left against Iran. Thankfully it did not bite us in the arse today. GGG has done plenty of good things in his tenure along with plenty of inexplicable things. Not addressing the issue that our midfield becomes ineffective when Acosta is put in at the 8 is one of the inexplicable things.
fax. Acosta is not an 8 and we need to stop pretending he is an 8. Hes an 8 like hes a right back (.......hes not a right back)
If anyone thinks the US is the only team that will go defensive to kill the last 10 minutes of a game I don't think you've watched a lot of soccer around the world. Sometimes the oldest strategy in the book stays there because it works and it's obvious.
The subs changed the game for us in a positive way. Are y’all blind? Watch the replay. It stopped the bleeding
Subs were awful. Thank God Iran didn't have much quality. Haji Wright? That's when you put Reyna in. He can hold the ball and draw fouls.
Acosta is the right sub but 15 minutes later. However, I think McKennie's fitness comes into play as well.
There is one tactical move I liked. Moving Musah to the right side and McKennie to the left. I think those are the best sides for both.
I’d rather push aaronson to the 8 and his activity is enough to make up for slight ness and then bring on Reyna. Just my opinion that between reyna and aaronson we have enough activity to cover anything lost from Acosta. also I think you have to bring on Wright now that he’s there. I’d likely have preferred Pepi in that role but here we are.
The problem isn’t strictly Acosta. It is the combination of Wright and Acosta in a rigid system. When Josh went down, the plan (since Acosta was in) should have been someone other than Wright. We had gassed players and had already taken a possession ability hit when Acosta came on. Wright compounded this and we all saw the battering we took. Acosta isn’t an 8, ok, so we needed to ADAPT to best suit whom we have available. Wright was a mistake.
I thought we went pure defensive a little early. I l liked the Zimmerman addition and he was excellent in closing them out. Shaq Moore seemed like a questionable decision at the time. Dest seemed like he still had gas in the tank to me and he was looking stout defensively. I think Haji was really bad in the closeout. Would have been really nice to see Pepi and Pefok on the bench when Sarge went down. I didn't love Acosta but I honestly don't know who else we have for McKennie that can even come close to replicating the midfield dynamic with MMA. Aaronson would have been nice to see there in the lead up. He plays better defense for Leeds than I've seen him play for us. Tl;dr - I thought the non-Shaq Moore subs were fine but the pure defensive approach came just a bit too early.
Thought Zimmerman was fine. Moore has been truly terrible. I don't know what Scally has been doing in training but Berhalter's decision-making here is among the most befuddling of his tenure.
With the exception of adding Zimm, I don’t think the subs were the right choice, if your goal is to minimize the chances of being scored against. We withstood the onslaught (barely) but we increased their chances of tying it up by failing to replace Wes with someone who could occupy the ball.
I didn’t mind it. We still should’ve been maintaining possession a bit better even in a defensive stance but some sloppiness got in the way.
I can get behind Zimmerman. That works for me too. But I would have thrown Renya up top for someone else that was gassed, thats for darn sure.
LDLT instead of Acosta was absolutely the sub that should have happened. He's our best possession midfielder not named Musah and he does good work defensively. The only reason not to sub him is if he isn't fit enough to play. And if he isn't fit enough to play, I don't know why Gregg brought him to Qatar. I'd have been happy to see Reyna instead of Haji. I'd have been happy to see literally anyone instead of Shaq.
Zimmerman was the right sub. Moore was absolutely abysmal and Dempsey was right to clown on him post game. The real terrible sub was Wright. If you’re going to come on as a sub in that situation, the very least you can do is run hard. Not only did he seem like he was jogging around, but he lost nearly every 50/50 battle when winning one meant sending Aaronson through on goal, but that “shot” on goal when BA put him through was one of the worst I’ve ever seen by a U.S. player at this level. Ferreira should have come on there and if Sargent is hurt, Wright had better not start. He doesn’t deserve it on form, merit, whatever. None of our forwards are good but he’s bringing nothing to the table right now.
Wright is becoming this cycle's Robbie Finley. Gregg loves the IDEA of Haji, but then you see the player and you are like.......NOPE.
Much better post. We can debate some of this stuff, but what you put forth is worth debating. Thanks. The Football Manager nerd in me would like to see Reyna as a false 9 as opposed to some of our truly mediocre 9 options, of which I think it's clear that Sargent is the clear best of the lot, but that doesn't mean that I think it in any way the obviously correct choice. In fact, I'm skeptical that it would work. But only one of our options is any better than purely mediocre, IMO, and I don't really believe in my heart that he'll actually score, so, with my job not on the line, I am tempted to try that. That's not the same thing as believing that Berhalter actually should, though.