I am pretty surprised by the lack of rotation. I think GB could have more faith in some of these bench players than he does.
dude you label a champions league winner "EPL rotational" and a washed up tired old bale "former real madrid starter" gtfoh US U23 team has more talent than Wales and Iran combined yet, gtegggggg managed to turn both of those matches into cliffhangers and in the case of wales gifted them a tie for no reason
You are insufferable. High expectations are great. Criticize Berhalter, fine. But JESUS ********ING CHRIST no one is celebrating like underdogs. They are celebrating because winning and advancing is a whole SHIT TON better than being knocked out of a tournament we haven't played in in over 8 years. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH. OK. Now, go watch some Sabbi in Norway or wherever the hell he is and feel better.
I think Tim Ream has earned the US Soccer player of the year award during this tournament. He’s been a rock for club and country this calendar year. I doubt he’ll win because there are sexier names to choose from, but he’s earned it.
The World Cup can be a (very) big deal to people who still think that advancing out of the group wasn't a given, not after the squad was unable to qualify in '18 and not when we're rolling out a talented but extremely young group of players against quality teams like Wales and Iran (and, yes, they're not walkovers). What exactly do you think Gregg should have done to keep the squad more fresh? Play LDLT in place of one of our center mids? Started Joe Scally in place of Dest or Antonee? Played BA instead of TW? Good luck with any of those choices. Gregg has worn down the starters because, fairly IMO, he has concluded that the back-ups aren't very good, not good enough to make sure we could get the results we needed out of the group stage. His substitution patterns have been poor but even getting that right wouldn't have cured our problem with a lack of depth.
sometimes the aching scars of previous journeys prevent an active enjoyment in anything but the destination. is what it is. fun when you get there, doesn't mean the journey is.
well I know from following sports that the teams who overcelebrate in tourneys after a win usually lose the next game....act like you expected it....and prepare for the next game. would england celebrate like that for beating iran? no. act like youve been there even if you havent.
if CCV and Ream can basically just walk in off the street and perform well...how many others are there watching from home who could as well?? because some of the players greggg is using...especially the MLSers are waaay way worse than the rest of the team.
I'm a fan of Shaq Moore and his journey but man he was over matched today. That Gregg hasn't integrated Scally yet is criminal.
I don't understand why people are marshalling strawmen like halloween's in a few weeks rather than a month ago. Who thinks that? Who is HATING on Berhalter. It's such complete bull----. You guys just want homers, pure and simple and absolutely detest criticism, of any sort. I get being tired of the crazier takes, but come on man, criticism is fine. I've listened to about 3 break downs so far from espn and fox, and literally every analyst saw what I saw. None of this is out of left field Berhalter hating. Effing ridiculous. Its a forum, not a cheer leading squad.
CCV wasn't/isn't a better choice over Zim overall, but I do think that he was the right choice for today, going up against a side that was likely to pack it in until we scored and thus demanded some composure on the ball, while lacking big aerial threats. The Dutch are not the Iranians, however, and can't be treated as such.
No. You're strawmanning yourself right here. I don't homer for Berhalter. I level a lot of criticism his way. A lot of the guys that you're calling out here do likewise. But those who go "Berhalter's an IDIOT for not playing Gio as a false 9, yada yada" are just kvetching, not analyzing.
you gotta hand it to a poster who complains about straw-men in one sentence and then constructs one the size of Olympus in the next.
OMG We just beat Qatar!!!!!! #HuisVanOranje, bedankt voor jullie support! 🙏🎉#NothingLikeOranje pic.twitter.com/rFgkoGPBrL— OnsOranje (@OnsOranje) November 29, 2022
Well, I feel for you (or them) then. Because if "there" is winning the World Cup, it ain't happening. And if it is the quarterfinals or whatever, it's going to be fleeting. For the rest of us, it's been a fun ride.
There was a sequence against England where I pointed out to a casual how reticent that Shaq was to take the ball when everyone else was marked in a buildup. He's been playing like he knows he doesn't belong. If he doesn't believe that he belongs, then he doesn't belong. He hasn't always been unambiguously bad for us, but in my opinion I believe that he should have already played his last minutes in this tournament unless we have an injury/suspension nightmare. He's currently my last fullback option out of five. And now that we're out of the group, which means that the tournament isn't a failure, I do hope that Gregg will be braver in calling Scally's number instead of Moore's if we need to sub off either Dest or Jedi.
tyler adams, dest, aaronson, musah, reyna, pepi, scally, slonina, weah, richards, sargent, paredes, dike, busio, sands, mckenzie, pomykal, booth ledezma, mendez, etc etc are all 23 or younger you could put together a squad from just those players that an average coach would also get out of the group with I would take all of the players under 23 in the USA over the entire pools of players from either Wales or Iran for this world cup and definitely for 2026.
it's just being a fan man. there's a million ways. I sorta feel like the peaches and cream crowd has been saving this moment to unload on the more reticent fans honestly. There's no reason to put down people who are saying we can be better.
You probably need to reread this thread then. You're one of the more reasonable and rational critics, but there's a lot of folks on here who have nothing good to say, and a whole lot of ridiculous criticism. Personally, I don't actually mind criticism; I have my own nits to pick. I'm just pretty shocked at the quantity of it and in the critical posts, there's not a whole lot of credit given or even an acknowledgement that Berhalter's choices granted a win. In other words, it's not really the criticism I'm surprised at; I'm surprised that the critics don't even seem to be remotely happy we're through. Hell, I'd settle for no discussion of the coach and more discussion of great play by the players. There's precious little of that. Everything has become a referendum on the coach, when it is the players who win or lose primarily.