Post-match: USA v Netherlands Round of 16

We have to do something outside our Confed.

Can't be GC and NL.

 

I'll never forget being in Nurnberg in 2006. One indelible memory from the Ghana game, other than the bogus penalty, was Donovan dribbling forward looking to equalize. It looked like he had a chance for a shot, but instead backpasses to Ben Olsen at the top of the box. Strangely, I remember that moment more than Dempsey's goal... haha.

 

I get it. I don't think it was the biggest issue, obviously letting late runners score goals was.

I still maintain that more chance creation is always good, and under GGG we have been a team that relied on easily identified and defensible methods to create chances. And a large part of that is MMA.

I also don't think the chances we had were that great - I think the Dutch created much better chances. So a blown offside trap and a messy goal mouth scramble (and a lucky, awful backpass) are not chances I will get on a hill to defend as great chances, tbh.

 

Again, as frustrating at it is, I’ll say that was the worst team that we played in this tournament. Unfortunately for us, we played the worst game of our tournament against them.

 

We need to ask/pay to be in UEFA qualifying like Qatar did.

And then fix whyever CONMEBOL is mad at us (maybe promise our votes for 2030 to them?) and get into COPA America as well.

 

I hare hate HATE the Nations League

 

I might put your #3 and #4 higher but yes, hard to argue with that.

 

my son suggested Zidane …

I would think there are more than a few coaches that would enjoy the US young pool and focusing them on 2026.

 

Is that a real quote?

If so, diplomatic pre-match and calls a spade a spade post-match.

 

But MMA's attacking limitations places added emphasis on building the offense around Pulisic, which has been shown to be easy to stop.

MMA also means that Pulisic takes corners and set pieces. So who do you drop to get Aaronson/Reyna/Acosta on the field to take set pieces? ... Weah? ... #9? That sounds even worse.

 

I had this thought midway through the first half watching Jesus look lost when he got on the ball and turned at some point and wounded up turning it over... I was just like "what does Gregg tell those guys to do on the field" and the only answer I could come up with was "work hard" or whatever...

 

Has to be… Gold cup and Nations League are essentially the same back to back competition, right?

 

Really? Because Josh Sargent isn’t nearly as good as any of those guys, but he looked pretty good against Iran.

 

The Dutch pretty much say what they mean all the time, especially van Gaal.

 

Forget about club resumes and what not for a moment, if you just watched that team today, that was a very bad team that just was able to take advantage of their opportunities. Maybe they would say that they had an off night too. But it felt like today, losing to some lowly Central American team that managed 3 goals off 3 chances, meanwhile they just bunkered and prayed for the rest of the game.

 

I’m sure we’ll be playing Mexico and Canada a lot during the next 3.5 years.

 

Donovan had breakouts in 99 U-17, 2000 Olympics, and 2002. In fact, it's not a stretch to say the team started to go downhill when he was dropped in 2014( Bradley was never as good, Dempsey was good, Davies never go to show us what he could be, Beckerman was Beckerman, picked in 2014 when Landon wasn't, and they had been teammates in 99! ). we have yet to produce another player of his ability. it isn't Pulisic. He's good, but not Donovan good. I don't really give a shit about fancy back passes. He also can't take set pieces. Maybe Reyna will get there, but he seems like a John O Brien type that will be injured often.

 

First the draw of the group, we probably anticipated that we will play Dutch on round of 16. So if swing on a cross from our outside back, we may just play a 4-4-2 with both Pefok and Wright in the middle of box to battle for it.
What heck we need a Ferreira for. When Ferreira pulls back on the midfield, why not use a real midfielders like Aaronson/Reyna for that purpose.

 

No disagreement. These choices are hard, and I think it is an interesting discussion.

I'm not going to watch a game in which we made three TERRIBLE defensive mistakes and biffed quite a few great chances and say "hey, our midfield's bias to defense lost us this."

The bigger discussion is interesting. It's not correct to say that is why we lost.

 

Typical Van Gaal - ruthlessly pragmatic … pointed out Egg’s failure … take away our flank play and force us up the middle against the trees

 

Clear plan is to serve as hold-up / distribution for streaking wingers and fullbacks, then circle to the box.

Sargent did it well versus Iran, but it's mostly what we've been doing. A little different against England, IIRC.

 

And both are well behind qualifying in pressure and level of play.

I don't think NL is even taken seriously at this point. And increasingly the GC is a B team tournament because it conflicts with all the Euro players' preseasons. We also always host the GC which is yet another problem. We play far too many games at home.

 

Neutral fan view:

1) US was the best team from C'CAF by a mile;

2) First half you were in the game; had many scoring chances unlucky to not score a goal;

3) High intensity of first game doomed your players for the second half; US players gave their all. Tactics were naive and players lack experience, IMHO;

4) Depth is a problem, but I believe you can look forward to 2026; This team with 4 more years of experience and promising new players (Gio) should be interesting.

 

Ferreira shouldn't have been on this roster, so that's on Gregg.

 

You can’t believe Netherlands is below Iran and godforsaken wales. That’s crazytown