Whether we should have adjusted or not is debatable. If it were simply down to tactics, those three goals should have been prevented. The system didn't break down; the players' awareness on all three plays was simply inexplicable.
Berhalter never blackballed Reyna. He even started him during the September window. It’s hardly the same situation. There have been conflicting reports about his availability, but he certainly didn’t look like he was at full strength against the Netherlands.
I'm for simply moving on as I don't honestly foresee a cycle's worth of improvement and continued motivation with this same group, and I believe that the next manager, whoever it is, would probably be best served having most of or an entire cycle with which to prepare. I think your observations are clear-headed, though.
three of whom are (were, sad face) in this team largely (and arguably only) due to berhalter being the manager. no one (other than possibly pulisic) is going to say anything other than gregg is great and it would be great if hes back...cause he might be back. ask brooks, scally or pepi. id pay attention to those quotes...
What about that Set Pieces coach? What the hell?!?! I mean, I try not to say stupid shit here, but, drive the guy to the middle of the Qatari desert, drop him off, and say "Good luck".
Usually, I would agree, but I feel like this is a different situation given the state of the pool when Berhalter took over and the youth of that pool to this day. I don't think there is any potential issue of Berhalter running out of ideas for how to improve this team or of the players potentially tuning him out. Both would be super motivated to keep this moving forward as they still have a lot to prove and tons of motivation do just that. I felt like two things would make a second cycle with Berhalter difficult: 1. underperforming in the World Cup, which would leave questions and lack of faith in the coach, or 2. overperformance in the World Cup, which could leave everyone wondering if they have already gotten everything that they can out of the relationship. The sweet spot of meeting expectations makes a second cycle for Berhalter much more appealing, in my opinion.
he started ferreira a whole lot more than sept camp, but im sure thats hardly the same situation either...
The set pieces were poor and that’s definitely the number 1 area for improvement. The set piece coach we hired came from a club that does dramatically better than set pieces that anyone else in Europe (and is now transitioning to being the set piece coach at Leicester I believe). Pulisic is not very good at taking them either and ideally Reyna or someone else takes them over next cycle. How many of our guys are even good in the air other than McKennie and Zimmerman?
I, too, was expecting a little more, um, set piece ooomph out of a team that had just hired a dedicated set piece coach.
Interestingly on his podcast Grant Wahl said that it’s not just solely Earnie Stewart’s decision the way it’s being portrayed, and that Cindy Parlow Cone is a lot more influential behind the scenes than is known. Specifically mentioned that Stewart has wanted to hire a number of youth coaches that he wasn’t able to hire. Also mentioned that until a few years ago Pep was in play for 2026 and Gulati and Pep had a few dinners about it. Says he still thinks in the end Berhalter will get extended.
Well as you know Reyna was injured for basically all of qualifying and for the June window so no that’s not the same situation either.
If Berhalter is re-hired, I really fear for the further development of this group, and the program as a whole.
This is pure nonsense. The US had a clear tactical identity starting with BB. BB's squad was a lethal contain and counter unit designed to leverage the world class speed, quickness and work rate of Donovan and the 3 lung machine that was MB90. Contain, funnel, contain, then counter like a bat out of hell chased by MAGA-hat zombies. When a BB counter was on point, it was serial killer lethal and feared, just watch the Confed Cup matches. Klinsmann came in got rid of the contain and counter and introduced "proactive" which started with playing out the back, increasing the speed and tempo with one touch passes and of course high press/high pressure. We got a memorable goal directly off the high press when JJ scared the GK to the point where he let in an own goal. Here is a match from 2015 of that period's tactical sets Here is a easy question; Please describe the actual tactical scheme that GB actually put in place and how it differed from Klinsmann?
That was the best. Love that goal. Though that was a different game than these highlights, now that I watched them. HA Klinsmann had ownage on Germany! I miss Friedel's accent!
i wonder how the dynamic will change after 3 years of "every player is important", "trust is everything", "its all about team" resulted in berhalter not trusting many of those players when the chips were down. and im not even talking about the end of roster guys- he wouldnt even play aaronson centrally until it was too late. "the group" turned out to be a whole lot smaller that we were led to believe. and honestly, why is no one making haji wright/david regis comparisons?
oh, oh, i know i know! he dropped all pretense of what to do after we won possession with our press! do i win something?
Bradley's tactics were extremely basic. He does deserve some credit for recognizing the important of using possession, but he wasn't really able to integrate an actual possession based style of play. Klinsmann's tactics were erratic and much more reactive than proactive most of the time. For all of his talk about being proactive and trying to play more of that style early, he completely regressed in the 2044 World Cup. Ok, that was all about results, so although I was disappointed in how we played, I understood the pragmatism. It was after that World Cup where things really started to unravel. We were shockingly bad and the team looked straight up confused on the field. The 2015 Gold Cup was a disaster. That continued for the next year and into World Cup qualifying. Klinsmann's "tactics" were a nightmare.
Look at my earlier post where I outlined the basic elements of Berhalter's tactical approach this World Cup. It was clearly a possession based plan that relied on the center backs to get the ball into good spots building through the midfield. The outside backs were integral in getting forward while in possession. The central midfield sometimes occupied the flanks and let the wingers come centrally. During other times, they stayed centrally, and the wingers stretched the field. All of this seemed to work decently, but the play was often conservative, lacking things like combination play through the middle, long switches, and balls over the top. Also, we were mostly unable to involve the 9 in the possession scheme, so the role of whoever played there is much harder to define. There is a clear tactical foundation to build from here, especially given how solid it was defensively. I expected this team to be exciting, but to give up goals this tournament. It was basically the opposite. I'm fine with that given that a foundation is clearly being put in place that this young team can build from.
I have yet to meet anyone in real life that actually wants Berhalter back. Amazing that those people exist.
Maybe USSF operates a troll farm somewhere in Chicago as the Kremlin does in St Petersburg? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency