Pre-match: USA vs. Guatemala: March 29th, 2016

New member here, literally just looked for a solid USMNT forum to try and figure out WTF we are doing these days. Good to know I'm not the only one lost. As much as I love playing "guess this games starting XI", I'm fed up with the JK era. I was finished after the Gold Cup. The fact that we are seriously sweating a match on US soil vs Guatemala to advance to the hex is enough to know we need a change.

 

Bradley had shown again and again he can't be the creator at the top of a diamond midfield. So if he has someone behind him, he still needs someone in front of him. Plus he ha not looked good and I rather have an XI without him this game. So, maybe my comment was a little obtuse but basically I don't like Bradley at AM.

 

Cart before horse question, there.

Let's get through 2016 before we concern ourselves too much with 2017.

I would guess the answer is "probably not."

 

Rumor is that Pulisic is in camp specifically to start in goal tomorrow night.

His back line will be Zardes, Bradley, Beckerman, Bedoya.

 

Awesome. 17 years old. One team practice at half speed and a walk through today. No doubt Klinsey knows his shit.

 

Just a thought, but maybe we could try playing players in their natural positions? Excluding LM and LB, cause apparently there are no quality players at those positions in the USMNT pool.

Nah, I think the CB pairing will be Bradley and Altidore. More physically dominating.

 

And we can fire up the hype train into overdrive if he comes on for a 20 minute cameo and has a few nice touches against utterly garbage opponents.

 

No, we'll just hear from JK how he seized his opportunity, has hunger, blah blah blah.

 

Ya know? Makes more sense than an Alvarado - Orozco pairing.

 

Time to channel Brian McBride...we were 1-1-1 and down a man, and grabbed the victory against Guatemala:

https://andthenthehex.wordpress.com...eek-brian-mcbride-v-guatemala-september-2000/

For this game, I want to build off what I saw from the first 15 minutes of the second half (man, that's a depressing statement.) This period featured 5 of the 12 shots, and 3 of the 5 shots on goal. Credit to the Guatemala keeper, who came up big, particularly on Bedoya's shot at the 6.

Nagbe has to start.

Move Yedlin back to RB, and insert another player in midfield who can play possession soccer.

Get 3 points and go qualify.

 

Putting aside his questionable roster selections, which significantly hand-cuffed him once injuries surfaced, Klinsmann made 6 completely asinine decisions on the starting line-up in the last game:

1. Castillo at LB instead of the bench
2. Orozco at CB instead of the bench
3. Mix at DCM instead of the bench
4. Cameron at RB instead of CB
5. Yedlin at RM instead of RB
6. Bedoya at LM instead of RM

My guess is that he will at least fix the Mix mistake, and possibly 1-2 others. But he's definitely going to repeat 3-4 of his mistakes, including probably using the exact same back-line. Just fixing the Mix debacle is likely enough to allow us to beat Guatemala at home. Klinsmann will then say that the problem was simply that Mix didn't play well enough in the first game, rather than acknowledging that he himself made 6 mistakes on the starting line-up in the first game.

Klinsmann will then continue selecting the same incompetent players (like Orozco, Castillo and Mix) and making the same head-scratching line-up choices all the way through qualifying. We are good enough (and the competition is bad enough) to be at least competitive all the way through the Hex with Klinsmann continuing to make absurd personnel decisions. If we fail to qualify, it will likely be on one of the last few days of the Hex, way too late to do anything about it, and Klinsmann will blame the players for everything and fly off on a private jet back to Germany.

Sunil needs to man-up and get rid of this clown now. If he doesn't, then Sunil needs to go too.

 

Just moving Yedlin to RB, Cam to DM and Nagbe on the right would probably be enough and all you're doing is moving Mix to the bench.

 

so far JK newconference:
1. Bedoya is 'banged up' may not play (cough! excuse for Pulsic cough!)
2. Need to have high sense of urgency from 1st moment.
3. Columbus has had historic results for US.

 

This for me was more of a roster issue than a game day selection issue. Looking at game day, there was really no other choice sadly because the roster was so poorly constructed for left sided players. He knew Fab was hurt and still did not create any balance in the roster to offset him not being available.

I think we will see Castillo again on Tuesday because I don't know who else could play there.

 

Do you have a link for the conference?

 

True. I did say I was "putting aside his questionable roster selections," but you are correct that this one was caused directly by those questionable roster selections. And note that he didn't even correct this problem after the game by calling in another LB, instead calling in not one, but two more midfield options, effectively doubling down on his initial mistake. So what happens if Castillo pulls a hamstring in warm-ups?

 

No, God forbid US Soccer do that. They are tweeting it.

 

Then we get to find out if Michael Orozco can play left back.

 

How about the World Cup ? Horrendous.

 

basically I have been living back in Wales two years..so wont see the game...but I expect to be up late at night hoping we will win....lol can't believe this

 

He was doing a fine job until the 90th minute against Portugal and then the parasites from that egg salad sandwich he ate vanished from his brain.

 

The jungle will do that to you.

 

I didn't get to see the 1st half of the game, what did Castillo do that it was horrendously wrong. If it was just the bad pass for a corner, then I think we are just looking for scapegoats.

 

Sounds like Klinsmann in emphatically denying he is playing anyone out of position.

 

The problem you have is that you don't know how effective Finlay will be in the crucial home game because he wasn't played in the away game. I was in favor of starting Zardes - Dempsey Finlay away and pull them if ineffective. Instead, Klinsi found out Zardes was ineffective when he subbed him in late and he never played Finlay because he wanted to experiment with Yedlin at wing, who has been concentrating on fullback at Sunderland.

The funny thing about that game in Guat is that we didn't actually learn anything from the loss or subs or weird lineup.