U.S. outplayed, outcoached by Costa Rica in historic defeat - Bruce Arena "We obviously didn't play well tonight," said Arena. "I think on the night we didn't make any plays that mattered, and we were probably outplayed in most positions on the field and made some critical errors. "We didn't capitalize on potential opportunities. We didn't have a good night. Give Costa Rica credit. I thought they outplayed us and outcoached us tonight." "Darlington and Michael were not the problems in our game tonight," he said. "Our backline made some mistakes, we didn't come up with any big saves, our attacking players weren't dangerous on the night." When asked why Cameron and Ream were so far apart in the run-up to Urena's first, Arena said: "That's a good question. We should have been a little bit better. Having said that, Tim [Ream] did a good job and Michael [Bradley] came in with him to push him wide. "It didn't look like he got much on the shot, and Tim [Howard] perhaps lost his angle in the goal a little bit, and he was able to roll it in. If I'm not mistaken, the play developed where [Bryan] Ruiz handled the ball in the center of midfield, and the play went on and we got split there. It shouldn't happen." "[Pulisic] had a tough game today and obviously they paid a lot of attention to him," said Arena. "You could see early in the game they always sent a second player to him. I think he got a little frustrated. They just defended very well against him." "Qualifying has been in jeopardy since last year for most teams," he said. "Right now Mexico and Costa Rica are I would think probably qualified. So it's going to be a battle amongst the remaining four teams." He added: "We'll move on. This is how you deal in competition and sports. You don't win every game, and when you get a bad result you've got to put it past you real quick and play the next game and that's what we'll do."
I disagree. We couldn't keep the ball and the Ticos ran right through our midfield. Bradley is not enough defensively in midfield. He was partially at fault for Urena's 2nd goal.
Frankly, Mexico and Costa Rica are the class in the region. So far they keep beating everybody, our defeat is not that important. We just have to beat the direct competition, Panama and Honduras. In that sense, the tie at Panama and the 6-0 to Honduras more than make up for losing to the top two at home.
Newsflash: MB90 is overweight and slow now. His three touch diddy on the ball while he makes up his mind to pass it back is killing everyone. He is a traffic cone, too. But hey I was just watching him at the game through my tears of anger.
Are you talking about Arena or the USMNT? Arena went 0-1-1 and was outscored 3-1. IF we are using Klinsmann's record to compare, than it is a success but that bar is too low. The last game stunk. What is important in the next couple of days is how the team (Arena and the players) react. Do they roll over or do they go down to Honduras and get the result they need to jump back into the driver's spot for the third spot to Russia. The Mexico game was definitely a good result and I don't want to talk about CR. Maybe in a few days I'll be able to talk but not now!
Excerpts pertinent to longer-term interests from an interview today w/ Goff: On MLS filling more attacking roles with Americans in order to benefit the player pool … “That’s not the function of Major League Soccer. They are trying to create a product that will be in demand and competitive with other leagues in the world. Their concern is certainly not the national team program, [which is] just a byproduct of what they do. They are not sitting around thinking, ‘How do we make this national team better?’ [It’s,] ‘How do we make our league better?’ You would like to believe as the league gets better, it should benefit the national team program. Whether that is accurate or not, the EPL has gotten a lot better; I don’t think it’s helping England. The Germans could tell you it does benefit them. Maybe the Spanish would tell you the same. In every country, it’s different.” - Me: I don't think this is seeing the forest through the trees, and hope this was just him being diplomatic, while he says differently behind the scenes. However, it is pretty strong and argumentative, so I think this is what he truly believes. It should be a function of MLS because that's precisely the main thing that will actually make the product in demand and competitive with the other leagues in the world. He even brings up the examples that reinforce it. Germany and Spain became the best leagues off their domestic development and giving those players opportunities as a base. England slid behind them on not doing the same, and they can still be up there on history, which the U.S. doesn't have. They need to build it primarily through domestics/nt success. He should have pointed out that MLS' rules favoring foreign players over domestics is cutting off their noses to spite their faces, while making things tougher for the nt at the same time - because it's fair and they need to hear it somewhere. On whether he considered a young player, such as Ethan Horvath or Bill Hamid, instead of veteran Nick Rimando as the third-choice goalkeeper … “Yes. If I was thinking of coaching past the 2018 World Cup, I would be maybe considering the third goalkeeper. That’s not my focus. If it was my focus, I would probably have a younger goalkeeper and say we’re getting him ready for down the road. But I’m not concerned with down the road. - Me: 3rd goalkeeper isn't an important position or anything, but his answer indicates he generally equates older and more experienced, with better now, which we already figured. Because Horvath and Hamid have a little international experience, while being better keepers now, let alone next cycle. On whether the player pool is much deeper than a decade ago … “It is deeper. Doesn’t mean it’s better, but it’s deeper. When we get to the World Cup, we’ll know a little bit more. That’s where you really examine where a national team is. That will give us a lot of answers.” - Me: I more or less agree. It is definitely deeper than ever. Doesn't automatically mean it's better, just a factor in that. We'll get some more answers in the World Cup, but having that be a particularly good measuring stick assumes that he wasn't starting behind the 8 ball, or made the proper integration decisions to catch up. Which he's even indicating in the previous answer he's not because that isn't too much of his focus. We're not going to find out about our goalkeeping talent (just an example) in 2018 because roster spots were used on Rimando and starts given to Guzan in the GC.
We need as many as we can get. If we have 3 that are approaching world class we can use a 4th. If we have 4 that are approaching world class, we can use one that is world class etc. It'd be nice to have a player of Cameron's quality (not what he showed vs Costa Rica) as first off the bench. Wouldn't it be great if EPB fully developed to the potential many feel he has and still didn't start because there were significantly better options?
If we still hopefully qualify, it may be best that Arena went ahead and lost against Costa Rica. If history serves us well, Arena does best when he's been humbled.
Of course but we'll be fine with defenders who are just very good. Right now LB looks like it is gonna be are weakest position defensively, in the near future.
judging potential is difficult. Just a few years ago people were asking that Bobby Wood never see the field in a US shirt again and now he is one of our top strikers. He is not the answer yet but could one day prove to be our best ever striker...or not. One thing that is important is to expect the unexpected. Players come out of nowhere to make an impact and players fall suddenly out of the limelight. How many people would have pegged Dempsey as one of our future all time greats, a player that many consider to be our best ever, when he was playing at Furman University? How about when he first started with the Revs? Reasons vary but the lack predictability doesn't. Agree that defense definitely appears to be an area of strength right now but all it takes is for 1 or 3 of those prospects to fail to meet expectations and a couple of injuries and we will be saying how good it could have been rather than how good it is. All that being said, your point stands. It is a position that we can be less concerned about for now. maybe I'm being picky but I have seen too many top prospects fail to make an impact. I have also seen quite a few less heralded players have better careers.
I don't really agree with that assessment. The problem is really in the area of attack, in terms of what MLS is producing. They are producing d-mids, cb's, fb's, and gk's from the States. They have to, in part, to complement all their DP/allocation attackers acquired from outside leagues. MLS produced Miazga, Roldan, Hamid, Zimmerman, Morrow, Lima, Besler, Adams, Acosta, etc. Klinsmann just by rule thru admission didn't give some of them opportunities if he didn't have to, and Arena has been on the slow side in integrating some of those guys after Jurgen was dismissed. Even when it comes to the established guys - Cameron, Besler, Yedlin, Villafana, Gonzalez, Bradley, etc.; were produced by MLS. Besler was miscast as a lb by Klinsmann and underused by Arena. Cameron not played at his best position of cdm by either. Gonzalez often played next to a fellow galoot by both. And Bradley used as a 10 by Klinsmann, 6 by Arena, when he's an 8. This problem more comes down to pool mismanagement by the 2 managers than MLS. MLS just needs to take ownership of some of the a-mid issues, which is why Goff asked that particular question.
I don't understand why Morrow isn't in the squad. Anyway, it seems that the Bundesliga is taking care of up and coming attackers.
No thanks to Jürgen. Hooray for meaningless friendlies. And how did that tough tournament end? I seem to remember an old, timid lineup that didn't manage a single shot on goal. Klinsmann deserved every ounce of the abuse he got. Most of his coaching performance for the U.S. was a turd that can't be polished.
Bruce's unforgivable mistakes from the start of summer up until now, don't justify Jurgen's his last 2 years, and vice versa. We can have 2 managers who aren't doing their jobs sufficiently, ya know. The solution would have been to hire someone better than both of them, like Marsch, for one. Bruce is well past his prime, like many of the players he's employing. Both Bruce and Jurgen were hired for superficial reasons, not because of their recent performances in other jobs, and the result you get is unsatisfactory either way,
We lost to a team with much better players? Does it seem like Arena is going to beat Argentina any time soon? Does it seem like Arena is going to beat Ecuador anytime soon?
I hope there's an out-clause for the end of qualifying and we can bring in someone better who gets cut free. Not sure it would be worth swallowing a contract with this group of players.
Do you think that the Mexico away game and the last 15 minutes tonight just might convince Bruce we need to play with 3 in the back? Although our CBs aren't the greatest, we have more of them and they are better than any FBs we have on the roster. And we have several players that can play WB much better than any or or FBs can play FB. Hideous performance. Another poor game plan. But BIG POINT. Now we are in with a chance if we can win in Orlando.
That wasn't the criticism and you know it, because I explained it in the part you studiously avoided quoting. Losing to Argentina is okay. Losing to Argentina without getting a single shot on goal because your coach has fielded an old, slow, timid lineup is not okay. Yet another example of Jürgen putting the team in a position in which it had no chance. That's the hallmark of the Klinsmann era (well one of them, along with somehow managing to take all the credit when things go well and none of the blame when they don't): consistently putting his players in situations that make it more difficult for them to win. We just had a great run of games under Bruce, culminating in the Gold Cup victory. It's weird how you are able to crystallize Bruce into two bad games in a row (his first two in his second stint) while letting Klinsmann of the hook for years of horrible performances.
At some point we have to quit with the Team (insert coach here) vs. Team Klinsmann. It's just not even an interesting or productive topic. The disappointment with the team depends on the player pool and the player culture. We simply do not have much of either. US teams of the past have made up for the lack of high quality performers with player culture and sheer will. The US national team no longer has the mentality of the US national team. We play lazy, we play entitled, and we do not exhibit the pride we once did. We play like the English now. The sum of the parts is always less than the whole.