News: Bruce Arena Calls 26 Players for October Qualifiers Against Panama and T&T

As he demonstrated during his approximately 39 hour tenure with Swansea.

 

lol, That was not the concern there . . .

 

His tenure with Swansea had everything to do with that team being trash and him being dumped into an near impossible situation where it was very unlikely he'd succeed.

They gave him 12 games, he got 8 points. Over 38 games it was worse than Clement, but Clement had a 1 point from 6 game stretch which was worse than any 6 game sample size during Bradley's 85 days in charge.

This is a totally OT conversation, but if an American coach is going to succeed in a top 5 league in Europe anytime soon, it's going to have to be a near perfect situation where the guy is brought in with a proper preaseason and the opportunity to structure a roster accordingly, to bring in his guys and to allow the guys he keeps to buy in. He didn't get anywhere near the kind of structural support at SCFC and it showed; they were a disaster.

 

You're right, that was just low hanging fruit, someone was going to say it.

That was just about the worst career move an American manager could have ever made, and he was just the optimist to make it.

 

I would have done the same thing if I were him; how many shots would he realistically have to take over an BPL side that in theory has been a stable fixture in the league for a few years. He took his opportunity, and it didn't work out. Better to try and fail than not try at all.

He did a good job in Norway and France, was a better US manager than half the fanbase thinks he was and was a good MLS manager.

I have a lot of time and respect for Bob Bradley.

 

I would love to see Martino takes over the USMNT in November.

He's already in the US, know the US players pool, and should get up to speed fairly quickly.

There's no hope with Arena in Russia, assuming we make it there.

 

I see this sentiment a lot and I dont buy it. 8 months is a long time internationally. He'll have a January camp, March friendlies and then the May camp to integrate guys like McKinnie, et al into the fold.

Assuming we qualify, I'd bet half the roster turns over between now and June.

 

All of these last few posts are great at ignoring the point that arena is "getting the band back together" --bringing in a failed coach, who happens to be the dad of a player that shouldn't see the field...my God...Sunil, please replace Arena with Bob Gansler if he's still alive.

 

Absolutely. Tab, ABMOD, Bunker Bob, Dave Sarachan. Coaching circle incest. Arena and Sunil are watching too much GoT.

 

With Arena in charge? I highly doubt it.

It would not surprise me the slightest if Wondo and Beaz are on the 23 men roster to Russia.

 

A calculating man would look at the move and step back and see how often managers are getting sacked in the prem, and how often his name keeps coming up in the conversation for potential replacements. There were better opportunities coming for Bob until he jumped at the first chair pulled out for him regardless of the situation. Now there aren't. I, like you, have a lot of respect for Bob. But a calculating man he isn't.

 

No, there weren't. This was almost certainly the only shot at a PL job he was ever going to get.

And while it certainly was a challenging situation to step into, the Swansea squad he inherited was good enough (with a couple additions in the January window) to stay up.

 

No way you can say that. He was brought up every time there was a manager sacked at some point in the conversation. With the American ownership, he was going to get a shot somewhere.

 

To begin with, he wasn't brought up "every time" there was a managerial vacancy. And in the cases he was it was almost always lazy journalism (he maybe was kind of considered for the Villa job at some point).

He was a 58 year old whose biggest club job was in the French second division. The odds of an owner of any nationality taking a shot on him in the PL were slim to none. He was lucky enough that slim came through in the shape of Swansea. He took the shot, it didn't work out.

 

Not a great roster because, unfortunately, Arena seems to have no new ideas. We already knew he was going to bring in too many 30+ players - a WHOPPING 14 (GKs: 33, 38, 38, Defense: 35, 30, 32, 31, 31, Midfield: 30, 30, 32, 30, Forwards: 34, 34 ) under the guise of "experience" (you can have 1 year of marginal to mediocre experience 10 times over).

From what I've seen, many of these "experienced" players seem disinterested, with a lack of any sense of urgency -- Bradley, Zusi, Dempsey, Altidore. Others lack the quality they once had, and experience doesn't always make up for that.

There are only 8 players under 27 on the roster, Pulisic, Nagbe, Wood, Yedlin, Acosta, Arriola, Agudelo, Zardes. I'd be tempted to start the "young ones" (except the last two), but we know that won't happen.

Michael Bradley will stay on the field for the entire game no matter how many giveaways he gifts to our opponents in our third of the field. Altidore will start and be gassed after 20 minutes - provided he runs any. The Zuzi failed experiment at right back probably will continue. Beasley will make the 18 and unfortunately might even see the field.

We know Arena will sub a player at the 60th minute mark -- NOT based on play on the field, but for a player that was identified long before the game started. Another sub will follow shortly afterward -- same criterion.

He's gotten the players to settle down, but that was mainly by bringing in a has-been that is indebted to him for his last hurrah (Beasley) and some old hangers-on that haven't shown consistent top quality in a long time (Bradley, Altidore) and less-than-top players he is comfortable with, that also are comfortable with him (Gonzalez, Ream, Zusi.)

Shout out to Taylor Twellman that was appalled that Fabian Johnson did not make the roster because he was the 2nd best player at the 2014 World Cup ... 3 YEARS AGO!!!

Soccer ... and ALL of sports ... is a "What have you done for me lately" entity and if you haven't performed at a consistently high level, it's NEXT MAN UP!!! Except for Arena. Then it's the same ol', same ol' ...

I will be rooting for the US loud and proud, as usual.

I'm a realist, and I'm generally optimistic in these situations, but this time, given the state of this US team - given the selections - I've got serious doubts about our chances.

Who knows ... maybe Arena will play mostly young and energetic players. Maybe the players will actually have a sense of urgency from the first minute ... maybe the subs will actually make sense -- based on play on the field (Arriola for Altidore ... and watch the attack start to work!!)

I certainly hope we get the results we need and I'm pleasantly surprised. But even more than that, I hope we finally LEARN from this experience, win or lose...

 

We disagree. Back to the topic.

 

The roster doesn't inspire confidence, but it actually has more than enough talent to beat Panama. It's not like we need a result against Italy or Belgium. Seriously- the fact we are worried about this match is the problem.

Bruce has shown tactical flexibility in the past - this is the type of match where he has dialed things up a notch and given his team an edge through good coaching. Hopefully he does that again tomorrow.

 

1 - 17 is pushing it I think... these are the guys that had minutes in their respective WCs... compared to this WCQ cycle...

NUMBER	POSITION	2017	2014	2010	2006	2002
1	GK	Howard	Howard	Howard	Keller	Friedel
2	GK	Guzan	Guzan	Guzan	Howard	Keller
3	CB	Brooks	Gonzalez	Onyewu	Onyewu	Agoos
4	CB	Cameron	Besler	Demerit	Pope	Pope
5	RB	Yedlin	F Johnson	Cherundolo	Cherundolo	Sanneh
6	LB	Villafana	Beasley	Bocanegra	Bocanegra	Heyduke
7	M	Bradley	Beckerman	Bradley	Reyna	Obrien
8	M	Nagbe	Bradley	Edu	Mastroeni	Reyna
9	M	Acosta	Bedoya	Dempsey	Dempsey	Donovan
10	M	Pulisic	Jones	Donovan	Convey	Beasley
11	F	Altdiore	Demspey	Altidore	Donovan	Mathis
12	F	Wood	Altidore	Findley	McBride	McBride
13	O Sub 1	Demspey	Yedlin	Feilhaber	E Johnson	C Jones
14	O Sub 2	Arriola	Zusi	Buddle	Obrien	Moore
15	O Sub 3	Feilhaber	Wondo	Gomez	Wollf	Wolff
16	D Sub 1	Zusi	Bedoya	Clark	Conrad	Llamosa
17	D Sub 2	Besler	Brooks	Holden	Olsen	Lewis
18	Old Bench Guy	Wondo	Davis	Goodsen	Berhalter	Regis

The starting 11 might be better, but the subs, 13 - 17 are debatable.[/COLOR]

 

i think our record against panama over the last three years is probably a little more of "a problem" than what we think one way or the other

 

Excellent work putting that chart together. I repped it, unrepped it and repped it again.

 

This is a joke, right?

 

It's funny to hear a BS regular ask about jokes --- it's funny. [smh lol]

 

That claim stopped around November, 2016 for some reason.

 

Succession plan?

 

The USSoccer GOB's have retaken the fort.