Post-match: International Friendly: USA vs Jamaica; June 5th 2019

I think US soccer just doesn't want my money or attention. It's like they have some internal bet: "Hey, here's a guy that has followed US soccer since f'n 1983 and traveled to a WC. I bet we can make even him lose interest!"

Gregg, play to win the game. Quit embarrassing yourself and this team. Your job is to get the best out of the players you have. Don't suck at your job.

I don't play much poker, but it seems to me that going all in pre-flop with J-6 is stupid even if you say you were just testing out a strategy for when you actually have aces. You don't have aces! You have a f'n J-6. Play a strategy that fits the players your have!

As to the players, it is hard to imagine that the lineal descendant of US DM/6 has gotten slower, less hard and less skillful all at the same time over the years. I seriously think Chad Deering would be a step up from Trapp.

 

I can't believe I braved I-95 during rush hour from Richmond to attend this debacle. Then I woke up this morning and saw the Gold Cup roster and it has Omar, Roldan, etc. Yikes. Sorry if I'm rehashing earlier posts, but a few observations. Robinson was poor. I had high hopes for him but he was technically bad and indecisive on the ball. I feel for Sargent. He worked incredibly hard defensively to win the ball due to the lack of service, had the only real chance of the game, and then gets left off the GC roster. Holmes was the only midfielder who seemed capable of riding the hard challenges of the Jamacian players and who showed the capacity to dribble through midfield and create space for himself. That probably means he'll ride the bench at the GC. Honestly, you could drop our U-20 midfield into this mess and the technical ability and soccer IQ level would go up 100 percent. Yes, the fans are turning on this coach and team. I've been attending US national team games since the mid 1990s. I've seen some mediocre teams that often punched above their weight because they were organized and had some heart. A fan could support that - but this is simply unacceptable.

 

I rarely hear the English commentary. I fell in love with soccer in Spanish and still watch about 90% of USMNT games on Univision.

I love their A team, the Univision B team, meh.

 

Holden summed it up for me: "I'm grasping at straws" to find something positive from this game.

 

You would have a lot more credibility if you didn’t make arguments up.

 

I've never heard so much ussoccer/MLS cheerleading out of an announcing pair.

 

One thing I am going to point out is Powell looked good. However you could see when Amon went on this was somewhat a function of speed. Granted, Powell still made plays. This gets into what the snobs won't admit which is sometimes jets are a good and necessary thing.

Also, we were getting around the right wingback but simply didn't have players capable of hitting an accurate cross. That to me is a function of not having wing players playing the wing. Felt to me like most of the offense to start were DMs.

 

But he's going to Toronto don't ya know. That'll be 3 "USMNT stars" to market even though they have no business on the USMNT anymore.

 

People like to make this into a conspiracy but to me it's the semi corrupt world of broadcasting where the talking heads no longer fancy themselves independent "journalists." A journalist, at least back in the day, had a reputation for objectivity and trustworthiness to uphold. These guys owe their careers to corporate overlords.

This is now the era of corporate log rolling and Sportscenter basically being an ad for ESPN, and the like.

The way to curb this would be if anyone kept track of the comments and ideas spouted and they were accountable to them in 2 years or so. It's like when your MLS team does a cap clear trade in the winter, the new player doesn't come in until the summer, he stinks, but because it wasn't literally an A for B swap accountability disappears. But that requires hard work keeping track of how people are stupid over time.

 

But on the bright side, BigSoccer is pretty good at this. I know. I've been on the receiving end -- and justifiably in many cases!

 

GIGO. GB messed up his camp roster and so this is that playing out. He doesn't have the guts to completely undo his mistake as it might seem an emotional fit, and would require the risk of swapping out players for the 23 who weren't on the call sheet.

Funny but we have routinely done this in prior GCs with the 6 man swap.

Other than the in his head logic that we will take 28 from the provo, then 23 from the 28, etc., there is no rule requirement that the team that shows up in 12 days is anything other than on that original 40 man. they don't have to play Jamaica.

You don't grasp at straws. You change the roster. Grasping at straws suggests while Holden didn't like how the game looked he buys into the selection just the same.

Obvious straw to me watching that game was why were half these people on the team after Camp Cupcake. To me at least half of what I watched was a coach who seems to have taken that exercise way too far to heart. When most people on here know those games and how players look in them are grain of salt territory. You bring them back in a serious game and see what happens. And he's just now figuring out how many of his favorites are rubbish.

 

We will never generate any offense as long as we are set up to mostly attack through wings when we have no decent wings. If we're going to rely on guys like Arriola and Roldan to break down international defenses, we are screwed. I hope Pulisic is ready to put the attack on his back again this cycle because none of the other options Berhalter is fielding are going to be any help.

Also, who the hell is Jackson Yueill and why was he on the field last night?

 

To me this was a thorough disproof of GB's suggestion this week that the system is driving the car more so than talent like Pulisic. You could see the game change when Holmes and more talented players got on. You could see people picked as system cogs struggle. You see the result.

That he left off Sargent suggests to me he still doesn't get which ones are the talented ones. It was not his fault the players in the system couldn't execute the right pass to a player who needs balls to feet.

 

You are confusing who we played at wing with who is in the pool to play there. Put the starters -- or some of the people left out entirely -- out there and magically it would work. We had basically defensive mids trying to hit crosses in. The execution reflected the players.

This is one reason I am defending Sargent. The one ball to his feet was the one decent shot on goal. The crosses two feet over his head are someone else's fault. The longballs treating him like a sprinter are not his fault. The square back ball that goes to the 6 and Blake instead of the spot and Sargent is not his fault.

 

This is where I point out that yes it was a terrible performance...but it was a freakin’ friendly.

 

Um, most would say the strategy in Hold 'em would be to fold that hand if there is any significant money on the line, unless you're in one of the blind positions, and even in the little blind if it would cost you a fair bit to call.

 

I'm wondering if Sargent said something after the game, or wanted out. Honestly, I wouldn't blame him. This team isn't going anywhere any time soon and he's got a promising professional career to worry about.

 

I get it. But something about this one was really extra stinky. It's not the result (bad as it was), it's the dismal outlook.

 

Agreed, he moved like a wounded sloth out there.

 

I just go back to desire. Or work rate. Or fire. Whatever you want to call it.

You saw that last night from Holmes. You saw that from Sargent mostly. I'm sure there were others, but it sure didn't feel like it.

Where is that desire? I just recall that awesome play Pulisic made in his match or at least really early in his USMNT career where he busted his ass and made an amazing play (and I bet anyone reading this knows exactly what I'm talking about). I'll remember Holmes last night. I don't know much about Holmes but he should be getting some game time in this Gold Cup, if not a starter, as a supersub.

And I recall that 50/50 ball in the US/France U20 match a couple days ago when Pomykal made the play that led to us scoring the winning goal.

 

Tell that to the Leicester manager when they won the EPL title.

Good coaches always get their average team to punch way above their weights.

 

What if he did crapped the bed in the GC? What you think the USSF is gonna do?

Absolutely nothing. He's in their 'old boys' club.

 

Klinsi would roll in his grave.

Don't blame them, they're just kids.

These guys never play a Bundesliga, EPL, Europa, or CL game. They haven't got a clue what 'pressure' is.

 

Probably so, but then they can watch attendance fall from 15K to 5K, start playing in high school stadiums and hope for a revival after we host the world cup. It'll be 1988 all over again.

 

This is what 3G's sophisticated system is all about.

Total shots: 3
Shots on goal: 1

This is a against a bunch of USL/MLS guys.

We'll be extremely lucky to get half a shot on goal when facing teams like Argentina, Brazil, France, or England.