Berhalter announces 23 player squad for the 2019 Gold Cup

Horse shit. For one, CCV was fine last night. And as a young player playing at a higher level than all of the other CBs save Miazga, he deserves a spot. Not Omar, Ream (who is trash), or Lovitz.

Lovitz, in particular, is a CB playing LB, and when GGG's right back "system" is in possession, he's dropping back and playing like a 3rd CB. He's certainly never asked to go forward in the attack.

So, why the insistence on calling up either old-and-terrible (Ream, OG) or just mediocre (Lovitz) players?

 

You forgot:
CCV > both OG and Ream
Pomykal > Roldan/Mihailovic
Novakovic > Morris
Wooten > Zardes

Nova couldn't even make the 40-man, which is even sadder.

 

I wonder if Sargent would make a cut had he scored that late goal vs JAM?

 

Morales > Trapp and/or Bradley

 

(Apologies if what follows has been talked about ad nauseum in the 9 pages of this thread I haven't read yet)

I think Berhalter is definitely intent on winning the tournament. He's under more pressure than any previous coach has been after 6 months at the helm (and he's 4-1 at the moment). What I see is that USSF actually, shockingly, seems to have a plan. That plan, involving all the coaches living in Chicago, is to get the whole program on the same page and to teach the youngsters how to play a more uniform style of soccer. When they excel in the youth groups, presumably, they'll be "graduated" to the next level of the MNT program. I think this is a great way to set things up, but it is a long-term project. As has been mentioned by many, there is a massive gap in US talent doing anything as adults (that is to say, several consecutive "generations" of U teams that have produced almost nothing), which can't be remedied by throwing a bunch of current U20s into the full team.

 

during WCQ it was when he was on the wing that he had issues.

 

My bad on the math. You are correct that 15 is the right number.

Thanks.

Edit: to be fair, I did take the team straight from the announcement so it appears that both Steffen and Gonzalez are MLS as of the Gold Cup.

 

As someone who's dedicated more time than probably 98% of this country to following US soccer for the last 15 or so years, I can definitely say I don't hate myself for it. It's been a great ride, and something that I can always rely on being there, for good or for bad. As with all things in life, there are ups and downs, sometimes you have periods of great happiness and sometimes you're depressed. The older I get, the less of a bounce I have between the high and the low. My life experience isn't overwhelmingly awesome, but I've experienced enough to appreciate it.

 

Does he? It seems to me he doesn't like the "right" MLS players either. Lima over Cannon? Gonzalez over Robinson? Lovitz over a can of spray paint? The guy has issues that are much deeper than the surface-scratching we are doing will find.

 

You definitely have a nice, measured outlook on things, and that's commendable.

Being from Boston, you remind me of a long time Sox or pats fan, before the recent success. You're a fan of a team, that's your team, and nothing is going to stop that. Again, there is something nice about that.

I'm pretty much the opposite. I don't have the time or interest in supporting teams or organizations I don't respect. I'm done with baseball cuz it's boring, like the pats but hate the NFL, pretty much done with pro sports in general.

US soccer was keeping me going, but now I've lost that! Now I just have a single message board and my deck with a Weber smoker!

 

you want to ship them to the u20 and u23 teams lol...that would piss them off you are in favor of them not being on the roster for the GC.

you can't argue that players should be upset the roster and then in another thread say you wouldn't even consider those guy for the roster let alone put them on it.

 

On some level I get Gregg's concerns about depth at wing with Lleget out but the thing about the Sergeant snub for me that doesn't make sense is in reality what he's saying is that he honestly believes Lewis at wing and Zardes at forward is a better back up situation than Sergeant at forward and Zardes at wing. Zardes has many more professional starts at attacking wing than Lewis. It's an arguable push whether Zardes is better at attacking wing or forward. There is no person on this planet who thinks Lewis is more valuable to this team than Sergeant.

 

Sorry to jump down your throat - but while you may have been sarcastic, but I don't think these guys were:

Ooo, sorry Guyana! Your 1st appearance and you get the group of death. 3 Hex teams as your group mates. Rough.

— Justin Shaum (@quicksilverFA) April 10, 2019

Look forward to some commentator, during the Gold Cup, bringing up "well, we had a very difficult group, so it's a sign of toughness that they were able to gut out a draw with Panama"

 

A 21 year old CB with 47 appearances at the championship level (guys the Championship has gotten better over the past decade as well, it's not just the MLS. England is bringing in TON of money) doesn't have a future with the USMNT?

Are you joking? CCV has more than enough potential to play for us.

 

We definitely need Frankie Hejduks. Holmes was the Hejduk of the game yesterday, and, if for nothing else, that's why he gets high marks from me.

 

Our prostitute writers and broadcasters with TV rights to the tournaments always overselling - "group of death", "will US win WC this time?", "tough opponents", "this crop of US players has a chance to prove..." etc. etc. That's how they are making a living (sellout journalists) or money (broadcast rights owners).

 

i would be more confident if i were a canadien or jamaican fan- for this gc and cycle in general.

the only good outcome is not making it out of the group stage cause we aint firing berhalter so the only hope we have is him scrapping this stupid ass setup.

 

Yes, we need MOAR STEP-OVERS PLEEZ!

 

Is he tho? I don't think putting Robinson at wing back and in a position to fail is really a fair place to judge him.

 

I don't have a ton of love for this roster, but....

• How many rosters need to come out before they realize that wingers are listed as "Forwards" but that doesn't make them CF/strikers
• And that Jordan Morris is being looked at for RW and Josh Sargent as a CF and there's little to no interaction there
• I hope no one who has ever made the point about recent form driving call-ups isn't bitching about Sargent. I don't think you should have to be playing well or playing to get called up, and so I can bitch about Sargent. But I feel like there's a lot of people who talk constantly about recent form with someone like Andrew Wooten but ignore it with someone like Sargent.

This occurs pretty much every roster discussion and I find it so odd.

That said:

• I Glad to see Boyd and Holmes included, even if the latter was only as a Lleget replacement. I think both will prove to be strong improvements
• I'm excited to see the big three together for more than 60 minutes, and I'm excited to see Jozy with them. I know a lot of people have Jozy hate, but he's the best and most well-rounded striker in our pool
• I expected to see Omar over CCV and Zardes over Sargent. In the former, I think Berhalter is letting veternosity get to him -- coaches love veterans. And in the latter, I saw Berhalter's explanation and I'm not buying. Pulisic and Holmes give you wing flexibility and if Jozy goes down, we'll be wishing we had Sargent.
• That said, I think this likely helps Josh Sargent in the long run. So good result from questionable decision making?
• Perhaps I would have included Robinson but I don't know how anyone can blast Berhalter from bringing after his last few games. Lovitz ain't great either, but Robinson did not seize the job in any way.

I am still eager to see the team play, but I'm disappointed in the choices Berhalter made to go with experience. The team should try to win the Gold Cup, but when two players are close in talent at a position, we should be going with youth, not experience.

 

Should he need to seize the job from someone like Lovitz who has been bad in every cap? Robinson has put in good shifts for us.

 

Sargent hasn't played much at all this Spring. He's not sharp. Berhalter's position is defensible.

 

And that's not a mistake by USSoccer which is a big part of the problem

 

Sorry, it's the SUM cabal. There's no other explanation.



Who strains John Brook's ligaments?
Who keeps Sargent on Werder's bench?

WE DOOOO! WE DOOOO!