Lol, I went with Under 5.5, and a live bet of U4.5, and then got back in at US -3.5 in live betting (also lost a little back w/a 4.5 hedge). It was a good play, I waited it out figuring that plenty of online and Vegas betters would lay down enough on the US to inflate the line and they did, it went from US -4 to -4.5, to eventually -5, but I keyed on the O/U because even w/all the ineptness, I had a hard time seeing Guyana scoring, and that would provide an extra half goal on the O/U line to bet the Under on. Will be eyeing the T&T/Panama matches, have a feeling that will be another interesting line to look at.
Kinda see him as one of those classic 1980's/1990's moderate floor, low ceiling guys. He's not gonna kill you, he's not gonna help you and considering where he plays, he will pot the occasional goal as he does for United as well. He's just not a difference maker. I have no problem with him, other than viewing him as belonging to that 30th-60th part of the player pool for '22 and '26, rather than a part of the 23. If he's a part of the 23 by say January 2021, we've got HUGE problems.
Very well put. The fact that the US won with 4 goals and gave up none is something of a wonder given the extremely poor team depth and the number of injuries. I am very satisfied with the game, ALL things considered. One issue that I found worrisome pertains to McKennie. He has great ability, but is making too many fouls. They are occurring as a result of bad decision making--going for a low probability tackle when getting goalside is more important; going for a head ball when position is a better choice; just making a poor tackle. He also made a couple of passes that seemed to go to the intended location, but that location was wrong to begin with. McKennie committed 5 fouls. That's a lot and I was surprised he did not get a card for persistent infringement. I hope this sort of thing stops.
bradley was absolutely better then mckennie in that match and anyone rating him lower is just one of those twitter fools who knows half his ratings before the match starts.
I rate McKennie higher. McKennie contributed to the game in more ways and left a bigger imprint...even in an off game for him. I'm not a Bradley hater. I rather like the guy and am glad he's with the team, but McKennie is a higher quality player at this point and had a better game.
They kind of stood around. Arriola and Boyd both were dynamic in terms of doing stuff in the final third, but the variety of their runs largely consisted of whether they sprinted upfield INSIDE or OUTSIDE the marking back. How about sell that run and then sometimes show back? But the midfield was standing too. Bradley would come back and get the ball which is fine but overall just not enough showing to ball, no diagonal or cross runs to pursue a play or clear space for the next guy. FWIW if you want runs call up runners.
I disagree that there are no obvious options for Zardes. Half the bench would be a better option (though not necessarily a great F). Any MF / F type on the bench would be better even if it means we don't have a true F on the pitch. I'll take a good MF for a poor F any day. If you swap a MF direct for Zardes or put Pulisic up top, and put another MF in for Puli, you will be better than what we saw. Zardes is a good guy so I hope he turns it around. But I want us to play much better, and he's not even close to getting it done.
my issues are simple weston next to pulisic is a mess simply because it messes with pulisic's space to do things and he only has success when he gets the ball on the outside of the box. having the four across that area just allows them to clog up the space really without any defenders having to do too much. the formation needs to change weston needs to be further back and next to bradley(which is the best option and would also help the terrible cb pairings) or the other interesting idea is to move pulisic up as a dual 9/ false 9 with altidore. The other idea is that pulisic instead of zardes should be the 9 and while people will say that pulisic doesn't have the 'hold up play' or 'good enough in the air'...zardes doesn't do those things either. Twice zardes had the ball with room to run and only two defenders to beat he of course was no threat at that point....pulisic would be a huge threat. the issue with pulisic as the 9 is that you are then short a 10 either with or without weston and the fire kid and roldan are terrible and showed it again last night. This is also why they really need holmes/llegett badly but pomykal would be an option.
Speaking as a referee, I agree with you regarding McKennie's penchant for fouling. What saved him was that he spread his fouls out enough that the officiating crew either didn't realize WM was fouling quite a bit since they were in a longer period of time or felt like it wasn't "persistent" enough. I remarked to my son that I thought the referee (who I thought called a very solid match, particularly since this was his first CONCACAF match and has only been on the FIFA list for a year at age 28) was going to card WM for persistence, but it never did happen. I do really like McKennie's physical nature and his willingness to mix it up. I think having that type of "enforcer" will be useful to protect Pulisic, especially facing CONCACAF opposition when referees tend to not protect top players (that's not a complaint against the US - I don't think CONCACAF protects top players on any team). I think he can be a really strong box to box 8 or positioned with Adams as a dual defensive mid combination in a 4-2-3-1. That is, of course, players can achieve and maintain full fitness.
no replacement for Zardes? really? Pulisic Jozy Sargent Wood Ramirez Siebatcheu the first 4 are clearly superior 9s, the second outplayed him in common camp cupcake games, and the last is the actual body type and worth an experiment this is why i get cranky, is on many of these decisions the other options actually pile up. what piles up alongside the nonexistent options is the excuses for complacency and conservatism. essentially, why no one else counts, or why we should put up with things. and yes some of them might be experiments, or we'd have to see if they shook off club form, but that's what the tryout part of camp and friendlies are for. we need to get over the weak complacency that what else do we have. at most positions there is a list of U20s and foreign based and such whose tires haven't been kicked, or who we sent into the wilderness for claimed form reasons.
I really hope Bobby Wood can find his way to the Eredivisie. That league is good for the confidence to any American forward.
what did mckennie do? one pass other then that nothing...at all. he didn't play well I like the guy but he was a 6 trying to be a 10...it wasn't good.
see you almost make a good point and then you list a player that doesn't even play for our country as a choice lol. facts matter
i have come up with a similar list -- like for zardes -- at mid but then it becomes well that one plays in the blah blah league, that one is a kid, that one etc etc excuses excuses we have a ton of more attacking options at mid if we wanted to quit pretending with mediocre hybrids and we do have some dms starting with adams who could play there the bradley issue is people grasping you have people out there for 90 minutes and not just one play. as i said in another more competitive game maybe that one pass bears fruit but you get reamed on defense for perhaps multiple goals for lack of defense over 90. this is the worst kind of game to over-inflate a particular player on an isolated play when they are a mixed bag or worse the rest. if you want bradley out there to home run hit then that's a sub at best.
Against a better opponent and not risking injury to Jozy... I think even Jozy haters would agree with you. Everybody outside of Gyassi and his family would agree with you. To the point, Berhalter would agree with you. But he's making apparently obvious, smarter decisions. Jozy's an injury risk, and we didn't need him against Guyana. We got three points, four goals and a shutout.
Guyana was not a good team but they were better than I expected early in the game. As the game wore on, we got a little better but not great in the first half. I suspect this is all we will ever see from a GB coached team. Short analysis..... Zardes.... what a clown... a hard shot hits him in the head (no time to duck) and goes in. Other than that we were playing a man down all night. How GB can justify that fool over Sargent is beyond me. No touch, no moves, nothing. Bench his a$$ Bradley, is he running the offense? somebody has to. He slows the game to a crawl all the time. Back pass, square pass, long pass over the top...... none is going to work against a good team. Then Trapp comes in. Same thing.... like a clone. Pulisic shows that he might have to do it alone. Zardes wont do it. We need a real #10 now. The two that come to mind right away is either Nagbe or Lee N. Both control the ball and set people up. We have NOBODY doing that and we will lose to Panama. Will GB do that? ..... never. He will play his system (anybody know what that is?) until were eliminated. Ask yourself this..... can this team qualify for the WC? We all know the answer. Not a chance. If the answer is no then we must make changes and find players that give us a chance. No matter how many times you roll this group out....Mexico will kill them. Maybe Panama or CR too?
https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/u...f-theoson-jordan-siebatcheu-kik-pierie-switch https://the18.com/soccer-entertainment/lists/5-dual-national-young-americans-abroad if the implication is he's not capped yet that begs the question what else are you saying? he's committed? the rave reviews guy today was off the radar yesterday, just did his one time switch. he played France U21 a few years ago. we called him as recently as last year but he said no for professional reasons. i have a dual nationals list on my own thread and it's a bunch of people of varying quality, few of whom other than holmes have gotten their chance. you saw how Holmes did, right? couldn't hurt. we are oddly insular in a way that mimics berhalter himself, while we bemoan his selections. i want to see the amons and holmeses and boyds.
Pure MAD Magazine, Alfred E. Neumann stuff if I have ever seen it.. he is brilliant. I predict tripping on his shoelaces on a corner kick play resulting in a “diving “ header resulting in a game winner. He just operates in ways beyond us mere mortals..
Also, just sayin' ...it's gonna solid performances in a lot more games, some of them meaningful, before I'd consider Tyler Boyd some kind of sure bet. But that's how folks are already starting to slip into thinking and talking about him here.
Pulisic struggled when tasked with running open space in the middle of the field in the Hex. He was also fouled a lot. He does best when given simple tasks in the final third.
We're exactly where I thought we were. We'll make semis, but we're going to need a bit of luck to make the final. We're not winning this.
wait did you just link an article from last october where they admit he's already turned down callups after having said he was interested...wasn't called up anywhere in this camp...the dude is out move on. duane homles isn't a dual national he is an american and always has been. He has gotten zero interest from england about making a switch they aren't interested he has zero options. amon is years away we've seen him he needs to move to belgium and do something before he is ready for the usmnt. this whole 'let me find a random dual national and make them the 'answer' is totally played out everyone should've learned their lesson with green. they are switching to the us because there is no interest in the other country for them.
we should qualify with our pool, we won't qualify with our current selections within that pool, therein lies your distinction.