Hard to have Zardes and Arriola in the final third together. Just puts so much pressure on who ever is playing the opposite wing to generate and finish chances. I think you can get away with 1 of the two but not both, and if Jozy can only go 60 its why I think Sargent would have been a great third striker on this roster. Zardes can't miss a chance by that far from that close and continue to play. Playing both lets good teams focus on the opposite wing and Pulisic and mark them out. Boyd should be back for the final, Lima as well. I think you may be better off putting Lima or Cannon over there instead of Ream who gives it his all but is just not a LB. McKinnie was MOTM for me. A midfield of him and Adams should be the mainstay going forward.
Exactly, that's what I love about Arriola. He reminds me of that old school USMNT - run your ass off, never say die. Frankie Hejduk, Cobi Jones, guys like that. We can definitely use some of that.
I was going for irony, but that hasn't gone over, I see. I don't think there's a ton of daylight between Arriola and Boyd, which was sorta my point; I think Boyd will be back in the picture. Right now, I think Arriola is playing better and seems to have better chemistry with other guys like Pulisic, which is natural given he's a more mature international. Arriola doesn't necessarily need to finish, that's not what he's there to do. Olivier Giroud played striker in every single game for France in the World Cup and didn't score a single goal. He even missed a few chances that gained him a lot of criticism. But that wasn't his role -- it was to create space for the others, which he did perfectly, which is why he kept starting. It seems like the idea is to crash the box early and often, over and over with waves of wing play. Pulisic and McKennie have a lot of freedom to move around underneath to playmake or crash the box late and finish. Any finishing the wingers do right now is gravy; but we'll be firing on all cylinders when we start plugging those positions with guys that can finish and do more more consistently.
Thing about France was they had finishing skill all over the field. We don't. When one, or 2 like last night, of your front 3 or 4 can't finish it's somewhat of a liability against good teams. He's got to improve a bunch there or sit for me. And I keep reading we should move McKennie back deeper so the lion has more freedom. That takes away half the scoring talent we have up front now. So down to CP....defenses will love that.
I'm surprised at the number of Arriola defenders and Weah skeptics here, even to the point of characterizing Weah's u20 play as some sort of disaster. If that's the case, then man, I have major vision problems.
You talking about the data collector thingy? NFL uses the same tech. Teams started having access to the data in’18 if memory serves. It’s a way to measure biometric performance or something to that effect.
He’s looked the same to me as he always has. I plug him in that same place I’d plug a Max-Moore, low ceiling, moderately high floor who has his moments. This connects to my issue of sampling. Arriola had some moments last night, watching him since ‘15, a large sampling size, you see those moments and a lot of mediocre or worse ones. He’s not a disaster in the Zardes sense (and even Zardes has certain special qualities, like Inzaghi, he’s the king of right place right time moments/runs,& unlike him, he lacks the end product to consistently take advantage) but he’s also not good enough or consistent enough to start when better options are available and we do have better options. He’s depth. On a healthy quality us roster, he’s back bench/ just outside the top 23.
The comparison of Zardes to Inzaghi made me laugh. SuperGyasi! Arriola is one of our best players overall, but he also has certain deficiencies that frustrate. If he works on his game, he can fix those, because he has a lot of good skills and instincts.
Yes. Yedlin-Cannon is our best go-forward left-right back combo. Cannon has been a mini-relevation - smooth, fast, big upside. As said above by other(s), he's a player.
Guess I'm not supposed, in this age of gender-correctness, to say what I really think about this sports "bra". From a purely aesthetic point of view, it's silly looking worn inside or out. A woman's bra once portended an intimate and sexy discovery. On that point alone, a man wearing a bra-like contraption in the same fashion is just wrong. If someone wants to tell me that's the only possible design to capture and transmit all this important data, I'm all ears. Otherwise, it's another chink in the already weakened wall of Masculinity. From a technical standpoint, it's a lot of fancy bells, whistles and computer chips to tell you your guy is tired. The more we rely of machines to be our eyes, ears and brains the less we will be able to recognize the real thing. I don't need to know how many meters a guy has exactly run, I look to see if he's bending over, breathing hard and slow to restart. All this fancy gadgetry will be the end of common sense and know-how.
I suspect we will have some form of this debate for years to come regarding Pulisic. It's a repeat of the long-running debates over Donovan's best position. Donovan was for so many years the US's best play-maker. He had the best vision and passing, the best movement off the ball, and was also a good finisher. He was often the best LM, the best RM, the best second striker, and the best ACM on every US roster in his day. So we fans would debate his best role all the time. Sometimes it really depended on the roster and which of these several roles he could best fill while other lesser players handled the other roles. Pulisic is very similar to Donovan in that he will often be the best LM, best RM, best ACM, and -- if we played with two strikers -- the best second striker on the roster. So, depending on how well other US players develop and the talent on each future roster, I think we will be repeating the debate over Pulisic's best positions for a long time. FWIIW, Pulisic is a superior ball-handler/dribbler to prime-age Donovan, but at least at this time a weaker passer. He matches Donovan's understanding of space and movement and may be a slightly better finisher. I think he is somewhat more assertive mentally, more aggressive and focused. He has a higher ceiling than Donovan did, but he provides a very similar play-making/mobility/quickness profile. Bob Bradley "solved" the Donovan dilemma after Dempsey rose to such a complimentary role with the "Y-midfield" that many fans called the infamous Empty Bucket. Donovan and Dempsey played as attacking left and attacking right mids, filling multiple roles as creators and scorers. We shall see what Berhalter and other future US coaches decide to do with Pulisic. Pulisic is a gifted, versatile guy and he can play several roles for the US at a high level. There is no simple, single answer.
LD was Duece's deputy. You play your best scorer as close to goal as possible. At international level, Donovan was a flanker. Arena tried to make him a forward/amid at WC06. It didn't work out. Zardes and Arriola both have good goals/assists per 90 records. The complaint would have validity if the US were playing against powerhouse teams who would provide only a handful of scoring opportunities.
Sapong is on 5 goals with a WS 7.70 in 6 starts at striker this season. Was ace in the Portugal friendly. Only had a down season last year because opposing defenders were allowed to beat the crap out of him. Would take him over Jozy, Zardes, and the unproven kiddies for now.
Agreed. Arriola isn’t close to him in talent, we’ll see if Weah can up that floor as that heavy bid from Lille suggested (about 25x the offer that the nearly equally exciting Gloster garnered from PSV) he can.
Which is one of the reasons the U20 was so exciting wPomyhal, Ledezma, Mendez, Weah and even Taitague (seemingly permanently injured but a near lock starter if he hadn’t been) coming right behind Pulisic, McKennie & Adams. Guys like Arriola, Trapp and Bradley should fade out soon. Didn’t even mention Carrillo, Servania or Reyna to name a few more.
I like Arriola. I liked him back even as we were failing the 2017 Hex. He's a guy who knows how to move and where to move - in a national side that seems to have trouble understanding off-the-ball movement, he's a dude who gets it. That said - his touch and finishing are awful. He'll make the right move and the right decision and get to the right spot at the right time, and then flub the ball completely when it arrives. I think he's taken to Berhalter's system excellently. He gets himself into good spots. But goddamn, he cannot finish. He's like the world's fastest speed-skater who doesn't know how to stop. Or a highest-flying ski jumper who doesn't know how to land. It's a flaw. I actually didn't mind Morris too much last night, but I agree that his impact wasn't tremendous. He did what was asked for him and provided a threat on occasion - he didn't make any major mistakes. But he certainly wasn't as dynamic or active as Boyd - or Arriola, for that matter. I'm pretty sure Berhalter played Morris because he wanted better defending against Jamaica's counters. And Boyd, to be fair, hasn't shown a particular talent for defense. And he certainly doesn't have a defensive mindset. He will push forward, hungry for the goal, every time. It causes him to drift central quite a bit too, when in the final third. I think Berhalter doesn't trust him when he has to protect a lead. So we have three wingers. One guy really moves well and is an enthusiastic energetic in attack and defense - but he can't shoot or pass. One is a guy who really likes to attack, has the ability and the mindset to go for goal - but he doesn't defend. And one guy is ... fine. Not great. But he's fine. (and one more guy, but we're playing him in midfield) I bet Berhalter sticks with Arriola and Morris in the final. I think he really doesn't trust Boyd to defend, and Berhalter seems to be going conservative in the knockout rounds.
5 goals and 5 assists in 18 games worth of minutes from wide positions? Hopefully, Arriola's poor work in the final third continues.