2nd game in a row nobody bothered with the post game thread for hours. Boy are we depressed. Then again, it was not exactly a scintillating game. Thought Cannon and Llanez were good. Interesting that an 18-year-old took a PK in his first cap, he must've balled out in practice. I hate the tactics that make Uly play more in the channel, with his back to goal, to let a fullback overlap, whom was willing to go forward but didn't show any ability to cross the ball well. Play him on the damn wing and feed him some balls to run onto. Not dissimilar to the way Berhalter wastes Boyd's ability as an actual winger. Ferreira combined decently, but like to see him try to turn somebody and shoot. The 2 young midfielders are kind of weak on the ball, might hurt a lot against a better team. Everyone else was pretty nondescript except Lledget improved in the 2nd half, but his set pieces were pretty awful. We were scary bad defending set pieces, I think we gave up a free header in the box on 3 of them. And the shot that CR hit the bar with was easier to make than miss.
All things considered, the guys were fantastic, IMHO ! Numerous organized attacks with only excellent keeper play preventing a blowout. Mistakes at the other end were covered by good fortune. Take this game for what it is worth: (1) the US showed a strong ability to receive and pass in tight spaces and that mode of play will only get better with maturity. (2) Many of the US players will be the future second tier, but they are already better than the 2016 first tier. (3) A few will deservedly become first team players. With the exception of the #9 position, I see a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel with multiple more than decent players vying for the starting eleven.
I thought that the young players looked like they belong. Sure there are weaknesses and lots to be learned yet but they looked like they wanted to be on the field and were eager to give it a go. I think the future is brighter than many believe.
For the group of players that were called in I think it's hard to be disappointed. Some of the younger guys proved they deserve more of a look with the full squad some showed they are still a little but away from being serious contributors... which is not a negative necessarily just more time needed.
So for me we have to first take into context the level of play our players were playing against. As a unit we were playing above the competition’s ability. They only had a small spell in the 2nd half where we looked under the gun. The player that caught my eye was Ferreira. He showed up for the ball to give options constantly. He received balls in tight spaces that our other forwards struggle in, and beat the pressure with a positive play instead of a back pass that pretty much all our other forwards play in those situations. I would like to see if he can have the same success in those pockets at a higher level. If he can, he will bring something to the team that is unique. The player for me who looked like he didn’t belong was Vines. He held his own defensively but was below the rest of the teams level attacking. Gasper came in and immediately added danger to our attack. Unfortunately he also was dangerous when defending.
I don't see how anyone could be anything but pleased with that result. Yes we had some struggles finishing but for a team that young to just control the game like that is a really good sign. Llanez, Aaronson and a few others had some pretty good moments for players that young.
Towards the end I saw him beaten for pace multiple times and the Costa Rican was able to get good crosses off. He was mostly OK in other facets but it was also his first cap along with a bunch of others and stage fright gets to some of them before they learn to get more comfortable. I thought Ferreira and Llanez showed remarkable poise and comfort for their first start. I also thought they paired together well and you could see some teething pains that should go away with more playing time together. Lletget was OK but being one of the few veterans I thought he should have excelled and he was just OK. Aaronson was pretty anonymous. He had a couple of good through-balls and dribbles but disappeared a lot. Maybe another victim of his first minutes or was this not his first time. Wish Pomykal had been healthy but that may be his biggest fault is not staying healthy. Defense was hard to rate as Costa Rica had a big bag of nothing offensively except for the breakdown on the set piece that should have been an early goal against the run of play early. For a keeper on a shutout streak Johnson kind of scared me. Especially on the passing out of the back but according to the announcers Lletget was supposed to have read the situation and moved to a spot and didn't. I felt for comfortable with Hamid though he played small minutes. He had a presence about him when out there that Johnson was missing. All in all a good showing with a lot of guys getting first caps against a pretty veteran Costa Rica although I thought the whole time CR's intensity would double in a game that mattered and perhaps this was just a chance for them to get fit.
To be fair to the guys on the field, it's hard to really show a lot of intensity when you're in front of a high-school sized crowd.
Damn,an optimist sighting on the USMNT forum!l I agree, it ws fun watching some players who will hopefully grow into the team.
Yeah. Costa Rica’s good spell mostly came down our left. I think that was while Gasper was in and Lewis were in. I have to say when I watched the replay of the Johnson turn over that it was Lletget’s fault the ball was played perfectly away from the CR player and into space Lletget should have gotten to 1st, but he wanted nothing to do with that space.
This was a good win. The US put out an inexperienced team compared to the usual Camp Cupcake, as most of the "veterans" were players who only became significant in the last 12 months. Arriola and Zardes were the only 2 players in the entire squad with a significant number of caps before 2019. Costa Rica's squad was much more experienced. And generally speaking, Berhalter's selections were effective yesterday. But hardcore fans aren't going to be won back until the US starts winning in the Hex, although success in the Olympics could accelerate the process.
I thought the passing was better with this group than with the ones GB usually calls in. Not sure if maybe CR wasnt in shape or maybe disinterested? Hard to figure out who is who when most are new. Not going to try analyze this too much but will be interested to see what GB does next friendly. How many of these get called and how many of the other group One thing I will comment on though.... tons of possession, multiple good build ups, some shots but once again...no goals during the run of play. Yes we win but only on a PK. That is disappointing to me. We must score during the run of play to be anything I REALLY hope this is the beginning go a new era for GB. Forget Bradley (hurt anyway) Jozy and most of the others he's been rolling out .....and go young. The guys we saw last night may be a good start. They looked very good. Im skeptical but hopeful.... so far
Positives with young players involved. A bit too much taken from this game on Twitter. Saw too many overreactions on my feed. Cannon needs to leave MLS this summer. Ready to play overseas. Olympic qualifying has me nervous still.
Overall a good game and result against a Costa Rican team that was more experienced but similarly experimental. Good to see the US control a good portion of play but it usually fell apart on the final ball and we didn't really create much of anything. We passed through midfield pressure better than we often had but it is still too slow and plodding, especially when we pass around the back too long before getting things moving. If you're going to setup and break a team down, it all has to be much quicker. Llanez caught the eye but mostly not much really came off, lots of possibilities all around him but he's still learning and will have to play the other side of the ball as well. Ferriera up top was fine but never really threatened. Arriola did his run around a lot and defend well thing before misfiring at the end. Aaronson had moments, Yueill did his job of looking better than Bradley since he moves around a bit and at least tries to defend with some energy but he never really created anything as much time as he had on the ball. Backline wasn't tested much. Cannon was solid but seems like he'd be more dangerous moving forward if he had more variation in his game, pretty one footed and always leaning to the outside but never really gets to the endline. Center backs mostly fine except for the Costa Rican chance where everyone watched them get a head on it twice. Left backs, better than Lovitz being the standard were fine but if they don't improve significantly before the WC, it's still going to be a weak spot for us. Goalies mostly did well in not giving the ball away at least less than has been the norm and never really had to make saves.even if they look pretty stiff on the ball. Have to give Berhalter credit for getting game time for a lot of young players and still getting a result. I'm still not sold on his style of possession, too slow in the build up, too reliant on playmaking from deep, not enough pressing and quickness on display, although they did press a bit early in this one and it was a bit more energetic throughout with all the kids. And, this war of attrition effect of a plodding style may be enough to squeak out wins in qualifying, especially when you add Pulisic to the mix to create a chance or two from nothing most games.
I'm not going to fully defend Berhalter with his player selection but we also have to ask how many of the young guys that played would you say should have been called up since Berhalter got hired? That's more out of curiosity I think in the last 12 months there are a lot of young guys making cases to be looked at. Could you argue some should have been included sooner? Absolutely but I think some of the players werent realistic at this point last year
Most of the guys on the field need to hit their passes more firmly and sooner or the team will still get scorched. Those that do will make it to the next level. Also, the guys up front will have to take the shots first time. It will not work to look for the optimal opportunity or take a second touch in a crowed PA. Last night had multiple examples of that kind of failure.
From what I saw, the only time Costa Rica really tried was the first 10 or 15 mins and we looked real good there, when there was a bit of space in the final third. Then CR either saw they were going to lose or just got lazy, parked the bus, and we had nobody good enough to beat a defensive system. Thought it was a pretty good effort from most of the players. I echo others in that I hope this is Egg's turning a new leaf. If we see Lovitz or Trapp or Bradley again, I'll be out again. Add arriola to the list. The kind of player we'd be happy with in the 90s but we have too much quality youth to play a guy who runs around a lot while accomplishing nothing.
I guess I'm happyish with the match? There were zero stand out players out there which is kinda disappointing, but at least the lineup GGG ran out there included some imagination. It's obvious no one cares given the lack of enthusiasm for a post game thread (yet again! The pregame NL thread also started yesterday has double the posts lulz), but I'll go ahead a give my player thoughts for posterity. Johnson Never liked him and last night didn't change anything. I don't care if that was Lletget's fault or not, if we keep trying to have the GK lead the offense we are going to give up some key goals that cost us points. Cannon Gets my very tepid MOTM. Won the penalty and made several important interceptions when we got stretched. Zimmerman I think he got on the end of like 4 or 5 corners. He's a positive threat there. The CB's weren't really challenged much defensively. He made a bad pass a Berhalter was pissed. I like that from GGG. Long He looked like Long, but without the bad hair. BOOOOOOOOOOOO. He and Zimmerman couldn't quite figure out where to go with the ball. Too slow. Vines He wasn't great, but better than I expected really. I don't remember any defensive issues. Offensively he contributed a bit but to no effect. Yueill He made me nervous. Something about how he receives the ball and his first touch, just seems ripe for giveaways, but he managed to keep it away enough last night. The long switches GGG likes were tried, mostly too lofted. Overall milk toast. Lletget A bit of a disappointing game given the circumstances. He got on the ball quite a bit but only made one or two things happen with it. Aaronson I learned that according to Dunny he "only plays at one speed." OK. Apparently that speed is so fast he disappears. Arriola He is what we thought he was. Battles, get in good spots. No end product. Llanez He was ok. The match commentators' praise was a bit much. Had a couple bright moments and took a nice PK. Still, I get he was the highlight of the match simply by GGG starting him, and Uly looking fine as a 18 year old out there. Ferreira Showed a bit. Had long stretches where he went missing, but he did put a few nice through balls through for chances. Looks calm for 19 year old debutante, maybe too calm? Subs None really impacted the match. Zardes look the liveliest, really. Was disappointed Cappis didn't get in. Oh well.
In my opinion, many believe that the upswell of talent indicates a brighter future....if only we had managers that were able enough to make good use of that talent.
I agree with most of this. I only casually watched the 2nd half, and missed the penalty/goal...but I was not impressed with Cannon at all in the first half. Passed the ball backwards 95% of the time he touched it. Maybe did more in the 2nd? Also confused about Cappis. Read somewhere he was a real standout in camp, in a position we have pretty sparse options (at least without Wes/Adams there), but couldn't even get on the field?
Ditto. The most disappointing thing about this is that it was not the young players butchering their chances, but the more experienced guys: Arriola, Lletget, and Zimmerman...
My HS once played in front of 14000+. Of course that was in Texas and it was American Football and it was the state championship and it was in the 60s. At that time Texas folks REALLY took their HS football seriously. However a less than 10000 crowd for US national team soccer match on a weekend night is a bit disgraceful. Soccer, unless it is played at the highest level, is still quite unpopular in the US. Combine that with over priced tickets and poor marketing and virtually no stars or future stars and playing a horrible opponent and competing for the weekend sports dollar with a much more popular event and I wonder how so many people wandered into the stadium. US soccer is only popular if there are stars playing and/or we are playing one of the big names and/or if the match has some real importance. This match had no real drawing power so the small crowd should not be unexpected. However the uninspired performance we saw is a bit unexpected. It looked like nobody playing for either side wanted to impress at all.