Pre-match: US - Mexico Nations League Final Sunday 6/6/2021

One thing not mentioned about Mexico is that they are just not that direct. Nor are states anymore with this new style of cute touch and go passing. We beat Mexico with being direct and let them win the beautiful game award. So if we can find a player today who wants to have a run and shot at goal maybe that will be the prevailing goal that puts us through. Until then it will be cute Ticky tacky football that will be seen tonight with a lot of almost chances.

 

The bizarre thing about this quote: "balancing player" is so beautifully vague that it's impossible to contradict. Is Berhalter suggesting Acosta's a better stay-at-home 6? He'd better tell the Rapids: Acosta plays as an 8 for them. Is he saying he can hit those nice long diagonals? I guess, sure. But last I checked there's not a part of the scoreboard showing the long diagonal attempted count.

 

I think that's a slightly simplistic way to view it. If you go by cycles, both teams were fairly even in the build up to 2010, The USMNT had the edge in the buildup to 2014, and Mexico clearly had the edge last cycle.

I think both sit in a fairly even position at the current moment, with us likely having a small talent edge, and Mexico having a coaching and experience edge

 

1 of the last 8, if that makes a difference.

Edit: Though I'm not counting the Gold Cup we blew off completely by starting guys like Jay Heaps and Logan Pause.

 

It’s a rivalry. Not sure where you would get that from. If Mexico would play somewhere besides Azteca anything could happen. Your entire post is Blowing smoke.

 

I agree with your overall point that saying this isn't a rivalry is completely stupid. Even in our worst cycle since1986, Mexico needed stoppage time to beat us in the Rose Bowl, Couldn't beat us at the Azteca, and needed a late header from Marquez to steal a victory in Columbus.

That said, it isn't just The Azteca, ironically Mexico hasn't beaten us there in 12 years. We can't seem to beat them in NFL Stadiums

 

I am surprised at how close they are, but considering how Mexico played as well on Thursday, I guess that makes sense. The lean seems to be slight Mexico win/Draw to me, but I'm not the greatest at Math. I think they are seeing 1-1 or 1-0 as the most likely result. The #'s hasn't moved since Friday afternoon which I find a bit surprising.

 

Things I find funny:
1. Thinking Adams, a player who hasn't played for what a month? in the Bundesliga who was struggling to find playing time to begin with and who was a starting Right back in Beerholders system and sometimes with club as well is going to fix the gap tooth defense for the US. BH system simultaneously doesn't press well enough and leaves gaps on the pitch.

2. Think Dest is a defensive player. Not only is he a pretty bad one on one defender, beerholder told everyone in his silly power point slides that he want's the right back to be a holding midfielder, attacker and sometimes get involved with defense. Move him to midfield where his quality on the ball will surpass everyone except the darlings.

3. That we can play without a dedicated defensive midfielder. We can't. We might even need 2 since we can't really pass out of the midfield even on our best days.

We might get after mexico, but they know how to play their game and it's better than ours. This isn't all on beerholder, but you get the feeling he is not focused on winning or implementing. Frankly I don't know what his objective is. It's always been a mystery to me.

 

In context, it wasn't vague at all. He contrasted the scoring ability of Lletget and the energy of McKennie. GGG didn't see Musah's skillset as one that complemented those of Lletget and McKennie. Positional play was likely what Berhalter was specifically referring to.

 

Just means they want US betters to bet more. Don't gamble on America.

 

Maybe, though I feel your average American sports fan overrates the gap between us and Mexico instead of underrating it

 

i am very curious to see what gregg does here. a lot of gnashing teeth but this is truly the first match where he would expect to show the whole bag of tricks. maybe it is empty and he really doesn’t have a lot of tactical creativity, but that was not case in columbus where he adapted formations quite a bit.

 

It's one of the many reason I feel bad for crapping on Bradley sometimes, and I'm embittered that Arena got the better of himself down the stretch in '17. Arena and Bradley produced the first ever era of US superiority to Mexico circa 2000-2010, that decade more or less. I think we took 2 out of the 3 Gold Cups with Confed Cup tickets on the line, we outpointed or equaled Mexico in the Hex across the decade, and we beat them in the biggest match at the R16's.

The teens were Mexico dominance, w/us winning 1 game that mattered the whole decade, one could add I think we got two road Azteca draws, but after Mexico struggled in '13, they took us out to the woodshed for the rest of the decade.

I do wonder a bit what Arena could've done with this squad because it would've been all about keeping it simple and letting the talent show out (I know we'd hate some potentially insanely stupid MLS selections). He would've got out of the way for the most part. Bradley would have applied his Bradleyness but unlike post-Davies injuries, he would've had the horses. It's a terrible time to have the worst coach in USMNT modern history at the wheel for the best talent we've ever put together. Right now I'm trying to balance getting Dest, and Musah and Siebatcheu, w/saddling them with this idiot and sabotaging this cycle? Was it worth it? I lean yes, but watching this past week unfold, I'm beginning to backslide to no, especially since Arena probably would've gotten Dest, and so would Bradley and who knows, they might've gotten all 3. It wasn't just Berhalter that got those guys after all.

 

Seems a tad premature to say that for a guy who's had one full tournament in charge

 

Against Mexico I take (2) all day, every day. Evaluation and analysis is fine but there is nothing like the sheer joy of beating our rival!

USA 2 Mexico 0! Greg, please let the young guns loose and let the big dogs (MMA) hunt.

 

This was not about Tata as our coach. The question was about how they fared head to head. I am curious ... goes to whether Beerholder is able to adjust in game or at halftime. Maybe it did not matter the four times the Crew lost to Atlanta .... but that was the question.

 

8 year drought.

hmmm.

 

In 2019 when Berhalter was justifying pushing Adams to RB so he could play Trapp/Bradley at DM the term he used was "controlling midfielder".

Apparently Trapp was a better "controlling midfielder" than Adams just like Yueill is a better "balancing player" than Musah.

 

so are we going to see Adams at RB and Dest in front of him tonight?

McKennie (stay at home) and Musah (stay at home till he gets the nod to push forward) in the midfield ...

one thing I will say - to follow up on an earlier post I made.

1. time zone effects should now be done and this game starts 2 hours closer to European time zone than against Honduras.

2. 3 more days under the belt to acclimate to altitude.

3. 3 more days getting used to ball flight at altitude and with bouncy fields.

Regardless of how well Mexico plays tonight ... for reasons 1,2, and 3 above we should appear to be more match fit for this particular game.

 

i would actually be surprised if lletget starts, even though playing time and berhalters recent comments are pretty clear that he rates lletget higher than musah.

i think there are two probabilities- one is adams starts, in which case going with that all-press trio (mckennie, musah, adams) makes all the sense in the world, and two is playing 3 atb with 2 central mids. its hard to imagine even berhalter playing lletget as one of two. acosta may be a spoiler (with any of mckennie, musah and adams), but if lletget started in that scenario its burning soccer house to the ground time.