Post-match: USA vs. Mexico - Gold Cup Final - August 1, 2021 [R]

Anybody still want Tata? People were talking about the "chasm" between him and Berhalter as recently as hours before this match.

 

Don't forget "Look, mexico has been trash this summer."-- @adam tash (after Mexico ranked #1 in the Gold Cup in nearly every offensive category).

 

To be fair, until we had evidence that players would play this hard for him, all we had to go by was his tactics and his Trapp/Lovitz/Lletget/etc fetishes.

We still have some head scratching lineups and the tactics haven't exactly given much of an indication that we can win important games based upon much more than sheer will, but he's now earned the next 1.5 years to show what he can do.

 

Best avatar EVA

 

I also saw Matt Turner "consoling" a Mexican player who was in on goal in (I think) the first half but the ball was too far for him to get a good shot off. He seemed to be congratulating him for his good play, and I, for one, really respect that sort of sportsmanship. You can go hard and give all your effort to win and still not be an asshole in doing so.

 

If GGG let's Lletget take set pieces during WCQ then, sure...i'd be willing to see what he does with our pool

 

Agreed. I watched the game (via facetime) with a Spanish friend of mine (who woke his ass up at 3 in the morning for it!) who has zero familiarity with any of the US players and only some familiarity with a few of the Mexicans and he was regularly impressed with Williamson. He also thought Arriola had a very good game. Good thoughts from a knowledgeable soccer fan with no pre-conceived notions about anyone.

ETA: When he mentioned Arriola having a good game, I told him that the guy is known for working hard and getting in good positions and then not being able to finish. But the dude did well at what he's good at this game.

 

And, yet, Berhalter got the 2nd 23 to win this tournament, which included a whole bunch of players that many people on BS wouldn't ever call up even for a meaningless friendly. Hindsight is indeed 20/20, but it sure as shit seems like the right hire today, August 2, 2021.

 

I'm about to re-watch, but my recollection is that starting around the 30th or 35th minute the US started to make some headway engaging positively in the Mexican half of the field and continued to build in the second half. My memory tells me that you're probably right that by the 55th minute the US was clearly in control of the game.

 

That does seem to be a weird strawman statement.

 

From my recent reading of the FIFA guidelines for WCQ, it appears that 3 subs is the rule again, with much greater flexibility on making changes between gameday rosters in a given window.

 

F*ckin' A, man.

 

well i only watched the us -mexico games and have thoroughly unimpressed. I thought the missing players from the nations league were better than the gold cup...but overall, not really impressed with them in the us-mex games.

and, again, being the best in the gold cup just doesnt mean a lot to me.

I think the region is really in a downspell overall...costa rica is a shell of itself, honduras is okay but not the top end talents we have seen from them on the squad, none of the other teams seem to be at a high point...aside from canada. the region is weak af, imo, compared to other cycles/years.

i think mexico has been poor....but they do keep possession and press pretty well. overall..they dont have the top quality players they need. most of their stars are either listless or aged out or injured.

so yeah i meant what i said

 

This is a fair point and very accurate.

Do we think that Berhalter realized that the mythical 'Berhalter-ball' - a smooth, poor man's Spanish style of build-up front the back - wasn't going to work with the B team and exhorted his team to mix it up with some Route 1 ball?

Is that wrong - EGG's admission that the system doesn't work for all - or does it show his adaptability...that he adjusts tactics to fit the roster? Do other coaches change tactics based on the line-up from game to game?

I don't have a dog in the hunt. I'm hoping / sensing that it's the latter. What I do see is a team that left it all on the field. And hopefully the A-team will show a little more defensive mettle that the B team showed.

 

theres no way acosta is smaller than messi

 

Wait, so your entire basis for saying "Mexico has been trash this summer" is based on the two times you've seen them play--which were both against the US, games they lost? So, because the US A team AND the US B team (both coached by Berhalter) managed to beat Mexico, that means Mexico has "been trash this summer"? Jesus, dude. This is more wackadoodle than I'd thought. You expected the US to suck, and since they won that means that, in fact, Mexico must really suck.

 

ignoring whatever you guys are talking about i agree- mexico does really suck

 

The B-team showed a ton of defensive mettle. Where the B team lacks is in its ability to do anything more than be defensively solid in the midfield.

 

hey, some of us (meaning me) have said all along that tata is like ed sheeran (to messis taylor swift). hes fine, but no better than duncan sheik or edwin mccain. he just has this completely outsized fanbase for what? being taylors pal? winning with barca as messis personel valet and the best squad ever assembled in mls...once?

 

I forgot all about that Mexico complaining that the US isn't fielding a strong enough team sure didn't age well...

 

I suspect that if Mexico fires Tata someone else will hire him. Mexico is at a talent deficit, especially at attacking difference makers. Once Chucky went down they just did not have the individual quality that they had in the past. They could still use Vela and Chicharito, not to mention Diego Lainez and Jimenez!

 

Acosta started playing the goon against Qatar and got in their heads. It was pretty great! His play in the final has gotta be among the best performances I've seen for the NT

 

I mean, that's not true at all.

We had five years of Columbus overacheiving its payroll, of his teams being consistently well organized.

We had early reports from camps of players being impressed and bought in, that were easy to see unless you were desperately trying to paint a face of dysfunction that wasn't there.

We had plenty of encouraging developments even if there were also plenty of issues.

Berhalter is a good coach. He's not going to be perfect, but he's not this terrible disaster that tons of people have tried to portray him as.

And plenty of us could see it long before now. This isn't new news.

 

Are these two different things?

There was a narrative made up about Berhalter being terminally inflexible when in actual practice, he's tended to be a pragmatist with some very high level principles.

Then, when we wasn't inflexible, he's abandoning his principles. He's not. He's still trying to get the team somewhere, but he's not going to intentionally submarine the team in competitive matches to get there. At least he hasn't so far.

Not to say he won't make mistakes, for sure. But the dude isn't dumb, as much as random internet poster wants to call him an idiot.

Yes, of course. Opponent, lineup, etc., the level and amount of change can be different, but at this level of relative quality in each side, you aren't just rolling the back out there.

 

Actually, the pass maps for the NL and GC finals look very similar. They both also look very similar to the passmap for the 2019 GC Final!

The person that posted those on Twitter (sorry forgot who), was very impressed that Berhalter actually has a tactical system that is so consistent and could be executed by so many different players.

We were a little lucky to get by the Semi's, but we were the better team last night.