Last time we played Panama away, we got a draw. Dempsey, who started the game before that one, started and scored again. If that team, which didn't qualify for the World Cup, could get a draw away against Panama, why couldn't this one? Maybe, it is because Arena is a better coach than Berhalter. Maybe it is because Arena wasn't stupid enough, to start his best goalscorer on the bench!
This is from Grant Wahl but apparently the expected goals of 0.22 of this game was the lowest of Berhalter’s tenure by 0.31.
I don't think Hoppe brings anywhere near Arriola's workrate or verticality. But I also think that Hoppe and Aaronson are the creative wingers and Weah and Arriola the vertical, high work rate wingers, and we should have one of each on the field with this crew. Hoppe's weaknesses could have been a problem against Panama as well, but since neither Arriola nor Weah played well -- and Weah did the Hoppe thing where he just basically went where he wanted -- I'm not sure it would have been a downgrade to replace either one.
The more I think about it the more I just shake my head at the coach. Like man, how can you get it so wrong? A lineup of Zardes, Arriola, Lletget, Acosta? And Moore and Bello on the flanks? It was just so comprehensively wrong from top to bottom that I am kind of amazed.
I can only imagine they wanted to raise the floor by having at least 3 of the starters out there at all times. It didn't work. The only way to make it 'make sense is to assume we were setting internal minutes restriction and didn't want a scenario where we are in a hard fought 0-0 match and then capitulate in the 2nd when you take out your four starters? Again these wouldn't be as much an issue if we were healthy in the first place, or just committed to playing competent route one ball. We tried to do the Gold Cup strategy and half the team panicked. The mindset to grind out a point or even get a lucky win would have been easier if we were able to at least adapt to do better on our long balls. I see what people are saying regarding LDLT and Busio. They might have helped us with passing but they aren't more likely to match Panama's physicality. Hoppe is the real omission. Everyone else is kinda what you have when you set a minute restriction and are in between hustle ball mentality and building from the back. Need one or the other IMO
I would have started Pepi, but Arena also never had to deal with 3 game windows. I doubt Berhalter started Zardes because he thinks he's better. It may have been wrong, but I'm sure it's a fatigue thing.
I know I am just continuing to dissect a bloated, decomposing horse at this point but another factor I am amazed by was how awful Acosta was playing defense. Offense can be expected but we all assumed Acosta could at least help control the middle of the pitch and be the balance to riskier players like Musah and hypothetically, Hoppe. But he wasn't that either. Jesus what a disaster.
Next window is only two games. We need to see a solid core of healthy starters play 150-160 minutes. Acosta and Lleget have had some good moments this summer, but neither of them is helpful now -- particularly not as a leader in the midfield. Acosta might be ok if you never have to pass the ball to him and he only is there to mark some 10 out of the game. Lleget might be ok if the other team is bunkered and he is only asked to run around behind the play in case someone creative gets in trouble and needs an outlet for recirculating back to a CB. Obviously these two should not play together.
Weah was really disappointing for me and a lot of it was exactly this. He was seldom wide and attacking that space like he needed to be, didn't combine well with his fullback. He was leaning centrally too often and trying to make the same run as Zardes at times. He was also really erratic with his pressing and would randomly start his own press and then just not do it. I was really disappointed in his game. His teammates didn't help him out and no one got him the ball in good arews to attack to be sure, but he needed to play with some discipline, which has usually been something he is quite capable of for both club and country. His game was was both disappointing and surprising.
In the case of Acosta, what is the alternative if we need an Adams type but Adams is not available. In the case of Lleget, the fact that he continues to feature is just absolutely unjustifiable.
Yeah Musah gets a lot of hype for his marauding runs and shrugging off tackles but he doesn't really win the ball either. So the first half we had no ball winners in midfield, and no progressive passing. Acosta's performance is by far the most concerning because we thought he was at least a good defensive backup at the 6.
Lletget ideally would have played the smaller space match at home v. Jamaica, paired w/ a progressor like Musah, to help break a bunker. And that's true vs. Costa Rica, who'll actually be dedicated to it. But I'm sure we'll throw the baby out w/ the bathwater, because that's what Berhalter & most fans seem to want to do. Poorly utilize players, not taking advantages of their strengths and limiting their weaknesses, then discard them. The same thing happened to Ferreira, using him as a 9. He was more mobile to play Sebastian's position in this game. And unlike the rando Euro solutions some try to come up w/ for purity he doesn't have a career high of 2 assists to play a bad final ball. The same applies to Sands in leaving him off the roster. We could have started Adams in the first two matches, inc. the roadie, then went to Sands at home to also break a bunker. Acosta can't do that. He's the player you bunker w/. If he was going to be deployed yesterday that should have been our gameplan. I think a Miles-Adams-Musah-Lletget spine would have worked sufficiently for a road qualifier on a choppy field. Went station-to-station, w/ only an occasional problem, progressing the ball to the final 3rd to make some plays there like Sebastian did @ Honduras. But only 2 of them, or their types even, played. And then when Musah showed flaws w/in a poor dynamic, he also was tossed, to compound issues. Poor utilization/complements of flawed players in the youngest pool in the world, then overreaction, including some blanket prejudice to fit an ideology from much of the base side (ignoring widespread underachievement), on repeat.
Weah is not as far along as people keep talking about him as being. People talk like he is on Arronsons progression curve, when in reality he has been injured recently, missed the last window, and has only JUST started to get real minutes for his club. Weah is one of those players where peoples perceptions of his potential incorrectly paint where he currently is. People (and I guess Gregg was one of them!) seem to think you can put him in a lineup at this point and he can be your Aaronson - dangerous, effective, and familiar with WCQ. Weah isn't there yet. He was really just as bad as anyone else last night, the difference with him is that we all expected him to be further along than he is. You can forgive a performance like last night if it was a 30 minute sub appearance in the first window, but he was asked to play the Aaronson role and he is not ready for that yet.
The alternative is that Gregg notices this issue earlier in the year and stops wasting time with Yueill, doesn't waste Gold cup minutes on Acosta, and actually attempts to work in some different options at the 6. Yet another bad decision by Gregg that some of us totally called and is totally coming back to bite him in the ass.
Yep. He was awful across the board. That's where I'm struggling with this game -- it feels like the whole team was out partying all night or something.
1. BS excuses #1: We have a young team and this is their learning curve. Wrong. This starting 11 is not YOUNG. Starting 11 in Jamaica game was young. But not a team with many veterans. 2. BS excuses #2: Tired legs. Wrong. Only tire legs are Arriola and Zimmerman. They are actually had ok performance. I am not worry about CR game, because we will have MMA to control midfield and have Dest/A.Robinson flying on the wing. The problem is the second strings are not as Greggs believed. Yes. When Pulisic and Reyna out, he believes Aaronson and Arriola (he considers an equal to Aaronson, please someone starts an Inter Milan rumor to match Aaronson’s AC Milan rumor). When MMA out, he considers Acosta/Lleget/Roldan. When we have best 11, I have no worry but the bench waiting for guys like Busio, DLT, Clark etc to come alone.
Yep. He looked amazing doing basically one thing over and over against Jamaica. And then he went out against a team that was not tired, not outworking us and he looked completely out of sync with the rest of the team. As bad as Bello and the midfield were, Weah wasn't helping because no one had no idea where he was at any time. I actually wonder if Arriola was supposed to get pulled at halftime but Weah's play pulled him.
I feel like over rotating our squad, plays away from one of biggest strengths which has been fitness. So many of the games leading up to the qualifiers we won by basically wearing out our opponents and the game against Honduras was more of that. If any team is equipped to rotate less than it's opponents, it's this one, but instead we are rotating more. I don't see any reason that Adams, Aaronson, Miles, and Pepi couldn't have started this game, especially with them all being subbed out the previous game. I get that three games is tough for us, but everyone else is playing three games as well and dealing with the same problem. A separate issue, but I really didn't understand Moore over Yedlin, Yedlin is more experienced, in better club and playing time situation and played well against Honduras. If we are stuck with Bello on the left because Antonee and Dest being unavailable an experienced RB made more sense.
People don't talk about part of our problem in Honduras 1H was the ad-libbing and offscript pressing from...Pepi. It broke our gameplan which was to defend in a compact shape and hit Honduras on the counter. By stretching out the game and making it impossible for our two 6's (Sands and Acosta) to win duels, we looked terrible. I wonder if Weah's pressing was a similar problem yesterday. A factor of a young team, we looked like a team trying to stick to a gameplan that wasn't working combined with the other half trying to fix it / going off script. Lacking real leadership out there to align everyone to either one or the other. This is on Gregg too, but someone on the field needs to see what is happening and hold their teammates accountable.
And the rest of the ocho used it to prep for this…by getting their teams to play as a cohesive unit in advance of qualifying. Wr used it to try to prep 3 teams to play in qualifying
Agreed. These kids are young. Run the f*** out of them. Accept no losses, no ties. The USMNT needs to treat each game like a World Cup match - that was clearly not the case last night, and Berhalter would have to admit this. This is why Mexico is superior to us when it counts.
All the games are equally important. Because of COVID and the late start to qualifying, the WCQ games schedule is compressed, and coaches have to take a different strategy than they normally would. You simply cannot play 3 games in 6 days with your best lineup. That won't give you the best results. The human body needs recovery time. You have to play a B lineup in one of the games. The Panama game was the correct choice. Having said that, over 90 minutes, the USA had 55% possession. Each team had 1 shot on goal. Unfortunately, Zardes was in front of the wrong goal. Mistakes happen. The things I would have done differently from Gregg are to play a 4-4-2 and to bring in Pepi and Yedlin at 60' instead of 68'. I don't know if those 8 minutes would have made a difference in the result, but it would have increased the odds of getting a point. People will better understand Gregg Berhalter's strategy after the USA crushes Costa Rica in Columbus. I predict 3-0 USA win and we will remain in second place.
Sands isn't the answer. He's neither a bunker buster nor rangy in defense. There's this weird assumption that the other options are better, but it's like reading that Busio should have played yesterday. Busio would have spent half the game on the ground. We went with something closer to a B team, and then that team played poorly. There's certainly places I would pick and choose but Sands... Sands needs a very confined space to succeed.
When we were down a goal, one of them needed to be brought on. I probably would have brought in LDLT for Lletget. We were not going to score with the midfielders we had out there. What was the use of bringing on Yedlin at that point?? Were we so overmatched that we were just conceding and in damage control mode?
I think a lot depends on matchups. Against most of concacaf, I prefer to see Busio in that role because he is better on the ball, and teams like Panama are not going to have us under threat a lot. Against Mexico and top teams, I’d prefer Acosta because we are going to be defending more and looking to counter, rather than build up the attack through possession.