By the way, NO ONE (and by "no one," I mean no one but myself) has even mentioned the consistently awful set piece delivery in 31 pages. This team (not merely this roster, but the entire pool) lacks a consistently good dead-ball taker. That's a real, high-priority problem.
The other way to look at it is that there has been so many awful things to mention it took 31 pages to get to the set pieces!
It's just not new. The team has sucked on set pieces for a long run. With as much as trams foul the attacking players it's a shame but outside of Miles Robinson winning headers, it's bad and that's not consistent. Have to get better.
It's more like there's been about 29 pages of discussion about whether rotation is even needed, and a bunch of kvetching about a manager that some posters really can't stand, playing MLSers they really can't stand, and trying to antagonize other posters. It's an embarrassing thread, really, at least as suitable for BSMX as here. And yet, no one has discussed set piece delivery, which has been regularly sub-par. We have a dead ball problem.
Busio really has to be in the lineup against CR. His form in Italy has been good. His passing range is the best among our mids. CR is going to bunker and we're going to need players in the box and someone who can deliver a good ball into the box. Plus as you noted, set pieces. I think they are going to be very important in this game.
I think the biggest problem, after a day of reflection, was that the team was rotated for rest, and the substitutions were pre-planned for rest as well. There was no indication that the subs were for the guys playing poorly, especially in midfield. There is no way Musah should've been subbed ahead of Acosta and Lletget. And the Zardes switch should've been at halftime. And then to sub in Roldan when chasing a goal instead of Hoppe...
Likewise, and as you have nothing worth engaging with, thank you for reminding me to correct my oversight.
Pulisic and Reyna getting hurt at the same definitely compounded the set piece problem. Neither is great, but are probably our best two. If Busio is good, that is one more reason to get him on the field ahead of guys like Lletget or Acosta. Feel like we never really replaced Landon in that area. It's been a long time. And we don't have fringe guys like Zusi or Brad Davis who can do it anymore either.
When you have one player underperforms, you blame the player. When all players underperfrom, you blame they are from Europe. LOL.
I’m not ok with this. My son is 15 years old. The last time he got to experience a World Cup that we played in he was 8. He’ll be an adult in 2026
Earlier…yesterday I believe….it was the clubs had FIFA by the balls. Now it’s some gentlemen’s pact between Gregg and the clubs. At what point do you start to admit that Berhalter is simply not very good at evaluating talent? Or that Berhalter thinks he’s such a brilliant manager that he thinks he can win with any of the chess pieces he puts on the board?
My son was almost six years old when I took him to a packed Buffalo Wild Wings to watch USA-Portugal in 2014. He's now 13 years old and is crazy about the sport. He has a Christian Pulisic poster (actually something called a DisPlate) ready to go up in his room when we move into our new house after construction is complete. The idea of him not seeing the US in a World Cup for 12 years is just not acceptable to me.
My response was to a post that said we need to put our best team on the field in every world cup qualifier. That doesn't seem to allow for rotation. So it's not a red herring. To say other players such as Busio and Hoppe should have been picked instead, I have not problem with that argument at all.
Well, congratulations. I'm glad someone else thought it worthy to mention set pieces (which account for roughly a quarter of all goals scored, including the one we'd conceded last night) in a 32-page discussion in an analysis board.
Not only win, but win his way. I would be fine with a bunker-counter 2nd squad prepped specifically for this game if we came to the conclusion the 2nd stringers wouldn't hold the ball against Panama.
Both are the same thing. The clubs have FIFA by the balls, they have basically refused to release players to CONMEBOL and other CONCACAF nations. That is not up for debate, it's a fact. It's been a long time that the clubs in the top European leagues want to end with the international game. And they have a point: they're the ones spending millions on players who often get injured during international duty. Now with the pandemic situation those leagues finally have the power to deny release. The USA has suffered less than other countries due to the financial clout of the country, but everybody knows that at this point the clubs have FIFA by the balls. Since we don't want to antagonize the clubs, it makes sense the USSF leadership is trying to keep things in amiable terms. If Leipzig or Valencia ask us to please not use their players for 270 minutes, and specially not in Panama where the field may be dodgy, it's in our best interest to say "yes." Else, for next window, they may just deny to release them, like West Ham did with Antonio for Jamaica.
Antonio could've gotten released if he'd wanted to. I would suspect that he just doesn't prioritize playing for Jamaica very highly. On the other hand, it seems to me that Pulisic, Adams, McKennie, and Reyna all put a lot of pride into putting on the jersey of the US National Team.
I think this is the play that symbolizes how abysmal the US performance was last night - and how Berhalter got things wrong. Walker Zimmerman: “we need to have the confidence to play.”Not hard to see who he could be talking about when this is the kind of tempo that was established in the opening 5 minutesWatch Musah try to spark an attack and watch Lletget immediately take it backwards pic.twitter.com/cnRGE5wI2f— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) October 11, 2021
Buuuuuut he completes 118% of his passes so he must be good. At least that is what people said to me for the past couple years while I was pointing this sort of stuff out.