Can't tell me they don't have some untapped youth who could be doing a better job. Then again, we see how youth can struggle too. That's what concerns me though, that CR team is way past it. Should have been a rout. Too many muffed chances once again.
how much of that was on the US though? how often have you seen the usmnt dominate the ball like that against CR?
and he played horrible against panama...so what the guy is not good enough. he is superfluous to the pool and team. he woulda been a great 1990s us player but that isnt the model anymore..... this generation is passing the arriolas, zardes, roldans of the world by.....why do so many insist on keeping the team stuck in the past???
there is such a wide gap between the mLESSERs and the euro players.... ggg needs to keep vetting more players in the pool and move on from the players who arent up to the standard of the team. I kinda hope that maaaaybe that was the idea in the Panama game....expose the lower level of players like arriola, lletget, zardes, roldan etcc.....so he can justify moving on from them.....
Hoppe had a great chance at the top of the box but stepped over the ball and the us didnt get a shot off anyone else notice hoppe has a habit of bungling passes that should be chances?
When we lost to T&T, we didn't have more players than ever yet. From the "new generation," we had ... Pulisic. Yedlin and Arriola started, Acosta was a sub, and Ream was an unused sub, and beyond that no one else from that team has played a material amount for the USMNT since. Plus, lots of posters would prefer to see Ream excluded from future squads, Yedlin as at best the RB backup, if not off of the roster in favor of someone more versatile or younger, Arriola as a sometimes energy sub, and Acosta as Adams' backup, with everyone hoping he improves or we upgrade on him. Only one top 15 player for the current USMNT was on that Couva team.
Based just on the small sample size of minutes, Zardes was at a minimum our second most impactful sub (Busio being the other choice). Pepi was exhausted, and Zardes' fresh legs and style of play were a fit. I'd prefer he wasn't in the 23, but last night's substitution worked for us.
I would be fine with a very limited role for Arriola, but starting him all 3 games this window was just freaking insane. I think In berhalters mind he’s our third best winger. Maybe tied with Aaronson, but clearly ahead of Weah, Hoppe, De La Fuente and Sargent.
“It was early enough in the game, if we stayed calm and stuck to the game plan, I thought we'd be OK,” said Berhalter of the early setback. “It briefly flashed in my mind, Costa Rica just going into a really really low block. Thankfully they didn’t do that. So credit to the guys for staying calm, hanging in there and playing our game.” this quote from Berhalter is weird. thankfully CR didnt bunker? that should be playing right into the hands of the team. the us should be happy if an oppnent bunkers! its basically surrender. but he purposefully sets up the team in a way that they cannot create chances...needs to stop doing that!!!
I'll have to go back and check that one... wouldn't surprise me, though. The US struggled all night to make a clean final pass for a shot. They had so many chances to make THAT pass... and bungled almost all of them. I did notice that right after Hoppe came on he made about 3 or 4 effort plays that kept possession for the US.
I think you're the one unmoored from reality. Despite having the ball pretty much the entire game - the US had 5 shots on goal. Again, they could not complete a final pass to save their lives. In one sense, you're right... they had a ton of chances to make that pass - but were always undone by poor execution or poor decision making. If not for a lucky bounce off the post and a 40 yr old CR attacker getting caught from behind on what should've been an easy CR goal... we're looking at a loss or draw... with nothing else changing. Otherwise the same game... but dramatically different result. Are you then in here telling me I'm unmoored from reality? I didn't see a lack of effort - but the end product was just barely good enough and hardly inspiring.
I actually felt for Brian Ruiz and Saborio. It's like if we somehow were so desperate we had to draft McBride back into the team. They may well have some good youth as a lot of their players are upset at the coach. This is why Berhalter is not the worst choice for us (doesn't mean I'm saying he's the best). This guy has coached two teams to the WC and he only plays veterans and dinosaurs. A lot of coaches are like that. Seems Earnie and GB have an eight year plan (I hope GB is only part of the first half) to integrate as many high talent kids as possible, to make this WC but to really set them up for the next one. It's a huge balancing act because to get them the most experience means they have to qualify for this WC to gain experience for the next one when a lot of these kids enter their prime. But as we saw from Richards gaining experience has hiccups.
Do you consider Busio and Aaronson mLESSERs or has their short time in Europe taken them out of that category? Steffen, Adams and Yedlin played in MLS. Weah, McKennie and Richards came up through MLS academies. Pepi and M Robinson are still there. Sure some of the MLS players aren't as good as some of the Euro players or OTHER MLS players. Some Euro players aren't as good as some of the MLS players. A lot of the best MLS players will move to Europe soon. Lots of interchanging. Maybe say some of the MLS players aren't going to ever be good enough to move to Europe and will only be depth until enough youth breaks out to even take that away?
Agree with this except Moore. I think he is a good player and provides good depth at RB. I think he is better than Yedlin/ Cannon and somewhere behind Dest, Scally. Shaq is athletic and can whip in a good cross. He is not an A-team starter or back-up but he most certainly in our top 3-4 RBs, which we will need throughout WCQ. His club situation is mind boggling to me though. He had a great year at Tenerife last year, performed very well at the Gold Cup at the summer just to get back to his club team and sit on the bench. I guess the guy who took his spot had a really good preseason and hasn't given the manager a reason to not start him. Shaq is good enough to be playing at mid to low table club in a top 5 league, it's just hard to get those opportunities.
This is an astoundingly bad take. It's not Steffen's fault he didn't move to save a shot and it is turner's fault that his player buried a great header in his goal. And it's turner who made our midfield and forwards and backline so terrible in Panama. Wow. Just wow.
I'm just saying the US looked ok because Costa Rica looked that bad. I think Gregg is tactically clueless. If we had an average gaffer, the US scores 4+ last night.
I think he thought he was important this window. I think his strategy right now is to counteract the youthful inexperience with using the youth to tire out the older teams while getting experience. He has moved on from a lot of players that seemed to be locked in favorites. Did Weah do enough to move ahead of him? I think that goal even though it was an own goal may have GB thinking because Arriola would never have hit that screamer. I agree with I think everyone here that with a energy guy who gives all he didn't do Arriola, the team or himself any favors by starting him in the second game. If his battery isn't charged fully he's not very useful. Ideally if he keeps making the team at all he's a battler to finish off games (Zardes too). If everyone's healthy I expect Hoppe and Weah to take his spot as they can do that too and do other things he can't.
Hoppe was kinda meh. He should have done more with that ball from Zardes. He also whiffed on a header on the ball from Busio, which is kinda alarming if you watched him play against Real Madrid a couple of weeks ago where he struggled in the air. On the plus side, he made a great play on the ball to keep it alive where he almost notched an assist to Pepi there, and he made a couple of dangerous runs, one where he was wide open at the top of the box and Wes couldn’t seem to execute. Bottom line for me was that I was hoping for a bit more from him against tired legs but I mean he had what, 20 minutes and he was again on the wing. He really wasn’t given a chance this window.
If we're beating Mexico in the last 15 minutes, I might strongly consider having our 2 guys that have yellows, take a yellow for dissent. I'd much rather have them miss Jamaica away, than a game, maybe Canada away, in the next window... I might even consider this if we're not beating Mexico in the last 15 minutes.
I'd like to get a bigger sample size on Hoppe in the air - but I had the same thought you did re: the whiff vs. RM and his miss, last night.
This stood out to me. I want to see more of Hoppe, especially at striker. But that was a nice pass that he needed to get on goal.
I noticed that play and the one where he got his feet tangled at the top of the area. Hoppe does a lot of good things, but those two should have been very good scoring chances. The ball from Busio was really good, and if Hoppe gets his head on it that's a highlight-reel goal.
I missed minutes 2 through 10. But once I was defibrillated, revived and propped back up in my chair, I was really pleased with the response, at least in terms of heart and effort. I like to come to Bigsoccer after a victory to find out why I really shouldn't be happy about it. I usually say things that are boring attempts to temper violent dismissals or overly amorous man crushes, both of which I am as capable of as anyone. Here's a scatter shot of more of the same: Squad rotation, part I: If Arena had rotated the squad more for the T&T game and holding the vets who played just a couple days earlier for the second half - I think we would have taken care of business. Squad rotation, part II: With injuries, travel restrictions and a compressed schedule, the idea that GB should ride his "best 11" is a bit ridiculous. He couldn't even if he wanted to. The upside is that we have given a lot of young guys qualifying experience and learned a lot about a lot of players. Squad rotation part III: That said, I was mystified by the decision to sit Zimmerman and Turner, and more than mystified after the heart-attack inducing goal seemed clearly the result of confusion and uncertainty. Considering the need to get 3 points, it was bad idea to change. Now to contradict myself, I was unhappy that Arriola was originally in the line up. I like him. He has value. But I can't imagine he really had the legs after his balls to the wall play in the last two games. Squad rotation, conclusion: GB gets something of a pass from me, but he has a tendency to over think and over intellectualize some decisions. Some of the criticism is deserved. He has shown ability to recognize and adjust (simplifying tactics for example compared to his start as Nats coach). The bottom line right now is that we are sitting in a good position for qualifying, we have a lot of good players getting important minutes, and we are developing a team ethos of fighting back as seen in the Nations Cup, Gold Cup, Honduras and last night. Since the goal is qualifying and getting a group to gel and peak at the right time... well, there are reasons to be cheerful. (For the kids at home, that's an Durry reference) Tyler Adams: I enjoy looking at posters player ratings. I am, on occasion, persuaded that I missed something. And when I disagree, it makes me think through my opinions. That said, the first rating I look at is what's said about Tyler Adams. Anyone who doesn't see what he does I can safely ignore. The dude is our most important player, our best player, our leader and he does stuff that we really haven't had before. He's got the game and positional sense of Claudio Reyna, the ability to slip pressure of Darlington Nagbe, and an engine like no other. Good god I have a man crush on him. Walker Zimmerman: I'm not a big intangibles guy - at least not in the way sports writers who cannot play like to overhype guys who can play but don't seem élite. But damn, I like Zimmerman. He's better than he's given credit for (although of course he has weaknesses, as does everyone) but he really has that big Georgia football (gridiron) player mentality. Just love what he brings. And he can deliver some thunderous headers. If we have better set piece delivery against Panama, I liked the chances of him resolving a lot of our problems in that game. Who sits? This is a weird new territory for a US Men fan of several decades. If Gio and Pulisic are healthy, who sits? I really like our attacking mids and wings last night. We have guys with great feet, speed, technique, attacking instincts... It's going to be hard to see anyone sit. One thing I think has to happen, and that is Pulisic needs to not feel like it's all up to him and work as a part of the unit. I'm not worried about him getting there, but he's had times in the recent past where he tries to do too much. Well, time to actually start my real job now....