I can't even imagine how disgusted Costa Rica fans must have been by our second goal. McKennie's pass was shanked directly at their player -- so bad that you can see Weston berating himself and turning back to defend -- and that player somehow chested the ball off the bounce perfectly into the path of Dest 10 yards behind him. Bing bing and it's behind Not Navas. Glad we ruthlessly capitalized, but that was seriously pathetic.
My view is that Hoppe and Zardes replaced Sargent and Pefok as the forwards. Hoppe considers himself a center forward and wants to be treated as such. In my view Arriola and Weah replaced Pulisic and de la Fuente from the first window. People talk about Arriola's caps under Berhalter, but Weah has a lot too. And Weah had two longer term injuries. There's no real reason to believe Berhalter favors Arriola over a guy like Weah. Weah, by the way, was the first player born in the 2000s to be capped by the USMNT. That wasn't that long ago, and now we're starting a 2003 in a WCQer!
I remember watching this and thinking wow, the worst pass McKennie makes all night is the one that leads to a goal. This game is really funny sometimes.
Paul Arriola injury history Cruciate Ligament Rupture Feb 15, 2020 Nov 5, 2020 264 days Thigh Muscle Strain Mar 5, 2021 May 12, 2021 68 days Muscle Injury Aug 20, 2021 Sep 9, 2021 20 days I don't think he should have been selected while he was still recovering from injury. It took Jordan Morris about a year to get back to full fitness following his first ACL tear.
I believe that was Keysher Fuller. He was Costa Rica's goalscorer last night, so maybe he gets a pass. On the other hand, I saw someone link to this tweet right when the Costa Rica lineup was announced, so maybe not: If we go with the 4-2-3-1 and start Fuller at RW, I want this dude gone before kickoff. That is a fireable offense. It didn’t work in the left side with Matarrita against Mexico. Why would it work now? It’s negligent and a complete lack of self-awareness from Suarez. #LaSele— CRCFutbol is Back (@crcfutbol) October 13, 2021
I may have to eat my words. His MLS production per minute in 2021 has been double what it was in 2019.
Other than being wrong on the facts, the statistical evidence, and reality, this is an awesome take. #1: Turner beat Steffen on shot stopping stats period. You can dig into the #'s, it's not even close. I didn't respond to this at first, but I didn't notice anyone taking issue specifically (maybe I missed a post) with it, so it needed to be mentioned. Turner is a better shot stopper, full stop. There is no debate. The #'s back it up. Everything backs it up. #2: Your argument about being Steffen being vastly superior to Turner with the ball at his feet is backed up by loads upon loads of scouting reports suggesting that Turner is at best, below average here, and probably worse. The interesting note here, however, is that Steffen could be a medal stand winner for the @wpiootbgw twitter feed. Between 2019-2020 with the USMNT Steffen committed nearly a half dozen, possibly more howler horror show level error's trying to play it out of the back. Again, I'm stunned nobody called you on this. He was notorious for making this error back then. Now as a HUGE Steffen fan since he stood on his head at the U20 World Cup back in '15 and nearly single handedly sent us to the semifinals before bowing out on penalties after shutting out eventual '15 champions Serbia in regulation and extra time, and negging 6 of their 9 penalties in the process. I think and thought he was a fabulous shot stopper, he was responsible for the '15 near semifinal run, he was brilliant in drawing France in '18 before their WC title run, he was fantastic for Dusseldorf before going down to injuries (I greatly regret that as I would've loved him to stick with them, the injuries came at a terrible time), but while all this was going on, under Berhalter's obsession with playing out of the back, he was an absolute horror show with the ball out of his feet. Now before you jump out at that take, which is RIGHT, I would add the nuance that is always important, and helps to explain why he was poor, just like Turner was poor at the Gold Cup opener, and against Panama, it is absolutely fair to argue that a good part of the poor play was the result of playing with makeshift, constantly changing back lines. Indeed, I think one can argue that for both of them, the bulk of the issues with playing it out of the back, and with the ball at their feet was lack of familiarity, and intuition with one another. It's not a coincidence that Turner's worst moments playing it with his feet were in his first start with a back line he knew not at all, and in Panama, playing on an okay, but not ideal surface, with a backline w/2 changes, and a radical change in central midfield. Is that nutty goal last night all on Steffen? Nope, is it probably a worst case scenario with a back four that Steffen's never played with? YEP. I don't think Steffen has EVER worked with a backline of those four, and indeed I believe he's only had any reps at all with 2 of the 4 featured, Robinson and Dest. At the end of the day, I think that constant fiddling, and rotation has really hurt us in both those areas. I can't argue for certainty, that last night's crazy goal was about communication, intuition and familiarity, but it is hard for me to imagine Turner giving it up, and that's mostly because Turner's been playing with 3 of the four of that back line, and knows what they are going to do in any given moment, I also don't see him flying out as Steffen did, though I could be wrong there. I think we will continue to see these kinds of problems so long as Egg continues to fiddle a ton with the back 4, with Central Mids, and if he chooses to continue to mess with the keeper position. Heck I think he could've also put to bed concerns about messing around at keeper if he'd been emphatic before the Jamaica game that Turner would be getting 2 matches, and Steffen 1. Then you don't get the sense that Turner's benching might be a bit about performance, rather than about rotation, and getting Steffen some playing time after him having not played at all since halfway through the Nations League Final. Anyway, suffice it to say, I think Turner is the better goalie period right now, and it's largely obvious. He knows the A and B backline choices from playing in the Gold Cup, and starting 5 of 6 World Cup qualifiers, so while communication issues might crop up when Egg gets too cute, like Panama, those issues are less likely with Turner than with Steffen whose barely played with either of these groups with any kind of consistency at all. Turner is also the better shot stopper period (although Steffen has the ability to make Navas crazy saves, as he's shown at Manchester City, Dusseldorf and the US teams over the years) for now. Maybe when Steffen lands a regular gig, he can get as sharp there as Turner, but that isn't happening, yet. I also don't care about playing with the ball at his feet. In general we'll be playing on quality fields for the vast majority of games we have left except perhaps at Canada (I think they have some crappy turf type field for us), maybe Costa Rica, and if Jamaica or Azteca are impacted by bad weather. We've got 3 of the 4 fields most likely to suck, in the bag, so I'm not super worried about Turner playing it out of the back, and as long as Egg can settle on a coherent pair of backlines, I expect communication to be good too. Turner's never going to be great at distribution, and w/the ball at his feet, but he's been mostly fine, other than a match at the Gold Cup, and Panama, 2 of 10 or 11 starts, and none of the issues ended up costing us. Whatever we might gain in ball skills we lose with Steffen howlers both based on past history, and based on the liklihood that they'll happen due to lack of reps with these guys. It's a straight pass for me. I don't mind giving Steffen matchday 13 or 14 if we're already qualified, or if Turner's form falls apart, but barring that, Turner is and should be the #1.
successful passes: own half/opponents half vs Panama 190 / 130 vs Costa Rica 215 / 340 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 LLETGET OUT
i watched the second half of the jamaica game...faaaar from excellent. not sure what you were watching....not excellent in any way.
mckennie is generally one of the best 11 players in the pool. but it comes down to role and fit. if hes off, a midfield of mckennie and adams isnt creating much.... adams does enough ball winning. i just think the role of the center mids must include driving the ball forward and creating chances for the team and right now...the MMA midfield aint really doing it even if all 3 are generally amonst the best 11 players in the pool. for instance, if you had 3 center forwards...do you start all 3?
That's complete nonsense. Based on what? Turner's got a superior shot stopping record, a gigantic pile of clean sheets, nearly every goal he gives us is a "no shot to save it scenario". If he starts performing like ----, by all means, give Steffen some starts, but as long as he is blanking opponents over and over again, he's my #1 keeper. It also helps that he's started 11 of our last 12 and as a result is very familiar with probably more than a dozen back four options, and multiple back lines, and so communication is fine. I love Steffen and his shot stopping too, guy was fantastic in '15, and '18, but was crazy erratic in '19 and '20 with the USMNT, especially with the ball at his feet, supposedly his strong suit, which it clearly isn't, at least in situations where he's playing with guys and combo's that are unfamiliar with him and one another. I have no interest in trying to re-introduce him to some guys, and introduce him to others in the middle of qualifying. No thank you. Don't need more "when playing it out of the back goes wrong" twitter threads, just for nebulous distribution upside that is negated instantly by the howlers and near howlers surrendered while doing such things. Straight pass. Now again, if Turner is a mess, and plays poorly, sure, nobody has an autolock on a job, but as long as Turner is playing well, he's won the job, period.
chemistry shouldnt be an issue at this point...theyve all played a bunch together for the most part. if these guys dont have chemistry...then none of them should have a leg up on callups based on prior integration. concacaf qualifiers a level or two below the world cup...if they cant get it done here...how are they ever going to compete when it actually matters? thats how i look at it. keep testing new players out.... if pepi and richards can just jump into the fire....there must be others who can as well. some of the players who are unproven just need a chance a la jordan morris jumping from the NCAA to playing well at Azteca....i dont know which of the fringe and overlooked players will be upgrades...but i know some of them definitely are.
Weah produced dangerous moments aplenty when playing with the first team, especially when he came off the bench. Of course, so did Arriola. And when they played with worse players, on the road, against Panama, both had subpar games. Weah is clearly faster and has a higher skill ceiling than Arriola. He has a nice work rate, but Arriola's is creepy high. Paul also frankly is more disciplined defensively and offensively and tends to make the proscribed run more reliably, but obviously brings less creativity and expression. Both are actually pretty erratic on the skills, though Weah is better. But he's far from a clinical finisher or master of the final ball service himself. He's a very talented player who should overtake Arriola as he gets more fit, more accustomed to his teammates and the gameplan and simply is more likely to overall improve. But there's a lot of folks trying to act like Arriola was awful this window, as if the Jamaica game doesn't count, and that Weah was brilliant and if you just evaluate them on performance, they look an awful lot alike. Weah has more potential, but that's irrelevant. There's an intense groupthink of hatred at Arriola, who, relative to the games he played in, actually had a good window compared to many teammates. But someone put up a twitter graphic, so people are out in force!
Part of what is happening right now as well is that players are figuring out what each other can contribute. What you hope is that guys don’t just give it to Dest and watch, but that they learn how to use Dest to get what they need to be able to leave an impact on the game. They’re learning which defensive players to open up for, which ones to make runs for to go direct, etc. They’re learning that on the job and learning to trust each other in certain ways. There is a lot to learn. Berhalter’s job is not easy. These are not fully developed players. Also, most of these players are support players on their teams. There are very few who are leaders. You could say that McKennie and to a lesser extent Adams are part of their teams’ leadership. So these guys are also having to learn how to take responsibility themselves over wins and losses. You see that Dest goal and the Pepi goal against Honduras and you see two players who are taking responsibility. Those two guys in particular plus Adams, Antonee, and Aaronson are showing initiative. More of these young players are going to be called on to take initiative and transform games. It’s time for Weah to step up and get cerebral. It’s time for Steffen to step up and get minutes at a club,
Huh? What were you saying when Robinson was if not our best player, certainly one of our best at the Gold Cup and in the previous qualifiers? He had a sketchy night last night, it happens. I'm not concerned as long as he doesn't suddenly start pulling McKenzie's, and having horror mistakes literally every single start. Richards is awesome and Robinson is awesome, period. I can attribute Robinson's error to ---- happening, and Richards was playing literally his first USMNT cap ever in a win or die kind of moment, he was solid to good, with a few mistakes, and he also took advantage of epic concacaffery in his brain dead tackle that was somehow not a PK. Good on him to intuit that these refs are epic clueless morons, and somehow, someway, we seem to play in a region that either gives PK's for literally nothing, or doesn't give PK's for borderline homicide (I swear in one 30 minute stretch I saw like 4 clear PK's not given in the Mexico and the US matches combined, it was insane).
Aside from being an intelligent, industrious connector on his side of the field, Arriola completely wipes out the LCB and LB from contributing to the build up and pesters the daylights out of the keeper. The guy is an asset.
So true. When we went down, I thought to my self that we will get to see the character of the team tonight. They fought all game and I was impressed with the group to claw back. You could see that players like Adams understood how important the game was, when he was arguing with the linesman to call offsides on their goal.
well turner needs to work on his distribution and im not saying it isnt a key part of the role of GK...but shotstopping is what really matters...and turner is clearly #1 there...imo by a wide margin. steffan is marginally better with his feet but overall turner is the #1 for me bc shotstopping is so much more important and he is so good at it.
He's fantastic in terms of reflexes, I think his core problem are reps, in combo with thinking too much. Needs to play a bit more instinctively, when he's just reacting, he's spectacular. Its the decision making that involves "either/or" situations where he can fall short, and some of that, or maybe even all of it could be about lack of familiarity with teammates, and communication etc.
Another thing to consider, if Navas has a serious abductor injury he may not be available for much of qualifying. Keep an eye out to see if he has surgery... this would pretty much ruin Costa Rica's chances IMO.
thats what happens when you have 60+% possession and live in the opponents half of the field...the constant pressure wears teams down.
It's a good example of why Scally should've been there for that window. Now? I'm highly skeptical he comes for window 3 even in the case of injury (at least for Mexico anyway) which is a critical problem. You saw what a difference it made to have a central midfield of 2 ball progressors, and a solid passer in Adams mixed with two fullbacks who fly forward and know exactly what to do to help generate chances in Robinson and Dest. Against Panama you had to backpassing lleget, my guy Acosta w/his lead foot that game, and then a fullback that didn't know exactly when and where he was supposed to be when we had the ball, and in Moore a guy who just wasn't up for the match that day. How much better would it have been with Moore and Scally? Or Yedlin and Scally? We are going to see much, much more fluid attacks when we have a top four FB group that has Scally at 3, and not Moore and Yedlin ahead of him. And we're going to see much better chance creation when we have Lletget at home, or on the bench, and Acosta only ever playing when he's paired with two strong central mids like Musah and McKennie. Busio also needs to 100% replace Lletget period. Just replace him. He does everything Lletget does, just better, and w/none of the backpass, anti-football nonsense.
Yep, and I loved that, in terms of being rough, I think he's just had the sort of anti-fall '20. He's had multiple suspensions, and he's been directly ---- on by his coaches in Italy repeatedly since the late winter of '20-'21. I just think he's been in bad to mediocre form for basically a good 9 or 10 months. Hope he gets in a better space going forward because man, he was spectacular fall and early winter of '20.