Gregg has moved away from certain players. Trapp, Bradley, Yueill, Lima. I think the predominant complaint is that he took too long to recognize their deficiencies. It is a fair complaint imo. Ditto to the above with respect to guys he has not moved away from yet, such as Lletget and Roldan. It will happen, but probably should happen a bit faster.
I think it's harder for national team managers because they don't get near as many games to evaluate and they are spread apart farther. I think a lot of managers want to see a run of 4-5 games before making a judgement but maybe that's not possible at the national team level and Berhalter needs to speed up evaluations. I would guess that most players passed by would say they got a (more than) fair shake. That could be pretty important for morale.
National team managers need to give a fair amount of weight to club form. Occasionally you will have a player who way out-performs or way under-performs with the national team and you have to be open-minded about that possibility. But pay attention to club form and pedigree. There is a lot of information in that. This means starting out with a presumption against players in lesser leagues.
Everyone thought that Berhalter must have done the "fake" Arriola injury to game CR? Or that I'm an idiot for thinking that Berhalter could have done the "fake" Arriola injury for said reason?
Alas, you're right. I've been found out. It's a long drive to and from Chicago every day from my home in Louisville, and it's really tough to hold a job as a carpenter AND drive the 6 hours each way, but it's a labor of love that I do just to piss off the rest of you.
I'll say this about Gregg aka tomasbernal. He's probably the least devious coach we've ever had. That's my contribution to this interesting little tangent.
Berhalter must have kicked him really hard. Pepi is a possible for Saturday but Jara is doing pretty well in his absence.
Thanks! All in all, it's a nice cup. It was a good recon trip and we've learned a lot. We've decided a month in advance that we're going to start Paul Arriola even if he's got a leg cut off.
Eh, Arriola starting is simple to understand. Obviously Costa Rica were going to do their best to score in the first minutes. They are an older but very experienced team that could take advantage of talented but naïve young team while their legs are fresh. Arriola may have a deficient scoring touch but his quickness, industry and fearlessness would have helped in tracking back and tiring them out in the first half.
Everyone thought the injury was a fake. Whether that was: 1. to throw off CR 2. because Gregg changed his mind 3. Adams and McKennie talked to Arriola 4. Arriola wanted to qualify more than play Certainly not that you are an idiot for thinking it. Everyone thought it. Many still do. In the lead up to the game, it was reported that Gregg couldn't decide who to start up front. It now seems, or we can't disprove, that Arriola probably got an overuse injury because he was overused.
I guess this means I get to bring up one of the two brilliant Monty Python soccer episodes - Monty Python; Football match Gynaecologists v Long John Silvers .
Dest had just played his best game for the US vs Jamaica with Paul in front of him. It’s not ridiculous to go back to that pairing, is it? They worked great together, created a million chances and defended their side well. I just don’t see what was so controversial about going back to it in a must win situation. Glad it worked out with Weah instead cause he has more upside - but no problem at all with the concept of repeating choices that had gotten results in a basically identical situation.
In light of what we saw vs Costa Rica, I agree...I'm just making the point that it wasn't a ridiculous idea to pair the two again.
Of course he's not. Dest is the key ingredient. But both played really well together, and it's pretty clear it is helpful for Dest to have someone who stretched the field vertically and width-wide, ahead of him, to create space for him to dribble into. We worked Jamaica with the lineup, and while I don't, on face value, get Arriola starting 3 games in a row, I do suspect he would have gone off at haltime for Weah, giving Arriola, Weah and Aaronson all somewhere between 2-2.5 games. I mean, I don't think people realize that Weah played more minutes against Panama than Arriola. But he played very well with Dest; people keep acting like he played poorly. He was very good versus Jamaica.
Maybe if Arriola hadn't played all 90, started in Central America and looked to have dead legs, and was going to be started again. Just coming off an injury. He didn't even make it on the field. Musah being in the midfield on Dest's side probably has more to do with the performances than the winger. Just Dest being on the right side probably has even more to do with it. Arriola is possibly the #7 winger on the depth chart. Three are hurt, so he is called in. But how do you start your #7 winger when you have #3, #4, and #6 in the team with all of them younger and less used?
The US is the walking wounded but with Morris back once he gets fit and in game shape he should pass him. Weah, Hoppe, Morris and Arriola are wingers who have speed to get behind. Morris may be the best at scoring.
Didn't Arriola play 90 against Panama too, and was just as bad, or worse, than the rest of the team that day? Why is that not relevant, but the fact Dest played well against Jamaica (a much inferior opponent) the game before some kind of evidence that it makes sense to start him again? Did Arriola score or assist in that game? The lengths some here go to excuse every single Egg blundering decision is truly mind blowing. Our 7th best winger starting 3 straight games is somehow logical.