Go to whoscored, fotmob, or whatever ranking site. Anyone on our team. Pulisic used to be known, not anymore.Wes? Never.
We don't make effective triangles in the opponents half. (See any Pep team or Argentina the 90s and 2000s) We don't make runs behind the back line that might be off side but draw the cbs out of position. (See Ciro immobile Thomas Mueller) We don't (with the exception of McKennie who does this alot at juve) switch the attackers position to confuse the defense. Tldr.we are pretty easy to defend. Also, the first Canada goal was beautiful direct football. 4 players, 6 touches, from midfield to goal. Plenty of heart out there but Berhalter needs to go for this group to reach its potential.
Oh wow, that was so nonthreatening I didn't even remember it... Thanks. So we got one shot on goal from the run of play in the entire game with 63% possession? I think the only word for that is pathetic.
That, unfortunately, is not hyperbole. It wasn't just pass the ball around in our half possession, either. We had the ball in the spots that you want to have the ball. We just can't create with it at all.
I actually started this conversation in another thread, the day or 2 before this game. We have had 2-way midfielders in the last 20 years, yes -- but we had guys in those midfields who were more than competent passers ... Donovan, Mathis, Feilhaber, Bradley, Reyna, O'Brien (for the 5 minutes he was healthy). The issue now is, who is that passer? We are completely deficient in that area. It is why I have been advocating for Busio to get more time. It is why I advocated LDLT to start this game (a guy I am not tremendously high on). It is why I have been advocating for Reyna2 to be played in the midfield whenever he returns. We are missing that from our game.
Of course. I mean this is a more one-dimensional side that we were in 2006, and we sailed through CONCACAF in 2006. (Anyone remember the FIFA #4 rating?) Then what happened? Czechia scored early in the first match and that was all she wrote. Canada aren't worried about that. They're riding high on their success and looking for more, and they'll worry about crossing that bridge when they get to it. But they don't have anything that suggests that they'll ever have any other answer than what they had today, and what they had in the last game against us, and the GC and so on.
Not against a low block. Against a low block, an off-forward or a-mid should be used to unlock the defense.
A ranking site? No thanks. Weston will be best XI in Serie A if he continues his recent form. He's been electric and dominating games. You should watch him. I'm still curios who you are referring to when you say "tallest midget who only his boys know his name" who is apparently better than Weston.
That’s a good point. Perhaps he would benefit from having a better assistant in this area. Because something is missing. And I don’t think we can just blow up the ship on its last voyage.
Everything I've heard about Alan Sonora says he is that kind of a player. A typical Argentinian 8-10 that comes to MLS and becomes the league MVP because we don't have those.
And that's what I mean "only his fan boys". That's you. There is no #3. They all are exactly same midgets.
Unfortunately, everyone in Concacaf wants it here. They can't get enough of that sweet, sweet US dollar.
We need stop cycling the ball predictably from flank to flank and need to be more creative through the middle of the pitch, but that's a lot easier said than done.
Your inability to tell me who are the CONCACAF players better than Weston McKennie and talk about midgets is confusing me.
The 2006 US World Cup team running on vapor fumes. They were a team ravaged by issue of age, form, and injury. And FIFA has since changed its ranking system. Canada had already been humbled. In Nations League, having become cocky after beating us 2-0, they decided to dominate possession to take the game to us in the return leg. They got whooped 4-1. They haven't again tried that. As long as they stay humble, they should be ok. They have enough mid-level and elite players to do ok.
The middle of the pitch is extremely clogged. Switching the ball from side to side is how you find places to penetrate. We were in good areas of the pitch against a very good and organized team. We just didn't have the quality in the end, and we didn't take advantage of some of the really good chances that we did create.
Maybe? He usually plays the #10 role for club, and I believe he displaced a TAM player to win the starting spot. And the CONCACAF opponents we need to unlock are all fielding some of the same defenders he faces every work in MLS. But I don't watch FC Dallas enough to know if his style of play is good for breaking a bunker, and he's been a false 9 for the USMNT.
No, we didn't, but we get almost literally zero creativity through them (and I love them). They win us the balls in all the right spots, but then we are forced to play very predictably for the cross because they can't spot and make an incisive through ball. So we endlessly cycle the ball to one flank, fail to penetrate, and recycle to the other. Every one of our opponents knows this, and yet we do nothing to unbalance them through the middle. This has to do with our manager and his tactics. It also has to do with our players and their problem-solving ability or lack thereof.