He reminds me of a young Pulisic. Amazing at getting the ball upfield, then he dribbles into a wall. Lampard forced Pulisic to think of himself as a scorer. Yunus needs someone to put that pressure on him, too.
Of these, I think Pulisic is our guy. He can be quite effective *if* he isn't having to track back to the center circle all the time
Yeah, people blaming Wright for never seeing the ball playing with Arriola, instead of with Weah serving it up on a platter. Sheesh . . .
You're making a lot of excuses for a player who jogged around all night. Wright didn't put any real effort in today. Everyone that isn't horribly biased saw how little he hustled on anything. He had his chance and he really didn't try to impact the game in any way. I'm not sure what we do with that.
Pulisic was a pretty good scorer long before Lampard although Frank did help him. I think Musah gets to be a better offensive player, but this is fundamentally a speed of decision-making issue, I think. And that's not necessarily something that always get fixed with experience. Sometimes yes. But not always.
You must think it is a coincidence that Wright looked better when he played with Weah vs. Arriola. Either that, or you are "horribly biased." Or maybe you were one of those, like Berhalter, who thought Arriola was better than Weah.
I've always been a huge Weah supporter, even when people here had written him off, so no. But I also think it's hilarious you can watch a dude jog around, barely try to do anything, and blame everyone else. By the way, if you though Haji was actually good against Morocco, you're smoking something as well. Maybe the players are responsible for their performances. Everyone here can see the long history of eurosnobbery for you, but it's hilarious to watch you try to prop up Haji's performance -- where he barely tried to run as a sub! -- by pawning it off on an MLS player. You know what? You're right. Paul Arriola totally made Haji just walk around and disappear. Not Haji just loping around, doing little. Definitely Arriola.
Wright had 30 minutes. Least he could do was hound the back line the way Jesus was for those 60 minutes. Yes he got no service - but the forward has other jobs to do as well. Muslera wasn't distributing the ball well in large part to Jesus' pressure.
I was looking at the stats for our guys before the match and was surprised to see Musah hasn't scored for us yet, like given how involved he's been in our attack it just feels like it should've happened by now. Especially when you look at some of the other players who HAVE scored goals for us but who aren't nearly as influential.
Always hopeful that we'll finally replace Brian McBride, I watched Wright in Turkey with Antalyaspor two or three times this season, hoping he was getting closer to becoming a useful nine. I was shocked that he (still) showed a minuscule work rate and lack of effort except when the ball was coming at him. So far, the US jersey hasn't made a difference.
After rewatching, it seemed like Long kept following runners to the right side. Scally would move right to prevent a big hole from opening between them. That would leave players on the right wide open and Scally scrambling back to mark them. There was one chance, where Long basically drifted all the way to the right side of the box, leaving Scally and Adams marking 2 players on the left. A third Uru player jogged into the box for a shot, with Long standing there and charging over at the last second. I don't know if that was just a flaw in the scheme, or a tactical decision, or the players not spacing well.
Interesting match tonight. Overall, biggest thing was the MMA midfield again. Adams was tremendous. Musah as well, though (you've heard this one) needs to release the ball at times. Mckennie was not quite there but still class in moments. I know we can want more offense, but these guys give so much 2 ways (the offense is just slightly under the surface...it's almost there...) gotta go with MMA as the #1 midfield option. Weah was good again. So Reyna and Aaronson (who was also good) have work to do to take that spot, because Tim is the guy for me. The false #9...???? Wasn't super thrilled with Christian today. He was good, just not sure again the roaming back way deep or drifting past cenrtal the other side is the best use of his abilities. Zimmerman god damn is a beast. I will give credit to Johnson, but one game won't convince me, but ok tonight. Long is in the mix, but we'll see. The negatives.... Ferreira. Maybe he's not he guy. Touch was whack early, then can't finish. Wright did nothing. The outside backs. Yowsers. I think some of it is on Berhalter because I don't know what the ******** was going on. Either caught high and wide or alternatively cauagt tucked in way inside. Yedlin made a few plays but is back up material. Scallylads, where you at tonight? I mean I don;+'t like to, but Bernstein called and wants his Gold Cup performance back. Arriola scapped to no effect, and LDLT didnt look great. EPB certianly won't move Long to the bench with that performance. AROB whatevs.
Come on man. Busio is so much worse than LDLT at this point (I predict this to persist unless Busio’s athletic profile somehow improves).
After looking at the highlights. I can see why some folks though EPB was always late. You see he is playing the offside trap on his side thinking Zimmerman is going to be at par with him, but Zimmerman was already back pedaling to cover for the over-the-top pass.
i think a lot of you are overlooking how disjointed our defense has been and are going strictly on your preexisting opinions. we lost miles and along with him the cohesion that made the heart of our d so strong. add to that that adams isnt in terrible form but but hes dragging for sure. and dest is out here. over these two friendlies weve played two different keepers, three rbs, four cbs and two lbs. we havent kept any backline intact for more than 45 min. epb, ccv and scally had almost no time combined coming in. but we havent let a goal in against two very good teams- yet we have seen a handful the of so-called "worst performances ive ever seen" (scally, yedlin, long, epb)?! mckennie- less than 90 minutes back from a broken foot- is now on the brink of losing his spot? ferreira gently lifts every chance he gets into the keepers hands (if its on remotely on target in the first place) and people are tripping over themselves defending his play, his freaking finishing in particular?!? we have the stupidest fanbase on the freaking planet. the only thing i want to add myself is i dont think musah has a problem seeing a final pass and i dont think he has a problem releasing it early enough. i think hes on the wrong side and doesnt have a left foot/refuses to use it- either way. when hes on the right side he sees things just fine, and his timing is just fine. he slips balls to weah/dest just as well as anyone and sees the switch to other side when its on. hes not the most creative or impeccable passer in the first place but there is a noticeable difference when hes on the left side of the midfield, especially moving to the left where he is entirely blind to the right side which is where most of our attack comes from. that doesnt mean he was bad- hes one of our better players regardless. but we are getting less our of him on the left, where hes frequently circling to the ball like antonio valencia to hit the ball across the field. early stage jordan morris was better/more willing with his left. that also takes away mckennie and pulisic linking up- not that thats a huge loss at the moment with wes still limited. i am 100% confident that in our last match of the world cup we will be trying out some new wrinkle cause we sure as hell dont put any importance in consistent reps/finding cohesion. we have to find a new answer(s) in the back- losing miles is a back-breaker. but we dont have to tinker to this degree, especially with things that already work.
Re USA performers Worst player on the field: Yedlin. Lazy with a "let some other guy solve my problems" attitude, poor positioning, inattention, positional recovery way to slow, slow to react with necessary speed. None of this is new for Yedlin, but it sure seems a lot worse, especially in contrast to the contributions of the other players who now seem way ahead of him both skill-wise and tactically. Unfit for Qatar. I don't want to see him again. Most disappointing performance: Aaronson. Great energy, of course, but he did not contribute to team play or success. More often than not, he created local havoc on the field, distorting team coordination. He made bad decisions with the ball and used his commitment and energy to recover from his judgment errors. That approach is ok sometimes, but last night, more often than not, the result was negative for the US. Because of the turmoil that followed almost every ball contact, the team lost its shape and had to guard against a ball popping out in the wrong direction, leading to a fast counter by Uruguay (who, fortunately for the US, essentially had no decent counterattack). US players clustered around the point of mayhem created by Aaronson and opened large portions of the field to counterattack which, fortunately, didn't happen much. Aaronson played like a Leeds player of this just past Prem season and will not be useful to the US if that continues. He needs to pick his spots better and be a team player more. I want more thoughtfulness in his game. Grade C- Most difficult performance: Scally. He is clearly too much of a novice and has a ton to learn. He may very well be a star in 2026, but right now he is a major liability. There is probably too much for him to learn before making the grade necessary for Qatar. It could happen, however, if his learning curve is very steep and he gets a lot of Bundesliga time this fall.
I know I’ve said that the best way to get all of our best players on the field when healthy is to play Gio as a Firmino-style 9. After the last two games, I’m even more convinced of that. I just do not see enough from our other strikers to trade off style of play for just getting your best players on the field. Even if he’s not an ideal 9, Gio would bring more to the team than the current crop of 9s. I liked quite a bit of what I’ve seen in the last week. I grant that the defense hasn’t always been great, but the biggest thing I’ve wanted to see in these two friendlies is an attack that was more fluid and creative. It was by far my biggest criticism in qualifying. Overall, I liked what I saw. Yes, finishing is still an issue, but things just looked smoother.
This was the type of game I would have liked to test what John Brooks still has in the tank (especially in that second half) given his level of experience up against an accomplished and very capable opponent outside of Concacaf. We still have some unsettled questions and we are running out of time to find answers. But, alas, there is something obviously going on there behind the scenes.
Cannon had club problems early on. I don't remember if that affected his fitness or availability for the first game against Mexico. Second game I believe he was out due to covid.