Only takeaway for me, and Aaronson was the poster boy for it but not alone, is that the team the US put out there looked small and slow in comparison to Columbia. Arriola was overrun any time he tried to pull away, with or without the ball. Aaronson lost the ball every time he touched it it seemed but he wasn't alone. Hoppe at least looked athletically like he belonged even if he doesn't have the skills. Depth remains a concern until further notice. I saw no one worth more than a few more looks in coming months.
It's not sometimes that he makes the wrong decision. It was almost all the time. Then he takes a bad angle defensively and kicks the guy in the back of the leg. I suppose that kind of chutzpah excites people when they perceive some others are playing soft. You can get the hate if someone values decision-making and discipline. The vast majority of coaches do. That's maybe why he doesn't play. But he does look like he's regressed from that, in addition. Maybe he's trying too hard, and not trying smart. Cowell had some coherent moves, got good shots off, and made multiple nice passes. In spite of being pretty one-dimensional and selfish he had that going for him. In a tougher match or when someone gameplans for him you could see it going awry. But with what he had to work with, he did well. Hoppe did play in that same game and was dog s**t btw. So it's a false-equivalence.
Those South American sides who have physicality and skill, like Brazil, are usually a very tough match-up for us. Colombia is a poor man's version. Typically we have no joy against Brazil. To boot, Colombia coopted the home crowd advantage to fuel them. It helped also that the ref was being very lenient, so they could rough up players, & put fear into them when they received the ball. You don't expect this in an offseason friendly.
That game was much more intense than I was expecting. It had a real CONCACAF feel, which was good for the younger guys to get a taste of. Sabbi really stood out, and not in a good way. I'm intrigued by Rogers. I want Pax and his brother to spend some quality time at the elite athlete version of Old Country Buffet. Acosta had a few legitimately excellent set pieces and some quality shithousery, to boot. He'll never be great, but he's easy to love. I thought Jesus looked like a "number 10 shart" (copyright Bill McDermott) at times.
I think it is interesting how differently people seem to have seen this game, and not just one BS. I think it has a lot to do with expectations in various ways. It was more of an up and down game than the Serbia game, and not in a great way. Lots of poor passes, inability to break presses, etc. In some ways, it was nice to see some of our players thrive in that way on the defensive side. Offensively, it wasn't super pretty but it reminded me more of the 2019 Nations League win against Canada ... except we were just terrible at finishing compared to that game. That's par for the course for the US these days, and we didn't create left and right, but we had 4+ really nice chances even before set pieces that probably should've netted a goal somewhere. I'm going to rewatch again and post thoughts on players, in part because I think I came out completely different than some others -- which is not surprising because everyone is all over the place. But I'm coming at this mostly as a "prospect" standpoint and maybe a more immediately backup. The only guy who I really thought might come out as a starter would have been Vazquez (and eh).
If you pause the replay, it would have been a huge mistake for Hoppe to try to feed Arriola. Hoppe's defender was positioned to stop a pass. The second defender was deeper than Arriola, so Hoppe couldn't have "squared" the ball, as Kyle was prattling on about. He'd have had to have lead Arriola significantly, which would have been a 50/50 ball at best. And, the keeper was more or less equidistant from Hoppe and Arriola. He'd have been on top of the play. It would have been a bad play. Arriola did the douche-master thing of continuing to run a few steps after the play and standing there yelling "I'm open!!!! Why didn't you pass to me!!!!!" Of course you're open, nozzle. You ran to an open space after the play was over. He fooled Martino, and apparently a lot of other people.
Arriola was a later cut from the WC roster, right? Hoppe, Cowell, and Zendejas all significantly outplayed him in these 2 matches. If we had a meaningful match, and one of Puli, Gio, Weah, Aaronson weren't available, I'd be fine seeing any of those 3 on the roster. I'd rather see Zendejas as a 8/10, but at wing would be fine.
Arriloa and Ferreira were two of the better players but they weren’t great. I can see why they are where they are with respect to the player pool (players 25-30 range). Tolkin and Aaronson showed flashes but are a ways away from stepping in to help the A/B team, especially Tolkin.
This is why it's so silly people were dismissive of Vazquez based on not making all these impactful plays last night. These are the jokers he had the privilege to play with: Watching Brandon Vazquez make good runs to generate possible looks while Hoppe and Sabbi are playing like this is one of the more painful viewing experiences I've had lately— Adam Whittaker Snavely (@Snaves) January 29, 2023
This. Didn't need to pause it. Obvious on the replays that the pass was defended. Martino's blathering does seem to hold sway amongst a few here, regardless of the evidence.
Good thing for the analysis it doesn't remotely depend on that one play. I don't even vividly remember it. But from a big picture standpoint, I sure remember that he was constantly taking numerous extra touches to miss whoever was open. It's similar to the discussion on Pefok. His miss v. Mexico obscured all the other terrible crap he did that match and that he in general was bad during qualifying. I even mitigated the missed chance because he got an in-between hop. Should have finished given his role, but it's tougher than it looks. However, he also couldn't control the ball, press, make runs, etc. And he blew chances v. El Salvador. The big picture for Hoppe was he played in a way that displayed tremendously low football i.q. ATM. It was just a better version of Sabbi, who never has come close to warrant call-ups from the US, in spite of the hand-wringing from some simply because he wasn't in MLS.
Hoppe's mistake on that play was his incredibly weak shot, not not passing. It was probably the safer option to shoot; it just shouldn't have been a wet noodle.
Flashier is not better. Zendejas certainly has a claim as better as a different kind of player. I think what people miss when evaluating players is that if you have a player who does some flashy stuff but still can't deliver against a good defense, and aren't good at the non-flashy stuff, they are far less useful than someone who solidly does their job. Cowell was better than Hoppe in a variety of ways, but both of them didn't actually deliver a goal (in Cowell's defense, he had a pass or two that could have with better execution). But if you don't deliver, than all that flash is pointless and the negatives are still there. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Colombia is not a poor man's version of anything; they are an excellent, tough team that got a little unlucky not to qualify in a confederation with 3 WC champions. I expected them to paste us and was surprised they didn't. I'd favor the US over most teams in SA, except for Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. Uruguay doesn't seem to have our number as thoroughly as Colombia does. We have one impressive win against them in almost 30 years, and that was because that 94 team was in disarray. Now I'm just spitballing here and my facts could be off, but I would never call Colombia anything other than a great team. We aren't in their class, might never be.
Both Hoppe and Sabbi were playing in a different game at times. At least Hoppe was usually in a different soccer game.
As MLS gets better, you would hope that better Americans stay in the league, but we seem to be shipping everyone with any modicum of ability so fast that the talent level at this camp is somehow decreasing. I hope that this year was more of a down year, than anything - I was looking forward to watching Vazquez, but it's difficult to enjoy when the rest of the team isn't of a high enough level.
Colombia is also currently playing the U20 Conmebol WC qualifying tournament. The team we saw was missing their best U-20 players.
As soon as I saw Hoppe - Ferreira - Acosta I knew the US wasn’t scoring any goals in this one. And the midfield was terrible. Hoppe and Sabbi, good luck out there and we’ll check back on you in two years, *maybe*. Aaron Long and Sean Johnson, thank you for your service, best of luck in national team retirement. Gressel great story, now it’s over. Get Anthony Hudson out of there as soon as possible, Mikey Varas can’t possibly be any worse…
I don't have access to a match replay to give the moment the Zapruder treatment but to my eye, Arriola was beating the defenders to the far post and the defenders were at risk of deflecting into goal on a desperate play. Nobody has a problem if you bury it but people second guess when you pass up the assist and flub your shot.
I just rewatched it -- I'm not even sure it's 50/50 -- there's a defender between him and Hoppe, and the defender has a half step at the point of pass (or maybe a quarter). It was bang bang for a striker playing winger in a set up with a false 9. Shooting's fine, even if you could thread it. Let's say I'm wrong and it was a better than 50/50 or 25/75 -- I still think one on one with the keeper isn't ever terrible to hit it. The shot itself was weak sauce, though.
It looked like he was trying to nutmeg the goalie and couldn't keep it on the ground. An over the goalie chip shot might have been better. Hoppe works hard. We have a ton of those guys. We need some guys who can make something of that play.
I was surprised at how poor Johnson's passing was. Haven't seen a US keeper just mindlessly bang every ball long in ages. Ferreira made some nice passes into space but had a chance to shoot a few times and didn't pull the trigger quick enough. Paxten obviously needs to get his upper body stronger but for some reason Colombia had a free pass to foul him from behind. Have never seen so much taking a guy out like that with no calls. Must have reminded he ref of someone he hated. Didn't really like either outside back. Neither was terrible just meh. Also saw Tolkin get beat for speed once and it wasn't close. Either the Colombian was Bob Hayes fast or Tolkin is kind of slow. Long was crap and I never need to see him again with so many other choices now. Zimmerman looks tired. It's hard to play all the international games at first until you get used to the rhythm and how to pace yourself with club and national team games. If Acosta could get a few seasons at the #6 he could become a new version of Beckerman. He's getting to that age where experience and physicality make a big difference. He's also good at set pieces and always good for a few long passes to switch the play or into space. Not saying a starter but he may be harder to dislodge as a backup than you think. I was mixed on Hopper and maybe two years of starts would fix many of his ills but then I thought to how Cowell played somewhat similarly and was so much better and is two years younger.
Post Game Player Thoughts. Ferreira's game was a tale of two roles. In terms of coming back and playmaking -- the "10" portion of the false 9, he was great. He generated a number of our best chances through his passing. He also "tries shit" -- it's not dribbling and goals, but he had a number of one touch passes and the such that didn't quite come off but generated danger. His pressing and defense were also very valuable, and he was a step above most of the talent out there. I don't think Jesus is good enough to be a true 10 for us, but I think he could become a very valuable second striker of even an all action striker. But the issues is that the lead striker portion of his job ... he's just not good enough for this level at it yet. Ferreira needs to do two things. One, he needs to get quicker getting the shot off. Too many extra touches, too much hesitation. All our strikers need to work on better shooting, but he actually has a decent shot, he's just too slow to it. Number two, he needs to get better at runs to goal. They aren't timed well enough, and he does them with less conviction than needed. I think he'd be a lot better than people think if he can fix these two fixable things. He'll still be small, though. I don't think Hudson & Co. did anyone any favors with some of the player combinations out here. I don't mind the Ferreira false 9 with two direct, scoring wingers. Hoppe makes sense here, actually, but Arriola is only half of that. The bigger issue is putting Ferreira and Paxten Aaronson together here. Why? Paxten's strengths and Ferreira's are in similar spaces. Paxten would have been better with a Vazquez or Hoppe at striker; Ferreira would have done better with real midfielders like Pomykal or (less so) Sonora to get him the ball. I understand the back and forth on Hoppe. I honestly think this is Hoppe needs to play stylistically. His strengths are runs behind the defense and a good combination of size, strength and speed with enough skill to be dangerous. I think the Dempsey comps are a massive red herring -- we don't need him dribbling guys, etc. He was very effective playing the wing today like a Haji Wright plays striker. Loved his effort on offense, his pushing the line. The execution lacked, and the decision making was a little suspect. He also has no real idea how to press at times (which seems baffling given his history) and didn't track back at all (though that may have been instruction). The biggest thing he needs to work on is finishing. I know the hat trick got everyone all hot and bothered but I think it was just a really good day on finishing. It's also worth noting all those goal were soft. Ferreira, him, Paxten, all of them really need to work on quick release, powerful shots and get them on goal. Easier said than done, I know, but I come out of this camp a bit more positive on Hoppe, but he needs to recognize what he's actually good at, not what he thinks he's good at. I'm not sure the exact plan on attacking shape, but Paxten today kind of highlights some of the risks. There were points when we tried to go 4231, but it just didn't work and we had to rotate. Paxten was too small and too easily marked out of the space. I don't think it has much bearing on him long term, but we had a ref who allowed everything and it completely hamstrung him. I think the big concern with him will be: can he get enough strength to offset that? He's very skilled, but he's not quite fast enough to not have to deal with some physicality. In addition, can he adjust his game to get rid of the ball instead of drawing fouls in undangerous places. But let's be honest, there were about four uncalled fouls on him in dangerous places. We couldn't do crap with it because set pieces, but some teams can. Arriola Arriola'd. He probably wasn't the right guy for this game but Sabbi isn't a 90 minute guy even here, I think, and Zendejas went home. He wasn't helped by Williamson's disappearing act. Williamson has the physicality to be pretty good, but he still really doesn't have any idea where to be or what to do. I don't watch enough Portland to know what's so difference, but I wonder if Diego Chara just lets him freestyle. I like a lot of things about his game, but at a higher level of competition, I don't think he's a good enough player to play like he does. He was a bad combo for Ferreira and Aaronson and required Kellyn Acosta to do yeoman's work. Yes, Acosta is not super consistent on the skill elements. He absolutely held the team together on a day when Williamson went absent and Aaronson was getting manhandled a decent % of the time. There's a wild overrating of flashy but ineffective players and a relative underrating of solid players in the fanbase. Which shouldn't shock anyone. I'd like to see Sonora with the A team. I don't think he did anything to "deserve" it in these games, but he's pretty clearly a connecting, complementary player who is going to look much, much better with better players than most. I have real concerns about size, defense and aggression -- I don't necessarily think he's better than de la Torre, for example. But I don't know if that was going to show here at all. Jones is pretty much a speed guy, but I don't mean that derogatorily. If you have recovery speed and the ability to get to the end line ... we can do worse. I think Moore is a more consistent defender, but I'm not sure Jones isn't better. Tolkin showed well in his role, I think, but it's worth noting the role. He plays that defensive LB / CM, so you play differently than with Jedi. Hoppe's way of playing LW was a perfect complement, and I think Paxten was supposed to slot in as an AM with Tolkin behind him. I was really impressed with his defensive acumen but a bit disappointed in his passing and attacking. It's pre-season, so I think he's still in the mix, especially given the age. He is a sharp contrast in polish and physicality to Gomez, where he just seems ahead across the board in terms of readiness. It's too bad Gressel is just not a good defender. He's smart and has a mean cross, but he's not a fullback defensively. Jalen Neal is more Mark McKenzie than Chris Richards right now. He moves great, he's a good passer. He moves forward with confidence. And in a game and a quarter, he made three pretty bad mistakes. He's simply got to clean those up. I didn't see Richards a ton at this age except in the U20 WC, but he was pretty flawless then. You can't be inconsistent as a CB no matter the upside. He's young, so I am not writing him off; I'm not even in the ballpark. But while offensive players can be inconsistent and get minutes, CBs can't. Vazquez needs time with the A team. He was pretty terrible finishing this window so you can't say he played well. His SOG/Chances % was pretty terrible, despite the fantastic goal. But strikers like him need to play with better players to give them a fair chance. I think it is interesting if you looked at the players based on who were the more physical, who had more skill, who had clear tactical edge and I think people would be unable to parse out the MLS-developed players versus the players with more European experience based on stereotypes.
I wrote this in my long post, but I think I've seen him hit a hard shot exactly once (a saved shot in the Gold Cup). He loves the chips and light stuff. He needs to develop some in game power on his shots. His strength is going to be getting in at goal. You're a 6'3", physical and athletic player. Stop pretending you are a dribbly midfielder. Attack the goal with power.
Hoppe wasn't sharp, but right now I wouldn't expect him to be considering he hasn't been getting any first team minutes in what, a year and a half now. He shouldn't even be in consideration at all again until he actually starts making an impact for the first team at a decent club. We will see if that ever actually happens. PA needs to hit the weight room, or puberty. His boss may be back in Germany right now trying to figure out what to do with him this year because he doesn't look to be physically ready for the rigors of B1 at this point. In retrospect, might have been better to just pencil him in with the U20s and to have waited for his debut with the big boys. Ideally, I'm not sure anybody on this roster should be challenging for a spot on the A team right now. Most either don't look ready or are not at that level. Unfortunately Acosta and Zim are probably still needed, but hopefully not for much more of the cycle. I'd like to see what Zendejas could do with better players around him, dude reminds me of an Arriola with technical chops. Maybe that finish from Vazquez buys him a look considering what we have at the 9 spot but other than that goal he was kinda meh in my mind. I absolutely loved what I saw from Neal on the ball but those mistakes were pretty painful, he is way not ready for prime time yet. He caught my attention for sure though. Up until this window, I hadn't been impressed in the slightest with Cowell but the Serbia game was the best I have seen him look in the shirt and I'm not sure why he didn't play at all in the second game. I'm anxious to see how he does with the U20s this summer.