No but I do have a brain and can deduce he wouldn't keep doing it if his mother and father had repeatedly told him not to. I'll switch it on you - you think the whole family and I mean all five that were in the report independently developed an attitude where at the WC family hangout those five were the only ones cursing and exhibiting other bad attitudes?
When Gio experienced a set back in playing, Claudio clearly did not tell him to put his head down and work harder. Instead, Gio continued to mope and Claudio and Danielle burnt the ships in trying to threaten people to get him playing time. That's pretty strong evidence of Claudio's parenting style.
I think the relationship between coach and player would be much healthier now. No entanglements. Pulisic will likely be equally fond of whoever the next coach is…except maybe Henry.
No. I'm saying that if I had to make an educated bet, that's the way I'd go. I personally don't think our best player is going to be himself in 26. His talent and health reminds me of John O'Brien more than any other US player. He's great. We need him. But I don't think he's going to be what he was or is in 26. So if you forced me to bet on which outcome would be more preferable: Both Pulisic and Berhalter or Neither - then I would bet the other way.
Pretty different from John O'Brien. O'Brien appeared in less than 100 career games in his club career. Pulisic is 24 and is already at almost 300. O'Brien's one and a half healthy seasons happened to overlap with the 2002 World Cup. Will Pulisic decline as he ages. Probably. They almost all do. But that's why we need to keep building the pool.
I'm speaking about the national team, the wear and tear on him, the loss of pace, and how he's accumulating injuries now. He's obviously a more successful club player than JOB. Look, I hope I'm wrong, but I think it's very possible that this was his only World Cup where he got to shine. Again, I'm just looking at it from the scenario where I have to pick both or none.
I'm about 2/3rds if the way through this. I think this has to be viewed as Pulisic endorsing Berhalter. There is no way that Pulisic otherwise sets up a 42 minute interview with meandering discussion from both him and Graham Hunter, with Berhalter as the primary topic of discussion for a 10-15 minute spell. And Pulisic did not have to make a direct statement about the Berhalter-Reynas situation at all, as he didn't get a direct question on it. Hunter was edging towards the subject but didn't demand an answer.
I agree and it'll be interesting to see what McKennie and others say when it invariably comes up when they get into camp. Or if Tyler Adams finds a way to give a similar interview.
He’s certainly not not endorsing him. He could also be viewing this a chance to show loyalty to someone he feels has had a difficult last few months and he feels deserves his loyalty. That doesn’t inherently mean he’s lobbying for him to be coach again so much a lobbying for berhalter to be respected for the work they put in together.
To what pre-WC Gio behavior are you referring here? What did he “keep doing”? I did read that GB quote, and saw Claudio’s pouting first hand when I attended one of the pre-WC friendlies. But I am not disputing his pattern of privileged helicoptering, whining and butinsky-ism about Gio. All I did was challenge statements by you (which I quoted). I maintain that neither of us have any idea if those are true, but I am not the one who presented them as if they were.
I wonder if Henry could unlock some things to help Pulisic. When I first saw Henry he was a playing winger at a loaded Juventus.
You must not have read Sherlock Holmes. One doesn't need to hear or even witness someone doing something as they can deduce what happened by the evidence.
I would go further and say this is a very strong indicator that Berhalter is going to be re-appointed. I think someone on the boards may have said this already, but this looks a lot like a PR campaign. The report last week was the platform event. Now we have Pulisic doing this very long interview where Hunter has been primed to ask certain questions. Berhalter was out in the Telegraph. I’d expect another big player or two to pop up with an endorsement in the next week or so as well as some strategic leaks.
I think if you had responded to the questions I posed rather than restated (in different words) your belief that yours is the only reasonable inference, that might’ve been a more productive response. For the record I do have a brain and I have read Sherlock Holmes.
Apparently Gio's able to be a good citizen at Dortmund, where he shows a level of respect to staff and teammates that he could not bring himself to muster for the USMNT. The difference is Claudio treats the USMNT like his local AYSO chapter, so Gio does as well. So he knows better and can do better.
And in this scenario where you’re imagining that either Reyna or Pulisic is going to be a broken wreck in 3 years, you’re thinking it won’t be Reyna because he’s been so healthy for the last couple years? If you want to be a doom merchant, why sell only half of the doom in stock?
You're misinterpreting what I meant. Sure, it's quite possible that Reyna and Pulisic are both out. That only makes it even more important that we not bet on Gregg. It's pretty clear what I'm implying here.
Missed the game. How did our dude do today? Saw he got replaced at the 62', probably didn't do too well?
actually he did quite well. He still shows a little rust but he did everything, except score, that could be expected. The sub al 60' was clearly pre-planed. He went about 10' in his first match back then closer to 25-30' or so and then today he gets '60. It seemed that Chelsea was a little better defensibly with him than without him. But the problems that led to the tie instead of the win were not in the forward part of the team. FWIW: He got slammed pretty hard a few times but responded well. He did not look injured. I suspect that he is ready to go 90' if needed but it would be best, I believe, if he only goes 60-75' in the matches over the break. It should not take the USA even close to that to get these, should be easy, matches put away. That is if the coaches turn the team loose and lets them score.
to the bolded. Because of course the reason that the USMNT has had trouble scoring is because the coaches won't allow them to. Double
I know its obvious, but we're about to hit rarified air statistically for Pulisic. As a reminder, he's 24 year old. He's up to 7th all-time in goals at 23. That's one behind Joe-max Moore in 6th at 24. After that he's just hunting down legends. Its Brian McBride in 5th at 30. [As an aside, if we assume Zardes is done: The second ACTIVE leading goal-scorer for the USMNT is now McKennie at 11.] Assists for Pulisic. He's now tied with Tab Ramos in 8th place with 14. Next people to catch are Eddie Lewis and Eric Wynalda at 16. [If again, we assume Zardes is done.....................second ACTIVE leader in assists is Jordan Morris.] Christian Pulisic was literally getting quadruple-marked against Grenada 😂 pic.twitter.com/mHDQfkt0H7— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) March 25, 2023
Pulisic looked back to his best version where he can be almost unmarketable at times. In the photo above he waited for a split second for a tiny opening and split the defenders and was on his way into the box but of course got taken out. At least most fouls against him weren't the usual CONCACAF vicious ones but I counted at least six fouls against him. I wish soccer copied basketball somewhat and the fourth foul against the same individual received a yellow even if it was their first foul of the game and every one after that also received yellow. No one watches games to see some spare foul a talented player and sharing fouls is an easy success for bad teams. Oh and I was happy both Pulisic and Reyna didn't go crazy with whiny faces after getting clobbered. I've always felt that makes refs not give you calls later in games just to show you that they are in charge.
The problem with trying to strictly enforce something like that is that you'd end up with players being sent off for minor or unintentional fouls. I don't think that fans would like that outcome, and I don't think players would like having to worry about which opposing player had protected status. I fully agree that persistent infringement and cynical fouls against skilled players are a plague on the game, and that they need to be addressed somehow.
There'd be no protected status as all players would have equal protection. Also no one gets sent off with a yellow so just don't be dumb and do it twice.