I missed the first 10-12 minutes of tge second half, so my analysis is incomplete. I really liked the 2nd half performance. Duh! The adjustments by Hudson, Pepi, LDLT, and Booth were impressive to me in the 2nd half. Robinson was great the whole game. I thought Pulisic & Zendejas were poor in the first half. Better in the 2nd. Reyna was fine. Ream & Turner & Dest also. Dike wasn't awful but did not get a lot of help. Musah & McKennie have trouble unlocking an organized defense. Though McKennie's pass to Pepi certainly did just that. Wes can make incredible plays here and there, but he is not one to control a match. Puli flubbed it every time we were close & Zendejas added nada for the first 45. I like Perez a lot as a manager.
I agree. I'm in the camp that thinks we need to try and explore different midfield options that don't necessarily include Musah being on the field every single game. There is a place for him for sure but we aren't a great finishing team and need all the quality chances we can get. At this point in his development, I don't like the dynamic he brings to the attack, at least as an 8. I think finding the proper balance in midfield will be key to this team (and has been), with Tyler injured now, things get even more complicated. Wes is Wes, dude make plays for country. As frustrating as he can be at times, I don't think we are in a position to ignore what he brings to the scoresheet.
Not to make excuses, but Musah was fasting for Ramadan. Tough to play international soccer when you're not properly hydrated or fueled! I know he ate/drank 6 minutes into the game, but still not ideal. Also, didn't Wes play with the flu? Happy we won! Maybe not the best game to draw firm conclusions from.
FWIW, we have a pretty large database to draw from with both of those guys. They each have played a ton of minutes for the nats in the last two years. I’m not really down on Musah either. He is a great player with a unique skill set that is ideal for certain situations. He is also really young and will improve. I just question him as a locked in starter at this point. With Tyler down now, the reality is that he probably is though.
I'm surprised people are so down on Jedi, who might be at Man City in three months. He's a natural left footer with elite speed. Are we really dumping him?
I like his defending and love his ability to progress the ball with his speed, but his crossing is often bad and that's bound to leave folks frustrated. I'd like to see an offensive gameplan that didn't rely so heavily on his crossing.
Dude is a strong defensive 8, a team leader, a big game player, our enforcer and emotional center ... and he has a goal contribution once every 3 games in a US uniform. As a box to box player! None of our players are perfect; they all have weaknesses. I find it odd that Wes -- a truly 2 way player -- is the one that always seems to be excluded. People put way too much emphasis on a his short passing inaccuracy. There's no doubt it can create issues, and I get it -- he's a weird tweener positionally in some ways. But dude brings a ton to the table.
Arguably the best left back in the history of the program. I don't really get the criticism. No...............he's not Alphonso Davies. Last cycle it was basically Robinson and question marks. I hope we really develop competition for him this cycle. Scally looked good there against questionable opposition.
Jedi is a very, very good defensive LB (minus one play at the WC), especially in terms of recovery speed. That part of his game is super valuable in terms of being able to get forward without exposing the defense. But I will be shocked if Man City buy him, even despite their complete lack of LBs. And I will be even more shocked if he sticks there. His touch and passing accuracy are so erratic. People don't really want to talk about it, but he had a really poor offensive World Cup that really, really hurt anything we tried to do. Our inability to create real danger on that side of the field was a problem. Lots of missed chances. And in the El Salvador game, we couldn't even reliably progress the ball over there. I have no idea how he plays at Man City unless Pep is just planning on using him as a decoy or he has some wonder coaching on technique. He's still our best LB. But if we're playing with the ball, there's absolutely an opening for someone with more ball skills to take that job. I'd prefer it if Jedi simply improved, but he's been inconsistent for a while.
Amongst active players, Wes McKennie is now 2nd in goals (if we assume Zardes is done with the national team). Still only 24 years old. He's scored more goals for the national team than Jordan Morris in fewer caps. 10 of his 11 goals have come in games that mattered. WCQers, Nations League, and Gold Cup. He shows up. Scored in the final of the Nations League. Scored in the WCQer against Mexico. The only goal he's scored in a friendly was his first one against Portugal. Also, with a goal by Pepi on an assist by McKennie......................when do we just start an FCD national team? 10 goals scored by FCD academy players in the group stage. Ferreira, McKennie, Pepi, and Zendejas. Current FCD player Arriola also nabbed one in the first game against Grenada.
I don't think saying he played poorly for much of the match against El Salvador is "dumping" on him. it's just factual and doesn't imply he isn't good. Much like Pulisic against ES. Neither were particularly good. Jedi gave the ball away a TON the first half, almost every time he touched it.
Yeah, he's arguably our best LB ever, but I think his ceiling is probably a team like Fulham--mid-table EPL that can occasionally flirt with a European spot if everything lines up for them. He seems very much like a traditional English wide player. He plays very linearly, getting up and down the flank, and then sends in a cross as his default once he gets near the box, regardless of whether it's on or not. He's got pace coupled with an iffy touch. And he's become a pretty tenacious and capable defender.
Yep. This sounds mean, but it isn't. And it isn't unique to Jedi. But we don't have a single player without a weakness of some kind. It's okay to note it. I'm not calling for his benching, but given how we play and how most teams defend these days, it's been an issue at times. And that leaves an opening.
You’re being a bit disingenuous. My point was there is a huge gap between the levels of club competitions that the US roster is playing at versus El Salvador. Also, I would say that 139 appearances over 4 seasons for Chelsea for Pulisic is “playing regularly.” 65 appearances for McKennie with Juventus in 3 1/2 seasons, Adams with over 100 in 4 seasons with RB, Dest with a total of 120+ with Ajax and Barca… Musah with 98 over 3 seasons with Valencia, Gio with 101 appearances with Dortmund. The levels are much much higher, along with training, coaching, tactics, nutrition, medical care etc. Let’s not let subpar, inexperienced coaching, organizational issues, nepotism, lack of leadership and politics derail what is probably the best player pool in US Soccer history. The camp that is “happy” with these performances against minnows are self perpetuating the “aw shucks” attitude that US Soccer has. @NietzscheIsDead Let’s just absolve US Soccer of all accountability in performances and results. Let’s continue to have a small mindset, be happy with making the first knockout round in the WC. I mean, is this how winning programs are built?
Yep, no starters on super clubs this year. Timmy's starting for the 6th best team in France, Ream and Jedi are starting for a mid-table team in the EPL, and Luca's starting for a mid-table team in Spain ...and I think that's as good as it gets this year in top 5 leagues (I probably missed somebody - yes, yes I did - Scally's been starting and BMG's mid-table). Everyone else is on the bench, injured, playing for a relegation-threatened club (Hi Leeds!), or not in a top 5 league. Which is all fine, I think. We sure were spoiled when we had to choose which Champion's League game to follow with which American starting
It's not. Not a single one of those players is playing regularly with a top club right now, as they are. Many were evaluated and sold off to lower clubs because the top club deemed them not good enough. The only guy who might have a claim is Reyna, who isn't even getting regular sub time now that Dortmund is contending. Dest played at Barcelona, but Barcelona doesn't think he's Barcelona quality anymore, so why are you hyping him as such? Many of our players were bought on potential. When they didn't quite reach it, they've been moved on. It's not accurate to say they are regulars on top clubs because right now, no top club thinks any of them is a regular. They are still very, very good players. But not regulars at top clubs. But more importantly, both your posts are sympotmatic of the same "OMG, our players so good we should be dominating" mentality we see all over the twitterverse. Our players are overall more talented than El Salvador's, but the gap is not nearly as large as people like to portray. Our players as not as good as you presented and El Salvador's players are far more capable than people like to admit. The bell curve of talent isn't centered in the EPL -- as you move down, there's a lot of quality players that never get recognized. We're not France or Argentina quality not because the USSF is so terrible and Berhalter sucks, etc. We're in that 10-20 range and our talent is in that 10-20 range. Teams in the 10-20 range don't always blow out El Salvadors. That's reality. It's amazing to me how many watch this sport and don't realize how easy it is to keep a game close, to bog it down and simply defend. I think it comes from people only watch teams loaded with the best in the world against the next step down. (I mean, seriously, I don't even need the whole French team to demonstrate the gap here to the US talent -- just give up Mbappe and watch the difference.) Our team has absolutely struggled to score. It's something to fix. It's not some issue of accountability or everything is rotten or blah blah blah. That's the drunk dude at the bar sports rant that everyone ignores. We're on a slow climb that takes time. I hope we hire a better coach than Berhalter, though he was far from the awful coach people portray. But you shouting on the internet doesn't change shit, so stop pretending you are trying to hold people accountable.
Also note... Weah was the only attacker in that group, and now he's playing some LB. Even with Dest (FB), Adams (CDM), Weston (CM), the only real attackers you could really argue was Christian and Gio. Christian was really good at the World Cup. Weah actually was as well, but Lille was a one season wonder. Gio was hurt and pissy. There's plenty of issues with our attack, but the fact that Ream and Jedi are on Fulham doesn't really follow for me that we should have this awesome offense. I just said it in another post, but people need to understand the bell curve. The truly elite teams very often have truly elite players. We can do a lot of things better, but I just get tired of the made up bullshit. Yeah, we need better final third execution. Hopefully the next coach can bring that. But let's not pretend that we're some behemoth. Elo wise, this isn't that different than say a Japan-Qatar matchup. Or Denmark-Bulgaria. We were never in danger of losing, but like, those are not games where you go in expecting blowouts every time.
Found a photo {USMNT Twitter}. Apologies if I missed the answer to my question. Is it possible I was the only one who noticed this? I'm too old to have done the over-the-knee thing (on purpose) but I thought full-length socks, worn over shinguards, were required. See the players below.
I think booth has on shin guards, but it's just the little tiny ones. If you snip the image and zoom you can see what appears to be a small shin guard.
Thanks, but is Booth a pioneer, or does he just have droopy socks? I'm not too old for that. Assuming Booth's approach is allowed, why don't we see it much more often? It looks a lot more comfortable (assuming no studs-to-shin action).