Indeed. It is a chance to assess all our players (not just the superannuated ones) under pressure conditions.
Well, if we hadn’t pulled our best players, the team would have been worse and more likely to lose OH WAIT I GET IT NOW! Berhalter’s job is to win games; expecting him to not try to do that is a category error. You’re expecting him to do something that his job dictates he’d be dumb to do. His job is NOT to try to get our players at as many big clubs as possible so American fans can…what exactly? Hey, I think it’s cool that we can watch lots of Americans at big clubs too. But that’s for players and their agents.
ream shouldnt be guaranteed a spot in the copa roster but thats not how gregggg does it he builds relationships with his players to insulate his standing as coach from outside criticism.....i expect this cycle to be typical of 2nd cycles.....closed group without many new faces.....to the detriment of results....but to the benefit of gregggs bank account greggs gonna ride with his guys regardless of results I still cannot beleive the players went to bat for him and were decisive in bringing him back....shows a tremendous lack of ambitoon on their part it boggles the mind
Can you support any of these assertions? Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler No, based in the other 100 times he’s aired his grievances like Frank Costanza and I’ve asked him to back it up.
i didnt say he shouldnt have carried those players. i definitely didnt say anything related to the rest of...that, though i do know youd argue just as hard greggs job isnt (only) about winning, but developing the team (via "experimenting" in friendlies, giving guys looks)- which youd say if you thought that would totally pwn me at any given moment. this could be a better place to talk about soccer, and i really dont get why youve decided constant sarcasm and mocking (what you regularly distort and/or make up out of thin air) is what you should focus on im borderline in shock that someone thinks kessler is as (more, by the phrasing) deserving of caps than trusty but at least i can respect that as a soccer opinion.
I would largely agree with you. I guess I’m approach this from the perspective of players getting reps together. But perhaps that’s not as important as some make it out to be?
I would say our best players are together so infrequently we should emphasize giving them the reps rather than someone on the margins.
Semi-rant, but these conversations always interest me. When Berhalter decides player who played 563 minutes in a top 4 league team in 2024 is not good enough, he's dumb. When Berhatler decides player who played 451 minutes in a top 4 league team in 2024 is good enough, he's dumb. It's almost as if we have our own biases. That said, Ream should play until he either lays an egg or someone surpasses him. You figure it out by watching club games. Sure, it can be hard to judge across leagues and teams but that's the job.
This seems to be missing the point. The issue is it comes down to age and prediction of where he will be at in 2 years. On one hand, if you have a 20 year old player play what Tim Ream played this year, you’d say that’s a promising sign of a player on the rise. On the other hand, when you see an almost 40 year old player play that amount of minutes, we should speculate how much longer will he be able to play at this level.
I got a little fixated on the Copa when reading through comments. But going back to your original post: "what point do you say, or do you have to make the choice, okay dude, thank you, but we have to move on." I think I gave my answer. You play him until he isn't one of the best CBs available. Could be next month, could be next year Next to no one would've speculated in 2021 we'd still be talking about Ream's role in 2024. I enjoy discussing the future, but unlike a club team, I don't think the national team needs to worry about phasing someone out as much. There's no missing a signing because we held on to a player too long. You can try to prepare but it wasn't probably until Summer 2022 that someone starting predicting Zimmerman and Ream as the starters for Qatar. I don't think Ream will be on the roster in 2026 but I also did not think he'd be on the roster for 2022 at this point in the cycle either.
I [respectfully] disagree with this 110%. The national team coach’s primary responsibility is to have the team peak at the World Cup. Not before, not after. That requires him to be able to see into the future in order to determine who’s going to help him go the furthest in the tournament. Also, there are very opportunities to integrate new players. For example, we called in Shaq Moore over Marlon Fossey because the coach is more familiar with Moore over Fossey. We saw the same scenario with Jordan Morris, Roldan, Long, etc. Players who were remarkably poor but kept receiving call ups; not because they were the best, but because the coach was too timid with introducing new players. Now, maybe Ream still has some role with the NT. But I would argue that his role needs to start diminishing in order to allow another player to step up in a leadership role with the national team.
Also respectfully... I think even you don't agree with some of this. So if we go 0-0-3 and out in the Copa group stage, but Berhalter brought in younger guys and promises we peak in 2026, we say ok? Of course not, 99.9% of us would want him fired immediately. We want to peak at the World Cups, but poor performance between them should get the manager fired. His primary responsibility right now is doing well at the Copa America, otherwise he may not be around for the World Cup. [USSF competence aside.] Shoot, anything less than winning the Gold Cup has people calling for his job. I agree a bit, but that's not quite the same. I stated that as long as Ream is one of the best CBs, he should be called up. When he's not, then he shouldn't be; that goes for every player. Predicting when that'll be is near impossible. Berhalter made that call once... then had to call Ream back up.
We have to exercise some level of reason. I’m not suggesting playing a u20 team at the Copa. Heck, I would argue in favor of Tim Ream for the Copa. But it’s after the Copa, when we are betting on Ream to be in good form in 2 years at the World Cup, that’s bordering on being just as unreasonable as playing a youth team at this Copa.
If it’s a competitive tournament I want to see the best players at that moment in terms of going as far as possible. That includes the Gold Cup, after two straight B teams I want the full squad next time.
At next years Gold Cup, I would really like to see an interesting experimental group: GK Ethan Horvath, Gabriel Slonina, 1x Schulte, Celentano, Callender, Brady, Kochen, etc. RB Bryan Reynolds, Marlon Fossey (Jones, Lennon, Harriel, Davis, etc.) CB Auston Trusty, Mark McKenzie, Walker Zimmermann, 1 x Sands, Neal, Cobb, Dietz, etc LB Caleb Wiley, John Tolkin (Jones, Lund, Gomez, Brown, etc) MF 4 x McGlynn, Maloney, A. Morris, Busio, Tessmann, Bassett, etc. AT 5 x T. Tillman, Booth, P. Aaronson, Cowell, Zendejas, Yow, Sabbi, Cremaschi, Esmir, Gutierrez, Puktsas, Luna, etc. FW 2 x Vazquez, Pefok, McGuire, Dike, Ferreira, Downs, etc.
do you think ream had a good game against netherlands in qatar wc? i dont i think he was poor in that game (the most important game of greggs tenure.....and biggest embarrasment) part of building a team is going to be predictive, forecasting years in advance....something greggg absolutely sucks at
There is nothing stopping another player from making a compelling case for a place in the lineup. Chris Richards did so this past season with CP. If there was another Chris Richards-like player out there I'd have no problem sitting Ream in favor of that player.
You as well as everyone on here have no idea what his boss has told him. If that were the only thing he was tasked with doing, he has made some very questionable decisions.
Nothing is preventing CCV from making a compelling case. But it is kind of hard to do so playing as a defender for the dominant team in a mediocre league. I said club play was where players can make their cases. But obviously it can't be any club in any league. That goes without saying.
I think there’s a good argument to give more exposure in the next 2 years to Carter-Vickers, McKenzie, and Trusty, not to forget Miles either. If someone else emerges, great. And there’s still Zimmerman and Ream, but we need to get these players ready for the next step. Trusty will need to find a new club probably. Meanwhile, CCV and McKenzie both have become irreplaceable starters for their clubs (Carter-Vickers more so, who has been the top defender in Scotland for consecutive years now).
Honestly, who cares? The discussion is about the future. Players have poor games. If we use single data points to decide who should be called up in the future, the squad is going to run out of players real quick. Brooks last USMNT game was a poor one against Honduras, so do you hold that one against him the same? Worse, since it was a less important game against an easier opponent? No?
1. lol hilarious you want to hold brooks against ME! I want brooks in the team!!! i've wanted him for a while......he was one of the highest rated americans in europe this year, despite most usmnt fans witing him off. greggs fragile ego is keeping him off the team 2. who cares? the guy is 36! and has been benched by his club team....writing is on the wall... ream has likely peaked and in the most important, highest level game in gregg's tenure, he was inadequate.....his best skills werent good enough....netherlands dared him to pass and he couldnt thats the only reason he's out there....the defensive rganization in that game was a shambles, as well..... there is a very very small chance that we haven't seen ream's peak with the usmnt already...and even that was found wanting! if the discussion is about the future.....that shouldnt be a plus in ream's column lol....he isnt getting better and his best wasnt enough why do we always have to do this???? wait for a player to actually suck in an important game?? why? 3. here's recent article that lists 15 options at every position for the usmnt: https://www.espn.com/soccer/insider...rt-top-15-players-every-position-copa-america i disagree strongly with a lot of these rankings...and there are actually a lot of good players left off entirely.....but point being,.....running out of players is a non-issue...and not even close to a reason to keep usuing guys like ream and shaq moore etc
Does it tho, they’ve cemented their power with the decision. USSF screwed the pooch by bending the knee to players demands instead of getting the best coach possible.