The game was crying for earlier subs as RSL put in four at once and then another and we countered with only two on a very hot night. RSL was playing wide and crossing a bunch so for me the game was screaming for an Omar sub because he is still great at defending crosses. Our coach is out of his element and with Luchi struggling with his second team is says a ton about our ownership on picking poor coaches.
Do we have any updates on Acosta getting citizenship? Since Berhalter has finally moved Reyna inside, it seems to me like Acosta is the next best CAM/creative midfielder type we'd have access too. Yes, it might mean 4231 instead of 433. But if we needed a goal, Reyna, Pulisic, and Acosta in at the same time is as good as we could do.
Two horrible mistakes this weekend, and we can't forget his howler last weekend against the Rapids, in which he was caught lounging well north of his own box while his team was in possession in their own defensive half. As you may remember, there was a turnover, and Cole Bassett, I believe, rolled the ball around a defender and into the goal past MacMath from 45 yards away. Embarrassing.
Bassett continues to perform. This looks real and not just a couple of weeks of "hot form." At some point he goes from a nice story to a guy we need to include. I don't know we fit him into the Olympic team. Tough decisions need to be made. Another goal contribution for Cole “Goal Contribution” Bassett (‘01). This time a perfect cross. That’s 8 on the season (5G, 3A).I think we’re probably talking about the best U-23 American in MLS so far this season. Putting his name back on the USMNT map without a doubt. https://t.co/LJVbMaWId0— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) May 26, 2024
I'm biased, but I say its a toss up. More like a 2a/2b situation. A few areas Acosta is better, a few areas Tillman is better. Again, I am biased, but I'd say Acosta is more like Reyna. You want some creative passing, it's Gio first, Lucho second. But if you want someone who is a bit more physical and is a more effective progressive ball carrier, I say you go Tillman. The gaps are small. I say Acosta is a better passer but not like Tillman is bad. Tillman dribbles better but Acosta is a good dribbler too.
Tillman is also 22 years old, while Acosta turns 30 this week. Malik would actually qualify as a youth player on these boards as he's eligible for the Olympics. [He's cap-tied to Germany at the Olympic level. Can't play for us there.] I don't think anyone here would have a problem if we begin looking at a naturalized player like Acosta post-Copa. Why not? But there's also the question of need. We're about to have all of the young Olympics team thrown into the USMNT mix as well. Lots of wingers and attacking midfielder types in that group. So many that we can't fit them all into the squad. Would we rather give fringe USMNT minutes to one of those up-and-comers (particularly those that are dual-nationals) or to Lucho Acosta? If I told somebody the choice was Paredes or Acosta for a last spot on a USMNT, would we take Acosta? [I get that they don't play the same position, but we get the idea.] Or would you rather give a chance to Griffin Yow, who will probably move to a bigger club this window? We don't even talk about Pukstas, who will likely move to a bigger club as well. Or Esmir or Luna or Gutierrez or the list goes on and on. What happens if and when Koleosho returns to fitness and commits to us? What about Cremaschi and Bassett who play attacking roles in midfield?? Much younger than Acosta. THis is in no way shape or form a dig at Acosta. He's great. I'm happy for us to look at him. But count me as somebody who'd rather give those minutes to an up-and-comer. [Malik Tillman is a 22 year old who just had a great season for the Dutch champions and played in the knockout rounds of the Champions League. He's practically guaranteed to be part of the a USMNT squad at the moment. Whether he starts or not is a totally different question.]
I feel I have a different opinion than many do on these boards (and Reddit/Twitter). Give me the best players now. If Lucho is the better player (and eligible), then call him up until he is not. Predicting who will be better and when that'll happen is near impossible. Think how many people were certain Konrad and Uly would make Morris and Arriola irrelevant and yet years later the older players are still closer to the A team than the younger. Tillman feels like a lock to be better and for many probably is (I won't argue it, I feel they're very close anyway). Will those other guys be better? Maybe. Will they be better by 2026? Maybe. I don't think you're losing much of anything waiting until they are better. And while integration and chemistry are factors, I think they get overstated a bit. Ream and CCV played zero games together and then started a game together in the World Cup and looked fine. Gio and Balo's first game together looked good. Good players adjust quickly.
I don't watch as much PSV, but Acosta is certainly more productive in terms of G/A by a wide margin. He is also more of a traditional #10/CAM, while I think Tillman is more of an attacking mid who can play wide or inside. Acosta is more of a maestro.
I completely disagree. Give me the best player right now. The USMNT is not some developmental team, that's what clubs do. Acosta would be, in my mind, our best creative player outside of Gio in the whole pool and would be, 32 at the WC? That is totally fine. Plus, Gio has had availability issues.
It might be a close call now (moot because Acosta is not a citizen) but it won't be a close call in the summer of 2026.
I think the thing is he isn’t eligible right now so we’re projecting out to a point as to when he will be eligible and where he’ll be career wise by then compared to Tillman. And I’d have my money on Tillman being the better player at that point.
Indeed. When we find out he actually has citizenship and is eligible, then we can worry about this. Its been reported that Berhalter did meet with Acosta. So, Acosta wouldn't still be pursuing citizenship if Gregg told him there was no path to the national team. It seems like they met some time ago. Seems like last year??? My opinion? Players often underestimate the timeline to citizenship......................... Even when one has a green card.
Despite my bias, when it first came out my prediction was Acosta would be the better player for Copa and Tillman would be the player by World Cup. Unfortunately not getting Acosta in the next week or so.
I think post pandemic in particular the processing time for all this stuff takes a very long time even once you are eligible.
Tillman's defensive numbers are much better than Acosta's by a large margin. Offensive numbers for both are very decent playing at a similar league level. According to fbref his NPG+A is virtually even with Acosta. When looking at NPxG+xA Tillman starts gaining an edge and apparently has the best numbers outside of the top 5. How much of it is from playing in a very dominant PSV is a good question but there is nothing I can point to that tells us that Acosta is definitely a better player today.
I would say this: Acosta is a true 10, and an absolute offensive centerpiece. Cincy's offense runs through him to an extreme extent. Tillman's not an uncreative player; he's got good passing vision and generates a good amount of chances. Makes good off ball runs. But if he was on Cincinnati, they're not as good a team. And I don't think a PSV needs a Lucho Acosta as much as they do well with a more well-rounded Tillman. I'd love to have Lucho as an instant offense off the bench. I think he'd likely be a better Zendejas -- someone who isn't going to sparkle on defense and needs to be on the ball, but he'd actually be productive. As for the future, yeah, odds are that Tillman gets a little better and Lucho starts to decline. But I'm never super comfortable counting on that with individuals.
I personally couldn't care less which one is better in 26, as the first we are taking completely uneducated wild guesses, and the second in 2 years they might be #1 & #2 for their respective positions or #5 & #7.
If we had Acosta I'd be ecstatic to drop him in as the #10, push Reyna to the wing, and Weah to RB for this Tourney. Lucho would be the best play-maker we've ever had. But....we don't. Would I do the same with Tillman? Somebody make the shrug typed out "emoji" for me.
In case people didn't see this elsewhere, pre-Olympics roster is out. Just putting this here because the notable overage player at the Olympics camp is Walker Zimmerman. So he seems to have the inside track. Notable exclusions are the two Chicago players. Something happened with Chicago. Brian Gutierrez and Chris Brady excluded. Diego Luna? Something going on with him? That one is really weird because he'd been performing really well. We'd been talking recently about how good players needed to be excluded from the wings. Quinn Sullivan of Philadelphia maybe was a possibility? Kamungo of FCD, who got a look in January camp, isn't there. Olympic rosters are only 18 players. 3 overage players (we can now believe one will be Zimmerman). So a lot of names have to be cut from this group. http://www.americansoccernow.com/articles/analysis-mitrovic-names-25-to-final-pre-olympic-camp GOALKEEPERS (2): Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; St. Charles, Mo.), Gaga Slonina (Chelsea/ENG; Addison, Ill.) DEFENDERS (7): Nathan Harriel (Philadelphia Union; Oldsmar, Fla.), Jalen Neal (LA Galaxy; Lakewood, Calif.), Bryan Reynolds (KVC Westerlo/BEL; Fort Worth, Texas), John Tolkin (New York Red Bulls; Chatham, N.J.), Jonathan Tomkinson (Norwich City/ENG; Plano, Texas), Caleb Wiley (Atlanta United FC; Atlanta, Ga.), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; Lawrenceville, Ga.) MIDFIELDERS (7): Cole Bassett (Colorado Rapids; Littleton, Colo.), Gianluca Busio (Venezia/ITA; Greensboro, N.C.), Benjamin Cremaschi (Inter Miami CF; Key Biscayne, Fla.), Jack McGlynn (Philadelphia Union; Queens, N.Y.), Aidan Morris (Columbus Crew; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), Rokas Pukstas (Hajduk Split/CRO; Stillwater, Okla.), Tanner Tessmann (Venezia/ITA; Birmingham, Ala.) FORWARDS (9): Paxten Aaronson (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER; Medford, N.J.), Esmir Bajraktarevic (New England Revolution; Appleton, Wisc.), Taylor Booth (Utrecht/NED; Eden, Utah), Cade Cowell (Guadalajara/MEX; Ceres, Calif.), Damion Downs (Köln/GER; Schwebenried, Germany), Johan Gomez (Eintracht Braunschweig/GER; Keller, Texas), Duncan McGuire (Orlando City SC; Omaha, Neb.), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg/GER; South Riding, Va.), Griffin Yow (KVC Westerlo/BEL; Clifton, Va.)
Yes that’s an eye raiser. I guess some possibilities are 1) an unreported injury since the FCD game Saturday, 2) his well reported mental health issues from earlier this year creating some problem, 3) Berhalter mentioned that Reyna or Tillman as possible Olympic players in addition to Copa America. Maybe that is altering plans for how they approach things in this camp. Regardless, he’s consistently played well for the youth teams and after a slow start in the first couple weeks of MLS he’s been very good, certainly better than some of the other MLS attackers on that list. It does seem like there’s something going on that isn’t being reported because I can’t see how he isn’t on there otherwise.
You guys tend to act like he'll be ancient and fall off a cliff in 2 years. 32 is just not that old. I think it is a better bet that Acosta will still be at a high level, or at least be capable of a magic moment, than Tillman will be. One guy has already done it and is doing it now. The other guy never has.