it was an embarrassment. A disaster. It was the only real tournament before the WC. Our chance to be champion of the Americas, at home.
You know I don’t even think of myself as pro or anti Berhalter. Just get frustrated by the irrationality that discussions of him tend to inspire. He’s obviously not an elite coach globally but mostly met expectations till the Copa and did some good things and also things you can critique him on. But conversations regarding those things just end up in a place not really in line with what actually happened.
Yeah, I don't care about Berhalter; I said he should have gone after 2022 WC very plainly. He's not a very good coach. But the arguments against his here on this board are often terrible. Just as they were against lots of other players and coaches... no surprise, nothing new.
People had said US Soccer lowered ticket prices because they didn't want the embarrassment of empty seats at Poch's debut game... let's see if it sells out in the next two days USSF spokesperson says around 18,000 tickets have been sold for tomorrow's #usmnt match against Panama. Q2 Stadium capacity is around 20,700.— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) October 11, 2024
They're bringing out the big guns Alright, alright, alright!A call from Austin’s Minister of Culture @McConaughey to join the best damn party in Austin, when @USMNT and @USWNT come to Q2 for Fall footy!🎟️: https://t.co/dLOjaWa8bhMNT v. 🇵🇦 - Oct. 12 WNT v. 🇮🇸 - Oct. 24 pic.twitter.com/BCaOOh0qhb— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) October 11, 2024
The Twitter replies seem pretty down on that, but our recent friendlies against teams that aren't big brands had the attendance figures of (I'll exclude camp cupcake out of fairness) New Zealand: 15K Canada: 10K Ghana: 18K Oman: 13K Uzbekistan: 15K Costa Rica: 19K. If the stadium is full or even close to full, that's a pretty solid job
The prices I think have been the #1 problem, the places have been the #2 problem and I have no doubt at all that the Berhalter hire, as silly as it might be, also depressed attendance, there was a vocally negative response, even from attending fans, when he was rehired. That being said, making prices reasonable would change things. There is literally no way, none, I could or would attend a game at the prices they currently charge (at least into 2024 if not this window).
The problem USSF faces now in so many Midwest cities that it prefers in recent years. Fans in Cincinnati, Columbus, and St. Louis, for example, might find their club teams to be more exciting and a better value ticket. It's not as simple anymore as simply charging a premium and saying Pulisic is coming to town, because local fans have plenty of options to see great matches.
They keep cycling back to the same (MLS) cities repeatedly. It's an over-saturation effect. If they spread the love to any significant metro w/ adequate facilities, that love would be returned. I didn't see it posted, but CIWYW yesterday relayed already what they were hearing the lineup would be: Wright, Sargent, Pulisic, Aaronson, McKennie, Morris, ARob, Ream, McKenzie, Scally, Schulte
Boy if that's the lineup I sure hope Wright is ready to put a shift in... Wonder if they're planning on halftime subs.
So, something like this maybe? GK: Schulte RB: Scally RCB: McKenzie LCB: Ream LB: Jedi DM: Morris CM: McKennie CM/AM: Aaronson RW: Pulisic LW: Wright CF: Sargent No huge surprises there. Although, if you want to read into anything, some of the closer calls there seem to be favoring guys who are playing regularly over guys who aren't. Particularly Schulte over Turner and Sargent over Pepi, and maybe Aaronson/Morris over Musah (depending on whether Musah was an option sitting deeper back like he was under the prior coaching staff).
I'd rather see Tillman over Aaronson (seen the latter plenty) and another CB over old man Ream, but seems about right... Also I forgot how close we are to fielding an all Fulham defense with Jedi Ream Fossey Alex, Mark, and Marlon step up to the mic 😅Insiders Kids Press Conference, presented by @SpringHillSuite. pic.twitter.com/X7CVLk3tlT— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) October 11, 2024
I will watch, but I can't say that I'm too excited by the match. I'm not expecting to see much different in these two games. I would like to see if Sargent brings anything more than the inconsistent player of before for the USMNT...
What’s also crazy is mid Oct you can literally play anywhere in the country and the weather will be decent at a minimum. Snow/winter isn’t an issue, nor is peak summer heat. Maybe avoid south FL tho.
The west coast is tough because of the travel for the European guys but I would really like to see more variety in terms of where the games are played. Particularly for friendlies. When was the last time we did a friendly in New York or Chicago for instance? I liked for Janaury camp how they did San Antonio as that’s the sort of place which wouldn’t get a USMNT friendly otherwise.
Are you grouping Berhalter with that nauseating style that his team played? Because I wouldn't pay $5 to see them playing in my back yard. And that's not an exaggeration, at some point I started recording those games to rewind them later at 3X speed, not to waste more than 15 minutes of my time.
Hurricanes, yep, and out here in the Mountain West, we do typically get at least one snow storm in October, sometimes two, so Denver might not be the best idea, as crazy as it is, we actually had our first winter snow in August in two decades six weeks ago. It probably also should be noted that major fires are a problem in the Northwest every summer and fall going back many years. I made the mistake of telling my wife we'd made it through a third summer unscathed after the horrors of '19, '20 and '21, only to have 3 separate fires hit, two massive, in the following five or six weeks of August and September.
September looks like a missed opportunity to spread some matches out to different cities. Like it was the perfect opportunity for USSF to just put two matches on the West Coast with little downside.
Nah, although that could be, you could just see empty stands and fans audibly booing, caught on mic, when he was coming on the field last summer/fall ('23). It seemed pretty clear fans were mentally checked out on June '23-'June '24 once it became clear Berhalter was back, was it him, or Berhalter ball or both? Can't be sure, but that was probably a factor too, but oversaturating the same markets, and then pricing people out of the seats was just insane, reminded me of what cable did to respond to cord cutting trends a decade ago: raise prices, which just further accentuated cord cutting rates.
The last friendly that I attended in NY, at the very good and very accessible Red Bull Arena (during the Klinsmann 2.0 era), we were outdrawn slightly by Costa Rican fans. There are not a lot of Ticos in the US. It's true that Northern NJ is one of the primary homes of their diaspora, but it still isn't an especially big diaspora, not even locally. And it's a shame, because that's a very good MLS venue, with a pretty good pitch.
How much you worry about a harder opponent in the Nations League quarters is gonna vary by fan to fan, but it does create a little bit of an added spice to these games. The US were leapfrogged by Canada in the last window and fell to third which means we'll now have to face a group winner unless we can take the 2nd spot back. It's worth noting The US plays twice this window while Canada only plays once (they host Panama). On the flip side, The US only has a small lead over Panama in the rankings as well, meaning any type of upset tomorrow mixed with a poor performance in Mexico could potentially leave the door open to us dropping to 4th. Though I'll leave those exact scenarios to people who know more about the CONCACAF ranking formula than I do
No Fossey Mauricio Pochettino says right-back Marlon Fossey is not available for tomorrow.“Football is so dynamic and we need to adapt every single day,” he answered on today’s press conference.“Because sometimes, like the situation with Marlon. He’s not available [for tomorrow].”… pic.twitter.com/hqYLGAodGr— GOLZ TV (@golz_tv) October 12, 2024
Nothing wrong in being outdrawn in all the friendlies, or we are looking for advantage in those games as well?