The Olympics is NOT a U23 tournament. It is a bastard of a soccer that FIFA and various federations and the Olympic committee itself made to allow soccer into the Olympics. They allow overage players, making it not U23 and they do not allow full squads making it not a tournament of any age group. Having said that the matches can be, and often are, fun to watch and are better than no soccer. It is clear that even the USA does not take the Olympics seriously or they would use the over age positions to put our best three on the team and take the best of the U23s we have. But we have a number of our best U23s playing for the Full team We do not really try to win the Olympics so how important could they be?
Giving any consideration to Mexico winning more of anything than us is about as relevant as Lincoln being a Republican. Things have changed.
Yes. And George Wallace was a democrat but things changing also means that Mexico could win some things. In soccer one or two players can jump a team several levels. The problem i see with Mexico, currently, is partially the same one the USA had after they failed to qualify for the World Cup. They, currently, do not believe in themselves. But that can change easily. Their problem, like ours, just requires a little luck and suddenly they can jump several rating points and they can overtake the USA. I do not really expect that to happen but in soccer it "could" and it could very easily.
I think you're reading too much into the semantics of coach-speak. It's true that this team is still growing and is far from reaching it's peak. Qatar provided great experience, but this team is still young and will need more experience before it can be expected to reach it's peak. Copa America is extremely important in that sense. That isn't making excuses or minimizing expectations. It's just reality.
I don't know why you insist on calling the Olympics "not a tournament", but whatever. I'm not going to fight you on it anymore. The USA does take it seriously, as does pretty much every other country. But it's not the premier tournament for most countries, and often times there are conflicts with the A team schedule, so deference is often given to the A team. Which makes sense.
I DO NOT say it is not a tournament, it is. I say it is not a U23 tournament and it is not a full tournament. It is an Olympic tournament. The only time anywhere in the world a tournament is played where only 3 players over 23 are allowed and the rest must be U23. If we took it seriously then we would send the best team possible. We do not do that. But it is fine you do not wish to fight with me about it as I do not like fighting. Disagreeing is fun but simply arguing is not. You know if you do not want to respond to my posts and not even see them you can use the ignore list. I ignore several people here (as I am sure several people ignore me), maybe justly and maybe not justly), but I never see their posts and neither of us is made unhappy by the other.
I don't roll like that (ignoring people), and you aren't close to me reconsidering, either. But I do disagree with your assessment of the Olympic tournament. It is a unique tournament, for sure, and not all the best U-23 players from every country are there. But, even with the 3 above-age players allowed (which I actually like, as mentors that help hold a young team together in a tournament that's as grueling as any other--if not more on account of the small rosters) it's a great tournament. It gives a lot of young players a chance to showcase their skills. And because many of them (especially from countries with tons of talented players) might not get a chance on a bigger stage in their careers, guys really give it their all. It's a great competition, even if it lacks the world's best U-23s.
March was always the planned window for the NL semi and final. There was a global pandemic and they had to adjust. There was early talk about the 2025 GC featuring a lot of quality teams and almost becoming a de facto confederation’s cup but FIFA expressed displeasure with that and want to build up the Club World Cup, which will be held in the same summer in the same country as the GC. We will see what happens with the guest nations.
Getting angry about “building blocks” is giving extreme “looking for something to be mad about” energy. Next thing you’ll tell me is that, “you can’t even complain about the end of the roster because of woke.” Everything in a cycle is building towards the WC. That’s when things truly matter. It produces moments that we get to endlessly debate.
We've seen the "building block" type comments leading to 2026 since before the 2022 World Cup. It's a rationalization used to relax expectations and soften criticism of performances. Point to the plan for the future when there's no guarantee that circumstances will develop as hoped, simply because injuries happen and player development is never guaranteed. So it's natural that it could annoy US fans. We've seen a recent example at the club level with Vincent Kompany at Burnley. Burnley fans are very frustrated because he pointed to the long-term plan to protect his job, and then immediately jumped ship despite the club staying loyal. I'll note that this doesn't really parallel the US situation at all, as Berhalter's job is safe, coaching in the Championship is far different than CONCACAF, and there's no sign that an attractive club in the Championship would hire Berhalter.
No. There's been a pattern of commentary and behavior going back 5 years. Berhalter isn't new to the job.
You need to trust the process, it’s a young team. Just think of the 2026 World Cup as a building block for the 2030 World Cup.
People need to stop trying to read something that's simply not there. Tired of the any reason to throw mud at Berhalter. He does things that are mud slinging worthy but this interview is not even close to that. Give the guy a freaking break.
Yeah this is just standard coach speak to me and doesn’t mean anything to me. Berhalter should be judged by the actual results in Copa America not by some fairly run of the mill comments in this interview.
He's stated the goal for 2026 is the semifinals. Even accomplishing that goal, 2026 could still be a building block depending on the state of the player pool/program.
A "pattern of commentary...," again, seems like you're getting too caught up in coach-speak. I remember a press conference pre Gold Cup 2019 where he definitely limited expectations, but we've come a long way since then. The infamous 0-3 Mexico game, also in 2019, was followed by a press conference where he discounted the result due to the long term vision. Things have changed a lot since 2019... Talking and press conferences are what they are, but Berhalter has accomplished every goal set out in front of him in the last few years. In at least a couple of occasions, he has surpassed expectations. Hyper analyzing coach-speak comments to the media seems less relevant than watching how the team has evolved and what they have actually accomplished, and as for current and future expectations, those comments mean next to nothing.
This is why I absolutely hate Nations League. It serves absolutely zero purpose for teams like the US, Germany, Mexico, England, etc. Sure, it’s great for smaller countries to get more competitive games against similar competition. But it’s pointless for countries like the ones I mentioned. Let them have the ability to schedule more friendlies. It would also help fixture congestion for higher level players.
Is this because Europe has U21 as its highest “youth” age group while the rest of the world uses U23, which is what the Olympics use? I honestly don’t know the answer to this. It does seem like AFC, CONMEBOL, and CONCACAF do value the Olympics while UEFA isn’t as interested. The whole U21 vs U23 thing could put UEFA at more of a disadvantage in terms of putting U23 teams together.
He has had by the most talented team in the Federation. Still struggled against El Salvador, Wales, T&T, and Jamaica. Got whooped by Holland. He has done OK for what he has had to work with.
I disagree about the Nations League serving no purpose. The intensity of a friendly match pales in comparison to that of a tournament/cup competition match. Plus, the FA's were having trouble selling tickets to friendlies. The Nations League games bring them more money as they sell better. Also, the top players are less likely to skip official competition games than they are friendlies. Which in turn makes those training sessions more competitive.
I don't see the point in worrying about Nations League -- it's 2-4 games now, max, for us, and 1-2 windows. The worst team we will probably play is T&T, but it's going to basically be a home and away against a 5-8 team and then two games against other Top 4 teams. Given it's competitive and one of those games is away, I don't think it's so bad. We negotiated our way out of the Grenadas and Cubas of the world.