All strikers with the exception of a few need midfield help to succeed. Here is the ball striker, beat four guys and shoot it perfectly for us is probably not going to work. Not even for Jozy who was asked to do it against such Goliath's as Caribbean t&t and indomitable panama in Panama!
Reminds me of Brian ching whom I felt was good at holding up the ball and making great passes to Donovan. Take Donovan out and he was less effective.
Extremely drab football. I went in knowing this would be a snoozefest, yet still, somehow, this disappointed. I'll rate anyway. Hoping to find some slivers for the future is always the Cupcake goal, but the slivers were very thin this tear. Potential USMNT Starter: Bill Hamid - Good save and that's about it. I'd probably give him the net for the next year and see if he can cement it. That's it (at least based on this one). Potential USMNT regular bench guys: Jordan Morris - He makes good runs, has enough speed, and enough on the ball (if the opponent isn't ready) to trouble a defense. Lack of overall skill means he can't be a consistent (or really ever) starter. Body looks poor and could limit as well. Paul Arriola - A straight-line worker, but extremely willing. He won't hurt you, will put in a good defensive winger shift, and get a couple of crosses off. He's probably better than Bedoya, so there's that. A guy to kill off a game. Kelyn Rowe - He seems very limited athletically, I don't know where he'd really play consistently. But he's a very good passer. If you need a guy to unlock a D, he was the best we had out there. Zach Steffen - Hard to say, but I'd be fine letting him understudy Hamid for now. Break in domestic meaningless friendlies only: Will Trapp - He sprayed a few good balls which is what he does. Decent player all around, but at 25, he's behind the curve. He'll be on the fringe for a the next 6 years though. Too old to get even mildly excited about: Ike Opara - He had a nice game, probably our MOTM actually. It wouldn't be the worst thing to trot our Opara and Besler in an important game...unfortunately we don't have many of those coming up. CJ Sapong - Showed some flashes and some howlers as well. If he's the leading US eligible scorer in MLS, he might hang around a la Wondo. Whoopee. Even older and less interesting: Justin Morrow - Young enough, but what the hell was that: Tyler Adams/Cristian Roldan - By far the most disappointing thing about this match was the performance of these two. They added nothing, just took up space. The hype train on Adams needs to slow way the ******** down. He's 18, so there's time, but this was certainly a mark for the wing-back or nothing crowd. Roldan isn't even that young, so it's even worse for him. Not a promising performance from these two. Let's try not to write guys off for one game, but... Walker Zimmerman - The talk of his comfort on the ball didn't comfort me. What I saw was a clumsy swipe gifting a PK, and a clumsy swipe teeing up Bosnia's other best chance. The rest was simply mediocre at best. Pass Matt Polster - Beaten like a big bass drum. Slowly and repeatedly. He also got caught out several times, and managed to throw in slipping all over the place as well. Maybe it was the nose. I'm about done: Juan Agudelo - Another in a long line of herky-jerky sub appearances. A good pass here, a horrible dispossession there, rinse, repeat. I am done: Gyasi Zardes - I don't understand how he starts this game. How? He's just not a very good footballer. Full stop. To Sum up: Rubio Rubin - And that's a wrap on what hopefully will be the dullest game in modern US Soccer history. Oh, and good riddance Sarachan, Hackworth, et all.
LMAO I care so little about US Soccer atm I completely forgot this watch was yesterday. Seems like I didn't miss much.
If anything you gained two and a half hours to do literally anything else besides watch that game, so i'd call that a win.
Dude, Rubio doesn't even have a team and he got called in. That alone pretty much makes your entire argument a bunch of baloney. There's no anti-Latin player bias. There's simply a lack of good Latin players who actually want to play for us and not Mexico. I'm with you that US Soccer needs a major overhaul but this isn't one of the reasons why. Hell if anything there's been a pro-Latin player bias in recent years with Klinsman. Look at the callus for players like Ventura Alvarado, Orozco and others. who clearly weren't national team level players and would never have been called in if they played in MLS.
The "system" may be better established. If the Fed has done anything in the last decades it's grow the "system." That's what top heavy bureaucracy building is all about. But is the end of the assembly line product better? I don't see it. It's delusional to think because we have a couple guys who may have decent international careers that the US will become the hotbed for world soccer development. It hasn't happened, it's not happening and the wave of world class players that you see materializing out of thin air isn't justified in reality
Yep. Blame the coaches or anyone but the players. Sure, get a better coach, that will certainly fix things. All Sunil's fault, of course. Does it matter at all that the players were just not that good?
My sense from reading the above is that you would be keen to see what Ramirez (26) has in the tank, having already tried out Sapong and Agudelo
To be fair, even in the best of situations, you're time is better spent not watching these January matches. Its like when I was a kid and you'd find that first exhibition baseball game of the season. Pitchers throw 40 pitches, most of the players have uniform numbers in the 60's, players are jogging on the outfield warning track, but you didn't care because it got your blood gets flowing.
Jon Arnold had the best writing post game of the stuff I've read. www.goal.com/en-us/news/usmnt-player-ratings-ike-opara-wil-trapp-the-bright-spots-in/ebpewn27lwmi1i3tpxg2y3shq He had this to say about Polster D MATT POLSTER, 6.5: The Chicago Fire defender grew into the game, pushing up the right-hand side often in the second half and sending in a few crosses that had the potential to turn into scoring opportunities. He also had a solid defensive performance, including his stoppage-time block, and did it all with a bloody nose. I like the way he avoids totally the issue of Polster's defence in the wide areas in the defending third where a fullback usually plays and points out his good crosses and stoppage time block and the bloody nose. It will be interesting to see if Fire adjust his position this season. Maybe their manager will notice Polster and Solignac dont play well together and do something about it. I doubt De Leeuw will be fit after a serious injury so maybe Polster gets moved to midfield.
Didn't see this posted yet, but I thought this article was a good, slightly more in-depth look at a handful of guys from Bobby Warshaw, who I think is becoming a pretty decent analyst (or he's just getting to write more articles and I'm noticing him more).
Serious question, are you guys still pissed at Tab for not calling Morris up for the 2013 U20 World Cup?
Except the season is over a year away. The manager is a lame duck. The vets crapped the bed last season and aren't going to save us. But everyone in AAA also sucks. The sliver of hope, I guess, is that the owner is actively looking for a new GM. But everyone knows the owner is a self-serving bastard who doesn't get the sport and will screw that up as well. Overstated for effect, but I think it's fair to say that yesterday's game -- and what it bodes for the near term prospects of our program -- didn't exactly get the blood flowing for some of us.
Polster paired with Trapp to stone Colombia (with some players who played in Copa Libertadores) in midfield. Hyndman missed Morris on a pass that put him 1v 1 v keeper. Acosta gave up two goals in the series. Payne let a cross in that went for a goal when the Colombian cf beat Parker 1v1 in the box. Polster and Trapp didn't set a foot wrong. We lacked strikers, frankly.
Ironically Jordan Morris is probably one of the most accomplished senior intl players from that group. I mean the only 3 players i could name from that squad off the top of my head are Yedlin, Trapp and Gil
There was talk of playing Japan in a Euro venue in March and maybe Italy. Japan has another Euro team scheduled for their second match in the window, I think. What do you guys think of our chances getting a date with good teams in March window after yday's performance?
Nah we got crushed, i don't think adding Morris would have changed the outcome. Wasn't really disagreeing with my initial response, just kind of wanted to reinforce how underwhelming that group is in general (though looking at the squad Steffen, Acosta, Stanko?, and Trapp have a chance to be more of a factor in this upcoming cycle).
Seriously. Is Morrow a horrible defender? No, but come on... his time is done. The same is most likely the same for Opara. And while Zardes is young enough, he is taking up a spot that should have gone to Jonathan Amon, Brooks Lennon, Paul Arriola, etc. I get that we lack depth at center forward but we need to be looking elsewhere. And, while I’m not going to grab any pitch forks that Polster got a shot, but one thing was learned last night and that he is not good enough nor has he ever really been good enough.