News: Bruce Arena disagrees with Jurgen Klinsmann over U.S. World Cup miss

There is nothing in the players' backgrounds to suggest Soccer IQ is an issue. Even the Bedoya example was wrong. Dude had 2 goals 4 assists in '17. He is on 1 goal and 3 assists this season '18. In other words, he is the same player, a defensive-minded mid, no matter the league.

 

The comparison was not between his production in one club and the other, but between his production in his club and in the NT.

In the NT, Bedoya never looked like a threat because he never had a guy with brains guiding him from midfield.

 

Heck, Bobby Wood has a lot of guts and heart. But he doesn't have the brains of those guys, bless his heart.

The only guys who more or less showed leadership on the field in the last cycle were Jones and Cameron. But one was aging and the other didn't seem popular enough, no one seemed to pay much attention to him.

 

Zusi had 2 assists in the same WC that Bedoya had zero in.

Bedoya is captain of the Union where he is one of the leaders on the field.

 

For this cycle, Bedoya had 0 goals and 7 assists in 1630 minutes, a level of production in line with what he has done at club level in Ligue 1 and MLS.

 

Assist against Panama in the Gold Cup '15, and one against Honduras in qualifiers. Everything else was in friendlies or against minnows. In games that mattered against decent opposition, Bedoya was much inferior with the NT when compared to what he was doing with Nantes. He was a non-entity in attack for the most part.

And that over 3 years.

 

His production against decent sides, in competition, was not out of line with his production in MLS and Ligue 1.

 

Disagree. He was much more dangerous with Nantes. There's a reason why most people groaned when he was starting with the NT, but in 2015-16 he even made team of the week once (before that, before Gillet, he had made the Worst XI twice).

His last season with Nantes was the high point of his club career, and it's a bit puzzling that the Union got him so cheap:

http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-le...l-for-the-union-at-a-high-point-in-his-career

 

http://www.espn.com/soccer/united-s...says-jurgen-klinsmann-bruce-arena-debate-moot

Tim Ream says it doesn't matter, time to move on. What I do like about his interview is that he admits he didn't play well enough in the CR match (duh! But nice to hear him say it) so he had to watch the T and T game from the sidelines and that sucked.

 

Disagree with what? His numbers in competitive NT matches against decent sides were not out of line with those of both his time in Lique 1 and in MLS.

Base on what? Certainly not offensive production.