It's a time thing ... whether sustained combat or months of drudgery interrupted by moments of sheer terror or just being away from home for 6 months ... it's not the same as flying in, staying in a hotel, and then having to perform for 90 minutes before going home, mentally or physically. The comparison diminishes military deployments without even getting to the life and death aspect. A salesperson flying into another city for a finals presentation is maybe the equivalent.
I never said they were the same thing. I just referenced military brass recognizing that everyone needs to go home after a while. Even the folks stationed in England or Italy or Germany typically ought to go home after two or three years. I think being away from home for years on end is tough no matter how much money is in the bank or what your day job is.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37802296/pulisic-admits-chelsea-season-really-tough-ahead-cnl no it is not the same as the military - but from personal experience it is nice to come back to the states and be near friends and family and "hometown". For a multitude of reasons - CP, Wes, Tyler and many others probably have a great smile on their face when they are back with the national teammates.
Not touching the rest of this, but England are a better national squad and it is not even close to being a coin toss. England made the semifinals of the '18 Cup, finals of the last Euro, and the quarters of this World Cup narrowly losing to France. They cruised through the group stage even with the desultory tie against the US, while the US wasn't nearly as comfortable against either Iran or Wales. Sure anyone can beat or tie anyone on any given day, but overall they have significantly more talent and have been better in recent high level tournaments. This is silly.
Juve announces it is pulling out of the Super-League, leaving Barca to play Real 38 times every year.
The JPMorgan Goldman Sachs League may have been defeated for now, but they'll be back. They won't stop until they kill the game.
Juventus are prepared to sell/offload all the midfielders who returned from loan deals. ⚪️⚫️⚠️ #JuventusArthur Melo, Weston McKennie and Denis Zakaria will be available on the market this summer; they're not in Allegri plans.Cuadrado and Alex Sandro, also set to leave. pic.twitter.com/wyDLQ7uZJY— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 16, 2023
Someone offered USSF a $10,000 donation for Weston McKennie’s torn jersey. He’s keeping it for his collection. #usmnt— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) June 16, 2023
Perhaps but that's mostly because he's a bit of an odd mix and coaches don't always utilize him correctly. Leeds never knew he could do long throw ins until Big Sam? They had him playing as the deep defender on corners and free kicks? Had Adams stayed healthy he would have looked a lot better playing farther forward.
It was always odd how Leeds tried to get Wes to play - like no one know how to search Juventus highlights or something. But Gracia was a mistake. They needed to start playing negative, route-one, scrape for 1 point, footie much earlier than when they hired Sam. They needed him starting in Jan or so.
New guys often get pushed back on corners because they either don’t know the different “plays” well enough to not get in someone’s way or they haven’t yet proven in practice what they’re capable of. Corner kicks result in goals so infrequently that a manager isn’t going to risk losing the locker room by pushing a club veteran out of the area so that the new guy can have a chance.
Inconsistent in what way? All players have bad matches. I'd say he's usually quite consistent when used appropriately.
So disappointed in you lot. The guy had his damn shirt ripped off and not ONE fat joke!? Hell of a match from my boy. Always funny to see a lil about face afterwards. As if he’s played night and day different. This game was the exact same approach Gracia tried to get him to play at Leeds. Unfortunately, however, most of his squad SUCKED. He didn’t suddenly find a new level or get consistent because of positive vibes in camp lol. Sometimes the club situation is shite. We know this. Folk gone see what they wanna see. Just like me, but oh well that’s why we BigSoccer.
Certainly easier to look decent against a relatively weak national team side like Mexico than against Premier League level opposition...
Also easier to look good with a team that has a coherent plan and players who want to be there. At Juventus, McKennie played well against notably better club teams than some of Leeds’ peer group at the bottom of the table.
if you look at the numbers they’d very likely have stayed up if they kept Marsch. GD was -8 through 20 matches. While not good, that’s not indicative of relegation level performance. Their GD after Marsch left was -22 in 18 matches. That is relegation level. They didn’t need Big Sam, but they definitely didn’t need Gracia. But fan pressure was too much and Jesse was the scapegoat for Bamford’s sitter misses and their shoddy defenders. .