Don't know why there is all this angst about no Tyler Adams. I have a brilliant idea; can't we just go back to a "controlling midfielder" and maybe use McKennie or Musah or the uber athlete DeJuan Jones at RB and have him move to CM to support the "controlling midfielder" when we are on offense. Now who are the DLPs in our pool? https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38664631/usmnt-adams-shaped-hole-midfield-fill-it
Where is the "angst about Tyler Adams" that you're seeing? The rest of your post is pointless snark about something Berhalter tried 4 years ago.
The angst about Adams is because we were completely overrun down the middle where Adams generally sits. But, I don't think we should all bank on Adams returning and making it all go away considering he was playing when Netherlands similarly rolled through us in Qatar. A healthy Adams will help, but he's not going to single handedly put an end to top teams being able to carve us up. If he was that good, he'd be at Real Madrid.
We will have to learn when to attack and do a better and quicker job when we do. Can't get all pushed up all the time and make it easy for good teams to attack when our pants are down. Comes with experience together and losing the naivety. Glad we played a game early to remind the team that Holland wasn't a mirage but they type of team they really need to figure out how to play.
Whoever starts for Germany is always going to be one of the top keepers in the world. They are always stacked there.
Berhalter needs to figure how to play without Reyna. And he needs to stop trying to go toe-to-toe with top teams.
Very harsh Germany post mortem by the ESPNFC's Herc but thanks for the open play xG and aerial stats, those stats were poor.
I can only be happy with a window that put Weah, Balo, CP and Reyna on the pitch together. In those first halves our offense was much more threatening. I kind of think that the second half problem is really about reverting to the standard 433. Germany sliced and diced it. My understanding is that the entire program has installed it as the default shape down through the junior levels. So I don’t know how easy it is to abandon that. I wonder whether some sort of three in the back formation and a 4231 are our best bets?
1) I would tell Pulisic and Dest to be much more selective but telling people not to do something doesn’t then answer the question of what they should then do differently. 2) Why the right half space (which was where he would operate out of our 433 to 2323)? What will happen? 3) Balogun seems to have been doing a very good job of getting open in behind and our team has done a poor to acceptable job of finding these runs, although that is a point of emphasis in camp. 4) Keying better runs for the high leverage crossing opportunities we get is important (a cut back is counted as a cross on the stat sheet). 5) Defend in a 433 with Gio as an 8 and attack with him on the advanced two line, most often in the left half space, of a 2323.
We gave up far fewer looks against the Dutch in that match, they were much more clinical than the Germans.
Tuesday night happens. Putting Dest, Reyna, and Weah together creates a lot. That allows Pulisic to work inside more and have Jedi (when healthy) to overlap on the left. Pulisic and Reyna tend to clog each other spaces when together too much.
I'd agree with that. The first half could have been much more similar to the second against Germany had they finished better. But we did see Adams specifically fail to track back on at least one of the Dutch goals so I don't think we can assume he fixes everything We gave two goals right down the middle. But absolutely I think Adams can help.
Reyna in the right half space is pretty much where he's played most of his time with the US. It's kind of his default positioning, where he tends to flow to. So while I agree that's a good spot for him ... it's a pretty common spot for him. Not sure I would call that a change. Tuesday night didn't have a ton to do with formation or positioning. We played a mediocre opponent who was playing backups in defense and tried to apply pressure rather than sitting back and we were better. The difference between Tuesday and Saturday is largely opponent and how well they played. Our guys also converted their chances better. It seemed like we had a point of emphasis to get Balogun involved more. But the big difference was a disorganized Ghana team with much of their attack being a B team versus an almost entirely A team Germany with a new coach bounce. We're better than the former and not better than the latter.
So was it the players or the formation? Because the first paragraph says players and the second says formation. There really wasn't a "second half problem" against Ghana. We created a ton of chances before the last set of subs; we just just didn't convert them. That could be the tick down in personnel or it could simply be standard variance. But we generated a ton of chances. After de la Torre and Maloney came in, the game fizzled. But it was also 70+ minutes of a 4-0 game and we had used a ton of subs.
Sneaky weird thing people forget about that match is that the US generated more chances in that game than any other game by far, 1.95 xG according to one site anyway, as compared to .92, .88 and 1.46 in the group stage against Wales, England, and Iran respectively. It was also one of two games we won the xG battle in. As for Adams, I always got the sense he was exhausted in that game, the mistake he made on the first goal was so brain dead simple I can't believe it was a product of a fully physically and mentally fit player, ditto the later throw in marking issue we had before the half. The 1st and 2nd goals were pure idiocy, the third was one Turner was pointing out before it happened but nobody paid him any mind. It was a game of horrid mental breakdowns on a level I hadn't really seen since 2019.
Maybe these have been posted before, but I just posted these on a thread on the US Men forum and thought I'd post them here. I think it's somewhat indicative of the idea that what US Soccer was looking for in a coach is not the same as what fans were. This is from The Athletic, but they are US Soccer slides, clearly. https://imgur.com/a/pnk97Mc
Try it again in a bit? If it was page not found, it's a link error. But over capacity is on them overloading the servers. Trying to embed: The images come up in preview ... no idea how to get them to appear. I remember there's a trick, but I can't remember it.
Berhalter rates exceptionally in all of those categories. When you factor in his long-term vision, commitment to the success of the mission, etc, he's clearly a stand-out for their criteria.
Generic stuff that could be expected of most National Team coaches. Perhaps, Gregg puts together a nice presentation for interview.
Some of it. Some of it ... I don't think a lot of head coaches "oversee the technical program," do coaching education events, "provide pathway support to extended youth teams through camp and game observations" or support the coaching development programs. Toss in all the updates, etc., and there's a substantial amount of time not really working on the senior national team. I think there was a tweet somewhere about the scope of the US job not being all that attractive (or was that Crocker's job?) and I think a scope like this definitely probably deters some of the crew who are moving to national teams for less work. There are a number of "comprehensive" national team jobs like this, I am sure. But there's also the "fly in, fly out" type of national team coaches who basically run the national team out of their house and only show up for camps. It's pretty clear US Soccer prefers the former.
It's not uncommon for football managers to have an expansive role, though the corporate speak of those slides is right up GGG's alley and looks tailor made for him.
But if USSF had wanted to emphasize the expansive role over winning, they should have given it to someone else besides the manager. That's what well run clubs do.
I think its more characteristic of professional upper management positions than it is of coaches. Coaches can be more intuitively strategic, visceral, motivational in a rudimentary style, and relational. USMNT criteria looked more like CEO pablum.