Pre-match: Concacaf Nations League Quarterfinals @ Jamaica (Nov 14) & v Jamaica (Nov 18)

I'd probably have brought Luna or Paxten in but I am fine rewarding Cowell/Zendejas for their form as well as Zendejas for having a pulse vs Mexico.

I also think the only guys on the roster that you can say aren't in good form are Steffen (backup), Richards (coming back from injury), and Vazquez

 

What are you talking about? That evidence goes in the opposite direction of what you're trying to prove. He played 3 games & just started 1, so he could start or come off the bench internationally. Berhalter brought him to start after 1 10-minute club appearance.

Richards got zero minutes before this window, and he's being included. That's a double-standard, & if anyone should be here it's Adams with him actually playing, even starting, ahead of time.

 

Call up is definitely a nice illustration of just how banged up this team is. There are literally 7-8 guys on this roster nobody would have predicted back on June 1st, mostly due to injury, occasionally due to crap form (Steffen, Trusty, Busio, A. Morris or Tessman or both, Cowell, Zendejas, and Vasquez)

 

I don't think its loyalty.
It's more like.......................these are games that matter, and these are the guys he's worked with.

Just a couple of cosmetic changes with "core" guys back from injury. Just a couple of new faces outside of that. Cowell probably the last minute replacement for Wright.

 

The word that comes to mind is unimaginative.

 

I hope to see more indication he has a firmer grasp of the pool after January camp.

He still doesn't seem to value these games very much from a short & long term standpoint. We already know who Adams & Pulisic are, but we'd have been able to gauge others better in Mexico if CP was there to come back to the ball.

 

Tyler Adams has played about 100 minutes of club football this season with two thirds of that this weekend. In all of 22-23 he played about 100 minutes for his club. This guy has basically been broken for two years. Not at all a double standard as Richards has been a regular starter for palace for a while until he was injured, and he wasn’t out that long.

I am fully pleased Tyler is staying put in England.

 

You think he is a wizard that can "make" new soccer players??!!

 

I'm not sure what people are talking about.

What the roster tells us is Pochettino is only thinking about winning THIS SERIES. He values these games in front of him.

That's it.

People kept saying this was never going to be a "casting a net" camp.
Now that its here, people are surprised?
Experiment against Jamaica, and you're going home.

Our starting XI is stronger than Jamaica's. It doesn't matter who the fourth sting CB and fourth string GKs are.

Our central midfield is MUCH stronger than Jamaica's in particular. That's where the difference between the two squads is. And by the way, so are our attacking midfielders & wingers. Yes, Jamaica has the likes of Leon Bailey. But people do know that Pulisic and Weah are in great form. Aaronson and Tillman are both playing well in club soccer too. Antonee Robinson is playing like one of the best fullbacks in the world right now. True story.

But anyway...............the inferiority complex on these boards is always there. This is a good squad. Pochettino just needs to figure out how to put the puzzle pieces together. You can't do that if you keep changing the pieces. You know?

 

I don't know if it's loyalty, so much as continuity in his system, thinking reps will improve their outlook. Also, I don't think he yet has the pool grasp to show imagination.

I'd like to see one of the journos press him on a # of individual names & his process. But they may be too obsequious for this.

 

Twitter/X has... varied opinions on this tweets from Brian

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Given injuries, it's an alright roster. Only mistake is leaving Luna at home, IMO. Not just because he's a dual-nat, but he's in unbelievable form in play-offs and he's always "given his all" in USYNT matches I've seen him play. If I'm Luna, I'm asking myself "what else do I need to do to earn a call-up?"

 

Greenwood is unlikely to represent us anytime soon. The long story short is that his agent/father still dreams of him representing England and is holding on to any small sliver of hope that this will happen. This has resulting in the slow-walking of his document processing for a nationality change, and is a reason why this report from the Sun was leaked a month ago about Greenwood reaching out to Tuchel (The Sun has been Greenwood's go-to news rag to leak news, this report almost certainly came directly from Greenwood's dad).

The odds of him appearing aren't zero, but if it happens it'll be March, maybe, at best. I personally am no longer that keen to see him in the side after his team leaked that report (which I consider to have been very disrespectful to Jamaica and the opportunity Jamaica offered to him), but we will see what happens.

The actual biggest miss here is not Greenwood, it is Bobby Reid. For those who don't know him, he's been an EPL regular with Fulham and now Leicester for the better part of half a decade now. He's the best #10 in our player pool, and when he's absent the decline in the fluidity and consistency of the team's ball movement and overall cohesion is noticeable. He's been injured and his wife is also expecting soon so the miss isn't that surprising, but it's a big one.

The rest of the squad is pretty much what we expected tbh. Hayden is a significant addition. On the negative side: he's gone on record to the media before basically dismissing the value of representing Jamaica, and he isn't playing regular senior football right now (he's been frozen out at Newcastle and only plays with the U21s - he won't move, understandably, because he wants to run out the oversized contract he was handed 4 years ago, which nobody would match today in the free market).

On the other hand, he's a true #6. Jamaica doesn't produce much quality at that position, and he instantly becomes the most talented and experienced #6 in our pool now that fills a major void in the side.

On the balance, Hayden is a net win despite the reservations. We will see if he plays at all this cycle.

I'm not super optimistic about our chances without Reid and with Antonio missing the first leg (yellow cards), but the ball is round.

 

Yeah, I'm okay with bringing a recently recovered player, but not a player who has been perpetually injured. So my preference is to say no to Adams and would have been to say no to Reyna if he had been recovered in time. Better to wait until 2025 for them.

 

He’s still only been on the job for a little bit. Let’s see what things look like in January and March when he’s had more time to look at the full pool.

 

I was hoping to see Cole Campbell as least to train. I saw his minutes with Dortmund, and he looks promising for an 18-year-old.

 

That's just one example.

TBF, it's minor changes on the margins that likely wouldn't make a huge difference. But you strengthened the midfield with Johnny and Tessman (and you should've had Adams), so not sure why you need to bring Morris and Busio back for this when they just left us wanting last camp. That opens roster spots for some other talent to see.

Stuff like that... and Zach Steffen (literally give my a dart board of every US/MLS keeper instead) = unimaginative.

 

he's with u 20s no?

 

I'd take that to mean that we're probably not going to grab any of these guys (Kolo, the CB etc) then and we will probably lose Luna. Hope I'm wrong though, I've been wrong about plenty and will continue to be so, but I definitely view dual nats these days, as a recruiting question, rather than as a loyalty and commitment question, it's a players market when it comes to dual nats(until they're committed as El Tri has illustrated, at which point all the power switches to the NT).

 

Love the Cowell selection. He's worked hard down in Mexico. He could be a legit forward option too. But maybe he bumped Wright?

 

More or less agree w/you. I get why it's what it is, but I think its even less likely he'll be experimental in March if we knock Jamaica out in this window, if we lose, then the opposite is true, but if we're playing for a title in March, then this was honestly the one window where he'd probably be open to risking slots on pool expanding options. Luna's going to have to lay a hammer down in Cupcake, and then have a blistering start in MLS to get his attention at this point which is a big reason why I think he's 50/50 to switch to El Tri in '25. How much can he really get done at this point being shut down more or less until March unless he transfers abroad or gets a winter loan? Not much. I hope I'm wrong because I love Luna and view what he brings as box checking every need the team has:
Mentality
Creativity/Dempsey "tries ----" too
Production
Upside
Central/Wing Versatility (only Reyna, and Tillman really bring that to the team)
Mexican-American heritage to help expand outreach to Mexican dual nats from the California immigration angle as opposed to Pepi's Texas side.

Losing him would be the worst dual nat loss we've had the past decade in my view. I think it probably happens in '25, unless he wins further looks this winter somehow.

 

I take it more to mean, Poch isn't gonna bend over backwards to get someone to commit. If you want to play for the US we want you here. But if you're expecting promises? Nope.

 

It doesn't indicate that, cuz we don't have to chase Luna. He's shown he wants to play for us.

May reduce the likelihood of others, but that's a good thing, if they aren't coming on their own inspiration. Increases the chance they won't be up for it on a rainy night in San Pedro Sula.

Hopefully a Luca Koleosho grows up and isn't more motivated to play for a nat'l team bcuz of one grandparent and they're a more marquee side. Otherwise, it's likely no loss.

 

Wright got hurt. Cowell was the likely replacement.

 

Haji picked up a pretty bad injury that will keep in out a few weeks to months. Maybe he wasn't on the list before that, but most likely it was Haji's injury bumped Cowell into a callup