Greg Berhalter's most important value is not to win, but to just play a striker for the point of being able to say he's got a striker on the field. Dumbest manager of all time.
We just got to the round of 16 by winning a must win game against a team that bunkers and people are mad at Berhalter? *shakes head*
Weak spin. We played well against veteran teams with our youngest team in history. Bossing both of them (Wales/Iran) for the majority of the games. We just need to work on the final third and finishing.
They won in spite of Berhalter. Horrible coaching especially the last half hour. Shaq Moore again? Jeez. Sitting back and inviting the pressure from Iran? Just awful. Thank goodness for CP10.
You’re a joke. What a horrible take. We had the toughest group of the entire World Cup. We took care of business in the toughest group and got the job done. Gregg has different methodology than most people on this board, but I will be as bold to say that’s why he’s the USMNT manager and we’re just a bunch of folks on some keyboards. Gregg didn’t fail. Y’all need to give it up.
Well whether people like it or not, Berhalter is definitely going to at least be offered the opportunity to do another cycle. He may or may not want to actually do so.
The reaction on Twitter, and Reddit is confirming my theory that a solid minority of USMNT fans care more about being right than our team doing well
Berhalter continuing to get the results. "You may not like it but accept it." - Randy "Macho Man" Savage
Come on. Berhalter won the Gold Cup, won the Nations League, and now has progressed to the knockout round of the World Cup. Gotta get over it. Tip your hat and say "good job." If he beats Holland on Saturday, we can safely say this is the best USMNT cycle in history.
It has been like this for two decades. The USMNT has one of the worst fan bases I have ever witnessed in my 40 plus years of being a sports fan. I barely post on here anymore because of all the self-loathing types. Social media has made everything worse.
Never mind the fact that he won the Nations League and Gold Cup while becoming the first US manager to beat Mexico three times in a calendar year! Some people just can't see the forest for the trees.....yes he makes some questionable decisions (what manager doesn't?)....but he's gotten results nevertheless and the team is playing the best soccer we've ever seen from a US team at a World Cup.
There's a group of fans that don't seem to actually enjoy any of this. They're wrapped in negativity and trying to tear people down. They're more interested in their own pithy comments than actually having a good time supporting the group. The sad part is that at some point this team will lose. These people will then feel great throwing everybody in US soccer under the bus. We're not frickin' France people. Making the knockout round of the World Cup is a big deal. There are big soccer nations that won't make the round of 16. Ask Italy if they'd like to trade places with us. We just went thru the group phase without losing a game and without conceding a goal from the run of play..................................
This is probably the best group of players in USMNT history so let's give them the credit. Greg has got back us to our historical level, so of course he deserves some credit too, but he is clearly not up to the level as his better players, and this will become even more of a problem if the quality of the player pool grows in the next cycle anywhere near as much as it did since the last. His line-up decisions (ditching Long and Steffen, starting CCV today, etc.) reminds me of Winston Churchill's quip "Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else." It takes him far too long to come to the right conclusions as he still hasn't processed the lessons of his questionable substitution patterns, namely: control is more effective defense than inviting pressure, Shaq Moore and Haji Wright are not international caliper players (and Gio and Scally are,) one should make substitutions proactively and not only when forced to, etc.
Hey, admittedly, there is a lot to like. The England match and first half of Wales & Iran were about the best I've ever seen the USMNT play. If Pulisic is healthy for the Netherlands game, I'll probably bet on them to advance. I am upset with playing Sarget, Wright, & Shaq Moore, and Jordan Morris over Gio Reyna in the Wales game. And continuing to have Pulisic take free kicks.
Exactly. And closing matches, which is something that isn't necessarily easy to come by, especially for a young team. It is a skill that has to be learned. If not for an insane tackle by Zimmerman, USA take 7 points from this group. Striker positioning is what allowed chances and goals to happen in this group. Check who Sargent is occupying on the 1st goal today, and check what Sargent does on the near-goal which was a few inches from basically locking this up at halftime today. It may be subtle... but having proper 9s in there drawing attention has made space for other US attackers all tournament. It's not an accident.
This is probably the last you will see of Moore who has been pathetic in his two outings. You won't see Wright either. Did you see him just jogging around like like he was at a pickup game? And then he could have gone to the corner... Anyway, our midfield has strangled 3 opponents in a row including two European teams. If everyone is healthy you will see the same on Saturday. I almost feel sorry for Frankie De Jong.
If not for all the wastefulness from Weah, Robinson and Musah I think we grab a second goal in the 1st half, maybe 2nd. GB can’t be blamed for having faith in what have been our best players.