England has been waiting since 1936 for an Englishman to win Wimbledon. Andy Murray was the first Brit in 77 years. But it is the All England club.
^ Football has postponed "coming home" for yet another year... Dual nat choosing Canada because of Jesse Marsch? 1934671585790873827 is not a valid tweet id 1934671506463768730 is not a valid tweet id
Defend and counter is by far the easiest game model to implement. Going from a manager that your players hate, who stars are boycotting, to someone else is also very low hanging fruit on the team improvement front. We need Poch to know what our best collection of players are collectively good and bad at. We need that so he can pick a strategy and implement a set of tactics that maximizes our chances of success. Then we need enough training to properly implement that. We don’t know if Poch is a guy who can do those first two things (find out who our best players are and gameplan for them) off of scouting tape. Based on his comments about Malik it seems like he needs in-person contacts. To be fair to him, seeing guys train, directing them, and then validating in game, is absolutely the highest quality information a manager can get about players and their team. Writing off a summer is just pushing back the timetable for all of this.
Agree on that. After this summer, Poch should have had time to evaluate the entire pool and get to know the players enough to be ready to implement the game model or at least the foundation of a game model that he is confident in (we're probably already at that point) in September. There is plenty of time. There will be a few loose ends to figure out on the fringe, but the core should be pretty much set. There won't be any time to waste, and there isn't any guarantee that Poch will have the right answers to put the puzzle together, but it shouldn't be due to a lack of time to evaluate the pool or work with the players.
Eh? Though he now plays in Croatia, Niko was born and raised in Canada and has the aboot and aboat to prove it.
Marsch is getting his players to buy in... must be nice 1935185849454387544 is not a valid tweet id 1935195292036690029 is not a valid tweet id
With how the players advocated for Gregg and not Jesse, I doubt he would have had the same effect here. Can’t see the same buy in. Recruiting dual nationals would have more notice though for guys like Brown though I 100% believe. It wouldn’t be hazy as it is now.
Cross-posted from Gio thread. Ok, I finally got a clear answer on Club World Cup releases. "There is one exception: clubs were required to release players for the international window immediately preceding the Club World Cup, from June 2 to June 10, 2025." But not during the Gold Cup itself. So Poch could have called up Gio/Weah/McKennie for the friendlies only, and let them go back for the Club World Cup. (Why Dortmund want Gio at the CWC when they are trying to release him, I don't know.) But since Poch was so adamant that he wanted the same players for both friendlies and Gold Cup, he passed on that option. So likely Poch didn't bother asking for Gio's release. And then Dortmund and Juventus released a bunch of Turkey and Switzerland players for the friendlies.
Since this has become the de facto Pochettino thread, I thought these were interesting quotes from a backheeled article in terms of how Poch thinks about this Gold Cup and some of the pool. This one is about McGlynn: “I think that position [winger] is a good position for him, because I think his characteristics, the way that we are seeing him to improve in the future, I think he can be a very great midfielder,” he said. “Maybe can start from outside now, like in a position like a winger, but after going to the half space, and because he’s clever, because he play well, because when the ball is in his feet, it’s like the ball rest. And you rest at least a little bit because you say, ‘Okay, have the ball, Jack. For sure he’s going to play, have continuity [with] the ball,’ and the teammate really trust on him. But [he] need to improve in other areas of the game, to be a player that you can reach this high level. “We try now to work with him, because his evolution is not in that position that he start today, I think is more inside, like a No. 8, a No. 10, a No. 8. But I think if his evolution is how we are thinking, or is in our mind, I think with time, he can become a very, very good player, because the quality is there, he’s a very talented player.” The Turkey match gameplan and results: “The game plan was Diego going inside, being very close with Malik to control with Luca de la Torre and Johnny, and Jack, stay a little bit on the side, but in the last third, can go inside like in the way that he has scored the goal. All the possibility after, to have the freedom to want to associate,” Pochettino said. “The idea was use in one side Max Arfsten. Alex [Freeman], stay a little bit more, often doing some overlap with Jack, and sometime going in diagonal or going like a third midfielder. That was the idea, it’s all new because for first time, we were training a few days, and then you need to go to and compete against a team like Turkey. But I think what we got playing in these ways, to the control the possession, control the game, and [the game] always was under us.” Control is the new verticality. Tyler Adams: “They controlled the tempo of the game really well. You see Jack, he plays at a speed that you can give him the ball in tough areas, same with Diego, and they just slow the game down to the speed that they want to play at." Luca: “I thought it gave us good control at times. Maybe something we have to work on is attacking space in behind a little bit more, which maybe is a bit more natural with more natural strikers in those positions."
Well, the group stage is finished and we got the job done. Not a lot of style points, in the last two matches, were received. Passing the ball around the perimeter looks nice for the possession numbers, but let’s take a few more chances. It would seem that the midfield would’ve been better sorted out, by now. I haven’t seen much evidence there’s an accurate handle on the players in camp and the abilities might bring to the table. The minimum expectation is to reach the Gold Cup final. Anything less will be a disappointment. The United States is 8-3-2, All time at home versus Costa Rica. 2-0-1 in the gold cup. it’s time to get things done.
These Poch haters are so inconsistent, they want Poch to recruit 20 year old dual nats in top five leagues which he won't do because that would require attending games in continental Europe, but they DON'T want Poch to recruit 31 year old MLSers who aren't US citizens yet... make up your mind! 1938046591535112449 is not a valid tweet id 1938048332040929776 is not a valid tweet id I'm glad Poch was on hand in Frisco to watch the Quakes crush Lucho and FC Dallas, maybe he noticed 21 year old actual American who is currently USMNT eligible Beau Leroux
A former Spurs manager coaching in America? Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC are considering former Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou as their next manager.
Lucho Acosta is a heck of a little player. It seems like we've been talking about him as a potential recruit forever. Partly because he's openly talked about it. Until he actually gets his citizenship, it's kind of a moot point. WC26 is a year away. Roster decision time approaches at pace. And there's no point after WC26. .................its also a good thing if the USMNT is attending MLS games to see certain players, and others catch his eye. That's what's supposed to happen. I mean, he's not travelling out of his way to scout Lucho Acosta. The USMNT was literally there in North Texas and he caught an MLS game. They were training at Lone Star High School. That's IN FRISCO. [That's where players like Jesus Ferreira and Chris Richards went to high school while at the FCD academy.] Probably walked around the US Soccer Hall of Fame. Met with Dan Hunt and leadership. Talked to some of the players and coaches. Let's not go crazy with over-analysis here.
Actually the Quakes didn't crush FCD. FCD flamed out all on their won. FCD jumped ahead, SJQ answered and took a lead and FCD tied it back up.FCD looked like the better team after a few subs but then our two cemterbacks had a brain melt and the Brazilian youngster made a light pass right to a Quake for an easy go ahead. Then we had our other young Brazilian youngster lost his mind and got red, followed by veteran back Ibeahga getting his own red. What a melt down. I didn't notice Beau until he got one of those easy meltdown goals but I wasn't watching him either.
Poch also met with the Quakes and their staff, so.................................. I'm sure they talked about Quakes players. It seems to me that the USMNT coach has to be criticized for everything. Not just this one. EVERY USMNT coach. The twitterverse is just non-stop trying to find things to complain about. Yes, he was IN FRISCO, and while there talked to a former MLS MVP that's openly talked about representing the USMNT. Talking. Heaven forbid.
Would be a great hire. And diametrically opposed to Dolo tactically, though that's not why I think it'd be great.