Come on. Someone of your deep intelect doesn't know why Lletget isn't legit? Again, you seem to be missing inate talent.
Please do because I saw an absolute mess. Off the top of my head, Zardes vs Sargent, Lewis and Arriola vs Weah, Lovitz vs Robinson, Lletget and Acosta vs Musah and de la Torre. It really is just any MLS player who started a game. We saw at the WC that the MLS players didn't belong.
You need more examples of really poor giveaways and aimless running. Are you guys still trying to make believe that Long was ok before his injury. Berhalter treated Long like he was Messi coming off his injury.
Wow. Those first two sentences are really stupid. So the hundreds of games he had played in a top league were wiped out by a half season of not playing. I guess after the fact we know he could. What we have is no evidence that those MLS players could. We also know Zimmerman and Long were in poor form going into the WC, but nobody would talk about it and their was no ramifications to their playing time.
No, I agree with you here. I'm just pointing out the flaw in Adam's thought process. Lletget has some nice qualities, and I saw him as a fine option for the B Gold Cup, or in the early part of qualifying where we're playing minnows and semi-minnows; you can use him against the pure minnows and win and save the stars for the semi-minnows. My point is Adam's post was stupid.
I'm a whore, not a slut. You want me to work for you, pay me. Alternatively, you can search all of my post in the USMNT section.
Maybe. How would we know? And it's not just TALENT. There's match fitness and match sharpness too. This ain't the FIFA video game. (Which might actually account for match fitness for all I know.)
arteta magically got arsenal into first place in the premeir league...becuase he is an actual good coach, as well.....so, yes, he did develop it in a few months....read his quotes about why he went to arsenal. and watch his play umm yes I saw a great cross field pass from brooks while with benfica....a pass that long will never make in his entire life....so yeah actually i saw enough to know he is better than long...even though he barely played for benfica
Never said it was just talent. It just seems be a factor Berhalter and MLS fans leave out of the equation. They also don't talk about MLS players poor form and being out of season.
I might have taken Brooks too, at least until he stopped playing at all, but it seems pretty telling that a main supporting argument for this view "Especially in the WC, a lot of his MLS players, did not excel." is a guy who played zero minutes at the WC.
long isnt even the main player that this applies to though.....there were plenty of others that it applies to more. and long didnt play in the WC bc he was so bad in all the prep games...but berhalter felt backed into a corner and took him anyway.....long being on the roster at all is pretty damining of berhalter.....
I'm not going to look anything up. I was under the impression that Berhalter's "system" was supposed to be the basis for our countries soccer identity and be pushed down to all the youth teams. That didn't happen. The team played very differently in 2022 vs in 2019 and neither look like out u20 team. Berhalter claimed we were going to disoreint defenders with the ball and change the way the world views American soccer. That didn't happen either. Berhalter tried to do it by playing out of the back with non-ball playing center backs and the most important characteristics he looked for in players was athleticism, ability to press, and whatever he thinks is "character ".
It is a skill. It is a talent that doesn't go away if just training for 6 months. The thing he did that one time, he did throughout his career. Here is 6 mins of Brooks just pinging the ball around. He would a huge difference against the Netherlands. They target Zimmerman and that was enough to kill off our build up play.
The ole "good enough for concacaf" statement. That is good way to waste opportunities and slow the development of the team. That is what we saw all cycle. Opportinties to get the euro based players that played at the WC (and those he froze out) were missed over and over. I'd agree that Lletget has some qualities, but his playing profile is not of a player that is going help improve our national team and definitely one that didn't need over 1700 mins to figure it out. Its like the games don't mean anything to MLS fans. Is it because MLS games don't really matter?
Apparently, there is some special euro pixie dust. I dont know why they call good coaching and competition that, but it is definitely there. Most of our players that have potential have been blowi up in Europe lately. Adams, Aaronson, Turner, etc were completely different players just 6 months after their moves. Those MLS lifers flat lined a long time ago. Zimmerman can't make those passes either. Neither of them can shield the ball and dribble out of danger. It is almost like these MLS guys are good at actual soccer. They don't have the tools to pass, trap, dribble, turn, etc.
@adam tash , I have been thinking about this and come to the conclusion that European clubs don't really care. The reason is that they don't care about the players Berhalter chose. That want young, hungry prospects, not whatever the over 23 Americans in MLS are. What they did do is really turn a lot of fans against MLS. They keep shouting that MLS is getting better, but it is done through purchasing foreign talent. They are finally after over 25 years started to develop some prospects that have some potential if they can get out of the league.
this is a very good point and one I totally think berhalter should get credit for....for these two players...USMNT exposure was a god send and their valuations dont jump without that integration and experience, imo so, yeah, something to consider when analyzing MLS involvement in the USMNT.... in pepi's case, berhalter took ferreira instead, which boggles my mind, personally. perhaps gives some fuel to the MLS quota thought process......perhaps get ferreira a similar move and spike in valuation by including him instead of pepi....ferreira certainly doesnt have much argument over pepi.
Yeah, if John Brooks had been on the bench instead, he would have used the power of his sizzle reel to defeat Holland.
well.....I saw players like Lalas, Donovan, Vanney, Bocanegra, McBride, Sanneh etc etc get moves to European clubs by playing great for the USMNT.... even at older ages the euro clubs do care.....but the player has to show something...thats the key. I dont think the euro clubs would ignore mlsers who actually played well......by rule. like it seems that they are doing now. MLs is getting much better at developing young talent....but youre 100% right...all of that talent withers on the vine if it doesnt leave MLS.
one of the keys to the loss to the dutch was poor passing by CBs zimm and ream. ive never seen brooks have as bad a passing display as zimm did in the WC...and dont even mention long. the defensive breakdowns that the backline had vs holland were egregious and it is literally impossible it couldhave been any worse with brooks in there. meanwhile, it certain that the backline passing wouldve have been better.
I dunno. To reiterate, it's about choices, not decisions. In the 3 game windows that we had last cycle, there was real value in having players of his caliber available to get a win vs. true minnows. Whether he was a better option than, say, Luca de la Torre (whom I became a big fan of over the last year), that's a tough call. If the goal was to make sure we qualified, going with a known quantity like Lletget is a reasonable decision. And to me, that really was the goal. If it was my fulltime job to be the coach maybe I would have made the same decision as GGG, maybe not. But if you believe it was worth the risk of a relative unknown, but younger/higher upside player, that's defensible. The inability of MMA to give our forwards decent service was something we all knew about for a long time, and IMO it came back to bite us in the ass in Qatar. Maybe giving LDLT Lletget's minutes would have helped there. Maybe LDLT could have filled the same role Benny F did for us in South Africa. For me, that's probably the choice I would have made based on my knowledge, which is that of all of us wankers who hang out at bigsoccer. But it's also obviously true that LDLT might have shit the bed and cost us points. if you're a tl;dr type, yeah, good enough for (relatively easy or unimportant) CONCACAF. Why dismiss that?