If you had to put together a starting XI for Qatar 2022, who would be in it?

gogorath · Nov 14, 2020

yurch10 said: ↑

Like I said, I realize you don't care, and would rather see him put out to pasture, like most of us.

But you've already said he shouldn't have been seen again after 2017. Yet here we are, 3 years later, and he's still being mentioned as an option by the media and the US manager. So saying "nobody is talking about it", even if you meant BS posters only, is sorta useless, since the voices that matter more than us (media/the coach) are saying it. Dumping on ESPN's coverage is easy, but it's still a big voice. SBI has relatively recently said the same, and he's clued in to USSF. If Lalas/Holden (US Soccer schills) are saying it, then what? He's still firmly in the 23, when qualifying is about to start, but what's the plan then? If they are being given hints, and Egg is saying it himself, what is the plan? He'll just be brought in for another year, during qualifying, but have zero chance at the WC because they'll dump him before then?

TL/DR - If he's being talked about as an option now, when it's time to "get serious" in preparation for qualifying, he will likely be an option for the WC. You might disagree, but it's semantics. If you're part of the team in qualifying, you have a decent chance of being part of the team for the WC. Which is insane in his case.

One of the posters here, one of the bigger MB defenders, even said if he's called up again, even he would join the chorus of us calling out corruption, or caps record, or whatever. But now the thinking is (at least by your words), that we'll definitely see him again and that he's going to be capped more, just not in 2022.

This is wild stuff.
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I suppose this is all because I've seen this kind of thing before. Bradley has supporters, he's had a great career despite what people want to say. Neither the USSF-friendly media nor Berhalter is going to bad talk the dude in public.

But the articles and comments have already started coming out about him not being the best option in Toronto. And he's not. And despite what people think here, I think Berhalter is quite aware of what age does to players (he's said so) and that Bradley isn't going to be the guy.

They just aren't going to dump on him publicly. I get a lot of you would love nothing more than Berhalter to say "Michael Bradley SUCKS and he's never playing again" but they aren't going to do that to him.

Just because they still mention him doesn't mean that they think he will be there in 2022.

Of course, I could be wrong. But I'm confident enough in this not to be worried about it. It's a long way between here and Qatar.

yurch10 · Nov 14, 2020

gogorath said: ↑

I suppose this is all because I've seen this kind of thing before. Bradley has supporters, he's had a great career despite what people want to say. Neither the USSF-friendly media nor Berhalter is going to bad talk the dude in public.

But the articles and comments have already started coming out about him not being the best option in Toronto. And he's not. And despite what people think here, I think Berhalter is quite aware of what age does to players (he's said so) and that Bradley isn't going to be the guy.

They just aren't going to dump on him publicly. I get a lot of you would love nothing more than Berhalter to say "Michael Bradley SUCKS and he's never playing again" but they aren't going to do that to him.

Just because they still mention him doesn't mean that they think he will be there in 2022.

Of course, I could be wrong. But I'm confident enough in this not to be worried about it. It's a long way between here and Qatar.
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Who wants USSF or Egg to denigrate him? How about just not mentioning him when talking about your top team/options? Again, it's been 3 years of this, and it keeps happening.

I hope Ives, Stu, ESPN rando, Lalas, and Egg are all lying, and that you are the one who has the correct pulse. But again, I've seen this before.

And tangentially - what did Yeuill do to move behind MB now? Did he have a poor season in SJ? Somehow worse than MB (just kidding, that's not possible)? Everyone was slightly happy that he'd be our long diagonal maestro instead of Bradley, he's the one who played the "good" game against Canada, and everyone said "stop worrying about Bradley, it's Yeuill now". Wth happened?

gogorath · Nov 14, 2020

yurch10 said: ↑

Who wants USSF or Egg to denigrate him? How about just not mentioning him when talking about your top team/options? Again, it's been 3 years of this, and it keeps happening.

I hope Ives, Stu, ESPN rando, Lalas, and Egg are all lying, and that you are the one who has the correct pulse. But again, I've seen this before.
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I doubt there's anything I can say to convince you, but I am curious, when have you seen all this before?

If you say Michael Bradley in 2017... Michael Bradley in 2017 was leading a Toronto FC team winning a domestic triple and almost winning CCL. My point is that Bradley is a much worse player now than then.

Excellency · Nov 15, 2020

gogorath said: ↑

I honestly doubt it. He's been pretty open about certain players being too old, and only certain positions, like GK and CB being able to perform at that age.

Bradley is a bit of a political minefield with USSF in general. Berhalter was honest once about a player getting sent home -- Kellyn Acosta -- and he's shut up and played the vague game sense. Which is smart with any player -- no one wants to have their deficiencies laid out in public in a direct manner. But with Bradley you have to deal with Michael, and Bob, and all their allies at USSF, and they are loud and aggressive as Jimmy Conrad will tell you.

I expect him to get a goodbye game, but I will honestly be shocked to see him play meaningful minutes going forward.

Perhaps I am too optimistic about Berhalter. But while I think he likes Bradley's skillset, I think he knows it's over for him.
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By throwing Bradley into the mix, Berhalter admits he wants that kind of game which means he can't argue with Adams when Adams wants to play that game.

We are probably condemned to Adams as a CB from now on. It will be interesting to see what Leipzig does going forward and exciting to watch Adams playing for Nags. For Berhalter, not so much....

gogorath · Nov 15, 2020

Excellency said: ↑

We are probably condemned to Adams as a CB from now on.
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Totally. That makes total sense. Berhalter mentioned "Brad-" as part of a list of names means he's going to convert Adams to a CB.

You've got it.