I remember Howard being poor in South Aftica. I remember him being great in Brazil. I look forward to see how Robles does tomorrow.
Yeah... He was probably a couple yards further out than he should've been. It is a tough one to play as a GK in that he is positioned fine a second earlier when the ball is 40+ yards from goal and he'd need to read there would be a simple pass and no pressure that requires him to take a step or two back. So definitely a bit too far of his line but would say the defending was horrible. There is now way 7 attackers should walk through 8 defenders that easily.
This, is literally the problem. Klinsmann, with his actions and his words, forced me into a decision of either going into continuous anger, or to not caring about something I've been passionately following since I was 14 years old, the USMNT. My starting this thread is the last 10% that even cares - and I started it because his words about the Mexico match are pathetically symbolic of everything that is wrong with Juergan Klinsmann. He lies to us about what he wants to accomplish, he coaches this program like the players are garbage, we're forced to sit through matches where the US just defends, plays awful attacking soccer (almost 100% because of his tactics), and basically pray that one of our star players does someyhing amazing, and then after the match he tells everyone that they're ignorant and stupid, and that what we actually watched was a good result for the USMNT. Thus, the choice between anger and apathy. But don't worry, I'll force myself back into apathy soon enough though and you won't have to read my negative posts again, because there's zero chance I'm going to put myself through actuallly caring about the Copa.
I think the real problem is that Klinsmann has almost free reign to do whatever he wants because we have him under contract through the 2018 World Cup. We did this BEFORE the 2014 WC, which meant that his performance there was really just for sh*ts and giggles. The Gold Cup? Also not important. The 2014 qualifiers were a good run, but we've played consistently more disappointingly since the end of the World Cup and it's because his results don't matter.
But then why not actually play young teams and try out new players, instead of trotting out the oldest team in history at the CC playoff, and 8 players 30 or older, many of whom he leaned on, during the GC. The friendlies have been underwhelming established player oriented as well. Certainly not coaching like results don't matter. Coaching like just about every game could be his last. Obviously there is a breaking point with any federation. Getting out-shot on your own homefield by Haiti 21-6, Panama 25-5, Honduras 16-5, Costa Rica 15-4, losing to Jamaica, in the newly invented Confed Cup playoff to not get into the Confed Cup, and being mediocre in the first set of WC qualifying games should put any U.s coach close to the edge, no matter how much you fawned over previously, and paid him.
I agree with you that after any WC, there is a period of phasing-out; sometimes older players have one last hurrah to finish the year, most of the time younger players are brought in to try them out. I think my problem with the tournament was that this one mattered more than others. As did the Confed Cup play-off. Also, we just looked like crap throughout the tournament. That kind of attitude and mentality I attribute to Klinsmann because the lineups had been shuffled so much prior to the tourney and I don't think he effectively communicated to and managed his squad. That's where he's being lazy, IMO.
I'm optimistic that we'll reap some rewards this year from the disarray we've seen in the last 18 months.
And not only that, but according to Opta's stats, ranking 12th of 12 teams in the group stage in chances created. Worse than Canada (who went scoreless) and Cuba (who didn't have a clue except in their match against an even more shambolic Guatemala). As I've said before, Klinsmann is the only coach I've ever seen who simultaneously experiments too much and fails to bring in new players. Most coaches have one fault or the other to some extent, Klinsmann manages to have both. He did it by calling in a group of players based purely on perceived upside after the 2014 World Cup even though many of them clearly weren't ready for the national team, ignoring everyone else, and then constantly experimenting by mixing and matching the same 20-25 players in new combinations, new positions, and new formations, which kept the players from building any kind of chemistry.
He's not getting fired. If the embarrassment of the Gold Cup followed by the pathetic showing against mexico didn't get him fired, then the only thing will be failing to qualify for the world cup
I dunno - unsatisfactory results in the next couple qualifiers plus open player discontentment might be enough to do it. The hex looks fairly competitive this time around, so a lack of clear superiority against (terrible) Guatemala would be raise some pretty serious alarms. Plus, there's five months between our March qualifiers and the next ones.