LDLT with assists in back to back games... too bad Gregg played Acosta (who always seems to suck when used not as a #6) out of position instead of giving LDLT minutes at the World Cup... 1621974839312384006 is not a valid tweet id 🎥 Luca de la Torre’s assist 🤝 #USMNT 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/utGmWzamjV— 🇺🇸 USMNT vs Haters (@USMNTvsHaters) January 29, 2023
I'm not gonna re-litigate the WC but both assists from Luca are the exact type of vertical passing into the attack we have not had from our mids. That doesn't mean Luca solves that problem with the NT. But none of our mids for the NT have been making such passes and it's a significant part of our lack of creation and connecting the lines.
Every time I see the name "Luca" I am almost forced to "think" of Abby's brother. It makes no sense but it is just where my old mind goes. Luca Sciuto is too nice and too trusting for his own good. I would hope that is not the case for our Luca.
Doubtful. But there are some people that are still alive older than I and you "could" be one. I graduated HS in 1965 (I mistyped that at first and it said 1695. I am not quite that old ) But after high school I spent quite a bit of time completely away from "normal" people and isolated from media. Also I watched almost no TV my last two years of HS. I had not heard the name "Ray Luca" before you mentioned it. Or I just did not remember it. My first exposure to soccer also came during that period and I met Sir Stanley Matthews in 1970 or so. I rapidly adopted soccer as "my" sport and I do remember a lot of folks from that time but Ray Luca is not one I remember. My old brain sometimes makes the most "unusual" jumps and this was/is just one example.
Thanks, @FanOfFutbol — great to know I'm not the OLDEST guy here. How wonderful to have met Sir Stanley. I've read he was total class off the field, as well as on. [Mods, sorry to be off-topic but... Stanley Matthews!]
Luca took a big bet on himself moving to LaLiga and it’s starting to pay off. Congratulations to him. It was a risky move.
Reyna not getting more minutes was definitely the bigger head scratcher at the time (of course, now we know what we going on there), but De la Torre not playing at all should have gotten more discussion, in my opinion. I'm still not totally sold on him, but I definitely prefer him at the 8 compared to Acosta. It's one of those where if he was too injured to play, why bring him? But if he wasn't too injured, why wasn't he getting any of the minutes in relief of Musah and McKennie?
LDLT had been injured and barely playing at all in LaLiga heading into the WC. What you're positing now seems to be only said in the light of his very recent success with Celta. The problem is the drop off after MMA is/was awful for the U.S. at the 6 and 8. LDLT was one of the best options available at the time of the WC, but he still wasn't a particularly good option at that time. His situation has improved a lot since then.
Gotta give Luca credit, after a first oart of the season that couldn't have gone worse he's taking advantage of his opportunity
Berhalter valued players with recent experience with the team. he also counted on some to get healthy as the tournament progressed but it didn't seem to happen. Not sure it would have been better bringing in healthy players with no experience with the team. Could have or not.
It was already provided. He played zero minutes for his club in the lead-up, due to injury. It was a big question if he'd even be named to the squad for that reason. You're being willfully ignorant to fit your ideology. Then projecting others are doing it. Wash, rinse, gaslight.
What part? Some of it is me guessing and until Berhalter discusses certain aspects guesses are all we have. As to different players? More guesses. Was it something else?