He doesn't have internet? 99% of opinions here are based on not watching in person. Plus a significant part of the potential NT pool from MLS a) didn't play last weekend and b) will be with Poch next month in camp.
So then why pay for coaches and scouts to travel around to watch players in person when streaming subscriptions are like 20 bucks a month?
CMs don’t score many goals and Cristian played as a CM with little exception and has only played about 1700 minutes. The last time Wes scored a goal was over 1100 minutes ago, all playing with the A team. Musah had twice as many minutes before he scored a goa, all with the A team and he scored his one goal while playing winger. Hitting a CM for not scoring in half a season of minutes isn’t a serious position.
Before we hired Pochettino everyone seemed pretty okay with the likely risk that comes with an elite, non-American club coach. We know it is likely that a foreign coach won't care quite as much as an American. And we know that the elite club coaches may be using a spin as a national team coach in part to reduce hours and stress. There were also legitimate concerns that he'd want to put the time in for dual national recruiting. Sure, it'd be great if he was running all over the place, but I didn't expect it, and I suspect people are okay with the trade-off right now.
I have no doubt that any MLS team will provide him with all-22 video, fitness data and the personal opinion of the manager if he wants it . I don’t care if he goes to the game.
Berhalter took over a year into the last cycle because he had to see out the season with the Columbus Crew not winning anything and we were told three years later that certain World Cup roster decisions were made because obviously he's going to prefer guys he's familiar with over ones he's only seen a few times...
Who are the players Berhalter developed an early relationship ship that he took to Qatar because he was "familiar" with them? Zardes, Trapp, and Steffen were supposedly locked in forever because he had coached them in Columbus. Berhalter could have coached that final season with the Crew and then sat on a beach for the entire next season before coming to the US job, and he still would have had more than enough time to do whatever he needed to do to prepare for the World Cup. The consternation at that time -- when we basically didn't even have a team because the current one obviously wasn't going to play any role whatsoever going forward and the generation that was going to was too young -- we didn't even know who most of those guys were! As I was saying... the consternation over not having a coach and then the completely meaningless decisions that Berhalter was making in those early days was absolutely out of control. The 18 months that Poch has is more than enough to do everything that he could possibly ever want to do.
Maybe a few of these guys? Of course there was also tons of time wasted with guys like Sebastian Lletget and Paul Arriola who didn't make the WC roster... and Lovitz 2019 Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 29/3; Oak Hills, Calif.) Shaq Moore (Nashville SC; 15/1; Powder Springs, Ga.) DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami CF; 75/0; Seattle, Wash.) Kellyn Acosta (LAFC; 53/2; Plano, Texas) Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 32/0; Pico Rivera, Calif.) Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas; 15/7; McKinney, Texas) Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders; 49/11; Mercer Island, Wash.) I guess we'll find out one way or the other in the summer of 2026
There’s never been a time where everyone who plays in a cycle makes a World Cup. Conor Casey’s Honduras brace is legendary and he didn’t see the World Cup. EJ rescued points in Antigua and he didn’t etc. This stuff seems like complaining for the exercise.
Yeah, but the player will be doing what he asks them to in the environment that he sets up, and he will be right next to them and communicating directly with them face to face. As others have pointed out, he can watch that knockout game whenever he wants to.
Okay, but then no need for Poch to attend Serie A or EPL games or anything else easily accessible on screen.
It warms my heart to see people getting worked up over Poch seeming to snub a Metro legend like John Tolkin. I don't think it's a big deal, though. We could ask "why was he here when he could have been there" every week from August through May. The reality is that the vast majority of his scouting will be done at a distance. I also think there's real value to USSF in better relations between the men's and women's teams, so I've got no beef with Poch supporting Hayes at Wembley.
True. He probably goes to those out of his own interest or because he's already there for whatever reason.
The point of it is to select the right players (you can further evaluate) in the 1st place. Now, I think you can actually evaluate players better w/ a full game tape, as opposed to in person, which helps you more evaluate team tactics. But the argument you made was an ironic one. He's also going to games of existing domestics like Ream & then sending assistants to other matches. So he values in-person assessment to a degree. But not enough to attend these games. It's not surprising the Euro-based manager is Euro-centric. He values being at Euro games more, even during Jan camp prep. But he should be expected to at least show the respect to be at MLS Cup.
I'm a little worried that we'll see Steffen amongst the callups and Celentano or Freese will be left off.
That would be disappointing, and suggest that Poch isn't really paying close attention to MLS (aside from Leagues Cup apparently)
Or he sees Steffen as a long term reclamation project. No one picked is going to be great and the backups may all be quite a bit behind Turner. Could be you have to be at practices to notice and also see what he wants them to do.