The biggest thing with someone like Ream is he’s not the guy who you can play a high line with. He is the guy if you want to build from the back but the problem at center back is we don’t have guys who can really do both.
I do think this hire will make the fanbase the most normal it's been in about a decade, so that'll be nice.
The expectations were more than acceptable (and my expectations for 2026 include winning a knockout game). How they were acheived was not. The business analogy to Gregg Berhalter's tenure is the sales guy who makes his quots by $1 every quarter by cutting prices below cost the last three days. Sure, the quota was met, but the business likely lost money on the sales getting the salesperson the quota. To be honest, my expectations aren't changing much because I'm a believer in setting reasonable and achieveable expectations. It would just be nice to easily surpass those expectations instead of how Berhalter's teams always did the absolute bare minimum. The only time they really rolled through an event and achieved the objective in a dominant way was the 2023 Nations League. They were dominant and completely controlled games both against Mexico and Canada without Berhalter in the mix.
I wouldn't quite say that quarterfinals is the expected outcome, but I also wouldn't disagree that it would be disappointing if we failed to reach that round. Not sure how to square those two positions, but that is my feeling at the moment.
crocker was watching england in the euros while we were playing in the copa- i think people need to update their files on location-based loyalty. the "chicago mandate" came from earnie.
I'm not sure I'd call Jürgen a foreign coach. Culturally he's more American than German. The Germans themselves don't consider him one of their own any more.
not defending poch, but i dont know that his not being able to get two of the biggest divas in soccer history to press can be that big of a knock. and we all know that no one has been able to win with psg. take it however you want, i just dont know how informative psg is as a data point for anyone. until someone cracks that code theyre an uncoachable mess of overpriced superstars.
Even then it'll be waved off. I remember Jurgen only got 1 win in his first 6 matches and that included a home loss to Costa Rica (we scored 2 goals in that 6 game stretch too) and everybody was still in a pretty good mood, because we got the dream hire and they were only friendlies (which isn't unreasonable). Granted that's just my memory.
I feel like that won’t last long but there’s at least general agreement he’s a better coach that Berhalter along with the alternatives whose names have been out there (Matarazzo, Cherundolo, Nancy, Renard, Southgate, Henry, or Vieira).
To me, the litmus test is whether he considers MLS CBs in the search for our best pair. I just don't like our CBs in Europe. They're quite terrible, positionally weak and lacking in ball skills. If Pochettino lets the fans convince him he needs only Europe-based players, we're in big trouble. We're going to need some MLSers to patch the holes, like it or not.
I enjoyed them, I just think there's nuance to them. The Mexico that we and Canada were so much better than in '21-'22 for the most part, and in our case '23, is not the Mexico we watched 1986-2019. Tell me how Im wrong about that? I've had a back and forth with someone, maybe Dark Knight, can't remember, about when exactly El Tri became, not really El Tri: In my view, they were still relatively good in '19, were not as good by summer of '21, and just looked like crap by winter '21-'22, and it corresponds to their central midfield aging out, their D and keeper getting older and not better, and Jimenez having a catastrophic head injury that derailed his career for a few years on either side of covid. They were not themselves and still are not themselves. It's gonna take years to fix whats gone wrong. I tend to think everybody agrees something is not right with Mexico, right? I think Berhalter's wins in NL '21 and especially GC '21 are particularly special because in '21, Mexico should've won that game, and mentality, something a coach can help with, seemed a key component in the team coming back from being down 1-0 and 2-1 (very late), and the Gold Cup was mostly Matt Turner and Berhalter building an effective defense w/Turner. I give him credit for those. But the wins begin to pale in significance when you realize that this Mexico is the worst one any of us have seen in our lifetimes. I mean, how far do you have to go back, 1978, 1982, the WC '90 banned side? I know the El Tri's I watched in the nineties, the aughts and last decade WERE ALL far better than these ones the past several years. I don't think people disagree. Its more, again, about when we put the signs of fall off, and the appearance of it on the senior teams play. For me, it started showing w/the youth teams in '15, and with the senior team probably in '21.
We’ll see what he does but I don’t think he’s going to be listening to fans when it comes to roster decisions.
This is really true. The 2022 cycle was always nervous, so the summer 2021 successes were celebrated with the understanding that the qualification campaign was imminent. The final months after qualification were marred by a summer lull and then fall rush due to the strange Qatar situation. And a post-World Cup honeymoon was wrecked by the Berhalter-Reynas situation. There were a few months in the summer of 2017 where everything seemed normal again, but otherwise we have to go back to late 2013 and the very beginning of 2014. The mood had already started to shift as the World Cup got closer due to some of the odd chatter around the team, even if few expected Klinsmann's big surprise.
i absolutely agree gregg did a very good job his first cycle all things considered...but youre giving him a whole lot of credit for things grandpa sarachan did (in addition to going away from weah, jedi, etc for a couple of years).
If Crocker was in Germany watching the Euros during the group stages of Copa, that's news to me, but it would only tend to make me think Crocker is a tool than to make me revisit location-based loyalty concerns. And to be clear, a manager can be plenty invested in the Nats and live abroad. It just would be a missed opportunity for him or her to demonstrate that they are invested.
Maybe convert some mf's to CB for NT purposes? Someone said maybe Tessman. That could be interesting. Or, just borrow Girma
off topic, but that now-first ko match (due to expansion) is going to wreak havoc on message boards/twitter across the land. its not going to be the same substantial step "forward" for us (fully recognizing 02 was a perfect storm in our favor), but i find it hard to believe its going to be anything close to a given either. blind "round" predictions/expectations are pretty dumb in the first place, but i have no clue how thats going to shake out. "winning a ko match" has been generally accepted as a threshold for my 30+ years as a supporter, only achieved once so a fair enough measuring stick. while it will certainly mean something, im just not sure what. or how much. and even if it is a very manageable/expected win will the next match really be an absolute game changing leap ahead for us? good luck modding that is all im saying
well, i certainly agree with any openness to the possibility that crocker is a tool. and i dont have strong feelings one way or the other about a manager being based abroad in general, though less than 2 years isnt a lot of time. which is another pretty big point i think a lot of people are missing- we hired a gun. expecting him to impact youth development, recruit dual nats, or even cast that wide a net isnt especially realistic. it blows my mind that people think he is going to be turning over every stone/giving every luna, wynder and brady a shot. ill be surprised if he makes it to the shaq moores and sean johnsons, much less lennon and celentano.