Exactly. At some point, when does Berhalter think, “Dear God. Send me somebody better than Daniel Lovitz? There’s no way I’m going to make into the quarter finals with him in my line-up.” But, that point beckons that the USSF seem to have given up that goal to be considered a top 8/16 team.
He won't think that way. It has been the same since March. The USMNT under Gregg is just one big exercise in Sunk Cost Fallacy. Basically, he has spent so much time teaching Lovitz whatever it is he has taught him, he can't bring anyone else in! Same with Roldan, Trapp, Zardes, Baird. He tried in June to bring in a bunch of new guys, but obviously, he couldn't spend the time with them enough for them to pick things up. Since then, he is bringing in one or two guys at most each camp it seems like. If they fit in with, "the group" then they stay no matter what they do on the field. Nobody has looked worse than Roldan, Trapp, Zimmerman, Boyd, Lovitz in games, but they are right there the next camp. Other guys are an injury or one bad technical play from never getting called again. GB can't move on, because he is so convinced that if they just play correctly the talent level doesn't matter. I can't think of anywhere in sports that that is true though. The craziest thing is we don't even know where Adams would fit in. 10 months in, and our best player arguably, has no obvious position with our NT.
It's a case of "it's better the mediocre devil you know than the mediocre devil you don't know yet." Let's not inflate the results in U-xx competitions, please. Since clubs are not forced to released players for them, making a QF run in a youth competition doesn't mean much these days. Everybody is playing with C teams.
At some point, you take a stab at potential when the devil you know is not good enough to make it out of the Hex.
The wise learn from the mistakes of others. The reflective learn from their own mistakes. The foolish never quite assimilate the lessons inherent in the mistakes they make. The arrogant fools never even recognize that it is even possible to have made a mistake. General Egg is precisely one of the above.
I think the key player for Berhalter over the next 4-6 months is Steffen. As it stands, if possession from the back is king, then Steffen needs to be heading to the bench. That sounds like an absolutely absurd thing to say, but it's true. So Berhalter needs to adopt if the medium-term doesn't show improvement.
This may be an unpopular opinion and in the wrong thread but I think Bornstein did pretty well with his chance in the limelight. He was never going to be confused with Roberto Carlos but he had a very good wc in my opinion. I am not saying that Lovitz will shine....
Question: which players have looked best under Coach Berhalter? A slightly different take: which players have looked closest to their potential under Gregg?
Best player of the Beerholder era: Nick Lima. Did he even make the squad? he is the only viable option at LB if you are going to convert a RB to LB.
GB: "... Germany doesn't call in reserve players" Me: They don't call in MLS players either Comparing us to Germany is a bad look. Reminds me of when Arena argued CONCACAF qualifying was harder than UEFA. Or when Bradley suggested he was as good a coach as Pep. Lack of perspective.
I agree with your overall sentiment that the player selection has been disappointing. I will agree with Gregg though that you should be playing first team soccer. I've seen way too many Julian Green's, Gale Agbossoumonde's, and Danny Szetela's too say that a 17-19 year old's promising performance at a youth cup or at the highest level of youth competition means they are ready for the show. With that being said, I would like to see more of a Josh Sargent style introduction, which ironically might help their introduction to their club teams. That way when/if they do get their club minutes there is a faster integration. So using this current roster as an example call in say a Chris Gloster or Chris Richards for one camp. Call up Pokymal or a Mendez/Ledesma, and or Servinia/Cerrilo. I understand we want these guys at the U-23 level, but if the idea is to create the same type of playing style....Getting them into one camp so they can see how Gregg would like for it to be done and then sending them back to that level makes it easier to implement at the U-23 level as well as makes integration eventually easier at the full level. I understand the idea of making them work through a progression. It's what other national teams with great pools of talent do. For example the English think that T Abraham deserved his call up, but Mason Mount probably jumped a level and needs to show the same for a longer time before receiving a full call up. They actually have good options to be able to say that and relegate someone that's scored 4 goals in 8 EPL matches from midfield to their U-21 level. We don't have that luxury.
General Egg doesn't want Canada to have any chance of qualifying for the Hex which means he must beat Canada. Look down the list of El Salvador players and compare with Canada's roster and you'll see why it's important to keep Canada (FIFA rank #75) below El Salvador (#72) for that last spot in Hex. As it stands, the Hex is Mexico, CR, USA, Jamaica, Honduras, ElSalvador. VIva El Salvador!!!!
Well, no, because they can still qualify thru a tournament that includes the also rans whose winner plays the 4th team in the hex and the winner of that one goes to the inter-continental play-off. Phew!!! But with Canada so close to points required to be 6th in FIFA, I think they could make it even with friendlies but that's all pretty indeterminate. I think Herdman was interviewed and said he was in a quandry with friendlies because how would it make sense to schedule friendlies and lose ( in this window and Nov window, e.g.). So they just play one game this window afaik.
The top 6 teams in FIFA rankings now make the HEX. The top 3 teams from the HEX makes WC2022. Teams 7-35 play a full group, quarter, semi, final. The winner of that 2nd tier will play the 4th place team in the HEX in a home and away. That winner will then play in in the FIFA intercontinental playoff to make WC2022. Canada clearly wants to be ranked high enough to directly make the HEX!
Sitting in Warner Park in Basseterre, St Kitts ... just finished watching the British Virgin Islands play Bonaire in front of 100 people, and go 1000 miles an hour in doing so in what turned out to be a tremendously exciting game. Watching it enforced everything that drives me crazy about the US under Gregg ... no passion, no urgency, no attacking verve (Cuba notwithstanding). I haven't had this much fun watching a US game in far too long. And that is sad.
Bet we get CONMEBOL for the playoff game, then the entire "lower-seeded round" of 104 games becomes moot.
To answer my own question. The current Elo Rankings [October, 2019] have 1. Mexico 15 2.USA 37 3. CR 46 4. Honduras 52 5. Canada 57 6. Jamaica 57 Then 7. Haiti 67 8. Panama 76 9. Guatemala 82 10. Ell Salvador 89 Fifa: Mexico 12, USA 21 [sure, buddy, sure], CR 4, Jamaica 47, Honduras 67, El Salvador 72 Then Canada 75, Curacao 76, Haiti 86. To have the Hex based on FIFA rankings, on the opinions of that corrupt collection of human leeches, is a sick joke.
Curaçao has a very good coach, what a hard team to break. They're set to win the group of death over the Ticos and Haiti.
If Canada was in the Hex, where would they legitimately end up? 4-6? They might be better off just playing #4 in the playoff. They have to beat out Curacao rather than try and take points off Panama, Jamaica, CR, Mexico, and the USA.
The way I see it right now in C-CAF: 1. Mexico --only strong team in the region, clearly a Top 16 in the world right now, so quite capable to make the R16 in Qatar, if things continue this way. 2-5. USA, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras --of all those four, we have held out the best the renovation process going on across the region. The Ticos may be at their weakest in 10 years now, but still now how to play the strong teams in the region. Panama is another team that is not recovering from the sorry spectacle in Russia, losing to Bermuda is just the tip of the iceberg. Honduras has started to recover though, and they're well positioned to hold their place in the Hex. 6-9. Jamaica, Curaçao, Canada, Haiti --Jamaica doesn't look like a well-coached team, and their best hope is that Bailey and Hector can pull the team up. Curaçao is becoming one of those heart-warming stories of the little engine that could, and they keep improving. Canada has the players, but we still have to see if they got the coaching and the mentality. Haiti is holding to their rep earned last cycle, and are not a team I'd like to face in a home-and-away. 10. Trinidad --a team that should be doing better, but as of right now, seems lost with a coach that has no idea how to tighten the defense. 11-12. El Salvador, Guatemala --the sort of teams that can give a headache at home to the likes of Canada and even the USA, due to their style and the intimidating crowds. They're holding near the top mainly due to old results, El Salvador got pummeled by Honduras and beaten by the DR recently, and Guatemala is in the Mickey Mouse league after their sanctions. If things were fair, I'd expect the Hex to have: 1. Mexico 2. USA 3. Costa Rica 4. Honduras 5. Jamaica 6. Canada right now. With Haiti, Curaçao, and Panama slightly below. Out of those teams, I'd only say Mexico can survive a World Cup group. From Honduras on, they'd be candidates to finish #32.
I mostly agree but I think you have overrated the USA and Costa Rica. I think the quote should read: "Out of those teams, I'd only say Mexico can survive a World Cup group. From the USA on, they'd be candidates to finish #32" or worse if worse is available. Of course that is right now. Both the USA and Costa Rica are quite able to move up or down quite quickly based on play and the success/failure of their various leadership groups.