i know we (as message board posters) are prone to hyperbole but im genuinely trying to think of any scenario where a "gm" gives a "coach" permission to fail. beforehand. in a competition. frame a loss as a setback afterwards? sure. as a learning experience- again, afterwards? sure. sacrifice results for experimenting in non-competitive games? sure. but this is shocking, and beyond the pale. there is zero integrity in us soccer, and the way i know that is gregg berhalter should be more offended by this than ANY of us should.
Stewart is just REALLY hoping this team gels and peaks when it matters in qualifying. Dangerous game to play and I think it's gonna backfire big time unless we see wholesale changes to our playing style and the "system".
----Cannon-----Long----Ream (C)-----Lovitz Is this easily, I mean by a country mile (12minute mile if ream is running it) the worst back line for the US in the last 40 years? Tim Ream for me might be the most overrated and simply the worst defender in US history. His teams give up goals. His teams lose. He is a terribly flawed defender and that's just a fact. I hope he has a fantastic professional career but he is a historically bad national team defender.
I've never liked Ream but he's been in the form of his life with Fulham and was good today. Part of being fair is being open to re-assessment. That you stick to your opinion of a player no matter what does not indicate "being consistent" but being stubborn. I've had to fix my opinion of Morales a few times, already. Sadly, this time it's a very poor evaluation for him.
He's 29 and a bencher. And we all have something we can't forgive. I can forgive looking inept, being slow, even playing stupid. But half-assing it? Yeah, that I cannot forgive. We all have a deal-breaker. That's the one for me.
Yup, one of the most dissapointing national team players of the last decade. He looked very good in his first 2-3 games but just wasn't willing to do the full Concacaf grind. Moot point now, as right back is one of our deepest positions now and some talented left backs are beckoning.
I think you should get the Norwegian coach Åge Hareide ... While he has been NT coach for Denmark they have not been playing "tiki-taka" for sure, but not really defensive minded either, but with Hareide as NT coach, Denmark is now undefeated 31 games in a row, or exactly the past 3 years, but he did not get his contract extended because the Danish FA were keen on getting the former FC Nordsjælland head coach Kasper Hjulmand, who is known for being brilliant at developing young players. So Hareide will be leaving after the Euro-20 or sooner if Denmark do not qualify.
He can’t play because he is too old and half-asses it you say? MB is 32 and walked to the corner flag in Couva
Btw ... the Danish NT players and not least Kasper Schmeichel and his legendary father are far from happy with the Danish FA not extending Åge Hareide's contract. "- Åge has a huge share in this. We have built a team with many young players and we can especially thank Åge for the team spirit that has been created. - In my opinion, the way Åge is an NT coach is the expression of a modern leader. Try to look at all the players in this team. No one can doubt that everyone loves playing for this team. We have all enjoyed the journey we have had with him as NT coach," said Kasper Schmeichel. Just one week ago, his father, Peter Schmeichel, was making a sharp attack against the Danish FA, stating that it's totally incomprehensible for him and all the knowledgeable people he know in Europe that Åge Hareide will not be allowed to continue as Danish NT coach. But done is done, which is also why I think the USMNT and FA should be quick trying to pick him up, now that they got the chance, and better now before he get some other and perhaps better offers.
Hire this guy!! Ponchy. He even speaka the english. https://www.espn.com/soccer/tottenh...tottenham-sack-mauricio-pochettino-as-manager Best coach note named Klopp in England.
I feel for soccer managers. I know they get paid a lot but at the end of last season some people were calling Poch the best manager in football. Now he's fired.
Seen nothing to suggest Egg Head's problems won't resurface in an incredibly negative manner 6-9 months from now when we play real competition.
Well, at least he's not completely incompetent. That's more than I expected already, so it's a small victory.
Dude 8 years. Then you get. Beerholder 2.0 which is like trapp which is Michael Bradley .05 I think you get the picture. Unless someone breaks that bald jersey power structure you won’t see a viable US side for 12 years. You all laugh but we are creating the bud light of world soccer here. All cash and no substance.
At some point though if the team looks like it should be performing better, then a change will be made. With the current young generation it looks like we are primed to at least a return in talent level from 2007-2015. If we don't see similar results, then people will be calling for his head. And to be honest, with given the increase in scrutiny and the growing soccer media, I don't think we will see a two cycle coach anymore, unless that coach just takes us to new heights. For example, anything less than a quarterfinal appearance in Qatar and Berhalter probably isn't getting a second cycle. We've been through the get out of group and lose in the round of 16 before. I'm not saying that this is 100 percent how it is going to be, it's just my gut feeling. I think the standard moving forward is be competitive against Mexico, get to the final of the Gold Cup, and challenge for a quarterfinal appearance. And I'm not saying that is where the program is at right now. I'm saying based on our history, the money that has been invested, and the overall growth of our talent in the pool...that should be the standard. In an ironic sense, Klinsmann's efforts to focus on youth development and getting the kids over to Europe is preparing our pool to play the way Berhalter wants to play. He's just picking MLSers. And our pool to be quite honest still seems like it would be better playing the classic counter and press style of old. I mean that's where Pulisic shines. That's what a lot of our players in Europe actually play for their club teams. Berhalter's attempts seem oddly similar to Klinsy's early attempt before he ditched and went to the style to get results. It's been a tough three years being a national team fan though, I'll tell you that. But given where are talent is I can't see us getting worse. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And a good portion of that light comes from every day Michael Bradley's legs get older. But realistically if you compare our talent to that 2007-2015 one: GK--not a wash. Tim Howard/Guzan/Keller were not likely to be replicated. Still Steffen appears to be a worthy heir. LB/RB-- This is an are where I think we at least match in talent, with the potential to exceed. CB- Sort of the same prognosis as above. We have a ton of depth here, but we are going to need to see a couple people separate themselves from the field before we can call this a more talented group. DMF-- We still lack the pure type of destroyer that we had in Jones. And people do forget how good Bradley was... That being said you gotta like what you see projecting out McKennie/Adams. On the other hand, who knows if Adams is ever going to recover. Add in the potential for Cappis, Parks, Yueill, or Dotson to improve there is enough to like. FC Dallas seems to do a good job of producing MF's in general. MF- MLS has some interesting guys here as fillers. And we've got a bit of a different type of MF coming through the ranks from the youth team, but you gotta imagine that with how many of them there are (Pomykal, Ledezma, Mendez, Busio, maybe Reyna depending on what position he ends up) that we see a progression over that 23-28 lost generation. Wings/Forwards-- here is where it gets tricky because Donovan and Dempsey played A TON and at a high level. If you look at the entire world, only four countries have had more than two players score 50 goals internationally. Brazil and Hungary have had four. Iraq and Japan have had three. And then there are ten countries that have had two. We had both of them overlap. And in that list I would take out Thailand, UAE, Kuwait, and Iran based on competition level. Which leaves us with Uruguay, Germany, Denmark, Argentina, and South Korea as our peers. Even if we have more depth, which I think we might that doesn't mean we can match that production. Forward we have been starving for a long time on. The hope is that Josh Sargent at a minimum has a career that mirrors or exceeds Jozy's. And he has had 42 goals! But where do we replace Dempsey/Donovan's production? Pulisic very well should be able to hit a similar production level provided he actually you know, accepts call ups, but he's had more injuries it seems like already then they did until the end of their careers. And this is why we dream on some of the youth guys. And truly we have more talent at the U-21 level in Europe then we've ever had. We have more talent U-21 in a professional environment in MLS than we've ever had. So statistically at some point you would imagine there would have to be improvement. So yeah, I think we're going to improve. But I think the idea that we are headed to something better than where we were isn't a foregone conclusion.
If the idea was to get a "moneyball" advantage by using January Camp to select a group of around 12 MLS players to drill in a complicated offensive system, I don't think 'didn't work' is strong enough. Not only didn't give the team an advantage, but it worked against results and on field performance. Several of the MLS players were the weak links in all the bad results of the year, many of which were historically bad. The fact that players that failed continue to get starts and minutes, while other players, that are possibly better, in the pool got none, was a problem this year and going forward. Normally, if a guy like Roldan looks ineffective in June and July, he is not played a ton in Sept, Oct, and Nov. Roldan probably had the most midfield minutes after maybe McKennie, and was consistently poor. Holmes, Green, Pomykal, Cappis, Lletget, etc, might have been identified as players but Roldan got all the minutes. The same could be said at LB. In our final game of the year, Lovitz starts. Going back to January, he has not been good against any level of competition. His inclusion not only provided Cuba with the only chance they had of a result (and he tried hard to give them a goal or two), but it turns off fans, and again, didn't allow for anyone else to get experience there and maybe grow into the role. It is comical that the starting LB on the USMNT was traded that same day for $50K in GAM. Basically nothing. I doubt any USMNT starter has even been sold in MLS for 1/10th that fee. Antonee Robinson was sold this past Summer for 500 times that amount! Other players like Trapp and Lima were dropped, but not dropped. Like zombies, they kept getting back on rosters and dressing for games. Why not take players that might have a future to camps and games? Why have players dress for every game that you would never play? It boggles. Player selection and only playing defense when his job is on the line are the two biggest problems Gregg has had. I don't know why he does the second. But, hopefully, the first was a failed experiment that will be scrapped in 2020. But, since we haven't seen Gregg really scrap anything he thought of yet, I have my doubts it will get better.
Daniel Lovitz was capped 13 times this year. People complaining about Antonee Robinson. I get it, he does look a little unpolished and needs work defensively. He also turned 22 in August and got bought by Wigan after being on loan. He would be one of the best left backs in MLS and it's not even close. V similar type of player to what Yedlin was at that age. Given the historical weakness of the spot (nobody saw Dest being an option there at the beginning of the year) and how bad the alternative is (Lovitz)... There is no shame in continuing to call up a player that is performing and recently performing very well and dreaming on projection as well as integrating him into the team. Some people are pointing to some of the MLS guys doing well against Canada as faith in Gregg... THEY HAD THE ENTIRE YEAR TO INTEGRATE IN THE SYSTEM that was denied to many European players who literally never got more than one call up or any call up. Which effectively wasted the Sarachan era, which if we are being honest was the best ERA of American soccer in the past three years.
I appreciate you applying analysis to this situation. One thing everyone should be clear on is that very little analysis beyond: keep power, insulate decision making, protect MLS owners and the league, continue to use the USMNT as a cash maker for MLS. The rest is a lot of wishful thinking. Klinsmann openly questioned MLS and US Soccer and this threatened earning potential. So not only was he fired, but is now openly vilified by pundits and MLS. MLS will never allow US Soccer to control itself again. That prioritizes MLS and MLS earnings first, US Soccer second. All thoughts to player development, coaching tactics, etc falls away. Now then this would actually be acceptable from US Fans, EXCEPT: MLS Owners use US Soccer dollars to buy better value, higher caliber players from latin america to win titles. Not US players. Follow the money.
provide evidence of half-assing it. Immediately. One of the hardest and most exhausting positions under Klinsmann was the Outside fullback.