PochettinoOut

The only thing I'm upset about with this is the fact that Jay Sugarman is an MLS owner.

 

Correct if me if I’m wrong, but I can’t think of another USMNT manager to be winless. Pretty bad.

 

It actually is going to be interesting to see our players with a real coach. I suspect it is going to become even more crazy that wasted so much time that idiot.

The one he added has MLS fans all up in arms. I'm sure those they were one of the ones who defended Berhakter's guys.

By next year, I'd bet we are down to just MLS GKers. Poch is being incredibly rational (unlike Berhalter and Arena) and just taking a look at who the previous coach used. After seeing them up close, he can then begin deciding who he likes, who doesn't, who to add and how to set them up. Ream is going to age out and Miles Robinson be in the discard pile.

 

Given our paucity of options at CB, I doubt Miles is going into the discard pile. I’m simply not sold on any of the other options. Who would you start as the center-back pairing?

 

I'd start with Richards, Mckenzie, CCV, and Brooks. Id consider trying someone like Mckennie there as opposed Miles Robinson. Never seen anything from him other than athleticism.

 

Which didn't you like? I'm optimistic of Poch, Berhlater is the worst thing that ever happened to the usmnt, or that Miles Robinson is an MLS lifer and everybody should know they suck because of Berhakter.

 

Has Brooks being playing much? How old is he now? I was always a Brooks fan, but it feels like forever since he’s played with the National team.

 

His club career has fallen off, but don't care. He is still more skilled on the ball than any of our CBs. It has only been like 3.5 years that Berhalter exhiled him. When the top choices of the coach are Aaron Long and Walker Zimmerman then it is pretty clear that something else was going on or the coach was incompetent. Wait, we know the coach was incompetent. He should get another chance because of the politics of the past incompetent coach.

I think he was born a few months before Zimmerman in the same year. MLS fans can spout every single mistake Brooks ever made playing for the national team, but don't realize Zimmerman has made more critical mistakes playing for US teams and definitely can't find a 5+ minute video of Zimmerman pinging the ball around the park to teammates. The only video I can find of Zimmerman's distribution is one of him shitting the bed in WCQ.

 

I’d be in favor for bringing Brooks back for a look. I’m just unimpressed with many of our options across the field these days.

If we are going to have any success in 2026, we need to search high and low for new options.

 

No. He has yet to play this year for Hertha in the 2. Bundesliga.

I expect Poch to at least try to counterpress, and that's not a good fit for Brooks.

 

This feels like a conversation from the 90s.

"Why are we playing this guy who plays for San Jose instead of the guy from the Bulgarian Regionalliga.3? He plays in Europe, so he must be better."

 

I dont feel that way and don't recall you saying this in the past. Is this a new feeling for you or am I wrong? I think we are pretty talented except for CB and Gk (the only person from last cycle who will age out is Ream) and we don't have the weak links we have always had in the past.

I have been saying for almost 20 years that getting rid of weak links will be a prerequisite and beginning of taking the next step. We now have quality players that are left out which is only going to create competition for spots and club form will begin to matter more. This along with the majority of our roster young enough that they are still improving.

Tell me where we are looking? After wasting of our time under Berhalter, he finally got to the "right" guys for the most part in 22/23. There are a handful of guys not called into this camp who could hold their own and my hope is Poch is going to work with pool of roughly 30 players and put together the best team we can. The hope is that pool continues to grow and we have a couple of game changers evolve.

 

I think it’s a nagging feeling that has come to the surface over the last couple of years. I was fortunate to be in southern Europe this summer and watched games almost every night. Over the course of the summer, I came away with a distinct pov that were just not that talented. We are ok, but we really lack true difference makers other than Pulisic…

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer… I just think my expectations and hopes have been tempered a bit the last few years.

 

It's tough to react to this post because it is just very vague.

I don't even really like using the word talented because it implies potential and not performance. We're still a very young squad -- we really won't shed the entire Lost Generation until the 2030 WC. So there's still a lot of upside. I think we forget that players keep improving, especially mentally.

I would say our players level of performance / the pool currently is:

• The best in CONCACAF but not by as much as people would like. Canada seems to be the comparison of choice, and I think it is pretty clear that at LB (Davies) and GK they are stronger, at striker at least equal and probably better, and with quality players at places like RW (Buchanan amongst others), RB, a couple of CMs. Their weakness is one of ours -- CB. Are we deeper? Yes. But people look at our talent and tend to ignore the issues at the back and defense in general.
• Someone in that 11-25 range that seems to be a mush in terms of ability ... but it's soft and inexperienced or erratic. I'm sure if we look at some of these teams outperforming us in that range, we'll see a GK with a worse club pedigree than Turner, but he's playing well somewhere. We'll see a player with less potential than Yunus Musah, but he's not riding the bench. Coco Carrasquilla is a very good MLS midfielder and Yunus Musah is a bench warmer for Milan; I'll take the gamble on Yunus' Age 27 season, but I think Coco right now is a better all around performer when you incorporate work rate, toughness, and a more well rounded game. Even if you argue it ... you can't watch the two and tell me that their impact is materially different in Musah's favor.
• The biggest overrating of this team comes outside the core. I actually think that guys like Pulisic, McKennie (aside from some consistency issues), Adams, even Reyna are more or less as good as we currently think. But where the big gap is is the "Luca de la Torre is in La Liga" type of ranking. We all know he's not that good. The other big gap is the "Jedi was team of the week" without really acknowledging what Jedi is good at and just how much impact that can have on a national team.
• Relative to some prior teams, it's not that much better. Some of that is age, some is injuries and some is just underrating guys based on club career. Pulisic is a better player right this instant than Donovan, but they aren't that far apart. Clint was still better than whomever you want to peg as a number two. We had some great keepers and some really good defenders. You can't equate Joe Scally to Steve Cherundolo regardless of level.

So if you thought this team was going to dominate CONCACAF with thumping wins and contend with the best teams in the World, or subscribe to Badge FC, then yeah, the talent is far less than you thought. (I don't think you thought that).

But also, this team doesn't stink. We finished Top 16 at the World Cup, and I know we've done that before, but I think some of those teams are underrated. Yes, we lost to the Dutch. But it was a closer game than the score, and the gap between us and the Dutch in talent is a big gap. Did we all want an upset? Sure. But if you want an upset like that, I'm not sure you pick "high potential but super young team with lots of nagging injuries" on your lineup sheet. You pick "tough, physical, defensive team with lots of experience and a couple of strong offensive players."

In the end, I think we saw the team play to their roughly expected performance at the World Cup. That includes going toe to toe with England but also making some dumb mistakes against the Dutch. It wasn't an overperformance, but it wasn't under.

And then in the last nine months, I think we've seen the bottom fall. Certainly a big part of that is that the intensity and dynamic of the national team dropped.

I think Poch fixes that. And if some of these young guys can't find the intensity, I hope he moves onto less talented players who can bring it. We did it before with them -- there needs to be a standard. We should be improving skill and control but no team can actually not bring intensity, much less us. I think Poch will not allow that, even if it means some of the young favorites get left home.

Now whether these players improve materially in terms of Soccer IQ and skillset ... that's a big question. How much he can get them to overperform is another.

But this team is still Round of 16 talented, I think.

The only thing that give me pause is keeper.

 

Do you get paid by the word?

 

@The Clientele , this is what the MLS coach thought was our best roster in his first camp. The pool has come a long way in 5.5 years and the upgrade at coach is much bigger than going from Trapp to Adams.

USMNT roster for March 2019
GK: Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge, BEL; 3/0), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 6/0), Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew SC; 8/0)

DEF: John Brooks (Wolfsburg, GER; 36/3), Omar Gonzalez (Atlas, MEX; 48/3), Nick Lima (San Jose Earthquakes; 2/0), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 4/0), Daniel Lovitz (Montreal Impact; 2/0), Matt Miazga (Reading, ENG; 11/1), Tim Ream (Fulham, ENG; 26/1), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United, ENG; 57/0)

MID: Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig, GER; 9/1), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC, CAN; 143/17), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 7/2), Weston McKennie (Schalke, GER; 7/1), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund, GER; 23/9), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 7/0), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC; 13/0)

FOR: Paul Arriola (D.C. United; 19/3), Corey Baird (Real Salt Lake; 2/0), Jonathan Lewis (New York City FC; 2/0), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders FC; 25/5), Christian Ramirez (LAFC; 2/1), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew SC; 42/6)

 

Thanks for the thoughtful and thorough response. I think some of us older guys are at a point where we are tempering expectations. I’m rooting for the team and I’m excited about our future. I suspect this generation of talent is not where we take the next real step of growth…

 

Thanks, bsky22.

 

I totally understand managing expectations.

That said, I'd allow this generation to really get into their mid to late 20s before I'd say that. We've seen how Pulisic has taken a big step forward. Some other guys will as well.

 

My fingers are crossed. I think Jedi, Dest, Musah, Balogun, maybe Weah, could improve by 2026.

I do think Weston peaked some time ago though!

 

Not sure on Weston. He keeps getting pushed aside by coaches to only win his spot back. That is usually leads to improvement if it happens over continued time. There was another guy from Texas that is a decent analogy. That kind of mentality can a take a player a long way.

I'd add Reyna (damn injuries), Sargent, Pepi, Johnny, Richards, Tessman and young GK (problem here is would need international experience).

Pretty much our whole pool is still u26 and most have moved to more challenging clubs in the last few years and some will get moves to bigger clubs in Januery/June. I'm seeing rumors of Johnny to Milan again already. Sargent will likely move soon. Reyna if not injured will play somewhere. Slonina will be loaned somewhere else. Etc.