ima give poch the rest of this gold cup as the end of his "grace period" if he continues with these mls scrubs after this tourney .....im going to nonstop roast this guy
if theyve had their chance and suck and keep getting called up, no but we are very far from that situation at this point
three wins are good, but certainly no style points were received. Passing the ball around the perimeter looks nice for the possession numbers, but let’s take a few more chances. The minimum expectation is to reach the Gold Cup final. Anything less will be a disappointment.
Interesting thing I posted elsewhere from today's game - I thought anyway - is in the 2nd half as Haiti defaulted to that level-flat mid-high back 4 thing they were doing, we were clearly running plays designed to get the ball through or over the line, and as the "through" part didn't work so well - we could have used some players who could dribble from deeper with confidence. Jedi/Dest on the touch or maybe CP or Musah, even Wes in the middle channels - but as we were not getting the ball through on the ground consistently, we moved to those various balls over the top - two that Tillman pulled down nicely, the one that Ageymang scored on and a couple of others. Wondered if this was sideline instruction or players on the field picking up on it, because those kinds of balls only work in that sort of in-between spacing (or on a high-line, of course, but with different build-up.) It's not like it's rocket surgery and most of the guys out there should have understood that option, but I was a bit interested at how many times we ran it, even after the OS goal. It's hard to draw too many conclusions about this A-/B+ team against this comp, but tactically some interesting things. Hate we still play better with Ream back there. That a Jeff Agoos trajectory waiting to bite us, but some bright spots, given the players that are missing.
Don't you keep on calling for Sargent even though he doesn't score against these same CONCACAF opponents? He has had plenty of chances but since he plays for badge fc he gets some slack.
On another note....goalkeepers are bad too. It doesn't matter where they play they are bad. The "golden generation", the "best assembled USMNT ever" is just bad. Just a few good players but not enough to fill up a complete XI.
The United States is 8-3-2, All time at home versus Costa Rica. 2-0-1 in the gold cup. it’s time to get things done.
Yep. The tournament starts next game. If this line-up can keep winning that's a pretty decent showing. This is a very diminished line-up in a number of spots.
These next two matches will tell a lot me about about Poch. (Or next one match if we somehow get upset Sunday.)
CB and GK are two very importnt positions on any team.....weak teams with strong CB and GK can punch above their weight.....these 2 positions are currently killing this team...the rest of the team is solid af as if this is just abou sargent.....(i havent been particularly strongly advocating for him...fwiw) frost of all, concacaf matches do not matter for wc performance...they are literally irrelevant second i have very consistently stated that european players should be called up before mlsers
I don't know what "solid af" means to you. Maybe badge fc? Because the time we had everyone they failed in a major tournament. If you can't pull it off against CONCACAF opponents what do you expect they do against better teams? Isn't that a reason you critize some players you don't like? It should apply to everyone.
Hire an elite coach they said It's what the golden generation needs they said An elite coach will take us to the promise land they said Piece on details of Keith Andrews’ appointment at Brentford.Mauricio Pochettino and Steve Cooper both interviewed. Kieran McKenna not an option.Dubliner made big impression during last 12 months and fits into culture of coaching/football operation.https://t.co/XEnsbbgSt0— David Sneyd (@DavidSneyd) June 28, 2025
Yea cause Dest made a big difference in Copa America. With him in the line up semis at the WC is a big possibility.
I will say that I went back and watched WC22 again recently. Dest was VERY good for us in that event. In Poch's system, the fullbacks are very important. Antonee and Dest would make a difference. That version of Dest, anyway. We'll have to see how he looks this season after recovering from a pretty significant injury. Poch has never gotten to work with him. He's been searching for answers at fullback without those two key starters. When I think of the lineup that looked the BEST in Pochettino's tenure, it was the Nations League quarterfinal home-and-away against Jamaica. [In understand that Jamaica had some key absences in that window,]. We had Antonee. We had an honest-to-goodness, in-form center forward in Ricardo Pepi (who scored in both legs). Its amazing how much an honest-to-goodness, in-form center forward that the opposition fears opens up the game for everyone else. We understand what this Gold Cup roster is. If we lose to Canada in the semis, what does it mean? I'm not sure. Take 8-10 of our best players off the roster, and we're not as good as Canada's "A" team minus-Davies. That's what it would mean. We kind of already know that, right? If we beat Costa Rica, which we should, then Pochettino is going to be safe moving forward to the World Cup.
Pochettino probably is, and should be, safe, period, unless he does something "off the field" or completely loses the locker room in a manner that is clearly on him. The lesson people should be taking here isn't that Pochettino is a bad coach. It's that coaches aren't the major determinant of success and can't work miracles. Even coaches that seem to work miracles are likely less about the coaches than a coincidence of timing. I am not saying they don't matter. I'm simply saying that they don't matter nearly as much as people think, and additionally, that it is very hard to tell which coach is going to succeed with each team. Players are much easier to evaluate than coaches. If you fire Pochettino after this Gold Cup, there are multiple harsh realities to face: You get one more chance at picking a coach. That's it. Any and all progress you get from Pochettino learning the players, the players learning the tactics, Pochettino learning the realities of national team coaching is now lost. For those elements, you start at zero. So a club coach should probably be completely out. We are absolutely hiring either Bruce Arena or Gareth Southgate. That's it. That's the list. Outside shot at Mikey Varas or BJ Callaghan or curveball! Bob Bradley. Or if Crocker has a sense of humor, Gregg Berhalter. If Pochettino is struggling to connect culturally, or if he can't learn how to coach a national team fast enough, this USSF isn't going to go foreign or club on that timeline. Does any of that really seem like it's a gamechanger. Would anyone rather that than simply seeing if the elite level coach can figure this out with a (potentially) healthier team?
I don't think the lesson has anything to do with Pochettino. [He could win this Gold Cup and then what are the haters saying? They're still hating.] The lesson comes from re-hiring Berhalter. You'd have thought we'd already have learned the lesson. We've now fired the last three coaches mid-cycle in their 2nd cycles. Bradley, Klinsmann, and Berhalter. If you want to hire a coach like Pochettino, that's GREAT. Gotta do it at the start of the 4-year cycle, rather than halfway thru. Gotta give him time to experiment with the pool and fail.