That idea is not in any way in conflict with what I am expressing with that statement. Especially as it relates to the much longer post to which I was initially responding. It is very very obviously much more of one and not the other. Especially outside the very top level. England will get a much larger bump from getting a top manager than the US will. And it's because of the players.
Also, frankly, one of the keys, if not the key to a dark horse run is a top 25 keeper.. which the US if far from having.. Friedel in 2002 Navas in 2014 Bono in 2022 etc etc The USA goalkeeping is far from that.. and the worst group of keepers I have ever seen the USA have.. unfortunately
Not to mention , it can only help the staff and the players to play teams which are better than you. You don't get better playing concacaf minnows, you need to play better competition. I love the Portugal, Belgium, Senegal and Germany matches.
did you see a difference between arfsten vs begium and arfsten vs portugal? thats how you can tell we played a 4 man backline and 3 at the back (respectively), regardless of what poch or tnt graphics say. and if jedi were a fb we wouldnt have had a lack of numbers due to a poor pass 60 yards from our own goal on portugals first.
I HATE this water break bullsh!t. Outside of being a clear crony capitalist corporate cash grab, it changes one of the more beautiful and demarcating aspects of our game, the minimization of coaching micromanagement that infects other major sports. In this instance I believe our manager drew up an excellent game plan from the off and put our players in a maximal platform to exploit the opponent and it was working as intended, up to our players inability to execute the final attacking action. At the water break Portugal made the adjustment that under normal circumstances would have occurred at the half instead. Namely extending their pressure and line of confrontation in order to force more long balls from us and taking advantage of the fact we had no hold up play from our nominal striker. Should be noted however that our primary outlets were Jedi and Weah and that worked well initially. Anyway, these breaks are stupid and on balance favor the favorites in my opinion.
Well, we played a better team and lost. Not surprising as we are going to lose or tie most of the time against better teams. However, I was more disappointed in the lose to Portugal in that I felt the team had better players (Richards) in the starting lineup and were more setup for success with the initial formation (except with removing Balogen and having Pulisic playing a floating attacker). Yet, we were outplayed for most of the game (unlike against Belgium). This game was very much like a WC game where a few mistakes can cost you and quality rises to the top (Portugal finishing vs US finishing). Individually, I did like Morris, Freeman, Richards, Tillman, and Berhalter. Of the bench, Agyemang showed me a few things that I hadn't seen from him (advancing with he dribble). I would include him on the roster. Aaronson and Reyna did nothing. Pulisic was better, but struggles with decision making and doesn't appear to have the ability to break away like in the past. At this point, I'm hoping Pooch was playing mind games with other WC Coaches and putting players in tough positions to see how they would react. If so, he was successful. If not, we are back to who knows what team will show up.
By elo rankings we wont win a game at this eorpd cup. We sit at 41 with Australia at 26, Paraguay st 22 and turkey at 14. By rankings we honestly aren’t even close to these teams. We have home field advantage going for us but that’s about us. We have guys playing at big clubs, but besides a couple they are just complimentary players that are squad rotation guys or guys that wouldn’t dunk the ship if they left. I think the biggest thing is these guys never play together. Between being hurt, not wanting to play, or our coach casting a net of a 1000 players there is zero chemistry. Without a team full of world class players you need chemistry and the us federation and the players have refused to build on that.
Exactly. And wouldn't you know it, hasn't that been where we've seen progress? Compare this pool to the pool in 2006 -- or even 2002, the group of legends who were frankly pretty fortunate to not get grouped. Compare the technicality & the tactical flexibility. Anyone who wants the guts and heart over that, I mean I get it... but between the two, the former is a better indicator of progressive growth as a footballing nation in the long term.
Part of me wants to rep you for the data, and part of me wants to gently mock you for your bodacious crush on Tillman. OK, I decided. Have a rep.
That was inexplicable, in the most literal sense. There’s no explanation for that. If one of them had been Wright, well, Wright has played as a wide forward in 3 man fronts. So, ok. But the 3 strikers were all pure #9s.
Thanks! If only the other ride or die for Tillman @TheHoustonHoyaFan had done his job and beat me to it. In both of our defense, not our fault it’s taking everyone else far too long to appreciate him properly.
I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority here, and probably by a lot…but I think tactical understanding is the last step in development, not technique. For example, I think the Nats are better technically than tactically. And I think that’s true for most 2nd tier nations…are African nations better technically or tactically? I’d argue they’re better technically. East Asia? That’s a closer call but I’d still say they’re better technically. Maybe it’s because technique can be worked on in your backyard, or in the streets, but for tactics, you need coaching. Anyway, I’m dragging us off topic. No need for a lot of back and forth, just my opinion.
Guys who defend by blocking lanes and causing a bad pass aren’t as noticeable as guys who defend with crunching tackles and chasing down the loose balls caused by that bad pass. That’s why I value stats AND the eye test. Not sure how the game is now, but for several editions of Football Manager, I’d focus on players with lots of interceptions. I’d collect them like Pokémon cards. It worked.
I can only think of two explanations (for playing without a true 9): 1) To camouflage/disguise our intentions - but who are we keeping in the dark? Our WC group opponents? Potential KO opponents?* 2) To get Pulisic out of his deep freeze. On another night, it might have worked, but wow. We really have to hope he untangles himself at Milan. * Gandhi said, “In the end deceivers deceive only themselves,” though admittedly the context was different. Curiously prescient for his time, he was discussing playing three vs four in the back.
I am not sure this is obviously true. Playing teams that test you is helpful. Playing teams that are way better does not. No middle school basketball player got better prepared for the middle school basketball league by having his high school brother block all of his shots out of the driveway. Even if he started to work on a stepback fadeway, he was wasting his time working on that when that's not what he needed to get better at to play the other middle schoolers.
I don't disagree. All I'm trying to say about tactical flexibility with regard to player pool development is that the deepening of a pool enables a larger number of tactical approaches... 2002-2010, they could play pretty much 1 way. That's an exaggeration, but I hope you know what I mean. Now, that is much less true, directly because of the development and expansion of the player pool. Of course, that doesn't mean they're going to win playing all kinds of different styles. But in this comparison I'm only really speaking to capability. And it's the exact same thing with technique -- this is not an insanely technical side, but in terms of capability how do the current players compare to those in 2002? 2010? 2014? CBs, strikers, FBs... DMs. All over. Gooch makes Ream look like Zidane. In terms of technique and tactical flexibility, capability is the bar when comparing this side to past versions. On those terms, the development/progress is incredibly obvious. That's all I meant.
well i didn't see much of either. and i don't think this team plays better than previous iterations; just give me one guy like mathis on this team, and a keeper like keller. it would make a difference.
Idk. As time goes on I am starting to feel less good about that. If I look at the current player pool... I feel really good about: Aaronson (25) Richards (26) Pulisic (27) McKennie (27) Weah (26) Adams (27) Dest (25) - though not really a USSOCCER product That's the core of the team and most of the best players. I am concerned there are no (or not many) 18 - 22 year olds in the squad who seem to be difference makers or who are breaking through at a high level at the club level. I am growing concerned the current batch of 25-28 year olds are a one off quasi golden generation. The players following in behind don't seem to be as good/impactful.
You may be right. Overall, the infrastructure is there to build back up, that's what developing MLS and having a regular pipeline to EU leagues does. But the inarguable failure of the current best players to perform for this team, despite some of them being in their prime... regardless of their "talent" and technique, that is a big part of the issue with this team over the past decade. If you could supplement this side with previous defenders and a keeper like Howard... you might really have something. But even in that magic-wand hypothetical, it would still be on the likes of CP & McKennie to step up and deliver in/lead the attack. Would they do it? I just don't know. The staple of this attack over the past 10 years, almost regardless of opponent, is inconsistency. In some ways they, our best players, are at the heart of that.
Poch said before the match that he was going to make changes to help Pulisic. The change to a 4-3-3 did that but Puli just did not finish.
It's unfortunate Reyna derailed so hard. It really helped the previous generation two big time attacking talents in Dempsey/Donovan overlapped and could play with each other. I thought Reyna/Pulisic would be that but it's pretty much just Pulisic and for him to shoulder almost all the attacking responsibility is just too much (especially against better opponents). A second equivalent talent in the side would help a lot. Tillman doesn't appear to be stepping into that role either. A top flight GK would help the team immensely as well. It's hard to overstate how bad Freese and Turner look to me. Oh well.
I feel good, assuming can avoid injuries, pepi. I am high on freeman. i think both Tessman and Morris are imperfect but likely consistent contributors in line or above our modern historical options. There are others younger as well but the main issue is i see little in the way of central defense or goalie pipeline.
Lots of good comments and insight. Not much I can add, just hope Poch has his thoughts together on his final roster. I do think we missed Adams as a starter so much and off the bench the attacking, hold the ball talent in the mold of both Luna and Zendejas. Also, would have wished Musah did not skip out last Summer nor have the likes of #9 Dike have so many terrible injuries over this cycle. What both type of players could have offered Poch off the bench as well. Spot on. If we look back to this line up at a World Cup, grinding a path out to make a QF match. Germany vs. United States - Quarterfinal Japan and Korea 2002 World Cup 1 Brad FRIEDEL 2 Frankie HEJDUK Sub - 65' 13 Cobi JONES 3 Gregg BERHALTER 4 Pablo MASTROENI Sub '80 - 8 Earnie STEWART 22 Tony SANNEH 23 Eddie POPE 5 John O BRIEN 7 Eddie LEWIS 10 (C) Claudio REYNA 21 Landon DONOVAN 20 Brian McBRIDE Sub 58' - 11 Clint MATHIS Manager Bruce Arena So yes to your suggestion. Our culture has shown in past World Cups how to be a team that becomes a cohesive unit, shows more than the individual talent a head coach has on hand. Compared to this USA team last night. A team that just does not link up well over the 90 minutes. 24 M. Freese 5 A. Robinson 2 A. Trusty 3 C. Richards 6 A. Freeman 23 A. Morris 14 S. Berhalter 8 W. McKennie 17 M. Tillman 10 C. Pulisic 21 T. Weah Manager Mauricio Roberto Pochettino 24 years ago, our soccer culture produced a USA team that was just 2 games away from playing in the Grand Final at a World Cup. Compare this to the team we saw line up and take on Portugal last night. Poch must find a way to get this level of talent to at least match our 2002 World Cup team.