The question on the table: Do we rest Pulisic or not? I don’t want to see these young guns get blown out but Pulisic looks like a zombie out there.
Who else gets called in? In: Steffen, Adams, Yedlin, Nagbe, Wood... Sarachan will surely add a few vets to the squad, but how many? Out: presumably Bono & Zimmerman, and a few of the more inexperienced players
I’m going to take a stab at it and say don’t rest Pulisic, unless of course there is an injury or something inside the locker room. That said, I’d try to keep most of the same group vs Ireland except some changes... let’s see if we can build off this game. ——-———Sargent————- Pulisic—Green—Parks—Weah —————-McKennie———— Robinson———————Lichaj ————-Miazga—Zim———— ——————Hamid—————-
I wonder how many 19 yr olds globally have played as many mins as Pulisic has this season at such a demanding level. He was tops in the Bund for teenage mins at 2,313. Only two others were even within 600 mins of him. Over in the Prem, not a single teen broke 2,000 mins and only two total broke 1,500 mins. In La Liga only one teen broke 1,000 mins at 1,230. So three of the top leagues and Pulisic was the #1 teen in mins played and less than 10 were even within 1,000 mins of him. He almost doubled the mins of the top teen in La Liga. Then add NT duty. He just played the LAFC friendly and then today. Perhaps don't ride him into the ground while btw risking injury.
I think the main question you have to ask when choosing which MLS players to select are: who can catch the eye of European clubs to prompt a transfer? The names I come up with are: Zimmerman, Long, Parker, Roldan, Mueller, Ramirez, Steffen, Rowe, Lima, Delgado, and Glad. That's who I'd give serious consideration to. Maybe Besler because he's an organizer and complements so many of our cb's well. And Adams, who we have to see more from w/ the NT, even though he's already secured his move (sure it didn't hurt he was made an int'l). Chunk of those guys, players who impressed today, and younger standout vets left overseas.
Green was so frikkin bad 11b. Why do we have to put ourselves thru this? McKennie could not distribute out of the 6 to save his A. Let's get Trapp in there. (Durkin is in the shadows but lurking behind the stadium ). Let's face it we need Delgado and Parks for distribution thru the middle third. Running thru the midfield a la Pulisic/Nagbe/Arriola is for amateurs. Or do you still need a spanking from Ireland and France? Weah has no skills to play the touch line. Send him back to PSG to practice. Zimmerman is headed to LA. -------------------------------Sargent----Weah/Pulisic ----Adams(Robinson)---Wes---Trapp---Delgado(parks)---Lletget --------------------------Miazga-----CCV-----EPB ----------------------------------gk:steffen
I thought I heard them say during the broadcast that as many as 10 guys might be swapped? That's a lot. I assuming a lot of MLS guys will get a look, since this game was very light on MLS players. Names that come to mind: K. Acosta, Adams, Trapp, Delgado, Steffen, Roldan, Parker, Lletget, Zardes (don't hate me, but forward pool is thin, and Sarachan likes him). I don't know about the more established Euro guys left out of the Bolivia squad. Are we to assume that Wood, Yedlin, and Brooks are off for the summer at this point?
Love me some Zardes. But he would have to play the role we want. K. Acosta is like adding a skunk to the garden party. He would bring down the level of practices. It's really important to have an elite level skill at practice so the wanna be's raise their game. I would take Hayes before Acosta. The rest (bolded) are fine by me. I wonder if we should add Dom Dwyer.
The more guys we get a look at, the more it looks like Acosta should be buried on the CM depth chart. There are just too many guys far more talented than him, even if they’re a little more raw
I'm not saying that I personally would call up Acosta, but I'm saying he's a good bet--he's been part of the pool and has just gotten fully fit. I think Dwyer is hurt. He didn't play (or make the bench) this weekend.
After some thought, I’d say call in some replacements, including let Pulisic rest: IN - OUT Nagbe - Pulisic Arriola - Corona Saief - Gooch Ream - Zimmermann Dwyer - N/A Trapp - N/A Chandler - N/A Steffen - Bono Yedlin - Olosunde Starting XI: GK: Steffen (Hamid) 46 RB: Yedlin CB: Ream CB: Miazga LB: Robinson (Chandler) 70 DM: McKennie (Trapp) 70 RM: Arriola (Saief) 46 CM: Nagbe (Green) 60 CM: Parks LM: Weah FW: Sargent (Dwyer) 60
I was surprised to see Bono go the full 90 against Bolivia. I'm curious whether Hamid or Horvath get the start since Steffen is also coming in.
No Acosta please! He will stink the place up. And I would like to say the same thing about Zardes but he seems to be doing good with the Crew. Maybe Zardes is one of those players that plays good at club level but not NT level.
pulisic will definitely be off. despite the jackassary on the post game thread equating his 3 straight years of soccer to half the rosters <180 total first team minutes this season, i think thats more than understandable. this may be the first full month hes had off with dortmund, qualifiers, gold cup, etc in 3 calendar years. and dortmunds preseason starts in 33 days. not much to say about this one until theres a roster.
Kind of an interesting storyline going on with the “let Pulisic rest” talk. Not pointing fingers, but I can’t help but think some people were pointing their fingers at LD for wanting that same rest after doing it for 12 or 13 years. Of course, that turned out to be because he was depressed, which is something different entirely. Anyway, I’m all for Pulisic getting a rest. There’s a decent-good chance he’s going to be with a new club this summer and these matches mean nothing. Plus, playing when you’re tired and your muscles are weak is the easiest way to get injured.
Delgado was weighed down by Nagbe against Paraguay and now you want to weigh Parks down with Nagbe. We'll never qualify. At least you don't add Kellyn sack of potatoes Acosta. We'd be crawling up the pitch. But you've got Paul "shoot on sight " Arriola in there to make sure every Parks assist is wasted over the bar and out of the stadium. NASA is still searching for Arriola's last shots on goal. I'm going to bed. Good night, all.