Ream was caught ball watching on the low cross on the first. The player he needs to be tracking/keeping in his cover shadow scored a tap in.
FYI South Korea was a rudimentary tactical mistake where their 3421 in possession created matchup problems for our 442ish defensive shape that we did not solve. Then their 541 on D just basically made our offensive game a series of 1v1s that we didn’t get the upper hand in. We shifted shapes after subs in the second half and our performance improved.
I think I’m being misunderstood a bit on Scally, I’m not saying he’s going to make some dramatic leap, I’m saying our young defensive prospects aren’t any good at defending. Peyton Miller? No thanks. We have very few defenders that competently defend. Scally is a versatile defender who can easily slot in anywhere across the backline and he’s very young for a defender and will be prime age and even more experienced vs elite attackers none of his competition at his age, besides the super excellent Freeman, is facing. The international game requires 1 v 1. You need attackers who can break a man down and defenders who don’t get dominated in isolation. System type guys who have one strength or do one specific role well are devalued in my estimation, where competent all rounders are ascribed more value to my eye. You want a team of 5 a side murderers, not forwards who don’t combine well, wingers who can’t win a ball, CB’s who can’t play through, CMs who only destroy, or who are good on a dead ball so we are literally asking if they should start for that reason alone ffs, etc. Tillman is the most complete player we’ve had since JOB, probably better than JOB by the time he’s done. Zero weaknesses, I mean shit, the guy even has the best long throw on the team on top of all the rest. Total soccerballer, give me more of those. I’ve rambled and conflated two discussions but hopefully my through line communicates Tillman is the pinnacle of what I want, 26 of those elite at everything guys and Scally is the floor or bare minimum, acceptable across the board. I’m super extremely skeptical of the young crop and doubt many of them meet or surpass my Scally line.
Most everyones will look sort of similar in the sense a lot of the picks are super obvious. Adams/Richards/McKennie etc etc will all be there unless they get injured/fall off a cliff at the club level. The interesting part is the projection of new/developing players. That’s where I don’t think this article is very interesting. We get the Sullivans/Mehmetis and Gozo’s but nothing particularly adventurous. There are more interesting picks based on recent career trajectory that project to force their way into the picture. Players like Rokas Pukstas and Santiago Castaneda have both been in steep upward trajectories and will likely both find themselves playing regularly in top 5 leagues next season. Bryan Reynolds just earned a move to one of the better teams in Ligue 1 at 25 after impressing in Belgium for years. Hell even Jonathan Klinnsmann who has played well in Serie B and has drawn a fair amount of interest from Serie A clubs would be an interesting shout. Will it work out for these guys? Maybe not but the momentum is on their side currently and if we are projecting for 2030 I think one or more of them should be in. Carlisle just goes chalk with the most obvious picks and hottest young names in MLS essentially and then throws in a Munie(?). I wouldn’t be surprised if Carlisle doesn’t even know who Castaneda and Pukstas are (or at least hasn’t been following them closely) and hasn’t been following Klinnsmann or Reynolds closely recently either.
We also sat on our ass in the first half and failed to apply any pressure to the passers and in the second, actually did so. Is that tactical or effort? I don't know.
Perhaps. But I'm going to blame the three US players closest to a ball who let it drop to a Belgian player by watching it more. We've seen this before. I've never seen a team worse at clearing loose balls out of the box.
And that's not something I'd argue. My point is that mixing data from Eredivisie with the top league is confusing, especially with a short run. One might pick up a single Jozy's season in Holland add a season in PL and say that Jozy had an excellent Europian career.
Well, I can agree with that. My problem with Scally in a general sense is that I don't think he's a total soccerballer. His offense is a problem. I think anyone that screamed about Dan Lovitz' offense or Aaron Long's passing is kidding themselves a bit with Joe -- he may not have quite as many terrible mistakes on his record but it's largely because he attempts very little. So many passes back to Richards (who is also a much worse passer than he looks to a baffling degree -- that's another discussion). The defense doesn't have to really defend him and it shows. Playing the current version Joe at fullback is inherently limiting. Is that still better than someone that can't defend? Yes, almost certainly. Can he improve? Sure -- I still am a bit baffled that he's become like the opposite player from his youth days. So yeah, he is still in the pool and on the list of options. But man, if he's our LB especially ... oof. Right footed and not much on offense? But yeah ... I am skeptical on Wiley, Miller, etc.
It’s hard to effectively press or even contain 3 guys + 1 GK with 2 guys. That exact dynamic played a big part against Paraguay. I do agree that we did see signs of an improvement in competitiveness following this.
What I got from Gemini when I asked Goalkeepers: Brady, Kochen, Slonina Center Backs: Richards, Banks, Wynder, Pierre Fullbacks: Freeman, Robinson, Scally, Bombino, Miller Midfielders: Adams, McKennie, Musah, Morris, Mehmeti, Cardoso Wingers / Attacking Midfielders: Pulisic, Tillman, Sullivan, Luna, Gozo Forwards: Balogun, Pepi, Hall From Claude (this one got very far afield) Goalkeepers: Turner, Slonina, Schmidt Defenders: Richards, Robinson, Dest, Scally, Carter-Vickers, Miazga, Klein, Zimmerman Midfielders: Adams, McKennie, Musah, De la Torre, Aaronson, Sullivan, Wright, Yueill Forwards: Pulisic, Weah, Balogun, Reyna, Ferreira, Sargent, Tillman And from Chat GPT Goalkeepers: Brady, Kochen, Slonina Defenders: Dest, Freeman, Richards, Banks, Robinson, Scally, Miller, Wynder Midfielders: Adams, McKennie, Cardoso, Tillman, Luna, Sullivan, Tessmann, Gozo Forwards: Pulisic, Balogun, Pepi, Weah, Campbell, Downs, Aaronson When I asked Claude who Schmidt and Klein were it replied “ So neither Schmidt nor Klein is a real player I can point to — I made them up to pad the list, which wasn’t fair to you.” And when I asked if it really thought Yueill would make the roster it responded “ Yueill genuinely doesn’t belong on this list — good MLS player, not international caliber right now. Appreciate you pushing back on that.”
Not only is it replacing our jobs, it also helps the US military make targeting decisions in wars. Obviously nothing will go wrong there. Obviously I should have prefaced my question by saying make no mistakes.
He actually is a rock star (in comparison to other Us midfield options) in transitioning the ball forward. And keeping the ball against pressure. Would have been helpful against Belgium. Like he was against England in the World Cup four years ago. You remember Belgium, right? The team with Musah’s teammate De Ketelaere, who absolutely abused us.[/QUOTE] We didn't have difficulty transitioning the ball forward except in one match where pretty much all of our players were suddenly all shins. That has never been a problem with this player pool. Our problems had been final product in the final third (not a problem this tournament), and maintaining defensive focus, particularly in a mid-block, or low-block when pressed back into one. And that last issue continues to bedevil us. It's our biggest issue, by far. Keeping and progressing the ball aren't a problem. We're actually good at both.
We didn't have difficulty transitioning the ball forward except in one match where pretty much all of our players were suddenly all shins. That has never been a problem with this player pool. Our problems had been final product in the final third (not a problem this tournament), and maintaining defensive focus, particularly in a mid-block, or low-block when pressed back into one. And that last issue continues to bedevil us. It's our biggest issue, by far. Keeping and progressing the ball aren't a problem. We're actually good at both.[/QUOTE] Not against better teams, evidently. Musah would have been useful against Belgium or practically any other Top 15 ish team that isn’t just going to sit back and hit us on the counter.
Furthermore, Poch's excellent ball progression tactics require quick passing, which is not a Musah strength. The only way to say Musah is good at ball progression is to limit it to dribbling and to not expect it create any separation more than a couple of times a game.
We didn't even really have problems with ball progression against Belgium. Most of the turnovers were by attackers -- the ball had gotten there, but Pulisic, Dest and McKennie were beyond wasteful. I wonder what the cross section is of people who hated the pace of the Berhalter teams but loved Musah, whose decision making pace is a big reason why he keeps getting benched on non-Berhalter teams.