The ultimate first world problem: who do you start….. adams or johnny and why

Put the analytical Tim at wb instead of reactive Dest and I agree with u. I like my reactive players in other positions - Brenden in the attacking line, e.g. I got the feeling Poch wanted to test ARob at the inverted fb - to - dmid position because he didn't expect to play old skool fb role. If that's the case, he's prob looking at Adams and ARob combo, allowing Johnny to advance to the opponents' box with a winger doing the lwb duties in possession.

You never know before you actually see how it works on the pitch with Johnny and Adams. Tyler may not like playing with him. Johnny may be too young to recognize certain situations on the pitch in the international game. Heck, with a 48 team tournament, it might just be that Adams and Johnny alternate starting at the 6 so they can rest at some stage.

 

Jurgen was surprised to find he didn't have the 6 he thought he had in Bradley when the Brazilians showed up in town to start their run to Rio (mostly u23's like Neymar, Hulk, et al). The CAM role was a way to get a good athlete on the pitch.

 

Xavi or Busquets is a first world problem, this ain't that.

Adams, and it isn't particularly close. Though they can play together.

Reyna and McKennie and Musah are the guys who should see less time. Luna & Tillman more. Aaronsins as well. Brenden won't slack and Paxten is balling.

But I do not expect much at Gold Cup. SF at best. Canada, Mexico, and Panama are all clearly better.

 

This is the ultimate opportunity for several guys to step up and take on the responsibility of making something happen. This is the Tillman, Cardoso, Richards, and Luna test.

Take responsibility for wins and losses.

 

Though Richards was very good for Palace at RCB in a back 3, he is kinda a tweener defender. No more Ream, please. Or CCV. Richards, McKenzie, Miles Robinson, Trusty, Blackmon, Zimmerman are all preferred.

 

Richards needs to have a presence on the field for the USMNT; a positive presence.

This bit where he’s anonymous unless he’s committing a mistake that leads to a goal has to stop. Time for him to grow up.

 

Are they? Canada will be missing Davies and Bombito and potentially David if he signs with any of the Club World Cup teams.

And Panama may have beaten us in March but the idea they are head and shoulders above the US doesn’t track. Same with Mexico, when was the last time they beat a full strength US team?

The team has work to do for sure but this is all a bit too pessimistic and suffering from recency bias.

 

Point out if I am remembering this wrong but didn't he come out of the panama game with a small injury and then the US allowed a goal? If my memory is correct I remember think uh oh we now have two shorter CB's together at a time when there could be a lot of aerial crosses which Richards was dominating when in. He is starting to show his club form for the US but he really, really needs to stay on the field.

 

I don't think Panama is necessarily better -- the underlyings were a bit in our favor though close to even -- but I think it is silly to act like our team has played to potential in the past year.

Adding Balogun and Dest is a nice step forward, but in losing Weah and McKennie (and not having the old Gio in any sense) means that we're still very uneven. We might not have Jedi, either. If he's getting surgery, we're down a man in terms of core, not up.

We will need not only our "club all-stars" like Tillman and Johnny (And Richards and McKenzie and CCV) to actually step up to their club play but also have some other guys step up like Luna.

 

Luna has already stepped up. He should be expected to contribute in this tournament.

Gio was never a part of the core. That was a figment of the collective imagination of people who only watch highlight videos. He could have been had he put it together prior to Qatar, but he never did, and he never has since.

The attempt to reframe Gio as something different now, and using a mystery injury as that excuse, should not be taken seriously. This is exactly what he was in Qatar. He is the same thing now that he was then only that he has not taken a step forward over the subsequent period of time.

People contort themselves into these odd positions about this player when it is much easier to say “yeah, maybe things are different than I thought” and then adapt.

I have been waiting for a reason to have some faith in this player since Qatar, because despite his obvious maturity issues, he shows a connection to the national team (even though in a recent conversation about his favorite players, none of them were US and he went out of his way to throw his Argentine roots in there). I saw a 17-year old guy who looks like a budding Riquelme remain 17 well into his early 20’s, but never bud into the Riquelme. Dude is not a core player and never was. He’s a cautionary tale at this point if and until he writes a 180-degree different story.

 

Richards is a great athlete and is very skilled, but he does not assert himself on the opposition. He is reactionary. That is how he has been to date. Part of maturing as a player is taking the responsibility to assert yourself over what happens on the field.

Richards needs to stop hiding from the risk of that responsibility and to take it head on.

 

Weah seems to me a big loss given the team always looks much better when he’s there. And we are weak on the wings after him and Pulisic.

Dest back will make a huge difference though as the team has really missed him.

The main issue with this team is we haven’t really developed depth that’s good enough when some of the core guys are missing. And so their loss is magnified. But I also don’t think it’s as bad as it seems, particularly when it comes to CONCACAF opposition.

 

Pulisic on the right Haji Wright on the left might be the only option...

 

I, for one, have no doubts that Luna will pass that test. I sure hope that Richards steps it up (I haven't been impressed by him, at all, for the US), and Tillman and Cardoso add to the USMNT like they do for their clubs.

 

No CP for gold cup pretty much guarantees a narrow 4-2-3-1 with Johnny and Adams now.

Celebrated too early. Depth would be an actual first world problem, turns out we are STILL a 3rd world player pool.

 

I think one of the problems for Johnny is that his club may be looking to make a significant profit on a transfer this summer and that could be held up by Gold Cup. The transfer window opens June 1 in Europe.

 

A collapse in the Gold Cup and its five alarm fire time for 2026.

Now Pulisic and Musah bail?

US Soccer is really bombing this royally. It’s like they’re using the World Cup to fund women’s salaries and couldn’t care less about the men’s team. This is an embarrassment and a total disrespect to all the work that was put in to get these guys open doors abroad.

 

Berhalter won this tournament with a C team on a Miles Robinson header and a roster featuring Hoppe, Zardes, Arriola, Lleget, Williamson, Acosta, Cannon, etc.

No excuses for Pochettino or any of the guys in the squad.

 

It’d be a missed opportunity for those guys filling in to not perform.

 

I think that if they don’t perform you find the next man up.

 

Look at the roster Berhalter won this tournament with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_CONCACAF_Gold_Cup_final

If these guys get waxed like they did in Nations League, they can kiss my ass.

The USMNT used to be filled with unheralded underdogs trying to scrape wins out against superior opponents. It was our identity.

Now that we have the superior players, we are ungrateful, prissy under-performers who don’t like to get our shorts dirty. A team like that can kiss my ass.

 

I think one of the things about the younger up and coming guys is well the jury is out on how good they are they should at least come into camp hungry and push some of our guys who have been more complacent as of late.

 

In a podcast not long ago, Tim Howard and Donovan discussed how they knew they could lose their spot if they didn’t show up. Howard, in particular, took that very seriously.

It’s time that some of these entitled guys lose their spots if and until they win them back honestly with performance. Pulisic included.

 

Someone like Sebastian Berhalter people have said his mentality is off the charts. Don’t know if he’s necessarily one of the best 26 but having someone like that in camp helps push guys who are a bit more complacent in theory. And if it doesn’t they are giving a good reason to be dropped.

 

Guys like Berhalter and Quinn Sullivan better be on this roster. At least they will fight.