Greg telling the 4th official to “******** off” was his best moment so far as the coach because it made me identify with (and thus like) him a little. The same thought was going on in my head as Zardes scored…
Gregg Berhalter celebrates #USMNT goal by getting in the face of the fourth official and having to be pulled back. pic.twitter.com/LcUc2vfGTR— Cork Gaines, Ph.D. (@CorkGaines) July 30, 2021
Correction, his first touch on the run has never really been an issue. It was his first touch when receiving the ball directly at his feet where its always been suspect. Even while at the Galaxy he excelled at getting the ball at pace.
I guarantee you it was fatigue. They've barely rotated, they have very little depth, and it was in the 80s with 70% humidity in Texas, and their game is all about pressing and hitting on the counter. You just can't afford to do that without getting a goal for your troubles in the 5th match of a tournament in which you've hardly rotated...
, but most national teams of a decent level have far more cohension than this team has had. It is not even slightly surprising that the only team they have manage to score against more than once is Martinique. If Berhalter wants to bring a bunch of guys who haven't played together before and it looks like a disjointed mess, that is on him. I don’t fo a second buy this notion that the point of playing in this tournament isn’t to win it. If you want to try random stuff out, that is what friendlies are for. We have lots of those.
cute. He never played with Zlatan at LA. He was traded for Kamara from Columbus when we bought Zlatan in a 1 for 1 deal. I was happy for him because the LA FO and Coaching Management had been doing him dirty.
The team with the problems will be Mexico. 1) how are they going to explain the their fans they just switched places in the FIFA rankings with the USA C team? 2) where will they find the coach to replace Tata for qualifiers? 3) how will they develop home field advantage for qualifiers with no fans in the stands after another round of fan misbehavior sanctioned by FIFA?
Maybe you’re correct about the “decisions” for this evening’s match. I do know that the 4th official oftentimes “serves as the main channel of communication between the referee and the team officials”. https://www1.arbitersports.com/Grou...s/FOURTHOFFICIALSummaryofDutiesHandoutPDF.pdf Of course, we all know our words will never change an official’s mind, but when tensions are high, a lot of rational thought takes the backseat. So letting the one guy who has direct communication with the center ref know how you feel makes some sense. Regarding firing Greg, the guy’s USMNT coaching record is 25-3-6. He isn’t going anywhere until after (hopefully) the 2022 World Cup.
Well if that was the tactic, I’m not sure if it’s “managerial wizardry” or not. I like the idea of coming out and just beating your opponent heads up. I guess in this case, Greg knew his starting 11 were on par with the opponent, but knew his bench was superior.
We won. That is all that matters to me. Now let's do the same against Mexico. Just find a way to lift up the trophy. Even if it takes us having 10% possession, bunkering unmercifully and winning on Penalties. Just get the job done.
I left after this comment to actually root for my country's team. I'm not saying don't critique or don't have issues. But at this point of the game maybe you could talk about the frustration early side to side and backwards possession we were holding without being able to connect any passes in the final third. You could recognize the space Qatar was exploiting to counter attack. Hell, I don't care if you point out how certain players could be positioned better or should be making better choices. Instead it's "Dike can't play soccer" and "X player should never play for us again." Save it for recess.