Well we had about ten minutes of somewhat exciting soccer followed by eighty minutes of boring poorly played soccer. The adjustments made have created greater poor play and the players look like they mostly don't care. A well deserved 1-1 draw by two teams that look to be going nowhere. The US look very much like a middle level CONCACAF team that will be challenged to have any consistent performance in CONCACAF or elsewhere. I hope the players that were held out to play U23 make a difference.
Well, we learned that Pulisic is our only offensive threat and we can defend well as long as we put everybody in the box.
Middle level CONCACAF? That would mean around the same level of the Dominican Republic, Suriname, and Belize. Sure, adds up.
We score off a long ball, then flounder with boring, disconnected soccer for 80 minutes. And we "figured it out" by packing the box. What's new, except that "The System" will be the go-to excuse for poor play? GGG is not showing any indications that he's a good coach yet.
Yep, not a Zardes fan but if he were in the Czech second division he'd be getting a lot of praise for that.
The problem is that touch and pass should be expected for a center forward playing pro soccer. Zardes, and most CONCACAF center forwards, (particularly those playing in leagues in CONCACAF countries) are praised for making good first touches if they do it once or twice a match. What should be expected is that the noteworthy performance should be if they make three or four bad touches in a match. If the US is going to play a system with a traditional center forward then they need to find a center forward that actually makes good to great touches most of the time. Zardes is NOT that player.
Or better yet, fighting for that #4 slot of a two leg playoff with the likes of Klablakistan from Asia.
International soccer is a street, poor and gangster sport. We don't have any street, poor or gangster players..
The economic crisis has done wonders for Venezuelan soccer. Heck, it took a revolution & the total collapse of the public institutions for Egypt to make another World Cup. Maybe what America really needs is a total economic and social collapse to raise its soccer level.
Jury is still out. if Berhalter had 100% control of his selections and not about 85%, we would know more.....