Steffen's header was awful, which isn't unexpected from a GK. But his reaction to the shot was poor. I think Turner probably saves that. The center pairing wasn't good. Robinson with an awful giveaway, redeemed by giving it to a player whose pace is best measured by a sun dial. After the first minute, Dest was MOTM. ARob I think made the right runs, he stretched Costa Rica, but the final product was generally poor.
Dest MOTM. Solid game from Antonee. Nice debut by Richards. Miles was poor. In addition to the turnovers, he got beat quite a bit in the air. I still think the Robinson/Richards central pairing is the way to go. The goal was weird. Steffen obviously is looking for the Costa Rican player to get a touch, but it didn't happen and the ball floated by him. I loved his distribution.
^^^ this. I've admittedly always seen goalie distribution as a secondary thing, sort of like forwards defending, but the difference between Turner's distribution and Steffen's is night and day. Turner can make all the saves you want but man he was a liability in Panama and it was noticeable how that wasn't an issue with Steffen.
Look like the proverbial Chinese fire drill for a while, but did some good things as well. If they are not now, eventually Dest and Robinson will be the best pair of attacking fullbacks in CONCACAF.
No, Richards was between the player and the ball and got a touch on the ball before the other player.
Opinions differing. But if that was not a PK, then I think he was fine. Giod for a furst start. The two biggest things for this team are a lack of familiarity with each other and just plain inexperience. The latter is part of the former, but so are injuries, COVID disruptions, and more rotation than usual because of 3 game windows (due to COVID). With all that, and so many young guys (or USMNT newbies) just starting to get established, cohesiveness is far from optimal. If Greg had a full roster, I am pretty confident we'd see: Turner; Dest, Robinson, Brooks, Jedi; Adams, McKennie, Musah; Reyna, Pepi, Pulisic. Iffy on the CBs, but confident about the other 9. Beyond that, I feel Steffen & Aaronson are safely in the 23, not sure about anyone else. CB seems the most open. I am not sure our oresent "starters" are even locks for the 23. McKenzie started NL. Richards is coming on, but young. Zimmerman played the most CB minutes this window, and was captain after Adams, after not being on the initial roster. Ream is dependable depth. Miazga playing well in La Liga. I could see anyone save Ream claim a starting spot, and anyone miss the 23 altogether. Starting to have some really nice depth options wide. Pulisic & Reyna wide. Aaronson. Weah had two nice performances this window (1 sub, 1 start) and Arriola 1. Though both were invisible in Panama. Hoppe looks lively. Morris is getting close to a return. KDLF growing at Marseille. MLS has some young guns. IDK where Gregg sees Ledezma, but he is back with PSV, getting close.
Was a bit poor in that they had few opportunities, but they had danger because of what was gifted to them and confusion in defense. Definitely need better CB play. Dest was great, Robinson had a lot of good intermediate play, but his final pass was so poor, often just randomly wacking it to a defender for no good reason. For me, when the team is healthy the biggest two positions of need right now are LB and CB. I think Brooks is solid, but we havent found a true partner yet, and too many attacks were dependent on Robinson making a good cross, which he cant.
The broad strategy - saving the top players for the home games - worked, mostly because CR's coach apparently doesn't believe in squad rotation or thought he called up 11 robots. A defensive breakdown in the first freaking minute is on the player, sure, but also on the coach. Get those kids focused. Fine, under sensible rules the CR goal is offside. Who told us to let their attack get that far in the first trimester of a three-minute egg? I think not calling the penalty was the correct call, but no one can debate that we got very lucky on the giveaway. Miles giveth, Miles taketh away. But again, who's coaching the team to make that kind of pass? I expected a much sharper performance. I expect an A+ performance against Mexico, and on the bright side I think that's reasonable. Hopefully we got our mistakes out of our system. And now our incredibly young team has some pretty darn valuable experience. Mexico will be a huge challenge, but at least we'll field guys who now understand the pressure.
I just rewatched the CR goal. What a mess that was for a whole bunch of players. 1. Pepi is late to pressure the CR defender, giving him forever to pick out a long ball 2. Richards gets beaten badly in the air, and the CR attacker is instantly in on goal at the top of our box 3. Steffen alertly comes out but his header is weak and puts him on the ground 4. Dest misreads the flight of Steffen’s header, allowing it to go over his head to a CR attacker 5. Weah has a chance to kick it out of bounds (knowing his keeper is scrambling) but instead gets played around with a simple pass 6. Dest recovers pretty well to track the attacker toward the end line but doesn’t stop the cross 7. McKennie recognizes that Fuller is unmarked way too late to get there and do anything about it 8. Because of the way all that develops, Miles ends up with no one to mark, but he also doesn’t really position himself to help Steffen far post 9. Steffen is caught in between on the shot because of Dest having failed to get back in the play, leaving the guy in Steffen’s face onside A total team effort. I honestly think Steffen is probably the least to blame.
Thank you for doing the research, the goal from beginning to end just looked like an ugly, messy, half broken play and it was weird that the only thing a lot of people took out of it was "lol steffen"
My thoughts exactly. I mean, people slammed GB for his player selection in Panama. So, he gives people basically the lineup they wanted, and they cough up that chance in the opening minute and everyone wants to blame the goalkeeper who had a striker right in his face looking to re-direct.
Fans didn't perceive Miles as good in possession in MLS either, until they looked into his stats on fbref, where it adjudged him to be good everywhere but long passes. That's just a small part of the game. He does so many subtle things throughout the game to keep and advance possession, i.e. splitting defenders w/ passes and roaming fw on the ball until he draws a defender and finds a teammate. Defensively too, he'll step up and put out a fire before it starts, or make some nonchalant recovery, then when the opponent is out of position, spark the counter. And that was on display this match. He was MOTM before a few small errors the last few minutes that stick in people's mind to think he was actually poor. It's that, and the rare bad giveaway, which he compensates for. That's somehow dismissed because of Ruiz' slowness, when Miles makes improbable recoveries all the time. His teammates who've played everywhere call him the best open field & 1 v. 1 defender they've ever played against. How many players run full speed then cover a cutback? That's special. Somehow this isn't discussed. Fotmob rated him a very strong 8, and Sofascore a solid 7. They rated Richards 6.8, and 6.6, respectively. And this is w/out the pk + another yellow he should have gotten because he let a ball he wasn't ready for (like on the TO on Miles' pass) go right by him. He took out players while missing the ball. That's by definition, fouls. But somehow Miles was bad & Richards did well?!?! For the latter that's giving him a lot more leeway because he's just new. He has to be better next time(s). Whereas Miles could sharpen, but even in some matches where he's not at his best, still manages to be an asset