Good question, although to me the real insight is your broader point that we've never had this much quality depth all over the field. I've been predicting our improving player pool for a while now and conservatively expect an additional 2-4X in high-end talent production improvement over the next 10-15 years. If used correctly, and it was last night, we'll easily roll through qualification and make some noise in the next few World Cups as the core players improve and as new and even better talent comes online.
my post is objective. He got behind the defense and should have drawn a red. he played Aaronson in with his final ball creating the same situation. I played my ignore button for the first time in the history of big soccer which is well over 20 years because you are the Paul Arriola of analysis…
Arriola makes a great run 20 freaking seconds into the match and drew a CLEAR red card. Game should have been over. Yet he's trash. Far too many posters on this forum have their heads the same place the center ref had his head last night.....lol
Our best lineup would look useless against Brazil and Argentina. All of our one touch master classes would never see the ball or never have any breathing room to pass if they managed to get it.
You are looking at this all wrong. You need stop thinking about finding players who will make us better and enjoy the limited players who are just barely good enough for weak concacaf opponents. This enables you to be completely dumbfounded when the player is absolutely useless against a decent side. The over 24 yo players from MLS are crap (Morris would be a nice sub if he comes back healthy and Acosta is an acceptable backup for a scrap). The excitement that some have for a guy like arriola doing OK in a very limited role is bizarre. Weah is better than him at everything he does well and can play a much bigger role because he can do more than just run around. I am completely with you that we would be much better off getting rid of Arriola, Zardes, Roldan, Lletget, etc and look for players that at least have the potential be better than "good enough for concacaf ".
I thought he was great, as good as one can be without tallying a goal or assist. Definitely a guy throwing himself “in the trenches” all game long.
Yeah, throw me in the camp that thought Arriola was fine last night. We have several players that can hustle (Weah, Aaronson) but are FAR superior in every other aspect, though. Given where we are on the depth chart with injuries I think its fine to have him playing a MLS/USL level opponent at home. With a fully healthy set of wingers do people really have Arriola in their 23? If so, who are you leaving out?
Arriola had a very good Arriola game. Weah looked ready to crush mediocre defenses, and has been excellent for Lille the last few weeks. Looking forward to him getting a turn to start.
great idea. let’s only field 7 players because due to injuries and lack of quality we can’t field a world first 11 player in every position. I think your onto something. I’m surprised BS is still around with how far the quality of discussion has gone down as the quality of the players have gone up.
Adam, you have this platonic ideal in your head, and using that to judge Arriola. You should be judging him by how he actually played. Eliezar, there's a middle ground here. Arriola was effective, he was a plus player for the night. But I wouldn't say he had a great game, because outside of the two non-reds, what did he contribute? I'm not downgrading him for the ref's mistakes, just like I wouldn't downgrade a player for making a great pass that wasn't finished. However, "great" doesn't do it. For me. That's not the topic of this thread. This is about how he played last night. It takes real balls to triple down right after admitting you didn't watch the first half. Dude, just admit you are wrong. You just come across as silly.
That is a terrible highlight package, to begin with. I have no idea why they wasted thirty seconds on a terrible long shot by Jamaica. For some reason, that's more valid than two blown red cards by the ref, both of which involved Arriola prominently. But you're wrong, Arriola is right in there. In the first goal, at like 1:10. Arriola streaks ahead, and then cuts inside, dragging Kemar Lawrence in. This opens up space for Dest, who has no pressure as he makes the cross. It's a little play, but it is a lot of what we are missing. And a lot of our more talented players would have gone wide themselves, crowding the space.
No one said Arriola is amazing. Stop trying to move the goalposts so you don't sound crazy. He had a very good game last night. But the reason Europe largely isn't interested in Arriola at the highest levels is because they have a lot of Paul Arriolas. Players who know the game, who execute, who do the little things. The Bundesliga doesn't really need Arriola -- they have lots of Paul Arriolas, and those guys are already in Germany, with EU passports and don't require transfer fees or to learn the language or whatever. The thing is, the number of players who play like Paul in the US pool isn't very large. We don't have a huge reserve of tactically smart, high work rate guys who are willing to constantly do the off ball and defensive work. Europe is interested in players from the US with potential to be stars -- they have no need for our water carriers because they have them. But potential is the key word. Someone like Konrad may have a ton more skill than Arriola, but until he shows the work rate and willingness to execute the off ball work Arriola does, Paul is bringing something to the table that he doesn't. OM doesn't need Arriola; they have a ton of French players who can do that. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a role for the US -- or players similar to him -- because we don't get to tap into that reserve of French water carriers / off ball players / high work rate / vertical player. And weirdly, right now, we don't have a lot of American ones.
he had a solid game and a great first half. I don’t like him as a player but he did well yesterday. But talking to people who say he played bad without watching the game, talking to people who think we chose him over Lionel Messi. It’s complete nonsense. yeah…
I don’t think teams can afford to dishonor his runs. He’s got 30 +goals between MLS and Liga MX. How. does a guy coaching USL talent tell them, ignore that millionaire if he’s running in the box?
i watched the first foul on arriola and the second half....considering the us had like zero shots on goal in the first 45 minutes i saw what i needed to see....in the 2nd half i saw arriola get a steal and lead to a breakaway...but not much else...i have higher standards than you all for good game...and played well he hustled a lot like he always does and scuffeed a lot of touches like he always does... but whatever....cant wait to watch him at the world cup
disagree. if the team can get better and fine tune everything....which is why the substandard play shouldnt just be accepted from certain players. excellence should be the goal and what the team is working towards...no reason to try for anything else.
thank you...i feel like some of these other posters are planted trolls or fans from other countries or something!
I think we all figured for some time that we'd eventually start churning out a bunch of high-quality players, it just took a lot longer than we expected for the first one that wasn't simply a once-in-a-generation kind of lucky find, or a Bad-News-Bears-unlikely-success-story that just worked out. But then the second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on all came a lot quicker than we expected. It's clear that we have a few genuine developmental pipelines working now in this country. And for as many as we're churning out right now, it's still only a fraction of what we COULD if only the academies in Southern and Northern California really get their acts together, to say nothing of say Atlanta United and so forth...
Because if you see him with his shots versus shots from Aaronson and the choice is let Aaronson dribble or cover an Arriola run (as an example) would you shade towards Aaronson or Arriola? And if you're only getting 3 SOG all game do you want them coming from him? I'm not saying he is ineffective against this level but as the competition ramps up, his runs won't mean much without an end product. Its like the guy who can't shot standing in the corner, asking for the ball. Sure they'll put a hand up, but they aren't concerned as much and can double someone else. Against low tier CONCACAF he is fine. I dont think I'd want him in a lineup v Canada right now over the other options that we have.
I’m from Northern California. Would love to see the talent from the Central Valley, Bay Area, wine country, Sierra Nevada foot hills have more opportunity to flourish. Back in my day, which was a long time ago, there were some very talented players from places like Sacramento.
What are you talking about? Do you know our player pool? We can easily put a solid XI out and fill out 23 man roster without these MLS lifers who just aren't near the same level as our top players. Even with CP and GR out, we can have Aaronson, Weah, Hoppe, and Konrad/Gioacchini on the wings. Sargent or Pefok could replace Zardes. I continue to have no idea why these role players are always on these rosters and play so much while not looking for replacements. As I already said, who cares if Arriola had a decent game against a poor team. He is still a player that lacks quality and won't be going to the WC. Every minute he gets is just a waste. Berhalter has been wasting minutes since he took control which is one of the reasons our top players have played so little together. I think there are many worse ideas floated on here than moving on from guys who clearly aren't going to help this team improve for high ceiling younger players
Well articulated post. Arriola has a role to play. Part of that is simply modeling what effort, pressing and off-ball movement looks like to some of the potential starlets, such as Konrad. Do we all moan and grimace when Arriola skies a shot into isle 32 of the stadium? Yes. But Arriola is playing a Role for where we are today - World Cup Qualifying. Whether he makes the final roster for a World Cup is another matter. Time will tell on who rises to the occasion.
Hoppe, and Konrad/Gioacchini haven't shown themselves to better today as wingers than Paul Arriola. Two of them are 9s and the other is a kid with less 1st division games than Arriola has goals. Gregg isn't a club coach with time to take his lumps as Konrad repeatedly dribbles into turnovers or Hoppe is trying tricks 19 yards from his own goal. Gregg has shown that he doesn't discriminate when he thinks you're ready. Paul basically put on a damn clinic and yet people are here whining. I hope in the next few months Konrad turns a corner and we can thank Paul for his service ala Heath Pierce or Conor Casey, but that display at El Salvador didn't convince.
He didn't even do anything of the sort and the moaners are out in full force. Truth be told, Pepi and Jedi killed more attacks with bad touches and passes than Paul but Paul is the one who is getting micro analyzed. Go back and look at the 25th minute. Paul plays Pepi a perfect ball up the left sideline and he gets bodied initially and then loses it on a bad touch. That should have been a dangerous chance but was nothing.