they’ve gotta move on from bradley, roldan, and Morris. try anyone at wing until they stick, but those aren’t options anymore. mckennie is also not a 6. awful game from him
Mckennie lost his cool due to some of Mexico's cheap shots on teammates. Welcome to Concocaf play. Has to learn to keep his head.
McKennie bad, Bradley all-time trash performance. Pulisic had his moments, Arriola is a worker-bee who should soon be replaced with better players. MB needs to PLEASE retire...
I thought Bradley was pretty damn good in the first half. Winning duels, some great passes, distributing well. Second half, he was god god god awful. I'm willing to move on. We know what he is. McKennie wasn't good and Arriola was a work horse but doesn't really add much more than that.
michael bradley and the ball had magnetic repulsion in the second half. brutal watching balls just roll past him as he reacted too slow time after time
Midfield cannot function with the endless need to salvage the effects of having Mikey on the field. It is like trying to navigate a skiff with a ship's anchor weighing it down.
This showed what we already knew. Bradley is still serviceable against lesser teams, but turn up the pace of the game against good competition, and he can't hack it. I think we win that game with Adams instead of him, but obviously he was hurt. (And Berhalter might not play him at CM.) McKennie was hot and cold all tournament and didn't have one of his better performances tonight. Gave away possession too cheaply at times and didn't have any killer passes or late runs into the box to make up for it. Pulisic, when he got on the ball and could get turned up field, was fantastic. He routinely beat multiple Mexican defenders. He could still do better picking out the right final ball, but hard to complain when he was 90% of our offense.
You known when your u30 team is missing your CDM and you pick up a 45 year old guy who was hanging around after playing a prior match? That’s kinda how we look
This is where we lost the game, as most do. - McKennie got out-quicked, out-physical'd, and out-smarted. It was pretty shocking given those are generally strengths for him. Although Gregg's system really asks for that position to do a lot. Gotta give him no shortage of blame for breakdowns. - Not so shocking that Bradley was a turnstile against a better team. He got the job done against lower level sides. The bemoaning about his contribution when the opposing team can't play high up and have skill/ideas to get passed him are exaggerated. Maybe it was anticipatory. Because he just doesn't have the speed and gumption anymore at the higher levels. Gregg's notion to do something different is to try Trapp again and then switch back when it's unsatisfactory, acting like we need MB90 still. - Arriola was a worker b, but as usual he was far from tidy or had killer instinct. So he was a mixed bag. He can hang around the team, but for the starting unit we can do better among the young'ns like Weah. Boyd and Novakovich would give us more dynamism. - Mixed bag could also describe Pulisic. He does the prettier stuff but he really struggles at the basics. Press in conjunction w/ teammates, playing the early ball, or even the basic late one is really a problem for him. Hopefully he doesn't always remain this talented but really flawed player. He's young, but we've been saying that for years. He's experienced. - Roldan made a really strong contribution off the bench. That surprised me. I was beginning to think he couldn't handle the pressure. The last two games were by far his best of the camp. Maybe it was a byproduct of coming off the bench, but he'd done that before only to disappear or stumble. So he played himself back onto the b-team.
That’s probably more accurate. MB was like a 6 in the first half, about a 1 in the second. he’s still trying to burn off the memory of his last couple caps. Do not want.
bradley had his best half in two years- didnt play negatively at all, honest to goodness broke up play/put in tackles at least 3 times. second half was back to current day average, including not managing to take one step to slow up play on the goal. but the unforgivable thing was standing ten yards from that guy drop-kneeing jozy in the back before staing on top of him and not doing a damn thing about it. jozys best run of the night was 50 yards to (sadly think better of) hulk smashing that bitch that drilled pulisic on the ground. i hate that jozy, mckennie and miazga are the only players in this team who will look out for their teammates. anyways, mckennie didnt have a good night, but ill give him a passing grade for getting that dude off jozy (and getting choked) and he put in a lot of work in the midfield. pulisic was fine, hate that he didnt open up/take it with his right on that early chance once he got position on his man. sucks hes a victim to our play dead/"possession" shell berhalter loves dropping us into taking away any attacking thrust whatsoever. i like that roldan has come in both games and shown a lot of fight, wish he wasnt berhalters white flag, though. hes less a sub for the right wing than a "closed for attacking" sign gregg unfurls late.
Enough of the f'ing Bradley criticism. Get real. This was not about his failure. Soccer is a team sport. The guy was run ragged by Mex and nobody, NOBODY helped. Where was McKennie? There has been uniform criticism of his lack of contribution. In a game like last night, once MB was targeted in the second half, there was absolutely no way that he could contribute effectively without a least one partner working cohesively with him. Those other guys can't stand around watching 2 or 3 Mex players press the #6, no matter who he is, as a pass is played to him. They have to anticipate the action and alter the opponent's tactics by being more effective with quick, short passes that take the 2 to 3 on 1 press out of the loop. That was probably the first taste of the true international game the newbies have had and it showed in the second half. Too bad they didn't put one away in the first. The Mex tactics probably would have been different and better for the US.
MIdfield was poor all around, including McKennie and Pulisic, especially in the second half. Bradley has a decent firs thalf, but was horrid on the second. McKennie played too disjointed and didnt even win his individual battles, which is generallly expected. Pulisic created a few things early but especially in midfield against a decent team has to have more of an answer than tying to dribble the entire Mexican team himself. Admittedly, it is difficult to create when you have crap wingers and only Jozy to play with in front of you.
nobody could use a weah big step forward and locking down a usmnt starting spot more than pulisic. really missing someone with creativity on the wing
It’s seemed to me that Pulisic wasn’t really in midfield but was rather part of the front three attackers. Morris and arriola seemed to have more defensive responsibility than Pulisic. I’ll try to re-watch the match.
You saw it right. Pulisic was playing a false 9 more than anything else. Having said that, he at least got stuck in and made a few tackles. Michael Bradley didn't come off his feet one time this whole tourney unless it was because he tripped over them.