Pre-match: US v Ecuador, Oct 10 2025

Your objection to "steep drop-off" is noted but in the end meaningless. Use drop off or slight drop off or even just a Planck length difference instead and see if it changes anything.

If you actually watch MLS as you claim you would know that Morris was an Adams-level ball winner in MLS and has continued that in the Championship while improving his getting dribbled. Sands was perhaps our best player at GC2023 and is now proving that at St Pauli which nobody knowledgeable would confuse with a Badge FC club. Anyone who watched the USMNT over the last 5 years should be aware how limited Roldan is as a player and McGlynn is like playing with 10 men for the majority of the time he is on the field. There is a reason that Philly went from missing the playoffs to SS winner after they jettisoned McGlynn.

 

PMS

Pre match syndrome

 

With the injuries and assuming a 3421 I'm predicting...

Balogun
Tillman-McKennie
Arfsten-Morris-Tessman-Weah
Ream-Richards-CCV
Freese

Not totally set on a few positions. Could imagine seeing the following instead...
STK: Haji or even Agyemang
RWB: Alex Freeman
RCB: McKenzie

 

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Interesting subject of the matchday photo. Is this an official release from USSF?

 

Yeah I always wonder if it means anything and should have kept notes over the years but haven't. I'm going to guess it doesn't mean anything as I can't imagine the publicity department asking Poch more than once who should be on the cover and he shoots them down twice as hard as he did the journalist last week.

 

Similar to @Pegasus, this is something I often notice, but I haven't kept track. My guess is that these promotional choices are usually significant, but not always. Roldan and Ream were featured together this week as the team's elder statesmen, and my sense is that Roldan is very well positioned for a place on the WC roster.

 

Tillman is much more g/a dangerous on the left. Weah is likewise on the right, at least with the National Team.
Morris has played the bulk of his pro career in 343s. His current team is one point off first in the C'hip.
Roldan has plenty of experience in '2' man central midfields. He has great range and good pace. Most importantly, he played well during the last window.
McKennie was wretched during NL semis. He can work his way back in.
Tessmann's club success has come in 4231. His pace is a question mark. He can be worked in as a sub.
Richards has been excellent on the right for Palace. McKenzie seems weakest on the right.

 

In no reality is Roldan better than McKennie or Tessman. In fact given a choice between Berhalter or Roldan, I and many others would not have brought him. Roldan would not make Juve or Lyon's bench. Poch may do Poch things and start him as migh have been signaled by the above image posted by TimB4Last.

 

Is the Golazo network always this brutal? I just tried to watch a youtube video on the game's Projected Lineups with Pulisic potentially out with Tony Meola and a couple other dudes and ...

... one is talking about Poch talking about accountability and how this is the culture change that is going to fix pay to play or is somehow related to that, which doesn't make any sense at all ...

... and then we Tony and some other dude talking about how they thought we had found our offensive set up with Pulisic and ... Zendejas? Really? One good game and people locked Zendejas in as a starter?

I'd really like to watch something even semi-intelligent, please.

 

I thought he was called to a camp as a keeper. More threat to Turner/Freese than to Donovan.

 

An excellent photo btw.

 

Depends on what's required. Roldan is much better defender than either of them.

 

Tajon Buchanan starts for 3rd place Villarreal. James Sands starts for mid-table St. Pauli. Tanner Tessmann starts for 4th place Lyon. A team of largely MLS kids just smoked France and Italy. Cucho Hernandez is the tied for 4th in La Liga's golden boot race, and is on the 4th place team.

I think folks underestimate the talent in today's MLS. McKennie is a nice player. I'm not suggesting he's Carlos Kaiser, but frankly, at club level, his survival instincts have been more notable than his on-field performances. And for the National Team, his play has been mid for some time.

 

I don't know about Zendejas. Based on clubs performances he might be our second best attacking player and why he was so brutal with the NT was a question (pretty much like Tillman prior to this year) so there is a chance that they look much better as Poch isn't married to his favorite tactics the way Berhalter was, but trying to maximize the team production .

 

I don't believe that anyone with a functioning brain who actually watches soccer would suggest that Roldan is within a Planck length of Weston McKennie. We have all seen both for the NT over the last 5 years.

There are a few posters with a MLS agenda that may make such suggestions but they should not be taken seriously. Even in MLS, last summer FC Cincinnati submitted a $15M bid to Juve for Weston with a DP salary offer. Weston and Juve rejected the offer.

 

im almost positive all of maliks production came centrally/on the right.

 

Tillman has been most g/a productive as a free 8, left wing, and cam.

 

Weston McKennie set to leave Juventus for a move to MLS | OneFootball

We may see Wes in MLS sooner rather than later. We'll see what he can do.

It should be noted Mihailovic went to Toronto for $9 million. Roldan, were he a few years younger, would go for more than that on the market, probably closer to reported $15 million offer for McKennie.

 

Poch does play him central or right. Malik is very flexible and teams will use him in a variety of roles and formations. Leverkusen is playing Malik as a RAM in their 3-4-2-1. He has been played once as a RCM in the same formation.

 

He's probably quite a few Planck lengths from McKennie. Given that the Planck length is the smallest unit of measurement we've got.

 

I am skeptical of him overall; I don't even think he played that well against Japan aside from the strike.

But that's fine; make a case for him. The guys on Golazo were lamenting "We had found our attack set up for the World Cup and now they might not be able to play."

I think the standard needs to be more than one good game. I personally would rather see Tillman there for a variety of reasons (and many of them defensive and physical), but I think even if you are a Zendejas fan, the idea that he's locked down a starting playmaker role seems kind of insane to me.

 

So the other poster did not like me saying "steep drop off" from McKennie to Roldan so i suggested something way smaller like a Planck Length. You believe that it is a "quite a few" Planck length?

So Roldan is between a "steep drop-off" and "quite a few Planck Length" to Weston. Next you will be asked to precisely quantify "quite a few." Is it 2, 3, 4 5, 6, or 1,789, 642

 

Tonight’s USMNT Starting XI vs. Ecuador: 24-Matt Freese, 3-Chris Richards, 4-Tanner Tessmann, 8-Weston McKennie, 12-Miles Robinson, 13-Tim Ream (Capt.), 17-Malik Tillman, 18-Max Arfsten, 20-Folarin Balogun, 21-Tim Weah, 23-Aidan Morris

 

Agree, but he is definitely a player about whom I can't make informed decision, and will trust Pochetino.