Pre-match: US v Ecuador, Oct 10 2025

You're making a lot of assumptions there, especially on McKennie and Musah. They've been left in Europe to secure time at their club, by all indications. I'm not seeing a grudge here.

And frankly, even on Haji and Scally, who I assume you simply overrate.

Just because a coach makes a decision you don't agree with, doesn't mean they have some "random" ulterior motivation.

 

I've always really liked Josh as a person and am still rooting for him.

But on defense you want someone more solid, and on offense, you want spectacular. You have to have a way to beat the defense to score. There's many ways to do it, but every time Sargent comes up, I ask how he's going to score for the US (or at higher levels).

This always seems to baffle some people -- how do players score? But the reality is that even at Norwich, most of how Josh scores is off turnovers and in transition. Balogun makes runs behind the defense. Dike and Agyemang bully ball their way past defenders. If we had a Benteke, he'd do that and win aerial duels. Jordan Morris did it with straight speed. Other guys are foxes in the box and find the spaces.

Josh isn't fast enough / quick enough to reliably get behind. He's not big enough to win a ton of headers or simply maul people. He isn't great at finding the open spaces. That doesn't mean he can't do these things sometimes, but he can't generate chances reliably as the competition ratchets up.

What he is really good at it is pressing and forcing turnovers, and once he's in transition, he's a plus finisher with some space. He's really gotten good at placing his shots with power with a bit of time. He's a very smart header but he's not big enough to reliably get to the ball with clearance, but if he does, it's directed well.

It's just not a shock to me that he struggles to generates shots. I think his lack of conversion is mostly pressing / bad luck. But the lack of opportunities ... he doesn't have that one elite skill that generates chances.

Sargent's solid. But no aspect of his game scares defenses except maybe his pressing. For all his inability to convert chances, I guarantee you there's more stress gameplanning over Agyemang's play even if the ultimate effect is very similar. Because you have to plan for a dude who can literally just turn a CB and shed him with a shrug.

 

In Scally's item, if (and it's a giant IF), the golf-cart item put off Poch, he made it clear that players coming to camp needed to be focused, even saying "golf.....No". That isn't a grudge, it's a POV of how a coach feels about the concentration level.

The others, for M&M, Poch said they needed time at their club. No reason to disbelieve him on that.

Also, he's been a successful manager at some top clubs in Europe, I find it hard to believe he'd be that good if he held 'grudges'.

 

Even before Balo came on, I was asking why he was not moving more laterally - I thought maybe it was a coaching thing. He just seemed not to be moving in a way that opened up space for Pulisic - or anyone else. It was really weird. I was thinking "man maybe Poch really is just giving them terrible instructions" then Balo came in, ran the diagonal like he likes to and the middle opened up. So then I thought maybe it was just instructions after seeing how the Sarge static thing did not work, but then Japan. And Balo played the same as he did v SK which is the same he often/usually does... (including missed shots we all think - that's going in... nevermind.) I'm not sure what Sarge thought he was doing - waiting to get the ball, turn and score, I guess, but when you have Pulisic, Weah and others, with speed and wiles and, in CP's case, a lot of goals out of midfield - open up some room should be first job.

 

I don’t care over much about the bottom of the roster, I see very little to distinguish one from another.

The core individuals I really want to see together, because outside of their quality, they dictate tactically how we can and need to play imo.

Dest and Robinson together.

Balogun up top. I like Pepi as well, but we run out 8 dudes that all want to play in the pocket, we only have one striker that creates that space for others.

Tillman however and wherever Poch feels he’s best utilized. Best two way MF we have by a mile. Only truly unique MF in our pool from that capacity If there is a missing link that can allow us to have a properly balanced MF that can both attack and defend competently within the same game, he’s him.

 

The reason for the large disparity between FIFA and Elon boils down to two main factors:

1. Elo ratings take home field advantage into account. FIFA ratings do not. Since we have been the home team for all but four matches this cycle (Grenada, Trinidad, Mexico, Jamaica), this disproportionally hurts our Elo.

2. Points lost in knockout matches are disregarded in FIFA ratings. This means our Nations League defeats to Panama and Canada, which drastically hurt our Elo (especially since they were at home), lost us zero points in FIFA.

 

All this talk about Ream. Who is better to pair with Richards?

Can a McKenzie supporter tell me what he does better than Ream. And not being younger isn't automatically better.

Any other CB you want to suggest same question.

Ream is our best passer out of the back.
Ream is calm and keeps things on even keel on the field.
Sure he isn't as fast as you'd like but he is also mostly error free.

 

McKenzie is faster. He's also somewhat better in the air, though that's less that Mark is fantastic than that Ream is really poor. Mark is MUCH better in the air offensively, but his lack of bulk hurts him a bit on the defensive side.

I also think he's a decent natural passer. The issue with evaluating ANY CB is that the vast majority of the job is decision making. When to step, when to fall back. Recognizing runs. It's much, much easier for us to evaluate things like passing, recovery speed, aerial ability, but I think even if you know CB play it can be hard to evaluate decision making ... and I don't really know CB play that well.

Mark has been a bit error prone with the US on errors that anyone can see -- bad passes, or getting turned, or not reacting quick enough. So is Ream, of course. But it's hard to evaluate all the parts of the game where attacks are blunted by the right step here or the movement not taken.

When we press, that's a bit easier. I always liked Walker because you could see that he was very good at anticipating the pass that went over the pass or made it through the lines, and he was reliable in blowing that shit up.

But I think once you sit back ... sometimes tough to tell.

EDIT: I will say this ... give me a team with some of Richards, McKenzie, Walker, McKennie, Tillman and Freeman someone who can hit corners and we'd be a set piece NIGHTMARE for opponents with some planning.

 

This has been my point all along. His errors also tend to be huge disasters. I just don't trust him. The rest of your points are certainly valid I am just not sure that they are positive enough to overcome his one big weakness. Now granted I rarely watch him so there's that. And I would probably have him on the roster but if I have one match I must win and both are fresh I am going with Tim.

 

Richards being such an aerial threat now is a welcome addition.

 

Adams gets a break.

------------------------Balogun---------
----------------Pulisic-----Zendejas----
----Jedi----Tillman----Tessmann-----Weah---
-------McKenzie--Richards--McKennie--
-------------------------Freese----

 

What I think we’ll see barring injuries

GK: Turner, Freese, Steffen
RB: Dest, Freeman
LB: Jedi, Arfsten
CB: Ream, Richards, McKenzie, Banks, pick one of Zimmerman, Robinson, Blackmon, or CCV
DM: Adams, Cardoso
CM: McKennie, Roldan, McGlynn
AM: Tillman, Luna
WF: Pulisic, Weah, Zendejas
FW: Balogun, Pepi

Tessmann is the one who is borderline as to if he’s back but I don’t think we see Scally or Musah (barring Musah showing out with his club). It also seems like Reyna is going to ramp up gradually so I don’t know he’ll have enough time to get up to speed by October.

 

And even more, what would be a reason to have a grudge against Wright who is a nice shy guy who just happened to be a very marginal player for the MNT? Still might make it due to dearth of talent at #9, but if he doesn't not a big loss.

 

And also Elon can buy FIFA while FIFA can't buy Elon.

 

Locatelli sucks. He'll be back.

 

I'm a guy who doubted Ream could last this long at this level, and he's fairly well proven me wrong, but I still think that we've seen what Ream can do, certainly by now. It's clear the drubbing the team took when he sat for the Canada, Turkey and 1st half of the Swiss game freaked everybody out, but he's had 8 1/2 straight games worth of minutes without being subbed. We know what he brings, and at this point I think he's paired with all the realistic suspects at least once - and Ream is not going to get better or more healthy with more minutes. And the possibility of him not being as good or 100% next summer is not 0. The guy is a legit rock, no doubt, but even if Ream is written on your team sheet in sharpie, I don't see how it helps the team to not have any other combo of backs have significant minutes together without Ream. I'm hoping that Poch plays his "No Ream" team in the upcoming friendlies, at least for the 66+ sub. Otherwise, wrap that geezer in all the protective gear you got, but I'm old enough to still have Agoos PTSD.

 

Or play with a back-3 to lessen the need for Ream.

 

its funny to see the trend of people accepting that sarge shouldnt be in the team. but heres the thing- norwich has 5 matches between now and the roster will be named, and assuming no high ankle sprain-esque nonsense hes gonna score 4 goals in that time. that one, oversimplified number is going to have everyone fine with him again.

its less funny to see the pretty significant downgrade/backlash to weah. a lot of you are just dumb¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

 

Lots of people have been able to buy FIFA throughout the years.

 

To me Sargent should be on the team. As the third striker. Sargent is a poacher with an assassins creed. He is not suited for the style of football we play throughout the match but if we are deep in the game and need a goal, and the plan is to go direct, I rather call on Sargent than any other player at the 9.

the third striker is the one who rides the pine and waits for that opportunity weather it be in the third match for the points first or second round of the knockout rounds (wondo) that third striker always has a tendency of showing up when we need someone the most and I would rather it be Sargent who has a knack for scoring unconventional goals and can bursts from the gate than someone like an Ageymang who needs minutes to find Rythm and doesn’t have separation speed.

 

I get the sentiment but I'll go back to my question. its fine to say we need a different pairing. Then list all the faults with Ream. But who is better and why?

 

Sargent is the guy who couldn't even find a shot in the last window. You trust him to be the guy to find a goal late?

What kind of direct play are you talking about? He's not a great aerial guy and he's not fast to catch something over the top.

Agyemang may botch a lot of touches and he may look gangly, but the reality is that every once in a while, he seals off pretty much any centerback with his size, turns and hits one past the keeper. I'm not even sure he'd be my pick, but the low chance Patrick does this seems to be better than the chance that what, Sargent brings one down, turns a centerback and scores? Or makes a run behind the defense?

I haven't been impressed with Downs' ability to get the shot off once he gets the ball, but he made more successful runs this window in limited time than Sargent did.

If we need to defend or want a pressing CF, that's Sargent for me. If we need to hit it over the top to someone or trying for runs behind, I'm probably doing that to Pulisic, Weah or keeping a tired Balogun on. If I want someone to bring an aerial ball down and fight people off, Pat would be a better option.

 

The reason I'm more "down" wrt Sargent making the roster is that he's done nothing in recent matches he's played to show Poch that he deserves to be there. Personally, up until the recent SK game, I would have certainly taken him. The fact that he did literally nothing and Kim basically just had to jog around with him made me see things a little differently. Yes, he is banging in goals left and right in the Championship, but none of those defenders are playing at the WC. Top level CBs are, and he hasn't shown the NT that he can score when those guys are marking him.

 

]U.S. Forward Patrick Agyemang Joins Derby County, Will Get Hernia Surgery | FOX Sports

His playing and training with a hernia was pretty incredible. I'm looking forward to seeing how much more effective Big Pat can be once he returns.

 

The fault is that he is human and if your plan is any single player will be healthy next year... you've got a lot riding on that guy's health. Not even Freese has played the minutes Ream has the last 8 1/2 games. I'm not even saying Ream doesn't start at the WC, I'm saying it's a mistake not to have a back-up plan with a decent amount of minutes together. That same will go for Freese/Turner too. Even if Freese is now "the guy" you want Turner (or whoever's #2) to get real games with the D.

And the obvious issues with Ream are speed, vertical leap and general athleticism. Who is better is very subjective and requires players playing together. I don't think without seeing them in a good number of competitive games if it's possible to claim our overall D is better with McKenzie or Zimmerman or Robinson or Richards or ?? paired in the back. CCV-McKenzie did not inspire confidence v Canada. And Richards - Robinson had a poor 45 v Turkey, but we looked better when McK went in for Robinson (and Adams for Jonny) But the biggest issue is we've only had 2 1/2 games without Ream in the past 13 games, and Campbell/Robinson looked ok v. Venezuela in the previous game Ream missed, so we have a really small sample to even know what line-up replaces Ream if, heaven forbid, he's not able to go.