They were super-compact. "bunker" is too strong a word, but there was almost always 4 - 6 in the box when we had the ball in the 18-30 area - wings were left open. It's why we hit so many bodies with shots. And yes, part of it is we did not try to counter, or even break enough - and as I mentioned earlier, Sarge has to step back into a "playmaking 9" at least some of the time and send Weah or CP or Dest through - but we also don't pose enough long-distance threat for anyone to worry about dropping tight - and SK did that consistently. We just have never developed players - especially deeper-lying middies - who can threaten consistently from range. When Balo demanded some attention wide at least SK was forced to open up the middle a bit, but otherwise we just kept trying to jam the ball through bodies and SK is too organized, good a defending and quick for that work very often. CP can sometimes dribble through those crowds, but not today and we just never had anyone hit a reasonable shot from outside 18 (or inside for that matter.)
Fair enough, sorry if I sounded like I was criticizing you. You are actually right in pointing at a shortcoming of our head coach and I agree with you. And yes, you're a good poster.
First, we went wide with Gregg but rarely crossed it, overlapped or had long passing. I agree it's not the coaching, I think it's the pool. Rinse, repeat
I mean, people used to be very mad when we would have 20 crosses in a game. But that's neither here not there. There's no tactical fix. The only one that could be it is to just punt and go to a Red Bull or a straight counter so while we'll have less chances, we might get one with no one in the way. Frankly, I am a bit surprised that we can't seem to get it done. But it does highlight how much value one elite goalscorer has.
Agree with everything but the thing is that everyone said Pochetino was the quality coach USMNT needed. Everyone wanted him as soon as the rumor broke out.
really agree with you 1)super disappointed by luna kind of makes you think that the wc is going to be too much for him. he is fine against low/mid level concacaf teams but is in over his head at anything above that. you can see why europe hasn't come for him at all. 2)berhalter has the same levels issue. its not that he can't ever play for the usmnt its just that he can't play against teams above a certain level. 4)I think its time to move on from sargent I know everyone thinks he needs ''one more chance' but its been over three years the chances are over. I love the saying 'when people show you who they are believe them'. when sargent turned down a chance to move to a top five league and said it was because he is comfortable where he is and he is scoring goals there. its like he knew that was a step up he couldn't handle. We should treat it no different then jordan morris staying in mls I know the championship is in europe so in everyones head its not as bad but its really similar.
There's no way that we would've gotten Poch or a manager of his ilk in early 2023. No way, no how. The fan base has been nearly rioting for a manger of his level ever since Klinsmann (mercifully) was given the axe. Now they have him.
It's as good a theory as any, but I think he's specifically looking for fullbacks who can attack, and center backs who can distribute forward rather than defaulting to one another, the keeper, and out wide to the nearest fullback. That's what he's looking for, at any rate. But eventually he's going to wrestle with what he's got, rather than with what he wants to have. In an ideal scenario, Banks becomes the kind of CB that he wants over the course of this Bundesliga season, and both Dest and Jedi remain healthy.
Judging by what we have seen so far Poch is NOT the coach we need. We do NOT need a "great" coach but we do need one that has the ability to design a workable system that is not time consuming or hard to learn and fits our player pool. I wish that we had a good coach but the USSF seems unable to make even a decent hire and they have not made one since at least someone named Bradley was hired.
I also thought Luna did fine, as did Kyle Martino(?) on the TNT broadcast. He was more involved than Pulisic in the 1st half and did a good job bringing the ball into the final 3rd and distributing. Touch was good and his distribution was decisive and accurate. My thought was, OK, this guy is showing that he belongs in these games. I feel like he was more or less doing his part even if we were failing as a team.
look at what injecting these mlsers into the team did to the performances of puli, adams, dest and weah they were all neutered by the glaring reality that their teammates posed no threat objectively,these guys have played very very well at times (usually) for the usmnt....they ALL had bad games.....bc their teammates are not on their level. what did luna do exactly as a playmaker? his role is break the game open and be dynamic....we dont need a guy who just makes safe passes and gives it quikly to puli or weah.....luna did a have a few moments...but you could see he wasnt breaking korea down...and was comically inadequate pressing. luna just doesnt have a role on this team at this level....hes a concacaf player. maybe in a few years if he develops his game and athltecisim he cn be an asset. but this wasnt even the best 11 of korea and there are levels of teams better than them fwiw
The whole team didn't look great, especially in the 1st half. But Luna is one guy that looked at least decent. Blaming the poor performance of the non-MLS guys on the MLS guys doesn't make sense to me. Why weren't the non-MLS guys elevating the performance of the MLS guys? And why was Luna arguably more impactful than Pulisic in the 1st half? All the player ratings I've seen have Luna higher or about the same as Pulisic. Luna's fault that Pulisic wasn't more impactful? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
luna didnt do anything notable. what did you like about his performance? no goals, no assists, no shots....very little impact. he kept possession but thats not his role as attacking playmaker....its to CREATE why werent the non mls guys elevating the mlsers?? are you serious with this? the mlsers were playing safe....no dribbles no attacking no dynamism...every time they got the ball they immediately made a safe pass to a teammate.....played scared. there is no elevating that kind of play! korea could put all their energy into defending puli, weah, dest...bc most of the other guys were zero threat. its just not good enough put mckennie musah reyna pepi jedi etc out there and all of a sudden the rest of the euro guys play well....thats how it works its not the euro guys role to carry the weak links this isnt dp, tam, bs mls
Again, the team didn't look great in general, especially in the 1st half. In a game like this no one's gonna look great. What did I like about Luna's performance? Good touch, decisiveness, and good execution, good off-the-ball movement, and connected midfield to final 3rd several times. From there the forwards gotta execute. More euro guys is probably good, but in this game Luna showed that he belongs, whether he's a starter or as a sub. From Soccer America (I believe): Diego Luna got active in the latter part of the first half and sparked one of the USA's few swift counterattacks. His one-two with Christian Pulisic looked promising until Pulisic's first-touch failed him. Luna also fed Pulisic for a 47th-minute shot that flew high. (Referee Reon Radix ignored Kim Jin-Kyu grabbing Pulisic's arm.) Luna's crisp pass sent Tim Weah into lethal territory, but Weah's pass went to Kim Min-Jae near the Korean goal area. 3 Tim Weah (Marseille/FRA) 45/7 (25) 4 Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps) 7/0 (24) 4 Christian Pulisic (AC Milan/ITA) 79/32 (26) 5 Tyler Adams (Bournemouth/ENG) 51/2 (26) 6 Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake) 13/3 (21)
you can try to give individuals rating numbers but that doesnt account for how the players influence each other. it is my opinion that the mls players depress the performance of the core of the team and make them worse. i dont beleive any of the mlsers - luna, arfsten, blackmon, berhalter ream shpuld be starting.....and even on the roster of the mlsers, luna is probably the one who could maybe be on the bench but i prefer tillman and reyna and even a guy like taylor booth over luna bc he is just so unathletic and cannot create vs high level teams....he cannot separate...but he can keep possession
Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. Luna is not "so unathletic" either. He has decent if not good speed, and is strong on the ball. You're right. Pulisic should have been dinged harder for not being a more positive influence on Luna.
poch went out on a limb and injected gold cup mlsers into the team and the performance sucked people like you wanna then turn around and blame the euro based player? im sure you would be happy with a mls 11 .....youre impossible to reason with
I'm just saying what I saw in Luna's performance. I'm not trying to make broad thesis statements about MLS players vs. euro players like you are. Each player is unique anyway and we should take them for what they are and not just drop them into buckets based on preconceived notions. This was a mix of euro guys and MLS guys, who did not have a lot of experience playing together. Gregg's euro core had a long time to play together as a unit. The fact that there was an "unfamiliar mix" of players in this game is neither the fault of the MLSers or the euro players. They didn't choose the lineup.