Great post — I don't agree with all of it but it's the kind of thoughtfulness I hope to find when I deign to bless this forum with my presence.
Just scratching my head. Vs Ukraine: had the flawless pass in the box for our lone goal (Mendez was our best attacking player that match). Vs Nigeria In the 22nd minute a dream pass from Mendez and a beautiful run from Weah nearly results in a goal. Weah should’ve done better w/the chance but he and Mendez created the opportunity from scratch. Was a good save too (outside of keepers knee). Vs Qatar: Creates the game winning goal out of nothing, just beautiful technique in close quarters in the box. Vs France: beautiful assist on the equalizer. Vs Ecuador: scores the Equalizer off a corner in traffic and later nearly scores w/a kind of backwards header. He had an excellent tourney. 2 goals in two of the biggest moments, and his two assists for equalizers were against the eventual champ and third place finisher.
anyone who describes weah at the u20s as average, underwhelming, etc i just cant get with. we have irreconcilable differences in how we see the game. he made huge, game changing plays in every match. his only "negatives" are not being a 9 (yet, im not ready to definitively say but hes def not that now) and not seeing enough of the ball. were the stretches where he wasnt the primary driving force in the team? yes? was he ever below solid? nope. he tracked back and put in defensive work more than anyone on the team other than pomykal (and thats a secondary at worst aspect of his position). of course he has to keep scaling that up. every young player in the damn world does. but to say hes underwhelmed at any level hes played in asinine. hes been a spark and scored for psg, hes scored as much at they let him at celtic, he was a clear step ahead at the u20s, hes scored at the national team level. read my long take on arriola and know id take weah over him today. id take him over boyd or morris today. id take him over anyone not named pulisic on the wing. youre more into tatigue or lederman or someone else youve never seen play? thats cool. but saying weah is meh just makes me think youre a horrible judge of talent/potential. not that what i think matters at all...but i do think youre dumb.
We were discussing whether or not he was a good player for the USMNT. One Hex doesn't define a career.
?!?!? Man, you're giving DC's coaching staff an awful lot of credit. I see very little "coaching up" happening at DC.
Where would you see it? It happens in training. Come on, Arriola is a good soccer player who just needs to raise his game a little. We can all see what's wrong.with his game. So can the DCU staff.
Am I wrong, though? I came to the same conclusions of people that have watched him much longer. For context, man, Boyd will be 25 this year and has earned 5 caps for New Zealand since his international debut in 2014. Whatever doldrums you think the US is in, guys that can't crack New Zealand's 18 are not going to be difference-makers for us. Club-wise, he's tied to a club (Vitoria) that the LA Galaxy recently acquired a 23 y/o Portuguese loanee from -- a dude who was so poor he got sent down to play in the USL and is now playing out the rest of his Galaxy contract in loan obscurity, like Boyd himself (in fact, he's now at Tondela, a bottom-dwelling Portuguese team, where Boyd previously was, which has convinced me that there's a huge gap in the Portuguese Liga b/w the top and bottom). I guess I just don't know what folks expect him from him.
I don't have a problem with that approach. I would prefer it now too but I do think that the perceived damage to young player's development and the national team is exaggerated. The players will develop with and because of their club situation...not the NT and there is time for the NT to develop. In addition to the players you mentioned above, there is probably also a handful or more that will make the team and possibly be good enough to start by 2022. Guys like Araujo, Aronson, Busio, Bello, Leyva, Basset, Sands, Servania just to name a few MLS players. Undoubtedly some will surprise in both directions. The brightest prospects may falter while some will come from nowhere. Either way I expect at least one young player that everyone is ignoring for 2022 to surprise by at least making the team. (someone not even on my list). He is probably a 2002 or 2003.....
i think hes very skilled on the ball, in simple ways (ie receiving passes and transitioning into his dribble/attack/move) quite a bit better than the other wingers (a lot of players in general) on the roster. i obviously like his pace. i like the attacking mentality but can definitely see that once he starts he has blinders on to a degree. mostly though i dont have enough to go on yet. i could extrapolate the things ive seen, slot him in as a purely attacking option off the bench, worry about the chemistry/if hes the one we want monopolizing the ball. i dont think anything you wrote is wholly incorrect, just very...definitive. im not there yet. my most set thoughts on him are if we have an arriola (a "worker" type, and i prefer him to morris as that) i think boyd could be a good balance/counter for that. the biggest question i have is him finding his place in the team. i dont have any problem with "arrogance", or selfishness in the attack- as long as you know your place on the food chain, if you will. as for talent level (both his and the turkish league) i do disagree, though. people always talk about "yeah, but against better teams..."- we play in concacaf. theres not better teams. theres mexico, theres a big step down to three or so second tier teams at any given time, then theres the guyanas and honduras'. on limited exposure he seems pretty helpful at at least that level. and again- thats 80% of who we play. i dont know why people think ahead to scenarios we just dont face outside of the world cup- sure, lima looks good but how will he look against germany? i mean...who cares? over time we see how guys fare against tougher comp in friendlies, a random copa, etc. i just think its...not the best idea to close the book on a guy you think wont be able to break down a chilean defense. we arent there yet. breaking down a panamanian defense is what matters for now.
I mean, that's certainly building a narrative. One, we can all see him play. There's a lot of attacking positives there. Two, you ignored his loan stint, where he was a key contributor in keeping up a relegation-fodder Turkish league team through his goal production. And was impressive enough that Fenerbahce and Besiktas are after him. Three, he didn't play for NZ because a) NZ almost never plays - their coach mentioned they haven't played in 2 years or something like that and b) he was waiting for a US call up.
Pomykal's the guy we need to manufacture goals out of the middle third. He can make goals like the Jamaican goal when they scored on us. We'll be so much more dangerous when we have guys like that - provided he can produce at higher level like he did at u20's. One never knows until one sees it. A horse can win 5 consecutive races and win nothing when he takes a step up in class. He's ready for his trial.
Just referencing the fact that Jozy was sold for $10 million. He never got on the field for the club that bought him. That is a bust. But he was still good enough for 114 caps.
After the massive 2010 and 2014 WCs (mainly 2012-2016) class failures of the U20 guys, how about we wait until they arrive.
Do you sleep with a Bradley blanket?? and in one take you attack Boyd's club performances but then for Mike you say club performances aren't everything. People aren't acting, they are watching him still playing like the USA is some minnow that keep a legend well beyond their sell by date. I will acknowledge that the youth players that were suppose to come of age never did but there are guys that are better right now and or combine better with what we have than him.
I don't disagree with most of that. For the record, I think Boyd can be useful, like Arriola -- but I can see why he's at least momentarily lost his spot. I also wouldn't be shocked if he started in the next match. For me, I agree, there are some things he does better than the other options, but some things worse. On net, we have a lot of guys hovering around the same level.
Though not a weakness I don’t know about finishing, some promising signs recently, especially with the recent poaches, the left needs work. I would not call it a Y midfield, even later after it loosened up it was still an awkward pulley. LD created chances for himself and others. Dempsey finished off service and created for himself. It’s a natural division of labor. LD started as a counter attacking FW, then in ‘06 smart teams took that away from us. What LD lacked for the middle was elite dribbling and ball control under physical pressure. He also got smarter as he aged not to mention games are officiated differently. Pulisic is stronger on the ball, is an elite dribbler, and has gotten more reps at high levels earlier. Would I play him under a ST, well Tuchel has and I trust him more than this lot, but he didn’t make a habit of it. Seems like interchanging between the left half-space and the left wing, with the freedom to run into the box, fits what he does. So is the question then do I want him dropping and defending as an LM in a 4? No, I do not. This is an area where he falls short of LD, and Clint to think of it. That aside, in transition that guy has to drop harder than the SS, that limits attacking freedom. If we played a true 4-3-3 or a 4-3-2-1 it would be less of an issue but we don’t. Liverpool has built multiple systems to lessen Salah’s load and I would afford Pulisic the same deference even based on different specifics. That’s because he is our biggest threat, an international level game-changer. I’m sure I could come up with a situation where it fits best, I don’t think we’re in it.
The upside with McKennie is that he would be the captain. Pulisic and Adams are leaders by example and Wes is the captain.
Certainly possible, I guess, but he is usually very good against Mexico, which was the point of my post. I expect a couple players to have big games, but I'm certainly not taking it for granted they will. Mexico is a tricky opponent that has given many top teams difficulties and nothing prepares you for it except playing Mexico. Because for Mike club performances aren't everything. He's been in good form for the NT even when he's in iffy club form; he is playing well for the US right now. This has nothing to do with Boyd, who is more or less an unknown. I commented on Boyd's international performances because that's all I think most of us have seen. I talked about his unspectacular club resume because it's the only other thing there is to judge him on and from it, we can draw no conclusions. There are guys I might like to see, but saying any of them would turn in his performances so far in this tournament is highly speculative, even for the guys I rate highly.