I find some of the comments quite entertaining and I wonder just what the hell they expect?? A one week camp and we rolled out a starting XI that aside from Zimm had a whopping 3 caps amongst them. 3! Then are unhappy because we only saw 2 or 3 guys that look ready or very near ready to play a role with the senior team (Cowell, Vasquez, and Zendejas) and that doesn't even count Slonina who most have already added to the near term roster. I am happy as heck with what I saw. A January camp that showed us several guys pretty much ready for the seniors. How the hell can you be unhappy with that? Expectations are just simply nuts around here.
And after a World Cup where as few as three or so guys will be aged out rather than beaten out... Slonina / Cowell / Vasquez I think have all put themselves in reasonable positions in the depth chart. Morris may have become the top Morris on the depth chart. Zendejas was interesting. Sonora/Pomykal need to go show more at the club level, Gressel seems too slow, and Gomez and Neal need to play first team minutes.
I see a lot of folks pretty much writing everyone off in this game, but I think that's a mistake. For one, it's a real failure of any kind of projection for what was a pretty young roster. Not every quality player is a star at 19. I also think it ignores that the everyone who played except Zendejas and Slonina are out of season. They've never played with each other, they are rusty ... at some point, there probably should be some allowance for that. Here's the ages of the younger crew: 18 - Slonina 19 - Cowell, Neal, Gomez 21 - Morris, Hoppe All need work in some way, some more than others. One needs a complete restart. But I'm really not sure of the comparisons of someone like Morris to Trapp and Yueill. I think he's a better athlete with better instincts, and I'm not sure trying to judge someone on the defensive set up of a team with three days under them is ideal. He's got a lot to improve, but I was impressed for 21. It's not hard to see him better than Acosta is now in 3 years. I think people are overestimating our depth in general -- yes, no one is better than Musah, but hasn't the topic of this board been needing to rotate for a month? I'd like to see some of these guys with the A team at some point to see how they perform with more talent around them. Not just Zendejas and Vazquez but players like Pomykal, Williamson, Sonora, Jones, etc.
ill take this one... this was a match in which we get to see guys play. no one is putting anyone on the 26 wc roster in ink. no one is sending anyone back to their club team for good. we can either talk about the match or ignore it. settle the f down. we go through this same nonsense every single jan. everyone. doesnt. have. to. follow. your. guidelines. for. posting.
My quick thoughts, with the caveat that I was multitasking for most of the game, so it might not be the most informed opinions, but based on vibes. Of the newcomers/non vets, I think Zendejas is an A team guy as potentially the 5th (or 3rd depending on how you classify BA and GR) winger. I think Williamson, Vasquez and Cowell are borderline. Cowell was the best player on the field, but we've seen this before in the beginning of the last two seasons. Consistency is the name of the game for him. If he producing in the MLS after the u20 WC, than I think he should have a shot with the A team. I didn't think Vasquez was that good beside the goal, loose touches and questionable decision, but he's in the conversation. I love his movement in the box. Williamson is the closest we have to a like for like with McKennie. Really like the ranginess and strength Biggest disappointment for me was Paxton. I didn't think he was our worse player, or even midfielder, but I was hoping he could be our third 8. He might be in time, but didn't look like it today. I thought Neal and Gomez showed some flashes, but both clearly aren't at this level, and need to get some consistent time with thier clubs in the first division. I would have thought USSoccer would rather have them with the 20s to see if they can be starters at the WC. Neal vs Wynder for (what I assume would be) the second centerback spot, and Gomez vs Wiley at left back would have been useful data points.
I agree to an extent, however the hype around some of these young guys had my expectations raised a bit. The negatives I was referring to weren’t that just 2 or 3 looked ready to contribute, which is about as expected, it was more due to the number of poor individual performances and not getting a result vs the Serbia D team at home.
He was disappointing for me as well, as a big supporter. I rewatched, and I think some of the criticism is misplaced. He had quite a few key defensive stops, particularly on erstwhile counters. It was a tough game for pressure defense because everyone was pretty much playing at a different level, which led to some holes. That, and the fact that Serbian had numbers in the midfield most of the time made it a challenge. But I don't think he was poor defensively. Offensively, he just wasn't aggressive enough. I don't know if he was told to be the "settle down" guy, or if he was too far back or whatever, but he didn't show what he can do except a few times. I think most of it is in his head, and despite me wanting to see him at the 6 before, I do actually wonder if you wouldn't be better off pushing him forward just to change up the mentality. It didn't help him Gomez was on his side. I've seen some people say he played well, but I've watched it twice now and he was unreliable despite Serbia basically letting him have free reign. Hopefully Paxton gets another shot and hopefully more confidence. I will say that I'm not sure he's ever had that confidence post-injury. He paces himself a lot more now. I suspect Gomez would not have been released for the U20 camp but was for the senior team. Same with Paxten. Neal may have been similar or it may merely have been that they needed a CB. I was actually very impressed with Neal. The two mistakes were terrible, and if we were talking A team, it'd be bad, but he's 19 with time to work on that. If anything, I was most disappointed with Walker today. I know this camp is a bit of a let down, but he's there to set the tone. And what Zimmerman did best last cycle was lock in and focus. That dude made the right decision 99.9% of the time. That wall was sloppy. That focus and aggression are what Neal needs to learn. Those mistakes were lack of confidence and decisiveness, not physical or technical.
Virtually every player here has not played for at least a month or two, and they had 3-4 days of camp. There's some serious rust, and really no rapport. It's also worth noting that Hudson deliberately basically dumbed everything down because it is too much to process in too little time. I would have rather we won, and probably care more than I should. But they scored on two very dumb, amateur mistakes that I don't think Zimmerman makes in a real game and Neal is a 19 year old CB. We missed a lot of chances, so I guess that's not great, but we generated a lot of chances. It took us a while for players to find their space. It might have been a Serbia D team, but it wasn't much different on our end. We had Walker, but after that? They might move up, but coming into the game, it was mostly 3rd-5th stringers ... so yeah, a D-ish team.
This hasn't gotten as much attention that I've seen, but it was clearly a work in progress. The sound balance was bad too.
Agree about the rust and and lack of prep time. We called the guys in ridiculously late. However, based on the talent level and hype around some of these players, like Gomez and Sonora, I was hoping some would seize the moment and show why they were called. Pomykal looked great at the youth level but now looks a shell of the player he was (I know injuries played a part). Slonina got beat by a savable shot for the second goal. Some of our more established players looked poor as well. Hoppe has fallen so far since his time in the BL. He was invisible out there. Also I expected more from an A team starter in Zimmerman. His amateur challenge vs Wales cost us in a real game, so he had a track record of poor decision-making. Jumping out of the way of that free kick was inexcusable. I guess the Serbia players are mid season, but still playing at home you’d hope for at least a draw.
I need to see how some of these guys look in the second game before judging. Like Zendejas (who won't be back for the next game) looked much better once Jones came in. Was that the reason or was it something else? Did the replacement 8's look better because they were better or because they had Acosta behind them (and with Adams would all look even better?). Gomez looked better once Jones came on - that is similar to the Weah / Reyna fit with different right backs.
I'm still a huge Hoppe fan. Saw him play for Schalke and also though that he was one of the 3 best US field players at the B team Gold Cup in 2021. A disorganized January camp sub appearance does not change those facts for me. He looked indecisive the few touches he had v Serbia. Hoppe does need to find a situation where he is playing every matchday to get his confidence and play back in sync. Not prepared to write off a 21 yo with his work-rate, quickness, ball skills, size, and mentality.
All of these guys are going to look better with better players, but some will look better than others. I would say that Zendejas, in particular, looked better once Jones could take the outside, but also when Sonora moved out of the space he was looking to get in. Those two really couldn't connect well, and having Acosta control the back and Morris be more of a chaos merchant there worked better than two ball control guys in the same space and no one to get them the ball or to provide width. Somewhat the same for Pomykal on rewatch -- felt like he was holding position, making the right movements -- if not aggressive enough -- but the other CMs and Gomez has much less of a sense of where to go. Which makes sense -- I imagine Nico Estevez shares a lot of common roles with the Berhalter system that Hudson was doing a lite version of. Made me appreciate Neal's positives more as well. Generally understood when to step up and move into space; some of the better passing as well.
Not much to take from this match, but what the heck. I thought man for man, the Serbs were more skilled, bigger, and faster. But, we looked like we played as a team better. BUT, that is a flaw of Gregg's system. It flatter's to deceive. Basically, it's: let's progress the ball slowly up the field, so that we're always under pressure, but it's manageable pressure. You're going to look good in the midfield. Speaking of Gregg's system. Super disappointed that the default is we.must.run.the.system. I was say that therefore, the prime directive must be coming from above Gregg. But, as of today, there is no "above Gregg." We saw again, that Gregg's system provides no service to the 9. Gressell's pass was definitely "out of system." If Gregg was around, I'd half expect him to chide Gressell for making that pass. Players: I thought Sonora looked good. Cowell was spectacular, but he's not a very good passer. A note on Cowell and The System. A big reason we bogged down on O in the WC - we'd get the ball high and wide and do nothing. Mr. High/Wide would pass it into the box to a guy who had no options, who passed it back out. Cowell was attacking into to the box on the dribble, which our high/wides never.did. in the WC. For that, kudos to CC. Beautiful header by Vasquez. Zendejas looks very skilled. I'd like to see what he looks like as an 8/10. Gomez looked like a guy that warrants further looks. I thought Hoppe looked great and got open. We just didn't look for him at all. Maybe that's a Hoppe thing, maybe that's a Gregg's invisible 9 thing, maybe it's a C-team-friendly-against-Serbia's-C-Team thing. The only decent pass to a 9 came from a former club teammate (Gressell to Vasquez, obviously) But, I'd like to see more of both Hoppe and Vasquez. That is all.
Everyone obviously is allowed to have their own opinion, but what I don't understand is saying you don't see any of these guys on the 2026 roster. I mean, how can any of us, predict what any player will be in 3 1/2 yrs. Especially the ones that are 18/19/20 yrs old? Most of these guys were in their first camp, that has lasted 1 week. Playing a 4-3-3 that they probably don't play much in a system that is new to them. Even though I thought Morris looked bad, I also know he had ACL surgery, is out of season and in a new system with guys he's been with for a week. Way too hard to predict anything. Take Cowell for example, he's very raw. But what I liked about him was his aggressive play and desire to go right at the defense. That's something we don't really have much and in some ways reminded me of Donavon early in his career. Now before anyone thinks I'm comparing abilities to Donavon. I'm NOT. But he played fast , decisive and quick which Landon did. The one position I don't see the US have at any level right now is that true 10. Now maybe the system is what doesn't show that or maybe we have the right guy but don't play him in that position. We have a lot of talented wingers, several guys who can play a recessed striker, but a true 10? Again, maybe that 10 is on the roster. Maybe Pulisic could play that role, maybe Weah (although I really like Weah out wide or even as a false 9 with a true target striker pairing. don't know.
At first I thought you were describing Zimmerman. Neal is a19 yo 6'3" 170 lbs (soaking wet??) very young defender who just played on his off side for the full USMNT squad. He is a baby. What stood out was his comfort, calmness, and precision in handling and passing the ball, especially his forward line-breaking passes. The last US CB that I can remember with similar attributes was a young Tim Ream (23 yo) at NYRB. Ream also had early hiccups including at the Gold Cup under BB and a few months later under Klinsmann when he came on as a sub at his home stadium and promptly gave up the winning goal vs Ecuador IIRC. Neal's ability to handle and pass the ball as a CB gives him a very high ceiling. He has the size and will grow into his frame. Seems to have good speed and quickness. He is definitely one to watch for the future.
I think your take on the 9 is spot on. Obviously Gressell had a beautiful pass into Vasquez, but is that truly "in system" for what GGG wanted to run? I am truly beginning to think it's the system as much as the 9 pool that is hurting the 9 position. this system just doesn't seem to service the 9 and maybe I need to re-evaluate my expectations of anyone and everyone at that spot. I mean it seems the team just doesn't even try to put in service for the 9.
62% vs 38% possession, 4 vs 2 shots on target. Hit the woodwork twice. And most of the Serbian players were in the middle of their season.
I need to see Cowell take charge of the U20 team. That guy should be throwing around 20 year old and under bodies all over the field. He needs to be THE guy. The guy that demands to be the prime show. Possibly even the captain.
I'm not sure what that would prove, though. I mean, physically, the U20s won't match up, but it's men that he really has to beat to have a future. I'd think the time would be better spent with the Earthquakes. Starting. Unless they're still not going to start him.
AFAIK the Serbian league has been on break since before the world cup and won't resume until the first week in February.
Williamson is the closest thing to an attacking midfielder on the roster. His starting against Colombia could add something more to the attack.
I have heard absolutely nothing about Kikanovic to AEK Athens lately. That must have fell through again. Would be big sad about that. Because its best for both Benji and Cade.