It felt like I was watching a youth US match, but I really enjoyed it. Some good pieces of skill, a bunch of room for growth. But, they’re kids and kids grow (unless your name is Freddy). Every time I see a World Cup add I get a little sad and then ticked off. That is all.
I thought Robinson was taking a chance on his man because he knew he had the recovery speed to bail him out. He won't have that against top wingers.
It was hard watching that match after the CL final Saturday, but we saw some of the same brilliant goalkeeping. As with Paraguay, I fail to comprehend playing a one Forward system against a team that did not exactly resemble Etcheverry's and Moreno's Bolivia. But we did not want for chances. Liked Sargent, Robinson, and Rubin. Weah and Corona were okay. The defenders were mostly untested. Pulisic and McKinnie disappointed. Substitutes were mostly meh. Boy, that team has some size though, lots of 6 footers. Why did our guys all appear to be wearing a bra?
Wondered that myself. Apparently they are performance trackers. Actually the means to wear the performance tracking devices.
Um those are bundesliga minutes not BVB minutes. He had 173 Europa league minutes and 374 Champions league minutes. SO he had 2860 in all competitions for BVB and at least 360 USMNT minutes. Not sure what your ax to grind against Pulisic is, but not many attacking players play those kinds of minutes. No kids playing against GAM do that on the regular without a drop off. I am all for letting him go home and enjoy the summer if it can be done with everybody happy about it. But carry on. He is suffering from fatigue. It is more than just tired, he needs to get away from the game for a minute, stay with his mom and dad with family roasting on him, run with his mates for a bit, and just chillax while his whole being recharges.
Just got home from the 2 hour drive from Chester. I am actually quite surprised that no one has mentioned Palmer-Brown. With all due respect to Zimmerman, what I saw from the stands told me that EPB had a better defensive game as his partner. He was quicker, cleaner in his passing, better in recovery ... essentially cleaning up a few situations that could have been messes that Zimmerman just didn't have the movement to put out himself. But because Zim scored, he is getting all the plaudits. I'm glad for him, and he obviously wasn't bad, but both Robinson AND EPB were better than him along the backline, by a fairly substantial amount, from my seat in Talen Energy.
My MOTM. Robinson has near Yedlin-level pace, shifty with the ball at his feet, is a willing tenacious defender, has a nice variety of crosses, has good technical ability and is a LB. Dreams do come true!
Two contrasting feelings watching it: #1: I wish we could have scheduled a World Cup Qualifying side of some quality, or a team that just missed out like Ghana again. Bolivia is bad enough if you aren't playing at 50,000 feet or whatever elevation their home qualifiers are played at, but playing them at home, when they are sending what sounds like a C team over (sounds like players from their top 4 domestic club sides weren't available or did I not hear that right?) is just a waste of time, I really appreciated the quality of most of the games they've scheduled for 2018, but this one smelled a bit unpleasant from the jump and was just a debacle. #2: It was fantastic to watch the kids play together and just to envision what we could have going forward heading to 2022 if everyone can stay healthy AND we have reinforcements on the way too. I find myself imagining a consistently healthy Taitague and what he could add to this group. The future could be very bright, they just need to continue to keep developing, and stay healthy. Everything depends upon those two things. Really curious what changes he'll make for the final two games. Definitely seems like they need to rest Pulisic, allow him to get a month rest many of his teammates won't be getting, the schedule will be jam packed going forward in 2019-2022 (though I pray we save him for games in the Gold Cup against Mexico and Costa Rica and Caribbean sides, rather than the thug ball sides that seem bound and determined to end his career before it even gets started).
And nobody ever seems to remotely pay enough attention to what the coaches see in training. That's always seemingly been underrated by most posters, and considering none of us see training, I often wonder how many of the inexplicable decisions would be explicable if we actually saw what they saw in training? Not sure what the answer is, but I bet training sessions explain many of the weirdest decisions we've seen.
Bono 5. The average score for a man who didn't have anything to do. Zimmerman 6. He scored the first, was everywhere in the first half, looked good. EPB 5. Again, someone who had nothing to do. Lichaj 5. Yep, same as above. Robinson 7. My MOTM, started attacks, stopped their counters, and distributed well. Awesome play + cross for the goal. McKennie 5. My main concern is that one day he's going to get a red when it's going to cost us. Should have seen the yellow earlier. Corona 6. Had a solid game, recovered many balls, read the passing lanes of the Bolivians well. Pulisic 4. He was supposed to be the hub for the attack, but was a turnover machine. Weah 5. Scored, but needed a lot of attempts to finally get it. I can see a player that will be frustrating against teams that give fewer chances than this sorry Bolivia. Rubin 4. This is a man who looks like he does more than what he actually does. In a game where he had several shots, not one was on frame. Sargent 6. Always dangerous, and showed a bit of cunning in the goal Lampe gifted him. Want to see more. Subs: Parks 5. He showed some flashes, but I need to see this guy play more for the team. One of three subs at 61' (for Corona). Green 4. Not impressed, sorry. One of three subs at 61' (for Weah). Novakovich 4. It must be hard to have your first cap as a striker when the guy supposed to be feeding you assists (Pulisic) is having a lousy game, and the guy who was covering your back (Corona) just got replaced. One of three subs at 61' (for Sargent). Something was off with the subs, after them not only we failed to score again, but Bolivia had their first almost-decent counters. Gooch 3. He looked like a League One player already. One of two subs at 73' (for Rubin). Olosunde 5. Same as with Lichaj, he did his duty, but nothing hard required from him. One of two subs at 73' (for Lichaj). Villafaña. Not enough time to judge. Sarachan 5. Managed to give time to the kids, and beat a lousy team 3-0. On the other hand, the passing was uncoordinated enough at first to make you wonder what the heck he does in the tactical department. Bolivia 1. They came just because they didn't want to get sued. And it showed. The only one who showed some pride was their initial goalkeeper, Viscarra, who kept Weah and Sargent honest.
My big problem with his game tonight, and why I was so disappointed, especially with the hype by some members here (your 5 is generous), is that he had 4 or 5 bad fouls, not because he is a hard man or was playing tough, but because he was out of control. A BL player should not be out of control against a team that looks USL quality.
I'm really impressed that Sargent played basically the same game with the men as he did with the U-17's. His hold up play was great, he made smart runs, and he tracked back hard, defensively. He's been promoted so rapidly in the last year and he hasn't looked out of place or had any big adjustment periods yet. Looks like he just has that smart and technical game that translates at every level.
Bolivia might have been worse than the us jerseys. The fact that it's possible they were means there is almost nothing to be learned from this match. On top of that, the ref did not call the game like a typical concacaf ref. (Which is good but misleading). This takes away the remaining small possibility of learning anything from the match. Good to see some new faces though.
Sure, MB90 can be called up. Just not as a starter. He can get a game once we win the the group if it comes to that.
Out of 10. But, let's be honest, when you're playing a team that is disinterested in giving you a game, can you honestly give 8s or 9s?
I completely agree, but he's a CB in a game where we were rarely tested, and he's not in the group of players that gets talked up regularly, unless its by some here who watch him play regularly. The announcers didn't have storylines about him, like they did with Sargent, Weah, McKennie, Pulisic. They were talking about Pulisic playing a game near home, Weah being Tim Weah not George Weah's son, Parks journey to Portugal, McKennie in the Champions League next year. EPB isn't part of their talking points. In fact, they'd probably rank him behind Miazga and Carter-Vickers because they got to play at the last camp and had more games this season than EPB. He's just not going to be a player to get a lot of attention, but I'd argue the kid has more talent at his position than any player in the player pool. Some of these players need to be talked up to fuel the discussion surrounding them because their performances are underwhelming. The opposite is true of EPB. He is rarely talked about and has gotten pretty unlucky so far in his career compared to some players who've gotten pretty lucky. But his performances speak instead of the media types hyping him up. I hope he gets to play against France. I suspect we'll see Miazga and Carter-Vickers against Ireland.
Watching on tv tends to bias people towards the player who had more on or near ball defensive activity which is a bad way to rate a defender. I was happy with the whole teams defensive performance but I thought EPB was impeccable.