Just a couple of things stood out: 1. Coaches always want speed on attack, but the truth is speed on defense and press is probably more critical to success. Today you saw a fast US team defend. Not more not less. Ireland also packed it in but they couldn't match our recovery or defensive speed all over the pitch. 2. Wood. I want you guys to do me a favor. Find three kids of any size. Get a big bag of candy and tell those kids: who ever touches this bag of candy first gets this candy. That was Wood today. He had no support. On an island. If he tries to hold the ball he gets instantly dispossessed by three players. His only realistic option was to turn and burn...and it looks like dog $hit 99% of the time but seriously how can you blame him? On one of his turns and burns the ball ends up on the wing and green scores. So too all those geniuses just let me tell you something Thierry Henry also looked like dog $shit in this exact position. No striker makes this line up work.
Nagbe plays like he's in a kitchen. By that I mean that he plays like there's four walls around him and he can't see and is not aware of anything going on outside that 150 sq ft kitchen.
I'd say he was a mixed bag in terms of experiments. For example, he started about as veteran of a team as he could against Paraguay, and made limited subs. But the roster was pretty experimental to begin with. And overall we only had 1 game per camp the last 3. He doesn't do the scheduling. That was the main issue. We'd know more now going into post WC friendlies and next year's GC if we had played 3 more games, even if we had to suffer through them. The federation were pinching pennies, pouting, and indecisive I think.
I think we can quibble about his subs, but his rosters have been sensible given our rebuild impetus and as dissatisfied as I am with his lack of emphasis on creativity, we’ve been in every game since the T&T debacle. No blowout losses to destroy our kids’ confidence. All in all, he did his job. Thanks, Coach. We all look forward to his long-term replacement.
I think it's mostly a product of inferior coaching at every level - from one's parents in early life to youth and professional coaches along the way. The good news is that it should continue to get better with ever improving economics and a growing soccer culture. If I was in charge of our program, I would quadruple down on investing in coaching improvement initiatives. I'd put up free videos on the Internet and market them to parents. And I'd especially subsidize any coaching program likely to benefit American coaches, and by extension the American player.
That shouldnt have been the objective. I really dont think France came to play. It will be clearer in a couple weeks if that is true. If we cant possess the ball, we arent winning anything. Even if we arent going to play that way, we need players who are capable of doing so. Possession would have been great to relieve pressure and wouldnt had to just defend for long stretches.
Did you even read what you wrote? First you call for France with at least 5 goals. Then you turn around and say they were only playing at 50% and had 69 v 31% possession. Give it a rest. France was very frustrated by our kids. Is France better? Well duh. But at the end of the day you want it both ways, Say they will crush us then when they don't its because they were only going 50% because they didn't want to get hurt? Guess what. You KNEW it was a friendly and a week before the WC when you predicted they'd scored at least 5 goals. They didn't. Man up and admit you overestimated how good France is, underestimated the fortitude of our kids, or both. And by the way if you have played this game much you know that one of the easiest ways to get hurt is to play not to get hurt.
I think that the Sargent and Pulisic combination has a lot of potential for the future. I haven't seen Parks enough to comment but the near future should have at least one other central mid entering into the conversation. We have several in the 16-19 range if I'm not mistaken. If one turns out to be the real deal, 20+ years won't be too young to put into our team in a real comp.
He's basically playing the 8 for a team AVERAGING OVER 2 GOALS A GAME. Who's doing all the possessing through midfield?
I agree with most everyone in here on the main points, but have one major disagreement, Julian Green. He was much better in possession and helping in tight spaces than anyone is giving him credit for. Dude had a solid game even without the very well taken goal. Stefan and Robinson were excellent, really bummed not to see Weah play in France, that is a real head scratcher.
Even playing within himself, he turns the ball over, gets beaten and run off the ball. I think the best thing he could do for our national team is teach Adams how to play like him.
They were pressing, defending, possessing, tracking back, and driving forward. For an example of team that doesn't take friendlies serious, see the Germans. Depends on the type of possession and the opponent. And generally, we aren't winning against teams of France's caliber.
Woo Hoo...........We can bunker against a top team. I really don't know what this type of game tells us. Steffen, Miazga, and Adams I thought played well. Mckennie obviously has talent but played some odd balls. Moore looked decent but he can't make a pass up the sideline. Missed numerous times. Parker is good at running around and defending but just can't complete a pass. It was embarrassing. Would have liked to see Brooks there. Trapp is too slow and struggled turning upfield. Pulled a Bradley and just kept passing backward. Nice goal by Green. Liked Robinson. Thought our lineup just needed some more experience to complete some passes. Oh well We tied. Good feeling.
France were idiotic to drop rabiot. He would have been excellent today playing off greezer and jiroo. France have no player style diversity. Dechump has decided he can out-talent every team rather than out-play them. Same with Spain. I can't remember seeing a worse group of national team managers.
It sounds like 97531 thinks Trapp and EPB were our best players? Anybody guess that in advance and anybody else agree? Im a yes and a no.
Saief is ideally the starter, especially as a wingback, and Danny Acosta will be breaking through soon. Robinson is certainly a good bet to be the starter though.
I have to agree with those who say Sarachan has done a pretty good job as caretaker manager, even though he clearly should not be in contention for the permanent gig. He' s consistently gone with very young squads, leaving almost every veteran at home throughout his time in charge. Which tells me he wasn't just playing for results, even if he didn't always use all his subs. (Today, I think it was fine to give these players an opportunity to see out a result against a top side; that might be as good a learning experience and may tell us more about these players than another brief cameo appearance would). He identified a couple of young pairings that may end up being the spine of our team in 4 years, such as Miazga-CCV or McKennie-Adams, and gave them plenty of minutes to establish a partnership early. (It's way too early to make solid predictions about these things, but I do think you have to bet on some of these pairings early and given them time to grow). And by giving Steffen and Robinson (to name two players) multiple starts, he may have helped us plug a few holes in our lineup and allowed us to have some more consistency there going forward. We'll see. And I say all of that as someone who never really liked Sarachan in MLS. I always thought his sides were tenacious and organized, but fairly dull and uninspiring (and dirty, if I'm being honest). Which is part of the reason I wouldn't want to see him past July. But for now, I'm pretty happy with the job he's done.
Random thoughts: - Sarachan, with the exception of Bolivia, consistently setup the team “not to lose.” I hope the next coach is more optimistic in their approach. - Moore and Robinson both did well. Those French attackers often carve full backs to pieces. The kids did OK today. - McKennie and Adams have not been able to create many chances in a 3 man midfield. And Trapp’s defense is too soft. Hopefully we see a lot of different options and formations tried. This one has not been great. - This group of kids at CB are already playing better than last cycle’s. Miazga and CCV seem to have the edge, but competition is tight. - Sargent and Wood are going to be factors in the next cycle. I wish Sarachan had given them a few minutes together, but that would have been riskier than Sarachan can handle. - Green is going to have a role. Corona should not. Weah is going to be a big part of things. Steffen looks like he is ahead of the rest, and is much better than Hamid.