It's so weak as to be absurd. As long as there are people of different races on the team, then any player who is not performing well could be considered to be on the team because of their race. Is that the standard that you want for what is/isn't good evidence for racism? Lichaj had a bad game and is White, must be racism.
Especially since that would seem to be the logical thing to try based on all that we have seen and know.
It does require tactical positioning and smartly directly lines-of-play but it is a basic requirement that one is a ball-winner. MB was not and it doesn't appear that Trapp is at this level at least.
A function of weak US winger/forward prospects, not exceptional talent. Chich was really talented. None of those guys come close to being as good as him.
I think that folks who did not see Jones in his prime underestimate just how good he really was. In the 2008 season Jones was considered the best CM in the BuLi and was a world class soccer athlete who was measured at 35 kph, could run for 90 minutes, and was famous for making box-to-box sprints after the 80 min mark when everyone else had dead legs. Weston is not the same kind of stud athlete and the expectation that he would be another JJ13 is quickly leaving 04 fans. Weston has the mentality and a supreme work-ethic but lacks JJ's speed and quickness, especially recovery speed. McKennie already has better tight space control than even pre-injury Jones. Adams is close to Jones in the pace/quickness/work-rate attributes but clearly does not have Jones' size or strength. As hard as it is for a Schalke homer to admit, I believe that Adams will likely be a more successful BuLi CM than McKennie.
Yeah, I got it, but Lichaj does not play game after game after weak performances, and in fact, he was subbed out, not named captain and starting over and over again. But I agree, it is not racism. Trapp should be out of the lineup now, though. We have seen enough, he is not international quality.
Williams Huddersfield? McKennie Schalke? Dax Chicago? Bedoya Philly? Alexander Houston? are all players who have USMNT caps.
I think there may be something to the theory. From Bob thru Bruce, they always seemed to be protecting Bradley and Jones from competition, keeping a spot warm for their return. It made no sense they wouldn't play Holden in cm initially, then eventually Geoff Cameron. Danny Williams was also often conspicuous in his absence. These days Roldan, in spite of being arguably the biggest American standout in MLS, pretty much only plays wide and for a few minutes at a time these days. Generally I appreciate the diamond formation for our personnel, but to play it in Trinidad was irrational given we needed to 2 in front of the back-line to protect from being scored upon when a tie would have sufficed. Us playing the 433 is situationally dependent on if it's going to be reduced to a 451 or not which it often would. And 4141 just hasn't fit our personnel plus makes even less sense if we play tough opponents or organized ones. At the end it seemingly always comes back to the belief that we couldn't function without Bradley and/or Jones so bemoaning their permanent presence was unwarranted. Gotta welcome them back with open arms. Does anybody really believe that has been true over an 8-yr period? It comes down to confirmation biases and personal relationships with other coaches and players. Really not that provocative.
It didn't really improve significantly until the 2nd half. The last 5 mins were better because of the reason you describe with Green, but once Adams moved back, we could finally retain possession and sustain attacks. Previously, we tried to play through Lichaj/Moore, who were black holes in possession. Not to mention the fact that Trapp was easily marked out by Mexico's press, which prevented him from being an outlet for our CB's.
It was partially because we brought in a 10 period, but even more so the fact we were up a man. However, that doesn't mean Trapp hasn't also been creating dysfunction by looking for him too much to slow down the attack and then having him try to pass thru the defense like he's Xavi.
So what you are saying is that Sarachan and company out coached the Mexican coaches? I find that hard to swallow but I guess it could be true. Stranger things have happened in the football world.
Sarachan fumbled into an improved attacking display. Just like how JK had weird lineups that were improved with subs, this game was improved through subs, because the starting XI and formation was so godawful.
? If I have to explain, then you don't get it. Players get played despite fan objections. Why did JK keep capping Bobby Wood? Why did he play Green despite the fact that he was a BMU reserve player? Why did Michael Bradley start and play every minute of the cycle last year (51/54 games since the World Cup that he was available for)? Why did Jordan Morris get caps under JK as someone that he saw in a scrimmage @ Stanford? Coaches have favorites, blind spots, or poor evaluations. Sarachan's dumb, that's why Trapp's being played so often, and in a role that hurts more than helps the team. Sarachan thinks he's a good leader, or thinks that the captaincy somehow will help him, so he made him captain. It's called being wrong, not everything is about race, hidden or otherwise.
When Beckerman was the age Trapp is now he had just moved to RSL from the Rapids and was coming off his first cap in that year's January camp. People disliked him pretty much until 2013-14, when he was 31-32. The best avenue to eliminate the need for a 6 (whether sole, with an 8 next to him, or by splitting the duties between two players) is to go with 3 CB's. Which is something I think we should be doing anyway. That 3rd CB would allow Adams and McKennie more freedom to ballhawk than a 4-2-3-1 because there would be a central-ish player free to step to attackers in the gap between the midfield and the backline and it replicates the cover in transition a 6 provides (instead of a DM sliding to cover for an overlapping FB a CB just takes that space while the other two cover more central areas). The next biggest things people need to think about are, "What system did we just see and how should that affect my evaluations"? Formation ≠ System. Do we think we saw a well oiled Dutch/Spanish juego de posicion system out of a 4-1-4-1 like Tuchel used at the start of Pulisic's first full season? Were there ample short connecting and long field-spreading passing options? Did we see coordinated movement leading to numerical advantages in high leverage areas of the field?