Players gave it their all. Experience will help. Roster selection, lack of player rotation and lineups definitely hurt us. For 2026 we really need a new set of CB's, an ACM and a striker. And I hope people see drawing conclusions from competitions like the GC doesn't matter. The entire cycle needs to be focused around how we stack up against top 10 sides. The expectations during the cycle need to increase.
LVG gave them a good game plan, we made three mental errors defensively, they were clinical. We also were definitely tired some. It didn’t matter but Wright was much better today, ran behind, pressed, even got a goal. Core of the team is good and going to be around next time. Turner was outstanding today…Dest was great until the lack of tracking… Reyna was Jesus Ferreira for about 10 minutes and then started making plays like everybody thought. Meets expectations cup, the search for center backs starts for 2026, and all eyes on Pepi, Wright, and Sargeant to see who can grow into the player we need.
This game was lost when Greg was chosen as coach, left as coach, and allowed to choose the squad and player rotations.
Not one of these commentators is recognizing that fatigue impacts attention and things like tracking and decision making. The players know they need to track back. But they were drained.
Some ok stuff, but never a serious enough threat. Complete impotence in the final third is not going to take this team any further. If that’s a goal, then the team has to change. Team was tired mentally and physically and it showed. Players and coach didn’t have a good sense of the game state and the situation. That killed them. I’m glad they got through the group stage, but they aren’t going further with Gregg. This is the ceiling for his style. Maybe that’s enough, but this team loses in the R16 every time, right?
Greg was outcoached Dutch played rope a dope Dutch were clinical (Adams and Dest made crucial mistakes) we did not score more than one goal when it mattered midfield was gassed from the games before poor rotation by Greg in games before and that hurt us Dutch were better but we could have done better so what will USSF do next we MUST be able to score more goals from the chances we have and generating better chances second half we just did not know how to break the Dutch down Fair play and good luck to the Dutch
Fatigue plus our players simply looking a bit naive and outclassed by a legit team. We’re still missing some big moment composure, but that’s understandable given the age and inexperience. Yes, we have some impressive club pedigree compared to previous generations, but the World Cup knockouts are a unique and highly elevated challenge in their own right.
Post Game Bullet Pointed Rant Wrong lineup. Some wrong subs but not as wrong as previous games. Reyna. Just saying. Does someone really need World Cup experience not to repeatedly leave a man wide open far side post? Can Alexi please finally admit it's okay to trash Berhalter? At least today? Next cycle semis. Calling it now. Set a remind me folks.
We need to stop building the team around Pulisic. Yes he should be included, but his production is that of a normal World Cup standard MF, not a superstar. And his set pieces are awful. Still pissed at his two slow grounders right at the keeper. Compare that to the Dutch MFs shots.
Disappointed. I thought Berhalter was good for the program changing the culture after Couva, but I think he has brought us as far as he's going to. So naïve, and the subs needed to be more proactive.
Young team + fatigue and the Dutch punished us on all three if their big chances. 1) against run of play 2) right before halftime 3) miscommunication poor marking at the back post We had our chances too but weren't clinical.
I forgot to mention Ferreira. I feel bad for us and for him that he played. I even argued that if we didn't start Reyna, well, might as well throw him out there because we wouldn't win any crosses anyway and would have to dribble through them to have a chance but he was SO SO SO RUSTY. Being off since October did not help, but man, he played a role with a give away in one of their goals and did not have a quality touch until we were already down, and that one touch (a good one) was I think his only decent play in the half. This was one of those performances, like Clark against Ghana 12 years ago, where he should've been pulled off after 20 minutes and Wright should've been brought in. It was that bad. He'll be back, but we wont be this cycle.
Gregg couldn’t answer that question so he just said the guys fight for each other and we made progress. That’s what we get. Guys that fight for each other and make some sort of progress that cannot be identified by the manager.
* Team picked a very bad time to hustle selectively. All three Dutch goals were contributed to by US players switching off - Adams / Musah, Dest, and Robinson, respectively. * Fitness and form were surprisingly significant issues. It's all well and good that players can earn big paychecks at Chelsea, Juventus, and Milan, to share some examples, but if they aren't getting big minutes, I'm not sure what it does for the national team. For the sake of the USMNT, it's more important to get a consistent starting role at whatever level. * I disagree with the idea that this group will mature and learn from this. You either get it or you don't. We don't get to start the 2026 World Cup at the knockout stage. * Gaping hole at striker. Now taking applications. * Just not enough depth. We're not there now and it's going to take a while to get there. Multiple players just not trusted enough to put on the field. * Thanks to our defensive lapses, Dutch played that game in second gear. Wouldn't be surprised if the Dutch make the semis. A team that can play defense and play smart can go far in the World Cup.
Stream of thought: Baffling to start Jesus. Reyna and Aarosnon should have started at least one group stage game. Scally should have been used. Wright and Sargent did about as well expected (1 goal between them). Pulisic did as well as you can expect him too. Absolutely should have taken Pepi if you were going to resort to starting a way out of form Jesus in a knockout round. Please get a new coach who attempts to play to our players strengths and opponents tactics instead of a iron clad system. Also just because we have a midfield trio who can run all day does not mean that should be our main mode of operations. That should be selectively used based on the game state. Oh, and I hope some coach demadn that Weah plays as a forward. He's wasting potential out there on the wing. He has the sharpest off the ball movement currently in the pool at forward.
Wow, some of you guys are acting like spoiled brats. Grow up. Round of 16 is a disappointment? You're delusional. The coach was "embarrassed" by the other coach? Why? Because we lost? Because a damn good Dutch team beat us? We battled till the end, and we had as many shots as they did. We had 2 great chances in the first half we didn't finish. If anyone should be "embarrassed" it should be LvG for "letting" HW score on him. Some of you need to grow up.
This is true. To advance a long way in this tournament, I think we need so much more talent that we can be in second gear in the group stage. We ran ourselves into the ground just to make it this far.
Agree with everything but want to emphasize this. Such a frustration that we have been so consistently bad in this aspect for so long, and if anything were even worse than usual this tournament. I mean we just did nothing with corners and close to nothing with free kicks. Even on the occasion there was a good ball played into a dangerous spot there wasn’t anyone there to challenge, like ever. How the hell do we bring in a “corner kick expert” and look that….. hapless?