Post-match: USA v. South Korea - September 6, 2025 - International Friendly

If Balo were a plus-finisher, Arsenal would've wanted to keep him, at least as a super-sub. As it is, he's a decent top-level CF, probably our best. Our other one, Pepi, IS a plus-finisher. The others are various degrees of below top tier.

 

Yeah. This roster would never get the job done.

 

Poch is ignorant to our player quality and severely overrates the pool.

There’s a massive drop off after our top 10-15 players and the Europe v MLS argument is largely a distraction and irrelevant.

Poch thinks he can just pull players #30-50 from our pool and plug them in vs top 25 sides and they’ll do the job. He apparently thinks the average American player he’s pulling are considerably better than they are.

His lack of experience in calling guys from sub top leagues is showing. You really have to zero in on the player and their profile, attributes, because our program is littered with guys who couldn’t translate their games to the NT.

Worse, this shit is hurting our top end. Most of our top players have not looked good during his tenure.

 

Between now and March, I want a combination of auditions for Richards' partner and 3-back trials until something sticks. (And the opposite will be needed as a tournament tactical adjustment, at any rate.)

 

Balogun has 1,100 US minutes since his debut 2 years ago and played in 15 consecutive matches (13 starts) before his shoulder injury.

His consistent involvement with the US is a universe apart from the sparse opportunities that Sargent has had.

Sargent spent a full year away from the team in 2021-22, got one friendly, then 3 games at the World Cup, didn’t play again for 18 months, got 2 games (22 minutes) at the Copa America 2024, two October friendlies after that, then had 1 cap in the last 12 months.

Basically, since he got good at Norwich, he has 6 caps totaling less than 300 minutes scattered over 2 years.

I think Balogun is a better player so he should get the bulk of the opportunities, but no striker is getting integrated into a team, club or country, with that sort of staggered involvement. It’s a baffling way to use a player.

My complaining about this is also just a way to vent my frustration about our weird infatuation with constantly expanding the pool instead of just sticking with a smaller group and trying to build a cohesive team. We’ve called up 78 players in the last 12 months. Portugal, to pick another country at random, has called up 36. It’s no wonder our teams always look confused and directionless - they are, because the players are basically strangers.

 

What's happening is Poch is still tinkering to find his final few of the 26 and it is sacrificing results and fans are losing patience and losing faith. Do you think Poch doesn't understand that Blackmon is not at the same level as Richards? Of course he does! But he wants to see whether Blackmon can be a replacement and the answer is no. I knew the answer before the game. Prepare yourselves, because we are going to get hammered again against Japan.

 

This is unbelievably frustrating, given the the past two years that we've endured, but... I'm sure that we all remember that Morocco side that we rolled 3-0 before the last WC.

 

I swear to God if Pulisic doesn’t get pulled off of corners and free kicks…

 

I think you’re right. And I can get past the arrogance of him managing that way, but I am concerned about his player selection. I do think there are some obvious poor choices he is making that he does not see as poor choices.

 

And, maybe. Or, definitely.

Putting Adams out there is reasonable, because he’s so strong defensively. But if you’re going to do that, you have to cover for his weakness (passing/ball progression) with other guys. IOW it can’t be Berhalter, who is good at late runs and free kicks, but not ball progression.

 

I have to rep it, you put in the work.
Has Balogun played for the US since Copa? Has Sargent actually played with the US more recently than Balogun?
They’ve both had injuries. Sargent has 29 caps, Balogun 18. Even in this microcosm today, Sarge had 60 mins and Balo 30. And that’s with Roldan, Freeman and Zendejas instead of Adams, Dest and Weah.

Balo 8 touches in the box, Sarge 1.

Maybe the US didn’t develop him right, I don’t know and don’t care it’s immaterial to the here and now.

What is it you like about him, beyond scoring in the champs? Not being snarky, just maybe we can find some common ground.

 

Hell yes! If Poch wants to show he’s the boss so badly, nip that ish in the bud!

 

I do not see it as arrogance. I just think he is following a process. However, I agree that some of his choices were obvious not to work, so at times I am left wondering what is he thinking. I cannot tell if he is a fraud or a misunderstood genius, but given his CV, I tend to lean towards the latter. We'll know more next summer. Many fans do not have the stomach nor the patience to see such a process play out, and I am starting to become one of them.

 

I'm re-watching the game. At the half .and ...Poch is kind of right. We did outplay them by a little. The crowd makes it seem like every Korean possession is dangerous. But they had those 2 chances and maybe a third. Which is not great. But Weah had two sitters and missed both. And we seemed to have a good number of other chances. As Poch said, not clinical enough.

 

Everyone knows he’s tinkering.

Most question who he’s tinkering with and as or more importantly, the timing and extent of it. We are becoming a non competitive program who is normalizing losing. That can have an immensely negative effect on the locker room even if everyone knows he’s tinkering. That’s why most coaches don’t do it.

And it in no way is an excuse for losing 7 consecutive against top 25 teams and being out scored 17-3. Coaches normally balance new blood while still prioritizing winning and collective performance. Or you lose the effing team. Why are people acting like both can’t be done? And if we aren’t competitive with the players he’s tinkering with than obviously they’re the wrong players. New players are supposed to add an injection with raw talent standing out.

 

On the first goal Ream had Blackmon's back. He should have told him not to front him because the off-side trap was not set.

 

Oh good. Now that we have ruled out Blackmon, we only have 635 USL players to try out and 3.5 million male youth soccer players.

Are people serious with this stuff? Like.. you really believe it’s a worthwhile exercise to “try out” all of these guys?

Like.. are other countries not calling up their best players playing at the best clubs to try out lower level players?

It’s just complete nonsense.

Has Thomas Tuchel tested and ruled out every English Championship player for the three lions?

Good god.

 

I think you missed the part where I said I knew the answer before the game.

 

I wish.

i do not disagree with what wrote, and I am starting to think he is taking this too far off the rails.

 

Yeah, Blackmon at this point made no sense. The automatic starts every match for Berhalter make little sense. I mean the team needs players like McKennie, Musah, Johhny at their best in midfield to beat World Cup level teams. Berhalter at his best is not going to be good enough. I like his effort, but that alone is not enough at this level.

 

A whole hell of a lot more than Blackmon makes no sense.

A World Cup is 3/4/5 (if we’re lucky) games.

There are actually pretty few minutes to spread around.

Guys like Berhalter/Blackmon/LDLT/McGlynn/Freeman etc etc should be nowhere near the field.

This whole exercise is simply absurd.

McKennie should be playing every minute at the WC. Musah should be playing almost every minute at the World Cup. Adams should be playing every minute at the world cup. Cardoso and Tessmann are players who may challenge to break into that midfield. Gio too but I don’t want to get into that.

This absolute farce that “Oh let me see if Jack fing McGlynn or Sebastian Berhalter or LDLT”or whoever is on these previously mentioned players level is just complete nonsense. They are not. Everyone with a brain knows they aren’t.

Thomas Tuchel is not starting Middlesbroughs Hayden Hackney to test and see if he is better than Real Madrids Jude Bellingham.

Give me a break with this nonsense.

 

With friendly windows, we can’t be sure which players the manager really rates vs. the experiments.

Having said that.

I don’t watch the French LLeague, but c’mon, if he can hold onto starter status there, he’s easily good enough to be on the roster.

 

Look at that buildup vs Brazil. Johnny - Musah - McKennie - Scally - McKennie.

Not a single one of them is in camp. https://t.co/X4viMx4uoc

— Justin Moran (@kickswish) September 7, 2025

 

No bro! These guys suck! Who we really need is 20 MLS games Alex Freeman/Sebastian Berhalter and Jack McGlynn!

This Poch thing is just outrageous.

 

With Norwich he looks fast, but this is a different level.