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

I agree Pulisic has not been great, I'm not arguing he has been. I'm arguing neither has the supporting cast of characters that Poch has brought in. Guys like Berhalter, Luna, Arfsten and Co. And I'm sorry you can't shit all over Pulisic and in the same sentence pretend Berhalter and Arfsten are some incredible footballers.

 

I would kill for getting grouped at a European WC, which we've done every time in history, vs. our grossly sub-standard play of not qualifying, getting grouped in regional tourneys at home, etc.

Our lowest Elo rating under Donovan was 34. We are currently 48th.

 

It's amazing your level of certainty. I'm sure if you are ever proven wrong, you will just brush it off. Are you Weston McKennie? Are you certain it can't help? You have so little information here and yet, you are so dead certain.

As for wasting this summer ... once again, how did Poch waste this summer? He didn't cause the injuries, the CWC and he wanted Pulisic and Musah to show. The roster he assembled was originally an A team.

Oh, he didn't have Josh Sargent? Or Joe Scally? Are we not over this again?

 

Look, I am not in the same bucket as Neitzsche at all.

But you and others haven't been saying that. You've been claiming that the loss is entirely on players like Berhalter and not saying a word about the poor performance of players you like.

And then you and others have been blaming the poor performance of Pulisic on players you don't like. Like, literally having to play with Berhalter made Pulisic sad or something and he couldn't perform.

Pulisic's a big boy. He plays well or poorly on his own accord. This isn't a case where he couldn't get the ball or people were inaccurate in passing to him. It's a case where he repeatedly made mistakes.

I think what most people -- not Nietsche; that dude has some weird hangups -- but what most people get frustrated with is this idea that our best player can simply do no wrong and the simple solution is to play the lineups we actually played with and lost in March or last summer.

Evaluate guys without your preconceptions. Blackmon and Berhalter weren't good. Arfsten was pretty good. Luna was fine in his role. Roldan and Freeman were good. Pulisic and Weah were bad. Sargent was poor. Adams wasn't very good. Dest was good on offense. Freese was okay. Balogun was good.

You want there to be a specific pattern you were looking for but it isn't there. There's other issues.

It's long past time to stop making excuses for any player.

 

You said Donovan didnt have down periods, that is absolutely not true. There were rough patches all throughout his career, one being getting grouped at the 2006 WC, whether that was in Europe or not is iirlevant.

I largely don't want to compare Donovan vs. Pulisic, I simply brought up the fact that Pulisic is on track to becoming the USMNT record goalscorer despite the fact that people shit all over his bad performances and excuse the bad performances of the cast of characters that surround him.

 

Tudor has know of McKennie’s ENTIRE tenure at Juve. He doesn’t think he’s a starter. And given that Juve won both matches McKennie got his combined 4 minutes in….he may be correct. But that has ******** all to do with Mckennie’s place and role in our pool.

How did he waste this summer? He concluded that players like Berhalter are legit contenders. Now if he was using this window to try to figure out who in the top end of our pool best complements Adams and Tillman…then I’d say it wasn’t a waste. But as usual…Ponch learns the wrong lessons from his experiments.

 

Playing the better player is nonsense?!?!?! What?!?!

 

Most of his decisions are poor. That was also him who for no reason tried to intercept a cross what led to an open header and a decent save from Freeze.

 

I think that's emo nonsense that you made up. He's not offended. I am sure he knows his core XI and he is still trying to figure out his core backups, but it's getting a bit late in the day. He does have a bit of a love affair with MLS no-hopers, but at the same time he has to fill his 26 man roster. What he is not getting is that most MLS players lack the tactical awareness to play at the international level. He has other problems like Ream is past his sell-by date, Dest is a defensive liability, and Weah, McKennie, and Musah are very inconsistent.

If Chris Richards had played the full 90 instead of Blackmon, then the game likely ends in a draw and fewer people are whining. Poch should probably be beaten with a dull spoon and forced to watch re-runs of Fuller House for that. I think the call to fire Poch is a bit much, but I understand the sentiment. I can give you 6M reasons not to fire him. I would also say that he is overrated as a manager.

 

You didn't answer my question. How are you so certain?

This seems barely coherent to me. You seem very angry and what's coming out doesn't make a ton of sense at all.

For example, it was the Gold Cup and that time that Tillman actually showed up for the first time, but clearly it was time wasted.

 

There is also a question how Luna and Pulisic play together. As one guy who understands the game better than me noticed Luna consistently goes to Pulisic places and takes him out of the game.

 

I still suspect that he will be in a much better situation in a few months.

 

We would get obliterated

 

You’re paying the 6M whether you fire him or not. It’s sunk. The only financial consideration should be what you can pay for his replacement. And if Ponch were fired….his replacement ain’t gonna be expensive. No MLS head coach is gonna leave his MLS job for a part time gig through next summer. Which means you’re looking at a pool of ex mls coaches or assistants (ex and active) looking for a shot. And just about anyone in that proverbial pool would be better at this job than Ponch.

 

Yes.

 

There are obviously some guys in Europe that would likely improve our MF... but most people would say Adams is the best DM we have and even he had a stinker of a showing yesterday. It has become a bit of an epidemic... we could be in store for one of the most embarrassing host WC performances ever. My greatest concern is not that Poch has been giving some MLS guys looks... just that he is giving too many minutes too guys that bring nothing to the table: E.g. Arfsten, and Blackmon. The latter in particular was just a head-scratcher from the start. Start two slow and short CBs in a 2CB backline against South Korea? So friggin bone-headed.... and he doubled down at half and refused to change it even when it was obvious they could not deal with the long balls and physical runs from Son and Co.. And what happens when we move to 3CBs with an aerial monster in the middle in Richards?.... We were immediately winning duels on over the top balls and the O started to click. Too me it borders on the remedial and I don't understand why Poch couldn't see how woefully unprepared that snail-slow backline would be against that opponent. I hope this ends up being a silver lining... but I worry that Poch is too inflexible to change his ideal formation.

At any rate, the WC is approaching quickly and I would argue that the Luna is the only MLS player that has been auditioned that has earned a WC callup. Freese may get the nod by default and I think Freeman has been OK... but other than that? Meh.

- We have better choices in the MF in Wes, Johnny, Tillman and Morris.

- Blackmon was a total joke of a choice at CB... I hope Banks can grab the bull by the horns because it should be obvious that Ream just can't cut the mustard any longer.

 

Top 40 or top 60 is irrelevant, we got no LBs. Arfsten goes to the WC, and hopefully just as a back up. Yes, Poch should be fired. No, he won't be. We've seen all that with Jurgen and Gregg before.

 

I don’t mean to pick on you, but whenever anyone writes “not good enough for this level,” it’s a bad post. Because what if we don’t have anyone good enough to pair with Richards, for example? Do we play with 10 men?

It’s so easy to look at a game like last night and dismiss this or that player as not good enough, but that isn’t what matters. They don’t have to meet some arbitrary standard of good enough, they have to be better than the next guy. It’s not about meeting an absolute standard, but a comparative standard.

 

Berhalter is not a better player than McKennie, Musah, or Cardoso. It’s not really all that close, either.

 

Yes, but then you'd be admitting that you wasted $6M.

 

Ya, and Chandler on another side.Thanks, no "I don't give a shit" guys anymore for me.

 

How about this, then…comparatively, Blackmon is not as good as McKenzie. Not even close. He’s not as good as CCV or Trusty, either. Most likely Miles Robinson as well.

 

I don’t worry too much about what coaches say. That’s for public consumption. We fans don’t know what coaches say behind closed doors.

 

But Nancy, probably, would if you gave him 3 years. And that exactly what I'd do.

 

So for fun and to avoid yard work, I thought I'd see what the "Badge/Value FC" line-up would look like using reported or assumed transfer value from TM (this is based on their values, not mine or the medias). I think the "usual" positional breakdowns of Fwd/Mid/D is too dull a blade so I'm gonna do a slightly more nuanced positional breakout and select 26 or so to leave some room for injury.
CF (2-3): Balo, Pepi, Sarge
Attacking Wing (for a 3) (2-3): Weah, Zendejas, PAaronson
AM (for a 4 or 3 - these guys can also play wing in the right line-up) (2-4): CP, Tillman, BAaronson,
CM (will be some overlap with AM and DCM) (2-4):Wes, Musah, Luna, Tessman
DCM (2-3): Cordoso, Adams
WFB (2-3) Dest, Jedi
RFB (1-2) Scally
LFB (1-2) Wiley
CD (4-5) C-CV, Richards, Robinson, (tied: McKenzie, Trusty, Banks) Ream (nostalgia pick)
GK (2-3) Schulte, Slonina, Turner

If Poch were lazy he'd just call up my roster here and we would win the world cup. lol.

TBH there are only a few on here I disagree with/question. Keeper. Freese has been very decent. Turner would probably be close to his performance, but I'd rather blood the future. Freese, Turner, Schulte is ok by me. C-CV is not a great paring with Ream but it is a bit odd to not give him a look at all - esp as he is a vet on a team that has played a lot of big pressure games the last few season.. BA doesn't have enough surprise upside to bring in. I wouldn't be mad about Pax tho. I don't know Wiley or Banks game well enough to have an opinion, but have seen enough of McKenzie to think he should get a shot. Sarge needs to change his brain if he wants to stay on this list, but from a "data" pov, he should be more useful. The 3 I'd leave off here would be (after Trusty and Banks, keeping McK) BA, Sarge and one of Pax, Tessman, Musah, Luna. Not sure which tho. Probs Pax, but I think he has the most room to surprise, tho the move was quirky.