Well, that is a little harsh on Turner, but many people do undervalue good distribution. Steffen is pretty good at getting the ball to the right place to get meaningful attacks rolling and keep possession. Turner was really bad at that in Panama, and it hurt the team.
Yeah, I noticed that. That game was brutal. The El Salvador fans were crazy in a way that they were not against the U.S.
Who was our oldest field player who started? A. Robinson at 23 or 24? And starting two 18 year-olds? And the average age of the field players was like what, 21 or 22? I know that is our most talented group from this roster, but wow, that still takes some balls for Gregg to put that out there against a team with a bunch of World Cup Finals vets.
Average age was 22 and like 229 days or something. I think one of the announcers said that EVERY player -- including Steffen? -- was younger than the youngest Costa Rican starter.
Also, gotta love how I see Dest sprint to the sideline to celebrate with the bench on his goal. These players really like each other, and that's fun as a fan.
balls? Its either play the youth, or struggle to score with the bum vets who couldnt qualify 4 years ago
Wow, you are entirely wrong, but I got to respect your dedication. Zardes flicked an own goal by Turner; if you really are a GK you know that is impossible to defend against. Steffen got signed by Man City; obviously he doesn't suck. They can sign anybody they want and they signed Steffen. But he was entirely at fault on that goal today. He looked like shit and everybody saw it. "Undefended free shot". Hardly. It rolled slowly by him. I bet Zach Steffen would be the first person to tell you he should have had that.
Yes, it is totally the right call under the circumstances. As a coach, though, that fact would make me nervous, especially against that Costa Rica team. You don't see that very often. It's almost like the old days in the Olympics, where the USA would send a talented basketball team made up of young college players to face much older and experienced, but less talented, teams from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
Well, I just watched a couple of Mexican sports shows and all of the commentators said that was not Steffen's fault, for whatever its worth. They obviously don't have a stake in this never ending MLS versus Euro rivalry.
Not credit, that was a disclaimer, as in from that point on. Maybe it was the collective outcry from Twitter, Reddit, and BigSoccer that caused Arriola's injury after the starting lineup was announced. Or maybe the USSF social media guys reported it to Earnie and he told Gregg to decide that Arriola was "injured." LOL.
I know it doesn’t seem in jeopardy any more but Pepi is now officially cap-tied with 4 caps (correct me if I’m wrong).
steffen- gutting concession right off the bat, below average for him across the board. first qualifying cap though, and got the win. just move on. dest- you know how, when talking about him being used on the left, people are like "he gets caught out all the time on the right too, derp!"- its not true. it was never true. easily his best complete match and stretch of play for us. to be cont. mrob- i guess im just not as hard on cbs as most people are/more "at the end of the day" maybe. he was plenty good for me. richards- he just doesnt look comfortable for us to me. i dont know that i love the fit of these two together, but if we can get this kid a couple of friendlies, if he can settle in and just play hes going to be really, really good. and he was more than good enough last night. arob- i cant get over the fact its taken so long for gregg to "trust" him. i dont even know that hes played great for us, but hes steadily really good (and was tonight), and hes really a left back. its going to help dest so much to not be yanked around anymore (fingers crossed). im so excited about how our backline is shaping up. adams- dudes so good, and its the littlest things he does. we can pre-print motm ballots with him and two blank spaces on the sides in bulk. we already take for granted how good he is, and how important he is. he should never play a match for us again without the armband in his career. musah- this is a weird start but bear with me- his passing needs to get better, and quick. its almost like he bloops and flubs his passes, just slow, bouncy rollers with no pop on them at all. he generally makes the right/smart passes he just needs to hit them more decisively, maybe a little quicker. im also curious about what kind of shot hes gonna be able to get off, and theres the tiniest hitch between his carrying the ball and what he does next cause see- his physicality and ability to carry the ball is ridiculous. borderline world class right now. if/when he starts making really strong passes, or god forbid (for opposing defenses) crack dangerous shots at the end of those runs? hes gonna be unplayable. mckennie- wes is in a weird place- i think hes playing really well...really badly. hes all over the pitch, he gets into the right spots, hes covering and getting to spots to advance play and tracking back...and then hes just shining balls ten yards away, hitting passes behind guys, getting his challenges wrong, losing the ball for no apparent reason...its like his brain is moving twice as fast as his feet are. but i think his brain is spot on. even blowing so much in so many ways hes still so important, and so influential on matches. as for this window i want to be very clear- i 100% blame that stupid blonde chunk of hair. weah- much more good than bad, and his bad is only when hes not involved enough. theres no one on this roster who can read play and pass as well as he makes runs and uses space (maybe a sharp mckennie or dest). the number of times he plays a pass and moves into a dangerous spot almost immediately only for the ball to not come (and usually have been moved completely another way) is shocking. pepi- newsflash- the kid was never gonna score one per match. hes got a lot of growing and learning to do in so many areas. oh- we play him as much as is reasonable, no doubt, his finishing is off the charts. but he couldnt shake both cbs laying on him all night at all, thus was never a real threat. but like the american philosopher jay z once said "we got 99 problems but pepi aint one". aaronson- pretty average for him, which is pretty freaking good. he was spent though- he misplayed a shocking number of balls after the 60th min and should have been subbed way earlier- but def didnt hurt us. thats on gregg, not him. hoppe- if, on hearing a third lineup in a week without him in it someday, he were to roadhouse berhalters throat out i honestly wouldnt be mad. didnt make an impact tonight. yedlin- came in and did a solid job. busio- i rate him well below most, but he was a big help tonight. i think he can be really slow actually playing the ball at times, but was good tonight in keeping the ball moving. and not that this should stand out so glaringly but in the right direction. zardes- he was playing crazy wide, right? he did good-zardes things for the most part i just thought vacating the middle kinda took away any chance of a "late" goal for us. and no, im not blaming him like he just decided to play on the touchline on his own. zimmerman- boy oh boy do i hate changing the shape of the backline mid-game. no rating. gregg- f- as usual. zero credit for doing the most obvious things in the world. tried his best to screw that up with arriola. clown clown clown clown clown. by no means was this a "good", well played match but it was enough. it was one of those where we see flashes of so much potential in guys, but it/they just arent quite there yet. its like 20% that and 118% gregg is a freaking clown. if we would actually play our best players together, without all the lesser talented crutches and band-aids he thinks we need, they might actually build some rapport, get some chemistry going, actually feel confident for a change. but its not gonna happen with berhalter. ever. its so painful to watch, and to know how much we are wasting. even if you fully subscribe to the "2026 is our time, not now" theory we just arent going to look back at greggs time as anything other than time and opportunity wasted. even if we- individually and as a generation (or two) of players- arent fully there, arent fully cooked (which we obviously arent- i dont think anyone claims we are) we should be throwing our incredibly talented kids straight into the deep end, over and over and over. not only to actually see that- shocker- weah and musah are less effective with a bunch of scrubs but more than ok with real players, but to sort/weed out the mckenzies and the sargents (much, much, much less lletget and co). im not closing the door forever, obviously, or even saying they cant be the 24th, 25th man on a roster- but if playing any of them is a priority for you i dont know what to say. i mean that literally- save your arguments for the deep worth of cristian roldan for someone else. managing this team like any other, using "solid role players" to fill in some cracks, reasonable, practical...its just the wrong way to go. and we can see that because of how...unworthy our play with that mindset is relative to our actual players. this isnt about connor casey- we didnt have 20 donovans and beasleys back then. you cant compare cars to carriages. if we go with weah over arriola, or ldlt over lletget, or pepi over zardes we wouldnt be any worse than it is now. theres no reasonable argument that this slow-playing of young, raw talent is "better" than going for it. right now unless you cant get past the memories of that really nice carriiage you used to have and how it got you where you needed to go (after a few days) and thats all that matter. whats important is theres every chance we could be far, far better off. but we absolutely wouldnt be an inch worse. gregg, and safe, practical choices and "grizzled vets" are anchors. it wont be "our time" in 2026 if we keep kicking the can down the road in 2021 and 2022. good win from not a great game, we are in pretty good shape. but we all know we are going to blow things again and have to save ourselves again over and over. i could be ok with that if it really was that we are so young, so inexperienced, etc. but its not. thats what makes this so incredibly frustrating. thats what is oppressively negative- not those of us who believe we could, and should, be so much more.