"The referee ended the half before the corner kick could be taken and the first half ended scoreless. Regardless, the U.S. looked to be the more comfortable side and out-shot Costa Rica 8-3 with 69% of possession. Although Arriola and Lletget had the best scoring chances of the half, the younger Americans did fairly well in their international debuts and no substitutions were made at halftime".
"The U.S. ended the with 17 shots, five of which were on target, and 61% of possession. Costa Rica improved in the second half and finished with 14 shots, but only two of them were on target and the experienced side looked like the lesser side. That being said, if Gonzalez had scored his unmarked header early in the game then who knows how things would’ve shaken out".
Overall, I’m very impressed for such a young roster and January Camp. Johnson - 4 - Shaky. I deducted a point from average for nearly getting scored on by playing out of the back. Are we ever going to learn!? Cannon - 7 - Very good. With Dest, Yedlin, and now Chandler in the mix, not to mention Lichaj, Right Back is getting kind of crowded. Nonetheless, Cannon is making a case for #1 right back (if Dest pushes to the left). But I’m still holding it against him that he didn’t go to Europe. Long - 6 - didn’t really notice him there. For a CB that’s normally a good sign. Zimmerman - 7 - better than Long on the day. Deserves another look. Wish he would go abroad in the summer. Vines - 6 - Not the savior we need but was a vast improvement over Lovitz. Needs to work on his ball control and crossing. But he seemed to find the game. Not bad for a 20 year old. Yuiell - 6 - He’s like a mobile Wil Trapp. Not the best game ever but he moved the ball well. Aaronson - 7 - an impressive performance that I hope to see him build off on. Lletget - 8 - My MOTM. He created a lot of chances that our players need to finish. Arriola - 4 - Seemed lost and couldn’t do anything with the ball when he had it. Still he worked hard and defended well. Ferreira - 5 - I was hoping for more but he seemed lost out there. Llanez - 7 - The most dynamic player we had out there. Obviously is still raw; considering he made many dumb mistakes which were due to youth. Hamid - 6 - Not really tested but seemed more confident than Johnson. Servania - 5 - a noticeable downgrade from Aaronson, but he wasn’t terrible. The u23 is his level for now. Zardes - 6 - Was more useful than Ferreira McKenzie - 6 - didn’t really notice him. Again, for a CB, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Lewis - NR - I don’t know if he even touched the ball. Gasper - NR - almost wanted to give a bad grade for getting burned but it’s unfair to judge based on short amount of time. Berhalter - 8 - He gets a lot of credit for this camp. The roster was young, filled with promising players. The players seemed ready - although it’s still preseason for most of them. Sure, I would have wanted to win 4-0 but that wasn’t going to happen under any coach. Main thing is we had some positive takeaways from a January Camp. What I learned: -Not much about goalkeeper unfortunately. I guess this means Sean Johnson is our back up, but that’s not too comforting. -Sam Vines isn’t the know all, be all, but It’s comforting to know that he has potential and he’s better than Lovitz. -Long & Zimmerman look like our auto CB duo. Which, both need some European work experience. -Right back is going to be crowded. -Yuiell, Aaronson, and Lletget all deserve more looks. That midfield was bossing Costa Rica. -Llanez is promising, but I’m not ready to promote him to the senior team. -Ferreira didn’t shine. CF still is a bit of a mystery. -We need to find someone to make Arriola obsolete.
I’m not upset I watch plenty of bad games for the sake of Americans playing in them. I watched almost all of that Sargent game two weeks ago. But the game today was bad. I still watched the whole thing.
You expected a lot from a 19 year old kid who just became a citizen in December who has barely practiced with most of these cupcake MLS teammates in his very first callup for the Senior National team? Really?
I’m not pulling the plug on him. But it’s fair to say that he didn’t play well regardless of any circumstance.
The guy just got word on Friday that he was eligible for the team. He did not look that bad. Most of the rest of the team looked average to me be he did not look that bad. According to the manager he did more than a decent job: “[Jesus'] opening phase was really good, him getting in between lines and really causing [Costa Rica] a difficult time,” US head coach Gregg Berhalter said to open his postgame session with media. “Our attacking mids did a good job of linking up with him, and I thought he was excellent.”
I rated him a 5. Which, in my rating scale, at least, indicates an average rating. He did not stand out positively for me. But he didn’t do anything to not warrant being called up again. Again, I never said he was atrocious nor that he didn’t deserved to be called up again. Whether or not, about his eligibility, had about zero impact on my rating scale.
That was a fantastic header. If the rest of the team were better and all he had to do was presser when the other team has the ball and finish when we have it he might be pretty good. We need more though. I could sure see him being a high energy guy off the bench if we have a lead. go out there and really press the defenders.
There seems to be some discrepancy about what CR bought. The announcers acted surprised it was such a veteran lineup and others here are saying they were missing a lot of guys from Nation's League. I guess they could be turning over their roster and while the replacements are veterans they could be a lot younger than the NL roster. If they were trying to unseat some older players they sure didn't show it by playing hard. They also started bunkering around 20 minutes in which usually means you can't handle the other team toe to toe.
I'd like to see some more laybacks to open midfielders to hit some long shots. Would create more room for short passes and dribbles if a few of them came close and even more if a few went in. Seems to not be part of the modern game though.
I disagree with most here on Ferreira. I thought he touched the ball a lot and make quick decisions and passes even springing players while in the box surrounded by the opposition. I'd love to see an all touch video on him so we can all compare our different takes.
My 2 cents. Given the totality of his record no one can really object too strongly to skeptical assessments of individual games. If you want to be optimistic or hopeful, that’s fine. But until he produces a team that shows it can play with Mexico and beat soundly the teams we should beat, last year’s performances justify skepticism. I watched them all, and can’t see any talent-related explanation for them. They were that bad—so beyond the pale that I will be in the skeptic column until a similar number of signature/positive performances.
This is what all I saw. Ferreira and Llanez combined nice. I think we needed one more likeminded player to create a triangle and try to break through the bunker. That style of play is also not value in the US.
It is strange how rarely you see that triangle-based attack with the US. Even my middle school coach, who's in his late 70s now and coached us in a diamond defense, emphasized that.
I was thinking triangles as well. I had a good time at the game: BBQ, beers, friends who like to watch and talk soccer. Posted this yesterday in other thread: Bummer that Costa Rica gave us possession and we could rarely create anything threatening. They sat back, we diddled. Lletget did work. Shame Gyasi’s sweet touch and header didn’t count. He tried to get back on side. I liked Gaspar. Good for Uly.
Full game uploaded to the Tubey Site. Won't be there for long, so I suggest saving it if you want to keep for further future analysis. First Half (starts at 3:30): Second Half:
There's where Pomykal was missed. He and Ferreira have a mind meld while on the field and perhaps LLanez and other inclined players could also have it. It also could be just simple soccer concepts that only the better players have the IQ and ability to do.
Three coaches in a row had problems with the team in the last couple of years. Perhaps the coaching wasn't the biggest problem but the talent was. The talent is slowly improving as a very talented generation matures but you can't play U17's and U20's against other countries national teams even if they have more skill than their older teammates. They keep getting added pretty quickly once they break out with their club team.
While not all our problems are directly related to the coaching a truly good coach can and often does get more out of a team than the sum of its parts. You can look at several past teams to see how that can get a team to over perform. The players available have been and are plenty good enough to hold their own or even beat any team in CONCACAF, even Mexico. The fact that we are consistently under performing shows that our coaching is not and has not been up to par. A poor coach decides on a system and then tries to find players to fit while a good/great coach will find the best players he/she can and build the system around those players. It seems that Berhalter falls, unfavorably, in the poor group.
Against Mexico, playing 3412 with Pulisic in free-role, nominal cam was not a talent issue. Getting blasted 4-0 by a mediocre Costa Rica was not a talent issue. Losing to the T&T B team was not talent issue. Thought Dave did a decent job with the team, though.