Notable that Weah did the most progressive carrying. I'm fine with the forward being a finisher and runner if that's what he does best. Good to have multiple styles.
That is probably going to be THE hardest position for US prospects to push through for. Dest, Cannon, Yedlin, Lima and whoever the next awesome FCD right back will be lock down that side. If you can play left back halfway decent, send in an application, otherwise start checking your dual national options.
That France game is one of the big red herrings out there. We were outshot like 20-2, Steffen stood on his head, France didn't try for a whole half and France missed about 3 complete sitters. Italy is an Italy who missed the World Cup. Trumpeting up gameplans in two friendlies two years ago that sound a lot better than they were isn't really compelling to me. I think there's an argument for a more defensive setup. But a 3-4-3 as written up doesn't make a lot of sense to me at all. It frankly just reads as another way for you to dump on McKennie. Dude could win Champions League, the Ballon D'or and the Golden Ball at the World Cup and you'd still be desperately trying to find a way to get him off the pitch.
So, 2 1/2 years ago McKennie and Adams didn't shine against France (where Trapp was probably the main issue in midfield). So they clearly can't play together in 2022 after both moving to Germany and growing up physically? Get out. If we're going on that game, Greene should start. He scored, in a draw. We have a MNT coach who is showing he has no idea what he's got or how to get the best out of it.
You've watched enough soccer to know that it's pretty common for a less talented team to, by not really even trying to score, bog down a game to a 0-0 draw. Wales even held back on counterattacks. We had a young and inexperienced team that couldn't break down the defense of a well-coached veteran team. This isn't some shocking result. It's a bunch of 17-22 year olds, most of whom haven't played together or under this coach. It doesn't need to be anything complex to expect that everything might not be humming at its peak. I'm hardly overexuberant, but there seems to be a wave of folks who are trying to cast these friendlies as indicative of a problem. That's kind of absurd.
Wales had 47% of the possession. Shots: Wales 3: USA 3 Shots on Target: Wales 2: USA 2 Corners: Wales 3: USA 5 Fouls: Wales 7: USA 21 Yellow Cards: 0: USA 3 We did a good job of bogging the game down. Luckily for us Wales had held back. Yet, GGG decides to play with a false 9. He then asks Reyna to play as winger. An opportunity to see more of the strikers has been wasted. But if Berhalter has taken Reyna isn't a winger then the that is a lesson learned.
That Wales team did not look strong. They were very organized, but severely lacked athleticism. Musah looked like a young Nagby just blowing by them consistently to relieve any possible pressure. Against Panama, it was a different story. He was constantly cut off and turned backwards. Wales had one player who looked like a threat to get behind us. I don’t worry too much about it. It was clear that the group moved off the ball much better in the 2nd game (probably from more time training together). Also a real #9 & our weak links (left-side) were benched. The more camps these players get under their belt, the better they will look as a unit.
Of course the Bundesliga is many levels higher than the Dutch 2nd Division. You can't really compare the two. My grandma could score in the Dutch 2nd Division. All it really says is that Soto could probably play in the Eredivisie, which is itself a big step down from the Bundesliga.
You know what, I think you're may really be on to something here... Can anyone think of ONE good reason why the dummies in charge haven't tried this 4-3-3-1 yet?? This Brooks character must be some super-reliable Iron Man that we can always rely on...
I just don't get it. The narrative is baffling to me. There's just zero logic behind it and smacks of someone who was nutmegged by McKennie in a U13 game and simply has a major grudge to bear. Weston McKennie was one of the significant bright spots of the window for the USMNT. Full stop. Every single podcast and article I've read has that same opinion. The one significant mistake McKennie made was the Panama challenge that definitely could have seen red. Other than that, he was excellent. There's been plenty of debate on this forum and this thread about a lot of other topics, and whether or not I agree with points made the discussion has been interesting and valuable. This obsession with a single poster coming up with every conceivable iteration to keep McKennie off the national team as he excels on the field for the NT and makes an increasingly valuable contribution to one of world soccer's great clubs has been the lone area of non-value add. If I want crazy narratives and thin lines of "reasoning", I'll head over to the major news sites and read the current events on the front page of those sites. I put him on ignore, and this thread has been much more interesting and enjoyable to read. I'd suggest others do the same.
Never put it past CONCACAF referees to miss something like this. They seem to miss a lot of other stuff!
The tactics are set up to use the backs as midfielders. This makes sense because if we're hurting for wide midfielders and we're hurting for backs then we should use them that way. The results seem clear from the last three friendlies, we are not having an issue in midfield.
I'm still not sure about the coach this cycle. He is quickly becoming the biggest question mark. With the unbelievable talent advantage we are going to have; hiring him is a big gamble. I really don't see what he is adding and I see where he is hampering; where he is turning off fans. There were many less risky candidates and they would not be such large question marks. Many believe he will come good when it matters, but that is more faith. Aaronson is no longer in MLS. But that team might qualify. It certainly can't play the way that Berhalter wants to. But, what Gregg is doing is opaque and probably not necessary to qualify in Concacaf.
Why do you think it is though? One good theory, I heard, is the type of player we have had. We have had, at best, European journeymen. They were used to playing defense and counter against superior teams. They would play on the front foot at home against lower table teams. But rarely would they do it on the road. But they never played on teams that consistently dominated games every time out. That were expected to be the protagonist even on the road. Can we think of a World Cup win where the USMNT was favored going in? I don't know if we were favored in 2014 vs Ghana, I don't remember us being favored. At best, that was pick 'em. All our victories are upsets. The few times they were expected to win, they lost (Poland '02, Iran '98, Ghana '06?, Ghana '10) or tied (Slovenia '10). Maybe Algeria is the one, which was quite a squeaker. But not many over 30 years. It will be interesting to see if the Concacaf road dynamic changes when our players are at Chelsea, Dortmund, Barcelona, Juventus, Leipzig as opposed to Fulham, Chievo, Hanover, Stoke, etc.
Everyone uses their backs as midfielders, nowadays. So, what. This makes no sense, actually. We're hurting for wide midfielders and we're hurting for backs.... The last three friendlies have been against the Panama B team, Wales B team, and whatever.
He isn't leaving till January. I agree that the coach is uninspiring. If you had to have an MLS coach, get a better one. I haven't felt particularly good about a US coach since Bob was fired.
I know I keep saying this, but I really think we are going to greatly regret not even interviewing Tata Martino to coach this group. I really think the way he had Atlanta United playing on their MLS Cup run would have almost perfectly aligned with the talent on this USMNT. The fact he has Mexico doing what it's doing with talent that's, on the whole, pretty much equal with the current USMNT crop (obviously better in some places like Jimenez at striker, but less than the US in other places) shows that he knows how to get the most out of a group of players. No use dragging the past up - Berhalter is the coach and hopefully he will be able to get the most out of this group. But I think the missed opportunity will hang over Earnie Stewart's head for some time.
Correct. With 2021 looming and so many actual games in anger on deck for our guys to really show who is the core to run with by the Summer, then WCQ, it really is on Berhalter to not find a way to train wreck the team. Many of us long time U.S.A. die hards have waited for decades to witness the type of player pool we have now. So with our USSF banking on an American coach at the helm, he must get his tactics right and really produce a cohesive unit that will domiante our region come 2021.
I would be very happy with Tata Martino as coach. But that said, I don't think he would have accepted. When he left Atlanta, the word was that his wife had no interest in living in a non-Spanish speaking country and was the driving force behind leaving Tata himself is likely far more comfortable working with all Spanish speakers -- when deBoer came in there were a decent number of articles about the level of comfort of communication in English, etc. The other driver reason of why Tata left was workload and frankly that he's a guy who has stayed with one team four years exactly once in his tenure as a coach. Whether you like it or not, and I think the supposed English requirement and the Chicago requirement should not be so firm ... the US wanted a coach to do more than just fly in and fly out and coach. They wanted to a build an organization and I don't think Tata wanted to do that. Bocanegra was on the search committee and was Tata' boss. Perhaps Bocanegra didn't like Tata (doubtful) or perhaps he agreed with the larger requirements (possible). But it's also very possible that he simply knew Tata would prefer the Mexico job over the US. We will likely never know most of this and we can never really know. He's a good coach. I think Berhalter's a better coach than people give him credit for. Hell, he took an inferior team and knocked Tata's much more valuable Atlanta team out of the playoffs. I just suspect that Tata and wife were done with the US.
All of that could very well be true. It's one of the reasons why I'm always very careful to qualify my statements on this to the effect of "I wish we would have made him say no a couple of times." From personal experience, I've had a person ask me about a particular job that I have no interest in interviewing for. It's not a good fit, and I'm happy where I am. However, I've been asked three times about it in the last six months just to see if I changed my mind. I don't blame them for continuing to ask, but they are at least making me say no. I won't rehash all of the reasons why I didn't like the process that led to hiring Berhalter. We've covered that ground before, so it's not worth going over again. All I'll say is that I think it was a sub-standard process that led to a less-than-optimal final result. If I end up being wrong, I'll happily eat all of the crow anyone wants me to eat since that would mean the US made at least the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup.
And we got the result. At some point it got lost that the point is the result and not whether we are excited about the list of names. Like I said re qualifying last time -- what is missing is the middle ground between 4-0 against Panama home vs 0-4 vs Costa Rica away. If we have to have 2 DMs and CCV hacking to get a result, so be it. That doesn't mean we won't also have Pulisic Musah Reyna et al attacking with precision the other way.......win the ball and give it to the specialists. Granted, in an elimination game at some point you have to pivot to the front foot because you need the win. Or you might end up chasing the game and have to attack. It just says nowhere we have to be naive about playing elite teams and basically go toe to toe 433 open play. I also think "bossed" gets subjective and myopic sometimes. If my goal is to tie the future world champion playing numbers back and I get there, job done. They may dominate the possession but the scoreboard said 1-0 for a while in our favor and we got away 1-1. We only made so many forays upfield but if we made more maybe we take risks and lose the game. The specific guys I would keep from France/Mexico 2018 are Moore and CCV. CCV fouls a lot but that means he is in the same zip code as his man when the ball arrives. I'm not saying take everyone -- Parker is too slow, Miazga and Trapp suck -- but we might at least consider why we got certain results and not others. I think at least part of it is the 433 formation is tactically naive against top notch opponents. This has small picture implications for choosing it tactically in particular games. It also has big picture implications for opening a US cathedral to the church of the 433. If we are serious about winning most of the world cup winners in recent memory had stout defenses as well as the ability to go forward. Selling only half that equation is a bill of goods. To me we shouldn't bother going tactically open toe to toe with the elite until we literally have equal or superior roster talent. Otherwise you are thinking like an aesthete and not a coach. And the desire to imitate perennial bridesmaid Holland aside, the teams that actually win world cup trophies do not tend to use pants-down naive tactics. They defend hard and then flip a switch to fast, technical offense. The two are not opposed. Or do people not watch how the Bundesliga or Serie A actually works. You do not see the field there if your approach to defending is "Valderrama." And it's not like it has to be a trade off. Musah and Adams and McKennie probably both attack AND defend better than the alternatives. I'm just saying as a general rule give a hoot if enough people on the team can defend. Everyone can't be picked for their offense, you can't delegate and delegate and then Adams is the only one playing defense, including the backs. Because at some point the generation of players on the other side attacking you is as good or better than your golden generation attacking them.
Yeah, I don't disagree. But US Soccer isn't also going to tell you that they made a soft inquiry and got turned down. US Soccer was always going to try and make it seem like they got their first choice.
The primary point of friendlies is not the result in many or even most cases, and if you think so, you're probably using them wrong.
So, don't look at the game against the #1 ranked team when Adams and McKennie were playing as a reference point. Way too factual. No, please, no facts; instead let's hypothesize that McKennie has won CL, BAllon d'Or and the Golden Ball at the World Cup. I get it. Euro trolls are desperate because their clubs are feeling the Covid pinch and ESPN eyeballs are at a premium. If that helps us then great! But I'll pass on the fantasies spun around here. PS: I believe Trapp was not the issue v. France. I believe he was Equipe's highest rated American player (iirc).