USMNT Gold Cup Discussion

Fair, he was first in prevented goals a few weeks go and is now down to fourth per 90 minutes.

 

Is Zawadzki going to be used as a midfielder or defender? He's played a lot of center mid for the Crew, but this season he's played almost exclusively (other than maybe 2 or 3 games) as the center of the back 3. He's useful because he can play numerous positions across the field, but this season it's been almost entirely central defender.

Also similarly odd for Arfsten. He's listed as a defender here but you would almost never expect to see him in a back 4. He's much more of an attacking winger.

 

Watch the first 20 seconds. Impact enuff for ya?

 

Fine with the roster and with those who are taking time off. Sure, there were a few surprises, but those suggesting alternatives are players who aren't going to make that much of a difference either.

The problem is going to be team formation. While our core has played together several years, they haven't played under Poch and haven't locked into how he wants them to play going in the WC next year. So, missed opportunity.

Still, it's not the end of the world. I would rather have healthy and more experiences players next year ready for the WC.

I'm still in a wait and see with the friendlies and GC this summer.

 

What, you think he’s lying?

You guys got money riding on the outcome of these games? Can’t figure out why you’re going so crazy about injury issues.

 

Dempsey played 7571 minutes for Fulham over the 10/11 and 11/12 seasons. He played 90s in every GC game in 2011.

 

This is demonstratively false. Guys like Stewart, Dooley, Balboa, Kooiman, Ramos, Cailgiuri, etc, etc, were playing abroad at the time. They understood the opportunity at hand and they did a fantastic job.

 

Much of that team was already playing abroad, and the rest were playing with the goal of creating our own pro league.

Their goals were far more difficult than those of the modern team.

 

Trinidad and Haiti must be rejoicing at how terrible the MNT is right now.

 

Pulisic was smart to nab that ball off of him.

In all honesty, that was a great play by Pulisic and Weah. Fantastic finish from Weah there.

 

Zardes was our striker in 2021? Man, I guess I blacked that out.

 

Odds of getting grouped? Is that line available?

 

Why in the world is Tessman not there.

 

He's mediocre?

 

Last year he was 31st out of 32 in PSxG per 90, 62nd in PSxG. Horrific, not slightly below average. He opened this season as hot as hell and I began to wonder if the nice little run last August, and some tweaks Poch's staff suggested might at least make him mediocre (along with some health) but his hot start is responsible for his sterling stats, he's fallen off since the start. He's still way up there, but as I said last summer, I need him to really string together a full season, not a month or two of quality performances before I'm buying. If he's back to at least mediocre, it's a huge win, but for now, I remain leery of a small sample size trap being behind all this. Have no issue with owning being wrong, btw, I'd be quite happy about it. I loved him as a prospect circa 2015-2018, but it's been all bad since.

 

You're a much better repository of historical information than I am so correct me if I'm wrong, but my memory is that Dempsey didn't struggle with a never ending litany of injuries throughout his career (scary as hell heart issue in '16-'17, but I can't recall other major issues, or persistent ones). Pulisic did. When you add that injury history, to 7200 minutes, it definitely makes me leery of pushing the issue.

It's immaterial anyway though, doesn't sound like he's worn down, sounds like he's carrying a pretty serious, lingering injury.

 

Sean Zawadzki?

 

In our pool he's nowhere near that. I know you just don't rate the player but a 23 year getting a 1000 minutes for Lyon isn't mediocre in any sense.


But yeah, he's going to be looking to get on that WC squad and to miss out on this GC...it's going to be dicey unless he's an out and out starter next year with Lyon.

 

its a valid question. we know we will be missing big players, and that combined with the piss poor job poch has barely done doesnt give me any reason to think we are going to challenge to win regardless.

but grouped in the gold cup is almost unthinkable. the big variable(s) will be fitness (dest and balo) and having guys like scally, tesserman, morris etc vs this absolute clown show of a roster we are going to see in a couple of weeks.

if we went out in the group stage of a gc under any circumstance, poch should be out, crocker should be out for hiring him and we should burn soccer house to the ground.

...i mean, thats pretty harsh on whoever owns soccer house these days (i cant imagine theyll see that one coming, huh?) but hey- sometimes ya just gotta do what you gotta do.

 

I was referring to those cited as "playing as a club team" which included the 14 members of the 22 man WC roster contracted to US Soccer.

7 of the team were already playing abroad:

Harkes, Ramos, Stewart, Wegerle, Ramos and Sommer in Europe, Koolman in Mexico.

Hugo Perez was with LA Salsa.

The other 14 were on contracts with US Soccer.

 

It has to be said, it’s stupid and counterproductive to run a Gold Cup every two years on odd numbered years since it means wasting time on players who are not even competing to be alternates for the World Cup. In fact, the dumb Concacaf money grabbing and MLS’s schedule militate against the USMNT making progress towards elite status.

One reason cohesion is such a problem for us is that we are essentially running two teams: the A squad and a back up team of MLS guys and promising young players. It’s pointless.

Most top teams don’t work this way. Instead they typically have a pool of about 30 players selected on the basis of league play/form. Out of that group teams get selected for friendlies and competitions. The end.

Instead we have this over complicated mess that doesn’t line up with the European and world calendars, that invests enormous resources in players that are only fringe by the most generous standards, and that therefore doesn’t actually reward performance because all kinds of exogenous factors ultimately determine the selection. It’s a disaster.

Honestly it’s bizarre that the conversation has to go beyond who are the top three players at each position out of which we can fashion a team that gels and can implement the tactics to a successful standard.

I’m sorry but giving national team reps to a 20yo with 17 appearances for Orlando City or whatever does less than nothing to prepare or improve the 15 guys we are going to be depending on to perform in the World Cup next year. Madness.

 

Looks like a practiced thing, as if Pulisic were playing with his old teammate, Giroud, except in this case it was Sarge playing the high post. Have you seen Balo roll with the punch like Sarge does there?

 

You'll note that I recognized that some players were playing abroad at the time, and in fact explicitly mentioned Ramos as one of them. My point -- which was obvious and well-stated, so I don't know how you could have missed it -- is that players who had better options than playing full time for the national team chose those better options. Ramos spent the 93-94 season with Betis, for example.

Balboa was playing in the APSL, not overseas. Playing for the national team full time wasn't a sacrifice for him.
Stewart spent the 93-94 season playing for Willem II. He didn't sacrifice his club position for a full time gig with the national team.
Caligiuri was approaching 30 in the German second division. Signing him full time was a nice get for the national team, but not a big sacrifice for him.
Kooiman was playing club ball in Mexico in 93-94. He didn't sacrifice his club position for a full time gig with the national team.
Dooley is a good example of a player whose full time commitment to the national team was a sacrifice. He left a real role with a Bundesliga club to spend the year with the Nats. Props for him!

Let's look at a friendly in 93-94 to see who the players who signed with USSF actually were, and what their previous club situation had been. I picked the game with Bolivia at random.

Meola: APSL
Armstrong: APSL
Caligiuri: 2 Bund
Balboa: APSL
Lapper: College
Lalas: College
Quinn: Indoor
Burns: College
Dooley: Bundesliga
Perez: Saudi Arabia
Henderson: College
Reyna: Still in college
Moore: College
Klopas: Greece
Jones: College

If you want to use the full time national team to criticize modern players' commitment to the program, honesty requires you to acknowledge that a full time commitment to the national team was the best offer on the table for the vast majority of those players.

 

noooo....not even close