Post-match: USMNT v Saudi Arabia (Gold Cup)

I suspect the original instruction was to try to get it inside. Clearly, whatever it was, wasn't working and it was noticeable enough that he wasn't going endline that even Stu Holden was commenting on it.

But he's perfectly capable of dribbling a guy and hitting a nice cross. Now, in general, the current zeitgeist in world soccer and amongst the American fanbase is very against crossing -- it's simply a lower percentage play which is why teams give it to you.

So maybe we were just trying to force it inside and couldn't execute? I would almost have to rewatch and even then decision making is often hard to tease out.

But he absolutely has the left foot!

 

Green's biggest issue was always that he was too slow. He would have never fit in with our pressure defense of the last cycle, and frankly, even with some offensive skill, he was always a bit of a black hole who killed ball movement.

But the speed's the reason why, when Furth went up for that one season to the Bundesliga, Tim Tillman took a lot of his minutes even though Green was a more productive 2. Bundi player.

 

If we ever get fully healthy, an actual Best XI will be fascinating for Pochettino, just given his tactical biases and his focus on effort and intensity. I think we might finally have some situations where some of these guys actually feel pressure on their spots.

With having Luna and Tillman hopefully proving out at this Gold Cup, I don't think there's so much pressure on Pulisic, but there is on everyone else. Certainly, Poch will have no issue playing Tillman over Reyna is Reyna isn't killing himself to play. Weah might still make sense with Dest behind him because he's a wider player than Tillman or Luna ... but there's actual options there (not that Weah is low on effort).

McKennie as well as a number of those guys could slide back ...

Of course, we're never healthy, but there's the start of some pressure at the top. And some rotational flexibility.

 

One can. I already checked.

 

Let's face it, though, the WC '26 lineup is probably going to look very similar to the 2022 lineup or Gregg's A Team when he left, though there will be some changes on the bench / periphery. That tells me a couple of things. 1) Gregg had it about right. 2) We haven't really progressed since 2022 other than possibly the A Team guys getting a little better over time. 3) Poch hasn't really made any significant revelations, again, other than some new faces on the bench. And 4), more change might be warranted but we don't have the time or the competitions in front of WC26 to find that out.

 

And that makes sense given how young that lineup was -- those guys are largely coming into their prime with very few guys coming out of their prime. There were few prime or post-prime starters in '22 (Zim, Ream, Turner) and with most of the starters being pre-prime, their competition now is mostly just the new pre-prime as they hit prime age.

There is some chance, though, of decent turnover.

Striker will almost certainly be different if healthy. The CB pairing will almost certainly have one different with Richards having been injured. Maybe both CBs. I think there's a pretty good chance at keeper.

I don't think a healthy Christian or Adams find their way off the field pretty much ever, and the fullbacks don't really have the level of competition that seems remotely near.

But I do think Weah, McKennie and Musah are all more at risk than people think. For one, one of those guys is sitting if everyone is healthy just based on numbers.

I could see 5, even 6 changes. But yeah, many of the changes are between guys that were there anyway or could have been without injuries.

 

One more important consideration.

The more I think about it, the more likely I think that we're going to experiment with and evolve some variation of 3 in the back. I'm not sure that it will be our first-choice look, but we're going to have it.

Why? For one, to defensive solidity to deal with the inevitable clash with a Spain/Argentina, etc. Secondly, this window seems to confirm that we're really going to go with 38 year-old Tim Ream in the World Cup, and if that's so, then we have to have multiple plans to cover for his foot speed and relative lack of physicality (for a center back).

The 4231 that I drew up, though it's our most talented lineup, feels ripe to be exposed in the back to a bunkering group opponent with elite speed, or frankly a lot of top 10-15 teams. We want to be able to unleash the midfield talent + Pulisic to be a little fluid and go after teams like the Saudis that we just saw (we're going to have one or two of those sides roughly of that level of quality and style in our group) without always thinking "shape first."

 

I think this is one of the big questions. Poch has always liked to simulate a 3 ATB in terms of build up and offense, but he's done it most times with a personnel of 4 ATB and a 4 ATB defense.

More importantly, Poch is one of the less pragmatic coaches out there. The dude has mostly sacrificed defense for offense. OTOH, he usually has really good offensive players. But OTOH to that, he also seems much more likely to put talent out at new positions to get talent on the field.

I'm just not really sure he makes that move to defense. Maybe? But if there's a coach out there that tries to win 4-3, it's Poch. Who is coming off the field? It's someone like Weah or Dest, right?

Of course, injuries might make it easier to do this.

 

Yeah, that's a good point about how young that '22 lineup was. This should be a positive for us. A lot of these guys are entering their prime and now have WC experience. GGG deserves some credit for kind of laying that foundation.

Yeah, certainly it won't be a carbon copy of 2022 starters, but a lot of the same faces. Balogun probably starts and he didn't join the team until '23 I think.

 

I've always thought he was underrated for playing so much youth and the team being decent. Not many coaches would have done that as Tata in Mexico sure didn't and he was probably second choice to coach the US or at least the popular favorite of the fans. We are still missing the elder statesman players from that missing generation but every year it is less punishing. By 2030 we should have a full spectrum to choose from again.

 

Yeah, and we have to remember that after the 2018 failure, the prevailing narrative was that our national team program was completely broken and we'd have to reimagine it and rebuild it from scratch, and it could take decades. And then, well, we had, pretty quickly, as you say, a "decent" young core team shortly after.

 

With Haji confirmed out and unable to be replaced, props to you.

Way to be ahead of the commentators, all of BigSoccer, and most journalists.

 

I agree that Pulisic's spot is pretty safe. Adams as well and probably McKennie also? I think he likes Weah also but I think there may be more variation in the starting 11 based upon opponent and the fight for a spot in midfield is likely to be really tight. Poch seems to like Weah, Luna, Tillman, Musah and Aaronson but something's got to give somewhere....

 

I think McKennie is the most at risk. I have felt for several years that he plays way below his capabilities for the USMNT. He has superior endurance, above average speed, excellent passing range and he is generally solid to better than solid re the rest of his technical skills. He is good enough to dominate a large part of the midfield and direct the tempo of the game, but he doesn't. I want to see more and if it is not forthcoming, someone like Luna and his clever passing should get a chance with the big boys.

 

McKennie’s been poor for his recent international showings outside of one or two good passes he had that I remembered. He also tends to taper off at the end of his club seasons too. On another note, Luna has to step up a bit. Didn’t have the best showing against Saudi.

 

Don't disagree. Re Luna, I expect his level of contribution to rise substantially when on the field with CP, a better #9, Weah, A. Robinson and Dest.

 

I live and Coach in Siem Reap, Cambodia six months every year.

it’s a fun gig and often I meet interesting people and occasionally soccer people.

I actually met one of the directors of FC Augsburg several years back.

We talked about Klinsmann at length. he thought Jurgen was basically a figurehead who needed an outstanding assistant coach. (this is a short version, of course.)

Anyway, he also talked about American players, born to German mothers, who were playing in the Bundeslige. He had a theory that they had missed some stages in their development because they often had an absentee father. And, he added that they were nearly always considered a bit nutty (his exact word). and, he thought Julian Green was a prime example.

A harsh, nonetheless interesting, exact generalization, of course.

 

In my travels I have met all sorts of folks with all sorts of opinions on Americans, most of said opinions are not worth much of anything.

That master race view of the German-American players, well everyone knows where that is from so what is the point?

Julian Green was born in Tampa FL and lived there with his parents until they separated and his mom returned to Germany when he was a toddler. He is very close to his dad and has visited him through most of childhood to current. He spends most summer in Florida so take a shot somewhere else.

Landon Donovan was born in California and his American mom separated from his Canadian dad when he was a toddler. His mom raised LD and his 2 siblings by herself. Is LD also nutty

 

maybe . .

certainly, everybody just does the best they can.

 

If we go 3 ATB, then we're losing either a Dest or a Weah, most likely, but it could also be Tillman/Reyna/Luna.

 

Is that a nice place go on sabbatical?

 

Thank you! But this is one of those rare times I was hoping to be wrong…

 

I don’t think the German Americans are nuttier than anyone else. Danny Williams, Fabian Johnson, Terrence Boyd, and John Anthony Brooks all seemed pretty likable. Perhaps the language barrier made some of them seem quieter or reserved.
Jermaine Jones was certainly intense, which is what you want in an elite footballer. But so was Clint Dempsey and Clint Mathis.

Timmy Chandler is so liked by his team that he’s been paid to be a professional practice/bench player for last three years.

 

we are getting off track here, a bit.

The player, he was most familiar/concerned with was Shawn Parker, who played for Augsburg, at the time.

If you would like to, we can continue this through pm.

 

Been a busy couple days, so I'm late to the thread.

Between watching my Florida Panthers and the Inter Miami game Thursday, it was tough to have much interest about this game.

And it wasn't very interesting.

Still unable to create chances on offense and subject to inexplicable lapses on defense.

And I'm going to say something, that with my signature, makes me a bit of a hypocrite, but:

Inter Miami's Ian Fray is a better RB/CB combo than Freeman or Harriel.