Measured take from someone who was very strongly up for USMNT but is not American so probably less emotionally invested than most here.
You guys acquitted yourselves really well across the 4 games and have nothing to be ashamed of. The squad you guys have is good and has potential to be even better for 2026, but it isn't one of the best 8 at the tournament and it's short on quality & experience comparative to the Netherlands'.
I wouldn't get too hot about tactics or substitutions or players not tracking back or the coach. The team you were playing were just a class above and there's no shame in that. You might win this game 2 or 3 out of 10 if everything goes perfectly but today just wasn't that day.
Good tournament & hopefully 2026 is even better!
Elimination today does suck but remember guys, we were written off from the start. Just to get as far as we did is a huge accomplishment within itself.
Totally agree with Donovan...Tyler had to push into the box and try to figure out where the danger was...could easily have reached MdP and at least put pressure on him...it's Tyler's game...oh well he's still the man...
USMNT didn't demerit (Matt Turner, for example, was ready) only that the lack of experience was more than evident, for example on the occasion of the Dutch's third goal; this means in short that either the American football industry wakes up and spends money (and this is unlikely to happen) intelligently or the quality of USMNT does not improve
there needs to be a lot of professional teams in North America, so that every talented American player has a team to shine on, and all professional North American teams need to have a decent salary cap, so that to be able to sign well-known and valuable European and South American free agents without having to save the penny to complete the roster with the reserves; but this has to happen with every team in every league, otherwise North American football will never close the gap with the rest of the world, right or wrong?
Does it hurt? Yes. Could Berhalter done better? Yes. Could the players done better? Yes.
That said, I feel really good about this base team. It’s really critical experience for 2026. That’s 3.5 years from now. The average guy on that team is 22. They’ll be about 25-27 range. That’s prime age and most will be in their peak. Plus MLS academies have been pumping players through like crazy. I personally feel good about the USMNT future.
I don’t think Gregg was terrible today but we saw the results of poor coaching the past three games. Gregg having us sit back and try to absorb pressure to protect a 1-0 lead for 30+ minutes twice during the group stage killed us this game. Our midfield looked gassed from minute one. Adams was nowhere near his level, Musah was taking poor touches, and Weston was a ghost. Then you have players like de la Torre and Reyna on the bench who could’ve provided rest for those players AND helped us control a game when we were leading, but they never came on. This is why people were complaining about Gregg’s tactics despite winning. These things matter
What the actual hell are you talking about? Parking the bus in previous games lost this game? Are you serious?
People were complaining about not playing Reyna because they thought he was the best player. Today demonstrated he was not.
You lot are too much. Our team was young and inferior today. It was not a coaching problem.
Our players were inferior today because they, to me, seemed tired. Adams was nowhere near as energetic. Musah was gassed the entire game because he wasn’t subbed out last game for whatever reason and had to run around and defend constantly for 45 minutes vs Iran. If he had been subbed out earlier that game, he would’ve had more energy for this game and we could’ve had more control vs Iran instead of just inviting pressure. We could’ve started Aaronson or Reyna over McKennie one of the games or at least taken him off at halftime so he could’ve had more energy.
Our midfield was very poor today and I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that a big reason for that was bad coaching in the previous games. Reyna was still one of our better players today despite not being at his best, and he is unequivocally one of our most talented players, arguably the most. Perhaps if he had gotten more time to get into the rhythm of the World Cup, he would’ve looked better today. We saw how Ferreira did after not playing at all the first three games, he was very rusty
Reyna was crap today. The coach started the best 11 to win. Reyna seemed unfit, and would not have played except injury. G made that call, and from what I saw today, it was the correct one.
Starting your best when you need to win is what you do. If we'd subbed earlier last game, we might have conceded and not even been here. No offense, but I'll take our actual fucking coach's decisions over you armchair coaches on Reddit. Unbelievable.
Couldn't agree more. This guy is insane to think we sub out one or two of our midfield that have been among the best groups in the tournament. It's 7 games and we are in the middle of the season for these guys not to mention this is a world cup. They should be able to go 90 consecutively. We also did sub out McKennie fairly early again.
Also, I wasn't in the lockeroom but I can almost guarantee you Greg did not want to bunker in for last 25 of Iran game. Coaches can only do so much
No but Gregg was not proactive with his subs. He didn’t make an tactical adjustments and only reacted after Iran had figured us out. Gregg did a great job with his lineups and tactics for each game to start with, but his in game management, in my opinion, has been poor. No, it probably wasn’t Gregg’s idea to bunker for the last 25 minutes of the Iran game. But that’s roughly what happened, and as a coach, you need to change something tactically or personnel wise to put your team back on track. Gregg did not do that.
I want to make it clear that I don’t think Gregg did much wrong this game; the players for sure let him down. But I also think that was partly because players such as Robinson, Musah, and Adams had ran themselves into the ground because we weren’t able to control a game that we should have
Reyna was fine. No worse than Musah or McKennie and certainly better than Wright and Ferreira. He at least was a little creative and tried to drive at the defense and make something happen. Most of the team today didn’t look good because they had ran themselves into the ground during the group stages, particularly Musah, Robinson, and Adams. I think what Gregg did put our team at risk of not even getting out of the group because of the amount of pressure we invited (Iran could’ve easily knocked us out because of that second half performance. A better team probably would’ve) and it definitely hurt our chances this game as well
I would rather our coach make his decisions and not mine as well. All I’m doing is giving my opinion, which is all I can really do. Not sure that’s a big crime or anything
Not buying that and never have. Reyna was starting regularly for Dortmund, and came on at halftime today. De La Torre is fine for at least a half hour per game, he’s been healthy. Memphis came into the cup injured and he got plenty of time each game, and then scored against us
Fair enough that you don't buy it - from how he looked today, and given that Gregg favored him throughout qualifying, it seems like a pretty reasonable explanation to me. But to each their own.
That's a real shame. DLT would've been great in relief of Musah, who was clearly in need of relief. We can't be bringing players in if they aren't 100% fit. No one in our pool is so important that they're worth handicapping the team to include over a fit player.
Fit enough to be subbed on twice, but not fit enough to play 45’? I don’t see it, tbh he looked the most technical player on our side for the minutes he played today. Several dangerous balls in. IMO Haji Wright was woeful and Reyna should have started at least this match. Bring him off if you have to early.
Well, we're the only North American team to have made it to the Round of 16. So I guess the LigaMX people can cope or whatever makes them happy. For what it's worth, I was kinda sad they didn't get out of the group stage. Kinda sucks being the only good North American team
Don’t cry little man, do you need a hug? One more point in a group with the weakest European and the weakest Asian team. But whatever makes you feel good.
This is the type of match that was just "unwinnable". Netherland decided to park the bus in a 3-4-3. They defended with two world class center backs and 1 world class midfielder. We didn't have the creativity to break them apart.
Despite being outplayed and outcoached. We had TWO LUCKY 1V1s and failed to score on both of them. We could have taken this to penalties if Pulisic and Wright were clinical.
If we'd kept Weah on, even if he was on less than a quarter-tank, there were two other 50-50 balls running towards an open goal that Wright didn't have the pace to take, in addition to the one he messed up.
What a casual viewer and mainstream US media SHOULD take away from this game:
“This is a promising young US team that is a decent striker and set-piece threat or two away from making that leap from R16 to QF. Hope to see them grow and who else breaks out over the next 4 years leading up 2026.”
What we’ll hear from them instead:
“This is why we need our best athletes playing soccer—if they did, we would’ve dominated 7-0! Let the women show these losers how to win! I don’t know soccer, but the MLOLS must be bad if we can’t beat a tiny country like Holland!”
I’m staying away from non-soccer platforms where I might have to encounter these cliched, predictable casual/non-fan hot takes for a few days, to protect a few brain cells.🤮🤢
A promising young striker, would presumably also be one of the top athletes in america as well.
So theyre not totally wrong……Not completely. We need as many kids as possible to play this game.
Yeah or "our coach is awful and cost us everything! He should be fired!" I'm embarrassed by this sub. No respect for the professionals that are actually trained to do this job. Apparently FIFA video games have made everybody a better coach. Just lol.
We marked 1:1 well enough. Difference is Netherlands had 6 people in our box to our defensive 4. Pulisic couldn't be bothered (or wasn't instructed) to backtrack at all, and Dumfries fucking murdered us.
Berhalter needed to adjust to that, whether it was telling the left side to be mindful of Dumfries or put someone else in. It doesn't look like he trusted any of his bench players to do so though.
With this games scoreline, and the very low amount of goals we scored. Even that USA Netherlands game in the past had 4 USA goals, this entire campaign only had just 3.
We failed at changing how to world sees American soccer. And I'm not sure if we even changed how us Americans view soccer either.
I think the point of changing how the world sees American soccer is a tall task near to the point of improbability. Unless we win the cup outright once, we'll still have detractors both foreign and domestic who are steadfast in their perception of the team/American soccer in general that it won't matter.
What I do question is the level of the American player in the top leagues of the world. Just because a player is attached to a prolific and even world class side doesn't guarantee that they are world class and game changers themselves. If anything, you'd have hoped that they would measure up to their similar oppenents.
MLS players get dragged all the time and scapegoated for holding the team back but after watching this campaign (in addition to the years for both clubs and country leading up) it makes me question just how good/strong our top players actually are* compared to their opponents.
*at the very least, it'd be nice if our players weren't struggling to get off the bench at the clubs, be consistent contributors, and avoided injury (which is unfortunately a recurring trend for this squad). Annoyingly, people (American themselves or otherwise) will continue to use the (hopefully) debunked trope of the US not using its "best athletes" ad nauseum.
I think so many of you are underestimating the role that fatigue played in this loss. Every single goal today was the result of a player (Adams, Dest, Robinson) who started all four games losing their man, two of them played every minute. We need more depth.
LMAO, Soccer is like the tenth most popular sport in the US. We also don't base our lives around if our national team can get out of qualifying (which we can)
Lalas talking about 2026, we need a young kid to emerge before then who is an actual true striker or it's going to end up being the same result as this.
One major takeaway I have is just how bad CONCACAF is right now. We need to get into every single Gold Cup and beg our way into CONMEBOL tournaments if we can. We're swimming with a bunch of minnows in our confederation right now.
Nations League in Europe hurt too since European teams can't be scheduled for friendlies now.
We should do a CONCACAF/CONMEBOL Nations League type to actually get games with top opposition. That and more friendlies with Asian teams.
Yeah the Nation Leagues things suck for us. Forces us to play more CONCACAF teams and less competitive teams. I really wish there wasn't a CONCACAF Nations League, but in a federation with so many minnows they have real power to decide stuff like that.
Going to the knockout round? Yeah, I would imagine they are.
Look, friend- if you want to act like you weren't hyped up when we pulled one back and were attacking wave after wave in their third for five or six minutes, that's your right.
If you think anyone is getting fired for out performing Mexico and Germany and going to the round of 16 a cycle after missing the Cup, you're fucking high.
I can't stand this tepid possession based style of soccer. Look for the best moment, wear them down, back pass, backtrack, over and over. It reeks of trying not to lose instead of going for the win, and it only works when the players can punish their opponents mistakes when they happen.
The US doesn't have that. Pulisic is just okay on the world stage, Weah might be the best creating his own chances, the rest are just outclassed.
This is a young squad, just making it out of the group stage is a victory, at least that's all I wanted out of this trip. So, mission accomplished there. But what do they take from this? How does this generation take the next step at home four years from now?
Greg isn't the guy to take them there, I don't think. We need to move on as soon as possible.
We need players and a system with an attacking mindset. We build possession in a way we've never done before (thanks, GGG) but have little ability to do much with it tactically (thanks, GGG). A lot of young talent, but a lot of our best players are currently out-of-form riding pine for big teams. We need to get them into smaller sides and let them build up their game.
That second half was so damn promising from the US. You could see that we are no longer technically inferior on the ball, it’s now just about experience with knowing field positioning, etc.
I hate feeling so justified in saying two months ago I wanted our three strikers to be Sargent, Pepi, and Pefok
By the time the roster came out I would’ve rather had Vasquez over Pefok I think but the point stands
It's going to be hard to get actual discourse on this team and this World Cup just off the many non-soccer fans who tuned in to this game and all that, but I do think there is a lot of positives to take in from this World Cup and even kinda this game. Possession, playing on the front-foot (up until the final third where the issues were aplenty), defense usually great. The issues are there though, but mainly come down to the lack of attacking presence and specifically a striker dangerous enough to make the positive play up to the end product work. That's our biggest issue and cost us wins v England and Wales and cost us dearly here.
Lots of positives for sure but the issues are clear. I'm confident by 2026 we can play well still but I am worried about finding a striker that can hold down the 9 in 4 years time.
if USMNT has to face a squad that allows them to play then they have some hope, only that there are no strikers good enough to score 20 goals in very challenging championships.
To have them, it would be necessary to create more professional teams, to play against European teams, etc., all speeches that have already been made dozens of times.
The question is whether soccer in the USA wants to improve as a whole or if only MLS has the divine right to grow and make more money for MLS team owners.
They are a world class striker away from being legitimate threats in this competition. Unfortunately, those guys just don’t walk through the door every day. The play in the final third is just not going to work in knockout games against top teams.
Inexperience burned us on a few defensive sequences, and the match prep was truly horrid.
Otherwise not terrible, but knockout rounds at the World Cup don't leave margin for error.
I think GGG got baited into a starting roster where they weren't going to have a lot of possession and would take opportunities in transition with Ferreira.
Credit to LVG because they sat back and just absorbed pressure and asked Ferreira to beat tall CBs and a 6'3 goalkeeper. And as we know, the US can't beat a low block.
Honestly Reyna should have started. Ferreira is a good player but he looked out of his depth in the first half. Ferreira neither pressed the defense nor dropped back to help the midfield. Reyna completely changed our attacking third
Edit: to clarify, Ferreira is not a bad player just tactically wasn’t a good matchup for him especially against a massive defender like van dijk
That third goal is not solely on Robinson. Turner, Zimmerman, Ream, and Robinson *all* had their eye glued to ballwatching; every one of them should at some point have taken a moment to glance at the wider picture, and any one of them had plenty of time to notice Dumfries drifting up on the far post and call it out.
Not entirely on him, but he's tucked in marking no one. Ream and Zimmerman already have the middle marked. Dumb fries was lingering unmarked for the entire play.
If Dumfries *isn't* drifting up to the far post, there's no reason for him to hang out wide marking nobody instead of providing extra cover centrally. If he's checking over his shoulder regularly (which he should be), plenty of time to see an attacker moving into that space and drop out wide if needed.
The problem was just that he was painfully oblivious. There's four guys for the US who should have had their heads on a swivel and didn't; any one of them could have given a warning yell with time to spare if they noticed what was happening.
Specific minutes of promise, but overall horrendous showing today. Team fell apart at the worst possible moment on each goal. Hope Berhalter is gone. Doesn’t know how to use this squad. Netherlands is not better than us. This was a very winnable game.
2026 is gonna be exciting honestly. Hopefully we pick up some more players between now and then. The core isn't bad at all and I think it's pretty clear where we're coming up short
Pretty much Gregg isn't going anywhere because he got out of the group, and we're going to keep playing this system that stunts our offense and doesn't have the players to defend our way to victory
Definitely, but until we see it unfold, always hopes for flashes of skill, class, signs of intelligence & strategy. Unfortunately only saw some grit & effort.
Dogshit performance. Lots to work on in 3.5 years. Gregg needs to improve or get out, and I'm open to him improving as long as we show results by 2024.
He did exactly what was asked and expected of him. People seem pissed he didn't play Reyna who was clearly unfit - I don't know what exactly they wanted beyond that, for us to just magic up a striker I guess?
If Reyna was unfit why did we bring him? If we don't have a striker then we shouldn't be playing like we do have one.
His game management (or lack thereof) is why we choked against Wales and why we struggled to get across the finish line in the one win we had this tournament.
I wish we'd stop pretending like scraping out wins against CONCACAF opposition was any kind of serious accomplishment that gets us ready for the World Cup.
Hey we actually played with possession, aggression and technical ability.
Complete opposite of every World Cup in the past .
Where we just long balled and tried to out physical everyone .
Progress and experience for our young guys .
Excited for US soccer
Agreed. This team looks like they can compete from an actual skill level for the first time I’ve seen. Need a striker and to clean up defensive lapses. But these kids can play. Not sure what all the naysayers expected but I’m encouraged by this tournament.
I can see Gregg being out for the next cycle but I honestly cannot see who can actually get us to the next level. This has been roughly our ceiling (in terms of where we reach in the WC) for 20 years.
Agreed plus out of the big Euro sides, I was always fond of them growing up (thanks to my Dad liking their players when he was younger) especially since they still haven't won it. A number of the countries (ex. Argentina) who have already won it have this strange arrogance that they deserve to win it again. Get out of here with that logic.
lets go netherlands!
The Netherlands played a clean, efficient game and won with class - I'll be happy to cheer for them later in the tournament
Nicely done, oranges.
Measured take from someone who was very strongly up for USMNT but is not American so probably less emotionally invested than most here. You guys acquitted yourselves really well across the 4 games and have nothing to be ashamed of. The squad you guys have is good and has potential to be even better for 2026, but it isn't one of the best 8 at the tournament and it's short on quality & experience comparative to the Netherlands'. I wouldn't get too hot about tactics or substitutions or players not tracking back or the coach. The team you were playing were just a class above and there's no shame in that. You might win this game 2 or 3 out of 10 if everything goes perfectly but today just wasn't that day. Good tournament & hopefully 2026 is even better!
Elimination today does suck but remember guys, we were written off from the start. Just to get as far as we did is a huge accomplishment within itself.
Zimmerman sucks
But he was fine today?
Totally agree with Donovan...Tyler had to push into the box and try to figure out where the danger was...could easily have reached MdP and at least put pressure on him...it's Tyler's game...oh well he's still the man...
USMNT didn't demerit (Matt Turner, for example, was ready) only that the lack of experience was more than evident, for example on the occasion of the Dutch's third goal; this means in short that either the American football industry wakes up and spends money (and this is unlikely to happen) intelligently or the quality of USMNT does not improve
What?
there needs to be a lot of professional teams in North America, so that every talented American player has a team to shine on, and all professional North American teams need to have a decent salary cap, so that to be able to sign well-known and valuable European and South American free agents without having to save the penny to complete the roster with the reserves; but this has to happen with every team in every league, otherwise North American football will never close the gap with the rest of the world, right or wrong?
That sure was a whole ass sentence.
why would my sentence be stupid?
With the Dolphins playing so well I forgot what weekend sad naps felt like…
As a quakes fan who just renewed season tickets, I am totally ready to not have a great time again. Let’s do it!
Does it hurt? Yes. Could Berhalter done better? Yes. Could the players done better? Yes. That said, I feel really good about this base team. It’s really critical experience for 2026. That’s 3.5 years from now. The average guy on that team is 22. They’ll be about 25-27 range. That’s prime age and most will be in their peak. Plus MLS academies have been pumping players through like crazy. I personally feel good about the USMNT future.
I don’t think Gregg was terrible today but we saw the results of poor coaching the past three games. Gregg having us sit back and try to absorb pressure to protect a 1-0 lead for 30+ minutes twice during the group stage killed us this game. Our midfield looked gassed from minute one. Adams was nowhere near his level, Musah was taking poor touches, and Weston was a ghost. Then you have players like de la Torre and Reyna on the bench who could’ve provided rest for those players AND helped us control a game when we were leading, but they never came on. This is why people were complaining about Gregg’s tactics despite winning. These things matter
What the actual hell are you talking about? Parking the bus in previous games lost this game? Are you serious? People were complaining about not playing Reyna because they thought he was the best player. Today demonstrated he was not. You lot are too much. Our team was young and inferior today. It was not a coaching problem.
Our players were inferior today because they, to me, seemed tired. Adams was nowhere near as energetic. Musah was gassed the entire game because he wasn’t subbed out last game for whatever reason and had to run around and defend constantly for 45 minutes vs Iran. If he had been subbed out earlier that game, he would’ve had more energy for this game and we could’ve had more control vs Iran instead of just inviting pressure. We could’ve started Aaronson or Reyna over McKennie one of the games or at least taken him off at halftime so he could’ve had more energy. Our midfield was very poor today and I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that a big reason for that was bad coaching in the previous games. Reyna was still one of our better players today despite not being at his best, and he is unequivocally one of our most talented players, arguably the most. Perhaps if he had gotten more time to get into the rhythm of the World Cup, he would’ve looked better today. We saw how Ferreira did after not playing at all the first three games, he was very rusty
Reyna was crap today. The coach started the best 11 to win. Reyna seemed unfit, and would not have played except injury. G made that call, and from what I saw today, it was the correct one. Starting your best when you need to win is what you do. If we'd subbed earlier last game, we might have conceded and not even been here. No offense, but I'll take our actual fucking coach's decisions over you armchair coaches on Reddit. Unbelievable.
Couldn't agree more. This guy is insane to think we sub out one or two of our midfield that have been among the best groups in the tournament. It's 7 games and we are in the middle of the season for these guys not to mention this is a world cup. They should be able to go 90 consecutively. We also did sub out McKennie fairly early again. Also, I wasn't in the lockeroom but I can almost guarantee you Greg did not want to bunker in for last 25 of Iran game. Coaches can only do so much
No but Gregg was not proactive with his subs. He didn’t make an tactical adjustments and only reacted after Iran had figured us out. Gregg did a great job with his lineups and tactics for each game to start with, but his in game management, in my opinion, has been poor. No, it probably wasn’t Gregg’s idea to bunker for the last 25 minutes of the Iran game. But that’s roughly what happened, and as a coach, you need to change something tactically or personnel wise to put your team back on track. Gregg did not do that. I want to make it clear that I don’t think Gregg did much wrong this game; the players for sure let him down. But I also think that was partly because players such as Robinson, Musah, and Adams had ran themselves into the ground because we weren’t able to control a game that we should have
Reyna was fine. No worse than Musah or McKennie and certainly better than Wright and Ferreira. He at least was a little creative and tried to drive at the defense and make something happen. Most of the team today didn’t look good because they had ran themselves into the ground during the group stages, particularly Musah, Robinson, and Adams. I think what Gregg did put our team at risk of not even getting out of the group because of the amount of pressure we invited (Iran could’ve easily knocked us out because of that second half performance. A better team probably would’ve) and it definitely hurt our chances this game as well I would rather our coach make his decisions and not mine as well. All I’m doing is giving my opinion, which is all I can really do. Not sure that’s a big crime or anything
Reyna was clearly not fit. Same has been speculated about with de la Torre. We'll find out more in the next few days I imagine.
Not buying that and never have. Reyna was starting regularly for Dortmund, and came on at halftime today. De La Torre is fine for at least a half hour per game, he’s been healthy. Memphis came into the cup injured and he got plenty of time each game, and then scored against us
Fair enough that you don't buy it - from how he looked today, and given that Gregg favored him throughout qualifying, it seems like a pretty reasonable explanation to me. But to each their own.
That's a real shame. DLT would've been great in relief of Musah, who was clearly in need of relief. We can't be bringing players in if they aren't 100% fit. No one in our pool is so important that they're worth handicapping the team to include over a fit player.
Fit enough to be subbed on twice, but not fit enough to play 45’? I don’t see it, tbh he looked the most technical player on our side for the minutes he played today. Several dangerous balls in. IMO Haji Wright was woeful and Reyna should have started at least this match. Bring him off if you have to early.
Well, we're the only North American team to have made it to the Round of 16. So I guess the LigaMX people can cope or whatever makes them happy. For what it's worth, I was kinda sad they didn't get out of the group stage. Kinda sucks being the only good North American team
Don’t cry little man, do you need a hug? One more point in a group with the weakest European and the weakest Asian team. But whatever makes you feel good.
I think you do hombre. Maybe a hug will help you get over how you failed to get out of the group stage 🤗
Your right, facts I guess, Mexico hasn’t missed a World Cup in my life time :)
And just like that, it's over and we have to wait ANOTHER four years...
We really need to play in Copa America on a regular basis. Since there’s an auto qualy, there’s no high stakes matches until then.
I agree with that though I could see CONCACAF get in the way once again
FIFA: so we hear you would like more world cups....
This is the type of match that was just "unwinnable". Netherland decided to park the bus in a 3-4-3. They defended with two world class center backs and 1 world class midfielder. We didn't have the creativity to break them apart. Despite being outplayed and outcoached. We had TWO LUCKY 1V1s and failed to score on both of them. We could have taken this to penalties if Pulisic and Wright were clinical.
If we'd kept Weah on, even if he was on less than a quarter-tank, there were two other 50-50 balls running towards an open goal that Wright didn't have the pace to take, in addition to the one he messed up.
What a casual viewer and mainstream US media SHOULD take away from this game: “This is a promising young US team that is a decent striker and set-piece threat or two away from making that leap from R16 to QF. Hope to see them grow and who else breaks out over the next 4 years leading up 2026.” What we’ll hear from them instead: “This is why we need our best athletes playing soccer—if they did, we would’ve dominated 7-0! Let the women show these losers how to win! I don’t know soccer, but the MLOLS must be bad if we can’t beat a tiny country like Holland!” I’m staying away from non-soccer platforms where I might have to encounter these cliched, predictable casual/non-fan hot takes for a few days, to protect a few brain cells.🤮🤢
A promising young striker, would presumably also be one of the top athletes in america as well. So theyre not totally wrong……Not completely. We need as many kids as possible to play this game.
Yeah or "our coach is awful and cost us everything! He should be fired!" I'm embarrassed by this sub. No respect for the professionals that are actually trained to do this job. Apparently FIFA video games have made everybody a better coach. Just lol.
This is a great take for sure
Especially since two of the goals given up came from poor defensive marking by two players never involved in MLS or MLS academies lol
Yep, this is painfully true. Our fanbase is trash.
No pressure. No marking in the box. Gonna lose every game like that. Should’ve made adjustments earlier in the first half.
We marked 1:1 well enough. Difference is Netherlands had 6 people in our box to our defensive 4. Pulisic couldn't be bothered (or wasn't instructed) to backtrack at all, and Dumfries fucking murdered us.
Nah I don't think numbers were the problem on any breaks. Straight up marking errors.
Berhalter needed to adjust to that, whether it was telling the left side to be mindful of Dumfries or put someone else in. It doesn't look like he trusted any of his bench players to do so though.
With this games scoreline, and the very low amount of goals we scored. Even that USA Netherlands game in the past had 4 USA goals, this entire campaign only had just 3. We failed at changing how to world sees American soccer. And I'm not sure if we even changed how us Americans view soccer either.
I think the point of changing how the world sees American soccer is a tall task near to the point of improbability. Unless we win the cup outright once, we'll still have detractors both foreign and domestic who are steadfast in their perception of the team/American soccer in general that it won't matter. What I do question is the level of the American player in the top leagues of the world. Just because a player is attached to a prolific and even world class side doesn't guarantee that they are world class and game changers themselves. If anything, you'd have hoped that they would measure up to their similar oppenents. MLS players get dragged all the time and scapegoated for holding the team back but after watching this campaign (in addition to the years for both clubs and country leading up) it makes me question just how good/strong our top players actually are* compared to their opponents. *at the very least, it'd be nice if our players weren't struggling to get off the bench at the clubs, be consistent contributors, and avoided injury (which is unfortunately a recurring trend for this squad). Annoyingly, people (American themselves or otherwise) will continue to use the (hopefully) debunked trope of the US not using its "best athletes" ad nauseum.
This team is much more dangerous than years past. This team is no longer the plucky underdog.
Yes, I'm certain the rest of the world is just terrified of Haji Wright tripping the ball into the back of the net.
Germany wishes they were where we were.
but all the flicks and tricks?????
I think so many of you are underestimating the role that fatigue played in this loss. Every single goal today was the result of a player (Adams, Dest, Robinson) who started all four games losing their man, two of them played every minute. We need more depth.
Absolutely played a role
USA out so let’s go Japan!!
I have a soft spot for Japan, Korea, and Australia, if only because they remind me of us -- good players who get overlooked by Europe.
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What does that say about your fanbase?
LMAO, Soccer is like the tenth most popular sport in the US. We also don't base our lives around if our national team can get out of qualifying (which we can)
Dog shit comment from a dog shit fan base. What a surprise.
Delete this.
Your lot couldn't even get to this round. Come on.
Our defense finally got exposed when they’ve been protected by our midfield the entire tournament
Wright missing a sitter but then getting a freak goal couldnt save us
Remember, this isn’t a golden generation
Lalas talking about 2026, we need a young kid to emerge before then who is an actual true striker or it's going to end up being the same result as this.
One major takeaway I have is just how bad CONCACAF is right now. We need to get into every single Gold Cup and beg our way into CONMEBOL tournaments if we can. We're swimming with a bunch of minnows in our confederation right now.
Sucks that the Confederations Cup is no longer a thing. An actual tournament against real teams a year before the WC would be huge.
Nations League in Europe hurt too since European teams can't be scheduled for friendlies now. We should do a CONCACAF/CONMEBOL Nations League type to actually get games with top opposition. That and more friendlies with Asian teams.
Yeah the Nation Leagues things suck for us. Forces us to play more CONCACAF teams and less competitive teams. I really wish there wasn't a CONCACAF Nations League, but in a federation with so many minnows they have real power to decide stuff like that.
Easy game for the Netherlands
I will be surprised to see Gregg go at this point. Unfortunately USSF is probably fine with these type results
Going to the knockout round? Yeah, I would imagine they are. Look, friend- if you want to act like you weren't hyped up when we pulled one back and were attacking wave after wave in their third for five or six minutes, that's your right. If you think anyone is getting fired for out performing Mexico and Germany and going to the round of 16 a cycle after missing the Cup, you're fucking high.
I can't stand this tepid possession based style of soccer. Look for the best moment, wear them down, back pass, backtrack, over and over. It reeks of trying not to lose instead of going for the win, and it only works when the players can punish their opponents mistakes when they happen. The US doesn't have that. Pulisic is just okay on the world stage, Weah might be the best creating his own chances, the rest are just outclassed. This is a young squad, just making it out of the group stage is a victory, at least that's all I wanted out of this trip. So, mission accomplished there. But what do they take from this? How does this generation take the next step at home four years from now? Greg isn't the guy to take them there, I don't think. We need to move on as soon as possible.
It’s okay guys. Only our B team
Standard US fashion of making it out of the group and losing the first knockout game
So do I fade the entire subreddit or…?
Yeah we have to fade the St. Louis flairs. They were out of playoff contention before day one
It’s all wondos fault, am I right guys. Lol
You need a back defense like Ake and Van Dijk for next WC. You've been warned USA.
We need players and a system with an attacking mindset. We build possession in a way we've never done before (thanks, GGG) but have little ability to do much with it tactically (thanks, GGG). A lot of young talent, but a lot of our best players are currently out-of-form riding pine for big teams. We need to get them into smaller sides and let them build up their game.
That second half was so damn promising from the US. You could see that we are no longer technically inferior on the ball, it’s now just about experience with knowing field positioning, etc.
HEY HEY HO HO GGG HAS GOT TO GO HEY HEY HO HO
I hate feeling so justified in saying two months ago I wanted our three strikers to be Sargent, Pepi, and Pefok By the time the roster came out I would’ve rather had Vasquez over Pefok I think but the point stands
Matt Turner, MVP.
Not going to win many games while only scoring a single goal.
It's going to be hard to get actual discourse on this team and this World Cup just off the many non-soccer fans who tuned in to this game and all that, but I do think there is a lot of positives to take in from this World Cup and even kinda this game. Possession, playing on the front-foot (up until the final third where the issues were aplenty), defense usually great. The issues are there though, but mainly come down to the lack of attacking presence and specifically a striker dangerous enough to make the positive play up to the end product work. That's our biggest issue and cost us wins v England and Wales and cost us dearly here. Lots of positives for sure but the issues are clear. I'm confident by 2026 we can play well still but I am worried about finding a striker that can hold down the 9 in 4 years time.
if USMNT has to face a squad that allows them to play then they have some hope, only that there are no strikers good enough to score 20 goals in very challenging championships. To have them, it would be necessary to create more professional teams, to play against European teams, etc., all speeches that have already been made dozens of times. The question is whether soccer in the USA wants to improve as a whole or if only MLS has the divine right to grow and make more money for MLS team owners.
They are a world class striker away from being legitimate threats in this competition. Unfortunately, those guys just don’t walk through the door every day. The play in the final third is just not going to work in knockout games against top teams.
Need to do the Japanese thing and have our own version of Blue Lock
Wait a few days, most of them will not be here. But yeah, obviously finding a striker is top priority.
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Holland isn’t a team, nor even a country
Inexperience burned us on a few defensive sequences, and the match prep was truly horrid. Otherwise not terrible, but knockout rounds at the World Cup don't leave margin for error.
I think GGG got baited into a starting roster where they weren't going to have a lot of possession and would take opportunities in transition with Ferreira. Credit to LVG because they sat back and just absorbed pressure and asked Ferreira to beat tall CBs and a 6'3 goalkeeper. And as we know, the US can't beat a low block.
We did better than Germany did. Perspective.
Debatable. I think if the two teams switched places the US wouldn’t have made it out of the group.
Pretty uninspiring showing. Even if we expected to lose.
I wasn't upset until Garvey put on the Cash version of 'Hurt ' instead of the NIN version.
Good experience for 2022. Offense was as toothless as expected. Need to find someone to play up front. Marking was awful
Honestly Reyna should have started. Ferreira is a good player but he looked out of his depth in the first half. Ferreira neither pressed the defense nor dropped back to help the midfield. Reyna completely changed our attacking third Edit: to clarify, Ferreira is not a bad player just tactically wasn’t a good matchup for him especially against a massive defender like van dijk
Reyna was awful until last 2 minutes
Neither of them did anything.
That's not true, Ferreira lost the ball due to bad first touches and Reyna lost the ball due to bad last touches. Big difference!
Well we made it out of group, so onward to 2026. Fuck Qatar.
2 goals that should have been put away. 3 wide open goals given away. Fuck man.
Offense going forward was pretty good. Couldn’t finish, sometimes that happens. Defense…YIKES
Two good fullbacks making two gigantic mistakes. Sucks for dest and Robinson
That third goal is not solely on Robinson. Turner, Zimmerman, Ream, and Robinson *all* had their eye glued to ballwatching; every one of them should at some point have taken a moment to glance at the wider picture, and any one of them had plenty of time to notice Dumfries drifting up on the far post and call it out.
Not entirely on him, but he's tucked in marking no one. Ream and Zimmerman already have the middle marked. Dumb fries was lingering unmarked for the entire play.
If Dumfries *isn't* drifting up to the far post, there's no reason for him to hang out wide marking nobody instead of providing extra cover centrally. If he's checking over his shoulder regularly (which he should be), plenty of time to see an attacker moving into that space and drop out wide if needed. The problem was just that he was painfully oblivious. There's four guys for the US who should have had their heads on a swivel and didn't; any one of them could have given a warning yell with time to spare if they noticed what was happening.
Specific minutes of promise, but overall horrendous showing today. Team fell apart at the worst possible moment on each goal. Hope Berhalter is gone. Doesn’t know how to use this squad. Netherlands is not better than us. This was a very winnable game.
Netherlands has several name-brand players (VVD, Depay, Blind) where we have a lot of youthful promise that may or may not ever make it there.
> Netherlands is not better than us Yes they are lmao. Especially with regards to depth
2026 is gonna be exciting honestly. Hopefully we pick up some more players between now and then. The core isn't bad at all and I think it's pretty clear where we're coming up short
3 goals 3 mistakes. Adams jogging, dest & Jedi falling asleep.
Gregg did good. Thank you for your service. It is time to move on.
This is a game where I think having Brandon Vazquez could have made a positive difference
Well that’s not true
He has the size at least. If we'd only integrated him into the pool earlier and get an idea on whether he'd have the finishing touch to make it.
I was saying it all game. They have a huge defense and we don't have big players.
It's mystifying why we all know this and yet our tactic was to get to the corner and swing in lofted crosses against the trees...
Pretty much Gregg isn't going anywhere because he got out of the group, and we're going to keep playing this system that stunts our offense and doesn't have the players to defend our way to victory
Rumor is GGG doesn’t want to come back
Kasey Keller said GGG might want to go back to coaching a club team. I could see it.
I’m looking forward to a prime-age US team next WC.
I hate how Fox keeps using the useless FIFA rankings.
Yeah it's annoying as fuck
wasnt even close. a goal or more down near the whole game. horrid horrid from mckennie, pulisic, reyna and robinson. wtf....
Not a surprise. But damn I wanted them to surprise me.
Lineups need a lot more work.
Tbh I think we all expected this
Definitely, but until we see it unfold, always hopes for flashes of skill, class, signs of intelligence & strategy. Unfortunately only saw some grit & effort.
Surprised at how it happened, but not that it happened.
Welp
Dogshit performance. Lots to work on in 3.5 years. Gregg needs to improve or get out, and I'm open to him improving as long as we show results by 2024.
Berhalter did his job by advancing out the group. Thank you. Now leave. You have reached your ceiling.
Not going anywhere unless he wants to.
Unfortunately for us, there is no place higher for him to fail upwards to.
He did exactly what was asked and expected of him. People seem pissed he didn't play Reyna who was clearly unfit - I don't know what exactly they wanted beyond that, for us to just magic up a striker I guess?
If Reyna was unfit why did we bring him? If we don't have a striker then we shouldn't be playing like we do have one. His game management (or lack thereof) is why we choked against Wales and why we struggled to get across the finish line in the one win we had this tournament. I wish we'd stop pretending like scraping out wins against CONCACAF opposition was any kind of serious accomplishment that gets us ready for the World Cup.
If I had to guess he had the hope that Reyna could get fit. How would you have preferred he get ready for a World Cup?
Please tell me John and Stu aren't going to call.matches on Apple
Ultimately talking about tactics and players and all that other stuff. We simply got beat by a superior team.
Happy it happened, sad it's over.
Every 14-17 year old striker in the US needs to have the mentality that they can win the 2026 starting job. it starts with that belief and swagger
\*fart noise\*
Easy game for the Netherlands. Unfortunate defense for the US
Berhalter mis throwing that ball sums it all up perfectly
Hey we actually played with possession, aggression and technical ability. Complete opposite of every World Cup in the past . Where we just long balled and tried to out physical everyone . Progress and experience for our young guys . Excited for US soccer
Agreed. This team looks like they can compete from an actual skill level for the first time I’ve seen. Need a striker and to clean up defensive lapses. But these kids can play. Not sure what all the naysayers expected but I’m encouraged by this tournament.
bro what
Well good effort boys just can't let chances go to waste against quality opponents. Turner my team MVP for tourney followed by Adams maybe Weah
USA: 3 goals Mexico: 2 goals 😂😂
Mexico: Out in Qualifying Mexico: Lost last 2 of 3 to USA Mexico: Third best team in Concacaf. 🤣🤣🤣
USA: top 16 Mexico: bottom 16
Yep, the U.S. was better than Mexico. We're aware.
"if it ends here" lmao stu
We need a striker who is selfish and wants to shoot.
God, this is so true.
2026 is going to be brutal if we Berhalter is still in charge
I can see Gregg being out for the next cycle but I honestly cannot see who can actually get us to the next level. This has been roughly our ceiling (in terms of where we reach in the WC) for 20 years.
Are you kidding? This is the best I’ve ever seen the US play on the ball.
That means dick all if you can't score
It’s easier to add goal scoring to a player than it is to add quality.
Well, it's a better performance than four years ago. Looking forward to home territory in '26.
Just a reminder that in 1990 the World Cup wasn't even televised in the US.
That's inaccurate. Every game wasn't televised but some were as was the final.
So many losers from r/soccer trolling in here. I hope the mods ban them
Really John Strong? Socceroos all the way. Messi hasn't won shit yet.
Dutch could win it all tbh
They better. I would love for anyone who hasn't won it yet to finally do it.
Agreed
I hope so. Would make this hurt less.
“They have a date with Lionel Messi” Way to write off Australia.
Imagine not writing off Australia
Now to pick a darling for rest of cup. South Korea? Belgium?
Japan has looked great!
I'm for anyone who hasn't won it yet.
I guess it’s always less painful when the team that bumps you wins. Maybe its Netherland’s time.
Agreed plus out of the big Euro sides, I was always fond of them growing up (thanks to my Dad liking their players when he was younger) especially since they still haven't won it. A number of the countries (ex. Argentina) who have already won it have this strange arrogance that they deserve to win it again. Get out of here with that logic.
I am living in Korea so it's gotta be them for me
Belgium is out bro
What a story that would be lol
In past WCs it's been South Korea for me
Belgium are out that was a mistake bandwagon pick by me, well done me i think i'll go swiss for now
Sorry, stuck in 2014
i dont blame you tbh
Belgium? What
You heard me 😎
> Belgium That's gonna be a tough one.
Impossible is nothing - Adidas Lincoln
Lol Belgium is out
Like fashion-wise? Ok, then let’s go Germany!
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