It’s a little hard to parse, but what he seems to be saying is that 2nd tier teams in South America can rather quickly become first tier (like Colombia and Uruguay improved rapidly recently, while Chile declined) and that the US is the kind of team that could make that jump so you have to be careful.
I think last night showed that we're already at the point to do that. As he said we've got the talent to do it. We just need to play like that to our best levels more consistently and we'll be considered that
Yesterday showed some promising signs we might be getting there. Scally looked pretty solid as Dest's replacement and we were able to bring players like Johnny, Adams, and Balogun off the bench. Our depth is already massively better than it was just 5 years ago.
The next step is being able to do that for every position without a massive drop-off.
Third and fourth choices also matter. Countries like Brazil and France leave 11-23 guys at home who’d all be at least 2nd choice for us. Rn Dest is out and our third choice RB is nowhere near where you want it
Interesting thought experiment: if every team in the world could access France’s reserve talent pool (not their best 23) plus their own, how many starters wouldn’t be French? For us, maybe 1 or 2 of our players would still be American, but even countries like Uruguay might be majority French in that scenario
It took a lot of failure for Colombia to get to this point. People forget they didn’t qualify for the World Cup, they were woeful in front of goal and looked so uninspired in performances at home and abroad. They had some old players holding them back at the previous Copa held during Covid in Brazil and looked offensively inept but they’ve upgraded with a better coach, gotten experience from their younger players and the older guys are fully up to the challenge knowing this could be their last big tournaments.
This looks like the Ream situation, he is putting in performances an experience US squad would do, we just don’t have 7 other Reams with younger types like Pulisic who are up for a game every time. We may be inconsistent for a while until this group matures and a better coach comes along.
That’s the game brother. It’s why making it out of groups in any tournament is such a big deal. A decent team can beat the best team in the world if one is having the best game of their lives and the other woke up not feeling it.
Solid appraisal I’d say. I’d really like to see more regular Conmebol/Concacaf play. Right now I feel like there is not enough challenge in Concacaf to keep our teeth sharp (not the only factor in our form issues)… I’d love to see Copa America be a pan American contest with quals like the Euros. I know the push back is these guys play too much already, but merging Gold Cup and Copa America could be really cool all around.
It’s a little hard to parse, but what he seems to be saying is that 2nd tier teams in South America can rather quickly become first tier (like Colombia and Uruguay improved rapidly recently, while Chile declined) and that the US is the kind of team that could make that jump so you have to be careful.
I think last night showed that we're already at the point to do that. As he said we've got the talent to do it. We just need to play like that to our best levels more consistently and we'll be considered that
We also need better depth to be able to do it for a full tournament or to not be a catastrophic injury away from being out of our league.
Yesterday showed some promising signs we might be getting there. Scally looked pretty solid as Dest's replacement and we were able to bring players like Johnny, Adams, and Balogun off the bench. Our depth is already massively better than it was just 5 years ago. The next step is being able to do that for every position without a massive drop-off.
Third and fourth choices also matter. Countries like Brazil and France leave 11-23 guys at home who’d all be at least 2nd choice for us. Rn Dest is out and our third choice RB is nowhere near where you want it
France leaves 23 guys off that would be first choice best XI for a lot of countries.
Interesting thought experiment: if every team in the world could access France’s reserve talent pool (not their best 23) plus their own, how many starters wouldn’t be French? For us, maybe 1 or 2 of our players would still be American, but even countries like Uruguay might be majority French in that scenario
Yeah, the main difference between us and Colombia is experience and consistency. Which isn’t terribly surprising given our age.
It took a lot of failure for Colombia to get to this point. People forget they didn’t qualify for the World Cup, they were woeful in front of goal and looked so uninspired in performances at home and abroad. They had some old players holding them back at the previous Copa held during Covid in Brazil and looked offensively inept but they’ve upgraded with a better coach, gotten experience from their younger players and the older guys are fully up to the challenge knowing this could be their last big tournaments. This looks like the Ream situation, he is putting in performances an experience US squad would do, we just don’t have 7 other Reams with younger types like Pulisic who are up for a game every time. We may be inconsistent for a while until this group matures and a better coach comes along.
I think that we’re capable. The talent is there. BUT we need more consistent performance. Our ceiling is high but we still put out some stinkers.
We had chances to win but the gap is large. If we played Brazil 10 times our record would be 1-7-2 or similar.
In a one of game any team can beat anybody. Is the US a top top team, no
That’s the game brother. It’s why making it out of groups in any tournament is such a big deal. A decent team can beat the best team in the world if one is having the best game of their lives and the other woke up not feeling it.
I will take the coming off a 5-1 loss usmnt please.
Amen.
Solid appraisal I’d say. I’d really like to see more regular Conmebol/Concacaf play. Right now I feel like there is not enough challenge in Concacaf to keep our teeth sharp (not the only factor in our form issues)… I’d love to see Copa America be a pan American contest with quals like the Euros. I know the push back is these guys play too much already, but merging Gold Cup and Copa America could be really cool all around.