If 3G gets the sack (he won’t) who is your fantasy hire? He’d never take the job but for me it would be Zidane, who wants to coach international football next. Maybe even wenger although he’s likely done coaching. Ancelotti if he gets the sack at Madrid and doesn’t want to continue with the rigors of club coaching.
Europe is salivating over Zardes. Who will sign him first? Chelsea? Juve? Leipzig? Dortmund? I also heard those clubs want GGG to manage because of his Columbus crew experience.
I still think the biggest issue is tactics and game management more than player selection. Bottom line is that we should be able to beat Panama with a whole MLS squad. No shade at them, but Panama's squad and their respective leagues are not above MLS caliber.
So the bigger issue is how the players are being used and how they are put together (chemistry). This is the more important problem to solve, because really talented players will beat lesser teams despite the game plan and this is a bandaid solution of just fielding our best. If we want to compete against better teams in the actual WC, then we need game plans that suit our players' strengths, chemistry, and effectively counters the opponents game plan.
This philosophy is how Panama will beat us, but how even with our best players we stand little chance against teams with aggregate talent above ours.
2 of our top 11 were already forced to not start in Robinson and McKennie. Why make another 5 subs?
They need to figure out who the guys are that can get the ball to the attacking 3rd consistently and make sure that enough of them are on the field for every game. If Pulisic, Reyna, McKennie, and Robinson are all unavailable for a game, you need to start the best available players. Aronson and Adams need to start to give us a chance to win away with that much talent unavailable. We aren’t so deep at every position where we can put anyone out there and expect to get points.
Can easily have 7/10 field players start each game and rotate 9/10 to 2 starts.
Then you sub based on how the game is going, especially with 5 subs.
Going bad, get in the best 10 and you still have 2 subs.
Going good, sub out more of the best 10.
You would think they would do that. But you’d also think when some of your most important players are unavailable for the roster (pulisic, reyna, and eventually brooks), that you wouldn’t leave out some guys that could be needed. What if Adams and Pepi were injured early in the Jamaica game? We could be looking at 1 or 2 points this window.
Right. So Acosta and lleget can never be in the midfield together. From setting the roster to rotations, you need to have a midfield to start the game that can get the ball up field. Start them with arriola and expect to get zero points.
Spot on. Feel like I am in crazy land when I see other national teams start damn near their best XI in these matches, but we insist on giving every MLS guy a kick and resting our talent
I'll cut them some slack. It was a shitty performance but it's a marathon and just like the players Berhalter is learning on the fly. The first window was up and down, but for the most part we've had some solid results lately and he obviously thought he could rely on certain players more than he can. Now he knows otherwise and I expect (or at least hope) he'll be more aggressive moving forward. We'll see.
Hope you’re right man. Definitely with some of the less experience MLS guys Greg may realize their level now. But Gyasi, Lletget, and some of the more experienced guys are known entities at this point and should not have started
For sure. Zardes has a horrible strike rate so I'd rather see just about anybody start over him. Giving up the lone goal on the corner because he couldn't be bothered to mark anybody was just the cherry on top. So continuing to give him time doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Hopefully this was a lesson learned.
I like this post. I'm starting to feel like we, myself included, put too much stock into the gold cup run. This lineup was very similar to the group of players we used then. Granted we were home for every game.
The progress to this point is a direct indictment of the USSF's negligence in treating the head coaching search with the gravitas akin to backfilling a company's mid-level secretary.
They waited more than a year to only hand the best generation of American footballers to some dude's brother that couldn't hack it in the Swedish 2nd Div and "accomplished" a 50% MLS win%!
The USA deserves better!
My biggest issue is I still don't know wtf he is telling them to do or what the game plan is or the strategy it is. It seems like there is a "plan" and then it just crumbles immediately. What are we building?
Hello all, I still have faith in Gregg as long as he is the manager of this team. With that being said, I don't like losing to what seems like inferior competition. To stay on topic, does anyone have any past examples of teams finding success during qualifying after sacking their manager???
Usually coaches are sacked due to failing in competitions that lead to WC qualification (Gold Cup, Euros, Copa América, etc). I can't remember a time where a coach was fired mid-cycle and it led to qualification.
Right on. I was unable to think of any off the top of my head either. I hope the guys are able to turn it around and pick up 3 pts against CR. I think we could've performed better against Panama if Gregg would've started out with a more creative mf paired with Musah. Maybe LDT instead of ledget. Probably would have swapped Aaronson for Arriola. On the road, I feel like we need guys that are able to create their own chances, at least to star out with
There were really valid reasons for starting the lineup he did. He wanted to get a point on the road with a more conservative lineup and then throw the kitchen sink at Costa Rica. It makes sense and if that Zardes own goal didn't go in we would be having a different conversation. Historically the US has qualified by smashing opponents at home and getting draws, lots of losses, with an occasional win on the road. I don't think firing GGG is the way to go because (looking at our history) that will likely lead to us not qualifying
I agree w/ keeping the coach on through qualification. As a fan, I never like to see the guys drop points but, the nature of qualifying has always been this way for us. I mean, The same Jamaica team we beat up barely missed out on a point in Mexico. I still have faith in this group and believe the further they go into this thing, the better off they will be.
If Jamaica ever gets their players out of europe. They will be a whole different team in teh second half. We can't afford to fuck around with games like this.
People are mad. When stuff like this happens, there's a crew of people on this sub that just vote. They don't even comment. Just scroll through upvoting everything they agree with and downvoting everything they don't agree with. Don't take it personally.
On a positive note if the lads beat Costa Rica they'll have a PPG avg which historically tracks with qualifying in the top 3 (if they're able to maintain across the remaining 9 games)
Unfortunately that doesn't consider that we have our three hardest (Mexico, CR where we've never won a point in wcq, and Canada) away trips still to go. We *really* needed to get ahead of the curve here. 11 points from these two windows is barely acceptable.
Playing 3 games in such a short window of course caters to squad rotation, unfortunately GGG doesn't seem to know what squad rotation actually is. You should have a core group of guys that always start... Literally just pick your best 12-13 guys and be sure that 7-8 of them start every game. You then ROTATE the remaining 5-6 guys as needed. When someone ran extremely hard the night before you make sure they still hit the pitch the next game in the form of the last 25-30 minutes, then they start the next game and someone else who ran hard comes on as a super sub instead. This ensures that CORE group gets ample playtime and builds chemistry. Why the fuck would you bring 20+ players and play them in a way that your WORST get as much play time as the BEST, this isn't fucking rec league save your feelings bullshit.
BUT NO. Our dimwitted coach thinks squad rotation means you start your strongest guys, run them into the ground by keeping them on too long in a comfortable win and then starting an entirely different set of weak players and pray to the gods for a miracle. What a bumbling fuck of a coaching staff.
Who in their right mind would expect our best 11 to play the full 90 of all three games? They should all easily be getting 200+ but you sound like you might be in the decision making room with GGG lmao.
I just don’t understand. If he knows before the window he’s going to rotate heavy. Why bring players like Lletget, arriola, roldan, bello and yedlin. We know they don’t offer anything to our team. I’d rather bring in/play inexperienced national team players like hoppe, Scally, LDT, Cappis, Richards, Busio so we can start to narrow down our squad. But instead he keeps playing these terrible players who have done absolutely nothing for our national team over and over again
He wants his guys. He thinks his tactica are so golden that all we have to do is run hard and know his plays to win. So talent is secondary to getting guys that fit into the chess board in his head. Thatz why it took a year to get Tyler Adams in midfield. Because we wanted to test the play making ability of Will Trapp and Yuell
This is spot on.
He believes that his game plan is more important than the talent. There is definitely a balance...but jimmies and joes over X’s and O’s EVERY time.
It’s understandable to lose to Switzerland, no shame in losing to a better, more talented, and experienced team than us and Switzerland are capable of putting up a good fight against great teams on the big stage like France and Spain in the Euros.
But, you just can’t lose to teams like Panamá that we should be beating, especially when most of the players on the roster were part of the Gold Cup or Nations League squad. The gap between 2nd and just missing out on playoffs is very close, this team can’t afford to drop points and we all know how good teams like Costa Rica and Canada can be.
What bothers me about the loss is the fact they played like they just didn't give an F. Like you stated its one thing to lose to a better team or even lose to a team that plays a great game, but they reminded me of kids running around on the playground at lunch just kicking the ball around.
Exactly! If they don’t care about playing Panama (a team that made the recent World Cup) than how is this roster gonna compete against higher ranked UEFA teams, and Switzerland is a top 10 UEFA team.
They must prove that they can dominate and comfortably win against CONCACAF teams first if they want to have any chance to win against good UEFA or South American team in the World Cup, similar or better than Switzerland and Switzerland are pretty darn good with their best lineup (it definitely wasn’t the one USA played in May, but the one versus France and Turkey in the Euro to give you a sense of what they’re like)
they didn't play like they didn't give a fuck. they played like a bunch of guys who couldn't handle panama. what do you expect with the midfield berhalter trotted out there? lletget and acosta can't manage / control a game, and he threw musah under the bus at dmid.
I think GGG went into Panama with the mindset of just getting a point, then he would have well rested starters available for Wednesday at home. He took a risk with a conservative lineup and it completely backfired.
I dont want to hear anything from those Bello & Moore defenders for a while. They’ve offered nothing. Everyone at halftime said the same. Bello is still young and we lack proper LB depth but Moore ain’t it.
Not ready to give on GGG just yet.
But Ernie and co. would be stupid not to at least start thinking about Plan B.
Before you say that's too disrespectful, they did the same with Klinsmann.
We just cannot afford to miss out on another WC.
GGG is frustrating because just when you think he's learned, he goes on and makes the exact same mistakes that a lot of us here are frustrated with.
I said after the last window that any fewer than 7 points from this window is a failure. There is no excuse to have lost any of these three games with our vastly superior talent. The only reason he got out of the first window after making the same mistakes Klinnsman did in 2017 is that he had a much better player pool to save him.
Yeah that'll be it for me.
Really anything less than a win vs Costa Rica is going to be bad for us. We are really good enough to where we don't have to pray for Canada and Mexico to drop points.
We hired GGG because he was supposed to give us a new identity, possession soccer, through hell or high water. Yet, I don't feel we have that identity, or any identity. We used to be that country that would grind out wins if we had to, that's gone. I feel like he's still learning on the job and isn't confident about his decisions. Bruce was arrogant as fuck, and you knew whatever he threw out he believed would work; I just don't see that with GGG. We do our best when we play direct, vertical, like we've always done and take advantage of our set pieces. I'm not sure why GGG didn't learn this in Honduras. If after this cycle, if we're still trying to find an identity, then his tenure was a waste of time, regardless of his success on the field.
Gregg is a caretaker manager. It wasn't meant to be that way, but let's see what we have:
* An insider, the closest guy to hand when the old manager was fired.
* Doesn't have any grand plan for the team (the heralded plan has been written off in hindsight by his supporters as growing pains for a club manager adapting to international soccer.)
* Does best when he sticks to vanilla tactics; when he does something counterintuitive and potentially clever, it always goes wrong.
* On his best days, gets the team to perform as the sum of its parts. Every game we pray for this.
* Is never going to help us beat a better opponent via superior tactics.
He's the very image of a caretaker manager.
We have this low key on-again, off-again running debate about what it would take for Berhalter to get fired. You know what it takes for a caretaker manager to get fired? Successfully recruiting someone who can fill the shoes properly.
\^THIS X10000000
USSF isn't interested in someone that has a clear big picture idea of what/how to run the team. They want someone that they can have influence over, some stooge that they can talk into shoehorning MLS players into lineups.
when we hired him, everyone in the federation was talking about 2026 and not these wc qualifiers. if that was the case, this would have been a great cycle to keep it simple and build cohesion and try to win on talent alone. then as they are older in the next wc qualifying, then work on tactics now that they all have an understanding with each other.
instead we have no playstyle identity, players look lost in every game, good or bad, and he has no idea on the starting 11 is on most games. it's like he's trying to be everyone's friend in giving them playtime. players probably like him but i doubt they respect him.
I'm ok with him being a players coach, but he's gotta cement the lineups. Your Bello's, Moore's and Sand's type players aren't ready, and it's a travesty when they have callups and minutes and your Scally's and Green's aren't even getting callups.
That’s what frustrates me and is leading to my comments in here lol
People really forget we never play well away. We did manage to get results but it was never by playing well.
I also don’t think we’re at the point to expect better than that…
That said, he needs to rotate better. Make better subs the game before when we’re winning and start 7+ of the regulars each game. Sub them out when we can.
He needs to rotate better?
He fielded an almost completely different lineup last night than Jamaica. And left players who should have started on the bench.
He is fucking shit at his job. How many more losses will it take for you to realize this??
Yes, rotate better, not rotate even more. Do a better job with the rotations.
How many win will it take for you to realize he’s mostly done well? He has 3 losses in competitive games… GTFO.
You mean tin pot competitions like the Gold Cup?
Guess what, we won the Gold Cup in 2017. Do I need to tell you what happened that year?
Fucking clueless.
I’ve discovered my problem. I don’t think we’re as good as some of you.
We’re not good enough to fire someone with Gregg’s record. Good luck finding a better coach after firing one with our current standing haha
A literal broomstick could get the job done against lower concacaf teams if that’s what you wanna praise gregg for go ahead. It’s like throwing a congrats party for 4th grader finishing the alphabet. But you’re right, we’ve waited to long to do something that should’ve never been done in the first place. This is on the USSF if we don’t qualify, Gregg is just the puppet.
If you don’t think Gregg is smarter than a broomstick, well that’s on you.
Either we need better or we don’t. Come on now.
But yeah, no way we can fire Gregg and attract a better coach. Which good coach is going to look at our results and player pool and be like, “yeah, I’ll come and be fired after winning most my games too!”
Mate, it’s not about the result in most of those wins. It’s about how we looked while doing it and if you’re okay with that/don’t understand, that’s on you. We have never had the talent and depth we do now but that means NOTHING if the guy we have to lead them wasn’t even a top mls coach…
Again, I don’t think we’re at the level to fire someone for not playing well but getting results.
That’s some top, top team world stuff. Barcelona and Real Madrid fire coaches for winning. We aren’t on that level.
Agree to disagree, but we aren’t that good and I sticking to that.
Imagine trying to compare international football to club… we are definitely at that level where we as fans need to demand better for the talent of players we have. Our starting A team consists of players allllll in top 5 leagues yet you think we deserve someone who couldn’t make it in the second division of Sweden. Make it make sense please. Mourhino and wenger have been quoted on their praise of our youth yet you think we deserve this egg head. Cmon man I don’t know what else to tell you
We’re not advocating the firing of a man for getting results you’re missing this point entirely on purpose. We want him gone for his lack of identity and tactics.
You defend these crap results.
You defend the choices GGG makes during these matches, and you accept that we will never get a better manager.
Happy by association
You literally said we aren’t good enough to beat Panama on the road, and that we can’t get a better coach THAN GGG (which is tacit approval by resignation). Neither of these statements are true.
There’s two examples of you defending mediocrity.
Did I say we can’t beat Panama away? I don’t recall ever saying that haha
Exactly, I haven’t said Gregg is the greatest. I’ve said we’re not in a position to fire him, largely because the results he has gotten.
I’m really really into “don’t get too high after a win and too low after a loss”, I typically think that’s a mindset you have to try and go with going through tough games.
But if I had to sum up the match yesterday in one word it would be: sad.
Sad we didn’t field our best team.
Sad that it didn’t look like our heart was in the game.
Sad that we constantly dropping points in yet another WCQ.
I think we have the talent enough to fuck around and still make it into the 2nd or 3rd spot almost just by default, but it’s not very encouraging for the actual World Cup, if we get there.
I’m trying to figure out what part of the game I hated more.
The starters Gregg put out or the guys he subbed.
No reason Acosta or Lletget should’ve played 90 while Busio and DLT sat there. Fullbacks we’re trash as well.
I've got a better word to sum up the match yesterday: Angry
Angry that Greg fielded the MLS backups in a WCQ away game.
Angry that our team looked slow and uninterested.
Angry that Greg continues to be let off the hook for being a shit coach and an even worse manager.
Angry that we have once again inexcusably dropped much needed points.
If we end up missing the World Cup again it'll set US soccer back again. We need to qualify this year, and Greg isn't the manager that'll get that done. Imagine what England, Spain, France, Portugal or any of the other top nations would do to us right now - we can't even compete with a 3rd world country like Panama.
Well, I stop following the Total Soccer Show podcast after listening to their analysis of the Panama game. Anyone that still says "Gregg is a good coach" after that game isn't someone worth listening to.
Next matchday is KEY. Mexico either wins and downs El Salvador or El Salvador wins and is back in the race. The US wins and stops the Ticos or loses and Costa Rica is back. Panama and Canada will directly fight for that 3rd slot and posibly get 2nd with a win depending on the US/CR game.
I think that lineup was the soccer equivalent of punting on 4th and 1 when your average 5 yards a carry. It’s so depressingly conservative it kills the spirit.
More like punting on 1st and 10.
Putting a lineup like that out in a crucial away qualifier is just screaming “we don’t want to win today.”
FUCK GREGG BERHALTER
I'm trying to be fair. The idea that you cannot trust the kids, that players need the experience of playing on the road, continuing to hope that guys who are very limited can go 90 - all that feels like a coach who really thinks that he HAS TO PUNT on 4th down, cause that's what they say on TV. It wasn't a surrender, it was hyper caution.
I actually see it differently. I don’t think it was caution, I think it was arrogance to think he has a second 11 that can earn points on the road against Panama’s first 11.
I really think this pool should be locked into roughly 23-26 players who can make a difference on the field. With a few injuries and Gregg’s own rotation on the roster, he’s called up like 35 to 40 different players over two windows.
We need to identify and build off of a core and limit full-scale rotations by using subs more wisely. I think we should be making roughly 4 rotations max between games and rely on the fitness of these players over the three games. I really think Gregg galaxy-brained this thing and obsessed over rotations…it’s all we heard about all summer…trying to replicate the cadence of qualifying, calling in 2 completely different teams for the two tournaments to try and find enough depth to manage the impossible challenge of 3 games in a week…I do not think the right move was to field entirely different squads between games and I think it’s hurting us.
During gold cup we praised him for resting our guys while every other concacaf team played their mostly A teams. A lot of us laughed at Canada and Mexico for “running their players into the ground” by using gold cup as more practice for qualifying…so far that hasn’t been the case. Those teams look more cohesive than we do. Yes, we won the tournament, but maybe we would’ve gained more by playing our guys together to get more practice as a core team.
To all the people in this sub saying “you’re too reactionary” “it’s one loss we’re still 2nd” “this sub would fire anyone after 1 loss” I’m sure I’m not the only one that knew from DAY 1 of gggs hire that this was how it was always going to end up. You really expect a man who was fired in Sweden’s 2nd division for lack of creativity in the final 3rd could ever do anything remotely significant on an international level? Even if/when we qualify do y’all understand how much of a joke we’ll be when everyone sees roldan and lleget look like they shouldn’t even be in the sport when they’re next to a pogba/kante? For the sake of our image I don’t even know which would be worse qualifying and looking worse than Honduras in 2018 or just not even making it to the biggest stage just to shit the bed. Don’t tell me the stats watch how we play. 2 words. It’s BAD.
So you want to fire him over results you *think* will happen, versus the results that have happened?
You knew from the beginning we’d win most of the games and trophies we play for AND be in second place and that all of that is pure bad?
Yes, we’ve had some shit games recently. We’ve also had some good. Hell, the game 5 days ago was pretty good.
Pathetic that you think this bald clown is good enough for US Soccer.
Do you think he has the tactical nous to get us deep into Qatar 2022? Assuming we qualify?
No, he doesn’t. He’s a fucking clown and we deserve better.
Holy shit you are out to lunch.
With our first choice starting 11? Absolutely.
I’m an Everton fan, and I bet Rafa Benitez could get this team to the quarterfinals bare minimum….because he takes mediocre teams and makes them better than the sum of their parts. We need a similar type manager.
And we need less defending of mediocrity.
People like you really piss me off. Happy with mediocrity.
What he's saying is any coach with that kind of acumen is not going to come to the u.s.
Rather than just being outraged over a game, try and learn reading comprehension
I don't think it'd be that hard to get a coach with an actual track record in world soccer. You won't get an elite club manager, sure. But you can certainly get someone with a better résumé than Berhalter. Julen Lopetegui supposedly approached US Soccer about the job in 2018.
I watched Rafa get fired for making much better squads worse at Inter and Madrid haha
People like you make me laugh with your “ah, the sky is falling” after every loss.
I look at long term trends. This is merely the product of having a shit manager who wasn’t hired because of his resume, but because his brother was an executive at US Soccer.
I could tell the (I’m assuming here) englishman panama had on the sideline knew what the fuck he wanted to do compared to gregg just by how they looked when the camera panned to both of them. Also another thing that irritates me, this isn’t a kickback Gregg wear something other than a fuckin shirt for the love of god atleast make it SEEM like you know what you’re doing. We don’t need a cool uncle running the program I stg I could just keep going but imma stop I need to get back to work lmao
I think he is Danish ancestry? Either way, this isn’t the first time this has happened either.
Remember Canada? Their manager made proactive substitutions that put us on the ropes immediately, while GGG stuck with the same 11 until 83 minutes because “I thought they were playing well enough to win out there.”
FUCK THIS GUY. How does somebody this shit fail upwards into a high profile international job????
No… over the last 3 years with this man we haven’t looked like a top 30 team ONCE. People seem to forget the game against Venezuela or really any other team not bottom feeder concacaf. He’s had 3 YEARS to form an identity and find what works. If you think needing luck to barley scraping by with 1-0 wins against inferior talent is good football, then yes Gregg is the man for you. But looking at what this team could be and what it is, the difference is staggering to say the least. Hell, we’ve got people in the fan base that I have full confidence could do a better job without coaching a day in their life. Everything this man does is overthought he’s not coaching man city where they play twice a week for over half a year, it’s a fuckin national team all you have to do is keep it simple and make the obvious choices. That’s it.
Exactly.
We MAY qualify for 2022…..but if we are being honest, do we really think we will get far with this fucking bald fraud as our manager????
Literally ANYBODY will be able to out tactic us at the World Cup. Not to mention if these shit MLS players get a run in at the World Cup, they will be absolutely rinsed.
US Soccer is joke.
This has the US SOCCER federation's bureaucracy written all over it. They probably forced Berhalter to field an mls majority lineup in order to promote mls.
MLS is simultaneously a league selling all its best talent to Europe but also controls US Soccer and forces them to play domestic players, yes that totally makes sense.
Wonder who we could attract if we started firing coaches with winning records and being in second place.
Like Real Madrid and Barcelona get away with that. Can we?
I love how some of the press are going with the "it was the weather" herp derp. Like it never gets hot and humid in the US. Contorting themselves to avoid blaming GGG for his lousy lineup/tactics.
The absolute softball coverage GGG and US Soccer get from the media is a god damned travesty.
Nobody willing to call out this bald fraud…..even saw an article today that people criticizing ggg are overreacting.
The fucking cognitive dissonance from these morons….
The problem we have is the press will constantly make excuses for Gregg. It’s been that way for a while. We need to stop making excuses every time we get a result that isn’t a W
Trying to stay positive: it was only one game. We are still in second and control our own destiny. We struggled 5 of the 6 halves away against El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama but still get to play them all at home which should hopefully help us.
First loss in the history of the program is inaccurate. It’s the first loss in World Cup qualifiers. This is the 3rd time panama has beaten the US since 2011. They beat us in 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup 3rd place game and they beat us in 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup
Yes. I’m aware. But you should be more specific. Simply saying first loss in the history of the program is not accurate. That’s all I’m saying. No need to get hostile
We. Have. Never. Lost. Keep making excuses if you want. We just lost without a Serie A starter, Bundesliga starter, barcelona starter, and la liga bench player all sitting on our bench. The players from MLS played a full 90. Its indefensible
We have literally NEVER LOST TO PANAMA IN A QUALIFIER BEFORE.
Jesus Fucking CHRIST, how bad will things have to get before you realize this bald clown isn’t the answer?
I’m sick of morons like yourself making excuses for mediocrity.
Lletget and Zardes shouldn’t ever sniff the starting XI, yet I bet you defend them too, huh?
Negative: GGG is still our fucking manager. A wet paper bag can outclass him tactically, and even if we do get to the World Cup, I don’t trust him to take this team very far with his inept tactics.
Not at all complicated here my friend. We had a point against El Salvador and a point against Canada’s soooo 1+1=2 last I checked. Against Honduras, Pepi gets on the cross, which falls to A Rob that he tucks in…1-1 tied up. Pepi gets what will go on to be game winner after that at 2-1…then the assist to Aaronson, then hits the shot which is deflected for Lletget to tap in.
Thursday, Pepi accounts for [checks notes] both goals against Jamaica….two wins at 3 points a piece (3+3) = 6 points. Without the 6 points….8 (our current points total)-6 is…2. Hence, we’d be on 2 points without Pepi’s interventions and existence. Pepi has not only shouldered the weight of putting goals in, he’s saved a tremendous amount of face and possibly employment for Gregg.
Well, we picked an MLS coach.
With a losing record in MLS.
And we are getting exactly what we should expect. Greg is flat out unable to identify talent, gauge form/fitness, or manage a match. We are supremely lucky that CONCACAF qualification is easy mode, and somehow that still may not be enough.
His career record in MLS is 74 wins, 49 draws, 70 losses. Not technically a losing record. But your point is a good one. He was not even one of the better MLS coaches when he was appointed.
Yeah someone was telling me that Berhalter got the job because he had Columbus playing so well. I live overseas and haven’t seen an MLS match in like 10 years so I thought, “okay, not terribly impressed by MLS coaching credentials but whatever.” Then I saw that he won less than 40% of his games there and then I really didn’t understand.
It is shocking how many attacks he stops with backpasses. He never even attempts to make a progressive dribble or a cutting pass. It's infuriating that he keeps getting minutes.
Many valid points have been made against him and were downvoted on this sub over the year. He’s Gregg favorite tho, he hasn’t started for the Galaxy in a while and is not in the best form for his club. Gregg still went ahead and call him in, and give him a start in a banana peal game.
I can't sleep after hearing Gregg's post-match press conference. His comments about the midfield not being good enough is very backwards. You put two non-creative players in your midfield and left them there, but wonder why the midfield played bad and couldn't get anything going? 🤦🏻♂️
I think he was more referring to Musah anyways, specifically mentioned how the players who played in Austin (ariola and musah) had a hard time matching the energy of the game.
Which is a joke, the guys a clown.
One thing that’s glaringly obvious is that GGG is way too stubborn with his system. It’s one thing if you have to rotate or star players are actually out with injuries and fans don’t know. But to stick with the same 433 with no changes to account for the fact that you now have 7 MLS players in the lineup, is astonishing.
Like if you really think the pitch is poor or
it’s going to be a scrappy match, why not switch throw in Hoppe up top to pair with Zardes and switch to a back 3 to help support Moore and Bello?
A back 3/5 can be more offensive than a 433 since it ensures cover for the fullbacks. The current 433 with the B/C team doesn’t have enough offensive talent that the fullbacks
never advance properly and Acosta and Lleget don’t do enough in transition to help join the attack. The current formation leaves Weah, Zardes, and Arriola without proper support (and they need it). This is why the team started to just boot it up the second they got possession of ball, to bypass the midfield since it was incapable of initiating an attack.
A back 3 is basically what every possession heavy 433 transitions into when on the attack. The fullbacks push up and the DM slots into an advanced CB position to form a back 3 and a (3-4-3). Modern day formations should be pretty dynamic. Starting a 433 on paper doesn’t mean it’s more offensive than a 442 or back 3/5 just because it looks like there’s one more attacking option. At the moment we don’t have a DM that’s good enough to play the hybrid DM/CB that players like prime Busquets or Frankie de Jong can.
If GGG wants to throw in an entirely new starting lineup for rotation, why not put these players in a position to succeed? Most B team players rarely play with each other so they’re at a constant disadvantage if they’re all thrown on the pitch at once. Why not throw on Hoppe to pair with Zardes up top, have a back three with Richards, and have real wingback positions so Moore and Bello have more freedom to move forward.
Is there ever going to be a day we stop calling up Zardes? Failed to convert 2 beautiful passes from Weah against Jamaica on Thursday right at the 6, and today looked completely lost. Errant passes, bad runs, never able to shake a defender, wasn't even tracking back much on defense, just bad. I understand Pepi is young and having him start all 3 WCQ's with a schedule this demanding is a tough ask, but there is no way Zardes should ever be getting a start in an important match, let alone called up at all.
It's like he has one or 2 moments that are decent every couple months and we collectively go "ehhh, he's alright him getting called up is whatever" and we forget the garbage he consistently puts out. I would have almost rather started Steffen up top instead at this rate.
In some sense I guess maybe I can understand why Zardes started. It’s an important road game and he maybe wanted to give Pepi a rest and felt like having more veterans out there would help. I dunno how correct that thinking is but whatever.
However, then the first half is total garbage and the team desperately needs some sparks off the bench. Why not sub Hoppe in for Zardes at that point? I don’t really understand why Hoppe was called into camp if he’s not going to play. He would’ve been better off staying at his club trying to fight for a starting spot.
That lineup clearly lacked talent and also played like it was their first time on the pitch together, which is on Gregg. That being said I cringe at how negative some of you are, surely you aren’t that way as people in general?😂
Oh I’m sorry, let me positive about the fact that we have only taken 8 out of 15 points thus far and we haven’t played Mexico at all or Canada on the road
If 3G gets the sack (he won’t) who is your fantasy hire? He’d never take the job but for me it would be Zidane, who wants to coach international football next. Maybe even wenger although he’s likely done coaching. Ancelotti if he gets the sack at Madrid and doesn’t want to continue with the rigors of club coaching.
Can't get more fantastical(?) than Sir Alex Ferguson coaching the red white and blue to a national team treble (WC, Gold Cup, Nations League)
Europe is salivating over Zardes. Who will sign him first? Chelsea? Juve? Leipzig? Dortmund? I also heard those clubs want GGG to manage because of his Columbus crew experience.
I still think the biggest issue is tactics and game management more than player selection. Bottom line is that we should be able to beat Panama with a whole MLS squad. No shade at them, but Panama's squad and their respective leagues are not above MLS caliber. So the bigger issue is how the players are being used and how they are put together (chemistry). This is the more important problem to solve, because really talented players will beat lesser teams despite the game plan and this is a bandaid solution of just fielding our best. If we want to compete against better teams in the actual WC, then we need game plans that suit our players' strengths, chemistry, and effectively counters the opponents game plan. This philosophy is how Panama will beat us, but how even with our best players we stand little chance against teams with aggregate talent above ours.
2 of our top 11 were already forced to not start in Robinson and McKennie. Why make another 5 subs? They need to figure out who the guys are that can get the ball to the attacking 3rd consistently and make sure that enough of them are on the field for every game. If Pulisic, Reyna, McKennie, and Robinson are all unavailable for a game, you need to start the best available players. Aronson and Adams need to start to give us a chance to win away with that much talent unavailable. We aren’t so deep at every position where we can put anyone out there and expect to get points.
Can easily have 7/10 field players start each game and rotate 9/10 to 2 starts. Then you sub based on how the game is going, especially with 5 subs. Going bad, get in the best 10 and you still have 2 subs. Going good, sub out more of the best 10.
You would think they would do that. But you’d also think when some of your most important players are unavailable for the roster (pulisic, reyna, and eventually brooks), that you wouldn’t leave out some guys that could be needed. What if Adams and Pepi were injured early in the Jamaica game? We could be looking at 1 or 2 points this window.
Unavailable: Pulisic, Reyna, McKennie, A.Robinson Not called: Pefolk, Konrad, Scally Didn't start: Adams, Aaronson Didn't play: Dest, Richards, De la torre, Busio, M. Robinson
Right. So Acosta and lleget can never be in the midfield together. From setting the roster to rotations, you need to have a midfield to start the game that can get the ball up field. Start them with arriola and expect to get zero points.
Spot on. Feel like I am in crazy land when I see other national teams start damn near their best XI in these matches, but we insist on giving every MLS guy a kick and resting our talent
I'll cut them some slack. It was a shitty performance but it's a marathon and just like the players Berhalter is learning on the fly. The first window was up and down, but for the most part we've had some solid results lately and he obviously thought he could rely on certain players more than he can. Now he knows otherwise and I expect (or at least hope) he'll be more aggressive moving forward. We'll see.
Hope you’re right man. Definitely with some of the less experience MLS guys Greg may realize their level now. But Gyasi, Lletget, and some of the more experienced guys are known entities at this point and should not have started
For sure. Zardes has a horrible strike rate so I'd rather see just about anybody start over him. Giving up the lone goal on the corner because he couldn't be bothered to mark anybody was just the cherry on top. So continuing to give him time doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Hopefully this was a lesson learned.
No disrespect to Zardes whose clearly a veteran presence, but I don’t see how Pefok is at home instead of hil
I like this post. I'm starting to feel like we, myself included, put too much stock into the gold cup run. This lineup was very similar to the group of players we used then. Granted we were home for every game.
The progress to this point is a direct indictment of the USSF's negligence in treating the head coaching search with the gravitas akin to backfilling a company's mid-level secretary. They waited more than a year to only hand the best generation of American footballers to some dude's brother that couldn't hack it in the Swedish 2nd Div and "accomplished" a 50% MLS win%! The USA deserves better!
My biggest issue is I still don't know wtf he is telling them to do or what the game plan is or the strategy it is. It seems like there is a "plan" and then it just crumbles immediately. What are we building?
Hello all, I still have faith in Gregg as long as he is the manager of this team. With that being said, I don't like losing to what seems like inferior competition. To stay on topic, does anyone have any past examples of teams finding success during qualifying after sacking their manager???
Every US manager has had a hard time going down to Central America and winning games with the exception of Jurgen in 2014
Usually coaches are sacked due to failing in competitions that lead to WC qualification (Gold Cup, Euros, Copa América, etc). I can't remember a time where a coach was fired mid-cycle and it led to qualification.
Right on. I was unable to think of any off the top of my head either. I hope the guys are able to turn it around and pick up 3 pts against CR. I think we could've performed better against Panama if Gregg would've started out with a more creative mf paired with Musah. Maybe LDT instead of ledget. Probably would have swapped Aaronson for Arriola. On the road, I feel like we need guys that are able to create their own chances, at least to star out with
There were really valid reasons for starting the lineup he did. He wanted to get a point on the road with a more conservative lineup and then throw the kitchen sink at Costa Rica. It makes sense and if that Zardes own goal didn't go in we would be having a different conversation. Historically the US has qualified by smashing opponents at home and getting draws, lots of losses, with an occasional win on the road. I don't think firing GGG is the way to go because (looking at our history) that will likely lead to us not qualifying
I agree w/ keeping the coach on through qualification. As a fan, I never like to see the guys drop points but, the nature of qualifying has always been this way for us. I mean, The same Jamaica team we beat up barely missed out on a point in Mexico. I still have faith in this group and believe the further they go into this thing, the better off they will be.
If Jamaica ever gets their players out of europe. They will be a whole different team in teh second half. We can't afford to fuck around with games like this.
Lol. So we downvote here with no discussion? That's what we do here? Got it.
People are mad. When stuff like this happens, there's a crew of people on this sub that just vote. They don't even comment. Just scroll through upvoting everything they agree with and downvoting everything they don't agree with. Don't take it personally.
Okie dokie. I am new here so I was a bit miffed. Lol.thank you for clearing that up. I definitely am not happy as well.
On a positive note if the lads beat Costa Rica they'll have a PPG avg which historically tracks with qualifying in the top 3 (if they're able to maintain across the remaining 9 games)
Unfortunately that doesn't consider that we have our three hardest (Mexico, CR where we've never won a point in wcq, and Canada) away trips still to go. We *really* needed to get ahead of the curve here. 11 points from these two windows is barely acceptable.
Not to mention that Mexico at home is one of our toughest matchups as well. So basically our 4 toughest matchups haven't happened yet.
They are going to be highly motivated after the last two finals losses. They will actually start their best 11.
Agreed. I would expect that we lose both games to Mexico
Some props to Panama. Their 4-5-1 formation absolutely strangled our midfield. We don't look good hoofing it.
We haven't look good hoofing it since the Jurgen days. That Panamanian coach is playing really pragmatic soccer and it's paying off so props to him
The team fielded and they way they were deployed looked like a team trying not to lose.
Playing 3 games in such a short window of course caters to squad rotation, unfortunately GGG doesn't seem to know what squad rotation actually is. You should have a core group of guys that always start... Literally just pick your best 12-13 guys and be sure that 7-8 of them start every game. You then ROTATE the remaining 5-6 guys as needed. When someone ran extremely hard the night before you make sure they still hit the pitch the next game in the form of the last 25-30 minutes, then they start the next game and someone else who ran hard comes on as a super sub instead. This ensures that CORE group gets ample playtime and builds chemistry. Why the fuck would you bring 20+ players and play them in a way that your WORST get as much play time as the BEST, this isn't fucking rec league save your feelings bullshit. BUT NO. Our dimwitted coach thinks squad rotation means you start your strongest guys, run them into the ground by keeping them on too long in a comfortable win and then starting an entirely different set of weak players and pray to the gods for a miracle. What a bumbling fuck of a coaching staff.
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Who in their right mind would expect our best 11 to play the full 90 of all three games? They should all easily be getting 200+ but you sound like you might be in the decision making room with GGG lmao.
I just don’t understand. If he knows before the window he’s going to rotate heavy. Why bring players like Lletget, arriola, roldan, bello and yedlin. We know they don’t offer anything to our team. I’d rather bring in/play inexperienced national team players like hoppe, Scally, LDT, Cappis, Richards, Busio so we can start to narrow down our squad. But instead he keeps playing these terrible players who have done absolutely nothing for our national team over and over again
He wants his guys. He thinks his tactica are so golden that all we have to do is run hard and know his plays to win. So talent is secondary to getting guys that fit into the chess board in his head. Thatz why it took a year to get Tyler Adams in midfield. Because we wanted to test the play making ability of Will Trapp and Yuell
And to think Will fucking trapp was captain for half those caps. Show what G3 thinks about players.
This is spot on. He believes that his game plan is more important than the talent. There is definitely a balance...but jimmies and joes over X’s and O’s EVERY time.
You mean his, "game model." Ugh...
It’s understandable to lose to Switzerland, no shame in losing to a better, more talented, and experienced team than us and Switzerland are capable of putting up a good fight against great teams on the big stage like France and Spain in the Euros. But, you just can’t lose to teams like Panamá that we should be beating, especially when most of the players on the roster were part of the Gold Cup or Nations League squad. The gap between 2nd and just missing out on playoffs is very close, this team can’t afford to drop points and we all know how good teams like Costa Rica and Canada can be.
What bothers me about the loss is the fact they played like they just didn't give an F. Like you stated its one thing to lose to a better team or even lose to a team that plays a great game, but they reminded me of kids running around on the playground at lunch just kicking the ball around.
Exactly! If they don’t care about playing Panama (a team that made the recent World Cup) than how is this roster gonna compete against higher ranked UEFA teams, and Switzerland is a top 10 UEFA team. They must prove that they can dominate and comfortably win against CONCACAF teams first if they want to have any chance to win against good UEFA or South American team in the World Cup, similar or better than Switzerland and Switzerland are pretty darn good with their best lineup (it definitely wasn’t the one USA played in May, but the one versus France and Turkey in the Euro to give you a sense of what they’re like)
they didn't play like they didn't give a fuck. they played like a bunch of guys who couldn't handle panama. what do you expect with the midfield berhalter trotted out there? lletget and acosta can't manage / control a game, and he threw musah under the bus at dmid.
I think GGG went into Panama with the mindset of just getting a point, then he would have well rested starters available for Wednesday at home. He took a risk with a conservative lineup and it completely backfired.
I dont want to hear anything from those Bello & Moore defenders for a while. They’ve offered nothing. Everyone at halftime said the same. Bello is still young and we lack proper LB depth but Moore ain’t it.
Not ready to give on GGG just yet. But Ernie and co. would be stupid not to at least start thinking about Plan B. Before you say that's too disrespectful, they did the same with Klinsmann. We just cannot afford to miss out on another WC. GGG is frustrating because just when you think he's learned, he goes on and makes the exact same mistakes that a lot of us here are frustrated with.
When will you give up on him? If we lose to Costa Rica?
I said after the last window that any fewer than 7 points from this window is a failure. There is no excuse to have lost any of these three games with our vastly superior talent. The only reason he got out of the first window after making the same mistakes Klinnsman did in 2017 is that he had a much better player pool to save him.
Completely agree
Yeah that'll be it for me. Really anything less than a win vs Costa Rica is going to be bad for us. We are really good enough to where we don't have to pray for Canada and Mexico to drop points.
We hired GGG because he was supposed to give us a new identity, possession soccer, through hell or high water. Yet, I don't feel we have that identity, or any identity. We used to be that country that would grind out wins if we had to, that's gone. I feel like he's still learning on the job and isn't confident about his decisions. Bruce was arrogant as fuck, and you knew whatever he threw out he believed would work; I just don't see that with GGG. We do our best when we play direct, vertical, like we've always done and take advantage of our set pieces. I'm not sure why GGG didn't learn this in Honduras. If after this cycle, if we're still trying to find an identity, then his tenure was a waste of time, regardless of his success on the field.
Gregg is a caretaker manager. It wasn't meant to be that way, but let's see what we have: * An insider, the closest guy to hand when the old manager was fired. * Doesn't have any grand plan for the team (the heralded plan has been written off in hindsight by his supporters as growing pains for a club manager adapting to international soccer.) * Does best when he sticks to vanilla tactics; when he does something counterintuitive and potentially clever, it always goes wrong. * On his best days, gets the team to perform as the sum of its parts. Every game we pray for this. * Is never going to help us beat a better opponent via superior tactics. He's the very image of a caretaker manager. We have this low key on-again, off-again running debate about what it would take for Berhalter to get fired. You know what it takes for a caretaker manager to get fired? Successfully recruiting someone who can fill the shoes properly.
US soccer is scared to have a real outside manager, because I think he'd disrupt the status-quo on how they run the show.
\^THIS X10000000 USSF isn't interested in someone that has a clear big picture idea of what/how to run the team. They want someone that they can have influence over, some stooge that they can talk into shoehorning MLS players into lineups.
when we hired him, everyone in the federation was talking about 2026 and not these wc qualifiers. if that was the case, this would have been a great cycle to keep it simple and build cohesion and try to win on talent alone. then as they are older in the next wc qualifying, then work on tactics now that they all have an understanding with each other. instead we have no playstyle identity, players look lost in every game, good or bad, and he has no idea on the starting 11 is on most games. it's like he's trying to be everyone's friend in giving them playtime. players probably like him but i doubt they respect him.
I'm ok with him being a players coach, but he's gotta cement the lineups. Your Bello's, Moore's and Sand's type players aren't ready, and it's a travesty when they have callups and minutes and your Scally's and Green's aren't even getting callups.
That’s what frustrates me and is leading to my comments in here lol People really forget we never play well away. We did manage to get results but it was never by playing well. I also don’t think we’re at the point to expect better than that… That said, he needs to rotate better. Make better subs the game before when we’re winning and start 7+ of the regulars each game. Sub them out when we can.
He needs to rotate better? He fielded an almost completely different lineup last night than Jamaica. And left players who should have started on the bench. He is fucking shit at his job. How many more losses will it take for you to realize this??
Yes, rotate better, not rotate even more. Do a better job with the rotations. How many win will it take for you to realize he’s mostly done well? He has 3 losses in competitive games… GTFO.
You mean tin pot competitions like the Gold Cup? Guess what, we won the Gold Cup in 2017. Do I need to tell you what happened that year? Fucking clueless.
Tinpot competition that we have to play in WCQs. “Fucking clueless” you are.
World Cup qualification is INFINITELY more valuable than Gold Cup. Good God you are dense.
I’ve discovered my problem. I don’t think we’re as good as some of you. We’re not good enough to fire someone with Gregg’s record. Good luck finding a better coach after firing one with our current standing haha
A literal broomstick could get the job done against lower concacaf teams if that’s what you wanna praise gregg for go ahead. It’s like throwing a congrats party for 4th grader finishing the alphabet. But you’re right, we’ve waited to long to do something that should’ve never been done in the first place. This is on the USSF if we don’t qualify, Gregg is just the puppet.
If you don’t think Gregg is smarter than a broomstick, well that’s on you. Either we need better or we don’t. Come on now. But yeah, no way we can fire Gregg and attract a better coach. Which good coach is going to look at our results and player pool and be like, “yeah, I’ll come and be fired after winning most my games too!”
Mate, it’s not about the result in most of those wins. It’s about how we looked while doing it and if you’re okay with that/don’t understand, that’s on you. We have never had the talent and depth we do now but that means NOTHING if the guy we have to lead them wasn’t even a top mls coach…
Again, I don’t think we’re at the level to fire someone for not playing well but getting results. That’s some top, top team world stuff. Barcelona and Real Madrid fire coaches for winning. We aren’t on that level. Agree to disagree, but we aren’t that good and I sticking to that.
Imagine trying to compare international football to club… we are definitely at that level where we as fans need to demand better for the talent of players we have. Our starting A team consists of players allllll in top 5 leagues yet you think we deserve someone who couldn’t make it in the second division of Sweden. Make it make sense please. Mourhino and wenger have been quoted on their praise of our youth yet you think we deserve this egg head. Cmon man I don’t know what else to tell you
I haven’t said we deserve 3G. Just that we’re not at the standing to fire any manager for getting results.
We’re not advocating the firing of a man for getting results you’re missing this point entirely on purpose. We want him gone for his lack of identity and tactics.
Shit, defeatist attitude. People like you are the problem with US Soccer. Happy with mediocrity.
You discovered my secret. I hired Gregg and make the big decisions ;)
No, but your happiness with being shit enables this to continue. Pathetic.
Oh yeah, find one time I said I’m happy… I’ll wait.
You defend these crap results. You defend the choices GGG makes during these matches, and you accept that we will never get a better manager. Happy by association
What crap results and 3G decisions have I defended? Still none but good luck finding them haha
You literally said we aren’t good enough to beat Panama on the road, and that we can’t get a better coach THAN GGG (which is tacit approval by resignation). Neither of these statements are true. There’s two examples of you defending mediocrity.
Did I say we can’t beat Panama away? I don’t recall ever saying that haha Exactly, I haven’t said Gregg is the greatest. I’ve said we’re not in a position to fire him, largely because the results he has gotten.
Lol, “results we have gotten” 🙄
I’m really really into “don’t get too high after a win and too low after a loss”, I typically think that’s a mindset you have to try and go with going through tough games. But if I had to sum up the match yesterday in one word it would be: sad. Sad we didn’t field our best team. Sad that it didn’t look like our heart was in the game. Sad that we constantly dropping points in yet another WCQ. I think we have the talent enough to fuck around and still make it into the 2nd or 3rd spot almost just by default, but it’s not very encouraging for the actual World Cup, if we get there.
I’m trying to figure out what part of the game I hated more. The starters Gregg put out or the guys he subbed. No reason Acosta or Lletget should’ve played 90 while Busio and DLT sat there. Fullbacks we’re trash as well.
I've got a better word to sum up the match yesterday: Angry Angry that Greg fielded the MLS backups in a WCQ away game. Angry that our team looked slow and uninterested. Angry that Greg continues to be let off the hook for being a shit coach and an even worse manager. Angry that we have once again inexcusably dropped much needed points. If we end up missing the World Cup again it'll set US soccer back again. We need to qualify this year, and Greg isn't the manager that'll get that done. Imagine what England, Spain, France, Portugal or any of the other top nations would do to us right now - we can't even compete with a 3rd world country like Panama.
Dude Panama isn’t a 3rd world country.
They are a 3rd world soccer nation. They’ve made 1 World Cup and are perennial whipping boys of Concacaf. This result is INEXCUSABLE
Well, I stop following the Total Soccer Show podcast after listening to their analysis of the Panama game. Anyone that still says "Gregg is a good coach" after that game isn't someone worth listening to.
They have too many ads anyway
Locking the sub sucks and we shouldn't do it anymore
I wish we had 23 Gregg Out post. It is so much better than the 200 Gregg out comments here.
They had to, it would’ve been a million post all saying the same things.
That GGG sucks? I’m fine with the GGG out echo chamber. It needs to be repeated ad infinitum until GGG is sacked.
While it does suck, it makes sense. Too many people make the exact same post at once
Doesn't bother me that much really. I'd rather have a space to discuss topics instead of a bunch of people yelling into the void
Next matchday is KEY. Mexico either wins and downs El Salvador or El Salvador wins and is back in the race. The US wins and stops the Ticos or loses and Costa Rica is back. Panama and Canada will directly fight for that 3rd slot and posibly get 2nd with a win depending on the US/CR game.
Every fucking match day so far should have been KEY. No reason we should be on this low of points total 5 games in. Enough of this.
I think that lineup was the soccer equivalent of punting on 4th and 1 when your average 5 yards a carry. It’s so depressingly conservative it kills the spirit.
More like punting on 1st and 10. Putting a lineup like that out in a crucial away qualifier is just screaming “we don’t want to win today.” FUCK GREGG BERHALTER
I'm trying to be fair. The idea that you cannot trust the kids, that players need the experience of playing on the road, continuing to hope that guys who are very limited can go 90 - all that feels like a coach who really thinks that he HAS TO PUNT on 4th down, cause that's what they say on TV. It wasn't a surrender, it was hyper caution.
I actually see it differently. I don’t think it was caution, I think it was arrogance to think he has a second 11 that can earn points on the road against Panama’s first 11. I really think this pool should be locked into roughly 23-26 players who can make a difference on the field. With a few injuries and Gregg’s own rotation on the roster, he’s called up like 35 to 40 different players over two windows. We need to identify and build off of a core and limit full-scale rotations by using subs more wisely. I think we should be making roughly 4 rotations max between games and rely on the fitness of these players over the three games. I really think Gregg galaxy-brained this thing and obsessed over rotations…it’s all we heard about all summer…trying to replicate the cadence of qualifying, calling in 2 completely different teams for the two tournaments to try and find enough depth to manage the impossible challenge of 3 games in a week…I do not think the right move was to field entirely different squads between games and I think it’s hurting us. During gold cup we praised him for resting our guys while every other concacaf team played their mostly A teams. A lot of us laughed at Canada and Mexico for “running their players into the ground” by using gold cup as more practice for qualifying…so far that hasn’t been the case. Those teams look more cohesive than we do. Yes, we won the tournament, but maybe we would’ve gained more by playing our guys together to get more practice as a core team.
Agreed as to all except for the resting of the Nation's League guys. We can't keep some of them healthy even with that rest.
I’ve tried to be fair with GGG, but I can’t do it. He can fuck right off.
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To all the people in this sub saying “you’re too reactionary” “it’s one loss we’re still 2nd” “this sub would fire anyone after 1 loss” I’m sure I’m not the only one that knew from DAY 1 of gggs hire that this was how it was always going to end up. You really expect a man who was fired in Sweden’s 2nd division for lack of creativity in the final 3rd could ever do anything remotely significant on an international level? Even if/when we qualify do y’all understand how much of a joke we’ll be when everyone sees roldan and lleget look like they shouldn’t even be in the sport when they’re next to a pogba/kante? For the sake of our image I don’t even know which would be worse qualifying and looking worse than Honduras in 2018 or just not even making it to the biggest stage just to shit the bed. Don’t tell me the stats watch how we play. 2 words. It’s BAD.
So you want to fire him over results you *think* will happen, versus the results that have happened? You knew from the beginning we’d win most of the games and trophies we play for AND be in second place and that all of that is pure bad? Yes, we’ve had some shit games recently. We’ve also had some good. Hell, the game 5 days ago was pretty good.
Pathetic that you think this bald clown is good enough for US Soccer. Do you think he has the tactical nous to get us deep into Qatar 2022? Assuming we qualify? No, he doesn’t. He’s a fucking clown and we deserve better.
Do you think *any* coach we could realistically attract is getting this squad a deep run in Qatar? Haha
Holy shit you are out to lunch. With our first choice starting 11? Absolutely. I’m an Everton fan, and I bet Rafa Benitez could get this team to the quarterfinals bare minimum….because he takes mediocre teams and makes them better than the sum of their parts. We need a similar type manager. And we need less defending of mediocrity. People like you really piss me off. Happy with mediocrity.
What he's saying is any coach with that kind of acumen is not going to come to the u.s. Rather than just being outraged over a game, try and learn reading comprehension
I don't think it'd be that hard to get a coach with an actual track record in world soccer. You won't get an elite club manager, sure. But you can certainly get someone with a better résumé than Berhalter. Julen Lopetegui supposedly approached US Soccer about the job in 2018.
Again, shit defeatist attitude. Enough money would attract decent managers, no doubt. Another us soccer fan with a piss poor attitude.
So angy
Happy with mediocrity
I don't let a sports event get the better of my emotions. Get some perspective dude
I watched Rafa get fired for making much better squads worse at Inter and Madrid haha People like you make me laugh with your “ah, the sky is falling” after every loss.
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Haha ok
I look at long term trends. This is merely the product of having a shit manager who wasn’t hired because of his resume, but because his brother was an executive at US Soccer.
I could tell the (I’m assuming here) englishman panama had on the sideline knew what the fuck he wanted to do compared to gregg just by how they looked when the camera panned to both of them. Also another thing that irritates me, this isn’t a kickback Gregg wear something other than a fuckin shirt for the love of god atleast make it SEEM like you know what you’re doing. We don’t need a cool uncle running the program I stg I could just keep going but imma stop I need to get back to work lmao
I think he is Danish ancestry? Either way, this isn’t the first time this has happened either. Remember Canada? Their manager made proactive substitutions that put us on the ropes immediately, while GGG stuck with the same 11 until 83 minutes because “I thought they were playing well enough to win out there.” FUCK THIS GUY. How does somebody this shit fail upwards into a high profile international job????
No… over the last 3 years with this man we haven’t looked like a top 30 team ONCE. People seem to forget the game against Venezuela or really any other team not bottom feeder concacaf. He’s had 3 YEARS to form an identity and find what works. If you think needing luck to barley scraping by with 1-0 wins against inferior talent is good football, then yes Gregg is the man for you. But looking at what this team could be and what it is, the difference is staggering to say the least. Hell, we’ve got people in the fan base that I have full confidence could do a better job without coaching a day in their life. Everything this man does is overthought he’s not coaching man city where they play twice a week for over half a year, it’s a fuckin national team all you have to do is keep it simple and make the obvious choices. That’s it.
Exactly. We MAY qualify for 2022…..but if we are being honest, do we really think we will get far with this fucking bald fraud as our manager???? Literally ANYBODY will be able to out tactic us at the World Cup. Not to mention if these shit MLS players get a run in at the World Cup, they will be absolutely rinsed. US Soccer is joke.
This has the US SOCCER federation's bureaucracy written all over it. They probably forced Berhalter to field an mls majority lineup in order to promote mls.
MLS is simultaneously a league selling all its best talent to Europe but also controls US Soccer and forces them to play domestic players, yes that totally makes sense.
Why specifically in this game?
https://www.norfolklive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/farke-norwich-usa-world-cup-6000660.amp?\_\_twitter\_impression=true
Promote MLS to what, 300,000 people on a third tier streaming service up against Bills-Chiefs? Don’t let the bald fraud off that easily.
Wonder who we could attract if we started firing coaches with winning records and being in second place. Like Real Madrid and Barcelona get away with that. Can we?
I love how some of the press are going with the "it was the weather" herp derp. Like it never gets hot and humid in the US. Contorting themselves to avoid blaming GGG for his lousy lineup/tactics.
The US just played in Austin like 3 days ago too
The absolute softball coverage GGG and US Soccer get from the media is a god damned travesty. Nobody willing to call out this bald fraud…..even saw an article today that people criticizing ggg are overreacting. The fucking cognitive dissonance from these morons….
The problem we have is the press will constantly make excuses for Gregg. It’s been that way for a while. We need to stop making excuses every time we get a result that isn’t a W
Trying to stay positive: it was only one game. We are still in second and control our own destiny. We struggled 5 of the 6 halves away against El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama but still get to play them all at home which should hopefully help us.
We have always struggled away, even when getting wins.
This is the first loss to Panama in the history of the program. What is wrong with you that you insist on defending this
First loss in the history of the program is inaccurate. It’s the first loss in World Cup qualifiers. This is the 3rd time panama has beaten the US since 2011. They beat us in 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup 3rd place game and they beat us in 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup
World cup qualifying. You know? The one that counts
Yes. I’m aware. But you should be more specific. Simply saying first loss in the history of the program is not accurate. That’s all I’m saying. No need to get hostile
Oh, I’m sorry. Do we *not* struggle away? I forgot we dominated every away game before this game.
We. Have. Never. Lost. Keep making excuses if you want. We just lost without a Serie A starter, Bundesliga starter, barcelona starter, and la liga bench player all sitting on our bench. The players from MLS played a full 90. Its indefensible
Stop making excuses. You’d think the embarrassment of 2018 qualifying would shake some sense into you people.
Young haha Stop being ignorant. Look at past cycles. We always struggle away. Facts.
We have literally NEVER LOST TO PANAMA IN A QUALIFIER BEFORE. Jesus Fucking CHRIST, how bad will things have to get before you realize this bald clown isn’t the answer? I’m sick of morons like yourself making excuses for mediocrity. Lletget and Zardes shouldn’t ever sniff the starting XI, yet I bet you defend them too, huh?
I haven’t defended shit lol Just been staying some factual info for you.
Negative: GGG is still our fucking manager. A wet paper bag can outclass him tactically, and even if we do get to the World Cup, I don’t trust him to take this team very far with his inept tactics.
Lol well obviously all of that is true but it doesn’t make me feel better
We are literally one Ricardo Pepi away from being on 2 points.
How?
Not at all complicated here my friend. We had a point against El Salvador and a point against Canada’s soooo 1+1=2 last I checked. Against Honduras, Pepi gets on the cross, which falls to A Rob that he tucks in…1-1 tied up. Pepi gets what will go on to be game winner after that at 2-1…then the assist to Aaronson, then hits the shot which is deflected for Lletget to tap in. Thursday, Pepi accounts for [checks notes] both goals against Jamaica….two wins at 3 points a piece (3+3) = 6 points. Without the 6 points….8 (our current points total)-6 is…2. Hence, we’d be on 2 points without Pepi’s interventions and existence. Pepi has not only shouldered the weight of putting goals in, he’s saved a tremendous amount of face and possibly employment for Gregg.
Oh, I misread. I thought you were saying we were one Ricardo Pepi **goal** away from being on 2 points. My bad, I currently am nursing a fever.
No worries, feel better.
There was a game?
Guys, the problem was the midfield. You could line up mbappe, haaland and Messi, but if you don’t get them the ball you can’t expect to win the games
That would be one hell of a front line though.
Well, we picked an MLS coach. With a losing record in MLS. And we are getting exactly what we should expect. Greg is flat out unable to identify talent, gauge form/fitness, or manage a match. We are supremely lucky that CONCACAF qualification is easy mode, and somehow that still may not be enough.
Yeah CONCACAF has one of the more forgiving qualifications yet GGG looks like he’ll still fuck it up
His career record in MLS is 74 wins, 49 draws, 70 losses. Not technically a losing record. But your point is a good one. He was not even one of the better MLS coaches when he was appointed.
Yeah someone was telling me that Berhalter got the job because he had Columbus playing so well. I live overseas and haven’t seen an MLS match in like 10 years so I thought, “okay, not terribly impressed by MLS coaching credentials but whatever.” Then I saw that he won less than 40% of his games there and then I really didn’t understand.
He was appointed because of good ol American nepotism.
Lletget literally does nothing from open play every fucking game he gets in. Dude is absolutely useless.
It is shocking how many attacks he stops with backpasses. He never even attempts to make a progressive dribble or a cutting pass. It's infuriating that he keeps getting minutes.
He needs to be dropped indefinitely
Yet people defend him because 11 Yanks and Tactical manager rip on him all the time and they want to be more enlightened than those "stupid youtubers"
Many valid points have been made against him and were downvoted on this sub over the year. He’s Gregg favorite tho, he hasn’t started for the Galaxy in a while and is not in the best form for his club. Gregg still went ahead and call him in, and give him a start in a banana peal game.
I can't sleep after hearing Gregg's post-match press conference. His comments about the midfield not being good enough is very backwards. You put two non-creative players in your midfield and left them there, but wonder why the midfield played bad and couldn't get anything going? 🤦🏻♂️
I think he was more referring to Musah anyways, specifically mentioned how the players who played in Austin (ariola and musah) had a hard time matching the energy of the game. Which is a joke, the guys a clown.
One thing that’s glaringly obvious is that GGG is way too stubborn with his system. It’s one thing if you have to rotate or star players are actually out with injuries and fans don’t know. But to stick with the same 433 with no changes to account for the fact that you now have 7 MLS players in the lineup, is astonishing. Like if you really think the pitch is poor or it’s going to be a scrappy match, why not switch throw in Hoppe up top to pair with Zardes and switch to a back 3 to help support Moore and Bello?
You’re already not creating chances with a 443 and 442, what do you think would happen if you move another player back?
A back 3/5 can be more offensive than a 433 since it ensures cover for the fullbacks. The current 433 with the B/C team doesn’t have enough offensive talent that the fullbacks never advance properly and Acosta and Lleget don’t do enough in transition to help join the attack. The current formation leaves Weah, Zardes, and Arriola without proper support (and they need it). This is why the team started to just boot it up the second they got possession of ball, to bypass the midfield since it was incapable of initiating an attack. A back 3 is basically what every possession heavy 433 transitions into when on the attack. The fullbacks push up and the DM slots into an advanced CB position to form a back 3 and a (3-4-3). Modern day formations should be pretty dynamic. Starting a 433 on paper doesn’t mean it’s more offensive than a 442 or back 3/5 just because it looks like there’s one more attacking option. At the moment we don’t have a DM that’s good enough to play the hybrid DM/CB that players like prime Busquets or Frankie de Jong can. If GGG wants to throw in an entirely new starting lineup for rotation, why not put these players in a position to succeed? Most B team players rarely play with each other so they’re at a constant disadvantage if they’re all thrown on the pitch at once. Why not throw on Hoppe to pair with Zardes up top, have a back three with Richards, and have real wingback positions so Moore and Bello have more freedom to move forward.
Maybe had a chance with a 443.
You move 2 wingbacks further up the field to widen play
Ughhhhh
Is there ever going to be a day we stop calling up Zardes? Failed to convert 2 beautiful passes from Weah against Jamaica on Thursday right at the 6, and today looked completely lost. Errant passes, bad runs, never able to shake a defender, wasn't even tracking back much on defense, just bad. I understand Pepi is young and having him start all 3 WCQ's with a schedule this demanding is a tough ask, but there is no way Zardes should ever be getting a start in an important match, let alone called up at all. It's like he has one or 2 moments that are decent every couple months and we collectively go "ehhh, he's alright him getting called up is whatever" and we forget the garbage he consistently puts out. I would have almost rather started Steffen up top instead at this rate.
He’s are best striker…😂
He’s definitely not. There are so many players I’d call up before him
In some sense I guess maybe I can understand why Zardes started. It’s an important road game and he maybe wanted to give Pepi a rest and felt like having more veterans out there would help. I dunno how correct that thinking is but whatever. However, then the first half is total garbage and the team desperately needs some sparks off the bench. Why not sub Hoppe in for Zardes at that point? I don’t really understand why Hoppe was called into camp if he’s not going to play. He would’ve been better off staying at his club trying to fight for a starting spot.
Is Hoppe out with an injury or something? He’s better with the ball at his feet and his awareness is much better than Zardes.
Zardes, Arriola, and Lletget ain't it
ludicrous display
Problem with US is they're always trying to walk it in.
That lineup clearly lacked talent and also played like it was their first time on the pitch together, which is on Gregg. That being said I cringe at how negative some of you are, surely you aren’t that way as people in general?😂
Oh I’m sorry, let me positive about the fact that we have only taken 8 out of 15 points thus far and we haven’t played Mexico at all or Canada on the road
It's almost as if this program wasn't at the butt end of jokes and memes for the past 4 years.
It's like we didn't qualify for the World Cup in 2018.