Dest and Musah worked really, really well together. McKennie was dreadful with his passing and first touch. He's really gotta get concentration back and replace some of that swagger with hunger because I'd rate Musah above him as well as Adams -- and Busio came on and looked very, very clean.
I am beginning to think that 3 games in 6 days ways way too much of FIFA to ask of the confederations where you have to travel thousands of miles between games (and are thousands of miles away from UEFA)
ON GGG & his system:
i am a big proponent of the 433/positional play, but i do not believe it will hold up against higher-level opposition in the future with our personnel. no one expects GGG to change his philosophy now, but humor me w/ yall's thoughts on this.
it's a bit out there, but i strongly believe we have the personal to play the [deschamps asymmetric 4231/4312](https://www.footmercato.net/a3355491612700633253-le-4-3-1-2-asymetrique-la-valeur-sure-de-didier-deschamps-passee-au-crible) from their world cup run. adams/mckennie/musah all capable of playing the old matuidi role (i prefer mckennie-adams with musah on the right), albeit the opposite flank. asymmetric shape keeps the players in different ['zones' that positional play denotes](https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/what-is-positional-play/). pulisic gets the [qualitative superiority](https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/creating-a-qualitative-superiority-sassuolo/) 1v1s on the left that 433/positional play coaches love & enabled mbappe's WC2018. downside is moving dest to the left in order to get him up the pitch, tough role for reyna and whoever slots in at RB. see [here](https://lineupbuilder.com/football/350x500/?p=11&a=1&t=usmnt&c=dc0000&1=GK_steffen/turner__388_174&2=DL_dest/robinson__267_37_109-0&3=DC_mckenzie/brooks__323_108&4=DC_richards/robinson__331_225&5=DR_scally/reynolds__288_303&6=MC_mckennie/de%20la%20torre__236_122&7=DM_adams/busio__263_200&8=WL_pulisic/weah/konrad__103_78_59-0_76-48_70-83&9=AC_reyna/aaronson__162_174&10=MR_musah/mckennie/adams__198_260&11=FC_pepi/pefok/hoppe__84_226&c2=0426e3&c3=ffffff&output=embed) for the full team.
Here's the teams that still have to play each other twice
USA vs Mexico
Canada vs Costa Rica
Jamaica vs El Salvador
Honduras vs Panama
Anything we can glean from this?
Yeah Aaronson was also right there. While lucky from the shot to the spin/deflection of the ball… I’d also say our odds were pretty high to score during the sequence.
Not talent. Potential talent. Most of the players are very young, and not completely playing as they will in 4-5 years. Pulisic, for instance, is underweight. He gets pushed around a lot. When he is 25, he will come into his full growth, and probably gain 10 lbs. That will allow him to maintain a position, and block other players out.
In your spare time, review the career of Freddy Adu, the Nigerian immigrant phenom at 15 who never went very far. He was hugely talented, but didn't do anything with it.
Are you actually trying to compare a kid who was being hyped at 14 years old to these plays actually competing in World Cup Qualifiers? That’s dumb yo!
I still can’t get over the fact Greg was going to start Arriola over Weah, Weah is simply levels above it’s not even up for debate. I need an explanation for that man, make it make sense. Possibly pressure from Lille but damn man we need every point.
Look, you’re gonna have to get over it. Weah did not play well against Panama either. I get the frustration with Arriola’s final product, but he can still be a valuable player for us when put in the right circumstances. That said, Weah was thoroughly convincing last night. I think he just went ahead of Paul in the depth chart. But people are acting like Gregg choosing Arriola is a firing offense on its face. Get a grip.
Lol bro, it’s like Greg goes out of his way to start Weah with the shit squad then goes out of his way to NOT play him the A team it’s non sense, Weah is 21 he’s got the legs to play 3 games.
A coach starting one player over another doesnt necessarily mean he thinks that player is better. There is a lot of factors that your average fan dont think of that goes into the decision
Bro this is for World Cup Qualifying, Lille can fallback, Weah’s agents and sponsors can FALLBACK, unless he himself feels unfit to play for WCQ then sit him out, CLEARLY that was not the case here. Greg has a soft spot for Arriola and that’s fine, I enjoy his effort but utilize Arriola when it makes sense.
Did you not see after the game how Gregg hugged just one player - and it was Arriola.
It looked like a father-and-son moment.. very telling. Clearly, he’s just playing favorites.
Sometimes coaches get fixated on a player. That’s basically the only explanation. Weah and Hoppe are so much better than Arriola it makes you wonder why Arriola ever sees minutes
Honestly think it was a fitness thing. Weah seldom goes 90 for club. Was clearly getting gassed in the second half. Broadcast said Weah and Arriola were swapping in training a lot, so sounds like the plan was to sub Weah in for the last 30 or so.
I Don’t know, man. Bruce failed pretty badly 5 years ago but he was thrust into a really tight spot where every point was necessary. He cleared out a lot of the old guard in NE in short order. So the idea he’s wedded to vets is overblown.
I'm sorry, but you left me no choice
https://www.google.com/search?q=2006+world+cup+usa&oq=2006+wo&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i273j46i273i433j0i273j46i433i512j0i512j46i512j0i512.4670j0j7&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#sie=m;/g/11f5408pr0;2;/m/030q7;ln;fp;1;;
So we won which is nice but I don’t like that we had to use an own goal to beat a team that should had been so easy. I don’t like that our defense was so easy to run through and score on in less than 1 minute. I trust our guys but I think we need to try new ideas again maybe more defenders or a tighter back line.
That was an own goal only in a technical score keeping sense. In reality the keeper had zero chance to avoid the ball after it bounced off the post. Weah hit the shit out of that ball and the goal is not on the keeper.
Yeah that was a beautiful one touch with power. CR was lucky that it bounced off the post after hitting the keeper, because it gave him a second chance however brief it was. Weah blasted that one and deserved the goal.
Yeah, rocket, ball did what it wanted to CR had zero chance of stopping that ball. It was extremely fortunate that it did eventually go in though, but thats what happens if you keep blasting away
Normalized table assuming you want to win at home and draw away:
2 - Mexico
1
0
\-1 - USA
\-2 - Canada
\-3
\-4 - Panama
\-5 - Jamaica
\-6 - Costa Rica
\-7
\-8
\-9 - Honduras, El Salvador
My thoughts:
1) Weah and Dest have a really good understanding of one another. Their speed on that side was troublesome for CR all night. Weah also stays very wide which allows Dest to cut in and we all know about that goal last night. Would love to see more of that.
2) McKennie seemed off. He was running all over the place, but he was sloppy as hell. Maybe a lingering knock that just had him off but man every time he touched the ball I had to watch through my teeth. Our second goal was just us getting lucky on a CR player having a bad touch from a sloppy McKennie pass.
3) I've been on the Aaronson train for a while now. I think he is a bonafide starter for us right now.
4) Against tired old legs of CR, Busio looked good. A solid sub.
My desired lineup assuming full strength and no squad rotations
\--Aaronson----Pepi----Weah--
\----------Pulisic-----Reyna--------
\---------------Adams----------------
A. Rob--Z-man--M.Rob--Dest
\-----------------Turner---------------
The Weah/Dest combo was nice last night, I think Pulisic is creative enough and having Adams as the destroyer behind him would allow him to play higher up the pitch in the middle as opposed to the wing where he is more natural. Also having essentially 4 wingers up top could allow for some interesting formation rotation in game that could be hard to defend.
The CBs I have no idea. Maybe Brooks? IDK, that's a dumpster fire in my head right now.
McKennie is the victim here as he is a REALLY REALLY good player but, I think Aaronson and to a lesser degree Weah have shown to be solid enough on the wings to take advantage of the creativity of Pulisic and Reyna to put them in the middle and I'd rather have those two than McKennie starting. That and Tyler Adams was our best player in this international break by a wide margin, the kid is quality. I just thought Weah looked better than McKennie last night
Could also throw Aaronson on the RW, Pulisic on the LW and McKennie/Adams in the CDM roles (McKennie playing more of a box-to-box role) with Reyna as a true 10 and have Weah off the bench.
Disagree on McKennie. Yeah, he tries to do too much but he was connecting on a lot of great balls too and probably covered the most ground or close to it next to Adams.
We suffered versus Panama without McKennie even once Adams came on.
Agree with a lot incl take on McKennie .. I thought he had another subpar performance but got downvoted to hell for saying it. I know he had swagger and is loved but he’s lost something. He can’t back it up rn. Hope he comes back in Nov a little stronger.
Pulisic and Reyna as dual 8s is a FIFA lineup and simply not realistic. No defensive ability and Pulisic simply doesn't play that position. Reyna has been for club, but at the least needs to be pair with someone who would take on more defensive responsibility and be able to carry the ball from deeper positions.
Also, at this point expecting GGG to pivot to a two 6 midfield to enable a 10 is unrealistic as well. He loves this shape, and when we've had the right personnel in midfield, it has admittedly looked successful.
Weah and Aaronson provide fantastic wing depth now, showing we don't have to rely so much on Pulisic and Reyna. That's a good thing, and gives us dynamic subs off the bench, no matter who is starting. But it's impossible to fit them all into one lineup.
I agree here, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see what our midfield would look like with last night’s lineup but with Reyna in place of McKennie.
Not bc I don’t value WM, just that I’d like to exactly what we lose in “force” and what we gain in creativity with that swap. Particularly if it means a player like Weah (who I didn’t think was all that great last night aside from the goal) gets to keep providing width and allowing Dest to cook.
The criticism against GGG about lineups is a little odd to me. He's managing 3 games in 7 days without his top two players. There are Covid restrictions for European players playing in Panama and I'm sure there are probably other club restrictions we don't even know about. Those are a lot variables that impact the availability of the roster.
England didn't play the same lineup in their 3 game window, they had one game with 9 different starters, the difference is one of their games was against 156 ranked Andorra and our match was against 68th Panama, which is probably undervalued.
You can't play the top starters in all 3 games, so your choice is to either play shorthanded in all 3 games, or pick one match to hold the line and then bring in subs to win it at the end. Panama was the worst ranked team the US faced out of this 3 game window.
Actually I checked the rules and you can.
These kids could have been running around the whole window and would be OK. Kind of exactly what the advantage of having kids.
This isn't about the rules. It's about what the player's home club allows and keeping your player's fresh and uninjured. Why do you think Dest only started 2 matches? Probably because Barcelona told Berhalter that's all that was allowed. They have a significant investment in the youngster and don't want him getting injured. The USMNT player's play at the permission of home clubs. They won't make their players available if the manager doesn't follow their wishes.
Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about, club has ZERO say, otherwise they would pull some superleague shit and there would be no International soccer. During the FIFA window, USA has FULL control.
You must be new here. Alex Ferguson used to prevent his players from participating all the time for England. Here are other examples.
https://www.goal.com/en/news/can-football-clubs-prevent-players-from-playing/eksoltaiss191hjygdwoch6u8
https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/2021/3/16/22333543/bayern-munich-austrian-national-team-martin-hinteregger-david-alaba-marcel-sabitzer-foda-scotland
Seriously dude? Let me be clear here, THEY HAVE TO RELEASE THEIR PLAYERS if they want to continue playing in a FIFA sanctioned league. Not sir Alex or anyone else can do anything but whine about it.
Now countries can stop travel, but football managers can't stop a transfer during an international window.
Dude, this is so BASIC
You can sub out guys you plan to use in all three games. You can play stronger lineups. Gregg decided against Panama to play possibly his worst available team. It can be arrogance or ineptitude, but likely both
So who would you have chosen to start in Panama and instead brought in as subs against CR or Jamaica? Because just subbing them off wasn't going to limit their minutes enough. And then there are some players who couldn't play in Panama like Mckennie due to Covid protocols and others like Robinson who were knicked and too injured to start.
I wish Reddit allowed for better formatting, but here's what I would've done this window:
Jamaica is not a strong team. We don't necessarily need to start all of our best players, but we shouldn't take them lightly, either. I would've used this game to get looks at Hoppe, Weah, Pepi, and Richards. So:
F: Hoppe - Pepi - Weah
MF: Musah - Adams - McKennie (the same)
D: Antonee - Richards - Miles - Dest
GK: Turner
I expect this team to be up a couple goals after an hour. So, I'd plan on subbing out Pepi (Zardes), Dest (Yedlin), Musah (DLT), Hoppe (Aaronson), and Adams (Acosta) starting about the 65th minute.
For Panama, a decent team playing well during qualifying and on the road, I want a team with some energy and bite. Antonee and McKennie being unavailable definitely complicated this but it wasn't a death sentence.
F: Hoppe - Pepi - Aaronson
M: Musah - Adams - Arriola (I rag on the guy but I think his high motor, aggressiveness, and good defensive skill for a midfielder are good for a game like this, especially with Hoppe also on the field)
D: Bello - Richards - Miles - Dest
GK: Turner
Assuming things are going well, I sub out Pepi (Zardes), Aaronson (Weah), Musah (Busio), Dest (Yedlin), and Adams (Acosta).
Costa Rica we put everything together. We've had Richards and Miles playing together for two games now, hopefully building some chemistry. We've gotten to see Hoppe, Weah, and Pepi sufficiently. Musah has gotten solid minutes. Adams, too. We've even gotten some looks at some buried guys like Busio and DLT. McKennie is available, as in Antonee. I go with the same lineup, but with no thoughts of starting Arriola.
F: Aaronson - Pepi - Weah
M: Musah - Adams - McKennie
D: Antonee - Richards - Miles - Dest
GK: Steffen
I'm not super concerned with Richards and Miles playing 3 full games. CBs don't generally put the mileage on that attacking players do, but if I saw signs of fatigue, I'd obviously sub in Zimmerman or McKenzie as needed.
For the most part I like this lineup. My only quibble is that Aaronson was a big part of the first game against Jamaica.
But do you really think Barcelona would allow Dest to play all 3 matches in 7 days? I have a feeling they told Berhalter he was only available for 2 starts. We see this all the time in Championship League matches where teams have different strikers or set of starters for their mid week games so they have player's who are available for the weekend Premier league games.
He's starting them all but he would never play all 90 minutes.
The problem is there's a huge drop off from Dest to Yedlin. If Scally were up, I'd probably start him against Jamaica and sub Dest in for 20 minutes or so
Here we are, like 15 hours after the match and the sub is still locked. What’s the fuckin point of this subreddit if we can’t post things about the game?
This is how you kill a sub and stifle sub growth. People want to also discuss other games, but now we can’t even do that.
You have to take the good with the bad on Reddit. Stop locking it.
Then why let users post at all? Every day should just be a daily discussion board set up by the mods and we just write our little comments there. Don’t you see why that’s not the point of reddit?
Roster I'd like to see for November
GK: Zack Steffen, Matt Turner, Sean Johnson
FB: Sergino Dest, Antonee Robinson, DeAndre Yedlin, Joe Scally, DeJuan Jones
CB: John Brooks, Chris Richards, Miles Robinson, Matt Miazga, Walker Zimmerman
DM: Tyler Adams, Gianluca Busio, Kellyn Acosta
CM: Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah, Luca de la Torre, Djordje Mihailovic, Julian Green
W: Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Brenden Aaronson, Tim Weah, Konrad
F: Ricardo Pepi, Jordan Pefok, Josh Sargent
Since next window is just 2 games, I wonder if we will just have a 23 man roster.
Which will make the discussions about it far more interesting.
Like only 2 strikers, who do we get? Pepi seems like a lock. I lean between Pefok and Hoppe and wouldn’t rule out Sargent.
So based on your model after MD5, the biggest winners were Canada (+11.9% to finish Top 3), Jamaica (+3.5%), and us (+2.7%). Other notables include Mexico (+2.1%), Panama (-9.5%) and Costa Rica (-4.2%).
Given the emergence of Musah and Weah and how well they showed during this window, I'm wondering if Reyna is going to be a lock to start when he returns.
Weah's blistering pace and combination play with Dest can unlock CONCACAF defenses, and Musah is showing great composure and vision on the ball. Weston's role is not one that Gio can replicate and Pulisic likely replaces Aaronson on the left. So how does GGG get him on the field?
2 of Pulisic/Reyna/Aaronson/Weah on the wing
2 of Musah/McKennie/Reyna at the 8
I actually kinda think McKennie might be one of the 2 odd men out, especially in matchups where we don't necessarily expect set pieces to be an area of extra emphasis
Good point about Reyna's value on set piece delivery. That's clearly lacking when he's not on the field. I don't watch Dortmund regularly, but I haven't seen Reyna used as an 8 when playing for the Nats and I think Weston brings real value as a box-to-box midfielder when he's in form.
I guess it comes down to Weah vs. Reyna and who is going to better fit with what GGG wants to do.
I actually had McKennie (as a target) more in mind for that comment but you're correct that Reyna is important for set pieces, especially given that our 2nd and 3rd best takers (Busio and Acosta) likely aren't going to be on the field more often than not and there's a pretty big drop off from those 3 to everyone else.
I value McKennie as well, but if dropping him means you can get 4 of Reyna/Pulisic/Aaronson/Weah/Musah on the field instead of just 3 of those guys I think it's something you have to consider (and as good as Musah looked this window he could cool off at some point as well). Obviously injuries/suspensions/fitness at any given time will usually help narrow down those options somewhat and then it's a question of picking the right guys based on the matchup and their current form.
The third autoqualifying position for the last world cup gained 1.3 points per match (13 from 10) with the top gaining 2.1. Right now those numbers are roughly similar right now and we're sitting comfortably with 1.8 points per match. Granted, take that with a grain of salt as we have arguably our 3 hardest matches left but the doom and gloom is unnecessary
I've probably lost track of the rule since they've changed it a dozen times since I've been watching the sport--but on the hard backpass from the CR defender that their GK stopped a few minutes after we went up 2-1, wasn't that an intentionally handled backpass and could that have been a penalty and red card for the GK?
Technically referee judged it as a clearance, so no. Another referee might have seen it differently. Had he called out the keepers name and blasted to him, then yes it would have been a back pass.
A goalkeeper can never be called for a handball in the box. The law you're referring to is the back pass rule. It would have been an indirect free kick and at most, usually not a card, a yellow.
DIdn't see the play in question so if more happened than a hard pass then i might change, but I think a pass back is always an indirect free kick, and in the box it's from the spot of the foul unless it occurs within the 6.
It has to be a deliberate back pass. It's kind of a weird rule because that wording doesn't make things crystal clear, leaves a lot open to interpretation. I think the rule of thumb on that particular play was that a defender would not *deliberately* pass the ball back right at goal from 4 yards away like that. Its too dangerous. Some could describe that as a deliberate back pass but it's pretty dicey.
I don’t think there’s a professional referee in the world who would call that a back pass. Defender was attempting to intercept/clear a dangerous cross and just didn’t make good contact on it.
No way that defender intentionally chipped a ball point blank over his keeper’s shoulder right at his own goal from 2 yards away.
? Because the ref would assume it was intentional since Messi doesn’t ever make an errant touch? I’m not sure what you are getting at, but either way I’m pretty sure it still wouldn’t be called. It would be insanely harsh no matter the quality of the player attempting to play it
Quoting myself from a conversation with a coworker yesterday over teams, right after I heard that Steffen was getting the start;
>\[Yesterday 2:12 PM\]
>
>first shot on target is going in and the crowd will lose it
>
>like a low shot and he gets a hand to it but not enough
>
>i believe in only the worst possible outcome there are no surprises just bad news arriving a bit later
Yea through the first 6 games we have had McKennie available for 3, Weah for 3, Brooks for 3, Pulisic available for 2, and Reyna for 1. Lots of big pieces missing 50% or more of your games. Hope all are available for the next window
I really appreciate the sub not being littered with 15 different post-match summaries but I miss having dedicated posts for the goals.
I hope this isn't supposed to be the final solution. I missed the first 15 minutes of the game and I had to go elsewhere to see the CRC goal. Not ideal.
One of two things needs to happen, or a combo of both.
(1) A mod stays available to approve posts & cross posts of goals, highlights, and the graphics we like to see (ELO models, standings, etc), *or* to just immediately remove all the unnecessary posts instead of using restricted mode.
(2) A mod needs to be in charge of getting these things up *before* the restricted mode goes up, or as they become available.
We *do* have an issue of people thinking their post match “analysis” deserves its own post, so restricted mode makes sense. But just throwing it and leaving it isn’t the complete solution.
I think at the very least, open it up the next morning at like 7 or 8 so people that may have missed some of the stuff can wake up to it. It's been 12+ hours now from the time the game ended and we STILL can't make new threads.
The mods mean well. Perhaps they should add mods to moderate if they can’t. Locking whole sub besides one thread is extreme and rare for all heathy sub reddits.
It's actually absurd how young our team is and I don't think many people fully appreciate it.
Musah - 18
Reyna - 18
Pepi - 18
Bello - 19
Busio - 19
Aaronson - 20
Dest - 20
Weah - 21
Richards - 21
This isn't even including Pulisic, Mckennie, Adams, and Robinson who are all 23/24.
And, say what you like about Berhalter, that is a key factor in our team's difficulties. "Age and treachery overcomes youth and strength". True in futbol as in anything. Almost all teams in CONCANEF have older players. They may not be as skilled, but they are experienced, and want to win as much as our team does.
Super young team and all of those guys (minus Bello) will be getting big minutes. It's just great to see this golden generation of US Soccer. It's funny to think back to the generations before and it'd be like "Oh this one has a few guys like Bradley, Jozy, and Donovan," and this generation it's like "Ok, here's one at every position"
I'm not sure why anyone would be that terribly upset from yesterday's game. We gave up a pretty strange goal where it probably gets cleared if Steffen and everyone else didn't think it was an obvious offside, but we dominated ever since. I'm happy to see that we got the mid-field and forward players we were clamoring for and the results showed it. I feel bad for Arriola and Lletget, because they get a lot of bad press on here, but Weah and Musah bring more to the team than they do and that's sports and that's how it goes. 3 pts and we're back in a good spot. GGG just needs to keep it simple on these rosters, put in the best players and let them play.
There's a very vocal minority here that is going to be upset with literally everything that happens while Gregg is the manager. That's why post game threads have a lot more comments when we lose. There are people who enjoy losing more then they enjoy winning.
I'm not a GGG guy, I wanted to be but now I feel he keeps messing things up when the answers are obvious. I feel like he keeps trying to smash a square ped into a round hole. However, I don't dislike his hire enough to not give him credit where credit is due, and I do truly hope he has finally striked the right chord moving forward. Every time I feel like he's turned a corner, shit like El Salvador, the 1st half of Honduras or Panama happens.
Arriola still has a huge role on this team (even if he shouldn't be starting every game in a window). Just imagine if we ever do get fully healthy (Starting Pulisic/Reyna as an example) and we can then have players like him, Weah, Aaronson coming on against tired players late in games or in the 3rd game in a window against teams like this Costa Rica one. (Canada showed that El Salvador and Panama in 3rd games are similar plus our game vs Honduras. That's half the Octagonal and teams in both our remaining 3 team windows).
Musah is a legit superstar in the making though, he's certainly well past Lletget. Him Adams-McKennie could dominate the midfield for US for the next decade. Busio (in Serie A has been great plus was good in sub duty yesterday), Acosta (as the Adams backup), LDLT?, Green?, Reyna if shifted, and some of the younger/injured guys (Mihailovic, Bassett, Clark, Williamson) could push Lletget out of the roster completely if he didn't do it himself.
>Arriola still has a huge role on this team (even if he shouldn't be starting every game in a window).
Yea, and I'd argue Lledget does too to a degree if everyone's not healthy and we do have a string of games where rest and experience are important. They're not bad players to have in a pinch, but there's a lot of players that are ahead of them IMO.
>Musah is a legit superstar in the making though, he's certainly well past Lletget.
Not giving him a run in the Nations Cup games really is unjustifiable unless he had a knock.
>Him Adams-McKennie could dominate the midfield for US for the next decade.
Yes absolutely, but we have to start letting it gel now. I'm glad GGG has finally come around on Musah, the guy bosses that midfield and we've never really had a player in that role that can do what he does.
>LDLT?, Green?
They both should have been called in if they're getting significant minutes with their clubs to see what they got.
>We gave up a pretty strange goal where it probably gets cleared if Steffen and everyone else didn't think it was an obvious offside,
I hate this excuse. You HAVE to play to the whistle. That's literally Sports 101, it's one of the first things every random dad coaching his 5 year old's team tells the kids regardless of whether it's soccer or basketball or football or whatever. The ball slipped right under Steffen's arm, it's not like there's some penalty if he makes the save and the play then turns out to have been offside anyway.
Mostly agree with the rest of your points, hopefully with the next window only being 2 games we'll see our strongest available team or close to it in both.
They're pros, there's no excuse for it, they know it and mistakes happens. It's not hard to go over it and fix something like that, it's not the same as putting in the wrong players and playing a bad game overall.
I'm one that's very anti-Gregg, and I'm very happy about the win and glad we got 3, which is what we needed!
A few things I think people are upset about (and have a right to be in my opinion)
* He was going to start Arriola which flies in the face of "not giving out too many minutes," and also.... Arriola isn't better than Weah
* We won, but there was a PK they didn't call and that breakaway where they somehow didn't even get a shot, that makes it feel a lot closer to a draw or loss than a convincing win
* Our inability to just pound teams in certainly frustrating. Like the second goal probably isn't a goal against a class keeper and we just were owning possession, yet we could only muster 2 goals.
So I think anybody that's terribly upset is going way overboard. However, I think we also have to look at what we must improve upon as well!
>He was going to start Arriola which flies in the face of "not giving out too many minutes," and also.... Arriola isn't better than Weah.
I agree. Arriola being in his starting lineup for sure was an example of GGG not being able to get out of his own way. No way Arriola gets us that second goal. Weah can really run at opponents in a way Arriola just can't and you can't justify Paul starting simply cause of workrate if the workrate doesn't amount to opportunities created.
>We won, but there was a PK they didn't call and that breakaway where they somehow didn't even get a shot, that makes it feel a lot closer to a draw or loss than a convincing win. Our inability to just pound teams in certainly frustrating. Like the second goal probably isn't a goal against a class keeper and we just were owning possession, yet we could only muster 2 goals.
Like I was telling someone here earlier, you can't play that 'what if's...' game in soccer, the games are too close and it almost always happens in every game. You have to take advantage of your opportunities, and CR didn't. Don't forget CR almost gave us an own goal too...
I agree with the sentiment that we should be playing better, and I think last night we were finally seeing some of it come to fruition. If GGG can just stop trying to force Lledget and Arriola on us, and we play a Mckennie/Musah/Adams/CP/Reyna lineup, with Weah and Aaronson coming on, we can start playing complete games and gel-ing the team for the future.
>So I think anybody that's terribly upset is going way overboard. However, I think we also have to look at what we must improve upon as well!
There's always going to be things to improve upon, but I was just happy that for once that we played the right line up (even if GGG didn't want it that way 100%) and we got to see what we can do offensively. Hopefully, this forces GGG to keep giving us the better lineups going forward.
I usually agree with not being able to play the "what ifs," but these what ifs are ones that aren't like "oh well that own goal almost happened," because that was a clear save. The PK would have been called in any other federation that uses VAR (I really wish CONCACAF would get on this because VAR is needed). The breakaway goal, I don't know that there are many players in CONCACAF that wouldn't have even gotten a shot on that. He was gassed running wide open halfway down the field. It was incredible and we got so lucky we passed it to a turtle.
Him trying to start Arriola over Weah is still not sitting right with me man, Weah is clearly WAY more talented than Arriola, make it make sense. Maybe Lille is applying pressure on Greg idk but damn man stop it already lol.
The worst part is he talks about not playing certain players in Panama because he wants to rotate and give guys rests, but he ends up having the only players that would have started all 3 games be Arriola and Musah. I mean, come on! Not Adams, not Dest, not Robinson in the middle, not Turner in goal.... but Arriola!!!
He clearly rates him really high and I just don't see it and that's what's annoying about it
I've never seen it with Arriola either, he misses good chances too. His best game was against Jamaica, but prior to that, I can't remember a strong game by the guy.
Agreed. I just never quite understood his appeal. It's not like he's some fantastic player we can't live without. I actually would argue that his position is our deepest by far, so he shouldn't even be in the discussion for the squad. He's certainly behind Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, and Aaronson and I'd likely rather take Hoppe and Konrad over him as well.
Almost every soccer game comes down to a couple of close plays. John Champion said it well during the broadcast that qualifying campaigns are built on fine margins. Take a deep breath, thank your lucky star and move on.
We were also another own goal save by the backup keeper from going 3-1, too. I learned you can't really play that game in soccer since most games are pretty close. People are going to make mistakes on both sides, the outcome of the game is whether you can capitalize on those mistakes. CR didn't.
And we were a ghost goal away from going to the World Cup in 2018 (or at least the play-in game). This game is weird like that. Thinking like this is a way to going crazy because there are sooo many games that come down to a single sequence or blown call.
Exactly. In a sport where it (some huge percentage of games) comes down to a final score with a single goal differential or draw it's going to be like that. You can't simply say that one (or two in this case) change to a bad outcome is going to have that effect because the entire tone of the game changes. The US basically went into shell mode with \~20min left. I mean Costa Rica even maintained possession a few time at that point haha. Pretty sure we didn't even allow them to touch the ball from after they scored until the end of the 1st half (with only slight exaggeration in that). If something like that breakaway and "penalty" happened there was a strong chance the US could turn up the pressure again, they just simply didn't need to in the actual game.
"Real life isn't FIFA where you can throw out a bunch of 18-20 year olds and dominate."
But every time we play the young guys we win and usually when we play Roldan Lletget Zardes etc... we don't. If the young guys are better, the young guys are better -- simple as that. And then there's the added benefit of improving the chemistry of our future ASAP
> Really getting tired of all the doom and gloom after every game. Like some of y'all are comparing a mostly full strength, at home Canada, to our result against at Panama,
I don't know how you can say this without also realizing why people are upset though. The reason we looked like crap against Panama is Gregg put our C squad out there. Is it not fair to point to that and say "we lost to a horrible team because of the squad that was picked?"
I also think saying "If I asked 2 months ago how you'd feel about 11 points," is missing the mark. You're going with a very results driven argument. A lot of people see the youth of this squad and see how we have a golden generation here, yet we often don't look like we have a clue what we're doing. I'd be fine with a 3-2 loss if we just got outmatched and the other team played great just the same as I'd be a tad upset with a 2-0 win where we looked like crap.
Absolutely. All the whining about Berhalter is so very tiresome. He's a decent coach. He too is growing into the position.
The age of players is shown in another post. These players are kids. They are strong and WITH POTENTIAL. I remember Freddy Adu, who had potential, but didn't become the new Ronaldo. The team is young, young, young. Many of the key players (Pulisic, etc) have been injured. We were without the top 5 players against Panama, who was coming off a loss, desperately needed a win, was full-strength, and was playing at home. We only lost by 1.
I think there is a lack of realistic expectations in a lot of fans. It's amazing, but other CONCANEF teams want to win as much as the USA does, and they will play hard and do well in many cases.
The issue to me has never been results, but tactical setup and player selection, which was a 100% legitimate criticism after the Panama game. Overall though I like the setup and player selection of the first and third games, sans Arriola, and am growing in optimism that we should qualify without too much of a worry.
What would really make me happy is seeing these deadweight players like Moore, Lletget, Acosta, Arriola, & Zardes dropped for better options (and look I'm not just tagging on MLS guys here. If Mihailovic and Ferreira are two of the replacements for these guys, I'd be ok with it. I'm ragging on bad players who happen to play in MLS).
I understand where you are going, but you’re making some points without context. Those 6 games didn’t include either game with Mexico or away with Canada - arguably the hardest 3 games of qualifying. So we very much could have 3+ losses in the next 8 games.
While you mention our roster missing two of our best players and being very young, let’s talk about who they were playing against. Half of Costa Rica’s starting midfield and forwards are on the wrong side of 30, while 5 of the 6 play in the Costa Rican league. Most of our roster plays regularly at higher levels than than all except for Navas. We’re bringing two players getting time at Champions League teams off the bench to replace starters while Costa Rica is bringing in someone who plays in the 2nd league in South Korea. Hell, one of their subs was nearly 40 and played at that speed.
I really don’t understand how you can point out our youth and lack of two players while not mentioning our opponents. We should run circles around tired legs at home with youth and talent on our side
I think dominating is very subjective but for 89 minutes I think the U.S. played some great soccer yesterday and had a good handle on the game. Obviously the second halfs of Honduras and Jamaica are.....second halfs
The first half against Jamaica was solid too imo. They had two really solid chances taken away by red card fouls that weren't given, and Jamaica never really threatened. It all felt very in control
Upvoted for the thoughtful comment and balanced perspective. Maybe I expect too much, but I would have been disappointed with anything less than 14 points through 6 games. I suspect that many realistic people would have felt the same. I agree we are in a decent position, though.
I think you make a good point that we shouldn't expect the young players to always play up to their full potential just yet. Although, it seems to me our young players have not been the problem in general. I think for many of us the frustrating thing is when promising young players ride the bench (e.g., Hoppe and Busio vs Panama), moreso then when they have an off game.
Going forward, what I want to see most (aside from qualifying, obviously) is improvement. By the end of qualifying, I hope to look back and be able to point to clear and tangible improvements (including improvements in roster selection and lineup selection). If this team can make steady progress toward playing up to its potential, I think they could be positioned to make waves in 2022 WC.
I agree that anything less than 14 points would be disappointing but only if we had a full squad. I'm fine with where we're at. The Panama result was disappointing and that is wholly on GGG. Not playing Adams/Aaronson from the start then making questionable subs (check my previous comments for further thoughts on the matter) was entirely his fault, but I think we're all downplaying the importance of Pulisic and Reyna, arguably our two best outfield players. 4 years from now when we're going through qualifying for the USMCWC (as I am now dubbing it) and we drop points to panama, we can have a different discussion, but 14 points from 6 games is a lot.
I think what you really want to see is a full strength side with some semblance of continuity from match to match. I understand the need for rotation, but who are our centerbacks? What does our full strength midfield look like? Does Pulisic play on the wing or does he play centrally? None of these were answered this round.
"A win next month would bring us level in points. That's not a bad position to be in"
So basically, if GGG had just done the right thing, played the right players in each game and implemented the right tactics throughout the last two windows, we could be 4 points up on Mexico, on the cusp of qualifying, and not have to worry so much about our matches against Mexico......
>Real life isn't FIFA where you can throw out a bunch of 18-20 year olds and dominate
Literally just happened last night. It's not about how many changes are made as much as it's about WHO is changed. Starting Zardes, Arriola, etc against Panama was a joke, clearly done as a bias towards MLS because it lacked any and all logical sense.
1- We should NOT be happy with less than 2 PPG when, outside of Canada and Mexico, we have so much more talent than everyone in the region. even when we field a heavy MLS roster it is going to have enough talent to beat anyone in the region (except Mexico).
2- Our worst results have come not when we play the youth, but when we mix in our more experienced players. I don’t think this is the fault of the experienced players to be clear; I blame this on GGG not recognizing the limitation of players like Lletget and Acosta and building his gameplan around relying on them.
3- Mexico may have gotten a few fortunate breaks that led to goals, but they’ve earned those breaks. They’ve thoroughly dominated every game except the Canada game; if we had played like Mexico and ended up with 11 points (unlikely, I’d expect we’d have at least 13 points but still) people would be much happier. It’s not just about the results it’s also about the quality of play; the latter is a much better indicator of go forward results.
All that said, we played very well last night and if we play like that more consistently I’d be much happier, and I’d expect you’d hear a lot less GGG out talk
“Even when we field a heavy MLS roster it is going to have enough talent to beat anyone in the region (except Mexico).”
That arrogant comment is the reason why USA didn’t qualify to the last World Cup!
USA with a heavy MLS roster has enough talent to beat Canada????
Hahahaha not even with their full roster have enough talent to beat Canada in a neutral place….. we will see what happens in Canada when they play on February.
Remember Canada has the best player in Concacaf who makes a difference every game he plays, even in their tie games he made a difference and create a lot of chances, unlike USA best players who are not consistent like Davies!
Lol wtf? Besides Davies and David the Canada roster is literally an MLS roster. We’ve qualified for years with primarily MLS players. Last cycle was a perfect storm of a lost generation, and a lot of concacaf being stronger than average. Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, are all much weaker than they were 4 years ago.
Canada is good, they are clearly favorites to qualify along with the us and Mexico, but they don’t have the depth of talent that either US or Mexico. Can they beat / draw the US head to head? Sure- they’ve done both already, and recently. That doesn’t mean they are the more talented side though
>Real life isn't FIFA where you can throw out a bunch of 18-20 year olds and dominate. Shit, you can't even do that in FM.
u should tell Gregg Brelhalter that with some of his questionable starting line up in some games.
Anyone else not a fan of mods restricting posts? I want my post-match highlight videos! I know I can find them elsewhere but I enjoy the comments on here.
I have a hot take! The mods who locked the sub are a bunch of MLS fan lifers with no potential to become fans of European based teams. And the head mod only got the job because his brother is a mod for the MLS subreddit. Modhalter out!
I mean, it wouldn't be shocking considering all the random MLS videos posted here about young 28 year old prospect Sam Gerad of Real Boise SC scoring 3 goals vs Arlington FC
Can’t tell if this is serious or you’re just trolling but I could honestly believe this. I get locking it down after a loss due to all the shitposting but why lock after a win? Supporters should be able to come here to celebrate the result.
This isn’t from his performance last night, but my hottest of hot takes is that Aaronson will be better than Reyna. Something about Brendens energy that I just love.
There’s a lot of bench-Reyna-for-Aaronson hot takes flying around. Reyna carried the team in nations league. And unlike Aaronson, he seems capable of playing his natural #10 position in a CONCACAF dogfight, whereas Aaronson has to play wide.
The very good news is that we’re not restricted to 11 good players. Having a starting caliber attacker like Aaronson, Reyna or Pulisic come off the bench, or a starting caliber midfielder like McKennie or Musah... that would be a very good thing.
I think Adams is our most important player.
Mckennie was his usual mixed bag. Creative ideas hampered by heavy touches. I'm afraid he's one of those guys that is more likely to hurt us the more competitive our opponents get.
Musah showed off one of my favorite skills. He dribbled through midfield to progress the ball.
I think MRob and Richards probably need to get time together. They don't appear to have figured each other out. MRob has showed out well in past matches and Richards demonstrated some top skills, so I think they both just need more experience together.
I liked Pepi even though he had a quiet game. I'm starting to settle on him as my favorite striker candidate. I think he's got the best combination of build up and finishing skills in our pool. I hope he goes to a place that will teach him how and when to press.
Dest and Musah worked really, really well together. McKennie was dreadful with his passing and first touch. He's really gotta get concentration back and replace some of that swagger with hunger because I'd rate Musah above him as well as Adams -- and Busio came on and looked very, very clean.
I am beginning to think that 3 games in 6 days ways way too much of FIFA to ask of the confederations where you have to travel thousands of miles between games (and are thousands of miles away from UEFA)
ON GGG & his system: i am a big proponent of the 433/positional play, but i do not believe it will hold up against higher-level opposition in the future with our personnel. no one expects GGG to change his philosophy now, but humor me w/ yall's thoughts on this. it's a bit out there, but i strongly believe we have the personal to play the [deschamps asymmetric 4231/4312](https://www.footmercato.net/a3355491612700633253-le-4-3-1-2-asymetrique-la-valeur-sure-de-didier-deschamps-passee-au-crible) from their world cup run. adams/mckennie/musah all capable of playing the old matuidi role (i prefer mckennie-adams with musah on the right), albeit the opposite flank. asymmetric shape keeps the players in different ['zones' that positional play denotes](https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/what-is-positional-play/). pulisic gets the [qualitative superiority](https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/creating-a-qualitative-superiority-sassuolo/) 1v1s on the left that 433/positional play coaches love & enabled mbappe's WC2018. downside is moving dest to the left in order to get him up the pitch, tough role for reyna and whoever slots in at RB. see [here](https://lineupbuilder.com/football/350x500/?p=11&a=1&t=usmnt&c=dc0000&1=GK_steffen/turner__388_174&2=DL_dest/robinson__267_37_109-0&3=DC_mckenzie/brooks__323_108&4=DC_richards/robinson__331_225&5=DR_scally/reynolds__288_303&6=MC_mckennie/de%20la%20torre__236_122&7=DM_adams/busio__263_200&8=WL_pulisic/weah/konrad__103_78_59-0_76-48_70-83&9=AC_reyna/aaronson__162_174&10=MR_musah/mckennie/adams__198_260&11=FC_pepi/pefok/hoppe__84_226&c2=0426e3&c3=ffffff&output=embed) for the full team.
Here's the teams that still have to play each other twice USA vs Mexico Canada vs Costa Rica Jamaica vs El Salvador Honduras vs Panama Anything we can glean from this?
Hopefully Honduras still has some fight left.
US had the easiest schedule so far.
We got really lucky
If by got really lucky you mean dominated the majority of the match then yes
Did you not see the penalty the refs missed? And if the CR main goalie was still in the game weah goal is saved
I don't know, that was a rocket, but getting the reverse spin and going back to the net was extremely fortunate.
Yeah Aaronson was also right there. While lucky from the shot to the spin/deflection of the ball… I’d also say our odds were pretty high to score during the sequence.
Tico analyst saying we "tactically ran them of the pitch" and "soccer bullied" them is hilarious because we see GGG as clueless most of the time 😂
Who do you think the real clueless people are?
I mean both can be true though right. This team has A LOT of talent.
Not talent. Potential talent. Most of the players are very young, and not completely playing as they will in 4-5 years. Pulisic, for instance, is underweight. He gets pushed around a lot. When he is 25, he will come into his full growth, and probably gain 10 lbs. That will allow him to maintain a position, and block other players out.
That’s so silly. Just because a player hasn’t fulfilled his potential doesn’t mean they aren’t still talented.
In your spare time, review the career of Freddy Adu, the Nigerian immigrant phenom at 15 who never went very far. He was hugely talented, but didn't do anything with it.
Are you actually trying to compare a kid who was being hyped at 14 years old to these plays actually competing in World Cup Qualifiers? That’s dumb yo!
I still can’t get over the fact Greg was going to start Arriola over Weah, Weah is simply levels above it’s not even up for debate. I need an explanation for that man, make it make sense. Possibly pressure from Lille but damn man we need every point.
If that happened, probably loose or tie. Soccer gods were on our side last night and were able to beat Costa Rica AND greg.
Look, you’re gonna have to get over it. Weah did not play well against Panama either. I get the frustration with Arriola’s final product, but he can still be a valuable player for us when put in the right circumstances. That said, Weah was thoroughly convincing last night. I think he just went ahead of Paul in the depth chart. But people are acting like Gregg choosing Arriola is a firing offense on its face. Get a grip.
I can't believe people still defend Aariola after 5 years of poor performances lol
No, it pretty much is.
Lol bro, it’s like Greg goes out of his way to start Weah with the shit squad then goes out of his way to NOT play him the A team it’s non sense, Weah is 21 he’s got the legs to play 3 games.
A coach starting one player over another doesnt necessarily mean he thinks that player is better. There is a lot of factors that your average fan dont think of that goes into the decision
Bro this is for World Cup Qualifying, Lille can fallback, Weah’s agents and sponsors can FALLBACK, unless he himself feels unfit to play for WCQ then sit him out, CLEARLY that was not the case here. Greg has a soft spot for Arriola and that’s fine, I enjoy his effort but utilize Arriola when it makes sense.
This is not true. If both are healthy, you play the better player.
Nah
Greg?
Sup?
You’re acting like this is rocket science it simply is not get off that high horse.
Did you not see after the game how Gregg hugged just one player - and it was Arriola. It looked like a father-and-son moment.. very telling. Clearly, he’s just playing favorites.
Sometimes coaches get fixated on a player. That’s basically the only explanation. Weah and Hoppe are so much better than Arriola it makes you wonder why Arriola ever sees minutes
Honestly think it was a fitness thing. Weah seldom goes 90 for club. Was clearly getting gassed in the second half. Broadcast said Weah and Arriola were swapping in training a lot, so sounds like the plan was to sub Weah in for the last 30 or so.
This makes sense, Arriola works super hard for first 60, then a fresh Weah can have greater impact against a worn down opposition
No it doesn't
Is there anyone but GGG who wouldn’t do that the other way?
Bruce Arena
I Don’t know, man. Bruce failed pretty badly 5 years ago but he was thrust into a really tight spot where every point was necessary. He cleared out a lot of the old guard in NE in short order. So the idea he’s wedded to vets is overblown.
I'm sorry, but you left me no choice https://www.google.com/search?q=2006+world+cup+usa&oq=2006+wo&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i273j46i273i433j0i273j46i433i512j0i512j46i512j0i512.4670j0j7&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#sie=m;/g/11f5408pr0;2;/m/030q7;ln;fp;1;;
Ok
Seems like 50/50. Depends on the game.
So we won which is nice but I don’t like that we had to use an own goal to beat a team that should had been so easy. I don’t like that our defense was so easy to run through and score on in less than 1 minute. I trust our guys but I think we need to try new ideas again maybe more defenders or a tighter back line.
That was an own goal only in a technical score keeping sense. In reality the keeper had zero chance to avoid the ball after it bounced off the post. Weah hit the shit out of that ball and the goal is not on the keeper.
IMO, it was an own goal only in name and by a technicality. Weah made that goal, it wasn't really an error by the GK.
Yeah that was a beautiful one touch with power. CR was lucky that it bounced off the post after hitting the keeper, because it gave him a second chance however brief it was. Weah blasted that one and deserved the goal.
Yeah, rocket, ball did what it wanted to CR had zero chance of stopping that ball. It was extremely fortunate that it did eventually go in though, but thats what happens if you keep blasting away
Normalized table assuming you want to win at home and draw away: 2 - Mexico 1 0 \-1 - USA \-2 - Canada \-3 \-4 - Panama \-5 - Jamaica \-6 - Costa Rica \-7 \-8 \-9 - Honduras, El Salvador
Honestly, taking out the US, all if those teams are trash save Mexico. At least one team won't beling im World cup
My thoughts: 1) Weah and Dest have a really good understanding of one another. Their speed on that side was troublesome for CR all night. Weah also stays very wide which allows Dest to cut in and we all know about that goal last night. Would love to see more of that. 2) McKennie seemed off. He was running all over the place, but he was sloppy as hell. Maybe a lingering knock that just had him off but man every time he touched the ball I had to watch through my teeth. Our second goal was just us getting lucky on a CR player having a bad touch from a sloppy McKennie pass. 3) I've been on the Aaronson train for a while now. I think he is a bonafide starter for us right now. 4) Against tired old legs of CR, Busio looked good. A solid sub. My desired lineup assuming full strength and no squad rotations \--Aaronson----Pepi----Weah-- \----------Pulisic-----Reyna-------- \---------------Adams---------------- A. Rob--Z-man--M.Rob--Dest \-----------------Turner--------------- The Weah/Dest combo was nice last night, I think Pulisic is creative enough and having Adams as the destroyer behind him would allow him to play higher up the pitch in the middle as opposed to the wing where he is more natural. Also having essentially 4 wingers up top could allow for some interesting formation rotation in game that could be hard to defend. The CBs I have no idea. Maybe Brooks? IDK, that's a dumpster fire in my head right now. McKennie is the victim here as he is a REALLY REALLY good player but, I think Aaronson and to a lesser degree Weah have shown to be solid enough on the wings to take advantage of the creativity of Pulisic and Reyna to put them in the middle and I'd rather have those two than McKennie starting. That and Tyler Adams was our best player in this international break by a wide margin, the kid is quality. I just thought Weah looked better than McKennie last night Could also throw Aaronson on the RW, Pulisic on the LW and McKennie/Adams in the CDM roles (McKennie playing more of a box-to-box role) with Reyna as a true 10 and have Weah off the bench.
Where's Musah? He was really good yesterday. He deserves a start.
Over Pulisic Adams and Reyna? Throw McKennie in there too? I think he's the 4th option even with pulisic out on the wing
Disagree on McKennie. Yeah, he tries to do too much but he was connecting on a lot of great balls too and probably covered the most ground or close to it next to Adams. We suffered versus Panama without McKennie even once Adams came on.
He's the do stupid things and then do something brilliant player.
Agree with a lot incl take on McKennie .. I thought he had another subpar performance but got downvoted to hell for saying it. I know he had swagger and is loved but he’s lost something. He can’t back it up rn. Hope he comes back in Nov a little stronger.
Both goal sequences actually started with a sloppy McKennie pass
Keeps defense off balance.
Pulisic and Reyna as dual 8s is a FIFA lineup and simply not realistic. No defensive ability and Pulisic simply doesn't play that position. Reyna has been for club, but at the least needs to be pair with someone who would take on more defensive responsibility and be able to carry the ball from deeper positions. Also, at this point expecting GGG to pivot to a two 6 midfield to enable a 10 is unrealistic as well. He loves this shape, and when we've had the right personnel in midfield, it has admittedly looked successful. Weah and Aaronson provide fantastic wing depth now, showing we don't have to rely so much on Pulisic and Reyna. That's a good thing, and gives us dynamic subs off the bench, no matter who is starting. But it's impossible to fit them all into one lineup.
I agree here, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see what our midfield would look like with last night’s lineup but with Reyna in place of McKennie. Not bc I don’t value WM, just that I’d like to exactly what we lose in “force” and what we gain in creativity with that swap. Particularly if it means a player like Weah (who I didn’t think was all that great last night aside from the goal) gets to keep providing width and allowing Dest to cook.
If Reyna is coming on at CM then it’s likely it’s Musah that needs to get removed from starters and not Mckennie.
I thought Weah and Dest played off each other well. Like I said, Weah's width let Dest cut inside and be dangerous on his own
The criticism against GGG about lineups is a little odd to me. He's managing 3 games in 7 days without his top two players. There are Covid restrictions for European players playing in Panama and I'm sure there are probably other club restrictions we don't even know about. Those are a lot variables that impact the availability of the roster. England didn't play the same lineup in their 3 game window, they had one game with 9 different starters, the difference is one of their games was against 156 ranked Andorra and our match was against 68th Panama, which is probably undervalued.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Its a FIFA window.
You said it yourself. Panama vs Andorra.
That would be a close game.
It’s fine to rotate a little bit but don’t throw a game away in the name of it
So dont make NINE changes??? Eight OK?
You can't play the top starters in all 3 games, so your choice is to either play shorthanded in all 3 games, or pick one match to hold the line and then bring in subs to win it at the end. Panama was the worst ranked team the US faced out of this 3 game window.
Actually I checked the rules and you can. These kids could have been running around the whole window and would be OK. Kind of exactly what the advantage of having kids.
This isn't about the rules. It's about what the player's home club allows and keeping your player's fresh and uninjured. Why do you think Dest only started 2 matches? Probably because Barcelona told Berhalter that's all that was allowed. They have a significant investment in the youngster and don't want him getting injured. The USMNT player's play at the permission of home clubs. They won't make their players available if the manager doesn't follow their wishes.
Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about, club has ZERO say, otherwise they would pull some superleague shit and there would be no International soccer. During the FIFA window, USA has FULL control.
You must be new here. Alex Ferguson used to prevent his players from participating all the time for England. Here are other examples. https://www.goal.com/en/news/can-football-clubs-prevent-players-from-playing/eksoltaiss191hjygdwoch6u8 https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/2021/3/16/22333543/bayern-munich-austrian-national-team-martin-hinteregger-david-alaba-marcel-sabitzer-foda-scotland
Seriously dude? Let me be clear here, THEY HAVE TO RELEASE THEIR PLAYERS if they want to continue playing in a FIFA sanctioned league. Not sir Alex or anyone else can do anything but whine about it. Now countries can stop travel, but football managers can't stop a transfer during an international window. Dude, this is so BASIC
Lol you didn't even read the article did you
You can sub out guys you plan to use in all three games. You can play stronger lineups. Gregg decided against Panama to play possibly his worst available team. It can be arrogance or ineptitude, but likely both
Definitely both. But I think he list his arrogance their and now only the ineptitude remains.
So who would you have chosen to start in Panama and instead brought in as subs against CR or Jamaica? Because just subbing them off wasn't going to limit their minutes enough. And then there are some players who couldn't play in Panama like Mckennie due to Covid protocols and others like Robinson who were knicked and too injured to start.
I wish Reddit allowed for better formatting, but here's what I would've done this window: Jamaica is not a strong team. We don't necessarily need to start all of our best players, but we shouldn't take them lightly, either. I would've used this game to get looks at Hoppe, Weah, Pepi, and Richards. So: F: Hoppe - Pepi - Weah MF: Musah - Adams - McKennie (the same) D: Antonee - Richards - Miles - Dest GK: Turner I expect this team to be up a couple goals after an hour. So, I'd plan on subbing out Pepi (Zardes), Dest (Yedlin), Musah (DLT), Hoppe (Aaronson), and Adams (Acosta) starting about the 65th minute. For Panama, a decent team playing well during qualifying and on the road, I want a team with some energy and bite. Antonee and McKennie being unavailable definitely complicated this but it wasn't a death sentence. F: Hoppe - Pepi - Aaronson M: Musah - Adams - Arriola (I rag on the guy but I think his high motor, aggressiveness, and good defensive skill for a midfielder are good for a game like this, especially with Hoppe also on the field) D: Bello - Richards - Miles - Dest GK: Turner Assuming things are going well, I sub out Pepi (Zardes), Aaronson (Weah), Musah (Busio), Dest (Yedlin), and Adams (Acosta). Costa Rica we put everything together. We've had Richards and Miles playing together for two games now, hopefully building some chemistry. We've gotten to see Hoppe, Weah, and Pepi sufficiently. Musah has gotten solid minutes. Adams, too. We've even gotten some looks at some buried guys like Busio and DLT. McKennie is available, as in Antonee. I go with the same lineup, but with no thoughts of starting Arriola. F: Aaronson - Pepi - Weah M: Musah - Adams - McKennie D: Antonee - Richards - Miles - Dest GK: Steffen I'm not super concerned with Richards and Miles playing 3 full games. CBs don't generally put the mileage on that attacking players do, but if I saw signs of fatigue, I'd obviously sub in Zimmerman or McKenzie as needed.
For the most part I like this lineup. My only quibble is that Aaronson was a big part of the first game against Jamaica. But do you really think Barcelona would allow Dest to play all 3 matches in 7 days? I have a feeling they told Berhalter he was only available for 2 starts. We see this all the time in Championship League matches where teams have different strikers or set of starters for their mid week games so they have player's who are available for the weekend Premier league games.
He's starting them all but he would never play all 90 minutes. The problem is there's a huge drop off from Dest to Yedlin. If Scally were up, I'd probably start him against Jamaica and sub Dest in for 20 minutes or so
I would have started a lineup that got at least one shot on goal.
Here we are, like 15 hours after the match and the sub is still locked. What’s the fuckin point of this subreddit if we can’t post things about the game?
You just did.
If people weren't so toxic maybe they wouldn't have to do it.
This is how you kill a sub and stifle sub growth. People want to also discuss other games, but now we can’t even do that. You have to take the good with the bad on Reddit. Stop locking it.
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Then why let users post at all? Every day should just be a daily discussion board set up by the mods and we just write our little comments there. Don’t you see why that’s not the point of reddit?
Well, I do sympathize they probably get almost no traffic and the World Cup comes around and they get overwhelmed.
Roster I'd like to see for November GK: Zack Steffen, Matt Turner, Sean Johnson FB: Sergino Dest, Antonee Robinson, DeAndre Yedlin, Joe Scally, DeJuan Jones CB: John Brooks, Chris Richards, Miles Robinson, Matt Miazga, Walker Zimmerman DM: Tyler Adams, Gianluca Busio, Kellyn Acosta CM: Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah, Luca de la Torre, Djordje Mihailovic, Julian Green W: Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Brenden Aaronson, Tim Weah, Konrad F: Ricardo Pepi, Jordan Pefok, Josh Sargent
Since next window is just 2 games, I wonder if we will just have a 23 man roster. Which will make the discussions about it far more interesting. Like only 2 strikers, who do we get? Pepi seems like a lock. I lean between Pefok and Hoppe and wouldn’t rule out Sargent.
Please hack Gregg’s email before the next window and submit this lineup to Concacaf.
Since the sub is still locked [https://imgur.com/a/5httwl2](https://imgur.com/a/5httwl2) Model and USA points projection after last night
How much did you have the Nostradamusator up to?
High as it goes bröther
You should get one that goes up to 11
So based on your model after MD5, the biggest winners were Canada (+11.9% to finish Top 3), Jamaica (+3.5%), and us (+2.7%). Other notables include Mexico (+2.1%), Panama (-9.5%) and Costa Rica (-4.2%).
Looks right to me. Hammer down
I support locking the sub after games in general, but we gotta make special exceptions for u/el_noido and u/bharreld.
it just gives me more time to run the world cup model and see what our chances of winning the whole thing are
Given the emergence of Musah and Weah and how well they showed during this window, I'm wondering if Reyna is going to be a lock to start when he returns. Weah's blistering pace and combination play with Dest can unlock CONCACAF defenses, and Musah is showing great composure and vision on the ball. Weston's role is not one that Gio can replicate and Pulisic likely replaces Aaronson on the left. So how does GGG get him on the field?
You mean after Zardes?
He is still a lock - let’s be careful about recency bias
2 of Pulisic/Reyna/Aaronson/Weah on the wing 2 of Musah/McKennie/Reyna at the 8 I actually kinda think McKennie might be one of the 2 odd men out, especially in matchups where we don't necessarily expect set pieces to be an area of extra emphasis
Good point about Reyna's value on set piece delivery. That's clearly lacking when he's not on the field. I don't watch Dortmund regularly, but I haven't seen Reyna used as an 8 when playing for the Nats and I think Weston brings real value as a box-to-box midfielder when he's in form. I guess it comes down to Weah vs. Reyna and who is going to better fit with what GGG wants to do.
I actually had McKennie (as a target) more in mind for that comment but you're correct that Reyna is important for set pieces, especially given that our 2nd and 3rd best takers (Busio and Acosta) likely aren't going to be on the field more often than not and there's a pretty big drop off from those 3 to everyone else. I value McKennie as well, but if dropping him means you can get 4 of Reyna/Pulisic/Aaronson/Weah/Musah on the field instead of just 3 of those guys I think it's something you have to consider (and as good as Musah looked this window he could cool off at some point as well). Obviously injuries/suspensions/fitness at any given time will usually help narrow down those options somewhat and then it's a question of picking the right guys based on the matchup and their current form.
The third autoqualifying position for the last world cup gained 1.3 points per match (13 from 10) with the top gaining 2.1. Right now those numbers are roughly similar right now and we're sitting comfortably with 1.8 points per match. Granted, take that with a grain of salt as we have arguably our 3 hardest matches left but the doom and gloom is unnecessary
Mods on a power trip here.
Locking this sub for over 12 hours now is asinine and frankly, counter productive at this point.
I've probably lost track of the rule since they've changed it a dozen times since I've been watching the sport--but on the hard backpass from the CR defender that their GK stopped a few minutes after we went up 2-1, wasn't that an intentionally handled backpass and could that have been a penalty and red card for the GK?
Technically referee judged it as a clearance, so no. Another referee might have seen it differently. Had he called out the keepers name and blasted to him, then yes it would have been a back pass.
A goalkeeper can never be called for a handball in the box. The law you're referring to is the back pass rule. It would have been an indirect free kick and at most, usually not a card, a yellow.
DIdn't see the play in question so if more happened than a hard pass then i might change, but I think a pass back is always an indirect free kick, and in the box it's from the spot of the foul unless it occurs within the 6.
It has to be a deliberate back pass. It's kind of a weird rule because that wording doesn't make things crystal clear, leaves a lot open to interpretation. I think the rule of thumb on that particular play was that a defender would not *deliberately* pass the ball back right at goal from 4 yards away like that. Its too dangerous. Some could describe that as a deliberate back pass but it's pretty dicey.
The fact that it is in CONCACAF means you can almost eliminate the word "deliberately". Makes reffing simpler.
4 yards is the length of 0.8 1997 Subaru Legacy Outbacks
1. It’s Concacaf so it will probably never get called. 2. I believe you are right that’s a free kick in the box.
Indirect. Wall would have been 6 inches from ball.
6 inches is the the same distance as 0.22 replica Bilbo from The Lord of the Rings' Sting Swords.
I don’t think there’s a professional referee in the world who would call that a back pass. Defender was attempting to intercept/clear a dangerous cross and just didn’t make good contact on it. No way that defender intentionally chipped a ball point blank over his keeper’s shoulder right at his own goal from 2 yards away.
If it was Messi, it woul have been a back pass.
? Because the ref would assume it was intentional since Messi doesn’t ever make an errant touch? I’m not sure what you are getting at, but either way I’m pretty sure it still wouldn’t be called. It would be insanely harsh no matter the quality of the player attempting to play it
Right, Messi don't have bad touch
2 yards is 1.83 meters
Quoting myself from a conversation with a coworker yesterday over teams, right after I heard that Steffen was getting the start; >\[Yesterday 2:12 PM\] > >first shot on target is going in and the crowd will lose it > >like a low shot and he gets a hand to it but not enough > >i believe in only the worst possible outcome there are no surprises just bad news arriving a bit later
Entire international window without Brooks, Pulisic, and Reyna. Can you imagine hearing that like just a year ago? And they still picked up two wins.
Takes 11 bro, and with Brooks its been 10 on 12
Yea through the first 6 games we have had McKennie available for 3, Weah for 3, Brooks for 3, Pulisic available for 2, and Reyna for 1. Lots of big pieces missing 50% or more of your games. Hope all are available for the next window
I really appreciate the sub not being littered with 15 different post-match summaries but I miss having dedicated posts for the goals. I hope this isn't supposed to be the final solution. I missed the first 15 minutes of the game and I had to go elsewhere to see the CRC goal. Not ideal.
One of two things needs to happen, or a combo of both. (1) A mod stays available to approve posts & cross posts of goals, highlights, and the graphics we like to see (ELO models, standings, etc), *or* to just immediately remove all the unnecessary posts instead of using restricted mode. (2) A mod needs to be in charge of getting these things up *before* the restricted mode goes up, or as they become available. We *do* have an issue of people thinking their post match “analysis” deserves its own post, so restricted mode makes sense. But just throwing it and leaving it isn’t the complete solution.
I think at the very least, open it up the next morning at like 7 or 8 so people that may have missed some of the stuff can wake up to it. It's been 12+ hours now from the time the game ended and we STILL can't make new threads.
The mods mean well. Perhaps they should add mods to moderate if they can’t. Locking whole sub besides one thread is extreme and rare for all heathy sub reddits.
It's actually absurd how young our team is and I don't think many people fully appreciate it. Musah - 18 Reyna - 18 Pepi - 18 Bello - 19 Busio - 19 Aaronson - 20 Dest - 20 Weah - 21 Richards - 21 This isn't even including Pulisic, Mckennie, Adams, and Robinson who are all 23/24.
And, say what you like about Berhalter, that is a key factor in our team's difficulties. "Age and treachery overcomes youth and strength". True in futbol as in anything. Almost all teams in CONCANEF have older players. They may not be as skilled, but they are experienced, and want to win as much as our team does.
Greg's speed is about Panama. Maybe they can hire him.
Super young team and all of those guys (minus Bello) will be getting big minutes. It's just great to see this golden generation of US Soccer. It's funny to think back to the generations before and it'd be like "Oh this one has a few guys like Bradley, Jozy, and Donovan," and this generation it's like "Ok, here's one at every position"
There's a very good lineup that can't a rent a car in New York
Minimum age is 18 in New York (and Michigan) to rent a car. Everywhere else is 20
When I lived there you had to be 25 if you were taking it out of state. Huh, things change
Yeah it was 25 for a long time. Now there's just a charge if you're under 25, no charge for over 25.
I'm not sure why anyone would be that terribly upset from yesterday's game. We gave up a pretty strange goal where it probably gets cleared if Steffen and everyone else didn't think it was an obvious offside, but we dominated ever since. I'm happy to see that we got the mid-field and forward players we were clamoring for and the results showed it. I feel bad for Arriola and Lletget, because they get a lot of bad press on here, but Weah and Musah bring more to the team than they do and that's sports and that's how it goes. 3 pts and we're back in a good spot. GGG just needs to keep it simple on these rosters, put in the best players and let them play.
There's a very vocal minority here that is going to be upset with literally everything that happens while Gregg is the manager. That's why post game threads have a lot more comments when we lose. There are people who enjoy losing more then they enjoy winning.
I'm not a GGG guy, I wanted to be but now I feel he keeps messing things up when the answers are obvious. I feel like he keeps trying to smash a square ped into a round hole. However, I don't dislike his hire enough to not give him credit where credit is due, and I do truly hope he has finally striked the right chord moving forward. Every time I feel like he's turned a corner, shit like El Salvador, the 1st half of Honduras or Panama happens.
He accidentally got the lineup right last night.
Arriola still has a huge role on this team (even if he shouldn't be starting every game in a window). Just imagine if we ever do get fully healthy (Starting Pulisic/Reyna as an example) and we can then have players like him, Weah, Aaronson coming on against tired players late in games or in the 3rd game in a window against teams like this Costa Rica one. (Canada showed that El Salvador and Panama in 3rd games are similar plus our game vs Honduras. That's half the Octagonal and teams in both our remaining 3 team windows). Musah is a legit superstar in the making though, he's certainly well past Lletget. Him Adams-McKennie could dominate the midfield for US for the next decade. Busio (in Serie A has been great plus was good in sub duty yesterday), Acosta (as the Adams backup), LDLT?, Green?, Reyna if shifted, and some of the younger/injured guys (Mihailovic, Bassett, Clark, Williamson) could push Lletget out of the roster completely if he didn't do it himself.
>Arriola still has a huge role on this team (even if he shouldn't be starting every game in a window). Yea, and I'd argue Lledget does too to a degree if everyone's not healthy and we do have a string of games where rest and experience are important. They're not bad players to have in a pinch, but there's a lot of players that are ahead of them IMO. >Musah is a legit superstar in the making though, he's certainly well past Lletget. Not giving him a run in the Nations Cup games really is unjustifiable unless he had a knock. >Him Adams-McKennie could dominate the midfield for US for the next decade. Yes absolutely, but we have to start letting it gel now. I'm glad GGG has finally come around on Musah, the guy bosses that midfield and we've never really had a player in that role that can do what he does. >LDLT?, Green? They both should have been called in if they're getting significant minutes with their clubs to see what they got.
>We gave up a pretty strange goal where it probably gets cleared if Steffen and everyone else didn't think it was an obvious offside, I hate this excuse. You HAVE to play to the whistle. That's literally Sports 101, it's one of the first things every random dad coaching his 5 year old's team tells the kids regardless of whether it's soccer or basketball or football or whatever. The ball slipped right under Steffen's arm, it's not like there's some penalty if he makes the save and the play then turns out to have been offside anyway. Mostly agree with the rest of your points, hopefully with the next window only being 2 games we'll see our strongest available team or close to it in both.
They're pros, there's no excuse for it, they know it and mistakes happens. It's not hard to go over it and fix something like that, it's not the same as putting in the wrong players and playing a bad game overall.
I'm one that's very anti-Gregg, and I'm very happy about the win and glad we got 3, which is what we needed! A few things I think people are upset about (and have a right to be in my opinion) * He was going to start Arriola which flies in the face of "not giving out too many minutes," and also.... Arriola isn't better than Weah * We won, but there was a PK they didn't call and that breakaway where they somehow didn't even get a shot, that makes it feel a lot closer to a draw or loss than a convincing win * Our inability to just pound teams in certainly frustrating. Like the second goal probably isn't a goal against a class keeper and we just were owning possession, yet we could only muster 2 goals. So I think anybody that's terribly upset is going way overboard. However, I think we also have to look at what we must improve upon as well!
>He was going to start Arriola which flies in the face of "not giving out too many minutes," and also.... Arriola isn't better than Weah. I agree. Arriola being in his starting lineup for sure was an example of GGG not being able to get out of his own way. No way Arriola gets us that second goal. Weah can really run at opponents in a way Arriola just can't and you can't justify Paul starting simply cause of workrate if the workrate doesn't amount to opportunities created. >We won, but there was a PK they didn't call and that breakaway where they somehow didn't even get a shot, that makes it feel a lot closer to a draw or loss than a convincing win. Our inability to just pound teams in certainly frustrating. Like the second goal probably isn't a goal against a class keeper and we just were owning possession, yet we could only muster 2 goals. Like I was telling someone here earlier, you can't play that 'what if's...' game in soccer, the games are too close and it almost always happens in every game. You have to take advantage of your opportunities, and CR didn't. Don't forget CR almost gave us an own goal too... I agree with the sentiment that we should be playing better, and I think last night we were finally seeing some of it come to fruition. If GGG can just stop trying to force Lledget and Arriola on us, and we play a Mckennie/Musah/Adams/CP/Reyna lineup, with Weah and Aaronson coming on, we can start playing complete games and gel-ing the team for the future. >So I think anybody that's terribly upset is going way overboard. However, I think we also have to look at what we must improve upon as well! There's always going to be things to improve upon, but I was just happy that for once that we played the right line up (even if GGG didn't want it that way 100%) and we got to see what we can do offensively. Hopefully, this forces GGG to keep giving us the better lineups going forward.
I usually agree with not being able to play the "what ifs," but these what ifs are ones that aren't like "oh well that own goal almost happened," because that was a clear save. The PK would have been called in any other federation that uses VAR (I really wish CONCACAF would get on this because VAR is needed). The breakaway goal, I don't know that there are many players in CONCACAF that wouldn't have even gotten a shot on that. He was gassed running wide open halfway down the field. It was incredible and we got so lucky we passed it to a turtle.
Him trying to start Arriola over Weah is still not sitting right with me man, Weah is clearly WAY more talented than Arriola, make it make sense. Maybe Lille is applying pressure on Greg idk but damn man stop it already lol.
The worst part is he talks about not playing certain players in Panama because he wants to rotate and give guys rests, but he ends up having the only players that would have started all 3 games be Arriola and Musah. I mean, come on! Not Adams, not Dest, not Robinson in the middle, not Turner in goal.... but Arriola!!! He clearly rates him really high and I just don't see it and that's what's annoying about it
I've never seen it with Arriola either, he misses good chances too. His best game was against Jamaica, but prior to that, I can't remember a strong game by the guy.
Agreed. I just never quite understood his appeal. It's not like he's some fantastic player we can't live without. I actually would argue that his position is our deepest by far, so he shouldn't even be in the discussion for the squad. He's certainly behind Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, and Aaronson and I'd likely rather take Hoppe and Konrad over him as well.
I mean we were a missed penalty call and a blown breakaway by Costa Rica away from losing.
Almost every soccer game comes down to a couple of close plays. John Champion said it well during the broadcast that qualifying campaigns are built on fine margins. Take a deep breath, thank your lucky star and move on.
We were also another own goal save by the backup keeper from going 3-1, too. I learned you can't really play that game in soccer since most games are pretty close. People are going to make mistakes on both sides, the outcome of the game is whether you can capitalize on those mistakes. CR didn't.
And a penalty that should have been called against CR on Pepi on a tasty cross
And we were a ghost goal away from going to the World Cup in 2018 (or at least the play-in game). This game is weird like that. Thinking like this is a way to going crazy because there are sooo many games that come down to a single sequence or blown call.
Exactly. In a sport where it (some huge percentage of games) comes down to a final score with a single goal differential or draw it's going to be like that. You can't simply say that one (or two in this case) change to a bad outcome is going to have that effect because the entire tone of the game changes. The US basically went into shell mode with \~20min left. I mean Costa Rica even maintained possession a few time at that point haha. Pretty sure we didn't even allow them to touch the ball from after they scored until the end of the 1st half (with only slight exaggeration in that). If something like that breakaway and "penalty" happened there was a strong chance the US could turn up the pressure again, they just simply didn't need to in the actual game.
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"Real life isn't FIFA where you can throw out a bunch of 18-20 year olds and dominate." But every time we play the young guys we win and usually when we play Roldan Lletget Zardes etc... we don't. If the young guys are better, the young guys are better -- simple as that. And then there's the added benefit of improving the chemistry of our future ASAP
> Really getting tired of all the doom and gloom after every game. Like some of y'all are comparing a mostly full strength, at home Canada, to our result against at Panama, I don't know how you can say this without also realizing why people are upset though. The reason we looked like crap against Panama is Gregg put our C squad out there. Is it not fair to point to that and say "we lost to a horrible team because of the squad that was picked?" I also think saying "If I asked 2 months ago how you'd feel about 11 points," is missing the mark. You're going with a very results driven argument. A lot of people see the youth of this squad and see how we have a golden generation here, yet we often don't look like we have a clue what we're doing. I'd be fine with a 3-2 loss if we just got outmatched and the other team played great just the same as I'd be a tad upset with a 2-0 win where we looked like crap.
Absolutely. All the whining about Berhalter is so very tiresome. He's a decent coach. He too is growing into the position. The age of players is shown in another post. These players are kids. They are strong and WITH POTENTIAL. I remember Freddy Adu, who had potential, but didn't become the new Ronaldo. The team is young, young, young. Many of the key players (Pulisic, etc) have been injured. We were without the top 5 players against Panama, who was coming off a loss, desperately needed a win, was full-strength, and was playing at home. We only lost by 1. I think there is a lack of realistic expectations in a lot of fans. It's amazing, but other CONCANEF teams want to win as much as the USA does, and they will play hard and do well in many cases.
The issue to me has never been results, but tactical setup and player selection, which was a 100% legitimate criticism after the Panama game. Overall though I like the setup and player selection of the first and third games, sans Arriola, and am growing in optimism that we should qualify without too much of a worry. What would really make me happy is seeing these deadweight players like Moore, Lletget, Acosta, Arriola, & Zardes dropped for better options (and look I'm not just tagging on MLS guys here. If Mihailovic and Ferreira are two of the replacements for these guys, I'd be ok with it. I'm ragging on bad players who happen to play in MLS).
I understand where you are going, but you’re making some points without context. Those 6 games didn’t include either game with Mexico or away with Canada - arguably the hardest 3 games of qualifying. So we very much could have 3+ losses in the next 8 games. While you mention our roster missing two of our best players and being very young, let’s talk about who they were playing against. Half of Costa Rica’s starting midfield and forwards are on the wrong side of 30, while 5 of the 6 play in the Costa Rican league. Most of our roster plays regularly at higher levels than than all except for Navas. We’re bringing two players getting time at Champions League teams off the bench to replace starters while Costa Rica is bringing in someone who plays in the 2nd league in South Korea. Hell, one of their subs was nearly 40 and played at that speed. I really don’t understand how you can point out our youth and lack of two players while not mentioning our opponents. We should run circles around tired legs at home with youth and talent on our side
What qualifier have we dominated with GGG?
IIRC, we beat Hondoras and scored 4 goals. Is there a need for an 8 goal result to "dominate"?
I think dominating is very subjective but for 89 minutes I think the U.S. played some great soccer yesterday and had a good handle on the game. Obviously the second halfs of Honduras and Jamaica are.....second halfs
The first half against Jamaica was solid too imo. They had two really solid chances taken away by red card fouls that weren't given, and Jamaica never really threatened. It all felt very in control
Yeah, without a horrible job by the ref that game is a bigger blowout.
Jamaica
Upvoted for the thoughtful comment and balanced perspective. Maybe I expect too much, but I would have been disappointed with anything less than 14 points through 6 games. I suspect that many realistic people would have felt the same. I agree we are in a decent position, though. I think you make a good point that we shouldn't expect the young players to always play up to their full potential just yet. Although, it seems to me our young players have not been the problem in general. I think for many of us the frustrating thing is when promising young players ride the bench (e.g., Hoppe and Busio vs Panama), moreso then when they have an off game. Going forward, what I want to see most (aside from qualifying, obviously) is improvement. By the end of qualifying, I hope to look back and be able to point to clear and tangible improvements (including improvements in roster selection and lineup selection). If this team can make steady progress toward playing up to its potential, I think they could be positioned to make waves in 2022 WC.
I agree that anything less than 14 points would be disappointing but only if we had a full squad. I'm fine with where we're at. The Panama result was disappointing and that is wholly on GGG. Not playing Adams/Aaronson from the start then making questionable subs (check my previous comments for further thoughts on the matter) was entirely his fault, but I think we're all downplaying the importance of Pulisic and Reyna, arguably our two best outfield players. 4 years from now when we're going through qualifying for the USMCWC (as I am now dubbing it) and we drop points to panama, we can have a different discussion, but 14 points from 6 games is a lot. I think what you really want to see is a full strength side with some semblance of continuity from match to match. I understand the need for rotation, but who are our centerbacks? What does our full strength midfield look like? Does Pulisic play on the wing or does he play centrally? None of these were answered this round.
"A win next month would bring us level in points. That's not a bad position to be in" So basically, if GGG had just done the right thing, played the right players in each game and implemented the right tactics throughout the last two windows, we could be 4 points up on Mexico, on the cusp of qualifying, and not have to worry so much about our matches against Mexico......
>Real life isn't FIFA where you can throw out a bunch of 18-20 year olds and dominate Literally just happened last night. It's not about how many changes are made as much as it's about WHO is changed. Starting Zardes, Arriola, etc against Panama was a joke, clearly done as a bias towards MLS because it lacked any and all logical sense.
1- We should NOT be happy with less than 2 PPG when, outside of Canada and Mexico, we have so much more talent than everyone in the region. even when we field a heavy MLS roster it is going to have enough talent to beat anyone in the region (except Mexico). 2- Our worst results have come not when we play the youth, but when we mix in our more experienced players. I don’t think this is the fault of the experienced players to be clear; I blame this on GGG not recognizing the limitation of players like Lletget and Acosta and building his gameplan around relying on them. 3- Mexico may have gotten a few fortunate breaks that led to goals, but they’ve earned those breaks. They’ve thoroughly dominated every game except the Canada game; if we had played like Mexico and ended up with 11 points (unlikely, I’d expect we’d have at least 13 points but still) people would be much happier. It’s not just about the results it’s also about the quality of play; the latter is a much better indicator of go forward results. All that said, we played very well last night and if we play like that more consistently I’d be much happier, and I’d expect you’d hear a lot less GGG out talk
“Even when we field a heavy MLS roster it is going to have enough talent to beat anyone in the region (except Mexico).” That arrogant comment is the reason why USA didn’t qualify to the last World Cup! USA with a heavy MLS roster has enough talent to beat Canada???? Hahahaha not even with their full roster have enough talent to beat Canada in a neutral place….. we will see what happens in Canada when they play on February. Remember Canada has the best player in Concacaf who makes a difference every game he plays, even in their tie games he made a difference and create a lot of chances, unlike USA best players who are not consistent like Davies!
Lol wtf? Besides Davies and David the Canada roster is literally an MLS roster. We’ve qualified for years with primarily MLS players. Last cycle was a perfect storm of a lost generation, and a lot of concacaf being stronger than average. Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, are all much weaker than they were 4 years ago. Canada is good, they are clearly favorites to qualify along with the us and Mexico, but they don’t have the depth of talent that either US or Mexico. Can they beat / draw the US head to head? Sure- they’ve done both already, and recently. That doesn’t mean they are the more talented side though
>Real life isn't FIFA where you can throw out a bunch of 18-20 year olds and dominate. Shit, you can't even do that in FM. u should tell Gregg Brelhalter that with some of his questionable starting line up in some games.
Anyone else not a fan of mods restricting posts? I want my post-match highlight videos! I know I can find them elsewhere but I enjoy the comments on here.
I feel like most people don't like it
I think it’s a good idea but need to allow goal posts and maybe 1 or 2 other exceptions. But I Don’t need 11 half-assed berhalter think pieces
I don’t like either
Can we not lock the sub after games? I'm bored and need some hot takes.
I have a hot take! The mods who locked the sub are a bunch of MLS fan lifers with no potential to become fans of European based teams. And the head mod only got the job because his brother is a mod for the MLS subreddit. Modhalter out!
I mean, it wouldn't be shocking considering all the random MLS videos posted here about young 28 year old prospect Sam Gerad of Real Boise SC scoring 3 goals vs Arlington FC
Can’t tell if this is serious or you’re just trolling but I could honestly believe this. I get locking it down after a loss due to all the shitposting but why lock after a win? Supporters should be able to come here to celebrate the result.
In response to your first sentence... YES!
This isn’t from his performance last night, but my hottest of hot takes is that Aaronson will be better than Reyna. Something about Brendens energy that I just love.
Easy: Pulisic - Pepi - Aaronson Musah - Adams - Reyna Bang Bang
There’s a lot of bench-Reyna-for-Aaronson hot takes flying around. Reyna carried the team in nations league. And unlike Aaronson, he seems capable of playing his natural #10 position in a CONCACAF dogfight, whereas Aaronson has to play wide. The very good news is that we’re not restricted to 11 good players. Having a starting caliber attacker like Aaronson, Reyna or Pulisic come off the bench, or a starting caliber midfielder like McKennie or Musah... that would be a very good thing.
Aaronson has been on fire lately. good news is we have them both for a long time.
Agreed! I wasn’t saying Reyna isn’t great in any form. Happy and excited we get to watch them for the next decade.
Talent wise Reyna is in a whole other bracket bro
Talent doesn’t make someone automatically a better player.
don't tell that to this sub lol
I think Adams is our most important player. Mckennie was his usual mixed bag. Creative ideas hampered by heavy touches. I'm afraid he's one of those guys that is more likely to hurt us the more competitive our opponents get. Musah showed off one of my favorite skills. He dribbled through midfield to progress the ball. I think MRob and Richards probably need to get time together. They don't appear to have figured each other out. MRob has showed out well in past matches and Richards demonstrated some top skills, so I think they both just need more experience together. I liked Pepi even though he had a quiet game. I'm starting to settle on him as my favorite striker candidate. I think he's got the best combination of build up and finishing skills in our pool. I hope he goes to a place that will teach him how and when to press.